Chess forum by Grandmasters

French exchange - preventing Nb5

Hello and apologies if this has been answered before. I had a game last night that went: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.h3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd6 6.Nc3 In this position, is it wise to play 6...a6 to prevent Nb5? This way of thinking seems to lose a pawn but I also don't know if I need to play Bb4, moving the Bishop twice. I played Nge7 as planned and my opponent never played Nb5, but it's been driving me crazy since I noticed it in my analysis. Thanks and once again, apologies if this has been answered.

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Hi Jules!

No need to play a6 at all. Let them come and take the bishop, Nc3, Nb5, Nxd6 to develop our Queen to d6. 3 White moves to develop our Queen it is a very good deal, one piece more developped on our side. If Nb5, I would just castle short and that's it, count how many pieces we have developped and how many has White if they go into this wild Bishop chase… This is a basic concept of the opening, develop as fast as possible and here White would be helping us. 

Today's Puzzle - Jan 29th

I have to admit that I didn't see where today's puzzle was going right off the bat, I just played (what I thought was) the best positional move... then a beautiful mate occurred. This was a pretty puzzle. Thanks for an excellent "birthday" puzzle.

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Survey

Hi All, I understand that there was a survey put out by Avetik. I'm watching the video but would also like to add an opinion to the survey. Anyone know where I could find it? Thanks

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Hi here's the link, from my email. It looks like the survey is still open! https://forms.gle/8xKBwnJc4YuFmB837 It was first announced in ChessMood's mailing list. If your email isn't in the mailing list yet best to join now this is another avenue for getting all the latest news and events. Best rgds, Alex

Bug in Daily Puzzle screen?

Hi Chessmood family, for the last two days I've solved the daily puzzle on the first try but didn't get the moodcoins. I just got the message "You are in a Right Mood today!" but no coins. I waited a day to try again to be sure. Anyone else have this issue? Thanks, Alex

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I did today's puzzle (this one: https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle/05.03.2022) and didn't get any Moodcoins. Perhaps they are changing things around, or perhaps it's a bug. I'm not too worried either way, but then being new I don't really know what these coins are good for anyway :-) Btw, I thought it was a great puzzle! Well worth the effort to solve.

Thanks, this bug has been reported.

I think that this bug has been solved, can anyone kindly confirm that you are getting the moodcoins now?

I solved today's puzzle on the first attempt but did not receive any MoodCoins. I wonder why not. I solved it from my Android phone. Tomorrow I will solve from my laptop to see if that makes any difference.

I solved today's puzzle but did not receive moodcoins. Yesterday I also saw that the puzzle being displayed to me had flipped back to the prior day's puzzle for a while. That coincided with my timezone, as displayed on the events page, being completely wrong. I also noticed that my timezone was completely wrong when I solved today's puzzle.

This bug is back for me.

I got 'Congratulations. You are wrong!' today. I guess it's got a sarcastic side.

This morning's event

Is today's 1 on 1 event done, or were there technical difficulties?

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happy birthday

happy birthday

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avetik wish you a beautifull year ahead 😊

Modern Maroczy against f4

I played a game as Black against the Modern Maroczy where White played 12. f4 rather than f3 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Be2 Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Be3 O-O 10. Qd2 a5 11. O-O a4 12. f4 I was wondering what Black's plan is now? Does this now allow Ng4 ideas or to continue with Qa5?

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Happy 54th Birthday Avetik!

Just wanted to wish coach Avetik a Happy Birthday and all the best wishes!

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I know Avetik looks pretty beat up, but he is not that old! Avetik is a mere 34 years young, while I am 64 years old but wiser :-) Get some time in guys & ENJOY! Happy birthday Avetik! ;-)

Oops , small detail....34th birthday 🤣 But 54 years wise!

Play 1 on 1 with a Grandmaster

Hi folks. Does tomorrow's event require doing something in advance if we want to play Gabuzyan? Thanks!

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You will get the link before starting the games.

