Chess forum by Grandmasters

Benko after e3?

Good day guys. Is it possible to enter Benko after d4Nf6c4c5e3... ? Thank you

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Are there any Chessmood openings which enter or follow this line ?

3.e3 is covered in the Benko course in the section about rare 3rd moves: https://chessmood.com/course/benko-gambit/episode/45. 3.e3 isn't a critical line and black has a number of good continuations.

Must Know Endgame Theory Bishop Pawn

Is it just me, or was that video (Q Vs P bishop's pawn) a little unclear. I know the material well already, so I know what to look for, but did others who are less familiar require the stalemate position to be actually shown rather than inferred to get the main point across, and a demonstration of the stalemate with the king on the wrong side hurrying to the corner. Just think on that video it could have been more explicit and I had to go back to check the main point had been made. Otherwise a good course.

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New article: Theoretical Rook Endgames - All you Need to Know U2000 Level

11-year-old GM Gabuzyan was playing in the Armenian Youth Championship. 
 

He had trained hard for it. And everything was going as planned. 

A win in the final game would make him the champion and give him a chance to play at the World Youth Championship. That was his biggest dream at this point of his life.
 

Only 1 thing stood between him and the championship cup – a Rook endgame!

And then he got a winning position… Alas, he failed to spot the win, and eventually the game ended in a draw.
 

It was disheartening. However, on the bright side, it made him more determined to improve. So he went to his coach who helped him lay the foundation for a strong Rook endgame.
 

In today’s article, GM Gabuzyan shares the very same things his coach taught to build his understanding of Rook endgames.
 

These include the most important positions and concepts that are enough for players below 2000 rating to know.
 

Read the full story 👇
https://chessmood.com/blog/rook-endgames

And you can share your thoughts with us under this forum thread.

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Hello Gabuzyan Hovhannes, absolute brilliant explanation and visualization! Thank you!

Pawn strategy course?

Would be a useful course for 1700+ players. Pawns are so versatile there is so much that can be written, and many players make mistakes. Take this lesson snippet from Coach Andras - how many would make some of the same mistakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM1rcDvpuwc A pawn (move) can be positive: Attack a piece causing it to move away Attack/control a square stopping pieces occupying Provide a support to an outpost Open files for rooks Open diagonals for bishops Provide cover for pieces behind it Remove the opposing king's cover Close opponent's lines Make opponent's bishop bad Distract a blocking pawn / breakthrough Exchange or offer exchange of opponent's pawns to help pieces or bring in pieces Weaken opponent's structure Split the board into two Prevent pieces escaping or trapping them Diverting pieces to stop them advancing further But a bad pawn (move) can sometimes irreversibly: Weaken our structure Close lines and/or make our bishop bad Get in the way of lines of attack Expose/weaken our king Leave weak squares Prevent escape of our own pieces from attack / traps Open the board unfavourably Close the board unfavourably Require defending by pieces or unfavourable pawn moves leaving other places weak Often there are a lot of strategic decisions to make with pawns: Sacrifice it? Leave it? Defend it (pawn or piece)? One or two squares forward? One, two, three, four pawns in the centre? Form a fianchetto? Gain space on the flank(s)? Bolt-hole for our king, and which one? Capture towards the centre or away? Open, closed, semi-open position? There is the valuation of different pawns such as centre pawns tend to be more valueable so pawn exchanges are often unequal (GM Arkell in Arkell's endings IIRC notes his strategy is to value the pawns from least to most valueable a,b,c,d,e,f for the types of positions he plays) There is the well trodden but often misunderstood cases of the backward, doubled, tripled, isolated and dispersed pawns which often make players miss good moves because they naturally shy away from forming these structures. Forming pawn duos as a preference to leaving a hole, but there again there is the stonewall saw-tooth. The theory of more pawn islands is usually bad. The gambit opening. Then there are the well know pawn structures - carlsbad, IQP, french advance, KID, benoni variations, hippos, etc. As well as a whole host of other openings which while many covered in chess structures is too advanced for many players Then there are the typical kings positions (fianchetto, h-pawn advanced 1, fianchetto + h-pawn advanced 1 or 2, advanced f-pawn, advanced g pawn with h-pawn advanced 1), and several qside additions Then there are the different types of centres and strategies around them Finally the interplay between pawns and pieces (good/bad bishop, outposts, opening files for rooks), colour complexes and weak strong squares caused by pawn moves and when to probe such weaknesses. Certainly a lot of ground for one or two courses, not to mention strategy in general, which is only sporadically covered in the classical games and daily lessons.

