Back in high school, some of my friends on the track team were also on the chess team. When one of them couldn't make it to a match, I would fill in and play the worst player on the other team. One day, after playing my match, I played a friendly game against the other team's best player. I think I got checkmated in less than 10 moves. About a year later I read in one of the Seattle newspapers that the same kid had become one of the youngest grandmasters in US history. That little chess wizard was Yasser. Totally forgot about it until I stated playing again about a year ago and saw his videos on UA-cam. It truly is a small world.
I doubt Yasser will ever see this but I can see one piece of talent from the white player. The white player had a plan! Was it a bad plan? Obviously, but he had one, he made it himself. It's better to have a bad plan than no plan. Well done young Yasser!
The plan that Yasser had that made him stand out so much was his plan to learn from his mistakes, and even though we may think that other novices do this, they do a poor job of this. This reminds me of back when I joined the school chess club, back in 1973, and had an idea of how the pieces move but not much else, and in my first game I fell for scholar's mate. Wow, I sure felt like a fool! I lost the game, sure, but came away with a more important win, the lesson. Still though, it wasn't until almost 50 years later that I really understood the importance of learning versus just making the same mistakes over and over again, and you get to the point where you correct the mistakes you can see but miss the ones you don't, and if you don't learn how to do this, you remain stuck in the mud. So I'd pick up the game for a while, get frustrated that I wasn't really improving much, then give it up , pick it up again some years later only to end up rinsing and repeating. That's fine for some players who can just play for years and be stuck in the 1400 range and be happy but I wanted to be a good player and my approach was not aligned with this, until recently when I took up the game one more time but with a much better plan, this time it was about actually striving to get better. It's all about finding the right balance for you, and mine happens to be extremely skewed towards improvement and this even has me watching beginners videos like this and I always come away with something of value. My plan is to watch every video on this site in addition to the other content I watch. I even started at the beginner kids playlist and watched every one of them and am starting with the regular beginners ones now. I'm finally getting somewhere and there's no substitute for the proper foundation, it just took me 50 years to figure this out :)
Actually another talent I can see is that that terrible player understood the value of symmetry even at that point, especially in the pawn structure. If you want to draw a better player, it's one of the ways to achieve it as long as you are able to navigate through the tactics.
Just send a message to the support about it. Usually people in chess.com are either quiet or decent. Rarely bad or nice, depending of course on your activeness in conversation and general "niceness"
Back in high school, some of my friends on the track team were also on the chess team. When one of them couldn't make it to a match, I would fill in and play the worst player on the other team. One day, after playing my match, I played a friendly game against the other team's best player. I think I got checkmated in less than 10 moves. About a year later I read in one of the Seattle newspapers that the same kid had become one of the youngest grandmasters in US history. That little chess wizard was Yasser. Totally forgot about it until I stated playing again about a year ago and saw his videos on UA-cam. It truly is a small world.
I love listening to him speak. I wish he made more lectures so I could watch and listen to him more.
+Amir Milbes He has a lot of lectures! Watch them twice :D :D
I doubt Yasser will ever see this but I can see one piece of talent from the white player.
The white player had a plan! Was it a bad plan? Obviously, but he had one, he made it himself. It's better to have a bad plan than no plan. Well done young Yasser!
scottecooke lm
The plan that Yasser had that made him stand out so much was his plan to learn from his mistakes, and even though we may think that other novices do this, they do a poor job of this. This reminds me of back when I joined the school chess club, back in 1973, and had an idea of how the pieces move but not much else, and in my first game I fell for scholar's mate. Wow, I sure felt like a fool! I lost the game, sure, but came away with a more important win, the lesson.
Still though, it wasn't until almost 50 years later that I really understood the importance of learning versus just making the same mistakes over and over again, and you get to the point where you correct the mistakes you can see but miss the ones you don't, and if you don't learn how to do this, you remain stuck in the mud. So I'd pick up the game for a while, get frustrated that I wasn't really improving much, then give it up , pick it up again some years later only to end up rinsing and repeating. That's fine for some players who can just play for years and be stuck in the 1400 range and be happy but I wanted to be a good player and my approach was not aligned with this, until recently when I took up the game one more time but with a much better plan, this time it was about actually striving to get better.
