ChessMood
Grigoryan (Avetik)
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Notes


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Introduction / Admin"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  • I got free membership for the month of December 2023 (via an ECF promotion), well, until 23rd December, which gave me full access. I had a good look around and set up this ‘Book’ and its associated ‘Papers’ to record items of interest.
  • I spent quite some time on Tactics and Endgames – which I’m really enjoying and am learning a lot. I also set up an action plan appropriate to my level.
  • I also completed the ‘Openings Principles’ course and started on Openings for White. This is less enjoyable but critical for my development. It’ll require a lot of effort, but it’ll hopefully be worth it.
  • Full annual membership is extortionate ($588, ie. $49 / month - though the monthly-billed subscription is $59 / month, so I'd need to be sure to make good use of it).
  • I didn’t want to waste too much of my ‘chess’ time in December 2023 investigating – rather than using – ChessMood; just enough to help me to decide whether to pay for a subscription thereafter.
  • On 23rd December an email popped up saying that my trial had expired, but offering $200 off the annual membership (and implying that renewal would be at the same reduced rate). I’d been expecting this and decided to go for it. So, that’s $388 p.a. (£319, ie. £26.58 p.m. which is tolerable if I make use of it).
  • The ‘author’ is Armenian GM Avetik Grigoryan. See:-
    → Wikipedia: Avetik Grigoryan, and
    → Chessbase (India): "Right Mood = Right Move" says GM Avetik Grigoryan, founder of ChessMood


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Improvement Plans"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  1. There’s a page that helps you draw up a plan – using their courses, obviously:-
    → ChessMood: Chess Study Plans
  2. The plan for me is Elo 1500-2000, which is old ECF 107-173:-
    → ChessMood: Chess Study Plans for Advanced Players
  3. There’s a further plan for those over Elo 2000, but I doubt this will ever be relevant, given I’m now aged over 70 and have never been rated above ECF 158.
    → ChessMood: Chess Study Plans for Above 2000
  4. The relevant Plan had a number of useful-looking papers, which I’ve downloaded (and printed to pdf and paper). They are listed further down. Reading them ought to wait for now, with the exception of these four:-.
    1. ChessMood: How to get better at Chess
    2. ChessMood: The Bold unbold technique
    3. ChessMood: Chess Time Controls: Which is Best Suited to You?
    4. ChessMood: Analyzing Blitz Chess Games: Why? And How to Do it!
  5. Courses: Various ChessMood courses are recommended for people at my level. I will try to have a sniff at them this month. See the following ‘Papers’ for details:-
  6. As noted above, the relevant Plan had a number of useful-looking papers, which I’ve downloaded (and printed to pdf and paper). They are given below (including those listed above). Reading these extras ought to wait for now, but my current plan is to read and absorb them once my ‘free month’ expires, and only then consider taking out a subscription.
    1. Repeat: ChessMood: How to get better at Chess
    2. ChessMood: Grandmaster Guide to Learn and Improve chess tactics
    3. Repeat: ChessMood: The Bold unbold technique
    4. Repeat: ChessMood: Chess Time Controls: Which is Best Suited to You?
    5. ChessMood: Golden method to increase rating in chess
    6. Repeat: ChessMood: Analyzing Blitz Chess Games: Why? And How to Do it!
    7. ChessMood: Detachment
    8. ChessMood: Lasting love for chess
    9. ChessMood: If you want to achieve more you need to deserve more
    10. ChessMood: What is the but that is holding you back
    11. ChessMood: Legal cheating
  7. Some papers that came up in other reading:-
    1. ChessMood: Does bullet chess make you better
    2. ChessMood: When should you Change your opening repertoire
    3. ChessMood: Learn the right lessons from your mistakes
    4. ChessMood: The most effective way to create chess pgn files
    5. ChessMood: The Risks of Playing Chess When You Don't Want to


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: Tactics"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  1. ChessMood: Tactic Ninja
  2. ChessMood: Tactic Ninja - Quiz
    → I’ve been unable to solve the first puzzle!
  3. ChessMood: Mating Matador
    → This is really a follow-on course from ‘Tactics’ above, in that it presupposes its lessons have been assimilated.
  4. ChessMood: Blunderproof


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: Openings"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  1. ChessMood: Opening Principles
  2. ChessMood: Openings for White
    → All start with e4.
  3. ChessMood: Openings for Black
  4. ChessMood: Courses Group 6
    More advanced work. Focus on:-
    → ‘Step by Step Opening Repertoire for White’. All start with e4. And, …
    → ‘Step by Step Opening Repertoire for Black’.
  5. ChessMood: Courses Group 3
    → I couldn’t see much difference to the above list!