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Agreed. There is much to know about pawns, structures, roles in play, etc. A deep course in pawn play/strategy would be welcome and hopefully Avetik is aware of this.

Yes, this is indeed a good topic for thought and we took note of it for the future. Thanks!

Great stuff, I'm studying Mauricio Flores Rios - Chess Structures - A Grandmaster Guide book atm and would highly recommend it, I think it's one of the best for this topic

Locked out of Videos ?

Could well be my end but if I go to a course module and click on it it states 'because of its privacy setting this cannot be displayed'. Basically white text on black screen . Any ideas as I cannot access the course materials ? I've tried logging out and in again but to no avail .

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Hey man, the same happened to me yesterday. Turns out it was my bitdefender antivirus extension in chrome, I just made an exception for chessmood and it worked fine. Could also be some ad-blockers, just turn off all chrome extensions and reenable them one by one to see what is causing an issue. Hope that helps.

Yes, please try with another browser to check it out and let us know. Also check your extensions in your browser please …

NEW ARTICLE: Stafford Gambit | The Refutation

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Thanks coach.Great article & analysis (better than my own! I had decided on 5.Nc3 but now will probably switch to 5.d3). Keep up the good work! Best wishes ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhWyK5dAIAw

Nakamura refuted the gambit against Eric Rosen

I played against IM Eric Rosen and crushed his Stafford Gambit!! But I lost on time.. .. https://lichess.org/YhqROmyu/white

Such a good blog!

Using Knowledge In a Real Game

I have learned a lot of information and can solve the questions. When I play an actual match, I can't use it well. How to fix my problem?

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You need to be more specific. Can you provide some positions, given details of your thinking process.

Yes, please provide more details on what worries you and maybe we can be of some help Endo-san…🤠

New Course? Decision-making in chess :)

Hello ChessMood family, Are there any plans for adding a new course about decision-making in chess? 🥰

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In a way, every ChessMood course is about decision making in chess :-). What sort of thing would you expect to see in such a course?

Well, many of these concepts are being explained in the classical games, attacking games etc. Also the Middlegame roadmap will offer some light to some of these decisions but as Peter M said, chess is decision, every move is a decision… But we will think of course to do courses on pawn structures, etc. But it is not a priority for growing, we must be efficient with our time and focus on what should be better for our chess growth… 😀

Utilizing the Chessbase 16

Hi, my name is Joshua Tan from Malaysia, may i know any one of you can tell me more about how to use Chessbase 16,in its essential forms?

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Hi Chessbase has a lot of features. Maybe an easy way to get started is to look at the Chessbase tutorials. https://en.chessbase.com/products/tutorials If there's something specific you want to know about it should be there. Rgds, Alex

'Win condition'

Another interesting one from Coach Andras, that is in an endgame find what we need to do to win, the 'win condition', then find moves to execute it. This fits with our endgame roadmap that we're working out where on the roadmap we are, then finding moves to do this. It could be used similarly in the middlegame to ask what would I do to improve my position, no doubt that and other things will be covered on the middlegame roadmap. On his example though, at first glance I didn't see how White playing Kf1 Ke2 allows him to carry out his plan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk6FnSgWGVo

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Note it doesn't mention the opponent's win condition which we should always have in mind. Quite often we get wrapped up in our own plans, particularly when winning we don't consider this and then get surprised. Again I suspect this will be covered in the WWP course.

In that example I'd consider playing Rd8 before Bb4. Seems natural to grab the file, and you can answer Kf1 with Rd2. Then play Bb4 and shuffle the Rook back to d3 to win b3 at your leisure. Although Bb4 Kf1 Rd8 Ke2 Rd2+ Ke3 Ra2 and the twin threats of Bc5+ and Ra3 look tough to deal with. Update: also note that the immediate Rd8 simply threatens to win a pawn with Rd4 since the f4 pawn can only be defended by g3 which allows Bxh3.

Gligoric - Larsen (Havana 1967) looks a lot like the Dutch Attack

I was taking a look at the new Bent Larsen book from Quality Chess this evening and the first game is a Nimzo-Indian St. Petersburg Variation that transposes into something resembling the Dutch Attack after 7...f5 followed by the rook lift plan: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1308588.

