Chess forum by Grandmasters

Studying classical games - thought process

I have a question related to one of these phantastic games (great job u have done!).

It is game 16: Johner-Nimzowitsch. I "know" hat Nimzowitsch is said, that he was ahead of his time with his hyper modern chess school. But how does your chess brain work to move the queen first in front of your bishop and later to h7 finally? When styudying Alekhines games we learn (or I think that I have observed) that the queen, as being the strongest attacker, needs to be positioned actively and next to the enemies king.

Anyway, this scenario is appearing in my chess dreams where the black lady appears and whispers to me: Come on, honey, let's move to h7! And I wake up with sweat and cry: no, please, not to h7! Why should we go there? But the lady just smiles and does not answer my question …

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Anti-Sicilian Part 2 (2...Cc6) with ...g6

Hello Chessmood family, I'm keen to see games covering the capture with the b pawn i.e. e4 c5 Nc3 Nc6 Bb5 g6 Bxc6 bxc6?! with the possible continuation f4 Bg7 Nf3 Rb8 d3 d6 O-O e6 with the idea of Ne7 and O-O for Black. Are there any model games in this line? In the courses I've found plenty of model games with the dxc6 capture only. Thanks!

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There are many games played in the streams with similar structures, we will target the c4 pawn and also the a7 pawn can be a big weakness at the end. You can play b3, to stop c4 and play c4 when you can to fix c5 forever… You should not be affraid of this variation that gives you all the center, d6 and e6, still maybe in the best games from the streams we don't have them.

Check the Rock and Rolling with white section 4, Antisician Part 2. Plenty of games with similar variations, but Rb8 so soon is not normal.😀

https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-white

Starter Course - WhiteMood Openings Question

The 5th position on the quiz associated with Model game 1. Typical attack on the kingisde has me stumped.  I think the position shows up in the video at about 5:00.  I can’t figure out Blacks move.  Arrrgghhh!!

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This one seems to be broken. We should be playing the White pieces. And white is in a winning position. I also notice that the “hint" button doesn't do anything.

Looks like this has become a very challenging problem, because Black doesn't have any good moves in this position!

positional chess and middlegame roadmap

Dear Coach, I am thinking about subscribing to chessmood. I have heard of a lot of great things about chessmood. When will the “positional chess” and “middlegame roadmap” courses be posted on the website? And when will the advanced French and Dutch opening courses be posted on the website?  Thanks a lot,

Tony

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Dear Tony,

Thanks for your interest but we never provide any release date. We take a lot of time in selecting the best examples and this course is going to be very important. We always try to do our best and we expect to publish it this year, but we cannot say the date.All the courses that you mentioned should be released this year.
 

😄Also in the Classical Commented Games and the Daily lessons there are many, many positional tips and tactics explained all the time, check them out too. 💪
May the Chessmood Force be with You!😁

Which is better?

is blitz or rapid better (i play rapid only)

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Is football or cricket better?

Is rock music or rap music better?

Is a Chinese takeaway or Fish & Chips better?

That is to say, it's all a matter of personal preference.  Play what you enjoy playing.

Unless, of course, you mean which is better for your chess development.  In that case, I think the general consensus is that Rapid is preferable because it gives you more time to think about your moves.

There is an article in the Blog section of ChessMood where they discuss time controls:

https://chessmood.com/blog/what-chess-time-control-to-choose

I go with their suggestion of playing 5+3 as “a time control between blitz and rapid.” 

It’s a good read.

benoni gambit declined: 3. Nf3: what to play ?

Dear GM Gabuzyan, Dear CM team what to play after black reject the benko gambit by playing 3. Nf3 (transposing in an english) ? 

I Had a very bad game not knowing how to answer : https://lichess.org/1hICSlbo/black

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Hi Marius

This is Maroczy Bind course, Section 2, Maroczy with g3. The move is 8-, Qa5 in stead of your 8-,e5.

2 Questions in Caro kann

In the main lines, 12.Ne7 line after Ne5 Bf5 Bxf5 Nxf5 g4 Ne7 f4 what if black plays b5❓

And in the 7.Qb6 line after Qxb6 axb6 h3 Bh5 Na3 e6 Nb5 Kd7, here can you help me how to proceed in this position ❓🤔

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Can somebody help me?

Queen sacrifice

Hi all,

Just wanted to share that I had my first (deliberate!) queen sacrifice.  It's a weird feeling - but I'm sure that it was the right move.  Was I correct?

