Chess Tips: Spotting Weaknesses

hi everybody and welcome to another chest tips  video where if you give me 10 minutes of your   time I will teach you or help you strengthen his  chest concept and today we're gonna talk about   spotting weaknesses now a weakness and chest the  way I like to describe it is either a physical   piece that's standing or an empty set of squares  that are either not guarded at all or guarded by   just something like a king or a queen if you  take a look at this position in front of you   white obviously has a pretty big advantage already  double pawn but the Kings are castled on the same   side you start looking around the board you can  actually pause the video and think where are the   weaknesses in this position and what should white  play so in this game I pad against the subscriber   I actually played the move h6 in this position  now the idea of this is that essentially if my   opponent takes this pawn they are weakening the  dark squares near the King and given that I'm   the only person with the dark squared Bishop  I will have some attacking possibilities first   of all I'll just very easily be able to go and  get that pawn and my queen will have access to   the position at the same time if my opponent  ignores my pawn and goes here again the dark   squares become significantly weaker and I have  an opportunity to create a checkmating attack   now moves like h6 happen often when the King is  the only piece defending pawns that are standing   around it sometimes if there's a knight or a  bishop covering this sort of thing is not so easy   now you'll notice this kind of a pawn structure  sometimes there's the dark squared bishop there   from like a Kings Indian or a different type  of opening and you can trade that dark squared   bishop and you will have an advantage so that's  kind of a weakness of an empty set of squares or   if your opponent takes that's not quite an empty  set of squares considering there's a physical pawn   there but you will use this kind of weakness  to attack the King okay so in the next example   we're going to take a look at the game that I  had I was playing with the black pieces here   this was many many years ago and my opponent in  this position had a very nice advantage from the   opening and began an attack on the dark squares  how do you notice that the dark squares are weak   well if a person has a bunch of pawns on the light  squares like this likely the opposite color square   will be weakened you know if this pawns even here  that already is a little bit of a balance but if   there's a bunch of pawns on the same color square  then the corresponding square set of squares I   should say will be a little bit weaker and so in  this position to secure a really big grasp on e5   and potentially get a knight there to do a lot of  damage Queen g3 was played now that move attacks   the knight in the corner if Knight d7 Knight f3  and that's exactly what my opponent is planning   to do so I tried to fight back here with the  move Knight h5 but my opponent found a very   nice tactical continuation it's also important  to note that when you have such a dominance over   like a set of squares like for example the dark  squares which will lead to the king that will   ultimately result in you being too able to attack  actual pawns or potentially change your game plan   entirely and attack the other you know color of  square so if you're attacking on the dark squares   it's gonna be too hard to control and the light  squared weakness is gonna pop out so 95 check   takes and now my opponent takes this because  it was attacking his knight the dark square   control is still very significant he trades and  again the King is wide open now the King can be   considered a weakness but it's you know the king  is only considered weak if there is a direct way   to attack it right now it's not so obvious how  you're gonna attack this King but you notice   it's stuck on the F file so if the King is stuck  on the F file how are we gonna get to the King correct you are going to play the move f3 and you  have to open up this position and attack with your   rook or potentially short castles now that's a  pawn play idea but we'll have a video on pomp lay   in and of itself but in the game you'll notice  that I try to Castle by hand but notice what I   said about so many pawns on the same color square  six LightSquared pawns it means that the dark   squares are really weak so what does my opponent  do here well first he kind of baits my queen to   an awkward square and then he tries to open the  position but right here he plays a very important   move my last defender of the dark squares is the  dark squared Bishop and so he offers a trade and   using this dominance on the dark squares he will  then bring in his queen and put pressure on all   of my other weaknesses so when you have such a  dominance and the King is such a weakness you   need to try to find ways to trade off the pieces  that cover those squares and then open up the   lines and get to the King I ended up losing this  game in very very convincing fashion I would say   so just wanted to show a game where I was kind of  on the the receiving end of a beatdown in the next   game I actually had the black pieces and this is  another game against a subscriber it's just out   of the opening but here my opponent played to move  a four and so a four tries to stop me from playing   the move b5 that's the direct idea of this move  a four what does a four weaken and for the next   few examples we're not gonna be talking about  a weak King but we will be talking about weak   squares and how they can damage something in the  middle game so the move a4 weakens this square   now if I just go there and start attacking stuff  he has a tactic because my King is still stuck in   the center of the board so that would not work so  what I did in the game is that I castled and then   I set up this move so my opponent led would be  one and I played rook c8 I could have just played   Queen before but I played rook c8 and on the next  move I played Queen before so my queen stands on   that Square it's not it's a very firm grasp it  would be much better for him if his pawn was   here and there is pressure on all three of these  pawns I then use the C file to stack my pieces and   then right here another instructive moment my  opponent played b3 that move puts three pawns   on light squares so they're all defending each  other however when that pawn push happened he's   significantly weakened then I don't see three  so black to move and pause the video here you   can try to find a tactic as a result of that move  the knight has a lot less cushion and the Queen is   pressuring that rook is pressuring I mean takes d4  now Knight takes d4 is also possible and the idea   is basically this if this trade happens at the end  of it that last pawn move weakened this and we get   in and we're doing damage the other examples we  were taking advantage of weeked pieces or