Climbing the Rating Ladder: 1600-1800

hey guys this is John and welcome to the fifth installment of climbing the rating ladder we are back today and we are playing players in the 1600 to 1800 rating range in this video and I'm opening with a open Sicilian wall a Sicilian I should say it wasn't necessarily an open Sicilian at that point against basic offski eight sixteen twelve and this should be a good opportunity to get perhaps a main line position I'm going to play knight c6 here this is the classical Sicilian we'll see how white responds I don't have any recommendations as far as specific Sicilian lines to play because there's just a constellation of variations you could play yourself in this opening this very rich opening I'm going to play e5 here and attack that knight on d4 so you should just try to find an opening that suits your style some people like sharper stuff like the dragon or the knight orph I myself have always tended towards a bit more positional and slower lines to the Sicilian like the classical Sicilian and also I think the Sicilian con is one variation that fits that fits the bill a little bit less theory but it's such a good opening it offers a little something for everyone so we're going to look for in players at the 1600 to 1800 rating range is just how they treat the strategic game differently because I think that's the biggest difference you'll see players at this level have a better grasp of how chests should be played properly and I think that's going to manifest itself in the games we're going to see less random style positions and just the games that can take many different directions which is sort of the unpredictable nature you get at lower levels so here we have opposite side castling and the proscription in an opposite side castling position is usually a pawn storm so a mutual pawn storm and for that reason I'm going to play a5 and look to attack on his Queen side and he's doing the same g4 so I can play a4 and chase that night from b3 I don't see a downside of doing that in fact it's going to drive the knight all the way back to a1 because these other squares are occupied yeah so I can keep going if I want I can play pawn to a3 I think I'll do that because now I'm shattering their Queen side pawn structure almost certainly this knight on c3 will become weak yeah he pushes the beep on so now this Knight is only defended by the Queen probably rook c8 makes sense just lining up my rope with our King they can push g5 but I can always run away with my knight like to h5 if I want to try to block the King side a little bit yeah let's play rip CA but elements that I think will be more important at this level and I know to be more important at this level are pawn structure positional play planning time management becomes more important so I'm going to try not to let my clock run down like I have in the past he plays h4 so looking to storm with the H pawn as well I can play Knight b4 now and if I play Knight before I've actually setting up the threat of rook takes c3 so I really like to look at that move I'll do that also if this Knight moves we're getting that pawn on a - potentially so let's see if he notices the threat of rook takes c3 looks like he did not okay so he just kept barreling ahead with his plan over on the Kings side but I can take and he's unable to recapture because if Knight takes a to check forking the king and the Queen it is important when you sense that an opposite side castle ink position is brewing or especially after it's already occured that you adjust your mindset and you start thinking about ways to attack your opponent and if that's not possible ways to defend your own King because you're probably going to get attacked on the way that you've castled so you needed to spend a little bit more time there I think considering what I was up to after night before because I played a move venturing into his half of the board and he just didn't adjust for that so he plays g5 attacking my knight I could take on a2 with check although after King a king to b1 he's attacking that night and also this Knight is under attack this rook is immune from capture as we've established so I could actually just move my knight back it can also maybe play Knight efore f takes e4 shakes III with the idea of Queen takes e3 Bishop takes g5 however I don't just want to leave that the opportunity to play that you know we always have to consider the lines that we're going to play carefully especially if they're sharp lines and if Knight takes e4 F takes e4 rook takes c3 he can play this move Queen takes b4 so I think based on all of that I should just move this Knight back and even though it's a defensive move I am still up a piece and nothing really has changed moreover I can maybe threaten rook takes e3 on the next move he plays g6 so notice how I haven't moved any of these pawns yet I really had stuff going on the Queen side so I didn't have to resort to moving them but in not moving these pawns it's taken white a long time to make contact with my pawn structure so he's had to move the pawns all the way down to h5 and g6 in order to do that and I still will not take I'm actually in a play rook takes III now actually you know what I'm gonna go I mouse slip there hahaha I do that sometimes alright well that'll be interesting I meant to put the rook back on c3 and play Knight takes a two check and attack his King great John great yeah definitely meant to play Knight takes a two check King b1 and then rook takes III although actually that would not have been good because if Queen takes my night would be stranded I should have just played rook takes c3 okay well I'm gonna try to come back from a little material deficit now he takes I'm not going to take that pawn because this pawn actually provides me nice shelter it stops him from being able to assault me down the H well now I'll have to play a little bit creatively no I'm going to do after he takes my rook I'm going to try to break in the center with d5 I'm just going to try to open it up because my knight on b4 will be attacked can no longer be defended by anything so I'm going to try to play d5 and open this up so instead of having to convert a piece up position I'm not looking at a material deficit but this gives me an opportunity to talk about shifting your mindset so when a good player makes a mistake in a position and they know it what do they do do they despair about the mistake that they make do they say what was me and start thinking about you know whether they're going to withdraw from the tournament or or whether they're going to take out their anger on the next opponent they play No what they do is they immediately shift their mindset and they try to think about how to make the best of a bad situation okay that's very important that you do that it's a characteristic of all strong players they don't go down easily if they make a mistake a grandmaster will simply assess the position objectively acknowledge the mistake and look at how they can best repair the damage I don't think that comes as any secret you know any top player in any discipline will do that they'll rally and try to make up for the fact that they've made a mistake and they'll not make excuses for it but I see many players just despairing and writing off a game instantly because they made a mistake and like I said last time as soon as you start reacting emotionally to what's occurring in a game then errors are going to creep in you're bound to make mistakes okay so he's play group t1 lining up on the g7 pawn I don't see any immediate threat he's ignored my d5 advance I could play d4 and just see what he intends to do with that Bishop could also play Queen c7 I kind of like that move because it attacks the c2 pawn yeah let's play Queen c7 so maybe I can get this rook over to c8 it is possible white might try some tricks involving the g7 pawn like say Bishop h6 trying to get me to take it so if Bishop h6 G takes h6 Queen takes h6 white would be threatening Queen g7 mate but they are kind of leaving the defense of c2 the night does cover it the thing is that Bishop h6 I don't even have to take their Bishop I could play Bishop f6 myself so he plays Bishop g5 looking for a trade so if I take you can take with the Queen and threaten mate because once again this pawn is covered here I could play Knight a to check King b1 Knight c3 check now that my queen is here supporting that probably for still I should play f6 yeah let's play f6 just to take this Bishop back we'll save that night a two-night c3 idea for a moment perhaps but shifting your mindset and being able to play a position where you're winning brilliantly and one in which you're hopelessly lost and approaching it with the same baseline let's say the same mental baseline is extremely important and that will benefit you at every level of your chest career I kind of think of it like when you're looking at a position in your own game you you should be able to approach it like it's just a game you walk by in a tournament you know you're playing in a tournament hall in a competition and there's many other players around you and when you get up for a stroll you take a break from your game and you walk around you go look at it bored unless it's like you're somehow invested in the game like you know one of the players or you know some backstory about the game you're just going to look at the position objectively from unbiased and point and you won't prioritize looking at one move or another because of some emotional factor you'll just do your best to figure out what's going on so he takes um taking what the bishop looks pretty good it is defended by my knight here and I still want to play Knight a to check and Knight to c3 which I could do again 90 to check King b1 Knight c3 check King c1 I take here now I'm still going to do this I think I keep all my threats I think that's still going to be available alright so we place Bishop back to e3 this is still an option and it looks like a good one so yeah let's give a check here so King b1 is forced he shouldn't waste any time on that move she's just play it like you did queen c3 is also possible threatening made on b2 then you'd have to take my queen Knight takes c3 king c1 Knight takes D one King takes d1 I have Bishop takes f3 check at the end of that line hmm so it's either that or play Knight c3 check King c1 Knight takes D 1 