(No laughing at the inability to get a quick checkmate afterwards!  Clearly, once I've finished working on tactics I need to start working on checkmating!)

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/100870930817?tab=analysis&move=60

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Can you please say what move? I dont see any queen sacrifices in the game you provided.

Chess.com query re abandoning game

Hi there,

Is there any way to leave a game, without losing points, if you haven't played any moves (but, in this case, white has made their first move)?  I only ask because I was trying to arrange a game with a friend and got accidentally thrown into a random one that I didn't really want to play.

Cheers

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Yes, the term is to “abort”. Sometimes I've seen a button where before you make a move you can abort with no penalties. Also chesscom will sometimes autoabort you if you don't make the first move in time. 

Just be careful, because aborting excessively will likely get you flagged by chesscom's algorithms.

Sicilian Sidelines Course By Black.

Hello Champions!

Hopefully you saw my course in openings Sicilian Sidelines by Black and I would like to get some feedback from you. Now I am working on Najdorf by black, and I will take into a consideration your wishes. Please be honest, as it will be very useful for me and you at the same time) Thanks in advance!

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I don't play Sicilian. To much work for a lazy player in his best age.

I have my lion (black) against e4, and try my best to improve on my level.

But I have to say that I am impressed of your GMs work for amateurs like us. This is real quality. So thanks to you Hovhannes, and the rest of the chess mood-team.

Have a good Sunday. ?

I really enjoy your courses. The one improvement that would help me personally would be if you added some illustrative games to show the lines you are covering, to reinforce the lines and plans you are suggesting.

Thank you for all the hard work you are putting in to help us all improve in this amazing game!

Yes Jay is right. Example games you feel that are instructive for us using your lines would be perfect! 

I would love to see some games demonstrating your lines. That would help us understand how to approach the middlegame or endgame of a specific line. 

What would your recommendations be in the Najdorf?

I enjoy your course on Sicilian Sidelines ! Maybe you can add a chapter on King's Indian Attack : Fischer's favorite in his early age. Can you explain why you choose a system among others, the players to follow, and tell us what are the ideas in the middlegame ? Thanks.

Dear Maestro Gabuzyan, I love your course on the anti-Sicilian lines, but your choice of 2...d6 surprised me as this seems inconsistent with GM Avetik's Accelerated Dragon repertoire, which would involve playing 2 ...Nc6.  I understand from Maestro Avetik that this course is being re-recorded, or at least some lines of it. I would like to know which ones, so as to be able to learn the ones most consistent with GM Avetik's suggested repertoire, which he also plays in his streams. Not that I would not like to learn the Najdorf, but the fewer opening lines for me to learn at my level, the better. Concretely, I would like to know if the lines against the Alapin and the minor lines will remain the same, so I can at least start learning those. Oh, and please do add a recommendation against the Morra gambit, which is very popular at lower levels (and very annoying to meet imo).

I look forward to your reply.

Hi GM Gabuzyan,

First of all, I want to THANK YOU for everything you have done so far!!

Regarding your Sicilian-Sidelines course, please consider the following points:

1- Please add the pgn files

2- Please add a course on white tricky move orders. I have been trapped many times .. for example: when White develops his 2 knights and delays d4 ... 

3- Please consider that some players start with 2. - Cc6, instead of 2. - d6, and respectfully, it seems that your repertoire is more biased toward Najdorf. Just a few more variations and everything woulb be OK for both Najdorf and Accelerated Dragon players

4- There is a courses that I have studied lately:

Winning with the Closed Sicilian Sopiko Guramishvili - Chess24

In this courses you will find many tricky ways to punish Black players who start with d6 first, and by White tricky move orders, Black looses a tempo to move the d pawn again to d5. Sopiko explains why it's better not to move the d pawn to d6 early. We may better going for d5 in one move in some variations

5- There is a course @ Chessbase by GM Tiviakov: A nightmare for the Najdorf

There are tricky move orders to force Najdorf players to get out of their preparation. I think a detailed course on tricky move orders is needed, both for Accelerated Dragon and Najdorf players 

Those are the things that I can share with you to make the things better.

Dear GM Gabuzyan, what to play after black reject the benko gambit by pkaying 3. Nf3 (transposing in an english) ? 

I Had a very bad game not knowing how to answer : https://lichess.org/1hICSlbo/black

I am very, very tilt prone. Help me get to the root of why?

I think maybe I overdo things but I'm not actually sure how much is overdoing it.

My daily routine looks like this: 2-3 rapid games for fun then 1-2 30min games and 1 hour drilling tactics with a puzzles book and a physical chess set.

