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I would just like to know how this "rating" system works. I don't know how it can apply to anybody who does not play competitively, (which means they do not have a job), and have a history of a population of games in competition. I don't even know where the competitions are or if there are any in Michigan. Doug
2:04 "White does not have to take here" (good point). So you put the white rook on e1 to guard your knight on e3. Why would black now take the knight? How about bishop f3? Play from there. I think I just beat you.
@@EarthSurferUSA White could play d5 and block the diagonal for the bishop instead of Re1. Although yes if white does play Re1 then Bf3 is very strong and you can just rook lift and be completely winning
So what I understood : 1. Don't head down to a strat and keep being open minded and adaptative 2. Always check for counter attacks instead of backing ("attack is the best defense" Anonymous) from another of your videos : 3. Trade for trade is a bad move, trade must be relevant in a way 4. Try adding the one more threat before performing your plan ("the straw that broke the camel's back" Anonymous) And I will add some more for beginners : 5. Rethink every good idea in case you would be missing a better one 6. Don't let you being intimidated by a menacing move, as your emotional will gain the upper hand over your intellect, stay focus and unaffected
Also very important, the attack doesn’t necessarily be for checkmate, you can be be going for mate but end the attack with a piece up and thats fine, which is what I have learned from many grandmasters.
the puzzle solution is one of the typical themes of backrank puzzles, first you give a check with the queen to push the king to A1, then you sac the queen and mate with the lined up rook.
That first example is such a good teaching experience. I obviously found that checkmate and wanted to make it happen. I looked at other options - but just removing that knight with my knight seemed so easy. I thought I was being smart, but I walked right into your trap.
This video was actually really useful to realize a weakness in my games. I tend to fixate on the first idea that catches my fancy, and try to force it through, rather than subordinating my thought process to the objective requirements of the position. This is, as he mentions in the video, largely a question of mindset. Possibly, I've reinforced my own lazy approach through pretty much only playing blitz for the last number of years. I'm actually already basically a 2000 player (peak 2384 online) and I feel just shifting my mindset like he says can help me to get much stronger. Thanks for this video!
Yes, sometimes you're just one piece/move away from making something work... but it's something that can't work without that extra move piece... and trying to chase the situation only makes your own position worse as you lose focus on what the opponent is doing. The real challenge is to look at the whole board all of the time.
@@Malt454 yeah, kind of what I was trying to get at, but I'm not the best with words. Looking at the whole board is certainly a challenge for me, not simply because I can't see the whole board, but more because I've become too accustomed to the easily attainable (i.e., the first idea that strikes the fancy). Perhaps if I had played slow games when I was young, this would not be as true (I never got to play otb growing up), as I would be forced to think things through more carefully. At the same time, I still consider blitz to be useful for reinforcing patterns
Really good teacher. I have seen some of nakamura's videos and carlsen's videos but they are talking like the all of their viewers are GMs. Igor really understands how beginners would play such positions and he is really trying to make all of us understand what is going on
Qf7+, Kh8, Qf8+, Rxf8, Rf8# Great video! Good pointers on looking for forcing moves and pressing forward despite the opponent's pressure on your attacking pieces
Yes, the method of looking methodically for checks works well. 2 are suicidal but the third leads to back row mate in 3 moves. Also the power of occupying the 7th rank with rooks or in this case the queen.
The first game is good as the bishop and queen threat looks obvious. But with a good move look for a better The simple rook and bishop of the right colour works The first runs onto sand
I just got my fide rating having completed my second ever tournament. Landed on 1646 which is decent but I strive much higher. This is the first time ever seeing your videos and I am tomorrow buying your course. You have an excellent way of teaching which is far, far, far from other people I've seen. Looking forward to it!
Qf7+ ..grateful to see this .. Using a daily combination tester has allowed me to learn just how blind I am in chess sense. Consistent weakness in lateral vision of the board .. failing to use in-between moves .. not able to see deflecting a defender .. using interference ..etc .. I'm and elder now ,, and wished that I had these tools when I was young about 55 years ago. I briefly looked at Rg3 and discarded it because I was sooo hungry to checkmate on either b7 or a8. Blind blind blind.
► Chapters 00:00 2 Ideas to Double Your Chess Rating 00:26 Stuck at 1400-1800 Rating? How to progress? 01:04 Pursuing an idea and wishing it works 03:21 1) How to go forward & attack the opponent 04:15 2) Golden Rule of Attack in Chess 05:39 Example-2 08:00 Secret to reach 2000 chess rating 10:02 Can you find the winning move?
Daily puzzle: Queen f7 check to king king goes to h8 queen to f8 blacks rook takes queen and whites rook on f1 takes blacks rook checkmate. A pretty simple one :)
Think in terms of what attacking option you have. Constantly reevaluate which one works best. The golden rule of the attack says that the attacker should outnumber the defender. A key guideline idea: ask how do I go forward and attack something. If possible, you do want to go in the opponent's half of the board, to potentially cause the most damage. Keep your pieces engaged. Keep attacking. Strong and simple moves. Find the tactic.
I indeed would try to make Nf5 work… after the video I immediately lunched a chess site and played one of the best games of my life! Magic. Thank you so much for sharing this
Love your videos! For me, Chess is a hobby. My top ELO rating plateaued around ~1650. At some point a chess player has to make a decision on how much time they want to devote to the game. I don't think most casual players will approach 2000 ELO without serious study and a large time commitment to the game to study various lines, etc. It's perfectly find to be a casual player of chess and end up with an ELO between 1200-1800. If you do get up near ~1800 ELO, you will be able to beat most other casual players of chess. But getting to 2000 or higher is going to take a serious time commitment in learning opening lines, endgame theory, etc. -- that is time you would have to pull away from other things. Just keep that in mind if you play chess and feel frustrated. Its perfectly fine to end up in the casual player's ELO range and never get higher -- some people just don't have the time investment necessary to break through to higher ELO ranges. I remember a long time ago when I was in high school playing football and asked my coach how I could get better. My coach said, "run faster, anticipate further ahead, but most importantly, practice!" -- Sometimes you just can't run any faster or look further ahead until you spend a lot of time practicing to either increase your core strength or train your mind to see patterns and outcomes much further down the road that it currently can see. That's a lot like chess -- eventually the way you see the game just fundamentally changes and you punch through to a higher ELO range. I will never give an IM or GM a challenging game but I have played IMs and GMs that were nice enough to ask me, "Why did you just do that?" when I made a blunder, etc. Every move you make in a game of chess could be a decent move and yet you will still lose. That doesn't mean you played poorly, just that the other person played much stronger than you. If I could give one piece of advice to lower ranked ELO players, I would say to play online games via chess.com or other sites such that you can play an entire game without making a blunder move. Just try to play consistently without making a blunder and your chess game ELO ranking should move to somewhere between 1450-1800 ELO. Once you get up near 1800 ELO and can play consistently, in order to get to the next higher range of 1850-2200 ELO, you will need to practice, practice and practice more and be able to visualize the patterns much further out.
