2300 WGM vs. BLINDFOLDED 2400 IM

ladies and gentlemen welcome back once again to  a little bit of elo comparison here on the gotham   chess youtube channel yesterday on stream i played  a match against nemo who is 2300 rated and she's   a women's grandmaster we played four games of  five minute blitz with two seconds bonus per move   except i was wearing a blindfold the first game  of the match ended in a draw it was extremely long   so i've included the three games after that first  comes the footage then i will analyze it let's go   e4 e4 oh uh d5 okay no i thought you said  d4 i'm like bro she doesn't play that   e takes d5 uh knight f6 i have been saucing people with this but  not because of the fact that it's not great   yeah but they don't know that that's true knight  c3 ah why you got to kill my fun knight takes d5   mm-hmm sorry station break thank you user on  clear for the 50 gifted subs again thank you so   much really appreciate it man oh wow uh thank  you if you gifted in my channel i can't see   bishop c4 c6 so here everybody plays this  move queen f3 looks very unnatural but it's   not very good i thought knight b6 was the  main line there instead of c6 it is but   i a lot of people play uh yeah anyway she play  it's fine but anyway c6 should play d3 what the   what what why would anyone go d3 there um uh  g6 okay is d3 what a what a what a sober move   like it's such a solid move you know  where's the fun let's have fun knight ge2 knight f3 proper chess bishop g7 is she trying  to play weird because i'm blindfolded castles   uh castles what is 92 bro it's definitely  a different setup that's for sure   but it is weird and it's hard for the brain to  keep track of weird setups how low did my time   get last game um i think you got about 15 seconds  roughly and and her she had i think she had like   a little over a minute maybe like a minute  20 minute 30. okay well that's crazy king h1   ah all right i gotta not get worked up um i  don't even know e5 is that your final answer   uh yeah it's my final answer bishop to e3  if she has a coach that coach is vomiting   somewhere bishop e6 bishop to b3 bishop oh b3 b3  i was like she played the same move twice um okay   uh it's like i want to refute the setup i also  don't want to get low on time uh let's go uh   let's go f5 knight takes d5 um let's  take with the bishop pawn to f4 hmm bishop takes bishop uh-huh a takes b3 knight  d7 now her setup looks brilliant actually it   does look pretty good yeah that's the problem with  blindfold it's like you just the calculation is so   much slower it's no no way to refute anything  it's a simple position i hope she takes on a7 i think that's probably a bit too far c3 um  rookie eight i don't like c3 what a weird move   rookie eight i played it what's the time uh you  have 238 she's 252. queen d2 d d id is in david   um a6 i feel like we're up on time yeah  you're up 20 seconds you have 230 she's 210   yeah just tanked the last like three moves   well it's still pretty close though very  complex position of course but okay okay d1   um sorry d just to be clear d1  yeah rook 81 uh okay okay okay okay queen c7 knight g1 knight g1 yeah it's interesting  definitely definitely unique rook 88 isn't   she down like a minute and a half queen up two  she's down a minute yeah queen up two queen f2 e4 pawn to d4 haunted d4 wow uh knight f6 knight to e2 a5 uh h3 um queen b6 mm-hmm knight to c1 knight d5 rook g1 a4 b takes a4 knight takes bishop queen takes queen takes b2 rook d2 um queen a3 uh g4 um king h8 33 seconds she is 21. rook d g2  uh bishop takes d4 queen g3 take the rook   rook takes bishop um queen seconds queen e7 she  is 21 you have 18. knight e2 rogue d3 queen f2 uh rook 88 10 12.3 seconds knight d4 um queen h4 queen takes h4 oh her queen's  on f2 i thought it was on e2 oh oh bishop d4 was such a nice find too damn this  game i went for the scandinavian defense and after   he takes d5 i guess theoretically the scandinavian  as queen d5 and i went for knight f6 knight f6   is an invitation for white to try to  play some of the more gambit lines   like for example the icelandic gambit the  portuguese gambit with uh sorry with d4   and so on and so forth i just recently made a  gambit's repertoire and i've been having a lot   of fun and a lot of success with these positions  so i decided to play it against nemo now nemo   did something pretty smart she played very  uh weird moves in the opening and as you   could see from my reactions you know white  playing like this has basically no advantage   uh and the whole point of the opening for  white is to get some sort of advantage   so white has no advantage but white is also  not worse and that's the beautiful thing about   playing with the white pieces is that generally  speaking if you don't play the best way but you   still like put pieces in the center and you don't  create any crazy weaknesses and you don't blunder   you know you're going to be fine and i was kind of  worried about that because you know in blindfold i   like i'm constantly reminding myself and spending  energy reminding myself what the pieces are   whereas a person who who just