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Yes there are lots of lines in the Nimzo/Bogo Indian complex where you push the f-pawn forward and use the typical plan from the Dutch! 🙃

Anti-Sicilian Part 2 (NC6) with Bxc6 - Middle Game plan

Hi fellow Chessmood members: I was trying to find the plans for White once you reach this position in the Bxc6 variation. Apologies if I missed it. Appreciate if someone can point me in the right direction (video or line). Thank you! Jose

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As a follow up, I sort of remember a video section covering 7....c4 8. O-O, cxd3 9. cxd3, O-O .... but I cannot find it. 😓😓😓

Hi Jose,

The thing is the position here is bad for black, as the bishop on c8 is blocked, and they don't have any options to fight for the center because of a pawn on f4. White develops the pieces to the center, I like the h3 move, and Queen can go to h4 sometimes with f5-Bh6 ideas.
 

Check out our stream games in Rock'n'Rolling with white videos, where we have the best parts from the streams and the variation you ask is also there.
https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-white

Good luck!

Intuiton vs analysis

Much of this seems relevant to chess: https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/when-to-consult-your-intuition/

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Good article David, one has to really get down and think about it. And maybe read twice....

MacCutcheon Gambit

Hi Chessmood family, I really like offbeat ideas, but do you really trust the 'MacCutcheon Gambit'? The videos lack further guidance... 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bxf6 Qxf6 6. exd5 Bb4 For example 7. Bb5+ c6 8. dxc6 bxc6 9. Be2 O-O 10. Nf3 c5 11. O-O cxd4 12. Qxd4 Bxc3 13. bxc3 Ba6 14. Bd3 Qxd4 15. Nxd4 Bxd3 16. cxd3 *

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The Blackmood openings are for weaker players, so it's less likely a long sequence will occur and if it does (because it was parroted) the player is less likely to make as much of it. When the advanced versions of these are released, then it will be needed to be looked at in more detail, and possibly some changes to suggested lines made if there are clear downsides.

Simplified White Opening PGN error

Getting an error when I try and upload the pgn for simplified chess mood Pirc and Modern defense pgn. Anyone else run into this?

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Hi Brendan!!
This is due to Lichess interface because it does not support the introduction of null moves.

With Chessbase there is no problem to open the file.

The only thing that you can do is to delete the part with null move(s) and then upload it again.😀

opening .rar files

Would someone be able to let me know how to open the .rar files? I'm finding difficulty doing so. Thank you in advance

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They are compressed files, you can use the free software 7-zip to “unrar” them among others.

https://www.7-zip.org/

This one is free and works with all of the compressed files.

Sorry for this, next time I will tell the team to upload zip files instead.😅 

Question about the blackmood French?

How do we continue after e4 e6 nf3 d5 exd5 exd5 Nc3? I don't remember from the course. Is it just an exchange variation? I find it vary hard to get the setup with bishop d6 long castle because they will just take my d5 pawn. Thanks for your time and answers.

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Hi Chiller I'm no expert but by trying to answer I might learn what to do as well :-) Nc3 isn't covered in the summarised course but hopefully will be dealt with in a future advanced course. I guess for now it's one of those lines we have to learn on our own - it's part of our growth journey! White's Nc3 does cross our standard plan so we have to adapt to the changed circumstances. No one plan applies to all variations. We can 1) push the pawn 2) defend it with c6 3) defend with Nf6 4) develop with Nc6. Option 1) looks premature and weakening. But it is difficult to see a concrete line that gives white a big advantage. White can play 5. Nb5 but we can play Nc6. I think 5. Ne4 is more challenging. We have to be careful to develop rapidly and be wary of our d4 pawn becoming a weakness. Option 2) 4. ... c6 solidifies our pawn centre but stops our knight going to c6 and limits our light squared bishop. After 5 d4 Bd6 we get a similar set up to our plan. We have compromised the pawn cover if we castle long and because the knight can't go to c6 our position becomes congested. Nevertheless this is playable. Option 3) 4. ... Nf6 simply develops the pieces and castle kingside and just play chess. Black equalises, but it doesn't look too exciting. Option 4) 4. ... Nc6 again this simply develops, we follow up with Bg4 then react to what white plays. For example 5. d4 Bg4 6. Bb5 Bg4 7 h3 Bh5 8. g4 Bg6 9. Ne5 Ne7 (Bacrot- Jumabayev 2019) I'm sure there are other options so hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me may give you better suggestions. You need to look at the alternatives and come to the conclusion as to what you want to play. Try it in future games and see how you get on with it. Good luck.

