- Prioritize checks, captures, and threats in your calculations [2:30] - Avoid defensive moves without considering your own attacking options first [2:37] - Remember that your opponent's king in the center can be a vulnerability [2:46] - When under attack, still look for your tactical opportunities [3:13] - Make a list of forcing moves to find tactical ideas [7:07]
You are so direct, clear and concise in your analysis and coaching. It is so helpful! You truly stand out amongst chess UA-camrs, thank you and please keep the videos coming.
I’m a 68 yr old club player. I love your explanation of the position and the idea of checks/captures/etc! I will look at more of your content as I love this type of info! Thank you!
Thanks for the lesson , Irina Krush.... the mindset of an elite chess player is truly different.. It is truly nice that chess experts such as yourself take the time to explain strategies to a lot of simpletons like me.
Hi. Just discovered your channel in the past few weeks. Your content and presentation style really complements the other channels I watch. Thanks - looking forward to going through the back catalogue!
I never knew Irina did youtube! I learnt she had twitch last year from her commentating and speaking about it but she said she wasn't interested clearly she is now and I'm here for it!
I am glad to see the youtube videos from Irinia Krush. I enjoyed some of her lectures at St Louis chess club. This particular video features an interesting position and useful rules for how to calculate. I am trying to learn as an adult and I see lots of beginning players look only at ways to win material. The forcing moves give better alternatives.
That was a great example position for the point you are making. I would typically focus solely on Black’s threat on the h file. Your analysis was mind-opening.
This is a great video I'm ~1600 on lichess. Was able to spot all the options that led to dead ends and the tactical solution was mind boggling to realise. Love your work!
Nice video and great info. Thank you for speaking in a natural conversational voice and giving time to see and absorb what you are saying! Very helpful, will subscribe to your channel.
Lesson learned: look for counter attacks before defending. However, this video is more akin to game analysis than learning to calculate. I would argue that in all my years playing and learning chess I have never seen a proper video to teach players how to calculate. I don't mean some game analysis or theoretical line. I mean, at its core, what does it mean to calculate? What are the elements or characteristics involved in calculating? Maybe I'll have to publish my own book on this topic someday.
Great video Irina...You're a fabulous teacher and player!.. I have some of your other lessons on mp3, and I listen to them in the car over and over...I wish we were paired in the 2019 Berkeley Chess School blitz tournament, but it was great to see you there going over your games pre-tournament...
Thank you so much for showing a variation from a game of Smyslov's. It's incredible to me how relatively rare attention Smyslov's games have in the general Western chess playing consciousness, when so many of them, particularly in the earlier phase of his career, have these fantastic tactical complications and instructive ideas and plans. I suppose your chess education would have given you exposure to the Soviet philosophy of dynamism on the chessboard during this time. I have to wonder if at that time and place the chessboard was the one of if not the only outlet for creative vigor that also speaks the truth.
"Chess tactics are the foundation of everything else."---GM Huschenbeth You can say that again. Either you see them or you don't, and after all is said and done it's probably the main factor separating elite players from puny woodpushers. This skill in calculation is probably intuitive, since as legendary trainer Mark Dvoretsky said, most players reach a plateau from which they can never ascend to the heights of mastery no matter how much they study, practice or play. Despite this apparently natural limitation on excellence chess is still a fascinating game for even mediocre players as skilled handling of pieces in combination never fails to resonate with that quality of wonder in all of us. If chess magic be the food of admiration, play on, play on.
Irina-a very helpful lesson. I think you some of the best material. A subject that I find fascinating and somewhat related to the material in this video is compensation. I wonder if you ever cover this subject.
My thoughts were Nb5...Qd8, g4 (kicking the knight and closing the pawn structure on the kingside)...Nd4, Nbxd6 check winning the pawn. I can't see why sacking the rook for knight was necessary at the beginning as I can't calculate very deeply
I sometimes forget to think about the forcing moves first, often responding with a response to an attack. Some books simply focus on moving, blocking or capturing the attacking piece.
My first instinct was to play g4 but then I saw Nb5 and the Rxf5 and d6 is weak so that's where I stopped. Taking the knight first so that the d5 square is available, very nice!