sees the board just  sees the pieces like they don't need to they don't   need to go through all that and um you know in the  analysis uh here i played a very committal move   and i played this move f5 just to take some space  the problem with this move is that ironically it   throws away all my advantage it looks like  a good move it looks like it takes space but   it it makes my pawns too soft often times when you  push pawns too far it will completely kill your   flexibility that means that back here the pawn  could go one square or two squares and you can   still maneuver around but i apologize but when you  play the move f5 you weaken your bishop and the   way nemo played in this game after we had a trade  is she played f4 and she just immediately what i   mean by soften up my pawn structure she made me  made a very difficult decision if i push i open up   my bishop but in many ways i open up her position  too and that's actually worse for me because i'm   not fully developed yet her position is very good  um if i leave it which is what i did in the game   and play around it's probably the best option  because i need to develop around that pawn and   the same thing goes for if i take it in fact if  i take it i think it's probably also okay for me   um but i really didn't like the prospect of  the night coming here and then you know this   and i understand it's defended but there's  some some tactics and the last thing that   you want to do is you know blunder a tactic so  i played very solidly if you notice i just for   the rest of the moves like literally for the  rest of the moves i traded and then i just   developed i brought my knight my rook my queen  and my other rook i just brought everybody and   the reason i played a6 is because i didn't want  um i didn't want the pawn to ever be a weakness   and so now you know again she's really kind of  doing like this thing she's draining my time she's   draining my brain power which is a very good way  to play against somebody blindfolded she's making   me make the decisions and i was still making the  best decisions like e4 now is a very good move   because if she were to take uh i would have played  rook takes here and we have kind of a symmetrical   structure three on three on this side and three on  three kind of on that side but this is a very soft   pawn there will be a lot of positions i can attack  it not for the loss of a queen but something like   this i will double up and uh my bishop is better  than its counterpart my night not so good but in   a couple moves i can kind of activate it it will  be all right as well and i thought that i was   gonna be comfortably better but again she she kept  the position closed and here i was really making   progress like i was immediately isolating this  pawn i wasn't letting it move forward um i brought   my knight to the middle and at some point i really  softened up the structure and i took and once you   get to the base of operations everything else will  fall right after and everything else kind of was   falling but to her credit she did something very  smart and this is a very good lesson that's why i   wanted to analyze some of these games she played  this h3 g4 right and uh the problem here is that   she's creating counter play when you are in  a losing position you can sit back and defend   everything but you're not going to be able to here  i just have too much pressure on everything i have   too much pressure so what do you do if you can't  sit back and defend everything play the clock   and make chaos so we both had very low  time and i'm playing blindfolded so i   can't even make my own moves there's a bit of  a delay there when i'm telling hikaru the move   but she's creating chaos i mean she's creating  some attack right so i played king h8 she played   rook g2 but she blundered this move removed the  defender of this pawn the problem is that now   there was 10 seconds on the clock so it was very  hard for me to kind of keep it keep track mentally   it's why i played this move it's definitely not  the best move but i felt safe right it felt like   i just you know i anticipated takes takes queen  g7 is not a mate anymore so that's why i played it   but then here she played 92 now i immediately  recognized that the knight departed this square   so i can go rogue d3 but here i just completely  forgot i had this move like part of me like knew   i can take something on h3 but i did not remember  like where the king was and you know and then and   then of course uh tragedy struck a move later and  i played this which is a very confident boat as uh   gambit uh but sadly it's just losing the game  uh the the way you would win this position is   is i mean you know you can either just focus on  the middle and like trade rooks so again just   get the game down to an end game trade a rook  maybe trade the queen and then push through or   uh use your material advantage to just take take  shatter everything and then get in with your queen   the computer likes this one but it also likes  trading the rooks it's just that one will take   a little bit longer so that was a good game um  used my opening well