Chess forum by Grandmasters

Query about step by step opening repetoire for Black Sicilian course

Dear chessmood members , 

I am rated 1600 fide .I am thinking to start the Sicilian course with black but I am confused whether to do the advanced sections or not .So my question remains is it enough if I just do the main course to face below 2200 fide players or do I need to do the advanced sections.? 

Replies

You definetly do not need the advanced sections at 1600 FIDE.

I am 2000 FIDE, and still have not watched (most) of the advanced sections.

If you end up repeadedtly encountering a line in the advanced sections, then watch the videos to better understand it.

I would reccomend to go for the step by step opening repertoire for black French defense as they have not covered an interesting move in the theory that poses lot of practical problems for black with Qd3 instead of Qd2 in the main line so would recommend to wait for it and do the French defense first

Hi AR RAY , can u be my training partner my fide rating is 1500 but I have beaten many 17,1800's in tournaments . My lichess ID is https://lichess.org/@/Chessdude123456098

Question to Gm Avetik

GM can I copy and paste some of the best writings in the site?

I am asking because there is copy rights and I make screenshots and I copy and paste and send some articles to some chess players and non chess players?

Is it allowed?

Please if you know the answer tell me or ask chessmood team or ask the investors.

Thank you very much Gm

Replies

Hi Ahmad. Can you please send your question to our Support at [email protected]?

PROBLEM OPENING VIDEO

CANNOT OPEN NIMZOVICH DEFENCE UNDER WHITEMOOD MODELGAMES

Replies

Dear Mohad,

I redirected your inquiry to our technical team.

 

Dear Mohd,

The thing is, because that variation is very rare, we don't often get games in it at our events, and there are no model games yet in that specific variation. 

Appropriate situations for playing ...c5 in the Dutch Attack

In the Dutch Attack (except the Stonewall system), I understand that the main plan is generally to launch an attack on the kingside. However, as I’ve played more games, I’ve realized that the central break with …c5 can also be very effective.

Could you please explain the typical conditions, guidelines, or key points for when …c5 is the right plan to pursue?

Replies

Dear Yuya,

This question is super general - I will need some more concrete details, as if following our repertoire, we are always trying to attack.
One situation where we think about c5 is when White sometimes plays with f3 ideas, blocking the Bishop on the long diagonal and preventing the attack, but often, there we also play with e5 ideas in the center. 

1. e4 . d6 2. d4 . e5

What do you recommend in this position, because in my area a ton of 2000+ USCF rated players are playing this and I would like to know what the recommendation is.

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3.Nf3 reaches the Philidor.

Dear Paul,

If you play with 3.Nf3 as Chess Player mentioned below, you will get the Philidor position covered in this course https://chessmood.com/course/philidor-defense/episode/1110

Reset Course Progress

Is there a way to reset:

• All Progress in a course or
• Only the the quizzes or
• Only the training or
• Only the videos

And by ‘reset' I mean ‘untick’ the videos, and ‘undo’ the quizzes and trainings.

---

And if there isn't a way to do that yet, I request this as a new feature. 

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Grand Prix Attack

I am studying the starter courses and had a game in the Grand Prix Attack and lost horribly, I reviewed the content again, checked my file, “fixed” the issue.

I jumped into another game, and to my surprise, it was another Grand Prix Attack opportunity! This time, I smashed my opponent with 2x “brilliant” moves. 

Thought I'd share, haha! Thank you! 

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/143419111404/review?move=28&move=28&tab=review&classification=greatfind&autorun=true 

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Tactics Ninja (2000-2500)

Hello, Coach Gabuzyan

In the tactic ninja course in (2000-2500) introduction Avetik said to go to the end of each section until 23 and do tactics and test, but can’t find it for all sections. So I just did the Training level 1-2 things. Is it fine how I am doing it or anything to change. Thank you so much!
 

Sincerely, Pawnbishop

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Dear Pawn Bishop,

If I got your question correctly, here is what you need to do: solve all the examples provided in the sections, and at the end, there is a test for the entire course that you will need to solve as well.

chess

how to play when my all of the pieces are active and opponents pieces aren't.

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Hey Arjun,

 

Dear friend, this question is a little to generic - more details would have helped. In the 7Q method, GM Avetik explains how to find a plan where there is nothing to do, so usually, with the right questions, you can identify on which part of the board you need to play!

Is it possible if you can give me an estimate when the Advanced openings with french-Dutch Attack are going to be out?

❓

Is it possible if you could give me an estimate?