Great upload, thx! Attack is the best defence. I'd look at this as defence. Bcoz you can defend by 1. Retreat. 2. Reinforce 3. Capture or 4 counter threat. Or possibly sacrifice/ignore the threat. Or 5 simply resign the game. Lol! No, but seriously I never look at checks, captures and threats. Simply bcoz I think it is boring. I think people should look at stuff like open lines, being worth a knight. Or the tactics of the greek gift wouldn't exist. Pins are worth a piece, at least temporarily. I personally base my entire thinking on: "Tactics flow from a superior position" and: "Development is key". Checks, captures and threats? I think people need to consider way more, and frankly other things than that.
If part of your decision making in a game of chess is based on whether you think something is boring or not, you're not going to get very far in chess. If there are certain types of moves you never look at, you are not going to get very far in chess.
I just discovered you channel, great video! could you make one on how to practice the ability to calculate and visualize? even by limiting my choices with candidate moves, I still have touble visalizing acurately a position a few moves deep and my great ideas end up going nowhere because of an oversight!
In a real OTB game , what would a reasonable amount of time to calculate be before committing to Rxf5? How much is intuition vs visualizing all the forcing lines mentioned ?
There really isn't such a thing as a reasonable amount of time that can be prescribed. There's just your ability vs the position, how much time is on your clock, and your best judgment about managing it. That comes with experience. As for intuition vs calculation, weak players have to calculate in positions where strong players know what to do automatically, but whatever your level your intuition has limits after which calculation becomes necessary if you want to play your best.
I think in this position there's no calculation that's going to show a pure win. I think this is one of those exchange sacrifices that you intuit is really strong because of future attacking potential.
@@bluefin.64 "weak players have to calculate in positions where strong players know what to do automatically" I think it is somewhat the other way around. Strong players calculate as much as they can. They don't guess. They don't rely on instincts. They don't make automatic moves. Those are things weaker players do. Of course, there are times that stronger players know what to do automatically, but that is because they have a vast store of chess patterns to rely on, and the calculation is very quick and automatic. In the position in the video, I would guess that strong players would immediately be attracted to Rxf5, but they wouldn't play it automatically (unless it was blitz or there was extreme time pressure). Before playing it, they would have calculated everything that Irina showed.
@@justsomeboyprobablydressed9579 "I think it is somewhat the other way around." The other way around: strong players have to calculate in positions where weak players know what to do automatically. LOL
Step 1: Look for checks, captures, and threats. Checks are easiest, then captures, and finally, threats. The problem is that risk averse players will overlook tactical captures when there is a perceived loss of material value because of ignorance about positional strengths and weaknesses.Threats often are nebulous and hard to see, especially after building up a mental fog of phantom moves, swirling doubts, and incomplete variations. I appreciate the main step but hoped to get ideas about how to consider candidate moves in some organized way which reduces the chance of overcast and partly cloudy thinking.
You have to look at the imbalances in the position. Irina explained about the Knight on e4, and open files for the rooks, she also explained that the Knight on f5 is a powerful piece. So now we have those in mind, what's next? We'll how do you utilise your pieces or defuse blacks pieces. Obviously you aren't looking at moves like a4, as that makes no sense, aids nothing so we have already established that we have at least narrowed down ideas. First move to consider is what if it is blacks turn to move again, what is it he is wanting to do? Is hxg3 actually a threat? Establish that. Do you have to defend that threat or ignore it? Looking at the position, every white piece is practically doing something, whereas what is the rook on b8 doing for black? Or Bishop on b7? I see the only good piece for black as the Knight on f5 don't you? If black manages hxg then the rook on h8 will be a good oiece too. Secondly, king safety, blacks King is in the centre and generally busting open the centre is good, especially with the Bishop pair. Rxf5 should become a candidate since based on this logic. That's then where the calculation comes in. It isn't simple to learn, it comes down to experience and many hours of game time. Look into books like the amateurs mind, or how to reassess your chess for a good explanation on how to read these imbalances and "actually understand the road map" to positions like this
Love your channel thank you, Irina! Found your videos after you won the American Cup (congrats 🎉) and you mentioned your UA-cam channel. Let me know if you ever want to collab!