I also am not the best at self discipline and I play A LOT of casual blitz and bullet as well as simuls with my GM friend on twitch if he's live. I recently played in 3 simuls back to back and then joined in a blitz arena sheerly because I had free time on my hands in the evening. I get that this is probably a bit much but how much should I cut down on this? 1 blitz or bullet arena a week maybe? 

I'm getting better at handling tilt but I would rather just not have it set in and have to take breaks in the first place. I've managed lately to stop at 3 games instead of 13 when the tilt started but I'd like to break the cycle of just randomly getting ‘blunderitis’ out of nowhere.

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Hi Voran,

Have you checked out the Blog here at ChessMood?

There are lots of helpful articles, especially when it comes to your “Mood” (as well as technical stuff).

Try:

https://chessmood.com/blog/how-effectively-are-you-using-your-chess-time

and follow all of the suggested links.

I’m working my way through:

https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-get-better-at-chess

and following the suggested links at the bottom of the article.  This one has been a gold mine for me.

I’ve been trying to get into the habit of:

1) study, practice, fix …

       repeat

2) divorcing myself from worrying about my rating (after all, “your rating is a shadow of your skill at chess, improve and your rating will follow.”) and 

3) smiling after a defeat or blunder and trying to think: “Ok, my ChessMood friends tell me it’s now an opportunity to learn something. That’s a good thing. Let’s go analyze this mess!”

Easier said than done :/

Hope that made some sense.  Good luck!

Our GM friend Noel wrote a very good article about tilting, all is explained here.
You have a problem, you have an addiction, but you are the only one that can overcome it Voran and is is not so difficult with the right advice. Still you need to recognize that you are addicted, otherwise you'll do it again… 
Here is how:
https://nextlevelchess.blog/no-more-tilt/
💪Good luck and may the Chessmood Force be with You!😁 

Hi Voran . you said you play and then do tactic drill. Have you tried starting with tactics  first and then playing ? 

Maybe try solving those hard puzzles before playing games

Sicilian Part 1, Section 1: 8...Bg4?!

From this position, 9.f5 is recommended. However, I don't see any analysis following 9…gxf5 10.Qh4 Bxf3. My analysis goes 11.Rxf3 Ne5 12.Rxf5 d5 13.exd5 exd5 14.Bb3 Ng6 15.Qf2 (White is slightly better). Is a response mentioned anywhere? Thanks! 

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A variation in Petroff

Hello everyone, I was having a question about the Petroff Defense, in the following line. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.d4 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 and here 8.Re8!? is not covered in the course which is actually the main line played by 2 2750+ GMs

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If possible, can someone suggest me a plan on how to continue further? Thanks.

White is ahead in development and has a space advantage . Black could eventually play …d5 to equalise the space although White is still a little more active. In general White should try to keep pieces on the board to accent the space advantage. Black would benefit from exchanging pieces.

9.h3 (restrict light square bishop) Nc6 10.a3 (Stop … Nb4 harassing the bishop on d3)Bd7 11.Bf4 (Preparing d5 without allowing …Ne5) Bf8(opening the rook to support …Ne5 if White plays d5 alternatively 11….d5 12. Nb5 Rc8 13.Ne5 white is more active but nothing concrete yet) 12.d5 Ne5 13.Bb5 the light square bishops and one pair of knights will be exchanged so Black can breathe a bit more easily but White is still a bit better.

Gratitude

No questions right now, I've just been meaning to express my gratitude for the superb content and great delivery of all the courses on Chessmood.  I get up at 0430 most mornings, my available study time with young kids at home, looking forward to the next installment :-D  Great work team!  All the best for the year ahead..  Tom, New Zealand.

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Wow, Tom! 
There are a few sentences only in your message, but it speaks a lot about your heart. 

Thank you, my friend! 
It makes my day every time I see such messages and such people joining ChessMood. 
And it makes not only my day, but the team too. 

This message was copied and sent to our workplace at ChessMood, this is how I saw it. 

Thanks again! 
Looking forward to meeting you one day in New Zealand! 
I am a fan of your country, and All Blacks! 

New article: Wobble Your Way: Advance in Chess Without Knowing it All

When learning a new opening, there’s a mistake many players make.

They try to have the perfect preparation before playing a single game in that line.

And it holds them back.

Why does it happen? How do you fix it?

Learn more in today’s article ⬇️
https://chessmood.com/blog/wobbling

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Just going to go and not play chess until I've read every book in my chess library. LOL!