Hi Chiller,

While Norbert provided a great reply, I would just mention that my choice goes to setup with Nc6 - Nge7 - Bf5 or Bg4 and 0-0-0, however, it depends a lot on the concrete moves of the opponent.
 

Good luck!

The best games of October, 2022, and the prizes

Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions! 
Welcome to the "Best games of October, 2022" competition.
Under this post, we invite you to post the best games that you will play this month. 

The Prize fund is 350K MoodCoins which is equal to 350$.  

The 1st prize  - 150K
The 2nd prize - 100K
The 3rd prize-  50K
The 4th prize- 30k
The 5th prize- 20k

Good luck with your games and keep the Right Mood! 
#ChessMood
#Right Mood - Right Move 

P. S.
Here are the winners of September, 2022:

Mogens Nielsen
Marcus F.
Jay Garrison
Wenstin
Paulius the Witcher
 

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Antisicilian attack

The advantage of development

My first ever entry in this "best games" series ?: https://www.chess.com/game/live/58525762539 A Sicilian hedgehog with an exchange sacrifice on c3

Playing against the opponents pieces https://www.chess.com/live/game/58533641393

https://lichess.org/Uc0ey6w9/white#163

What a beautiful mate! https://lichess.org/qQygffzS/white

Nice Game! https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/4NUca1NHdg

SLP mode .. after Nc6 giveaway?! https://www.chess.com/game/live/58750800335

Anti Caro-Kann :) https://www.chess.com/game/live/58818057717

Flying Dutchman:-p https://www.chess.com/live/game/58803097011

Simplicity:-p https://www.chess.com/live/game/58802358863

Flying Dutchman part 2 https://www.chess.com/live/game/58793939241

French fries:-p https://www.chess.com/live/game/58715446871

Conan the "chess"barbarian:-p https://www.chess.com/live/game/13949524637

https://www.chess.com/game/live/58812689649

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/58873787827?tab=review Reminding me of the first game of Alekhine's Hundred Games book (Alekhine was black, and it was a Ruy Lopez)

Never give up:-) https://lichess.org/v8cA9uTxod5e

A nice win in anti-sicilian (Rapid) https://lichess.org/JlYCUQr4ELFE

Dutch Attack with b6, Bb7 + Ne4 and Rf6, Rh6, Qe8 Qh5 path .. finished with Nd2 and Qxh3 setting up B+R Opera mate! https://www.chess.com/game/live/58927198735

Complete turnaround and then a crazy queen sacrifice! https://www.chess.com/game/live/58387316309

cool attacking game https://lichess.org/bjwRCgPx/black#0

Hi there Chessmood people, I played my second ever OTB game at the local chess club, which counts for national ELO. It is also the first game I played as white and the first game I prepared for by studying the WhiteMood openings. This is how it went: https://lichess.org/study/0BwgjyCd Studying these lines gave me the practical advantage straight out of the opening and even though the endgame work was a bit sloppy, we got the win in the end. Luckily there are endgame courses as well, right. ? Benn

A very nice win !! ( Rapid ) https://lichess.org/RLtnrBVLOuw1

beautiful attack and mate! https://lichess.org/Ljp0L2gx/white#42

Like to add this game which is played against the Latvian Gambit. Followed the Chessmood lines and got a easy win :-) https://lichess.org/NZ0vTYmm

A nice win!! in scotch game (rapid) https://lichess.org/3xeGTHtVjW4W

https://www.chess.com/game/live/59479231209

https://www.chess.com/live/game/59502098775 I had faster checkmate but its still nice combination:-)

Really very nice win !! https://lichess.org/a9kMuCEcc2qF

A good win !! against FM in simul-custom position https://lichess.org/sPhC6qPJ5TLb

Fast funny blitz game https://www.chess.com/live/game/59683250095

Nice tactics and mating pattern! https://lichess.org/ktHnMIx08emo

Only 20 moves to defeat 2400 in Rapid with ideal development! https://lichess.org/rOpfnyiF/white#24

17 moves mate using the Whitemood opening course, antiSicilian Thanks Avetik! https://lichess.org/qT6M6PXytssF

