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Chess forum by Grandmasters

Purchase from Store

Hi,

Can We purchase Store Products using Chess Mood Coins.


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Dear @Shlok_Mali,

At the moment it is not possible to purchase from the store. Mood coins are meant to provide courses to the people that cannot afford them but not for buying products.

Thanks,

Last weekend local OTB tourney u1600 joint winner

Last weekend was a special chess time for me as I played in my local chess OTB tournament (u1600 section) & scored 4/5 points with 2 draws & 3 wins to finish as joint winner (3 winners in all on 4/5).

The first OTB chess tournament I have ever won (although my son won the junior prize in this competition many years ago-probably 15 years ago). It was last held in 2019 when it was in a large venue in Town, when GM Eric Hansen visited & I enjoyed meeting & chatting with him. However, due to CoVid & finances, this year it was at my local chess club premises (I do not play there any longer, but often run into club members in online games) & there were restricted numbers due to CoVid & the smaller venue & I was on the reserve list until midday Friday when I got in due to a cancellation. The main Open section was won by IM Alan Merry, a local player who was with my son as a junior in the junior chess club here (& I may add my son, Chris, never lost to Alan & I have the game notation when he beat Alan to win the Junior chess club annual tournament (30/06/2006)!).

In terms of game detail I played 1.e4 as White and as Black faced down 1.e4  twice with 1.e4 e5 with one game an Italian opening & the other a Ruy Lopez Berlin defence (both wins).  I know 1.e4 e5 is not a ChessMood opening course sadly, but it is my personal favourite chess opening of all time. The other win for me was as White with the Italian opening & I had one draw as White in the Alekhine defence and another draw as White in the Italian opening. So now I plan to study the ChessMood Alekhine course closely (in depth) now & maybe next year I can bust out the the Scotch opening a la ChessMood, as it is a pretty decent opening (not as good as the Italian or Ruy Lopez clearly, but I do like both the Scotch opening & a drop of Scotch whisky now & again!). If I get the ChessMood openings down, maybe next year I can enter the Major section & do well with these! Onwards & upwards.....(btw thanks GM Avetik for Facebook love to my FB post on this!) ;-)

For results & tournament information:

https://www.bsecongress.org.uk/



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Nice work!

Nice post @Richard_Dickinson!!!

This is very nice to read. Congratulations on your performance, I am sure that you felt very good going back to play OTB!

Regarding the Scotch, without mixing the whisky, yes, you should give it a try one of these days. I also played mainly the Spanish opening in the past,  but the Scotch it is very fun and not difficult to learn and understand the main ideas.

Even if you do not play the Scotch (yet), we are very happy to have you with us! :-) Keep up the good mood, the good work and the good spirits!!!

Today's chessmood puzzle

Apropo the new tactics course, today's chessmood puzzle solution rates a bit lower than a stockfish engine solution on the first move (which I also{luckily} thought of) was the b3 pawn push...



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Thanks for letting us know!

Scotch: Romanishin Variation

I can't see this variation is covered in Scotch course? Has anyone got any idea of best plans for White?

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Counter with the Rublevsky  Variation.

In this position we play 6.c3 Be7 as stated in the pgn. I do not know remember the rest of the variation and I will ask the team. We will be back to you.

Hi Thomas,

I would recommend putting the bishop on d3 , castling, playing f4 and try to bring the  knight on b1 to the f3 square.

Looks like an easy game for white in the center with an attack plan on the Black kingside.

How do you study all this chess mood information?

Hello all I was just curious how everyone studied all of this information. I was thinking about watching all the videos and putting the moves into my own chessable course. However there is a lot of videos to watch and moves to put into a chessable course. I was wondering what your study techniques  were? Thanks for your answers. I apologies if this has been asked before.

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What do you mean by your own chessable course?

I'm creating a Lichess study and adding moves there.

The more complex lines I add to my private chessable course and practice it regularly.

There's a lot to study, I agree.