For participating, you will just need to write your nickname in the live stream chat, so GM Gabuzyan recognizes that it's you and accepts your match request.

If your nickname ends with ChessMood, it will be easier. For example John_ChessMood or Any_ChessMood  

You can challenge playing with one of the following time controls: 3+0, 3+2, 5+0. 

The games will be in chess.com 

https://chessmood.com/event/play-against-grandmaster-01-28

To LiChess Players....

Many thanks if you can tell me if it's possible to adjust the level of the opponent as GM Gabuzyan does when streaming. For example select an opponent rated between 1500-2000 exclusively. If we can do that (it's possible on the french site Europe Echecs) I don't know how to proceed.... Thanks again for your help.😀

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Hi Jean, when you are at the main Li chess page , top left corner has "play". When you click that , you'll see "create a game" and will have all sorts of choices as to what opponents you will get to play. Just fill in the rating range, rated/nonrated etc and you'll be all set. Cheers

Help

Help, I'm trying out chessmood.com for the first time but the training chess board is only 1"x 1" on my cell phone. I only play chess on my cell phone and have everyday for 2 years, its tiny and too small for me to see. I have an android cell phone. Is there any way I can enlarge the chessboard to be as large as the full width of my cell phone? Just like chess.com and Lichess does. I need a bigger chessboard to be able to see and follow the instructor GM's properly. Any solutions? If not, I will quit trying to make chessmood.com work for me. The teaching is so good and clear that I am planning on going for the Pro membership. But if I can't even see the training chessboard then I will have to go elsewhere. Please assist as I want to join the community now! But can't if I can't see the training videos properly. ([email protected]) Much Love!

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I have an Android phone and when I use a combination of landscape mode and full screen mode and the board is quite big.

member numbers

How many members does Chessmood have?

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Happy Birthday Avetik Fri 270123 ENJOY!

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Happy Birthday Avetik! 🥳🥳

Happy birthday Avetik. I hope that you've had an easy day today. Eat some cake!!

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday! I plan to subscribe in the future but i will take this opportunity to watch the Endgame Roadmap :-)

Black repertoire

Hi ChessMood family! I was wondering something about opening repertoires, and I noticed that there's a lot more white material than black material on chessmood. I was wondering would that mean that the black repertoire is weaker? Or is it that since the white repertoire is already so extensive that the coaches wanted to keep black material a bit less so it's less overwhelming to learn? Just wondering!

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I think there is a bigger choice of systems for Black to play against 1. e4 than for Black to play a single system against e4, d4, c4 particularly as the repertoire fits together and it was an intention to avoid theory heavy openings. If instead, they'd opted for the Najdorf against e4 (early version of Chessmood had some lines) and the KI against d4, then I think they're have been a lot more material for Black. Also both the Benko and Accelerated miss a number of lines out.

Good question! I think that the black material is less so that it does not become too overwhelming to learn since there is so much white material already. I do not think it would mean that the black repertoire is weaker.

I think one of the reason is that chessmood recommends to play 1.e4 as white. When you start with 1.e4 you have to be prepared against a lot of different replies, while black can specialize in a single weapon against 1.e4. I see in the section of openings for black, that most of them are dedicated to the Sicilian Defense, which is a reply to 1.e4. There is also a course to play against 1.c4 and against 1.b3 The only one i see against 1.d4 is the Benko Gambit, but white can avoid it, so it looks like there should be more against 1.d4

French Attack Classical Variation

I would call 1. e4, e6 2. d4, d5 3. Nc3, Nf6 4. e5, Ng8 the Red Knight Variation. The name comes from Alice in Wonderland. The Red Knight and White Knight have a truly bizarre struggle.

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Good one Randall!! 😁

Lost Benko game - advice appreciated

I recently lost this game in an OTB tournament. I feel my opponent simply got a better position without playing any particularly clever move, just playing naturally, even though I played all the typical Benko moves and even managed to get the pawn back. Basically, at no point was white in danger, and that's kind of what we would like white to be when we sac a pawn, no? That it should be difficult to play white... I would appreciate if you guys could provide insight of how I should have thought to find a more challenging way to play as black here.