SLP as per Avetik's stream yesterday. Draw if opponent was careful...he wasn't. https://lichess.org/PxhQbXFkf0Fm

Grand Prix - remembering ideas from model game (Rublevsky) helps https://www.chess.com/game/live/60450010077 Passini attack in action https://www.chess.com/game/live/60109860577 strange grand prix https://www.chess.com/game/live/59932209581 https://www.chess.com/game/live/59932776407 benko Nf3 b4 https://www.chess.com/game/live/59934104977

I just watched GM Vishnu interview and I was very impressed. And I played this game. https://lichess.org/n3vdEbvx/black#0

Clean Game! https://www.chess.com/game/live/60024566785

French Advanced with double pawn in b-file. Nice and easy game by attaching the d4 pawn. Thx Coach for the line. https://lichess.org/Szk6vDVr/black

slow game https://www.chess.com/game/live/60102677743

Saving Lost Positions (SLP) is important. Opponents usually relax when they win the Queen, which is a mistake. Here they lost the game because they were so far ahead then made mistakes. 20 moves. https://lichess.org/2Nfp0TCx/black#42

One miniature game :-) https://new.chess24.com/game?id=a5d49bb343b7

https://lichess.org/XcY7hvDN/white#31 Queen sacrifice mate!

https://new.chess24.com/game?id=99aceb4854ba

https://new.chess24.com/game?id=2a6cb458429b

Attacking the king!

Today I played two different types of really great games. https://lichess.org/nR7gUBs3BdPF Opening was better version Rossolimo for white. I played really aggressive ,all the pieces working together and finally checkmated opponent! https://lichess.org/ogsGiKk8/black#0 This game was very positional, but It became complex endgame by my exchange sacrifice for the 3pawns. I successfully pushed 3 connected passed pawns with my pieces help, and won!

Attacking like a viking

I was white. [Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2022.10.07"] [Round "?"] [White "ramakanha"] [Black "JAISHRIKRISHNA123"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B13"] [WhiteElo "1902"] [BlackElo "1979"] [TimeControl "1800"] [EndTime "0:54:16 PDT"] [Termination "ramakanha won by checkmate"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 a6 7. a4 e6 8. Nd2 Bd6 9. Bxd6 Qxd6 10. Ngf3 O-O 11. O-O e5 12. dxe5 Nxe5 13. Nxe5 Qxe5 14. Nf3 Qh5 15. Nd4 Qg5 16. Qc1 Qh4 17. Qe3 Bd7 18. a5 Rae8 19. Qg3 Qxg3 20. hxg3 Re5 21. Rfe1 Rfe8 22. Kf1 h6 23. Rxe5 Rxe5 24. Re1 Ne4 25. Nf3 Re8 26. Re2 Nc5 27. Rxe8+ Bxe8 28. Bc2 Bb5+ 29. Ke1 Ba4 30. Kd2 Bxc2 31. Kxc2 Ne4 32. Kd3 Nxf2+ 33. Kd4 Kf8 34. b4 Ke7 35. Kxd5 g5 36. Kc5 Kd7 37. Kb6 Kc8 38. Ne5 f5 39. Nf7 Ne4 40. c4 Nxg3 41. Nd6+ Kb8 42. Nxb7 g4 43. c5 Ne4 44. c6 f4 45. b5 f3 46. gxf3 g3 47. fxe4 g2 48. c7+ Kc8 49. Nd6+ Kd7 50. c8=Q+ Kxd6 51. Qg4 g1=Q+ 52. Qxg1 axb5 53. a6 Ke5 54. a7 Kxe4 55. a8=Q+ Ke5 56. Qe8+ Kd5 57. Qd1+ Kc4 58. Qc6+ Kb4 59. Qb1+ Ka3 60. Qa8# 1-0

clean game https://www.chess.com/game/live/60536456585

This was a game played two weeks ago against 1900 lichess, (I am 1600 currently,), in which I was dead lost but managed to bounce back after a nice tactic. Hope you enjoy the game! https://lichess.org/vPwMTgvc#87

A new way to counter the London System. https://lichess.org/p9LjzZUJ0hHs

https://new.chess24.com/game?id=ed3b0f7fe262

Miniature of 14 moves... https://new.chess24.com/game?id=bce4a7c66e5a

Incredibly tactical game!! https://lichess.org/0CBVCi2P/white#35

I won coach Gabuzyan in Simul!! https://lichess.org/bEbUa33V/black#42

Sicilian https://lichess.org/AZKwVjUb/white#61

Alekhine Chessmood variation https://www.chess.com/live/game/60376204417

Dutch Stonewall https://www.chess.com/live/game/60358949763

Dutch, fun finish https://www.chess.com/live/game/60163209319

Dutch attack/reversed closed sicilian with nice king hunt https://www.chess.com/live/game/59766015003

Qxh5! https://www.chess.com/live/game/59673626659

Dutch attack https://www.chess.com/live/game/59068863767

Scotch https://www.chess.com/live/game/59045965003

Hello champions! 