Concise, logical and instructive. Rxf5 was actually my first candidate move there. I didn't see the Nd5-f6 idea however, but Rxf5 just felt almost obligatory. I also looked at Qg4, but that shows my lack of training in these types of positions because Qg4 isn't a check or a capture. I guess it sort of threatens Rxf5, but the move felt a bit diffuse and non-concrete. Great video, Irina! Thank you. What should black play after Qg4 do you think? Kf8 looks weird but may be right. Oof, maybe h3 is possible for black there. Or Ne5 might just outright win!
Instead of Rxf5 - more careful g4 actually leads to the same attacking route. The knight would leave, and white could continue with the same Kb5, and after Kxd6 whites go further to attack the f7 pawn....it seems to be not bad
Nice study, but I think the analysis is flawed. At 6:35, crafty says Black is actually better (-1.16), noting, for example, that after 1 ... Ne7! 2. Qh5+ Kg8 3. Bxe7 Bxe4! White cannot play 4. Bxd8 because of 4 ... Rxb1+ and mate next move. But at 5:49, instead of 1. Ndxf6+, crafty says that 1. Nexf6+ is better, so that now if for example 1 ... Kf7 2. Nh7 Ne7 3. Qh5+ Kg8 4. Nxe7+ Qxe7 5. Bxe7 Bxg2+ 6. Kxg2 Rxb1 7. Qg6! (threatening Nf6#) Rxh7 8. Qe8+ wins. So it's pretty complicated.
Everyone should learn to play chess like General Falkenhayn at the battle of Verdun in 1916. The purpose of warfare is relentless meatgrinder attrition to grind up your enemy's reserves and manpower. The best generals make the best mincing machine using firepower and maneuver to kill off the enemy at greater rate than his own casualties. Yes, chess is different but why not come up with chess formations that emphasize aggressive attacking defensive moves? After the chess player is taught a basic opening, say the hypopotamus defense then start playing "hungry hypo" by relentless continuous exchanges to tear apart your opponents army? Win, lose or draw the objective should be to protect your own king by aggressive defensive attacks to counter and wear down your opponent so he has nothing left to work with?
in this video i learned more than in my last 12 hours chess video consumpttion :D
Ayyyyyyyy
indeed
A nice, lesson, clearly and simply explained. This is my first time here and not the last.
Checks > Captures > Threats is so valuable for a beginner like myself. Thank you!
- Prioritize checks, captures, and threats in your calculations [2:30]
- Avoid defensive moves without considering your own attacking options first [2:37]
- Remember that your opponent's king in the center can be a vulnerability [2:46]
- When under attack, still look for your tactical opportunities [3:13]
- Make a list of forcing moves to find tactical ideas [7:07]
You are so direct, clear and concise in your analysis and coaching. It is so helpful! You truly stand out amongst chess UA-camrs, thank you and please keep the videos coming.
Thank you
I’m a 68 yr old club player. I love your explanation of the position and the idea of checks/captures/etc! I will look at more of your content as I love this type of info! Thank you!
played more than 100,000 games
and i still learned from this video
excellent, concise, high quality 🙏
I am really loving these tidbit lessons. As someone who does not have the time to watch long videos or streams etc these are a god send
thank you for reminding us about this basic tactic!!! it is so easy to let it slip away in the midst of an attack.
Every word you say worths so much. It's quite incredible.
Thanks for the lesson , Irina Krush.... the mindset of an elite chess player is truly different.. It is truly nice that chess experts such as yourself take the time to explain strategies to a lot of simpletons like me.
Well they hope to make money from these videos...
Hi. Just discovered your channel in the past few weeks. Your content and presentation style really complements the other channels I watch. Thanks - looking forward to going through the back catalogue!
Irina is an incredible educator and player
Another wonderful video!! SO happy to have found your channel! I had some profound insights analyzing the position here. Thank you, Irina!
I never knew Irina did youtube! I learnt she had twitch last year from her commentating and speaking about it but she said she wasn't interested clearly she is now and I'm here for it!
Wow! You give fantastic instructions!
I am glad to see the youtube videos from Irinia Krush. I enjoyed some of her lectures at St Louis chess club. This particular video features an interesting position and useful rules for how to calculate. I am trying to learn as an adult and I see lots of beginning players look only at ways to win material. The forcing moves give better alternatives.