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One minor point is that your opponent played an inaccurate move order. When they play an early g3 like that, you can play the disruptive Qc8 instead of capturing the bishop. I think it is mentioned by GM Gabuzyan when he discusses the updated Benko course: https://chessmood.com/event/benko%E2%80%93gambit-questions

The main mistake here, is the move 13. We put the Queen on b6 and the knight goes from a6 to c7 to avoid Nb5 being played, or if played we exchange it. This is why we do this setup, but in your game you allowed the opponent to place the knight on b5 and then you played Nc7 allowing him to take. 

Next time play Nc7 and do not allow Nb5. This is the key in this variation.

??I hope that the next game that you play this variation you will post your victory below this post Yair…?

Revisiting this post again, I just watched this video: https://chessmood.com/course/benko-gambit/episode/344 again, and at 1.48 GM Avetik says that if white plays 12. Re1, then we continue 12..Nbd7 and not 12..Na6. Why is this? After all, white can still play a2-a4 on the next move. Furthermore, is there a reason why we look at white's a4 plan together with Qe2 and not with Re1? I'm facing the same opponent again so I'm trying to prepare. :)

ChessMood Search Function

Hi ChessMood family, I was wondering if you guys felt having a search function would be helpful when looking for information in the video library. For example I was wondering how to respond to Smith Morra Gambit with Chessmood material and I had to individually click through the videos, read through each introduction, look look at the video titles individually to find it. I was thinking it would be cool if we could just type it in and the website would automatically bring up what we want to find, or not. What do you guys think?

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The problem is always development cost (not cheap, or an opportunity cost vs doing something more needed) as well as doing it in an intuitive way. Most of us know that the Smith Morra and the Alapin are related by the Nf6 move so would automatically gravitate to Black openings, Alapin. Not sure how many other titles you'd need to look through - Blackmood, no not there, anti-sicilians for Black, no not there any longer, oh look the Alapin course. If you're an beginner, yes it might be a bit more challenging, but there again this isn't really geared to beginners. What would be more useful is an openings browser tree that links moves to videos and model games. That is even more expensive to produce (it's the basis of Ginger GMs GChess), but I feel would be a much better investment and far more useful to a lot of people. The reality is until ChessMood is much bigger I doubt development time for something not so necessary wouldn't be possible. What would be simpler is a tour video of the various videos and what you'll learn in each so you can get an overview of the site. The problem is it would be out of date most of the time and need updating every few months at least. Perhaps the opening principles is the place for that even.

Yes, the Search Function is one of Avetik most wished feature. I am sure that we will do it, he thought about it at the beginning of Chessmood, way before other sites, but we were not very lucky with our first developers… 😅

Anyways, thanks for the input and I am asking Gabu to try to record an explanation correcting our miss in the “Anti-sicilians course”. Thanks for letting us know about it!

Accelerated Dragon 7. Be2 d5 8. Bb5 0-0!? advanced course?

Hello, In the following video https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-accelerated-dragon/episode/258 between seconds 45 - 55 between the 45s - 60s mark, Avetik mentions the following line would be in the advanced course. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Be2 d5 8. Bb5 0-0. I don't see that line mentioned in the advanced course. If it's already recorded, could you kindly upload it?

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Hi Vishnu! 

Avetik did not record this line yet. It is on our list, but I think that going castle first before d5 is more principled and it is covered in the course in detail.

I will remind him of this line though.  

Endgames: Where to start?

Hi chessmood family! I am a beginner who just joined the site. I know a little theory on K&P endgames, but little on any other endgames. I also find it hard to find the correct plan in endgames. Which course should I start with? Endgame roadmap or Must Know Endgame Theory U2000? Thank you!