@@jamesmontella6245 This is exactly where I ended up. I made the decision that I just didn't have the time to invest to punch through to a higher ELO (even if that was possible at my age). If there is one consistent thing that all great players share, it is the fact that they were introduced to chess as a very early age. I was introduced to chess around 9/10 years of age. One of my best friends who is around 400-500 ELO points higher than me started playing chess around the age of 4/5. I honestly think his brain was molded at an earlier age to more quickly see patterns in chess where I'd have to work extremely hard and long at it just to get near his strength.
I dont think you need openings for 2k. I hovered between 1900 and 2k sometime and all I did was tactics. I think you can easily get 2300 with serious tactical practice.
@@ilikecommenting6849 agree chess is 99% tactics and little bit of basic endgame can help u reach 2000 but above that it is necessary to know opening atleast around 2200+ is must otherwise it will be difficult to see everything over the board more prepared more Better but this is those players who are well versed in all stages of game
The challenge I have is that I lack patience. I play a lot of correspondence chess and I often feel like I have to make all my moves almost like I’m clearing my inbox of emails. So instead of thinking about my opponents plan, engaging more of my pieces, or looking for better attacking chances / ideas, I find myself stuck in losing positions and onlyTHEN do I really start to think critically but by then it’s too late ! Chess is a wonderful teacher of patience focus and discipline in mindset
2 роки тому+11
Your methods and ideas mean a lot to me. I never think out of the box. I limit myself with one fixed idea and I want to make it happen instead of trying to find other idea because clearly I can not hope my opponent will make a mistake. This is a great video and thanks.
I'm thinking Queen f7 check, king moves and then you back rank mate him after sacking the queen on f8. On the first puzzle I thought of the same first moves, but with a different reason. If you have a good, but insufficient attack, adding more attackers usually opens something up. Great video as always.
@@geoffrey955 And when the rook captures the queen on F8, you recapture with your rook and it's mate because the king is in the corner and can't go anywhere.
That was quite helpful, thanks. Yes, Ben Finegold also said amateurs lose because they're focused on one thing, one area of the board. They are involved in "wishful thinking". Only after you busted the N moves in the first problem, was I able to consider Rb6! Also, yes, aggression counts for a lot, but at the same time, as you said, a successful attack should involve more attackers than defenders. Oh, and the answer to the quiz is simple mate in 3 starting with Qf7+.
Brilliant video, as always! For the 2nd example @7:06, I was thinking: Pawn to b4, forking black's 2 knights. Then black captures on e5, recapture with queen on e5, finally black retreats one of his knights and I capture the other with my b4 pawn. Similar result but with an extra piece?
The move I found didn't involve the rook at all, it was BishopF3, essentially pinning down the F file pawn. I believe that forces mate in 2 moves, Can anyone say that Bishop F3 ISN'T as strong as moving the rook? I'm no GM but I can play. I tell players in the 1500 range: Just because you CAN take a piece of equal value, doesn't mean you SHOULD. More often than not, it's better not to trade for pieces of equal value.
Qf7+, Kh8, Qf8+, Rf8, Rf8#… I think that’s how the notation looks, can’t remember if there is a symbol for “takes”. I should definitely learn more. In the flow of this video, I started off thinking Nf5, and you showed how amateur that was. Then I found Rg6 just as you were mentioning it. Then on the next one, I saw Rd8 pretty immediately. I had considered the pawn push on f right before that, so I figure I was in the right mindset. Solved the last puzzle easily. I’m pretty sure because listening to you put me in the right mindset. I need to default to that. I’m definitely a tactics guy, I struggle with memorizing lines because they look so similar, but I’m alright at creating strange positions and remembering fundamental rules for playing. I’ve never taken learning seriously, I’ve played thousands upon thousands of bullet games on Lichess, hoping to fill my onion with as many variations as possible so that when I go to learn, nothing is really a surprise to me. Thanks for sharing and testing us. Maybe I’ll choose to focus on this some. I started chess in my 20s because an arrogant friend of mine kept tormenting me. I started just playing against a computer until I could make sense of things. Now, I beat him pretty effortlessly and he hates my guts for it. “Grown-ups”😂.
I wanted to let you Know that these simple concepts have already improved my play. Thank you so much for sharing these simple but impactful ideas to help me improve my chess game.
My personal trick in chess is to think what my opponent could reply after the move I'm thinking of, or if the move somehow forces him/her to make a specific move ( for example, attacking his king with a queen or a horse .. )
My first idea was rook b6 and swinging it over to h6 but I did not even notice the sacrifice that was awesome. Good advice sometimes we always tunnel vision on a plan even if it's not meant to be
Your videos are by far the best I have ever watched to learn chess, I have progressed so much in a short amount of time. Keep up the amazing work and thank you ;)
I’m 500 Elo, but I’ve realized that I end up losing most of the games I get tunnel vision for a specific sequence of moves. The best games I’ve played is where I focus on strong moves that are protected and then focus on checkmate when it opens up naturally
You can improve massively not being mean 99% of 500 will blunder learn one main opening and you can easily get to 1000:) I taught myself just through playing, started 3 years ago from never playing chess and I’ve reached 1500 rapid good luck to you:)
Final puzzle looks to me (as a chess noob) : W: Queen to f7 defended by the rook on f1 B: King has to move to h8 W: Queen to f8, still defended by f1 rook B: Can only take the queen with rook h1 to f8 W: Rook f1 takes rook on f8 B: is checkmated
Ohhh so cool i found the rook d8 move for exactly those reasons... this is a really great way of looking at chess. Thinking of the possible attacks instead of trying to just control squares and tunnel vision into one idea. Pretty cool stuff!