got a good position but sadly   uh as as the game went on wasn't able to  execute the victory uh but now we will take   a look at the third game of our match let's go  for d4 this game okay d is in david right yes knight f6 what does nemo play i don't know yeah like i'm trying to   i'm trying to think all right let bishop g5 the  trust the old bishop g5 knight e4 h4 oh god okay   this is just so bad h6 bishop f4 yeah it's so good  though that's like the beauty of it d5 d5 uh e3 i love these lines e6 did she play such boring  lines bishop d3 bishop d6 oh yeah this uh 92 okay i feel like nemo's openings  are like a cocktail with no alcohol okay like interesting comparison like i know  i'm down but those were good games for me   i just can't see the board i have eight  seconds so i'll be right back to c6 what that's a terrible move bishop takes knight pawn takes bishop knight bc3 bro  who taught this lady chess my god   i can't lose this game car okay i can't i come on man what is this um see now i'm gonna i'm  gonna get in the tank because i'm trying to refute   this setup um uh g4 levy i was just gonna ask  are you are you able to completely focus on just   the game what do you mean i mean because i mean  like in the past like before when i do blindfold   i could easily focus but nowadays when i try to  oh she played knight a6 knight a6 yes okay cool   um i mean it's a legal move i guess it's  just like it she's playing like bad moves but   they're not like you know e takes f5 bishop  takes d6 queen takes d6 and knight to f4 like it's bad but it's not like dead lost um i yeah i can focus like it's just it's really hard  with less than 10 seconds and um no no i meant   in general because like i know when i've tried  to do it like or she played g6 by the way okay   yeah i'm i keep trying to chat but uh rook g1 because like when i do it i just like  i can't not think about chad or 20 other things   now at the same time but anyway rook g8 i i  feel like i'm tryharding a little bit if i   if i only focus on um if i only focus on the  game i don't know i can't bring myself to wow see like this is what i mean like  this is not that lost that's crazy   um hi okay let's focus okay let's just go  queen e2 bishop to d7 yes uh long castle   long castle h5 you have 221 she has four  minutes i spent too much time trash talking g5 knight g6 king b8 a3 you have 216 she's 311. bishop to e6 95. knight to c7 king b1 you 203 she's 243. it's  definitely hard to focus just on the game yeah   like my mind like will go somewhere and but i  mean isn't that just a streamer thing it's just   like because you're so used to like multitasking  and it's like it's so weird yeah and it's hard   because i have to bring myself back and remember  all the pieces again like it's exactly yep   a knight to e8 knight to e8 um knight a4 knight to f6 knight the knight c5 g4 uh queen d2 she really  going to take my h-pawn um she's thinking here   how much time we got uh you've won 20 she is  one minute time goes too quick man this is   so hard i really thought i was going to win like  a lot of the games this is really hard actually   five two flies by just 27 seconds yeah what is  she doing she's thinking why this is a hard game uh king the a8 again with these like recreational  king departures um c4 knight takes h5   h1 rook g5 that move looks like  complete [ __ ] what uh queen b4 work to b8 oh my god dude are you kidding me how much  time do i have uh 47 seconds she is 21. d5 queen takes e5 knight takes e6 okay  you have 20 seconds she has 22. rook to g6 uh rook takes h5 c takes d5 c  takes d5 g3 take it queen takes g3 uh rook h3 rook h3 queen e5 uh  rook h1 rook hh1 rook f6 queen d4 queen takes d4 knight c7 mate very nice oh yes   oh oh that was clean i just  got destroyed on the one side i felt good nothing good revenge good revenge  indeed okay that was pretty sick admit it that was   that was pretty good right so this one you know i  played my my true and tried trompowski obviously   uh played played everything that was in my  courses um h4 which is the raptor variation   you know hikaru was like grimacing a little bit  but and this is really the point um you when   they overextend against the trempowsky uh this  knight becomes a target and you want to trade   the bishop for it and leave them with a target  in the center which will ultimately be a pawn   and that's exactly what i did and the reason i  didn't rush is because i don't want her to trade   and damage my structure so i played the position  like this and c6 is just is just a very bad move   it's one of the reasons like you know you might  listen to me and you know i'm being a little bit   too harsh and i ultimately uh lost that first game  despite kind of making fun of the opening but the   truth is c6 is just no good um black has to either  move the knight just out of the way of my bishop   uh or attack the center faster so in a lot of  these positions like black just needs to play   more aggressively not like this though because  again you will end up with this weakness but   c6 just isn't good because you get nothing now  you can't even move your knight out you can't   