Me personally, I put chessmood openings in their respective pgns (it takes a lot of time but you learn better) and add on top my researched lines (from forums as well), practice from online, novelties etc.

Now about middlegame courses/daily lessons from youtube (also various books on strategy) I have my own excel sheet with various strategic patterns/ideas grouped with sources, game examples attached, so I can quickly access and repeat the idea in my mind if necessary.

About endgames, I dont know I just watch them and try understanding the concepts, also 100 endgames you should know is a must imo for players willing to improve. Maybe someone can suggest how to systemize endgames, txs

I recommend you to take a look at

https://chessmood.com/blog/the-most-effective-way-to-create-chess-pgn-files

Here Avetik explained everything that you need to know to work in an effective way on the courses... And let me remind you that the word "work" is unavoidable if you want to truly improve... But with Good mood is always better... Happy learning!

Chess Mood Tournaments Time⏰

In my country chess mood tournaments start 8:30 pm (SriLankan time) team battles even worse 11:30pm at that I'm really sleepy.So I can't participate in in the tournaments I do join but rarely...But not to the team battles. 

How about you?*****I need answers.

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Hopefully in the future we will be able to do tournaments in different time zones when we have more students.

It is a dream of mine too, in the meanwhile let's keep learning!! Best regards @sasmi_sithumsa

Thank you ChessMood!

I'm very happy because of my performance in the tournament (Majors) and the reason is I followed all the Chess Mood openings properly and my opponents got confused a lot and were like "What is this opening?" and I had a very good advantage in the opening...

Thank you  Chess Mood for providing us these openings and explaining them very clearly step by step.

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@sasmi_sithumsa

Thanks for your kind and encouraging words! We are very happy to hear this!

By the way, did you already start watching the Tactic Ninja course? I recommend it to you! You will just love it!

Happy learning Sasmi!

Elephant Gambit 3... Qe7?! 4... f6 model game

This isn't covered in the course and I've faced it once. Found this model game in Plan Like a Grandmaster which might be worth including in the course as an example of Qe7 being bad.

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Thanks a lot for showing us this game. To be frank David, the move 6...Qf7 is not good at all, other moves like Bf5, Nc6 or f5 come to mind and should be better. That said, you are right, f6 is not covered specifically, but as it happens to all repertoires, we cannot include all the possible moves. 

I would try to remember the manouver Nd3 to f4 and then healthy development without complications if this position ever happens again. Also the g4 idea is nice to have it in mind.

Small center defense 1 e4 e6 2 d4 (we are ready for the french but..)d6

1 e4 e6 2 d4 (we are ready for the french but..)d6

My opponent choose to play this openings and following the OP principles we are the centre and more space..but what set up is it the best to play against this structure? 

Thank for the help and possible idea!!

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Basically this will transpo to some kind of hippo, so I would play either

* with Nc3,f4,Nf3 austrian attack stuff (it's known that hippo doesnt go well if white can play c4 or f4 against it)

* or Nf3, Bc4-b3, 0-0, Nc3-e2-g3,c3 like spanish is also very annoying for black - can tell from my experience from hippo blackside

There is a good daily video about this when opponent plays some kind of random move like small centre 

Guiocco Piano ideas and moves

Guiocco Piano.....any uploads on the moves, traps, and ideas available?

Would really appreciate if available..


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Hi @Anoop_G,

In our Chessmood repertoire we offer the Scotch as a main opening against e5, not the Italian. The Scotch opening leads to attacking positions with clears plans and the course by Avetik is one of the most appraised by our promembers. I am sure that if you try to learn it, you will love it. Let us know how many scalps you collect with the Scotch! :-)

Question to the course "English Opening 1.c4"

In the chessmood course the recommended line after 5.a3 is 5…d6 6.Rb1, a5 and after 7.Nf3 or 7. e3 a transposition with 7…e5 into the 5.Nf3 variation or 5.e3 variation.

But how to continue if White plays 7.e4 instead? And what is the plan for Black then?

