How to identify your opponents weaknesses in chess. ELO 0 - 1800

we would all love to play a game just like this these games are few and far between if you're playing people of the same level of this as yourself you're going to basically play stronger opponents who are basically not going to allow you to get this type of position this game was played against a person who was higher rated than myself so i got lucky on this occasion so the idea behind attacking key spaces and weak spaces weak pieces attacking the king area or the king works quite solidly but if you're playing a proper longer game where it's really tense like the next game how do you work this system into that game okay so we'll get right into it so as we mentioned attacking key weak areas we're blocking the pawn but the reality is the pawn is attacking these areas here and what we're terming these squares as weak squares for the opponent because we now in essence manage these areas so tonight looks like it's defending the palm which is but have a look at the areas that it also is managing so these areas now are weak areas for the opponent so looking deeper into the actual moves and what the actual piece represents in terms of creating weak areas and managing those weak areas of your opponents this pawn is in basic terms supporting this pawn because if the bishop takes then that this knight is no longer protecting this pawn so his knight would be able to take the pawn so that's it in its basic sense but it also is managing this square as well so this is a weak square now for the opponent developing the night because we want to go on kingside castle keeping it as basic as possible we want to move our pieces out of the way so that our king can get castle but have a look at what else it is managing it's managing this square here so that's weak for the opponent it is half managing this square because we do have two pieces attacking this particular area here so we have more strength in this particular area than the opponent does so that's a weak area developing the bishop in basic terms again we're making space for the king to go on castle having a look at what is actually managing currently it's managing the defense of this pawn but it's also managing these this square this square and this square so in my eyes these are weak areas for the opponent going forward in the game and king safety i don't need to say anything more about that developing the bishop so the bishop now is it looks like it's supporting the night which it is uh also it's managing this square and it's managing this square so these are the weak squares for the opponent smaller piece attacking a higher piece attacking this weak bishop here makes sense pretty straightforward so it's managing this square here at the moment smaller piece attacking the higher piece it's managing that square but it's also managing this square so now it's looking a little bit different into the terms of understanding why pieces are being moved on the face of it yes they are attacking um weak pieces but they're also attacking weak spaces around those areas as well so now we bring our bishop across to manage the central squares key point weak pawn here only supported by the rook but all of that diagonal here it's got all this control these are weak squares now for the opponent can capture the pawn quite easily because that's a weak pawn attacking the head of the snake as we mentioned before because they've got their pawn structure coming through quite nicely taking the head of the snake works out in your favor temple wise positionally as well if you're willing to take that risk keeping tension when i'm not comfortable with keeping tension i can keep tension hopefully at the right moments at the right stages but i would prefer to actually get a pawn break get some open space to actually play the game of chess they capture back so now we do a small pawn move up now the reason for this move has got its twofold you've got all this space now that this bishop is now managing yep so all of these squares are weak squares this pawn has moved itself up to manage this square and to manage this square so we're managing a whole heap of space and it's not about central control for me it's about looking at attacking the weak areas on the board of the airport that the opponent is creating for us and we're slowly building up more attacking around their weaknesses they push down now looking to create an attack on us so our night can come back freely because it's managing this square this knight is managing this square it's also managing this square as well so it's twofold bishop is still managing this square and this square and this square here and now our bishop is managing this square this square and this square okay so it may look like um we're talking about things that potentially aren't going to happen but for position for understanding attacking weak areas and weak pieces it isn't about looking for quick dirty tactics it's about developing your pieces nice and steadily to attack appropriately and understand what is actually a weak area and what is actually a weak piece so we developed the night now so this bishop is protected by the queen clusters weak we like knights hunt the bishops in our mantra so that works out quite nicely for us it's also managing this square yeah it's managing this square and it's happily defending on this side here so it's got many opportunities to work its magic bishop moves so now we're attacking the head of the snake we're very consistent with this head of the snake yeah and hopefully it can start working its way into your own system the understanding of when people are looking at keeping tension the head of the snake will fall if it's used appropriately so now we've come here with the pawn we're managing this square we're also managing this square okay so these are weakness areas now for the opponent so they attack the knight we bring our knight back we don't have any problems with that because it's coming back managing key squares again so these are weak areas that have been created again now for the opponent so there's positives for the night all the way through the hardest thing to understand is it's not about the whipping pieces of the board in an in an inappropriate manner we're getting nice positions attacking weak areas as we're developing so we can now capture because we do have like uh many multiple pieces on here whether we decide to take there or not would be a matter of looking at which is going to be better for us so the bishop actually captures and this is pretty similar to one of the examples that we showed where um you've got a minor piece and then the minor piece is actually taking a a lesser piece it doesn't tend to