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: Middle Game"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  1. ChessMood: Courses Group 1
    → ‘Rating Booster’ section (courses not yet completed)
  2. ChessMood: Courses Group 7
    → ‘Middlegame Mastery’ section
  3. ChessMood: Analysed Classical Games
  4. ChessMood: Analysed Classical Attacking Games
  5. ChessMood: Courses Group 10
    → ‘In Grandmasters Mind’ section


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: End Game"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  1. ChessMood: Endgame Roadmap
  2. ChessMood: Endgames You Must-know
  3. ChessMood: Courses Group 9
    → ‘Engame Mastery’ section


"Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - General Reading"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  1. ’Must Reads’ for Chess Improvement (some are repeated from other aspects of the Courses):-
    1. Study:-
      1. ChessMood: Crossing the plateau and reaching 3000 on chess.com
      2. Repeat: ChessMood: Grandmaster Guide to Learn and Improve chess tactics
      3. ChessMood: How grandmasters memorize opening variations
      4. ChessMood: How to improve quality of your chess training
      5. ChessMood: The importance of having a training partner part 1
      6. ChessMood: How you can find the perfect training sparring partner part 2
      7. ChessMood: How to practice with your training sparring partner part 3
    2. Practice:-
      1. Repeat: ChessMood: Chess Time Controls: Which is Best Suited to You?
      2. Repeat: ChessMood: Golden method to increase rating in chess
      3. ChessMood: 5 crucial steps to stop bad results in chess
      4. ChessMood: Raise your chess rating by cutting your losses
      5. ChessMood: How to multiply good results in chess
      6. ChessMood: A secret weapon for handling tough positions and bad moods
    3. Fix:-
      1. Repeat: ChessMood: Analyzing Blitz Chess Games: Why? And How to Do it!
      2. ChessMood: Mistakes are not failures
      3. ChessMood: Learn the right lessons from your mistakes
    4. Mindset:-
      1. ChessMood: The must-learn skill to skyrocket your growth in chess
      2. Repeat: ChessMood: Detachment
      3. ChessMood: Ostrich syndrome
      4. ChessMood: To succeed at chess start with why
      5. ChessMood: The legal doping
      6. Repeat: ChessMood: Lasting love for chess
      7. Repeat: ChessMood: If you want to achieve more you need to deserve more
      8. Repeat: ChessMood: What is the but that is holding you back
      9. ChessMood: Be awesome
  2. ‘Recommendations’ for non-ChessMood material; either supplementary or should you not wish to take out a subscription:-
    → ChessMood: Recommendations
  3. Other Sites


"Studer (Noel) - Next Level Chess"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes



In-Page Footnotes ("Studer (Noel) - Next Level Chess")

Footnote 1: Footnote 2:
  • Every few months, a 30% discount is offered.
  • It’s usually around $300, so is occasionally $200.
Footnote 3:
  • The Right Analysis Process: If you want to do it right, analyze your games like this:
    1. Note important moments from your games and why you decided on certain moves
    2. Switch on the engine
    3. Play through your games and focus on big mistakes
    4. Understand why a move given by the Engine is so much better than yours
    5. Check why you decided on a move that turned out a big mistake
    6. Ask yourself how you can avoid that mistake in the future
  • This is obviously a simplified version, but I hope it helps.
  • If you want further guidance on learning the maximum from your own games, I have three ways to help you improve that process:
    1. Read my extended articles (step 1, step 2) on OTB classical game analysis
      → Next Level Chess: How To Analyze Your Own Chess Game: Part 1
      → Next Level Chess: How To Analyze Your Own Games: Part 2
    2. Read my article on analyzing quicker time control games
      → Next Level Chess: Blitz Analysis
    3. Get my Next Level Training course, with more than 1 hour of videos on how to analyze your games.