I have noticed that when I do puzzles, I see a certain idea and stare at it. However, some of the times, I have to give up on it to find another parallel idea that readily works. That is value of doing puzzles (besides just the obvious working on a tactic). Puzzles teaches you that you have to be open to consider many things and to give up on lines that just lack the full setup. LOL
Yes, actually chess is not that difficult, you just need someone to tell you how to do it "right"! Thank you very much Mr. Smirnov. Solution: Qf7+ Kh8, Qf8! Rf8, Rf8#
Facing a definitive, imminent threat? You have 3 things you can do: ignore it, shore things up to protect against it, or use offense to thwart your opponent's initiative. Okay...you can also resign on the spot too. Let's agree to set that aside. There will be times you must hunker down and go purely defensive to deal with the threat. And there will be times you can ignore the threat because it's too slow given an initiative of your own that's underway. But most threats can be parried by a counterpunch. Sometimes that counterpunch doesn't have to be significant..a simple bit of complication will do the trick. Training oneself to default toward making a counterpunching/complicating move after an opponent's threat is a best-practice skill to have. It does require a decent level of complete-game competency (not mastery...just basic competencies) though to do it right. But the first thing to work toward is building up familiarity with using the approach in live games. By definition, that means (being the lesser-developed player that you are) accepting that you will take a bunch of losses in your quest to develop this skill. There are no scenarios in which you avoid making a mess of games while learning this new skill. If you can't find the courage to do this, you will have made the decision to forever limit your upside potential. The sooner you start losing games while actively trying to counterpunch, the sooner you will get to a point that it will start helping you win more games down the line. Some temporary pain for longterm gains is a winning formula. Every loss should be relished as they are necessary to legitimately bring that next rung within reach.
At the beginning I had originally gone through with the knight moves like igor said but before he mentioned it I saw that it didn't work as the white pieces could defend in several ways. Then before he mentioned the rook lift I saw that too but I did not see forced mate in 3. I just saw the queen and rook battery potential mate which could also be defended against so I think a big problem with my way of thinking is not so much that I think incorrectly but more so that I rush into trying to find the quickest solution possible without giving myself enough time to go through different moves. It took me like 2 minutes to find the knight move, to then moving on to the rook lift. In bullet games this is simply not possible, for me to expend so much time, I would lose. I think its a matter more of how fast you are at calculating. If I had maybe 3 more minutes I would maybe find the force mate. I think like everything else you first need to practice and then once you get good at it you can then practice on speed. For example if you showed me this puzzle when I started playing a year ago rated 500 I would've definitely have not seen any of the moves, but now that I am 1300 I can see the moves and I know why something works and why something else doesn't now instead of learning mate patterns and stuff like that since I already know them it would just be a matter of practicing my how fast I can calculate the best moveset. When I first started playing I watched Hikaru and I just couldn't all his premoves and arrows all over the place, I couldn't make sense of it during and sometimes even after the outcome, I just knew that he was good and that it looked cool. Now I can watch hikaru and understand even seemingly unimportant positional moves, but I sometimes have trouble of keeping up(again speed). I mean its literally everywhere, another example is my rubiks cube. To start you first got to learn the algorithms and memorize it. When I first solved the rubiks cube it probably took me like 20 minutes, now I can solve it in like 90 seconds. The people who solve it in under 5 seconds just practice and practice speed. Same with my typing I honestly was a senior in highschool only typing on 2 fingers, sometimes 3 and my max stats were like 45 wpm at 87% accuracy ( and I had to look at the board). I decided to start using all of my fingers and when I started I was at 20 wpm, not trying to be fast but just trying to get that muscle memory. I got to 50 wpm but I couldn't break it because I had to look down at my keyboard constantly so then I tried typing again but without looking at the board ( mostly ) and my wpm dropped to like 45 but then after like a week I consistently stayed at 60+ wpm with 95% accuracy. Now I can type without looking at the board up to 100 wpm although on average I type around 70 wpm... I think a lot of us have a problem in chess in moving up because we want to find the quickest solution and get blinded when by whatever the best looking move is when there could be something better, which turns into a dilemma since chess games are timed... I don't know but thats my thought process. I'm not even that good in chess, I was actually a week ago like rated 1000 and went up in like a day to 1250, previously to going into the actual games though I just kept on practicing the puzzles and I would try to do them as fast as possible, I would also never use hints unless I had to and tried to figure them out if I would get them wrong. And I would start to back into my analysis and just see positions where I had the upperhand and it turned around for me after a blunder etc, and I would try to find the best move before looking at the computer. I think that chess puzzles really help though as for almost a year I was stuck at 700 and just in march I got back did like 6 hours straight puzzles because I couldn't go to sleep,( i did not sleep that day at all). And I started playing once I was done, bullet games and consistently won until I got to 1100 in like 2 hours. Like right now I went to check on the trend for my rapid games and the line goes up a bit here and there and then just a week ago it says 1000 and then just shoots up to 1320 ( I did the same thing that day just puzzles ) I don't really know any openings either and aimchess says that I am better in all aspects of the game by a lot compared to players in my rating range excepts openings in which I am down bad. For example my time management is 82% compared to other players at 40% and similar stats for end games resourcefulness, etc. My openings are like 30% while everyone else is around 50%, it says that usually after the opening the computer says I am around 1.9 in favor of my opponent. Pretty interesting how all this stuff works
Last night I played in my usual style of persevering but was unable to mate. Here's the position after the moves1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de Ne4 4.Nf3 Bb4+5.Nbd2 c5 6.a3 Nxd2 7.Bxd2 Ba5 8.b4 Bb6 9.e3 o-o 10.Bd3 d6 11.Qc2 h6 12.ed Qxd6 13.Bc3 Nc6 14.b5 Nd4 15.exd4 Re8+16.Kf1 cd 17.Bb4 Qf6 18.Re1 Be6 19.h4 a6 20.Ng5 a5 21.Bd6 Qd8 I looked at 22. Bh7+ Kh8 then I thought 23.Bg8 threatening 24.Qh7 mate but he has 23...g6 trapping and winning my bishops. Over and over I tried to make it work but out of frustration gave up and played 22.c5 and eventually after 17 moves my opponent resigned. When I got home knowing I had something after all my whole army is aimed at his king I gave it to Fritz who solved it for me. After 22.Bh7+ Kh8 I should play 23.Rxe6! which threatens 24.Nf7 mate yes Black still has some resistance but the game is over. This morning after watching this video again I realised Igor second idea is to examine your attacking options instead of trying to persevere with one idea. After 23.Rxe6! Rf8 again I have 24. Bg8 and now after 24...g6 25.Rxg6 fxg6 26.Qxg6 Qd7 27. Be5+ wins so that's it don't screw up your head trying to push one idea but instead look at other ideas before giving up.