…and I thought I had preparation anxiety.
 

Your article is so well written and so timely! I am a professor that teaches accounting and taxes to students at a university. I tell them all the time to sit for the CPA -Certified Public Accountant exam in the USA which is the top accounting designation. I encourage them to invest in themselves after earning a Master's in Accounting degree. Only 1 or 2 out of 10 will do it and when they do they are suprised when they pass it! You do not need to know it all I tell them but you know more than you think you know. It will not be easy but with proper studying you can do it! Yes you will "wobble" but you can succeed! The biggest hurdle in most success is the first step! I further encourage them by telling them that nobody will ask you how many times did you take the CPA exam? The client just wants to know are you a CPA? I am so happy that I found Chessmood and am a part of this family. Keep up the great work! 

nice article!!

Hi Ave you are right !!!!! 

I'm a member of Chessmood and though I 'm  learning following the courses  just for a few months

I wobble less and less……..till flying  
Cheers

I know the Bishop Opening. I played it all 2019 but I played it with a gambit, the Urusov gambit. After 2.Bc4 mostly you will get the response 2….Nf6. Then 3.d3 and 4.Nf3 transpose to the Giuoco Piano Italian. But the gambit is 3.d4 right away. Here most amateurs are already out of the book and they will play 3….ed or Nxe4. In the first case 4.Nf3 attacking d4 but you also can take directly Qxd4 which will be met by 4…Nc6 attacking the Queen. Is a dubious gambit to play +2000 rated. Or in Nigel Shorts quote when he played the Budapest against Karpov, “is like the WC paper. A one time use.”

About leartning openings I try to memorize the minimum, just what I think is necessary to remember. My method is look for +2700 games and analyze them because these guys understand what they are playing very well so going over their games I think is the best way to “get a feeling” of the Opening in question.

Good luck with your wobbles ;)

Nice article! When are you releasing your book? I assure you I will buy it! I can't wait!

“Go wobble yourself. This was an awful article.”

;)

No, this was not an awful article.  I am so glad that i stumbled upon you folks … for a variety of reasons.

For starters, this article hit me right where it counts.  That fear of, i’m not sure what?  Failure?  Sure.  Not being perfect?  Sure.  It is a common refrain in your blog that the point is not elo points, but getting better at chess and enjoying the process of getting better at chess and being curious about the process of getting better at chess.

Which brings me to more general reasons why i am enjoying ChessMood so much: Not only is the content absolutely first rate (which i suppose is the main point, right? :), but there is a humanness here which is impossible to miss. You are not afraid to point out that some of the lessons we learn by learning more about chess are similar to lessons we learn when we are learning about life.  Yikes! That was a mouthful, but it’s true.  We are living in terrible times, i’m afraid, but eavesdropping on this little community has been nice.

I wish you all peace and kindness.

love The wobble concept, there is another concept that goes along with this called weeble wobble, you can look it up but it’s like you can get pushed down but always try to get back up

Top motivational article GM Grigoryan, sky is the limit!!

In italian we say “Barcollo, ma non mollo”, a sort of “I wobble, but I don't give up”, obviously with a different harmony of the words :)

I think this is the spirit.

You're experimenting with the bishop's opening as an alternative to the scotch? Ok, but what about the king's gambit? I think it is a very underrated opening and maybe it might be a nice alternative to the scotch. Of course, you are a GM and I'm only 1500, so you know much better than me, but I'm just wondering if you considered it. 

This article was amazing like all your articles, by the way!

Positional Chess Course

When is the release of positional chess course?

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Chessmood is currently working on many new courses in parallel and does not provide exact release dates, I guess we just have to be patient - let me refer you to another threat with a similar question, which was answered by chessmood odysseus, where he gives some more information and some tips in the meantime: https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/positional-chess-course

scotch and four knights

Would it be rather a waste of time learning four knights scotch alongside normal scotch? both seems fun, but would learning the four knights help on my scotch game?

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Hi Cate,

I saw this shortly after you posted it the other day but, as I'm a rank beginner, thought I'd leave it for somebody more experienced to answer.  As nobody else has picked it up I'll take a shot - if nothing else it might help get the post a little more attention ;-)

I'm still getting grips with the basic Scotch but if you have already done that then I would have thought that adding a little variety would be a good thing and help you to consider other avenues of play.  Not only that but I don't think that it would require a huge amount of extra effort.  A bold statement from a beginner, I know, but I'm basing that comment on a YouTube video that I watched the other day by GM Daniel Naroditsky.  He said that the basic Scotch was theoretical and complex whereas the Four Knights was much simpler.