This channel is set to explode in terms of popularity very soon. Much deserved^
That was a great example position for the point you are making. I would typically focus solely on Black’s threat on the h file. Your analysis was mind-opening.
You are one of the best chess teachers on UA-cam (along with Var Akobian)
I love this idea of looking at your opportunities instead of always defending and retreating, this is a principle I will abide to 😊
You give me what I need. Thank-you Irin.
Thank you very much Irina.
My favorite female GM! Finally, I found you here on UA-cam!
My favorite player ! I hope this channel becomes successful and we get lots of videos.
This is a great video I'm ~1600 on lichess. Was able to spot all the options that led to dead ends and the tactical solution was mind boggling to realise. Love your work!
Is lichees an app?
We all need a clear approach like this to face complex positions. You have anew subscriber
Thanks Irina for this substantive lesson! You got my sub. Looking forward to more helpful content. Much love❤️
Nice video and great info. Thank you for speaking in a natural conversational voice and giving time to see and absorb what you are saying! Very helpful, will subscribe to your channel.
Congratulations on winning. Amazing moves
Great video! Thanks for sharing!
Excellent example. Congrats on winning American Cup!
Lesson learned: look for counter attacks before defending. However, this video is more akin to game analysis than learning to calculate. I would argue that in all my years playing and learning chess I have never seen a proper video to teach players how to calculate. I don't mean some game analysis or theoretical line. I mean, at its core, what does it mean to calculate? What are the elements or characteristics involved in calculating? Maybe I'll have to publish my own book on this topic someday.
Thank you Irina, that was clear!
Great video Irina...You're a fabulous teacher and player!.. I have some of your other lessons on mp3, and I listen to them in the car over and over...I wish we were paired in the 2019 Berkeley Chess School blitz tournament, but it was great to see you there going over your games pre-tournament...
Great game and lecture.I first discovered chess during Kasparov vs the world in 99 when you were commenting on the game.
Thank you so much for showing a variation from a game of Smyslov's. It's incredible to me how relatively rare attention Smyslov's games have in the general Western chess playing consciousness, when so many of them, particularly in the earlier phase of his career, have these fantastic tactical complications and instructive ideas and plans. I suppose your chess education would have given you exposure to the Soviet philosophy of dynamism on the chessboard during this time. I have to wonder if at that time and place the chessboard was the one of if not the only outlet for creative vigor that also speaks the truth.
I still believe the board is for that purpose! Great to see such a thought still.
Delighted to have found Irinas channel
"Chess tactics are the foundation of everything else."---GM Huschenbeth
You can say that again. Either you see them or you don't, and after all is said and done it's probably the main factor separating elite players from puny woodpushers. This skill in calculation is probably intuitive, since as legendary trainer Mark Dvoretsky said, most players reach a plateau from which they can never ascend to the heights of mastery no matter how much they study, practice or play. Despite this apparently natural limitation on excellence chess is still a fascinating game for even mediocre players as skilled handling of pieces in combination never fails to resonate with that quality of wonder in all of us. If chess magic be the food of admiration, play on, play on.
Excellent lesson. I am up for more.
I think the problem is not seeing threats, captures, open files but the deep concrete calculation to the end, so you know it works.
Irina-a very helpful lesson. I think you some of the best material. A subject that I find fascinating and somewhat related to the material in this video is compensation. I wonder if you ever cover this subject.
Great content thank you very much, much love from Scotland
Very nice tactical attack and instructive video 😀
My thoughts were Nb5...Qd8, g4 (kicking the knight and closing the pawn structure on the kingside)...Nd4, Nbxd6 check winning the pawn.
I can't see why sacking the rook for knight was necessary at the beginning as I can't calculate very deeply
Your channel is great
Didn't realize you had a channel! Great stuff!! Thanks or posting
Very nice example.
Fantastic example. That was totally not obvious to me; I would have gone on the defensive and missed the aggressive response.
Very helpful as always, thank you
Very nice, thank you! 🙏👏👍🏽
Great analysis , nice
2yrs back to chess and I just now stumble across your channel? Why?????
I sometimes forget to think about the forcing moves first, often responding with a response to an attack. Some books simply focus on moving, blocking or capturing the attacking piece.