After 5.e4 the recommended move is 5…a6 (planning b5), but this is not possible any more (Black has already played a5) in the variation above with 7.e4

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Here is the positon

I would just go e5 with our normal development plan in this line but I asked Gabuzyan to reply to you. Stay tunned...

Another plan is to go Nf6, 0-0, Ne8-c7-e6 if possible, otherwise if black threatens d4, then play e5, but I guess this plan is more useful if you havent played a5, then Rb8 with a6-b5 becomes an option as well

Hi DIdi,

In this setup, I would still recommend playing with e5 and trying to reach the typical positions and follow the ideas offered in the course.

The purpose of our English course is to provide as much as possible in the theory part, but on top of that, we offer lot of model games to show the practical play of strong players. Positions are often not very concrete and knowing the structures and understanding middlegame concepts is the priority.

I would recommend to check out carefully the model games that we offered in order to feel these positions better.

Good luck!

Question in French Defence

Can anyone help me in the variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Ld3 dxe4 4.Lxe4 Sf6 5.Lf3 c5 6.Se2 Sc6 7.Le3 cxd4 8.Sxd4 Se5 9.Sc6 Lb4 10.Sdb5 Da5   what should I play next? I'm sorry I don't know how to make a image of the position.

Thank you very much

Florian

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Just adding the position. Will now think about it.

Hey! A very advanced question :)  
After 10...Qa5 I recommend 11.0-0 and then a3. 

If 11...a6 then Nd6
If 11...Nf3 12.Qf3 a6, here we have a key move, 13.Qg3! 
13...0-0 14.Nc7 Nh5 15.Qh4 Qc7 16.Qb4 with a better position. 


Piotr on Chess , coffee & conversation

3 of coaches students are at the chess meeting on Sunday. I interview Piotr. Take a look and tell me what ya think.  Thanks guys.     https://youtu.be/rXlfzsR4Wzo

Old Biker Chess Dude

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Fantastic place, very nice athmosphere @Eric_Ortega Hopefully one day we will be able to host a Chessmood open in Illinois too!

You did a great job with the chess club and the interview! Keep it up old biker dude!!!

Fantastic! Thanks Eric! 

Looking for training partners to play 30 min games at 7-30 am EASTERN (2000-2200)

Hi,

I'm Anton from Toronto. I'm 34 and I'm rated about 2000 classical on Lichess. I'm looking for training partners to play training games with. My schedule is pretty stable and I'd like to play 2-3 games every week. 

I'm available almost every weekday from 7-30 am to 8-30 am EASTERN time (Monday - Friday).

I play the French defense against e4. Against d4 I play QGD.

As white, I'm a d4 player and prefer openings with Nc3 - Classical QGD, slav, Nimzo, etc.

Please message me if you are interested in playing with me in the morning!

 

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A few notes. Most play the Chessmood repertoire, so getting games in those openings may be difficult. If you want to practise against the Benko or Schlecter French then there will be a number of people, otherwise it's down to whatever they played before Chessmood as I suspect players in that rating range won't have a second big system. Also many will want to practise Chessmood lines in return, which other than those two you may know nothing about if you've not studied the opening courses.

What would training involve, selecting the opening beforehand, multiple games making improvements each time, analysis, model game study?

There is also a pinned thread for requesting training partners.

Hi, I would to be your training partner. I play e4 as white and semi-slav as black as against d4. If you're interest you could message me on telegram. Click the link below.

https://t.me/chesaman

Rating plateaus

Interesting article I read

https://coloradomasterchess.com/informant-ratings-and-expectations/

Summary:

1850 plateau is 50% to 2200, 2100 is 75% to 2200.

Rating jumps happen in n big steps, but adjust up and down a hundred points or so depending on various factors.

Inactivity doesn't lose that many points, maybe 100 (can't remember if it was this article)

---

This would suggest that although it might be several things you need to learn to get off the plateau, that there is a paradigm shift that occurs hence not falling back, it's not just learning the something a bit better.

Any thoughts from the stronger players and what it is that gets one off those plateaus?