"Studer (Noel) - The Art of Chess Training"

Source: Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood


Notes
  • This book was something of a disappointment. It’s really a generic self-help book with a ‘chess’ label.
  • No-doubt useful to be reminded of various nostrums, but it tells you nothing specifically about how to improve as a chess-player (only that certain easy and pleasurable activities won’t work).

Author’s Introduction
  1. The Art of Chess Training
    • The average chess player is lost in a sea of possible courses, books and articles. They play some games, solve some tactics and go through the latest opening courses, without a clear goal or plan in mind. This can go well for quite some time. Just through exposure to chess they might pick up some ideas here and there and improve their game. The problem is: this doesn’t go well forever.
    • Inevitably, sooner or later, they hit a plateau. “It worked before, why am I stuck now?” many ask themselves. Not knowing how real chess study works, they continue the same way but can’t make any progress anymore. At this point they have a choice to make.
    • Either continuing the same approach, which often leads to frustration and a long stagnation period. Or change their approach and try to break through the plateau with a simple and consistent chess training routine. But the problem is: how does that routine look like? This eBook will explain you how effective chess study should look like.
    • Stagnation, frustration and chaotic chess training? It doesn’t have to be like that!
    • You, my dear reader, are capable of so much more than just a little improvement here and there. You don’t need to feel lost, fall for the marketing of the latest opening courses and play mindless blitz marathons.
    • By working with many amateur chess players, just like you, I realized that some simple tweeks to your chess routine can take your from an overwhelmed, disappointed chess lover to a motivated, ever growing chess player.
    • The reality is: chess improvement might be hard, but it doesn’t have to be complicated! If you know some of the tested improvement concepts, such as the pareto principle, and manage to create a suitable plan for yourself, chess improvement can become simple.
    • Nobody can put in the time and energy for you. But what I can do is to help you understand what really matters in chess training and thus outline the path for you. This is exactly what this eBook is meant to do. After reading it, you will know the ins and outs of chess training and what you have to do to improve your chess consistently.
    • You will know what intentional chess training looks like and be able to apply the same systems to become a better chess player every single day.
    • Not only will you know what you should do, but you will also learn how to improve your focus and get the most out of every minute you study chess.
  2. Who This Book Is For
    • This book is for every chess player wanting to take their improvement in their own hands.
    • Are you fed up of feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of training possibilities? Fed up of not knowing what you should do to get better? Instead you want to have a structured way to break through your plateau and beat your friends and competitors?
    • Then this book is perfect for you. By the end of it, you will be armed with all the concepts, strategies and resources you need to improve your chess consistently.
    • And the good news is: you don’t need to invest several hours every day in chess training to reach that. I’m not going to tell you chess improvement is going to be easy. That would be a lie. But if you manage to spend 30 Minutes every day studying and improving your chess, you will see notable differences in your games soon enough.
    • As long as you train the right things with good focus and the right way, you will improve.
  3. About Me
    • You may be wondering why a former professional player and Grandmaster should be able to help you improve your chess with limited time. Let me give you some background.
    • Back in my teenage days nobody considered me a big talent. The national Youth Coach of Switzerland once even told me “You can’t even calculate three moves ahead, how will you ever become a Master?”
    • The answer is: by training smart & hard. Not only did I become a Master, but I managed to beat the record for the youngest ever Swiss Grandmaster.
    • As I couldn’t rely on my natural talent, I had to come up with systems that helped me train smarter and better than everyone else. This got even more important when I had an accident and had a traumatic brain injury in 2017.
    • The injury meant I could not focus well for a prolonged period of time, making it even harder to improve my game. By expanding my knowledge and skills about structured chess training, I managed to overcome this injury and reach an all time high rating after that sad incident.
    • Having only limited time, just like my students and readers, meant that I had to get the most out of every single minute I was able to focus on chess training. All the things I learned helped me become a better Coach and author, as I can fully relate to the situation of an amateur chess improver.
    • In a way, my hardships, lacking talent and a brain injury, have become my teaching superpowers! As I had to work hard & smart all my life to win championships and become a Grandmaster, I developed strategies that not only helped me, but also thousands of students and readers.
    • This book is for you guys.
    • It is about and for all the chess improvers wanting to break through their barriers and reach their chess dreams.
    • Before we dive right into the strategies that allow you to improve your chess on a consistent basis, I want to show you what is truly possible if you follow the advice of this book.


Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025
  2. Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)


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