immediately which is also looking pretty good I like the clarity that this line offers though so I'm going to do that I see that I can win that f3 pawn at the end of the line I like that because then h5 is weak h7 is likely to fall in the endgame I still have this very nice past a pawn so I'm playing for some simplifications not a bad thing to do if your equilibrium has been disturbed earlier because I wonder so just try to simplify the position a bit so I'm happy you should probably go back to c1 be really nice to bring my bishop in and attack that night in the corner also I'd like to get my Brooke involved like maybe bring it over to c8 hmm place king d2 instead and let's just grab this pawn hanging pawn on h5 you can put the bishop on d3 but I have three connected pawns from the G file through the e-file now and I can start advancing them like f5 if needed I'm up two pawns right now Bishop c5 looks like a pretty good mood to simplify as well maybe Knight c5 in addition it's gone Knight c5 supported by our Bishop on e7 in choosing your openings you should definitely try to gauge the amount of risk you're comfortable and accepting if I were to categorize myself I'm definitely on the risk-averse end of the spectrum not overly so like I don't play super conservatively but I like openings where my King is not getting attacked where I have a clear plan I don't just feel like I have to rely on pure calculation all the time and in that sense I don't think I'm a a normal Sicilian player most players who play the Sicilian thrive in complicated positions that's kind of the modus operandi for Sicilian players and that's why a lot of people start playing that opening to begin with although as I've said this Sicilian offers a little for everyone so it's hard to just categorize all Sicilian players as those who like tactics or calculation or whatnot but um if you find yourself more like me and you like calm positions and you don't want to have have to deal with mutual attacks against Kings all the times then maybe openings like the caro-kann or a 45 is black defending like in the Royal PES those are more your type of openings so King c3 this Knight is still having a really hard time getting in the game I could play g6 here just ask his bishop what he wants to do that's a pretty good move so let's do it he'll probably bring it back to h3 if I had to guess and actually that I have met you for which is mate incidentally yeah his King has nowhere to go so our pawn on a3 takes away the B to square our rook is monitoring the D file and our bishops do a great job of holding c4 and b4 it's a nice little checkmate so let's go back and review this game for a moment so I played the classical Sicilian as I've said in a previous video if an opening has a classical variation within it it's probably not a bad idea to take a look at that we're focused on playing fundamentally sound chess in the series and classical variations are classical for a reason it's probably been established long ago that it's a reasonable way of playing for one or both sides and you might want to look into those lines because old masters and great analysts and decades of tournament practice has probably shown that it's a reliable line and ninety-six is the classical variation so f3 a big choice that Sicilian player space is often whether to put the pawn on e6 or e this is not true for some lines like for instance the dragon very rarely would you put upon an e5 but in many structures you do face this situation whether to play e6 or a 5 I play it both ways I generally actually prefer to put the pawn on e6 because that covers all four of these squares along the fifth-ranked f v e5 d5 c5 whereas a 5 when that move is played you do leave this glaring weakness on d5 so once this white knight moves this square can no longer be defended by a black pawn so black gains a bit more space by pushing a 5 at the trade-off of giving white potential access to the d5 square so let me reload this game and just try to highlight a couple points but after E 5 we both made some standard developing moves so I played a5 and like I said you should have a game plan as soon as the game starts to appear that it's going to go into an opposite side castling situation even before that ideally like when I Castle short I should do that with the full knowledge that he very well might go long in the future as he did in the game and start attacking me so what did i do I just immediately began preparing counter play against his King so a5 he played g4 I kind of got the jump on jump on him a little bit it might make sense for him to consider a four to stop me from pushing my a pawn down the board I could try to put my knight in to b4 then it would it would it would be annoying for him to chase that night away as play though I like the game that I got because I feel like this pawn on a3 is always going to be pesky he's already moved one pawn around his King so his king position has been compromised to an extent um he said in the chat why you give rook odds yeah that was a non intentional base of Kowski I assure you yeah and here you know players at the 1600 to 1800 range will not be immune to blenders and nobody is I've said that many times throughout this series but when I play night before his sense of danger just failed him for a moment he did not see the threat of rook takes c3 he probably saw that my knight was eyeing the a to pawn and he probably saw that it was defended by his knight but I'm guessing he just didn't look any further than that but when you're getting attacked and your opponents are playing aggressive moves into your half of the board especially don't just take it for granted that your first sight observations about their threats are the totality of their threats they might have other things that they're considering so yeah h5 was completely ignoring my play dr. rook takes c3 he's essentially losing the game because if Queen takes c3 like I said Knight takes a to check Forks the king and queen so he went g5 I played Knight back to d7 I briefly considered the slide rook takes III Queen takes III I was at night takes I was at this line no I'm sorry it was a Knight takes e4 F takes e4 then rip takes III hoping for Queen takes c3 Bishop takes g5 with a skewer but the problem with that line is that he has Queen takes b4 he does not have to take the rook on a III and here I still have a very nice position but I'm no longer up a pure piece appear minor piece so again let me scroll back to that sorry when I reload the game it goes right back to the beginning that's just something chess con does I don't have any control over that unfortunately so after g5 I just kept it simple 97 and like I said it's very nice for black that I haven't moved any of these pawns that makes it harder for way to make contact with my pawn structure they have to come all the way down the board spend all these moves h4 g4 h v g5 before they can make contact whereas if I let's say let's say I had gotten spooked by his pushing the pawns on the Kings side I had made a move like h6 or something that makes a lot easier for him to offer upon trade upon break to open the position because he wants to open lines against my king these pawns are my best defenders of my king them to sit right where they are I would only make a single pawn move if I knew it was for a particular purpose otherwise I think it's just going to accelerate White's attack so yeah he played g6 and then yeah I was thinking about rook takes III followed by Knight takes a two which would actually not have been good but instead I put the rook back on the square and immediately blundered with this but this gave us a good opportunity to talk about mindset shifting and even though I was down in exchange which if you don't know what that is that's being down a rook for a minor piece so your opponent has a rook but you have an extra minor piece it's being an exchange down in exchange sacrifices where you give up one of your works for one of your opponent's minor pieces so even though I'm down the exchange the position is still very sharp and I succeeded in getting that material back with this fork situation that I set up and I've also talked about how when you spot a good idea you want to try different permutations of that same idea or combination and this is a good example right here because after king v1 I could play Knight c3 check and just go win the rook but if I just play Knight c3 right away I'm missing the opportunity to play the move that I played which is Queen c3 which accomplishes a similar thing he has to take it otherwise he's going to get may done b2 but in doing so I simplified the game I bring a bit more stability to the position and I was able to gobble a couple pawns right after that after which I'm up to pawns so always try to maintain a level state of mind when you're playing so rook takes b3 even though that was a gross blunder I just laughed about it for a little bit and then got on with the game there's no use in crying over such a move okay I'm currently looking for another game we'll see what we find while we're waiting I think you can you can consider playing d6 on move 2 in the Sicilian that's very popular but if you want you can also look at be 6 on move - or even knight c6 e for c5 Knight f3 Knights six so have your Matt is the second opponent he opens with be four okay so we're encountering an unusual opening this is the orangutan or also known as the skull ski opening he plays b4 followed by Bishop b2 I'm just going to play Bishop f5 when you're facing an unusual opening you can usually respond in in two ways you can try to fight fire with fire and play unusually in reply so hoping to refute their opening or get the game into something truly crazy or you can adapt like a normal setup and just go about your business and essentially like shrug your shoulders that your opponent trying to throw you off with something you may not have seen before and that's what I'm doing right here I'm developing in a way that is familiar to me I play this set up against other openings too and I like it a lot for black because I've played the bishop out to f5 already and I played six so my light square bishop is not stuck inside the pawn chain and yes he's gained a little space on the queenside he has a fee antenna bishop but overall his position is nothing to write home about so that's the that's the approach