Just found your channel. Love the content. Been studying chess for over 10 years and struggling to get past a long running plateau. This was really informative. I want to become a 2000 elo ish player sooooo badly
I appreciated the video and the "spot-on" instruction although in the third example I would've just played b4 forking the two black knights, winning one of them. So; I am obviously not a grandmaster in my thinking yet.
Paused at 258. If white makes any other move and leaves the knight there, black takes the knight with their knight, if queen recaptures, I take the queen with the rook. It might be better to capture with the rook and the rook is covered by the knight. F side is better for blacks knight, he also attacks g3. If g2 plan fails, there is also play with blacks rook on the open b file.
I call this "Puzzle Syndrome" with my students - while you should look for the move you can sense is in the position, it isn't guaranteed to work all of the time - it's not a puzzle set up to just perfectly line up. Sometimes you have to abandon the plan A (queen and bishop mate) and look for the plan B (rook lift)
what I do is scan for unguarded pieces it took a long time to see before but now I can see it in just a glance. works most of the time queen check, king goes away, queen check then sac, then rook mate
One thing is to know I need to search for the most aggressive attacking moves, and another - to find the best attacking move. I couldn't find either of your best moves. In the real game, I would try to find the weakest piece and improve it. How do I find the best aggressive move?
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Brilliant game by Korobov!Thanks!
I would just like to know how this "rating" system works. I don't know how it can apply to anybody who does not play competitively, (which means they do not have a job), and have a history of a population of games in competition. I don't even know where the competitions are or if there are any in Michigan. Doug
2:04 "White does not have to take here" (good point). So you put the white rook on e1 to guard your knight on e3. Why would black now take the knight? How about bishop f3?
Play from there. I think I just beat you.
@@EarthSurferUSA White could play d5 and block the diagonal for the bishop instead of Re1. Although yes if white does play Re1 then Bf3 is very strong and you can just rook lift and be completely winning
Answer to the puzzle is Qf7+ Kh8 Qf8+ Rxf8 Rxf8#
I’ve never seen a GM more understanding of how beginners think than Igor. All of his content is excellent.
yes
This had better not be clickbait Igor. If I'm not 2000 Elo by tomorrow then I'm complaining. Only 1000 Elo to go 🤣 Puzzle answer: Qf7, Qf8, Rf8.
😂
The opposing side makes moves too ^^
@@LM-rs1co That's bullshit 🤣
@@LM-rs1co yeah.. like moving out of check!
😂
So what I understood :
1. Don't head down to a strat and keep being open minded and adaptative
2. Always check for counter attacks instead of backing ("attack is the best defense" Anonymous)
from another of your videos :
3. Trade for trade is a bad move, trade must be relevant in a way
4. Try adding the one more threat before performing your plan ("the straw that broke the camel's back" Anonymous)
And I will add some more for beginners :
5. Rethink every good idea in case you would be missing a better one
6. Don't let you being intimidated by a menacing move, as your emotional will gain the upper hand over your intellect, stay focus and unaffected
“trade is a mistake unless it improve your position” that helped me a lot
this helped so much excluding number 5 because ive noticed i keep losing on time 😭
@@zachasteriskplay longer games to be able to think
Also very important, the attack doesn’t necessarily be for checkmate, you can be be going for mate but end the attack with a piece up and thats fine, which is what I have learned from many grandmasters.
the puzzle solution is one of the typical themes of backrank puzzles, first you give a check with the queen to push the king to A1, then you sac the queen and mate with the lined up rook.
10:02 Winning sequence to the Puzzle:
.Qf7+ Kh8
Qf8+ Rxf8
Rxf8#
yeah thats it. Backrank mate with the rook.
classic 300 puzzle
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess explains ALL these types of problems via a series of puzzles - and it’s FREE!!
What if king goes to e7 instead of g8?
That first example is such a good teaching experience. I obviously found that checkmate and wanted to make it happen. I looked at other options - but just removing that knight with my knight seemed so easy. I thought I was being smart, but I walked right into your trap.
Dgo
On the other hand, I found all the propper moves and yet I remain around 1100 in blitz. I know that I am beyond any help .
This video was actually really useful to realize a weakness in my games. I tend to fixate on the first idea that catches my fancy, and try to force it through, rather than subordinating my thought process to the objective requirements of the position. This is, as he mentions in the video, largely a question of mindset. Possibly, I've reinforced my own lazy approach through pretty much only playing blitz for the last number of years. I'm actually already basically a 2000 player (peak 2384 online) and I feel just shifting my mindset like he says can help me to get much stronger. Thanks for this video!
Yes, sometimes you're just one piece/move away from making something work... but it's something that can't work without that extra move piece... and trying to chase the situation only makes your own position worse as you lose focus on what the opponent is doing. The real challenge is to look at the whole board all of the time.
@@Malt454 yeah, kind of what I was trying to get at, but I'm not the best with words. Looking at the whole board is certainly a challenge for me, not simply because I can't see the whole board, but more because I've become too accustomed to the easily attainable (i.e., the first idea that strikes the fancy). Perhaps if I had played slow games when I was young, this would not be as true (I never got to play otb growing up), as I would be forced to think things through more carefully. At the same time, I still consider blitz to be useful for reinforcing patterns
when your rating is lichess:
@@GardenChess yeah hahaha 2384? Sus
Would you like to play a game?