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I cannot speak for the OTB chess as I have only played 3 tournaments recently and haven't yet reached the plateau.

On Lichess I was hovering for a long time around 2000. When I started with ChessMood courses my rating slowly improved and then stabilized around 2200.

I few month ago I stopped playing blitz after I reached 2300, which was my goal for the year. I also have to admit that I didn't want it to see it fall back to 2200 levels :)

In the last 4 months mostly because I was preparing for 2 OTB tournaments I studied a lot to fix the holes in all  aspects of my game.

Then two weeks ago I started playing the blitz a bit (two to three games a day) and to my surprise the blitz rating jumped to nearly 2400.

As a conclusion one could say that improvements in chess knowledge are needed to break through the plateau, at least in blitz.

Anyone wants to play 30+0 training games at 7-30 am in the morning EASTERN (New York, Toronto, Montreal)

Hi,

I'm Anton from Toronto. I'm 34 and I'm rated about 2000-2100 classical on Lichess. I'm looking for training partners to play training games with. My schedule is pretty stable and I'd like to play 2-3 games every week. Just playing some games - we can still study / analyze on our own. Once in a while a joint analysis / discussion is welcome. 

I'm available almost every weekday from 7-30 am to about  8-30 am EASTERN time (Monday - Friday).

I play the French defense against e4. Against d4 I play QGD. As white, I'm a d4 player and prefer openings with Nc3 - Classical QGD, slav, Nimzo, etc.

Please message me if you are interested in playing with me in the morning! Can be casual or rated, doesn't matter. Would be great if we could find several people who are all available in the morning, we can create a little play / study group. 

 

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Hi Anton - what is your lichess handle? I'd be happy to play practice games if we are online at the same time. cheers, d

Upcoming lichess theme tournaments

Hi all,

On lichess today (Mon 27th) there is the Jobava system theme tournament

1 0 at 11am UTC
3 0 at 12pm UTC
3 2 at 1pm UTC
10 0 at 2pm UTC

This isn't chessmood affiliated, but it's a good chance to practise the chessmood repertoire (do check the forum as one of the lines was in doubt).

The London system one just happened, but they usually repeat two or three times so keep an eye on the tournament schedule https://lichess.org/tournament - however you only get a few hours notice of the tournaments so it needs checking regularly. Also if you miss the Jobava one, this is the first outing of it, so it should get repeated at other times.

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Found this link: Lichess Opening Tournament Schedule (benediktwerner.github.io)

I see there is Benko Gambit upcoming in October and Scotch Nf6.

Scotch Nf6 tournament coming up tomorrow for the next few days, check Robert's link for times. Let's get them with h4 (although worth looking at a few sidelines as many players will just play 'chess' as they don't know the opening).

Event idea - Analysis comparision between members and a GM

See this video Nakamura vs Levy (note that I got 2/4 right beating the IM! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dQzTnvsNG4

Suggested chessmood format would be to request 2 maybe 3 participants of different ratings.
Provide 3/4 positions for analysis, members record and submit videos of them analysing the position (with some time limit for each, maybe 3 minutes) and coming to a conclusion of what they think the best move is. The GM (not necessarily the host GM) also records a video.
Videos (in ascending rating order) are played to the audience during the event (if some editing/screening can happen prior the time limit might be increased to 5 minutes depending on the position), followed by the GM's. Solution is then revealed by the host GM and they comment on how the participants analysed, the position and tips on improving related to what they missed in the position, different rating abilities/faults, and calculating in general.

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I think that would be a great idea and it would be useful for everyone no matter what their rating is because they can just take lessons from the videos 1 or 2 rating brackets up.  Would probably need several people in each rating range so that it isn't biased by one particular person's strengths and weaknesses.  I'm only saying this because you can get people with the same rating but very different strengths and weaknesses which would skew the results.  It would be good for the coaches too to see what they can focus on for the different levels.

I think it would be good to have some of these sessions live too.

A similar idea is coming out in Michael Adams new book - out soon
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/413/think_like_a_super-gm_by_michael_adams_with_philip_hurtado/

+1 from me!