I usually opt for when playing against unusual openings i just tried to develop normally and i don't go out of my way to refute them unless i think there's a clear refutation okay he plays Bishop to d3 this is a little weird blocking his deep on I can take and after Queen takes I can push a 5 I like the look of that taking over the center even though I'm making another pawn move I'm threatening efore so he'll have to address that you can play Queen f5 and attack my e5 pawn again but I have this move just reinforcing this guy I figured with the two central pawns I'm looking quite good here so here I plan to castle and if you want to pause your video consider which way I should castle if you were black what would you do ok I'm going to Castle kingside I like castling kingside because if I Castle queenside he already has kind of a premade Khan storm having pushed to CBN a pawns whereas I wouldn't have anything going against his King and I've already taken over the center so I feel pretty good about so I don't see any reason to castlelong and make the game truly wild I'm happy with the position I have now so d3 this pawn on c5 is a bit overextended so I'm looking at playing b6 in order to attack it I think Ricky AIT's a pretty good move to over protection of the e5 pawn hmm decisions decisions I like b6 though if b6 and he takes it I can take with my a pond and then F save rook c1 attacking this undefended pawn on c6 I can push c5 yeah let's do that I'll play b6 that's one problem in pushing your pawns into your opponent's side of the board early on is often they can get overextended and they're liable to become undermined so b6 he can play d4 looking to defend that pawn but if he does that he would block his Bishop so I'm going to take towards the center you know he just develops makes sense let's play rook f e8 assign this rip to do something useful I think protecting this pawn once again will be nice because it frees up one of my other pieces my queen my knight or my bishop putting a rook on c1 makes a lot of sense for him so he does it I can play c5 c5 looks pretty good yeah let's do that if pawn takes it could take with my pawn can also take with the knight now that that Knight is not needed to defend e5 but I think I'll take with the pawn and open the B file up I like my pawn Center and it's reinforced nicely so this should be good despite the unusual opening my opponent has played solid so far hasn't committed any big blunders I'm not threatening to take on b4 because my bishop on c7 is undefended behind this rook you might consider playing efore to try to strike back at my center d4 would also be interesting but I don't think he'll play d4 because say I take with my e pawn and then he recaptured with his he pond I could play c4 then and I would have a protected passed pawn on the c-4 square also his dark square bishop would be blocked out and he wants to keep this long diagonal open so in that sense efore would make more sense as a strike against the center either immediately or maybe after he captures on c5 I'm going to try to stick with the five five time control last time I mixed in a couple shorter games towards the end and it definitely was a bit more chaotic so I think five five is a pretty good time control he does play e4 as expected okay so I think d4 is fine I'm a little disappointed that I have to give up the c-4 square like you can now access that with this Knight but I am happy that this bishop is blocked out of the game so it's currently staring at a row of black pawns two connected pawns is a great way to block out an enemy Bishop fYI if you didn't know that he slowed down a lot I actually kind of liked his time management so you'll see higher rated players playing quickly in openings when they're comfortable with it but they tend to slow down when the position becomes more complex usually after castling when a plan needs to be formulated for either side and each force seems a little random I mean they might be looking to move their queen and then get the knight in to f5 that's a possibility again I can't take on b4 I'd love to do that but my bishop is hanging thinking of a few different moves I can play my knight back to f8 and maybe look to play C takes b4 in the future my queen is now monitoring that bishop I could play g6 attacking their queen I sort of like the knight f8 move so I'm going to do it maybe I can put this knight on g6 they might be moving the knight in hopes of playing f4 at some point but given that I can play it takes f4 and reply don't see that being an issue okay so here I can play C takes before a takes before Queen takes b4 is I'd be attacking not only the bishop but also the night on D - the thing is you can take here so C takes before a takes before Queen takes b4 let's say rook takes c7 and I can take on either B 2 or D 2 if I take on B 2 that night C 4 comes with tempo which would attack my queen and also this pawn so maybe taking out d 2s decent but then he has moves like Bishop to c1 I'm not sure he sees that C takes b4 as a possibility but um it looks a bit unclear to me I could play C takes before a takes b4 rook a - that would be very interesting maybe that's a better way of playing well let's play that and I think almost certainly he'll recapture I can still play Queen takes b4 if I want I'm just not quite sold on that line Queen takes b4 Brooke take c7 Queen takes d2 but then if the bishop was I do win d3 ok I didn't see initially that I would win d3 in that case maybe it's fine so I'm spending a little time because this is a forcing line and I can see it several moves in that's the benefit of looking at forcing lines they allow you to see the future in the most reliable way so Queen takes b4 rook takes e7 Queen takes d2 attacking the bishop his Rick is on the seventh rank so I'm a little worried that you might be able to attack f7 in some capacity but I don't see that happening so I think this is safe to play so I'm going to go ahead and do it I have a minute and a half to my opponents 3 minutes and 10 seconds roughly but with so many pieces potentially attacking my king I will have to tread carefully a queen and Knight combination around your king is always dangerous so if he gets a chance to play something like Queen to g5 and night into f5 I could be hurting very quickly but I noticed that my not on f8 provides great defensive potential like if Queen g5 right now I know you probably wouldn't play that with a hanging bishop here but if Queen g5 I could always play 96 which is a great move to attack the Queen and reinforce g7 and also defend c7 - I suspect he will take on c7 because the alternatives don't look too good it's a double attack the only way to defend both pieces is rip - see - that invites rook a two-night c4 see I think that might run afoul of b5 although he might have in mind b5 Bishop a3 rep takes a three Knight takes you three queen takes a three and then takes e7 at the end that would be clever okay nice job if you saw that hobby you're met so I'm just going to play this then creep a little bit closer with my queen I still have the idea b5 but I'm also looking at that deep on as well I like this move a creepy-crawly move inch a little bit closer okay so he's clearly trying to grow night at five with that move there's no doubt about it you wouldn't just randomly put his queen in front of my king with no backup so let's play our intended defensive move can also take d3 but 9f5 is a bit annoying maybe I can play Knight g6 then maybe night g6 is a decent way to defend so let's calculate my first instinct was 96 but I'm thinking Queen takes d3 might be fine Queen takes d3 Knight f5 Knight g6 yeah we're pretty solid there there's also that b5 move - okay I like this one with our 35 seconds that seems straightforward I also like the idea of kind of getting the Queen closer back to my King in order to defend I can also play 96 now he has Knight h6 check but I can just I can just sidestep King f8 yeah there's nothing wrong with that famous last words right this is safe to do now but I think this is alright 96 and as I said our Knight is such a great defensive piece when I drop the knight back to f8 I was kind of reminded of the famous chest saying night on f8 there is no mate so a knight around your King can be a valuable resource I think 96 or 96 says I've played here both were fine just be trying to watch our time a little bit but after his Queen moves almost certainly I'm going to collect this pawn on e4 like say Queen h4 I'm going to play Queen takes e4 okay so he played not one I'm just going to sidestep over here so I was Queen and his knight are under attack he's hitting f7 with his knight but his Queen cannot join the assault on that square because Queen h5 just drops the Queen so now he's going to have to move as his Queen so something like Queen h4 after which I'll probably just play queen takes e4 because if I take on h6 trying to win a piece he does have Queen takes f6 so the easiest way to simplify now I think is this move offer a queen trade Bishop a3 check all right we can just block with this could also take on a3 but now let's block this way safer reason why I was thinking about taking on a3 is after like Knight takes a three Queen takes h4 we trade maybe then I could take but actually I think in that line my bishop on c7 would have hung I don't actually it wouldn't have because my knight on e6 was defending hmm so maybe I could have played rook takes a three this should be fine two knights a little shaky on c5 it is pinned by the bishop but I don't see how he can take advantage of that if Knight takes b6 we can always take with our bishop okay so he's just retreating hmm yeah I'm just going to take our kings going to go for a little bit of a walk but I think it's alright wrap a piece you maybe should try something like Knight takes b6 just because otherwise I'm going to be out material and almost certainly just winning soon f4 ok let's play to simplify a little bit getting a little strange here I'll just take he's pinned along the file so even though I'm opening up my King I think I can always slip back to f8 if need be he's low on time too pretty volatile position I mean I wish I had a little bit more time but I think given the material advantage my king safety issue is not going to be a problem I'm very interested to see though in this series if someone will beat me is I think it could