work out for you because you end up being a piece down and positionally as well it's not really going to help you because we do have like we say these pieces that can protect it's opened up our rook to actually manage all of these squares here again when i say manage these are the weak areas so they do capture and we did mention bringing the bishop through to here to add a little bit more weight to this weak area so there's no issues we don't need to go rushing in there and capturing things because we're establishing a nice base before we can do that the more pieces we can put onto here it'll be better for us because if we did capture with the knight without the bishop being there we wouldn't be able to take back the pawn because he's got his knight there so they capture and we take with the knight we take with the knight because we want to keep the rook on the back keep that file going rooks have no place in the center of the board as far as we're concerned so the night now has got free reign on here these weak areas supported by the bishop which is going for all these weak areas here they bring their knight in the knight has gone to a weak area as far as we can tell because the pawn is going to grab but then the knight can come back and attack and still control manage these areas here so now the bishop comes out looking to attack the the bishop because it's weak in terms of it's not got it's not been developed we've got support of the rug and if we can get that bishop off the board less pieces on the board the better for us they capture a pawn again have a look at the situation yourselves you can give up pieces for a better position on the board and we grab the bishop a smaller piece attacking the higher piece which can't be wrong so attacking the night here it's also giving a bit of support to the pawn it's not looking to stay there for long really because obviously it will get attacked so it's fairly weak but it's strong now that it's doing an attack so we put a two on one onto this pawn it's a weak pawn the rook goes through to the king as well so now we've got a file pawn pushes down magic move the knight can move to attack and keep the two on one on the pawn putting pressure but have a look at the other squares that the knight is managing at the moment have a look at what has been created with the queen so they do capture we catch it with the other rook because we want to maintain pressure on this pawn but now this rook is owning this file it's managing this file with the support of the knight potentially so they attack the knight which gives free reign to attack this poem which is supported by the rook so that's a weak pawn so looking at the position when we don't want our rook to get pinned by his rook so it's nice that they actually brought their knight in front so now their knight is pinned to their rook our rook our knight is managing these squares at the minute yep we don't want it going here but it it's physically managing those squares does actually move the knight so we can actually um take it off the board and now we're looking for managing our weak areas so the root comes and manages here we can expect the rook to come here to attack our night our night has free rain to actually move and they do attack so we can move the night so the night is actually attacking the rook now it's got management of this square here it's got management of this square and it's also got management of this square and this square so that's pretty powerful night but it's weakly supported really by this pawn and the opponent's looking to take advantage of that but we're looking to take advantage of their weak pawn they capture which probably might have been an error so we capture and we can capture and we have one pawn looking to run up the hills bringing the knight to a strong square basically getting support from a pawn it's looking to exchange off from which we gladly do and now we're looking to see if we can get a promotion or get his rook off the board so this is steady incremental steps to try and get the pawn promoted but i don't think it can do it by itself so we have to wait for the opponent to basically make a mistake so we're just jostling with the king keeping the king safe so we can get a nice position to attack the king win a bit of temple and this is a nice merry dance now to close down the king area and make inroads towards their king blocking them off and looking for the killer move which is getting our king in front of their king and if they get tired of the battle which usually happens in these types of endings if the opponent hasn't offered a draw and that was the one so jostling for the positions the weak areas building up towards attacking the king area that's the whole idea behind this type of targeting and it's hot it's not harder to do it's a lot to me as you're getting better in the games and you're feeling more confident with understanding what is a weak area in your terms not a weak area in historical terms in terms of looking at other people's games the sicilians and idols that type of stuff you've really got to have a look at what you believe is a weak area a weak piece how to then attack the king area how to then attack the king you have got to basically put your own for into it because what you think is weak the computer may think well no that's a strong move and vice versa yeah so you can use the evaluation tools and use the engines to do your research to find out what potentially is the stronger moves work towards developing that that viewpoint but at the end of the day it's got to be your thought process about what you term as a weak move and what is a strong move and then build on your own attack process going forward how to attack weak areas weak pieces the king area and the king open in the center attacking the weak pawn with the knight attacking wheat pawn in front of the king capturing the piece because the weak only piece that can defend and capture back is the weak pawn in front of the king area attacking the head of the snake the head of the snake is like if you have a pawn chain the pawn that is at the highest further developed on the board is usually the weakest pawn so we strike the head of the snake and it usually does fall quite nicely if you can access the back of the pawn chain that also is a weak pawn as well so we attack a higher piece with a smaller piece but also an unprotected pawn in front of the king area the knight has jumped into a square which looks strong but on the face of it if our knight takes this pawn is weak because that's the only piece that can take back and we will be grabbing the pawn with the queen so this is why grabbing a weak knight because it's on weak foundation see this quite often