move your bishop out so you know i won the opening  battle again like this move g4 i think is very   good very important to just open up and you know  play like rook g1 i just felt like very good very   you know but but then here again i paused for a  moment when i was blindfolded and i was like damn   it nothing works like i really want to take on g6  the problem is that just because you really want   to sacrifice doesn't mean anything nobody cares  how you feel uh the board is the board right the   best move is gonna be the best move um so rook  here there's queen h5 uh but then king f7 oh   that would be nice but king f7 and i just didn't  see anything i mean i have this pressure but   you know i can go 92 and try to go  knight f4 but she's just gonna go here   now she's not even pinned anymore of course so um  i didn't do it and you know instead i went to slow   play and i kind of knew that when i when i made  this transformation to this kind of a position   and rotated my knight to e5 uh that uh black was  fine like i knew in my heart of hearts like black   was probably completely fine and she should  look for counter play on the queen side she   went for a night rotation which i i do believe  in i think that this was very good but here   she went for the wrong plan the plan that she went  for just wasn't good she absolutely does not need   to take this pawn if you saw from the game she  ended up very belligerently taking this pawn   but in reality she needs to worry about what  i want i want to expand on the queen side   and she can meet me right at the gates there um  even g4 is a problem she could probably play a   move like basics like she needs to basically  ask me what am i doing what is my business   on this side you know am i gonna back up  or am i gonna trade if i trade then okay   i've lost one of my aggressors this knight is nice  but it's not going to do any damage on its own   and it felt like she needed to to deal with my  plan first but she was dead set on on this and   the problem is it opens lines for your opponent  so again it's a lesson and sometimes you you   know you can't take that forbidden fruit um  you know queen to d2 king to a8 and i and   again this whole time i was expecting her  to address this threat but then she took   and uh you know the this is a bit much because for  the cost of one pawn you've now paralyzed eight   points of your own material think about that nemo  took a pawn on h5 activated my rook with pressure   and now just completely stranded two pieces she  cannot move this because the avalanche and she   obviously can't move the rook so here i was like  all right let me play an improving move let me   threaten mate and activate my queen she goes rogue  ba and now you know i played the critical move and   i'm very happy i found this move blindfolded  in the middle of all this chaos the move d5   you lose a guard of your knight so that knight  can be taken but had she played c takes d5   it's really the same problem the same problem it's  the fact that i have five attacking pieces right   all these pieces are attacking and this  piece is lingering with the pressure   so because this rook can't move so even though  she can take i jump in and i hit the rook and   the rook can no longer guard the night and i  was a bit nervous i was a bit nervous for this   pawn breakthrough losing this i thought maybe  there was something i could blunder but i knew   that this was looming and as you could see in the  game ultimately that's kind of what i went for she   went for a little bit of counter play here not a  bad idea but um you know here i just played this   move so i wouldn't lose on time to guard my rook  on the back rank and i was very happy here to find   this nice move queen d4 uh and she cannot guard  mate and the rook at the same time or and the   queen can also not be guarded she could take the  knight but she will go rook down and i will try to   take this pawn and then go here probably trade  the queens that's probably the easiest but uh   the way the game ended is also very nice with  knight to c7 mate can't be disappointed at that   now the match is all square and now ladies and  gentlemen it is time for the final game d4 diaz   and david d5 knight to f3 oh there's so many  different things let's play knight c6 i'm trying   to emulate your game against eric rosen which  one was that you play anyway she played e3 here bishop g4 no i've been you know i've been messing  around with the albin and um h3 i just i like to   i like to mix it up and get a bit weird um bishop  h5 okay okay okay i'll get bored bishop to d3 um   that's just a big mistake uh okay knight f6  mhm like i have my most success in blitz when   i play new openings and mess around with  different positions it makes sense yeah   no also since you're gonna be playing though i  think it's it's actually really good to be messing   around and playing everything um she played a3  ah tough move did not see that move coming um okay now e5 there's a zero percent chance  that she actually plays the move g4 uh   she also did play g4 levy by the way oh okay   oh impressive i did not think that  she had