Great lesson thanks
Very clear explanation, thank you Irina :)
A really nice tutorial ! Thank you
Subscribed!
Wait, Irina Krush has a youtube channel? Niiiice!! Subscribing :)
Whoa Irina Krush has a YT channel?! Sign me the hell up 👏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾
My first instinct was to play g4 but then I saw Nb5 and the Rxf5 and d6 is weak so that's where I stopped. Taking the knight first so that the d5 square is available, very nice!
Actually, I don't think g4 would be a mistake. It permits to remove the black knight still with a rook attacking f7...
Good video 💪🏾
Very instructive
Great video! I subbed
At 6:18 doesn’t the knight at h7 hang. Why doesn’t black play Rxh7?
If Black plays Rxh7 then White takes Black's Queen (Bxd8).
Great upload, thx! Attack is the best defence. I'd look at this as defence. Bcoz you can defend by 1. Retreat. 2. Reinforce 3. Capture or 4 counter threat. Or possibly sacrifice/ignore the threat. Or 5 simply resign the game. Lol! No, but seriously I never look at checks, captures and threats. Simply bcoz I think it is boring. I think people should look at stuff like open lines, being worth a knight. Or the tactics of the greek gift wouldn't exist. Pins are worth a piece, at least temporarily. I personally base my entire thinking on: "Tactics flow from a superior position" and: "Development is key". Checks, captures and threats? I think people need to consider way more, and frankly other things than that.
If part of your decision making in a game of chess is based on whether you think something is boring or not, you're not going to get very far in chess. If there are certain types of moves you never look at, you are not going to get very far in chess.
I know how 2 answer.
Did you put this online for free? Thanks G!
How do we sign up to be your student?
Its a pleasure to find my crush on youtube. Nice lessons.
I just discovered you channel, great video! could you make one on how to practice the ability to calculate and visualize? even by limiting my choices with candidate moves, I still have touble visalizing acurately a position a few moves deep and my great ideas end up going nowhere because of an oversight!
I hv a doubt can someone clear it...should i look for checks captures and threats on every move for my opponent and also for the move i play???
In a real OTB game , what would a reasonable amount of time to calculate be before committing to Rxf5? How much is intuition vs visualizing all the forcing lines mentioned ?
There really isn't such a thing as a reasonable amount of time that can be prescribed. There's just your ability vs the position, how much time is on your clock, and your best judgment about managing it. That comes with experience. As for intuition vs calculation, weak players have to calculate in positions where strong players know what to do automatically, but whatever your level your intuition has limits after which calculation becomes necessary if you want to play your best.
I think in this position there's no calculation that's going to show a pure win. I think this is one of those exchange sacrifices that you intuit is really strong because of future attacking potential.
@@bluefin.64 "weak players have to calculate in positions where strong players know what to do automatically" I think it is somewhat the other way around. Strong players calculate as much as they can. They don't guess. They don't rely on instincts. They don't make automatic moves. Those are things weaker players do. Of course, there are times that stronger players know what to do automatically, but that is because they have a vast store of chess patterns to rely on, and the calculation is very quick and automatic. In the position in the video, I would guess that strong players would immediately be attracted to Rxf5, but they wouldn't play it automatically (unless it was blitz or there was extreme time pressure). Before playing it, they would have calculated everything that Irina showed.
@@justsomeboyprobablydressed9579 "I think it is somewhat the other way around."
The other way around: strong players have to calculate in positions where weak players know what to do automatically. LOL
@@bluefin.64 I think you should read my whole response.
Step 1: Look for checks, captures, and threats. Checks are easiest, then captures, and finally, threats.
The problem is that risk averse players will overlook tactical captures when there is a perceived loss of material value because of ignorance about positional strengths and weaknesses.Threats often are nebulous and hard to see, especially after building up a mental fog of phantom moves, swirling doubts, and incomplete variations.
I appreciate the main step but hoped to get ideas about how to consider candidate moves in some organized way which reduces the chance of overcast and partly cloudy thinking.
You have to look at the imbalances in the position. Irina explained about the Knight on e4, and open files for the rooks, she also explained that the Knight on f5 is a powerful piece.