happen I think it definitely could happen especially my plan is to make a 2002 2200 video I memory capture this way so my work on a is undefended let's just play simple g3 is protected by my bishop but uh you know players in the 2000 to 2200 rating range can certainly beat me if I'm not playing my my strongest game my a game so he said GG so I'll just tell him good game back let's go back and have a look so he played the orangutan b4 and I like this setup this is a setup that I use against a lot of openings too I even use it against a kingside fianchetto you play g5 and then you bring the light square Bishop outside the pawn chain and only then do you play e6 I mentioned in an earlier video in the series that a lot of people up playing six with a pawn on d5 unnecessarily and they lock in their Bishop and then they soon have problems figuring out how to develop that piece so you don't want to do that voluntarily it's good to just get the bishop outside the chain if possible often the deciding factor on whether you can get the bishop outside the chain is how much pressure there is on your d5 pawn if you were attacking my d5 pawn like with the c4 pawn ala a Queens gambit let's say maybe then I have to play e6 for reinforcements or just timewise I don't have the time to get Bishop f5 in but he's not pressuring my center whatsoever so I can afford to develop in a way that I feel comfortable with and I like this setup I like how these pawns support d5 it's a pretty simple setup to play he advanced c5 I drop the bishop back to c7 because I think it'll be more effective on this diagonal if I put the bishop back on e7 I'm just staring at this brick wall of pawns so Bishop c7 like Queen b3 I was just trying to complete my development and even though I made another pawn move I think it's worth it because it comes with a threat efore I'm also taking over the center I have a nice pawn duo up here he did play well though I think he did a good job of not making any huge mistake I think when we had this tension on the c5 and the B for squares he perhaps miss assess it especially once my queen was helping to defend a bishop because now the C takes b4 move was possible whereas previously a move ago with the night on d7 I could not play that move because if work takes c7 but after Knight f8 it should click with him that my bishop is no longer under undefended maybe he saw that the Queen was trying to defend and also take the B for pawn but maybe he just cut his calculations out there and didn't look at the implications of the Queen taking and him also having weak pieces I'll say it again on defended pieces or a magnet for tactics if you want to reduce tactical shots against your position defend your pieces don't give your opponent anything to to bite on and here Knight see for this was kind of an interesting moment because I could play b5 here try to drive away his Knights go after that Bishop but I think he might have been planning this move Bishop a3 attacking my queen so counter-attack and if I take with my rook and the knight takes a three queen takes the bishop on c7 is hanging and from that sequence I have lost the exchange of gone Donna rook for a knight so nice bit of tricky calculation there by him if you saw that so instead I just played this Queen to d3 move I can also maybe come back with my queen like queen e7 although I guess he might play Bishop a3 even in that case I was just trying to get out a weak point on defended pawn on d3 and it got a little dicey he set up the queen Knight attack on g7 but this Knight is such a great defender coming to either g6 or e6 that's I don't think my position was ever in too much danger Bishop a3 check decent try and maybe could have played Queen rook takes a three here actually the way that would work is rook takes a three and if Knight takes a three I can swap on h4 he has to take back and then take here I saw that but I thought that at the end of this line my bishop would be hanging but thanks to my great night on e6 it is not so I would just be out material at the end I have two minor pieces against his rook and I'm also up three bonds so this would be essentially winning as played though it transpired that he couldn't really do much with his pin even after I play tonight c5 to block the check here he couldn't really accomplish a whole lot with this pin I was a bit worried with my King out on e7 though not gonna lie maybe here instead of Queen h3 he should have played Queen h4 and tried to pin me although I think Queen h4 I can maybe even do the same thing take probably the only way he's really going to hurt me here is if you can get out that night on c5 if you can like undermine the b6 pawn like undermine the support for that he's got a shot but Queen h3 we take ya take c5 and he just doesn't have enough in the here it's running out of pieces to throw at me okay I'm currently searching for another game so hopefully we get that soon I think I've said pretty much all I need to say on this one this set up as I said it can also be played against a king side fiend keto so if they start with let's say Knight f3 on move one and you want to play d5 in response there's other moves you can play too like Knight f6 or c5 but I like playing d5 and then if they play g3 I'll do something very similar I'll play Bishop f5 Bishop g2 c6 castle II six and look to develop in a similar fashion Knight f6 this Knight coming to d7 nice will be protecting each other Bishop can come out to d6 black has no problems with the bishop being stuck behind a pawn chain there's quite a bit of theory in this line but it's a nice way of proceeding okay machina nine nine nine is our next opponent 1713 he opens with E for let's go back to e5 in this game so we've had one Sicilian now I'm going back to e5 I have three will play knight c6 or trusty defense and Bishop b5 we play a six against that I think you'd probably see more mainline Roy lópez's at this level so Bishop a4 nope he takes on c6 though so he's going to play the exchange variation this player probably knows that Knight takes e5 is not the best move so you place a chief ensive move that stops Bishop g4 it doesn't yet threaten Knight takes e5 because I still will have Queen d4 to regain the pawn so what to do and reply I could play Knight f6 I can play Bishop d6 I could play pawn f6 I think I'll play pawn f6 normally you're not supposed to move this pawn too early in the game I've talked about that before you weaken the diagonal leading towards your King if you guys were little kids I have a chess camp I would say the F pawn stands for forget about it just forget about moving that pond but on I know most people watching this are a little bit older and a lot of you know that you should move the a pond too early so he's offering a trade of Queens I will take him up on that then after Knight takes d4 I'll play Bishop d7 not the greatest square in the world for the bishop this structure it resembles like the Berlin which is also a variation of the Royal apes' but the way you want to think about this pawn structure is that black has the bishop pair but I have some pawn structure damage in return whereas white structure is undisturbed he hasn't created any pawn weaknesses if we were to strip this position of all the pieces except for the kings and the pawns black would be losing that pawn ending because my CC pawns would be discounted white would have a pawn majority from the a file through the e-file and he'd be able to win that most of the time so that should give you a hint about black strategy is I don't want to exchange too many pieces I'm not going to like back down from trades that they're offered but I don't just want to blindly trade down because the long-term implications of that are negative for me here I'm going to castle castling queenside I still have to develop my Kings side he's also has some pieces to develop he still has to catch up in that regard the pace of player is going to be slower because the Queen's are off the board so it's not a big deal that we're both taking our time bringing our pieces out I could move this Bishop out like to c5 or d6 but the way he developed that knight Knight d2 makes me think that at Bishop d6 he's kind of looking at playing Knight c4 so I'm going to bring this knight into the game first before doing anything else I might put it on g6 and then look to bring the bishop out later possibly to e7 pawn five is a move I can consider trying to kick that night away from the middle attack his night just drive it off that would not be a bad move because after C five you can move his night somewhere like let's say back to be three but I can play B six I'm still going to proceed with this plan though just Knight g6 liberate our dark square Bishop maybe I can play Bishop d6 and then get my bishop into f4 later okay now Knight f3 but after Knight f3 what if I play rook e8 so this is suddenly an undefended pawn his knight was defending it there by playing work e8 I can force him right back to the defense of it can also play C 5 is another move just try to drive that night away once again c5 Knight b3 even c4 there is pretty tempting one was simply like b6 if Ricky eight I think he will play Knight back to d2 which is fine I mean it's nice to have induced that maybe I can play Bishop d6 let's do it Bishop d6 I love Bishop d6 Knight f5 alright I'm going to play this move I'm gonna play c5 I just want to kick this Knight I'm very curious where they're going to put that piece I feel like it's a little shaky on f5 because it's only defended by the pond which in turn can be maybe attacked by my rook rook e8 I would like to activate these pawns in the long run I don't just want to sit there with my four versus three indefinitely I want to get my double pawns working for me maybe even trade them off someday okay so Knight back here Bishop b5 is a nice way to pin that night but Bishop b5 we'll just play Rickey you wanna kind of sidestep that pressure let go just play Bishop d6 develop our remaining piece maybe I can bring this work over to e8 and then this rook can stay on the D file even though the D files kind of clogged up it might be open in the future I think the e-file in the D file would be my natural destinations for my rooks I'm happy with my position yeah we'll go rock hg8 now develop hit that pawn on e4 we've succeeded in avoiding trades there's a lot of pieces remaining on the