especially in blitz matches where knights jump in grab a pawn feeling they're improving their position but if you have a look at the tail of the tape a night for a pawn and a smaller piece can actually take it back it's not much compensation for the opponent so it's a weak knight takes with the pawn so then they lose another pawn grab him with the queen but the queen also is targeting another undefended piece gets attacked so we bring it back now and attack the key objective of attacking the king area and the king directly again attacking the weak bishop currently supported by the queen and the king and castling has left the two support they had he had the queen and the king supporting the bishop now there's only one piece supporting so grab now they're looking for an exchange looking materially on the board we can look to exchange down quite nicely so we grab the queen they grab with a check but our knight is defending this area so it's a weak attack from our opponent because we can grab the rook back also targeting an unprotected piece just here it's now defended by the rook but now we can put the two on one with the knight onto this pawn they push down now the knight is targeting unprotected pawn here and then targeting unprotected rook supported now by the rook and at this point the opponent resigned so that is appropriate targeting for attacking weak areas weak spaces weak pieces and above all the king or the king area how to develop attacking weak areas weak pieces and attacking the king area and attacking the king when it's not as clear-cut in the initial stages of the game so capture the attacking the queen it's weak at the minute developing the night so at this stage here we're looking at developing pieces and trying to create attacks towards weak so the bishop comes out we attack the king drops the pawn so then we come back defend a piece so it's using it in reverse order because you can't constantly attack everything if the opponent then is attacking you you have to look reasonably at defending yourself so so long as you have pieces defended but appropriately defended uh if it's defended in such a way that the opponent can actually win say a pawn or take the piece that is actually defending the piece then it's not an appropriate defense so we're opening up the dark squared bishop we're actually looking to control these squares with this pawn as well as developing the bishop out at some stage so that's what we mean by attacking key spaces weak spaces yep so these are weak spaces now for the opponent so we're creating that for ourselves castling king safety attacking the weak knight because through the night is the queen attacking the bishop because weakly supported by this pawn here in front of the king attacking the bishop again with a lesser piece and attacking his knight again a weak piece because behind the night is the queen so the knight can't necessarily take unless of course they want to lose their queen also attacking the bishop take the wheat knight off the board with a potential discover check with the bishop onto the queen still maintaining the attack from the weeknight onto the queen attacking and unprotect well is unprotected in terms of yes you have a night there but the knight necessarily can't defend this bishop unless of course they want to sacrifice their queen so now looking to put pressure towards the bishop to make a decision to actually capture our bishop so we're just pushing forward to attack a weak piece which is the bishop capturing this weak weak bishop to open up space around their king from this weak pawn next to their king targeting the weak pawn unsupported at the moment and capturing the wii pawn to be in front of the king area capturing the queen to disturb the king area so they can no longer go on castle and again attacking the king area with the knight smaller piece now is on a higher piece which is the night smaller piece again attacking a weak night the night now feels like it's operating a good control in the center but our rooks have identified the weak area for the opponent looking to target this area here there's only one piece that is protecting that area at the moment so potentially a smaller piece attacking this bit of interference here the knight will have to move and we can start putting checks on the king and the king area so we push on to the knight now it makes the decision to move so we can put pressure onto the king so this is the start of a definite build up towards the king area with a nice diagonal with the bishop operating to these squares to control that key square there king moves so we're looking to get our other rook up so utilizing the weak position this is weakness for the opponent and string for us looking to go around the back so the opponent's taking off pawns that are unsupported but the big picture is we're looking to put pressure on the king area so if you've got a choice between attacking the king area and keeping pressure on the king area that is the key point to actually doing this type of play whereas if you've got the option of taking a minor piece off the board for the sake of keeping your king safe that's the slight error so we bring the rooks up now so it's almost a few moves away from getting a potential checkmate but you still have to box clever so bringing the bishop through attacking the rook the knights now wanting to get back into the game realizing the situation is getting a little bit tense towards his king area start putting checks on nice and simple striking the weak areas weak area in front of the king constantly harassing the king to find that better position and then we have a checkmate so that's how you develop your pieces towards attacking key spaces key pieces weak pieces and weak areas around the king and attacking the king area it's a nice good build up if you use the psychology of attacking weak areas which are strength areas for yourself then you'd be able to build up good blocking mechanisms as you're going through your games so i think this is a good example of using those blocking mechanisms as attack attacking weak areas yeah so these are weak areas here this pawn is now looking to attack those areas which is done by moving forward here keeping it simple captures a weak pawn it's only supported by the queen the knight can actually attack the queen night now is attacking weak areas here weak areas here for the opponent weak areas there yep and weak areas there so controlling those weak areas and the bishop comes through and is attacking so constantly every move that you make have the mindset of i am now me attacking a weak area like the basic night moves here people got well just developing but you're developing for a reason you're developing to control