So now we have those in mind, what's next? We'll how do you utilise your pieces or defuse blacks pieces. Obviously you aren't looking at moves like a4, as that makes no sense, aids nothing so we have already established that we have at least narrowed down ideas.
First move to consider is what if it is blacks turn to move again, what is it he is wanting to do? Is hxg3 actually a threat? Establish that.
Do you have to defend that threat or ignore it?
Looking at the position, every white piece is practically doing something, whereas what is the rook on b8 doing for black? Or Bishop on b7? I see the only good piece for black as the Knight on f5 don't you? If black manages hxg then the rook on h8 will be a good oiece too. Secondly, king safety, blacks King is in the centre and generally busting open the centre is good, especially with the Bishop pair. Rxf5 should become a candidate since based on this logic. That's then where the calculation comes in. It isn't simple to learn, it comes down to experience and many hours of game time.
Look into books like the amateurs mind, or how to reassess your chess for a good explanation on how to read these imbalances and "actually understand the road map" to positions like this
This title is hilarious! What's next? Spelling 1,2,3?
Subscribed Sensei!
Love your channel thank you, Irina! Found your videos after you won the American Cup (congrats 🎉) and you mentioned your UA-cam channel. Let me know if you ever want to collab!
calculation: checks, captures, and threats. I just played a couple games doing this before my move and its working!!!
Great lesson
Cool thank you great video!11❤
Concise, logical and instructive. Rxf5 was actually my first candidate move there. I didn't see the Nd5-f6 idea however, but Rxf5 just felt almost obligatory. I also looked at Qg4, but that shows my lack of training in these types of positions because Qg4 isn't a check or a capture. I guess it sort of threatens Rxf5, but the move felt a bit diffuse and non-concrete. Great video, Irina! Thank you.
What should black play after Qg4 do you think? Kf8 looks weird but may be right. Oof, maybe h3 is possible for black there. Or Ne5 might just outright win!
And if there is no attacking/counterattack move? Then we must defend I suppose!
Instead of Rxf5 - more careful g4 actually leads to the same attacking route. The knight would leave, and white could continue with the same Kb5, and after Kxd6 whites go further to attack the f7 pawn....it seems to be not bad
I too thought of g4 too. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all…
Nice study, but I think the analysis is flawed. At 6:35, crafty says Black is actually better (-1.16), noting, for example, that after 1 ... Ne7! 2. Qh5+ Kg8 3. Bxe7 Bxe4! White cannot play 4. Bxd8 because of 4 ... Rxb1+ and mate next move.
But at 5:49, instead of 1. Ndxf6+, crafty says that 1. Nexf6+ is better, so that now if for example 1 ... Kf7 2. Nh7 Ne7 3. Qh5+ Kg8 4. Nxe7+ Qxe7 5. Bxe7 Bxg2+ 6. Kxg2 Rxb1 7. Qg6! (threatening Nf6#) Rxh7 8. Qe8+ wins.
So it's pretty complicated.
Great video, thank you 👍
You are now my chess waifu
Everyone should learn to play chess like General Falkenhayn at the battle of Verdun in 1916. The purpose of warfare is relentless meatgrinder attrition to grind up your enemy's reserves and manpower. The best generals make the best mincing machine using firepower and maneuver to kill off the enemy at greater rate than his own casualties. Yes, chess is different but why not come up with chess formations that emphasize aggressive attacking defensive moves? After the chess player is taught a basic opening, say the hypopotamus defense then start playing "hungry hypo" by relentless continuous exchanges to tear apart your opponents army? Win, lose or draw the objective should be to protect your own king by aggressive defensive attacks to counter and wear down your opponent so he has nothing left to work with?
What about nb5 followed by g4, nd6?
after g4, black can counter-attack with a6...
you are a good coach
After Nh7 why not Rxh7. I can find it out, but there's no explination
audio balance?
Thanks🙏🙏🙏🙏
no way i stumbled on the channel of tye same Irina Krush who played against Kasparov with other GMs. legend❤
And lost
Thank you
Found your channel finally😮
Hi i am your big fan ❤
Your amazing
Mam, are you an international or grandmaster in chess?
To be honest , i don't know why i love irina this much how could i contact her to help me with my chess ?
Why am I seeing this page for my first time?
Very good