board openings with an early Queen trade in my opinion are kind of maligned by theory but they're actually quite rich a lot of times just because the Queen's come off the board in a position does not mean the game as a dead draw far from it so 92 so he's defending that pawn also maybe he has the ability to play the knight in to c4 I could play b5 and try to put a stop to that indefinitely at least my C pipe c5 pawn a bit weak though is the only thing I could play Bishop e6 try to control the future of his of his Knight I think b5 should be okay though b5 maybe looking to play c4 bishop c6 is a possibility so attacking that pawn again if I can get them to play F 3 F 5 might be a decent reply so candidates here our Bishop e6 Bishop c6 maybe b5 all those moves hmm the immediate f5 I'm a little less enthusiastic about because he does have Bishop c5 as a reply although then I can play Bishop e7 Bishop takes G seven route 87 I solve nice pressure against this pawn hmm maybe that's decent so f5 trying to open the middle what if f5 Knights c4 you could do that as a counter attacking measure against d6 at five nights c4 Bishop back to e7 anyways that holds everything that old c5 okay let's try this so attack that pawn on e4 p takes we're just taking with our Bishop we've looked at it liquidated the center a little bit but I don't mind making a couple pawn exchanges if it means opening diagonals for my bishops so I like to look at that now his C pawn is under fire he should address that if he plays like c3 or c4 though he would weaken the d3 square so he might be hesitant to do that place work c1 kind of a defensive move Bishop e5 you can play Knight c4 again let's come here with our Bishop so attack that pawn on a2 not sure I'm going to take that pawn necessarily because he could play b3 and try to trap it 94 would be an interesting reply right here trying to attack d6 and c5 might behoove me to play b6 and just make sure see fives like always protect it I could have played that on the previous move this move I don't know I don't really like his Knight there for him I think that's a suboptimal square one plan I might have now is after b6 playing a5 and then a 4 you can see how pond play is kind of a focus now because I've opened lines for my pieces but he has most everything covered you look at a scan his position there's not too many weak points whereas I definitely want to activate this majority and get that working pond play and searching for pond breaks is an important part of getting better like appreciating the value of the ponds you don't see it so much at lower levels no in the videos I made of the rating ranges up to a thousand and 1000 to 1200 pond play was something that didn't really crop up much because people were making so many errors with undefended pieces that it often just didn't get to that stage where pond play would even matter but at these higher levels people handle to handle their pieces better and the pond structure can often be a big determinant of the result of the game let's play Bishop here with centralized if this Knight moves then b2 would fall I'm offering a little trade of rooks so he could play rook takes d8 or takes D a trip d1 if you wants to simplify at that point I could play Bishop takes c3 if I wanted and that would shatter his his pawns rather nicely here so I may consider doing that so I have like a positional threat of taking and giving him a bad pawn structure those double isolated pawns that he would have to take on would be even worse than my double bonds at least my see phones are not isolated okay Bishop g5 so he's hitting that rook I'll do this treat this trade right here see which way he takes back you might take with the knight so as to avoid the Bishop takes c3 scenario and keep that pawn on b2 defended too because Knight takes D you on would defend that no piece can allow this though okay so now I see that I can cash in on this exchange and mess up his structure the pawn on c2 is a weakness so is c3 but C 2 is 1 I can immediately attack with Bishop f5 so I like that move I'll probably have to assign his rook to defend it like rook d2 or rook c1 and now I could give a check and forces King up to h2 but not sure I'm really gaining much from that I think I like just pawn h6 right here and then after Bishop e3 I can play my Knight to g5 if you notice my pawn structure I have every single pawn on a dark square except for this a pawn which can come up to a 5 potentially that bodes well in playing against his dark square bishop I like that situation I don't want my pawns on opposite color on a the opposite color of his Bishop because even though I would be avoiding those ponds they would they would not be under attack he would be seated like all the dark squares like if these are all light squares my dark squares would be very weak so I'm trying to make up for the fact that I don't have a dark square Bishop by putting those pawns on dark squares rook d5 he's letting the c2 pond go with that move he's hitting me five but that's defended by my rook so I don't see why I can't just take this not really worried about a sacrifice on c5 so we banked upon Knight back to d2 this work is looking a little trapped on its current square if I play c6 he has ripped d6 to escape but then I have King up to c7 actually he's trapped as far as I can tell yeah cuz ninety-two he took away the D 2 square d3 is not safety for us not C safe d7 and d8 are definitely not safe nor can he take on e5 so he's having to play rip to d6 and then I have King c7 and laterally his rook has no safe square his knight cannot come to e4 C for them to support it because I've got both of those squares covered so he's going to get caught with his work in the middle yeah and I think he realizes it too otherwise he would have made the mover up d6 right away I don't think I think he's looking for something that he won't be able to find here I reviewed a book on my channel a couple months ago called chest structures by Grandmaster Mauricio Flores it's a book by the publisher quality chess and I very much liked that book as far as pawn structure goes and I think for class players and even players all the way up through my rating level too it's just a great Trevor treasure trove of knowledge about pawn structures and he examines various openings and the resulting structures kind of discusses a little bit of the theory in the openings but kind of uses the openings as a as a starting point for discussing pawn structures so there's chapters on like the French pawn structure Kings Indian pawn structure he tries to cover and categorize all the major pawn structures that's something that makes sense to look at when you're rising up the rating ladder I think once you get to about 1600 beyond that would benefit you to start taking those things more seriously he is just timing down right now doesn't look like he has anything he's probably going to time out we moved just in time but now we're hitting him with this move yeah I think that's it so we won okay so going back in this one we had a another royal Pez exchange variation which we've seen a couple times and we want to take with the D pawn you played h3 the best move here is castles castles threatens Knight takes e5 so it's good to just whisk the King away to safety after h3 I think I have a wide choice like I said I don't even have to defend the pawn on e5 fine I want to I could play something like Bishop d6 or maybe Bishop c5 even yeah because Knight takes e5 which is back fire and view of Queen d4 I played f6 because this is a reliable way of protecting that pawn and I know like on his next move maybe after he castles he would be threatening Knight takes e5 so it's not a bad idea to protect it anyways but most of the time if you're playing upon F pawn move early in the game whether you're white or black you should have a very specific reason for it I know the the bird and the Dutch players out there would disagree but for improving players I would mostly stay away from moving your F pawn in the opening until you know what you're doing and as I said blacks should be aware of the implications of trades when you have a worse pawn structure so it's almost like having a material deficit you know it's almost like I have to treat this as a pawn down position in terms of trades because any trade I do brings way closer to a pawn endgame and potentially winning because of my crippled C pawns so I want to rely on my bishop pair gonna rely on counter attacking opening the position a little bit if possible for that bishop pair activating my majority so that it's not just a lane majority in the endgame those are the things I'm focusing on here and I think he he got a little bit tangled with his Knights he didn't find like good circuits for his Knights and that really cost him in the long run in this one didn't really make like an outright blunder until the end of the game but uh already allowing this this Bishop takes c3 capture hurt him a bit I think he maybe should have played a knight takes one as our capture instead of the rook takes d1 recapture after h6 Bishop e3 95 if he hadn't played rook d5 I was planning on bringing the knight in to c4 and attacking that rook anyways then he'd be forced to go to e2 if he wants to defend this pawn and I love my play in that I think my minor pieces would be excellently placed the knight on c4 looks very good attacking the bishop on e3 I could potentially take that Bishop before want to try to inflict further upon structure damage I was talking about having all these pawns at dark squares so I might think about moving my a pawn up the board in an effort to further expand utilize the majority he's a long way from being able to use his three versus two majority so it would have been interesting to see how it would have played out but yeah rip d5 it should take c2 and now he took away a key flight square for his rook allowing me to trap it so I am currently searching for another opponent and we have laying new randos 1744 I'm going to play d4 we've had some requests for d4 and as a hypothetical player moving up the rating matter by this point I might have a better idea of my preferences in chess now I've played some games I'm a little more battle-tested maybe I don't like the craziness of efore openings I'm sick of like trying to take apart the Sicilian every game so in that case you might start dabbling in some