So, give it a go 👍

EDIT: This was the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMY6Wr3niUg&list=PLxxZdPlLkH13Xb6-_naPi_vMy1C2lGqqH&index=2

Sometimes the best thing to do is not giving a f**k

Everything was going great. I had won 2 games in a row and than, finally, reached for the first time in my chess career 1400 elo on chess.com rapid. Than I lost the last planned game for that session, and got to 1391. "Doesn't matter", I thought, “Tomorrow, I'll strike back and get over 1400”.

Next day I felt good, confident for reaching 1400 elo. I clicked on play game and I was matched with a 1373. “Ok, let's get back to 1400”. I lost. “Mh, the next 2 games I'll recover my elo”. Lost both of them. Badly.

I outraged. My beautiful elo points vanished like nothing, as I went down to 1366 (and threw away a beautiful attacking position in the third game that day). I wanted it back, I was angry and frustrated, a progress of a month gone vanished in 2 days.

So I played another game. I Lost. And than another to recover from the loss. I Lost again. I was furious. In one day I had lost 5 games and went back to 1351. So I stopped for the session, realizing keep playing wasn't helping me at all.

For one week I quit chess. I couldn't play anymore, I was angry and I thought I was a terrible, horrible, incompetent, stupid player.

After a week, once my anger had calmed, I sat down to reflect. “Really?” I said to myself. “Are you really gonna quit after the commitment, the work you've done, the joy chess has brought to you?” I found encouragement in this quote: “if you have been to that elo, you deserve that elo” and in an article I came across here on chessmood, about focusing on growth, not on results.

So I started playing again. I lost the first game, but than won 2. Soon, I was in love with chess once again.

I'm now in the middle of a mindset shifting: detach from results, focus on growth. I can say I've changed my goals, and I've started studying just to become a better player, not to gain X elo or reach X elo. So I'm sure I'll get mad again, and scream about my elo points vanishing after some bad games. But from now, every moment I dedicate time to this beautiful game, I try to approach it a different way. Just a reminder for everyone, never give up and, sometimes, stop giving a f**k about your points - just focus on your growth.

Thank you all for reading, have a nice day.

P.S. I'll start doing weekly recap again next week!

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You really need to look at this comment which was posted by Chessmood Odysseus in another thread! what you experienced is called “tilting” (losing a game and then being emotional and trying to win the points back … and losing again. And again.  Please check out the the article that is linked here. Sounds like you picked up on the solution by yourself :)

"Our GM friend Noel wrote a very good article about tilting, all is explained here.
You have a problem, you have an addiction, but you are the only one that can overcome it Voran and is is not so difficult with the right advice. Still you need to recognize that you are addicted, otherwise you'll do it again… 
Here is how:
https://nextlevelchess.blog/no-more-tilt/
💪Good luck and may the Chessmood Force be with You!😁 "

I feel for you because I know how much effort you have put in.  Nobody likes losing but it's going to happen (to some more than others, believe me!) - so the important thing is how we react.  We have to embrace our inner Kelly Clarkson and think “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger” :)  I'm glad to hear that you've got your head back in the game again - well done.

Looking forward to reading the weekly recaps again.

That’s why I mainly play on lichess with all ratings turned off 😃

Thank you ChessMood team for the Tactic Ninja!

During the open access to courses to celebrate Avo's birthday, I watched lots of the various elements within the Tactic Ninja course and made some notes.  This morning I re-visited my notes on pins and on discovered checks, and then played a game …

I managed to get a double-pin on the opponent's king (one was the queen and the other was a pawn that I'm sure they were desperate to use to capture my rook).  I know, I know, this is commonplace for most of you but for me this is real progress!

I don't think that they were very happy about this - they had been taking their time to consider each move but after the double pin they became frustrated and started throwing pieces at me (the ones that they could anyway)!

To be fair, I'm sure that I wouldn't have been happy if it happened to me (and it probably will at some point!).  For today though, I'm happy.  Thank you ChessMood team :)

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If you're up for sharing the position so we can enjoy that tactic too, that'd be appreciated!

How to memorize the name of each squares?

how to memorize the squares? what is the best way, i am newbie and i find it hard to name every squares? To those who memorized the squares, how ? what did you do? can you help me 

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In chess.com there's a very good training for this: https://www.chess.com/vision

You can practice the coordinates there.

Dan