The pawn on e6 in the second game was worse than useless; it was actually an impediment to black's coordination, and once white's knight landed on e5, it had a severe cramping effect on black's position. Like mentioned in the presentation, one of the marks of a maturing chess player is the recognition that not all advantages in chess are material. Material advantages are physical, and easy to see, and are therefore easy to fixate on; but the other "imbalances" are more conceptual, but no less important. Being able to "see" the more conceptual advantages, and THEN being able to determine when it's a good investment of the material for the immaterial, is a foundational principle of positional chess mastery.
11:10 You explain with this position sometimes sacking a pawn on d6 after a N/B exchange in order to secure a positional advantage. Then after a couple of more moves, this game does just that. So do you believe Gukesh was 100% booked up on all moves through this point? Further even? Or was he possibly somewhat familiar...but then after getting his N trapped except for d6, he found himself having to go down this studied route of giving up the pawn? If not the latter, then are you saying he deliberately baited his opponent to elicit the f5 move?! And, again, that he had likely evaluated all these moves beforehand in practice? I understand you probably can't say for certain. But what's your best guess, please? As you may have heard, 11yo Faustino Oro just took down HIkaru in bullet...again!! As an adult learner of the game, I am bewildered by kids breadth after only playing for a few years. I get that they may have some natural proclivities for the game. And by combining that with the flexibility (high plasticity) of a young mind...great steps forward can happen. But high level chess is also about experience...of having played enough positions many times over to know when to bob...or when to weave. Maybe (certainly) he's helped by multiple coaches. So while Oro is crushed experience-wise by the likes of HIkaru and Magnus (who he has also beaten) and that his inexperience (at this point) costs him something every time he sits down...what things allow him to play so competitively? Better technique? Better memory? Youthful arrogance? Chess has been equated with learning a new language. That GMs are said to have internalized upwards of 300,000 unique chunks of this game...this language. It takes time to onboard that much information. More importantly, onboard it competently. Yet here they are...young kids who have so many chunks left to learn still getting the job done. Just so amazing.
Gukesh has incredible patience and self-control. Given that he practices meditation and yoga, I suspect he and/or his trainer intentionally cultivated those attributes in him. I recently saw on ChessBase India that Gukesh uses a sports psychologist, so he is very aware of the importance of optimizing his mental state.
Actually gukesh's play reminds me of petrosian and karpov's play such a great playing style
Great commentary! Thank you!
Thank you too!
Beautiful game. I should really follow his games more, because that's exactly the kind of chess I'd like to be able to play one day
Thanks for leaving this comment!
Incredible insight from such a young player, a very talented player.
Lovely analysis of the two games 👍
Glad you enjoyed it Gary! I was impressed too.
Hey Doc can you make a video on the steps on how to study chess openings
The pawn on e6 in the second game was worse than useless; it was actually an impediment to black's coordination, and once white's knight landed on e5, it had a severe cramping effect on black's position.
Like mentioned in the presentation, one of the marks of a maturing chess player is the recognition that not all advantages in chess are material. Material advantages are physical, and easy to see, and are therefore easy to fixate on; but the other "imbalances" are more conceptual, but no less important. Being able to "see" the more conceptual advantages, and THEN being able to determine when it's a good investment of the material for the immaterial, is a foundational principle of positional chess mastery.
Excellent observations, thank you!
11:10 You explain with this position sometimes sacking a pawn on d6 after a N/B exchange in order to secure a positional advantage. Then after a couple of more moves, this game does just that. So do you believe Gukesh was 100% booked up on all moves through this point? Further even? Or was he possibly somewhat familiar...but then after getting his N trapped except for d6, he found himself having to go down this studied route of giving up the pawn? If not the latter, then are you saying he deliberately baited his opponent to elicit the f5 move?! And, again, that he had likely evaluated all these moves beforehand in practice? I understand you probably can't say for certain. But what's your best guess, please?
As you may have heard, 11yo Faustino Oro just took down HIkaru in bullet...again!! As an adult learner of the game, I am bewildered by kids breadth after only playing for a few years. I get that they may have some natural proclivities for the game. And by combining that with the flexibility (high plasticity) of a young mind...great steps forward can happen. But high level chess is also about experience...of having played enough positions many times over to know when to bob...or when to weave. Maybe (certainly) he's helped by multiple coaches. So while Oro is crushed experience-wise by the likes of HIkaru and Magnus (who he has also beaten) and that his inexperience (at this point) costs him something every time he sits down...what things allow him to play so competitively? Better technique? Better memory? Youthful arrogance?
Chess has been equated with learning a new language. That GMs are said to have internalized upwards of 300,000 unique chunks of this game...this language. It takes time to onboard that much information. More importantly, onboard it competently. Yet here they are...young kids who have so many chunks left to learn still getting the job done. Just so amazing.
Amazing play. So deep!
my theory is that he's not human , 13 years old boys don't have such discipline and long term planing , for a alien he's pretty good in chess 🤯
😅
How to get rid of suffocating week pawns blocking an explosive attack from strong pieces ?
And now he is the world champion
Indeed! :)
Gukesh has incredible patience and self-control. Given that he practices meditation and yoga, I suspect he and/or his trainer intentionally cultivated those attributes in him. I recently saw on ChessBase India that Gukesh uses a sports psychologist, so he is very aware of the importance of optimizing his mental state.
That is so interesting! I think I will soon talk to a sport psychologist for a podcast episode!
The french defence wins the first game! Very nice,this will be a long hard world championship.I love the french defence...
This will be a very interesting match! A strategic masterclass in the French.
👍👍👍
W video, also u have spelled Genius wrong in the thumbnail
Will fix it soon.
First