of the closed and semi closed games and d4 offers as far as theoretical value equally sound positions as efore you're not sacrificing anything you do have a bit more control over the course of the game and I found that this is true at higher levels d4 players tend to be able to better direct the game into the kind of channels they want I found whereas if you're an e4 player you kind of have to be ready for a little bit of everything you think if the defense is that black has to e4 here I'm going to take this is the grin felt variation we're playing green felt defense now I'm going to play you for just establish two pawns in the center but if you think of the range of Defense's that are available again efore on move one you've got a five double King pond pretty solid but very mainstream you got the Sicilian where you have to be ready for everything you've got uber solid stuff like the CARICOM you know or strategically interesting things like the French that can also be sharp at times before players have to have a very flexible playing style in my opinion whereas d4 players can be a bit more cautious and conservative and get away with it they're not sacrificing soundness in doing so because sometimes efore players that they want to play cautious and conservative they have to choose lines that are not at all dangerous for black okay so this is a system I like against the green felt defense playing Bishop c4 and then Bremen ite - in bringing the Knight to e2 you avoid potential problems with Bishop g4 if the knight is developed to f3 which it often is in the grid felt Bishop g4 can sometimes be a timely way to counter-attack this pawn on d4 is sufficiently defended I have the c3 pawn Knight on e to the Queen on d4 on d1 backing it up so here I can castle I suspect that my opponent will play knight c6 and I will play Bishop b3 and reply reinforcing that pawn I'm not going to advance that pawn because that would block my light square bishop moreover I don't feel like I have to I like my pawn duo they control a bunch of squares this is theory still yeah Bishop g4 so this indirectly attacks the center I should play f3 to kick his Bishop back the difference in quality of openings is just stark I mean watch this video versus two videos ago the 1200 to 1400 level huge difference in the knowledge of the opening from my opponent's 95 this is a counter attacking move still theory this was featured in one of the early Karpov Kasparov matches they played this variation several times with Karpov is white and in those games Karpov was playing Bishop takes f7 check and after rook takes f7 then taking on g4 that wins a pawn for white but black white will have doubled pawns and also black's knight can get into c4 so I'm just going to play a little more conservative I'm going to drop the bishop back to d3 so Spahn to his attack pretty plainly he takes let's take back yep Bishop e6 so here we're still in theory once again d5 would be a natural move but if I play that I have to be ready for Bishop takes a one which is also booked I'm going to play rip c1 this move hangs my a to pawn but I'm doing that deliberately if he takes that I can play Queen a for attacking his Bishop and also kind of eyeing his knight and this is a line where white get some pretty decent compensation for the pawn bishop v3 or Bishop e6 our moves here I have a little bit of knowledge of this line I've actually never played this line OTB but Tom I know a thing or two about it so you're here I'm gonna play Queen B for he was attacking my queen is that in Bishop for a bit awkward now that provides some of my compensation yeah b6 this guy really knows his stuff going to hand it to him so here I can think about playing d5 I can think about playing Bishop a6 to stop it from coming to c8 that's interesting as well benefit of playing d5 as I kind of threatened Knight to d4 I like the look of that downside is you might play Queen g6 and offer a queen trade but still I think pawn to d5 is a pretty normal way of proceeding so let's do that cuts off is Bishop from ever returning to the e6 square I think Bishop g5 is also possible to try to hit the e7 pawn with our Queen and Bishop yeah and he plays that it can maybe take and then play my Bishop into a6 which stops him from playing rook c8 I am still down upon but I feel like I have decent compensation hmm okay do this like I said a player who clearly is up-to-date on his theory this guy's not messing around so Bishop into a6 tried to stop his work from coming to see a similar to the last game I am a bit down now last game it was just a pawn structure deficit here it's a material deficit I'm down upon so I have to be very cautious about inviting exchanges you know if I just allow him to play it rook to c8 and start chopping material down the C file I might find myself very much reading it in an endgame f5 ok so he's going after our center was thinking Knight d4 would be good here Knight d4 he takes I take still looks pretty good though let's do that so we're kind of hitting that Bishop on b3 hmm here I can play 96 but that doesn't seem quite right for some reason it attacks the rook and the bishop it's kind of an in-between move now I like this better and if he takes f1 I'll just take with my king yeah King takes f1 strong play by my opponent explain a good game so far this line is such that it's possible I've already not played like the best theoretical move in the opening like maybe that d5 move wasn't so good for all I know all right he's going after this I can play the bishop back to d3 to defend that it's a little bit passive though I no longer really need to protect c8 I could play rook c7 that's an aggressive move but I think you can just take efore you can probably get away with that capture so Brooke c7 rook takes e4 Rep g7 check but my bishop is needed to defend a rook I kind of don't like the look of that okay let's just come here hmm if Bishop here can you play Bishop c4 that would be pretty remarkable if so hmm and I can't go rook e1 to defend the pawn he has Bishop c4 check let me just calculate something here Bishop b5 worked a c4 rip CH check King f7 rook c7 check he should be able to escape those checks if Bishop d3 I'm really worried he might plate Bishop c4 idea Bishop takes c4 rook takes hmm highly intriguing I can't go bishop CA he has Bishop c4 check got to figure out something to do all right I'm gonna play this I don't know it might be bad if you have Bishop c4 I'm not sure kind of looks that way wasn't sure what else to do though like I said this guy's playing very well yeah I think this Bishop c4 in this position is looking excellent for him if take rook c8 or even work takes c4 maybe work c7 was a better chance for me but then were up take c4 anyways hmm yeah you found it very very strong okay I'm just give a take I'll try to make it difficult for him in this endgame but uh yeah I mean he's going to be up a pond or two it looks like yep takes there hmm alright let's come here I'm going to give a check on c8 it's probably going to win this bond though on d5 all right so once again in this video I finding myself defending a bad position you thought it was over after that rook takes b3 in the first game nope not the case yeah this should be a losing endgame all right let's take this guide where takes d5 yep now I got to retreat my attack bishop I am attacking this pawn but hard to say if you move it maybe wreck a6 and I can go after that be pawn looks pretty good hmm so he's not afraid of this I guess he's going to try to advance the deer the beat bonds but I might as well grab a pond and try to hope for the best maybe 90 93 would be smart try to get his night in the game so unfortunate to be in this position against a player much lower rated than me but like I said and chest this sort of thing happens and you have to be willing to adjust ready to play the position as the position demands hmm okay let's bring this fish this rook back to attack the beep on Knight d4 makes good sense just attacking me too okay Bishop c4 I'm thinking 9f5 looks like a good reply though that would threaten 93 check forking my king and my bishop didn't have too many other good squares maybe Bishop g4 would have been a bit better she's really kind of running out of useful squares there on rook f7 Shaq hmm I think I kind of have to move this again 93 King e1 okay let's come here I could take b6 but I was in a pin there he had was like 95 and reply didn't look good alright we'll come here think now it's looking pretty bleak you can take g2 with Chuck mm-hmm threatening mate with rippy once we got to escape that somehow maybe this h pond provides a little bit of counter play I'll check I'm gonna try to go after that Jeep on I think that provides my only realistic hope of getting back in this game let's attempt to go take that he's found a nice spot for his night now now if I take King f6 is unpleasant yeah that would just fork fork might my rook and my bishop hmm yeah I can't even I can't even take on h4 or I take out g6 rather let me give a check just to buy some time he's starting mate yeah I can't do anything about that rib cage - mate okay I'm gonna resign this game so there you have it my first loss in the climbing the ladder series yeah very strong game by my opponent um I think I probably went wrong when I played d5 potentially like d5 and then Queen coming in to d6 this end game might not be that good for me I mean I'm down a pawn and when he breaks up my pawn structure with f5 this started to look pretty good for him I would say this level of play is suspicious for a 1772 just the the knowledge that he demonstrated and also a pretty effortless way he converted this position and I really hate to bring this up but we all know that online there's a lot of questionable players playing and using engine assistance I don't want to say that this player is using it but just based on this game I'm suspicious I won't really say anything more about that but there is a online cheating epidemic you I guess we'll find out we can judge for ourselves whether that happens I don't want to implicate you Lane you rayless but Tom for 1772 this was a excellently played game and if he was indeed just playing this on his own as I hope he was excellent game you just beat fair and square but um as far as the chess portion is concerned I think this might be a line after d5 where I'm not coming out of