squares   and trying to get to a king in this example we are  doing something more along the lines of a middle   game okay we are just trying to get to what well  I should say we're not trying to get to the king   we're just trying to pick up a little bit of  material in the next game I also had the black   pieces and I was playing against a very strong  Grandmaster Lazaro bruising and I just played the   move g5 and then for the next seven or eight moves  he made me look like an absolute amateur so first   things first this is a more advanced version  of creating a weakness but he fights against   these pawns and makes me make my F pawn weak so  watch what he plays f4 say I don't understand how   this is such a problem well I took he captures  this way and now I have a bit of a difficult   situation because if I take like this he plays he  takes with a knight and my point is isolated in a   weak and he's controlling the light squares in the  territory so instead of doing that what I played   was efore so what is the weakness in this position  the weakness is this pawn you say okay how is he   ever gonna attack that well first things first  he chips away at d3 with d3 at my e4 pawn but   using pont like gets that defense out of the way i  tried to reinforce and create some tactics on this   diagonal so he plays bishop here it's my rook and  you might say well how does that make any sense   why would he make your rook come this way because  that move allowed him to defend his queen with his   rook and then he takes another very natural move  pawn takes e4 right because otherwise my pawn is   just collapsing he trades the Queens and offers me  a trade of rooks and he's doing this because I'm   not very developed on this side of the board so I  declined the trade now if you've been focusing in   this video you can very easily figure out where  are the weaknesses where are the weaknesses in   the black position they are not really empty  squares you could say that this is a weakness   it's kind of a weakness where are the physical  weaknesses in this position for the black side that's and that's now watch how simply he destroys  me using the concept of positional weaknesses very   simple move Bishop h3 how am I going to defend  against Knight to d4 well if I play Knight to c6   this weakness he Hobson and there's just simply  no way for me to defend it and when he takes on   c7 I'm just going to lose let's not forget rookie  7 there is this so by playing Bishop h3 he puts   me in an extremely uncomfortable position so I  played c6 to prevent Knight d5 but then he just   played Knight d4 I tried to get in the way of this  Bishop and when he makes this trade he gives me   a new weakness which is very effortless play here  from from bruise own he just trades the bishop for   the knight and in doing so dislodge as a defender  and that's it there's just no way for me to guard   this pawn effortless play and he wins the pawn  and then he went on to win a completely easy   game you can see this game I played it in 2016  millionaire opened here and on the easter east   coast of the United States it was not a very good  game it was my worst game of the tournament and he   made me look like a fool and he did it with very  simple play fixed my pawn and then chipped away   at my pawn structure and left me with a very tart  you know a very easy target on f5 now let's say   you've gotten this far in the video and whether  it's attacking the king or just attacking a   structure we're gonna use this as a test position  take a look at this position it's a queenless   middle game with one set of minor pieces traded  Bishop for night I had this position against a   good friend of mine and subscriber Kings Indian  2,200 blacks a move how would you take advantage   of the weaknesses in White's position and really  where are the weaknesses how do you see through   all these pieces and and find them and find the  weaknesses in the position the weaknesses are   going to be right here those two central pawns  now I'll tell you what I played I took and a   regardless of how my opponent was going to capture  I opened up this file and my next move was going   to be long castles with some pressure he went  like this I traded and I figured that he wouldn't   take with the rook not that there's anything wrong  with it but if I just Castle it's very awkward to   defend this pawn he actually doesn't really have  a convenient way to do it because if he brings out   his king I'm pretty sure this rook is gonna get  trapped just can't go back anymore so he took with   the pawn and obviously I long castled and here he  attacked my bishop so you look around the position   and you go what's weak well I only see one  thing that's weak and it's this so I attacked it   he defended I mean he can go rookie - he can go  rook f1 in the game he chose 94 but this move   created a new weakness the e5 pawn and I played  Bishop d4 and actually it's it's sort of rare   you have a central fork like this but black is  simply winning upon here and after winning this   pawn everything else in the position collapsed  that move pawn push weakens the bishop and so   if he had played something like h3 this is a  weakness I told you at the very beginning right   very beginning just because something is only  guarded by the king doesn't mean it's guarded   it can very well be a weakness and Bishop a6 here  picks up this material because if rook e3 there's   more tactics so the bishops are just super super  vicious in this position now I actually didn't   play the the right approach actually in this  position there's a really really cool idea to   destroy my opponent on the dark squares he does  not have a dark squared Bishop so check out this   I can make this trade and then in this position to  attack the central pawns I have a very cool move   c5 so basically if he takes this I take this  and I win the night because of the pin right   if he like pushes or something well then this  this is just a free pun okay and if he takes   this way again the central pawns are falling so  something like ninety five and there's a threat   of this and there's a threat of this and black  is simply winning upon so Bishop takes f3 and   c5 is a way you combine the most advanced kind  of weaknesses in chess which are like not even   empty square or physical weaknesses but color  scheme weaknesses like you remove the knight   with Bishop takes f3 which is a very strange  move because it opens up the rook but these   dark squared pawns in the center don't have  a way of being well protected well that was   a lot of examples let me know your thoughts on  weaknesses maybe what what you might think your   biggest weaknesses when it comes to chess in the  comments below and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 464,293

Keywords: gotham chess, how to get better at chess, how to get good at chess, chess strategy, chess middlegame

Id: YKEXns2Ed_0

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 16 2020