1. Always be on the lookout for other attacking ideas.
2. Evaluate objectively and don't give up if the main idea is defended
Really good teacher. I have seen some of nakamura's videos and carlsen's videos but they are talking like the all of their viewers are GMs. Igor really understands how beginners would play such positions and he is really trying to make all of us understand what is going on
Qf7+, Kh8, Qf8+, Rxf8, Rf8#
Great video! Good pointers on looking for forcing moves and pressing forward despite the opponent's pressure on your attacking pieces
Yes, the method of looking methodically for checks works well.
2 are suicidal but the third leads to back row mate in 3 moves.
Also the power of occupying the 7th rank with rooks or in this case the queen.
The first game is good as the bishop and queen threat looks obvious.
But with a good move look for a better
The simple rook and bishop of the right colour works
The first runs onto sand
I just got my fide rating having completed my second ever tournament. Landed on 1646 which is decent but I strive much higher.
This is the first time ever seeing your videos and I am tomorrow buying your course. You have an excellent way of teaching which is far, far, far from other people I've seen.
Looking forward to it!
👏
@@samthegamer4910 1800 now
Qf7+ ..grateful to see this .. Using a daily combination tester has allowed me to learn just how blind I am in chess sense. Consistent weakness in lateral vision of the board .. failing to use in-between moves .. not able to see deflecting a defender .. using interference ..etc .. I'm and elder now ,, and wished that I had these tools when I was young about 55 years ago. I briefly looked at Rg3 and discarded it because I was sooo hungry to checkmate on either b7 or a8. Blind blind blind.
nice comment, however it's Rb6. I would make that mistake all the time, getting the board notation backwards
► Chapters
00:00 2 Ideas to Double Your Chess Rating
00:26 Stuck at 1400-1800 Rating? How to progress?
01:04 Pursuing an idea and wishing it works
03:21 1) How to go forward & attack the opponent
04:15 2) Golden Rule of Attack in Chess
05:39 Example-2
08:00 Secret to reach 2000 chess rating
10:02 Can you find the winning move?
Please pin this for better visibility
Daily puzzle:
Queen f7 check to king king goes to h8 queen to f8 blacks rook takes queen and whites rook on f1 takes blacks rook checkmate.
A pretty simple one :)
Looks like the only straightforward way to me as we force the hand of the opponent.
Think in terms of what attacking option you have. Constantly reevaluate which one works best.
The golden rule of the attack says that the attacker should outnumber the defender.
A key guideline idea: ask how do I go forward and attack something.
If possible, you do want to go in the opponent's half of the board, to potentially cause the most damage.
Keep your pieces engaged. Keep attacking.
Strong and simple moves. Find the tactic.
Yeah, and the sky is blue.
You are always a good teacher, Mr. GM Igor.
I indeed would try to make Nf5 work… after the video I immediately lunched a chess site and played one of the best games of my life! Magic. Thank you so much for sharing this
Last puzzle check, King moves,Botez Gambit, Takes, Mate
Love your videos! For me, Chess is a hobby. My top ELO rating plateaued around ~1650. At some point a chess player has to make a decision on how much time they want to devote to the game. I don't think most casual players will approach 2000 ELO without serious study and a large time commitment to the game to study various lines, etc. It's perfectly find to be a casual player of chess and end up with an ELO between 1200-1800. If you do get up near ~1800 ELO, you will be able to beat most other casual players of chess. But getting to 2000 or higher is going to take a serious time commitment in learning opening lines, endgame theory, etc. -- that is time you would have to pull away from other things.
Just keep that in mind if you play chess and feel frustrated. Its perfectly fine to end up in the casual player's ELO range and never get higher -- some people just don't have the time investment necessary to break through to higher ELO ranges.
I remember a long time ago when I was in high school playing football and asked my coach how I could get better. My coach said, "run faster, anticipate further ahead, but most importantly, practice!" -- Sometimes you just can't run any faster or look further ahead until you spend a lot of time practicing to either increase your core strength or train your mind to see patterns and outcomes much further down the road that it currently can see. That's a lot like chess -- eventually the way you see the game just fundamentally changes and you punch through to a higher ELO range.
I will never give an IM or GM a challenging game but I have played IMs and GMs that were nice enough to ask me, "Why did you just do that?" when I made a blunder, etc.
Every move you make in a game of chess could be a decent move and yet you will still lose. That doesn't mean you played poorly, just that the other person played much stronger than you. If I could give one piece of advice to lower ranked ELO players, I would say to play online games via chess.com or other sites such that you can play an entire game without making a blunder move. Just try to play consistently without making a blunder and your chess game ELO ranking should move to somewhere between 1450-1800 ELO.
Once you get up near 1800 ELO and can play consistently, in order to get to the next higher range of 1850-2200 ELO, you will need to practice, practice and practice more and be able to visualize the patterns much further out.
I'm pretty much in the exact same situation right now. Getting around to being 1800+ but I'm losing motivation to study, play, and analyze games.
@@jamesmontella6245 This is exactly where I ended up. I made the decision that I just didn't have the time to invest to punch through to a higher ELO (even if that was possible at my age). If there is one consistent thing that all great players share, it is the fact that they were introduced to chess as a very early age. I was introduced to chess around 9/10 years of age. One of my best friends who is around 400-500 ELO points higher than me started playing chess around the age of 4/5.
I honestly think his brain was molded at an earlier age to more quickly see patterns in chess where I'd have to work extremely hard and long at it just to get near his strength.
I dont think you need openings for 2k. I hovered between 1900 and 2k sometime and all I did was tactics. I think you can easily get 2300 with serious tactical practice.
Btw I started playing when I was 25ish and it took me about a year to peak at 1900 something
@@ilikecommenting6849 agree chess is 99% tactics and little bit of basic endgame can help u reach 2000 but above that it is necessary to know opening atleast around 2200+ is must otherwise it will be difficult to see everything over the board more prepared more Better but this is those players who are well versed in all stages of game
The challenge I have is that I lack patience. I play a lot of correspondence chess and I often feel like I have to make all my moves almost like I’m clearing my inbox of emails. So instead of thinking about my opponents plan, engaging more of my pieces, or looking for better attacking chances / ideas, I find myself stuck in losing positions and onlyTHEN do I really start to think critically but by then it’s too late ! Chess is a wonderful teacher of patience focus and discipline in mindset
Your methods and ideas mean a lot to me. I never think out of the box. I limit myself with one fixed idea and I want to make it happen instead of trying to find other idea because clearly I can not hope my opponent will make a mistake. This is a great video and thanks.