this too well so I'll just leave it at that let's play one more game like I said though even though when I was getting down upon I was still looking for ways to try to save the game this was an interesting psychological moment after rook e8 cuz I played Bishop d3 I mean he spotted that Bishop c4 move and I saw that could be could be played so I probably should not have played Bishop d3 but I just didn't see too many other good alternatives if rook c7 there is rook takes e4 attacking my bishop and then d5 is also falling so something like rip c7 rook takes e4 if check here King f8 and I mean I've disturbed his King a little bit but my bishop is under attack which is in turn defending my rook maybe I could move my dark-squared bishop somewhere after rook takes e4 like it's not even too many safe squares though because if Bishop f6 thor's rook out for Shaq forking the king and the bishop so I'd have to probably retreat it somewhere like at b2 maybe or maybe even continue trying to check him but I think his King is going to kind of snake its way over to the Queen side like so something like this network c8 King g7 something along those lines and that amount of checks and my bishops going to have to move again soon this is a good set up against a grünfeld though if you're looking for a decent option the Greenfeld is known for its fighting charactering it's a popular opening at the highest level because when does a hard time getting advantage against it in theory and black kids to play in kind of hyper modern fashion attack white center from a distance try to control the center with pieces rather than pawns necessarily and it provides black a lot of winning chances so many of the top players in the world rely on the green felt in their repertoire and rook c1 is the theoretical move like I was saying d5 is another one but if d5 is played here you have to be ready for the minefield of theory that represents this line Bishop takes a 1 and then White's supposed to play Queen takes anyone ideas for whiter to attack on the dark squares like Bishop h6 is often a theme attack in g7 yeah sometimes this Bishop will move back or sometimes black even place f6 trying to block the Queen I believe if f6 is played here white cannot take on e6 because if Queen takes d3 ok black cat 11 is the final opponent this will be our last game of this session I'm gonna play d4 once again see what we get out of this one he says thanks for playing awesome I'm just gonna tell him good luck yeah again I really hate to bring up the whole potential cheating thing in the last game but it's it's an unavoidable fact in playing online chess that people are using engines and on some sites it's kind of an epidemic to be honest chess comm has very good cheat detection so if my opponent was in fact using an engine then you know that will be found out and like I said if not I I don't want to say definitely he is I just think that that level of play he was exhibiting is something I would be suspicious about okay this is a unique line it's called the snake Benoni wear black puts the bishop on d6 he's blocking his deep on so it's a bit unusual I'm just developing normally I'm gonna castle now I like this pin that I have he'll probably play Bishop to b7 hard to capitalize on this pin at the moment 92 to c4 is a tempting maneuver that I'm looking at so Knight d2 even though temporarily my queen would lose the defense of the deep on you can't take it because he's under this pin so I like the ability I have to play that and then move the knight up to C 4 that's a common maneuver so let's do that Bishop takes h2 is sometimes a tactic you have to watch out for in positions like this King takes H 294 check but in doing that he would lose two pieces and only gain one piece so I think he'll be hesitant to go down that road so h6 I could take on f6 and then after Queen takes I could jump the knight in but probably better to maintain the pin just Bishop h4 yeah let's do that oh and g5 okay this player is getting aggressive in the center so he breaks the pin but at a cost because now his king his weekend d5 okay so d5 was undefended or sorry weakly defended by me I only had one piece on there but his knight on a6 is being defended by the bishop which in turn is needed to defend d5 so he's overloaded here if you don't see it already you can pause your video and ask yourself how I can win a piece okay so I can play this move Knight takes d5 and then after Bishop takes d5 I'll play Bishop takes a six so when I play Knight d2 way back then that's something I had to keep in mind I saw that night on a6 I saw it was a little loose and it was possible for me to play 92 even though my queen lost connection with the D pawn temporarily alright so yeah black cat just made a calculation mistake in grabbing they're a bit prematurely if this game goes short I'll play one more after this we'll make this up an extra long video it's Friday guess at the weekend to look forward to so do I explain one more after this so we win a piece we'd have six kind of aggressive looking at my pawn on b2 this Bishop is loose on d5 I think I'm just going to play b3 though yeah simply ensure that Queen takes b2 is never an issue I don't watch out for my work in the corner and his queen is I'm not rook but of course he cannot take it right now I've got my queen defending it but good to put stuff on defended squares that's been our mantra all series okay Bishop c6 I would like to trade the lights for bishops I think his bishop is a potentially strong piece I'm thinking about moving my bishop all the way back to e2 and then trying to f 3 he could push this pawn to d5 in that case I think also Queen e2 is fine yeah let's play Queen e2 so if he plays d5 my plan there would just be Bishop to b5 looking to trade if ever he's able to coordinate like his cleaning his Bishop and attack on g2 I'll have to be a little concerned Rep b8 what is he threatening with Rick b8 if you want to try to figure that out pause your video yeah I believe he's trying to play b5 and then my bishop would be cut off from a tree so now I might want to take the opportunity just to play we should be 5 myself so therefore he can't push the pawn that move he was kind of telegraphing his intentions like if you think about it logically there's not too many reasons why he would play Bishop's b8 there so I kind of picked up on that all right so he's letting me take the d7 pawn if I take it he his rook is attacked um you can play rook here but I can bring the bishop back to b5 then he could come down and pin me with Queen B - but I can parry that threat pretty easily I'm not just going to take that pawn right away though I got to take a good look around and make sure it's safe to do it and it looks to me that it's safe to take that pawn so I'll do it Bishop takes d7 yeah and he must have seen it right away he moved instantly so I'll bring this back a 6 hmm looks like a pawn I can just take so take b5 take again I guess you can win two minors for a rook there maybe not though Bishop takes a6 b5 Bishop takes b5 if you played rook takes d2 then I would be given two minors for a rook but I went so many pawns out of that yeah that's probably a pretty straightforward win because my fear is if I drop the bishop back to c4 or d3 like d3 that should signal some danger for us because we have two pieces lined up on the same file where his rook is so if Bishop d3 you could play Queen d6 maybe attacking both those pieces so I think taking is best however if I take yes Queen c6 threatening mate aha that's interesting and if Bishop c4 in this position b5 will be played and then Bishop d3 he again has that Queen d6 move interesting ok well I'm going to take this I know he has this queen c6 move so I might have to give up my bishop I'm going to gain a few pawns out of this deal though I've won that d7 pawn at one a six a six was a nice move though if he follows it up correctly mm-hmm yep looks like he sees the idea so he's threatening mate be a big blunder not for not to address this threat so we're going to go here and I'll probably play b5 now trapping that piece okay so now this bishop is lost I should just take something for it and one of my out my mom's two pawns yeah two pawns so not the best technique by me but still we're in a position I would expect to win most of the time I'll play rook e1 this is just over protection so ensuring that pawn on e4 is well defended our knight is defended by our queen c4 will be a nice square for a knight if we can bring it in there very clever counter-attack though once we're done we'll go back and take a quick look at that one and see where or if I could improve okay so he's trying to get me to take so he can again make me on g2 we are not going to take C a couple ways I could proceed here I'm going to play rip c1 and then if he takes I can take with my knight but I can also play Queen c4 check which is the move I really like okay rook they're getting out of the gaze of my queen on e2 but I do have Knight c4 if I want attack in network with tempo Queen c4 check is also a thing I could play b4 here that would be a clever little trap be for a few plays rook takes a - I have Queen c4 check work on the king and the rook that might be the sneakiest way to play let's do that so say here take my pawn yeah so if you were black there you just don't want to take that pawn right away you move too fast that's kind of the mistake he made earlier when he took on d5 it's just got tunnel vision he only saw the pawn and he might have just looked very briefly at what he could do or what I could do after work takes a - but Queen c4 wasn't that hard to see yeah now he's going to lose his rook and after we take on a to our Knight will be defended as well so we'll see where he places his King I presume he'll move the King because blocking out d5 doesn't really make any sense that would be even worse than moving the King so yep he does okay let's gather the rook the only thing we have to watch now is this long diagonal if he takes e4 I'll probably just take back with my Knight though continue to block that if he had two moves he would play F takes e4 and then III to open his Queen to attack that's virtually the only threat he can create okay let's just take here our night is defended by our rook I could also taken on c5 right away but I think this is just nicer and now we have a lot of options like rook