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Start with Endgame Roadmap. I'm doing a quick run through it and so far it is a very nice course. I believe it actually says in the introduction to Must Know Endgame Theory U2000 that you should do the roadmap first.

I think you should start with the Endgame Roadmap course first. As it is mentioned in the roadmap, it will teach you how to think in various endgames. You mentioned that you find it hard to find the correct plan in endgames. So, my suggestion is that you start with the endgame roadmap and then consider doing the endgame theory U2000.

yes i think start with endgame roadmap and if need more knowledge you should defenitely solve 100 endgames you must know book it is really helpful.

The book "100 endgame you must know" is great as fundamental endgame knowledge. another great book is dvortesky engdame which is a bit more in depth. I'm sure that there are great endgame courses on chessmood that you can watch , learn and apply in your games

Wow, so many replies at your post, that is nice to see. Welcome to the family Max!

We already awarded the “best reply” seal to Peter M. who was the first to reply.

As he said, Endgame roadmap first and then follow with Must Know Endgame Theory U2000. 

I would also suggest to start watching after completing these courses, you watch the> https://chessmood.com/course/classical-chess-endgames

Here you will see lots of ideas from the courses implemented and many more!😀😀

Calculating issues

A game where my attack could have won, but I missed the correct sequence, then almost lost (mutually low time and luckily an opponent who didn't see the win). First the engine prefers the safer 10. b3 first, but I was much more in the mood for an attack caveman style with 10. Qh4, more so after the Qc7?! reply. Ignoring the suggestion of 12. Kh1 being better than going for Bh6 which is hard to see, my problem is 13. Qg5. I'd seen Ne8 as the only defence, but couldn't see anything better than Bxg7 (Rae1 is the engine's preference). I'd looked at 13. Ng5 but couldn't make it work, despite it being the correct move. I'd seen the follow up 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. exf5, but couldn't see anything else here to continue the attack. The Engine continues (with the move 13... Qb6 inserted) 15... Bd5 16. Rae1 with Nxd5 and Rxe7 to follow or Re3-e3-g3 which looks like a lot of moves and certainly not concrete enough to calculate beyond trying to work out if the rook might get hindered getting to g3. Going back to move 13, any tips on seeing the idea Rae1-e3-g3/xe7. Obviously getting another piece in there is obvious advice, but am I being too concrete in my calculation. It's hard not to be when the first few moves are forcing.

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I'd like 13. Ng5 with follow ups of Rf3-h3

Looking at 13.Ng5 I find myself wanting to analyse 13...Rxb2 first. Of course I'm aware of the possibility of 13...Qb6, and that it might be stronger, but in a situation like this I often find it helpful to look at the simplest (potentially naive) response first to get my bearings. I looked at 13.Ng5 Rxb2 14.exf5 and then at the replies 14...Bd7 and 14...Bd5. I noticed that after 14...Bd7 I have 15.Rae1 with tempo since we're threatening Rxe7, and noting that we have e6 well covered making Rae1 more compelling. So I think seeing this variation would cause Rae1 to be floating around in my head when analysing other possibilities. Also when looking at 14...Bd5 I was looking at Nce4 ideas. I'm not overly convinced by Nce4 Bxe4 dxe4, so I started wondering about the possibility of Rae1 with the idea of Nce4 Bxe4 Rxe4. So the Rae1 idea continues to stay in mind. Btw, being a bit lazy, and only half awake, I played thru a few moves and saw 14...Bd5 15.Nce4 Bxe4 15.Nxe4 (backwards knight move!) Nxe4 16.Qg4 looks to be mating. At that point I got bored and stopped analysing but if I continued I'd check that further including black inserting Bxh6 at various points. None of this has been engine checked, so could be mistakes but I don't think it matters. The main point was that by looking at a simple, and probably suboptimal, response like Rxb2 first it can be easier to get a feel for some of the ideas in the position. Maybe that's what you did, maybe not. Would be interesting to hear.