Puzzle
King g8, Qf7 check, Kh8, Qf8 check, Black Rf8 capture the Qn, and Rf8 capture the white Rook, check mate the black king
Qf7+. I think I've seen this theme dozens of times in puzzles (always comes up in Puzzle Rush) and once in a game :)
I'm thinking Queen f7 check, king moves and then you back rank mate him after sacking the queen on f8.
On the first puzzle I thought of the same first moves, but with a different reason. If you have a good, but insufficient attack, adding more attackers usually opens something up.
Great video as always.
Thought so too. But rook takes Queen and comes back down to block check. No mate.
@@geoffrey955 And when the rook captures the queen on F8, you recapture with your rook and it's mate because the king is in the corner and can't go anywhere.
@@namedperson1436 Qf7, Rf7, Rd8*, Rf8 no mate.
@@geoffrey955 QF7 is check. You can't capture queen so king has to move away. Black rook can't capture queen on F7.
@@namedperson1436 Rf7 is a legal move.
Solution: 1.Qf7+ ,Kh8 2. Qf8+, Rxf8 3. Rxf8#
10:06 Qf7+, Kf8 Qf8+, rook takes and then Rxf8#
That was quite helpful, thanks. Yes, Ben Finegold also said amateurs lose because they're focused on one thing, one area of the board. They are involved in "wishful thinking". Only after you busted the N moves in the first problem, was I able to consider Rb6! Also, yes, aggression counts for a lot, but at the same time, as you said, a successful attack should involve more attackers than defenders. Oh, and the answer to the quiz is simple mate in 3 starting with Qf7+.
Brilliant video, as always!
For the 2nd example @7:06, I was thinking:
Pawn to b4, forking black's 2 knights. Then black captures on e5, recapture with queen on e5, finally black retreats one of his knights and I capture the other with my b4 pawn.
Similar result but with an extra piece?
Black can play en passent after b4 unforked his knight and got a passed pawn 2 square away from queening and your knight still hanging
The move I found didn't involve the rook at all, it was BishopF3, essentially pinning down the F file pawn. I believe that forces mate in 2 moves, Can anyone say that Bishop F3 ISN'T as strong as moving the rook? I'm no GM but I can play.
I tell players in the 1500 range: Just because you CAN take a piece of equal value, doesn't mean you SHOULD. More often than not, it's better not to trade for pieces of equal value.
Qf7+, Kh8, Qf8+, Rf8, Rf8#… I think that’s how the notation looks, can’t remember if there is a symbol for “takes”. I should definitely learn more. In the flow of this video, I started off thinking Nf5, and you showed how amateur that was. Then I found Rg6 just as you were mentioning it. Then on the next one, I saw Rd8 pretty immediately. I had considered the pawn push on f right before that, so I figure I was in the right mindset. Solved the last puzzle easily. I’m pretty sure because listening to you put me in the right mindset. I need to default to that. I’m definitely a tactics guy, I struggle with memorizing lines because they look so similar, but I’m alright at creating strange positions and remembering fundamental rules for playing. I’ve never taken learning seriously, I’ve played thousands upon thousands of bullet games on Lichess, hoping to fill my onion with as many variations as possible so that when I go to learn, nothing is really a surprise to me. Thanks for sharing and testing us. Maybe I’ll choose to focus on this some. I started chess in my 20s because an arrogant friend of mine kept tormenting me. I started just playing against a computer until I could make sense of things. Now, I beat him pretty effortlessly and he hates my guts for it. “Grown-ups”😂.
1. Qf7+ Kh8
2. Qf8+ Rxf8
3. Rxf8#
this really changed how I look at chess, and explains why I am stuck at 650 trying to force ideas I see in videos online
Qf7 kh8 qf8 rf8 rf8 mate, Igor. Thanks for another great video, mate ; - )
I wanted to let you Know that these simple concepts have already improved my play. Thank you so much for sharing these simple but impactful ideas to help me improve my chess game.
My personal trick in chess is to think what my opponent could reply after the move I'm thinking of, or if the move somehow forces him/her to make a specific move ( for example, attacking his king with a queen or a horse .. )
That gets close to a standard practice for game AI algorithm called MiniMax : What moves would be best if my opponent does play at his best.
Queen to f7 check, King to h8, queen f8 mate because the queen is defended by the rook on f1 👍🏼 great video love to pause and analyze
Pretty sure for the end puzzle its a back-rank mate. Right?
1. Qf7+, Kh8
2. Qf8+, Rxf8
3. Rxf8#, 1-0
My first idea was rook b6 and swinging it over to h6 but I did not even notice the sacrifice that was awesome. Good advice sometimes we always tunnel vision on a plan even if it's not meant to be
same I didnt think about the sacrifice and what it led to
GM Igor Smirnov is a very good teacher!
Your videos are by far the best I have ever watched to learn chess, I have progressed so much in a short amount of time. Keep up the amazing work and thank you ;)
Awesome!
Very helpful video. Been stuck on the same rating for several years and this is (a big part of the reason) why. The solution: Qf7+ Kh8, Qf8+ RxQ, RxR#
Queen F7 (check) , King H8 , Queen F8(check) , Ra8 x QF8 ,Rf1 x Rf8 (checkmate)
I’m 500 Elo, but I’ve realized that I end up losing most of the games I get tunnel vision for a specific sequence of moves. The best games I’ve played is where I focus on strong moves that are protected and then focus on checkmate when it opens up naturally
You can improve massively not being mean 99% of 500 will blunder learn one main opening and you can easily get to 1000:) I taught myself just through playing, started 3 years ago from never playing chess and I’ve reached 1500 rapid good luck to you:)
Final puzzle looks to me (as a chess noob) :
W: Queen to f7 defended by the rook on f1
B: King has to move to h8
W: Queen to f8, still defended by f1 rook
B: Can only take the queen with rook h1 to f8
W: Rook f1 takes rook on f8
B: is checkmated
1.Qf7 , Kh8 2.Qf8 , Ra1xQf8 3. Rf1xF8 mate
Ohhh so cool i found the rook d8 move for exactly those reasons... this is a really great way of looking at chess. Thinking of the possible attacks instead of trying to just control squares and tunnel vision into one idea. Pretty cool stuff!