How are you all doing today? 😊

Thank you for sharing your games! We enjoyed going through them and seeing you score some nice wins. Keep it up! 
 

Moving on to the prizes for the best games of October 2022 now:

The first prize goes to Mik B. 
What a nice game you played in the Duch attack: bringing all the pieces and then sacrificing a Queen to mate. Well done!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/58927198735
 

Andreas Sym takes the second prize. In the French exchange variation, you managed to create imbalances, create an attack and finish off the game beautifully. Great game!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/59502098775
 

The third prize goes to Giorgos Kechagias for beating the London System with a nice Kingside assault. The maneuver from Nb6 to Ng5 was very interesting! Good job!

https://lichess.org/p9LjzZUJ/black#43
 

Ovi Sacasan takes the fourth prize for the following miniature in the Sicilian Grand Prix Attack – clean and elegant! Congratulations!

https://lichess.org/qT6M6PXytssF
 

The fifth prize goes to Yuma Okabe for this fine attacking game in the Caro-Kann Defense. Well done!

https://lichess.org/Ljp0L2gx/white#53
 

Congratulations once again to everyone. Thanks for sharing your games. Keep the CoGro!

See you in the next month’s contest. Wish you all the best!

I just realized that GM Gabuzyan in his "Interactive lesson: The Games of Chessmood Champion" analyzed exactly those games. So I received the honor of having my own game commented by our coach. Just wanted to thank very much for this service and all the kind words about this game. It gives me motivation to try to get another game running in the competition. Marcus

Grivas Sicilian

Any thoughts on the reputation of the Grivas Sicilian for under 2300 FIDE? e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6 Could be an interesting alternative to the accelerated and maroczy.

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I don't know much about the Grivas Sicilian but if I was learning another Sicilian I would strongly consider the Classical. It's well thought of in terms of soundness but isn't as popular as the biggies like the Najdorf and Sveshnikov. Also, it can be played using either 2...Nc6 or 2...d6 which provides some nice flexibility. For example you might want to have the option of avoiding the Rossolimo. I guess the down side is that the Classical is more theoretical than the Grivas.

Why parroting chessable style shouldn't be the only method to learn

Interesting article: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2022/10/26/variable-mastery/ The summary is that by using multiple methods to reach the solution we're more likely to be more effective. (It's also known for a long while that if you have multiple ways of recalling something, if one of them fails you can use another approach.) Related to chess: learning opening lines (only) chessable style rather than also using other strategies to work out the move that is good or leads to known positions is a good idea. Ideas might be remembering the target position, reasons we play or don't play moves (elimination is important particularly if the move looks reasonable), to find some way of adding emotion to a particularly surprising move which we wouldn't choose, understanding why we would chose other moves before the one we want to remember, understanding the position, linking related positions links, experience (especially losses), the classics, different ways to attempt to train or recall the information, not getting hung up over remembering one line and neglecting the rest, different information sources,... It also suggests mixing up problems which I think is something ChessMood should do so the method isn't obvious. For example in Endgame Roadmap, the quiz seems to go in chapter order, so the first few puzzles are all about doing the same thing. Puzzles are easier when the theme is known, so it would be better mixed up so that you're having to work out what the idea is, not remembering roughly the order of material or it likely being a similar idea to the previous puzzle.

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I own a few Chessable opening courses, OK more than a few :-), but just use them as reference material. I don't use Chessable spaced repetition for trying to memorise openings at all. To me it felt too mechanical with not enough emphasis on understanding. I much prefer putting my entire opening repertoire into my own database files, with lots of different comments that are meaningful (and memorable) to me. I review the lines from time to time, particularly before a tournament or club game. And of course I use the ChessMood technique of reviewing the openings from blitz games at the end of an online session. I think it's helpful to sometimes review lines using a physical board too.