it in her to play this move   um okay now i actually have to calculate a little  bit uh let's say bishop g6 let's take a risk oh do you have a glass bottle is  that that why it's dangerous yeah   yeah yeah where is it yeah i had that happen  once i was playing i was playing i think i had   coffee in a mug or something like i'm like  so scared that i'm actually tip it and like   smash it on takes pawn attacks tonight  can't be bad pawn takes pawn knight uh e4 here's my logic i'm gonna go down  a pawn and i'm gonna figure it out   bishop to d2 she will make it a lot simpler  for me to figure it out with moves like that   um why does she this is not how she plays like i  don't like what is she i don't know um queen e7   i just don't understand like she  would never play like this normally so he's like deliberately trying to  play weird or something bishop to b5 it's not a bad move um well you went  there you should take c6 yeah bc6 knight to c3 h5 mm-hmm work to g1 yeah i had a feeling  she was going to play that that seems like   a nemo move hg hg rook b8 mm-hmm it's  an annoying move rugby b3 b3 you said rook h3 queen to e2 knight takes c3 bishop takes knight queen c5 king d2 wow very frustrating uh queen b6 she is a  minute and a half you have 53 seconds   well like so it's now imagine like there are  tournaments where you play like three games and   it's like when i was playing like i played like  evangelical and then play magnets or something   okay work to h1 that's the problem rook  takes rick rick takes rook c5 rook to h8 d4   e takes d4 c6 d4 you have 30 seconds she  has 38 seconds bishop takes d4 rogue d8 26 seconds she has 30 seconds king e3 holy [ __ ] what c5 you have 20 seconds she has  32 seconds bishop to c3 c4 check bishop d4 win c6 queen takes c4 we need four check king d2 queen f3 queen a4 queen d7 queen f4 bishop e3 queen b4 a takes me four ah [ __ ] opponent yeah you  were you were lost anywhere there yeah anyway   yep yep yep yep yep yeah it's losing so this last  one was obviously pretty heartbreaking to lose   uh but it it honestly was was shocking more than  anything else uh doing the post game analysis so   first of all you know nemo uh credit to her she  doesn't usually mix up her openings and for the   sake of the match uh she did mix up her openings a  little bit she doesn't usually play d4 for example   i was really uh hoping for uh queen's gambit  to play like an album counter gambit chagoran   defense kind of style position um which is  also in my repertoire my gamut's repertoire but   you know we got a very confrontational  position very early she notices here my pin   uh so she plays the move g4 and i play the move  bishop g6 and sacrifice this pawn to to put my   knight in the middle i'm able to get away with  this because white has overextended so drastically   that their pawns are just going to be  very weak and my game plan here was to   go queen e7 long castle and take the pawn  which is exactly what i did now bishop d2   is just a very peculiar move it's not a blunder  but again her strategy this match was to play very   solid very strange non-standard moves and then  get a get a playable position i mean i don't know   if that was her strategy uh deliberately or she  just kind of made it up um but i finished you know   i finished with my plan here queen e7 and here  she played just simply a really really good move   um she just stopped my plan and you know that  sounds easier like said than done but she just   played bishop b5 even though she hasn't she spent  two tempi developing the bishop her idea here is   that she's going to take and kind of just pause  me in my tracks like she'll just pause my plan   and it's going to be very hard for me to win you  know my pawn back so i opened up a new front of   attack i played h5 and again she played a  good move she didn't take she instead moved   the rook out of the way so now i cannot take on  h1 all right so rook did you want because again   you know if you take you just lose i mean this is  just losing you you you can't you have no nothing   equipped to stop this pin like i'm just going to  apply that pin forever and then you will slowly   lose now i played rook b8 she played b3 and again  i like i i couldn't find a way forward here i   was very happy i played the computer's top choice  which is this very obscure infiltrating rook move   that put some pressure on the knight makes the  queen a little bit soft like you know holding it   and queenie two and this was the moment like i  needed to do something and i i didn't find that   something i took took and played queen c5 which i  thought was very clever because i thought that uh   now she has some problems but it turned out  that she had no problems at all and in fact   i helped her developed like i just helped her  develop like she moved her bishop and then this   very odd king move connects the rooks guards all  of the weaknesses and she's threatening to go rook   h1 and all of a sudden the whole game gets flipped  on me because i'm the idiot with the bishop that   can't move i'm the idiot with the infiltration  on the h-file and that's exactly what she went   