It's all about finding the right balance for you, and mine happens to be extremely skewed towards improvement and this even has me watching beginners videos like this and I always come away with something of value. My plan is to watch every video on this site in addition to the other content I watch. I even started at the beginner kids playlist and watched every one of them and am starting with the regular beginners ones now. I'm finally getting somewhere and there's no substitute for the proper foundation, it just took me 50 years to figure this out :)
Actually another talent I can see is that that terrible player understood the value of symmetry even at that point, especially in the pawn structure. If you want to draw a better player, it's one of the ways to achieve it as long as you are able to navigate through the tactics.
Yasser, you are an absolutely brillant teacher and you're lectures are really helping my progression in chess. Thank you very much!
I love how he is able to laugh about his mistakes and turn them into lessons.
instead of blaming your opponent like ppl from nowadays do
Some can, though I think it really has to do with the individual. I've met a lot of really mature players :)
Chessbrah: did my opponent cheat?
The beginning of this video is a literal comedy act. Well done Yasser! Very funny!
I love Yasser 's teaching style. understandable& useful.
Love it when the great players share their learning experiences.
wayne miller We don't see this very often in many subjects, sadly.
What a gem and a vibrant individual :D thank you Yasser for being such a bright light!
Yasser is my favourite lecturer
This deserved a super MEGA like. Such an inspiring lecture.
Thank you Yasser
What a great guy
Another brilliant lecture by Yasser Seirawan. Thank you, Sir.
"ANYBODY can checkmate with a queen, but checkmating with a bishop - BOY - that's really elegant and first-class" LOL
#1 Fan here finishing videos... Nice lecture!!!
Thanks for sharing your encouragement about losing and the scrapbook idea.
I get much understanding about chess after hear your teach..thanks a lot Yasser..
I love the music of the intro! :)
jairhumberto Do you know what it is? What it's called?
No, I don't.
+Alex Von Seggern I think someone composed it for Ben Finegold
Yaz is the best!
Sharing his wisdom and knowledge - a true gentleman of chess. And his Cheshire cat grin is priceless
This made me feel much better
Yasser has to be one of the nicest guys in the game. He sounds like the Bob Ross of chess when he speaks.
One of the best. Thank you.
what a funny video! that even leaves me with some hope to increase as poor beginner from my devastating 1400
Jimmy B yYou can do it! Watch more Yasser and keep practicing and anything's possible.
Young Yasser really mastered the Mieses opening.
Was the first game seen in his book, "Winning Chess Openings"?
The editing on this video is superb
the greatest decision you can ever do in your enire life is to put Yasser's videos on 1.25X )))
Yasser is great : )
0:58 were you playing Cullen bohannon?
great audio
I dislike when in chess.com you lose and the opponent starts talking trash
Just send a message to the support about it. Usually people in chess.com are either quiet or decent. Rarely bad or nice, depending of course on your activeness in conversation and general "niceness"
+same
copying your opponent did lead to the petroff
I swear that's the real origin of the variation
Sorry yasser, I've gotten to play the legal's mate against patzers on chess.com around 10 times or so.
The guts to show that game. Lol.
The fact that an adult accepted that bullshit checkmate really infuriates me.
TD's have to. They're not allowed to give any input on a game. If the players declare checkmate, its checkmate.
31:10 chess is incredible.
4:39 voice of the ghost
never played a chess match in my life and im 17 minutes into the video. what am i doing...
I hope you started playing chess. I know it's 3 months later, but I felt like checking on you.
He sounds like he's done way too much cocaine early in life then got hired on to cohost mr Roger's lol
checkmate, ha ha ha
beginner's lecture..right?
+NVS Pramod Kumar Yes.
That game isn't even 1200 level.
***** you realise he's going on about a game when he was a kid, right?
Quite possibly the worst chess video I have ever watched
you realize that this is a lecture for children and complete beginners, right?