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Hi Eli,

I noticed you asked a similar question in another thread, and GM Gabuzyan already replied there. 
To repeat his point — we are planning to have a more advanced course on those topics, but we can’t provide an exact date or estimate.

We’re working on many courses in parallel, and timelines sometimes shift, so we prefer to announce only when it’s confirmed.

Thanks a lot for your understanding 🙂 

trainingspartner

Hello everyone on chessmood, I am looking for a trainingspartner for
learning / practice the Scotch game and French Attack. My rating on lichess is classical 1500. I am located in Germany, MEZ timzone. If anybody is interested, lichessname ronalting. Thanks for replay 

Replies

Challenge me to a daily with you as white and play the Scotch, or you as black and play the French. My username is piedraven.

Hi ronalting, I'm also interested in practicing the Scotch Game and French Attack! I'm in the MEZ timezone as well, and my Lichess rating is around 1400Sprunki Game. Feel free to send me a challenge anytime, looking forward to learning together!

Hey in case you didn't see my answer, I'm on Lichess as well as chesscom, my name there is Adrenalectomy - sorry I'm a dumbass and forgot you said Lichess!

Mindset shift

Today I have been competing in a tournament where I managed to lead a drawn or slightly better knight endgame into a loss. It was not about lack of my knowledge or strength of my opponent, but about my mindset. The issue is that I exaggerated the amount of  advantage on my side which led to an incorrect assesment of the position. Is there any technique of evaluating an endgame position the right way and then playing according to what the position demands?

P.S. The aforementioned endgame occured on move 26 of the pgn, moves made before may not be what i actually played because i dont exactly remember the moves and i havent annotated the game. Thanks in advance. 

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 c5 4. exd5 exd5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. O-O Nf6 8. Nbd2 O-O 9. Nb3 Bb6 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bh4 Nbd7 12. c3 Re8 13. Be2 Qc7 14. Bg3 Qc6 15. Nfd4 Bxe2 16. Nxe2 Nh5 17. Ned4 Qg6 18. Qf3 Nxg3 19. hxg3 Nf6 20. Rfe1 Re4 21. Qf5 Rae8 22. Kf1 Bxd4 23. Nxd4 Rxe1+ 24. Rxe1 Kf8 25. Rxe8+ Nxe8 26. Qxg6 fxg6 27. Ke2 (27. Ne6+! Ke7) 27... Ke7 28. Kd3 Nf6 29. Nb5 a6 30. Nd4 Kd6 31. f3 Nh5 32. Ne2 *

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Dear Andrew,

Depending on the level, you can watch the Endgame Roadmap for the U2000 level.
As well, we have 100 commented endgames - where we explain the endgame masterpieces, trying to share the way of thinking and analyzing the thoughts of great players.
For theoretical endgames, you can watch MET, and advanced ones are in the Endgame Mastery section.

The method of thinking you can learn in the Roadmap. And more deeply technical ideas, ways of thinking from commented games.

Can you please add french attack to your Step by step 2000+ courses?

😀

Can you please add it?

Replies

Hey there,

Previously, I mentioned that we are planning to have a more advanced course on those topics, but can't mention the exact days.
We are producing different courses/content, and while sharing the upcoming plans, we can't provide dates or estimations. 

Thanks for understanding :-) 

Simplified Scotch Game

Hi friends and I have a question; in the Simplified ChessMood Openings from the Scotch Game (2nd section) at the 7th video in 3:00, what happens if Black plays Nh5 but there is a Bishop on e7? The dark-squared bishop for White cannot be traded, moving the f4 bishop away results in a loss of tempo after Bf6. Also Black can go for a Bg5 approach to trade the dark-squared bishops as the f4 square is also guarded by the knight? Is this natural and we can go for the kingside attack anyway, or a different solution?

I am really confused.. I might go to the f3 then Be3 approach but I am not sure if it's really that recommended.

Replies

You can go first f3 and then Be3 but there is nothing to fear about Nh5. 

If he follows it with Be7-f6 then you can (after retreating the queen) attack the knight with Bf1-e2 which forces black to give up his bishop to save his knight. 

If he instead plays Be6-g5 then you can just ignore it and go for the tipical plan as he wasted a lot of time just to exchange one piece.