squares yeah so that then you're saying i've got the strength around these areas these are your weak areas that you're going to have to contend with so like bringing the bishop back here is now defending a lovely piece of ours because you don't want to loosely defend pieces and again pushing this pawn is a matter of weak area here for the opponent weak area there for the opponent so this pawn is controlling these areas so it's not just pushing the pawn out just to push a pawn out it's also developing the letting space for the bishop to come out as well cast linking safety and as we know now this is where we start doing the attacks attack attacks so in your initial opening don't panic thinking well how can i attack a weak area how there's nothing to attack you already are when you're making say your pawn moves and you're opening up you're looking at controlling weak areas for your opponent how to target the weak areas so we've already covered the aspect of what each move does in terms of where this pawn is controlling the weak areas for the opponent making us strong in those areas so the opponent captured and then we attacked the queen with a lesser piece and we grab the queen off the board so now targeting weak pawn looking to potentially grab the rook so the idea is just looking at what is a week a week piece a week square and taking advantage of it and somebody else looking at this particular game would would probably go well no the strength would have been in controlling maybe this diagonal here or or controlling this square here with knights and pawns and bishops or or whatever you you'll have your own idea of what what a strong movement is by just constantly practicing and i would say um i'm not an advocate of learning any of the old you know sicilian type things and all that but if i looked at my games and then looked at what the computer said the opening was it probably falls in line with what had been done many years ago but me as a player i don't focus on the fact of if i am doing a sicilian or a night off or anything like that i focus on attacking pieces squares the king area the king as best possible so bring the knight down and it's attacking in my eyes the bishop which is a weak bishop knights hunt the bishops in our mantra because the only piece that can take if he does leave his bishop there is the weak pawn in front of the king the knight is coming down looking for this juicy square here so it would be a bit inappropriate for our bishop to be taking here unless of course we had a check on the king then it was not appropriate at this time so we need to get rid of this knight because if our knight took this bishop he would then take with his knight and he's got a lovely fork on the rook and the king so unless the piece attacking the higher piece can't be wrong so the night moves so now we can take the weak bishop off the board targeting now the weak knight all seemed logical and straightforward in my mind as to what is a weakness so i'm attacking this knight believing only peace that's behind it is the king so it's stopping the night from being able to move and if we do take it it's doubling their pawns but before we do that because the knight is still pinned to the king i don't need to rush to actually take the knight off the board looking to open up the dark squared bishop that's what it looks like to actually get an attack onto his knight like this square here but his bishop is there controlling but this pawn is also controlling this square and it's managing this square so it's almost half preventing the knight from jumping into this juicy square here now his bishop's looking to get an angle towards our rook so looking preemptively we bring the pawn up here to manage this square it's managing this square and it's managing this square so the rook now is looking to challenge this pawn because if our bishop did take then the rook would take the pawn for free so we push the pawn up tripling up the protection area while doubling the protection area for this diagonal that the bishop was looking for so blunt in the bishops attack in the future so now we can take the knight off the board and double in their pawns and now you see the bishop coming targeting unprotected piece we can grab the unprotected piece it's not been protected and now attack the knight it's given up looks like the bishop so we'll grab the bishop so what is the knight attacking controlling this is a lovely square here because this this rook is unprotected it's managing this square here and it's managing a reversal if need be and then they took the knight off the board it's going to be a powerful night so we double our pawns so we're up the exchange castle now we can move our king to safety and attack at the same time and keep attacking until they run out of attacks on the king so attacking this weak pawn here the head of the snake always focus on the head of the snake if you have the opportunity take the head of the snake you will have seen throughout the majority of the games that i've pushed through onto this series i've been attacking the head of the snake and it gives us a world of opportunity so we grab the king and grab the other palm and now positioning our rook ready to start attacking their king area bring the king back develop the rook up looking to double up the rooks and they bring their rook across now the weak area would be being able to attack here so we needed to give our king a little bit of space so it's also knowing what the opponent can do they're looking at what are your weak areas understand our weak areas and then try and make them stronger so we push the pawn up and we can move the king to safety as well as protecting the rook he does capture and captures with a check we move the king attacking aggressive king at this point now we're looking at porn is now controlling these areas here but it's also defended itself because the knight was actually attacking but now it's made itself stronger take advantage of the weak area and also the strength area now for our rook working its way up controlling the open file managing the open file so now all we can do is push this pawn up towards getting promotion i don't think there's anything that can actually stop it and that's when the opponent resigned so again that is appropriate targeting and if you saw in the earlier part of the game the amount of targeting of weak areas weeks weak pieces weak squares it helped to then establish a better position for us on the board

Channel: Chess Gym

Views: 1,215

Keywords: chess, chess game, chess position, dynamic chess, chess gym, chess learning, chess plan, chess objective

Id: TMAwovrIEJw

Length: 39min 56sec (2396 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021