takes c5 as possible Queen B to check is probably a good move Queen a7 check looks like a good move yeah let's go let's go Queen a seven so target is king and if the King moves up to like the sixth rank I'm thinking rook takes e5 she looks excellent attack is clean and he's kind of running out of options against this now I can always defend my night with f3 if needed that'd be a simple way to defend Bishop takes e4 might not even be that huge of a threat because I could always play f3 after that I can try to set up like let's say I played rook b5 that would set up the threat of rook b6 kind of like that move let's do that so just looking to move this rook over here skewer him along the six rank all right so he's allowing this to happen if Bishop back to c6 to block we have rook takes c6 so that wins yeah he resigned okay so a couple loose piece errors by black cat 11 especially involving that d5 pawn early on that was instructive right there so when I play 92 right on this move so that disrupts the connection between the Queen and the d5 pawn but he's unable to take it as proven in the game because his bishop is overloaded now it's trying to defend to things and we capitalize kind of breeze through this opening I was talking when the opening was played against c5 it is a good idea for white to play d5 and by the way I definitely like systems with d4 and c4 if you're going to play deep on openings some people advocate like systems like the Toray or the london systems like Knight f3 and Bishop f4 III and the Bishop d3 Knight BD to almost regardless of what your opponents do I think in terms of chest development it it's better to stay away from system openings-- openings that you just follow the same script for the first 10 moves are not conducive to learning in my opinion because it produces the same types of positions so you're just going to get exposed to the same positions over and over again not different ones where you can hopefully grow and learn from and also it's just a lot more interesting to play different lines and d4 c4 has been established as basically the way to play D pawn openings and it makes sense to follow that okay so I'm just going to tell them thanks for the game again we're looking for one more I promise one more game so we're going to take a look who's playing oh and later on in this game as long as we have a moment let's check that trap because that was a very nice little trap I got to admit I thought he just blundered that deep on we got a game here I thought he blundered that deep on but in fact that a6 and in conjunction with the Queen coming to see six is rather nice alright so we're gonna have another d4 c4 line potentially a grin field or a Kings Indian yet another grin felt okay let's play e4 just take over the center sake I'll play the same line is there not that previous game see how this one turns out 92 we're undeterred by our loss the previous game ok Queen a5 so something new yeah aggressive move he's not threatening to take on c3 or anything I could look to develop my dark square Bishop e3 would certainly be the normal square it could also go to g5 but g5 is undefended I'm a little worried that like a C takes d4 type move would expose the bishop to attack down that diagonal so probably Bishop e3 should just be played here I guess I'm Bishop g5 I could take 7 and he has rook e8 maybe yes let's just go ahead and do that keep it simple if knight c6 maybe rip c1 or Bishop here helps hold the a to pawn so that's fine clean back to c7 hmm seems like a waste of time he is threatening to take on d4 so we have to realize what this move is up to you starting to take on d4 and if I were to recapture he would have Queen takes c4 what I can do is I can play rook c1 and that indirectly defends the bishop even though there's a pawn in the way because if he takes take then the rook will be assisting in the defense okay now I'm just going to connect my my rooks play Queen d2 I might play rook f d1 to further support the center he plays a five so I can take this pawn on c5 and this is a thing in this line like you can take that pawn oftentimes but then your pawn structure is kind of crippled so you have to bear that in mind I would have double isolated C pawns and I kind of lose some of the dynamic potential I have in the center it's probably okay to grab it here but I can also play d5 and establish a strong protective passed pawn I'm going to do that even though it blocks this Bishop I have some experience in these positions and I think they're rather nice for white if you know how to play them he might have experience in this line too now that I have a pawn on d5 it would be great for blacks try to bring that night over to d6 that's like the best square you can hope for for the night it's a blockading square knights belong in front of past pawns to stop them okay so b6 probably looking to enable that maneuver the long run night b7 to d6 I'm going to try to swap his dark squared Bishop and you might be wondering why I am leaving myself with a bad bishop and maybe trading off my good one but the answer is I want to try to attack his King I would love to get at his King and trading off the best defender of his game that dark square Bishop is a good first step in doing that yeah he seems to know about this maneuver so he's going about this plan now f4 so I'm attacking with this Bishop on that kind of interrupts his Knight to d6 plan can't go about doing that as easily okay Bishop there so now I can think about playing f5 and in doing so maybe threaten to play f6 so F 5 let's say Bishop takes you to f6 check King back to h8 Queen at age six he has worked g8 to defend but his king is looking awfully lonely over there now let's do that Mike G 3 was another option if I wanted to avoid Bishop takes me to but I think the possibility of getting my pawn on f6 is pretty huge here so I'm going to try that King h8 has to be played now if he goes up kingi a queen h6 would just end the game immediately ok so a line I would for certain want to look at now and I am at the moment is Queen h6 rook g8 and then seeing if I can somehow get my rook up and over but Tom I don't see that I can do that right away so I'm just going to play this capture and look to play Queen h6 going forward so he might be able to bring the knight back to ei at an appropriate moment to defend he is also hitting this pawn on e4 so let's say Queen age 6 rook g8 and then Rick h3 my threat would actually be Queen takes h7 that's hard to stop he hasn't had a lot of good ways to deal with that I think that works Queen h6 threatening mate he could play 98 but then I would still play rook h3 basically I want to swing the rook up and assist in attacking on h7 so let's say Queen age 6 g8 rook age 3 and if he takes e4 we get Queen takes h7 King takes each 87 or h3 mate he's caught in a column with that pawn on f6 that looks good I don't see a defense for him you can play that 98 move like I was saying but okay so here in addition to Queen takes h7 were simply threatening work h3 - yeah 98 but now he's going to get made it along the H file so we get to finish with a nice little checkmate here and work h3 coming so he had the right strategic idea it's just his uh his King side situation was unmanageable once I got that pawned f6 that's very dangerous for him like you probably should have kept that Bishop back maybe after I played f4 maybe played a defensive move like f6 or maybe maybe take although I'm pretty happy with my center in that case but in the opening I think he kind of wasted a little bit of time playing Queen a5 and then the Queen back to c7 and we were able to develop in a natural way we had a slight lean development established a pawn on d5 there's a lot of pond tension going on right here it's not essential that I push d5 I could have played this in a couple different ways like I said there was the possibility of capturing and trying to hold the pond there's also the possibility of leaving the pond tension as it is may be playing a reinforcing move like work after you want but um I like establishing the protected past pawn here so if this Palmer blocked like say he had a pawn on d6 I might be less likely to do that just because my bishop is bad behind it but when I'm also getting a protected past pawn from this d5 move I feel better about that okay so I hope you guys enjoyed this edition of climbing the rating ladder so the caliber of play was noticeably higher in this one I mean no surprises we're moving up the ratings but in my opinion you could see many things that were done differently the level of opening knowledge was pretty striking we had several opponents who knew quite a bit about the lines that I was playing people were making less blunders you still see there were blunders like in that second last game against black cat he made two blunders he fought back pretty well but did make a couple blunders also the very first game in the Sicilian my opponent blundered rook takes c3 we talked about the importance of pawn structure and starting to appreciate pawn play that becomes apparent at this level pretty quickly and planning to I actually have to actively outplay these players whereas previously a lot of my opponents were just giving me games just based on the sheer amount of material they would blunder and the blatant disregard they would often have for their King safety but players 1600 Plus you have to actually outplay them a lot of times and they can play a complete game without making mistakes I'm going to I'm going to check that one game against the player in the Grunfeld not the screen fouled and the other Greenfeld because like I said that player played extremely well hahaha I will freely admit I went down in that game but Tom you know it it just bear saying that um you know you playing online you just never really know who you're up against and you know I'll take something away chess wise from that game but I am keep an eye on that opponent so regardless so I think we got a lot of good things that for this session let me know if you have any comments leave them in the comment section and I'll be back next time with the climbing the rating ladder 1800 to 2000 edition so thank you guys bye

Channel: John Bartholomew

Views: 374,522

Keywords: Chess, Chess improvement, Chess.com

Id: oFGF2rp-mcg

Length: 102min 12sec (6132 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2015