The Grandmasters that join ChessMood

Hello, champions! 
I would like to hear your opinion. 

In the last 6 months we've created lots of material for middlegame and endgame courses, covering all (!) the topics! 
However we'll not be able to record all that stuff very fast. 

What do you think, whom I should invite to join ChessMood Grandmasters? 
Whose recordings you've watched and you love how he explains the things? 

Please share their names. 
Thank you! 

P.S 
We're going to bring more and more value for our students.
Keep the COGRO! 

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Positional courses or videos:

Sir I strongly suggest to invite Vazubian Akobian and Yasser Seirawan. They both have tremendous knowledge of positional play and also have amazing teaching experience. I love to learn from both mentor's video. After Chessmood Mentors I only like these two players. The good thing about Yasser is the knoweldge of English openings because he committed many times that due to too much theory on 1.e4 he changed his plan and chose to play the move c4. I can say he is one of the experts of English openings and positional play. In case of Var. Akobian, he is superb in explaining different positional ideas and also he is expert in french like you are. So my vote goes for these two players.  Or I can say these two players are best after chessmood. 

Attacking Video lessons or ideas:

I think best for that is GM Maurice Ashley. He is not only a wonderful attacker but he also speaks with energy whenever he see any complicated lines or ideas. His energy goes down and down if you start showing him games of Karpov or Ulf hehehe. So for attacking video which require super energy in presentation I strongly love to see Ashley's lectures.

I am not following any endgame contents so I don't know who will be best for endgame presentation but in case of attacking and positional I shared what I think is best after Chessmood

We have to look for people with good mood and think a bit out of the box. We have to keep the essence of Cheesmood.

I would like to see more videos from GM Gabuzyan Hovhannes, he explains well and needs more air time to have more experience, but I really like his courses and streams. They go to the point, maybe some lines need more explanation for the less gifted like me, but all will come with practice.

I also think that GM Max Illingworth could offer much to Chessmood, I know he's a pro member but maybe you could arrange some collaboration. He has enthusiasm and prepares his courses thoughtfully. His explanations are good and with good mood too. He almost made me buy his course on the Scandinavian with his nice speech! (Unfortunately I promised myself to play only Chessmood openings for a year at least! -Sorry Max!-)  Ah! Max, if you read this please change the background of your videos, it will help for sure, better light too!

Also recently you shared an spectacular blog post from GM Vladimir Akopian, he was your teacher too. He authored just a few weeks ago the dvd: My Games With Chess Giants by GM Vladimir Akopian, and I had the chance to watch it. His experience is vast, he knows so much... I enjoyed the game explanations but it was too complicated sometimes for my level.

Another GM that I really like and he is one expert in the Scotch is Parimarjan Negi, he's actually studying and does not play competitions anymore, but maybe he could agree to do some collaboration, he's a good presenter too. I love his dvd on the Scotch (he only authored one dvd sadly).

And this is it. I gave my ideas. You should look for people honest and happy when speaking. Good luck Avetik sensei!

This is a great question!

The presenters of chess instruction I have enjoyed to watch is probably similar to many others here. 

I first started watching IM John Bartholomew and GM Simon Williams (GingerGM). While both are great at helping their audience understand complex material, I think both have other projects they are involved in and may not want more on their plate. I would love to see either one be part of the ChessMood team, but I am not sure how realistic that would be.

Abhi made a suggestion I like as well! Var Akobian is also great at explaining complex ideas in a way us mortals can understand. Plus I am a little biased toward Var after you introduced him to our group while we were in St Louis last year! 

I also agree with Edo, Gabuzyan is very good too! Plus he already knows all of our material! 

I am sure whomever you choose to bring on to help with the ChessMood material will be an amazing choice, and I trust you will find the right person for the job!

I love how GM Daniel King explains chess. I have watched several of his courses in Chessbase.

I totally agree with Edo Tokyo that GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan's material is great, both his Sicilian courses and Streams.