OMG SAME and I'm 1050 rating :)
puzzle:
1. Qf7+ Kh8
2.Qf8+ Rxf8
3. Rxf8#
1. Q to K B 7th, K to K R sq.
2. Q to K B 8th, R takes Q.
3. R to K B 8th checkmate!
move the queen on f7 forcing king behind pawns to h8, sac queen on f8, rook to f8 for checkmate
I read a book from this GM published in 2000. I read it in 2012, and improved my game.
Which book? I prefer books of masters of 19th and early 20th century.
I have noticed that when I do puzzles, I see a certain idea and stare at it. However, some of the times, I have to give up on it to find another parallel idea that readily works. That is value of doing puzzles (besides just the obvious working on a tactic). Puzzles teaches you that you have to be open to consider many things and to give up on lines that just lack the full setup. LOL
4:00 Woah, I didn't think about that move...
You are a great teacher Boris!
Thank you GM Igor Smirnov!
Very good lesson with game changing ideas. But would it have been better to play b4 around 5.47 (which would win one of the knights) first?
Yes, actually chess is not that difficult, you just need someone to tell you how to do it "right"! Thank you very much Mr. Smirnov.
Solution: Qf7+ Kh8, Qf8! Rf8, Rf8#
White Q to f7 check, black K moves back to H8, then q to F8, rook takes Queen then white rook to F8 check mate
Thanks this is so helpful, I’ll now play my chess more like rugby, constantly pushing forward, rather than like football, back and forth.
Thanks for your course offer. At the time I can not afford. But i will try when ever possible. Thanks.
Facing a definitive, imminent threat? You have 3 things you can do: ignore it, shore things up to protect against it, or use offense to thwart your opponent's initiative. Okay...you can also resign on the spot too. Let's agree to set that aside. There will be times you must hunker down and go purely defensive to deal with the threat. And there will be times you can ignore the threat because it's too slow given an initiative of your own that's underway. But most threats can be parried by a counterpunch. Sometimes that counterpunch doesn't have to be significant..a simple bit of complication will do the trick. Training oneself to default toward making a counterpunching/complicating move after an opponent's threat is a best-practice skill to have. It does require a decent level of complete-game competency (not mastery...just basic competencies) though to do it right. But the first thing to work toward is building up familiarity with using the approach in live games. By definition, that means (being the lesser-developed player that you are) accepting that you will take a bunch of losses in your quest to develop this skill. There are no scenarios in which you avoid making a mess of games while learning this new skill. If you can't find the courage to do this, you will have made the decision to forever limit your upside potential. The sooner you start losing games while actively trying to counterpunch, the sooner you will get to a point that it will start helping you win more games down the line. Some temporary pain for longterm gains is a winning formula. Every loss should be relished as they are necessary to legitimately bring that next rung within reach.
IMO you have the best chess content on UA-cam.
solution to puzzle, white goes qf7+, black goes kh8, white goes qf8+ black goes rxf8 white goes rxf8#
Greetings from Turkey. My 8 year boy has the following solution: Qf7, Kh8, Qf8, Rxf8, Rxf8, #.
Puzzle solution:
1. Qf7+ Kh8
2. Qf8+ Rxf8
3. Rxf8#
this was a brilliant analysis, thank you!
The puzzle at the end qf7 check king h8 forced queen sack f8 check rook takes, rook takes mate
In the last example why not Pb4, attacking both knights with the pawn?
Classical back rank mate Qf7+, Kh8, Qf8+, Rxf8, Rxf8#
for the ending puzzle:
qf7, kh8
qf8, rxf8
rxf8 is mate
Puzzle answer: 1. Qf7+ Kh8 2. Qf8+ Rxf8 3. Rxf8#
At the beginning I had originally gone through with the knight moves like igor said but before he mentioned it I saw that it didn't work as the white pieces could defend in several ways. Then before he mentioned the rook lift I saw that too but I did not see forced mate in 3. I just saw the queen and rook battery potential mate which could also be defended against so I think a big problem with my way of thinking is not so much that I think incorrectly but more so that I rush into trying to find the quickest solution possible without giving myself enough time to go through different moves. It took me like 2 minutes to find the knight move, to then moving on to the rook lift. In bullet games this is simply not possible, for me to expend so much time, I would lose. I think its a matter more of how fast you are at calculating. If I had maybe 3 more minutes I would maybe find the force mate. I think like everything else you first need to practice and then once you get good at it you can then practice on speed. For example if you showed me this puzzle when I started playing a year ago rated 500 I would've definitely have not seen any of the moves, but now that I am 1300 I can see the moves and I know why something works and why something else doesn't now instead of learning mate patterns and stuff like that since I already know them it would just be a matter of practicing my how fast I can calculate the best moveset. When I first started playing I watched Hikaru and I just couldn't all his premoves and arrows all over the place, I couldn't make sense of it during and sometimes even after the outcome, I just knew that he was good and that it looked cool. Now I can watch hikaru and understand even seemingly unimportant positional moves, but I sometimes have trouble of keeping up(again speed). I mean its literally everywhere, another example is my rubiks cube. To start you first got to learn the algorithms and memorize it. When I first solved the rubiks cube it probably took me like 20 minutes, now I can solve it in like 90 seconds. The people who solve it in under 5 seconds just practice and practice speed. Same with my typing I honestly was a senior in highschool only typing on 2 fingers, sometimes 3 and my max stats were like 45 wpm at 87% accuracy ( and I had to look at the board). I decided to start using all of my fingers and when I started I was at 20 wpm, not trying to be fast but just trying to get that muscle memory. I got to 50 wpm but I couldn't break it because I had to look down at my keyboard constantly so then I tried typing again but without looking at the board ( mostly ) and my wpm dropped to like 45 but then after like a week I consistently stayed at 60+ wpm with 95% accuracy. Now I can type without looking at the board up to 100 wpm although on average I type around 70 wpm... I think a lot of us have a problem in chess in moving up because we want to find the quickest solution and get blinded when by whatever the best looking move is when there could be something better, which turns into a dilemma since chess games are timed... I don't know but thats my thought process. I'm not even that good in chess, I was actually a week ago like rated 1000 and went up in like a day to 1250, previously to going into the actual games though I just kept on practicing the puzzles and I would try to do them as fast as possible, I would also never use hints unless I had to and tried to figure them out if I would get them wrong. And I would start to back into my analysis and just see positions where I had the upperhand and it turned around for me after a blunder etc, and I would try to find the best move before looking at the computer. I think that chess puzzles really help though as for almost a year I was stuck at 700 and just in march I got back did like 6 hours straight puzzles because I couldn't go to sleep,( i did not sleep that day at all). And I started playing once I was done, bullet games and consistently won until I got to 1100 in like 2 hours. Like right now I went to check on the trend for my rapid games and the line goes up a bit here and there and then just a week ago it says 1000 and then just shoots up to 1320 ( I did the same thing that day just puzzles ) I don't really know any openings either and aimchess says that I am better in all aspects of the game by a lot compared to players in my rating range excepts openings in which I am down bad. For example my time management is 82% compared to other players at 40% and similar stats for end games resourcefulness, etc. My openings are like 30% while everyone else is around 50%, it says that usually after the opening the computer says I am around 1.9 in favor of my opponent. Pretty interesting how all this stuff works
thx! your concept was very clear and insightfull i'm sure to improve after this!