Scandinavian Early Bf5

I recently playing this game and sudden lost to this person who played early Bf5 line in third move. May I know what is idea and how can I counter it? According to the course, usually they play Nf6 first after that only Bf5. Below is the link to the game.

https://lichess.org/ZQ27bsJm

Replies

Hey Soul Chess,

I offer you to play with Be2 - so now Qe4+ is not a threat, and after 4…Nc6 5.d5 0-0-0 6.c4! - with a better position.

Thank you.

Imbalances

Where to find a course or blog or something about evaluating piece imbalances.

Here are some examples: (not counting pawns)

BB vs R, BN vs R, NN vs R, 

RR vs Q, BBN vs Q, BNN vs Q, BB vs Q, BN vs Q, NN vs Q

RR vs BBN, RR vs BNN

Please help😌🙏

Replies

There is a blogpost from chessmood for rook vs 2 minor pieces:

 https://chessmood.com/blog/rook-vs-two-minor-pieces 

I know you specified course/blog, but there is a really good book called How to Reassess your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Chess Imbalances. I just read the 4th edition and it was great. It had all the imbalances.

Hope this helps

There is also quite new book Chess Imbalance by Flores Rios - the same author who created a book about pawn structures. Might wanna check that out. Also there is this chessmood webinar https://chessmood.com/event/hidden-powers-of-queen-webinar

Would love to hear Hovhannes's perspective on this game

I think I did a good job of using the principles in the two bishops course! I used to be terrible at operating without a rook and I think I got better at that lately

Play Chess Online for FREE - 2 Player Chess - Chess.com

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Question on Kinder Variation 6...Nh6 7.Be3

Hi ChessMood Family

I played an IM recently who found solid moves against Kinder variation.

1.e4 e6  2.d4 d5  3.Nc3 Nf6  4.e5 Ng8!?  5.f4 c5  6.Nf3 Nh6!  7.Bd3

This stops Black's useful later Nf5

7… Nc6  8.Be3.  And here I could not decide best plan and liquidated centre, which is not good.

After engine analysis, I came up with following plan.  

8… Ng4  9.Bg1 c4!?  10.Be2 Bb4.  Followed by Qa5, Bd7 and maybe OOO (or Ke7).  The point being to gain big space advantage and better pieces, damage White pawns with Bxc3 when we want, and leave White King with castling problems.  Our knight on g4 can come back via h6 (and we might even get h5 in first).

I know c4 is not thematic for Black in our French Attack because we want to pile on the d4 pawn,  but I could not find a convincing line otherwise.  What does ChessMood family think?

Replies

Hi dear Ben,

Let me please mention that we recommend these lines in the simplified Blackmood openings, meant to play at the U2000 online level, where people don't ever make such advanced ideas as IMs, and if you are constantly facing such strong competition, you will need to learn the advanced openings.

About the position, I checked as well, and it seems like after 8.Be3 c4 9.Be2 Bb4 or Nf5 leads to an interesting game.
Usually, c4 isn't thematic, but in this case, it's quite reasonable, and Black will try to play on the Queenside.

Feature Request: Add age suitability

Its nice that all courses have a suggested chess.com blitz rating, but it would be even better if there was an age suitability.

 For example, a relative of mine has a really young child who wants to learn chess, and I want to recommend the Rise of Champions course seems great, starting the chess journey from the perfect place!

However, will they understand the course? Are all courses friendly for all ages or only 10+?

Please tell me.😃

Replies

There's no 18 rated content, no, lol.

Looking for Model Games in the ChessMood Dutch Attack

Hi everyone,

I know ChessMood has model games in the BlackMood Opening Model Games course, but those are part of the paid content. Since I don’t have access right now because of my financial issues, I was wondering if anyone here who plays the Dutch Attack could share some of your own games for me to study?

I’d love to see how you all approach the Dutch Attack in practical games — move orders, common middlegame plans, even mistakes we can all learn from. Wins, losses, or draws are all welcome =)

If you’ve played the Dutch Attack, could you please drop a few PGNs or links?

Thank you =)

Replies

None of the below are “model” games lol. Some of them were lucky escapes. I'm still learning and figuring out the dutch myself. Feel free to look around though!

https://lichess.org/VtUgbkpJ6w6h

https://lichess.org/6jVelhoXB0A8

https://lichess.org/study/toXAGiza/A4enuoHC

https://lichess.org/study/toXAGiza/CCRWbVz2

https://lichess.org/study/toXAGiza/1vZZhsTM

https://lichess.org/study/toXAGiza/lTe3cQVa

You might also try looking through the “best games of the month” threads (past and present). There are frequently Dutch Attack games being posted there, and they are all pretty high quality games.