Also it would be such a treat to hear from Vladimir Akopian's experience at the highest level.

Daniel Naroditzky is my favorite chess commentator. He has a very good way of explaining ideas and concepts.

His youtube channel is very high quality with a clear focus on improvement. So he'd fit to the chessmood brand. 

I'm a huge fan of:

- GM Varuzhan Akobian (from St. Louis lectures)

- GM Melikset Khachiyan (from chess.com videos)

GM Simon Williams aka GINGER GM

Pepe Cuenca :D

My favorite live commentator is GM Ioannis Papaioannou. He is very passionate, focuses on the games and explains them incredibly well. I believe his main occupation is chess coach.

GM Farrukh Amonatov. 

To add a couple of names not mentioned (yes I definitely support the Ginger GM if he was willing):

Ben Finegold - some entertaining and informative videos on YouTube
Chris Ward - long time UK junior coach, author of several books and entertaining commentator at Hastings
Jon Speelman - another UK author
John Nunn - another UK author especially known for endgame work

What about Elisabeth Paehtz?

In no particular order.  
GM Pepe Cuenca - favourite from Chess24, great energy and definitely has the right mood!!
GM Melikset Khachiyan - favourite from Chess.com, great at explaining
GM Alejandro Ramirez - Love this guy.  Very logical explaining strategy and second to Caruana so has some great opening ideas
GM Grigor Grigorov - my favourite from Modern Chess - explains hard concepts in a very digestable way
GM Surya Ganguly - a one time second of Anand and author of the best ever course on Chessable (In my humble opinion) explaining the history and strategy of the lines very well.  Check out his Nimzo course.  You can watch the Short and Sweet version for free.
GM Fabiano Caruana - loved his ChessBase DVD on the Ruy Lopez - clear good explanations from the World No 2!  Aim high :)

Igor Smirnov, Davorin Kuljasevic, Mat Kolosowski, Robert Ris, Simon Williams for me

Noël Studer from Next Level Chess - seems that is already preparing for a closer co-operation.

I think gawain Jones would be a great addition to he honest.

I have his very old killer grand prix dvd as a supplement to chess mood and just bought his KID on chessable. Its a very good course which gives me a nice alternative to benko.

He is a good presenter his course is well worked of high quality and he likely the leading expert in grand prix so could add something of value there. Plus his style is very fighting chess trying to win as black and white. Then on top of this he is a near 2700 gm (2685 i think).

I'd add IM Toth (ChessCoach Andras) to the list of suggested invites. Watched some very good youtube videos and quite direct to the point with no messing about.

Grunfeld with e3 (East Indian Defence)

We get to this from the repertoire with 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. e3 Bg7 4. c4 O-O 5. Nc3 d5 - I'm assuming this is the preference of play given e3 isn't so critical in the Grunfeld (particularly as the B is still on c1), and playing other second/third moves doesn't assure us of a transposition to something already covered.

Edit: I'm going to look a bit more at this, although advice is welcome of course, as there is definitely a lot of crossover, so might be covered in a line or two rather than separate tutorials.

--
If so is there going to be any coverage of this, perhaps as a d4 miscellaneous section or perhaps a mini-course as given the number of games played from this position with strong players either side, it is perhaps deserving of that? There are a small number of plans, and plenty of scope for Black to outplay White so long as good development takes place.
--

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Note that I've got a (weak) FM in a match tonight as Black and after Nf3 c5 several of his games end up in this line or similar.

Also note that some of this is covered in the English e3 d4 (section 6) but we have c5 in earlier which we don't in this move order, so can also get to it from 1. Nf3 c5. Would 4... c5? make sense. Note also that the streams have come into the Grunfeld 4 e3 twice via the route above rather than force an English.

Hi David,

In our English course as black side we have this position with pawn on c5 instead of d5 and black is doing well. You are welcome to find alternatives if you want to, just to let you know in the courses we get very nice positions for the black side.

Yes, I found this position in our repertoire analized in the English opening very deep.

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