for so what did i do right i'm like okay the only  way to actually successfully play this position is   going to be to infiltrate with my pawns that's  the only way to break things open but what's funny   is i could have just done it i could have just  played the move d4 which looks crazy because that   is occupied three times but sometimes in chess  we have something called a clearance sacrifice   and that's like giving that away would give  me the d5 square so i would get to move my   queen exactly where that pawn used to stand apply  pressure to the knight to this pawn and to this   and i'm winning time more than anything else i'm  winning time because now if this knight were to   move for example to g5 to attack my rook i can  continue to probe and now there is no rook h1   now there is no rook h1 and i'm gonna i'm not  gonna lie to you guys i saw the move d4 like of   course i saw this move i just threw it out as  bad because it just loses a pawn and i didn't   see the immediate reaction granted i'm looking at  it without actually seeing the pieces so it's a   lot harder to to to sacrifice upon for long-term  compensation in your mind when you look at the   pieces it's easier because you're like okay i kind  of get that you know because i just didn't see it   i just didn't see where my knockout was going to  be so i decided to go for this plan the problem   with this plan is it's too slow and believe it or  not i still thought i was better i still thought   i was better all the way down till this moment  i just thought okay i'm gonna attack her and   i really underestimated the infiltration of her  rook like just how strong and annoying this was   uh and then she played king e3 like what are  you gonna do if your opponent can make two   king moves in the center and they're the  best moves that was the best move again   and everything is safe there's nothing you can do  i still thought i was going for something here but   uh yeah she's completely safe  even with the loss of this knight and i am busted and what ended up happening is  i blocked she finally cashed in on that rook and   there's nothing i can do queen d8 is unstoppable  if i go king g8 um she's up to three points so   good luck to me trying to survive this uh  and uh i think the game ended with check   and uh yeah well i forgot her pawn was on a3 so  it you know it's very important to not chalk this   game up to oh i hung a queen in time trouble  pay attention if you made it this far in the   video it's very important not to go oh i hung  my queen i just won't do it next time you know   that's not why i lost i lost because early  on uh i really underestimated her position   and i couldn't find the critical breakthrough like  i probably should have even all the way back here   started with h5 anticipated bishop b5 but even  a little bit later like in this position right   um i should have seen that after takes takes queen  c5 king d2 that the evaluation of that position is   actually better for white i vaguely saw the move  king d2 but i evaluated that position as 100 still   going to be better for me because honestly i just  thought that a move like bishop e4 was very good   and it wasn't i mean just knight d4 and everything  is glued and now f3 rook h1 bye bye all of my   advantage so i miss evaluated a transformation  of a position that is why i lost this game and   then from there on out it was you know it was kind  of like a snowball effect of mis-evaluating just   belligerently attacking so that is the takeaway  that is the takeaway not you know oh my queen on   before boo that first game yeah definitely  hunger queen shouldn't have done that but   listen uh that was a lot of fun i i to be honest  like i said in the beginning i i thought i was   going to do better i thought i was going to  probably win 3-1 uh two draws and two wins   or maybe three wins and and one loss but i was  humbled i was humbled and uh i want to run you   know a rematch and i want to be a little bit more  serious during the games i was a bit more chatty   and you know making jokes and everything like that  so i definitely want to try to practice but i'm   not going to lie to you all four blindfold blitz  games in a row i felt like someone like attached   the suction cup to my brain and just absorbed  everything not that there's much in there but   anyway as always ladies and gentlemen if you  enjoyed the content you made it this far i love   you you're amazing subscribe if you haven't  already uh i got courses i've been plugging   them throughout this video but uh they are in the  description and yeah leave a comment we have the   best engagement of nhs channel on youtube so let's  keep that up and i will see you in the next video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 1,854,458

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna, blindfold chess, gmhikaru, hikaru, hikaru nakamura, hikaru nakamura blindfold, gmhikaru blindfold, magnus carlsen blindfold, akanemsko, blitz chess, chess match, nemo zhou, qiyu zhou, chess analysis, speed chess

Id: kCQfM7I5D-Y

Length: 37min 25sec (2245 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021