qf4, kh8, qf8, rf8, rf8# is the solution, this video was great, and i realised a lot of my past mistakes thank you.
Puzzle of the day. Winning combo for white: Qf7+ Kh8 Qf8+ RxQ RXRf8#
Checkmate in 3, Qf7-Kh8, Qf8-Rxf8, Rxf8 checkmate
Last night I played in my usual style of persevering but was unable to mate. Here's the position after the moves1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de Ne4 4.Nf3 Bb4+5.Nbd2 c5 6.a3 Nxd2 7.Bxd2 Ba5 8.b4 Bb6 9.e3 o-o 10.Bd3 d6 11.Qc2 h6 12.ed Qxd6 13.Bc3 Nc6 14.b5 Nd4 15.exd4 Re8+16.Kf1 cd 17.Bb4 Qf6 18.Re1 Be6 19.h4 a6 20.Ng5 a5 21.Bd6 Qd8 I looked at 22. Bh7+ Kh8 then I thought 23.Bg8 threatening 24.Qh7 mate but he has 23...g6 trapping and winning my bishops. Over and over I tried to make it work but out of frustration gave up and played 22.c5 and eventually after 17 moves my opponent resigned. When I got home knowing I had something after all my whole army is aimed at his king I gave it to Fritz who solved it for me. After 22.Bh7+ Kh8 I should play 23.Rxe6! which threatens 24.Nf7 mate yes Black still has some resistance but the game is over. This morning after watching this video again I realised Igor second idea is to examine your attacking options instead of trying to persevere with one idea. After 23.Rxe6! Rf8 again I have 24. Bg8 and now after 24...g6 25.Rxg6 fxg6 26.Qxg6 Qd7 27. Be5+ wins so that's it don't screw up your head trying to push one idea but instead look at other ideas before giving up.
There are many complex variations here. I'm adding this position to my online chess lessons.
Got it. Queen F7 check, Then queen 👑 f8 check black takes with castle 🏰 and then white check mates with castle
1. Qf7 + Kh8 2. Qf8 + Rxf8 3. Rxf8 mate
White to move for the win: 1. Qf7+ Kh8 2. Qf8+ Rxh8 3.Rxh8#
Just found your channel. Love the content. Been studying chess for over 10 years and struggling to get past a long running plateau. This was really informative. I want to become a 2000 elo ish player sooooo badly
Great to hear. All the best to cross 2000 ELO
Answer to the last puzzle: qf7+ kh8 qf8+ r:f8
R:r#
I appreciated the video and the "spot-on" instruction although in the third example I would've just played b4 forking the two black knights, winning one of them. So; I am obviously not a grandmaster in my thinking yet.
Good video. Your teaching style is very good. I really can learn from your videos.
Glad to hear that!
White: Qf7
Black: Kh8
White: Qf8
Black: Rxf8
White: Rxf8 checkmate!
This is a great mentality to have in the game of chess. I will use this and keep progressing forward.
Paused at 258. If white makes any other move and leaves the knight there, black takes the knight with their knight, if queen recaptures, I take the queen with the rook. It might be better to capture with the rook and the rook is covered by the knight. F side is better for blacks knight, he also attacks g3. If g2 plan fails, there is also play with blacks rook on the open b file.
I call this "Puzzle Syndrome" with my students - while you should look for the move you can sense is in the position, it isn't guaranteed to work all of the time - it's not a puzzle set up to just perfectly line up. Sometimes you have to abandon the plan A (queen and bishop mate) and look for the plan B (rook lift)
This truly was the most inspiring chess video I have ever seen. Spot on observations.
Bless your heart
Puzzle answer:
Qf7+, Kh8
Qf8+, Rxf8
Rxf8#
what I do is scan for unguarded pieces it took a long time to see before but now I can see it in just a glance.
works most of the time
queen check, king goes away, queen check then sac, then rook mate
Great stuff
Q - e7 check, K moves to g8, Q-e8 check, rook takes queen, Rook-e8 mate
Qf7 check, Kh8, QF8 check, RxF8, RxF8 checkmate
Thank you coach Igor
queen to f7
king to h8
queen to f8
rook takes queen
rook takes rook voila mate!
One thing is to know I need to search for the most aggressive attacking moves, and another - to find the best attacking move. I couldn't find either of your best moves. In the real game, I would try to find the weakest piece and improve it.
How do I find the best aggressive move?
Just a doubt
At 6:21 why can't we play pawn b4
Qf7 check Kh8, Qf8 check, Rxf8, Rxf8 mate
fantastic vid. you earned a new sub. ive been stuck at 1800 for years. will look into your course...
Really helpful video!
when black knight was on A5 and C5 I saw you could fork both knights by playing the pawn forward two .
The black pawn on c4 could capture en passant