How To Play Chess: The Ultimate Beginner Guide

welcome to the world of chess my name is levi  rosman i'm an international master from new york   city hence the name gotham and in this video  i want to give you all the tools you'll need   to learn chess and navigate it as a beginner i'm  covering five major concepts that i've picked out   they're right here we'll talk about the board  and the setup and obviously all of the pieces   how they move and how many points they're worth  then we'll talk about their interactions that   means what pieces have what vision attacking  capturing creating threats and defending them   that will flow into number three which is checks  and checkmate that's talking specifically about   the king because checkmate is the goal of the game  in the fourth category i will show you some basic   opening ideas how to start a game with white and  with black certain traps to avoid falling into   the middle game will be tactics and strategy  the two major branches and talk a little bit   about end games as well what are the most  important end games for beginners to know   and last but not least we'll just talk a  little bit about a study plan all right   sounds good let's go first things first a  chessboard is an 8x8 square which has files   which are the a file the b file the c file and so  on and ranks the first rank the second rank etc   boards with coordinates as you see here have a1  b1 and so on white starts on one and two and if   you don't have those coordinates the bottom  right hand corner should be a light square   okay each side has eight pawns they go on  the second and seventh rank respectively   then the back rank of pieces you can put the  rooks or the castle-like structures in the corners   followed by the knights or the horses however you  want to call them the bishops go next the ones   with the pointed hats and in the middle you've got  the royalty the king and the queen the easiest way   to remember how to put the king in the queen is  that the white queen likes to uh have a white   dress with white shoes she likes to stand on the  same color square the black queen likes a black   dress with black shoes so the black queen will  stand under the dark square and the light screen   a light queen white queen will stand on a light  square the kings will obviously stand adjacent now   kings you can also remember are on the e file and  the queens are on the d file that's one more way   to remember it now this is a lot of pieces so  what i'm gonna do when i'm teaching you about   peace movements is i'm gonna cut back a lot  now hopefully all of the games that you play   look like this well you will be playing with the  white pieces hopefully in this position you're up   35 points of material let's start with the pawns  pawns are worth one point they only move forward   they do not move backwards on their first move  pawns can go up two in one go like this however   after that they can only move forward one  square if a pawn makes it all the way to the end   of the board you can promote it to a queen a  rook a bishop or a knight even if you already   have the two you know the two knights for example  that you start with you can have a third one   one thing about pawns the way they capture is not  forward it's diagonally one square so for example   in this position the white pawn would oh sorry  wrong arrow the white pawn would capture the   black pawn like this that would be the capture of  a pawn okay um now there's one other bonus rule   of pawns that i'll include here just for the sake  of including it it will confuse you and you might   be tempted to leave this video but that rule is  called on passant there is this special rule i did   not invent it so please don't hate me which looks  something like a software glitch and it goes like   this if an enemy pawn moves two squares okay two  squares and stands side by side with your pawn   you can take that pawn via something called on  poissant in passing only on this move if you   wait one turn you can't do it and it looks like  this you say levy i'm only like five minutes into   this video you're already confusing me i don't  feel safe i listen it's just my rule it's just   my job to report the rules okay that's the only  special rule about pawns okay all good terrific   now let's move to knights and bishops together  because those are called the minor pieces and   they're worth three points okay bishops are  very simple they can go forward and backward   diagonally on their own color so a  light squared bishop that's how it moves   a dark square bishop in this case would go all  the way down here if it could but it can go to   any of these squares you can go one square three  squares whatever nice knights are the most unique   they move in little l's so that would mean up two  over one okay or up one over two so what does that   look like well that looks like this one two turn  or one two turn or one two turn or one two turn   knights can also go backwards and the cool thing  about knights is they can jump over other pieces   so this knight doesn't have to ask permission  it can just directly move to this square   with no issues now of course you can't take your  own pieces so don't try to do that but it could go   two and one now obviously knights are a little bit  slower right it would take a very different amount   of time for these two pieces to get to the other  side of the board uh they're each worth three   rooks and queens are actually quite simple no more  fancy l's rooks go up down left right and they're   worth five points in any direction that they want  so like this like this like this sorry not in any   direction that they want i should say however  much distance that they want to cover queens   are like a rook and a bishop combined queens are  worth nine points and they can go all the way here   here here here here all the way this way and this  way whatever one of those squares that that queen   chooses to go to it can go to it is super powered  you want to keep the queen it's your most powerful   attacking piece but it shouldn't do damage early  you will be fighting against the fully loaded   position last but not least we have the kings  kings are like queens except they're kind of   not at all uh they can go in any direction that  they want but only one square so queen can go as   much as it wants a king can only move one one more  bonus rule for you which is castling okay i said   i might confuse you a little bit uh castling  is a is a move in chess is when you move two   pieces at the same time it's your king and your  rook okay and what that looks like is let's say   in this kind of a position so it's white's move  the king will go two and the rook will hop right   over next to the king you can obviously only do  that when the king and rook can see each other   and one more thing about that you can only play  the move castles as long as you haven't moved   the king or the rook that you're trying to use for  castling you'll learn later in the opening section   why castling is important it's an important move  because it gets the king out of the middle hiding   it in a little vacation home on the side for now  don't be confused if you're confused it's okay   all things will be explained later let's  talk a little bit about how the pieces   interact on the chessboard the way i want you  to think about this okay is vision of a piece   what does that mean well let's start with the  queen this queen sees all the way down here but   it's all empty squares the board is split into  emptiness empty squares and physical pieces   a piece that is there that is that we can see it  okay so first things first the queen sees the pawn   who else is the pawn for black not for white but  for black you look around the rook sees the pawn   so taking this pawn would be a terrible move  because the rook would respond with a capture   that's a capture of a pawn that's what that's  called taking upon capturing a pawn the rook   would take back we lose nine points in that trade  that's how i want you to think about it we get one   one for nine is not a good trade what else can  we see our bishop can see this night who else   this bishop sees this knight the bishops don't  see each other because the knight is in the way   so if white in this position play the move  bishop takes knight and bishop takes bishop   that's a fair trade that's three  for three that's not a bad deal   okay that's how i want you to think about it when  you're first starting out three for three that's   fine that's more than okay now what does this  bishop see bonus question uh-oh uh oh losing five   would not be good unless we got more than that in  return or close like four four points now our rook   here defends that that's what that's called  that's called defense same way that rook is   protecting that pawn or defending that pawn  we're defending but that's not a fair trade   so in this position let's move this rook here  for example on this square look who we see oh   and the queen cannot come down and  take us that's a very important thing   because the rook is protecting the rook  right now here how about this what if   let's say black plays a move queen f6 the queen  sees the knight is it attacking the knight no it's not because we're protecting it that would  not be a good decision for black to take and one   more thing let's say in this position black plays  this move can we capture that bishop that bishop   is trying to win our queen and many beginners  go oh god oh oh god oh my queen's in danger   but hold on a second can't we just take is that  protected by anything no that's how i want you   to start thinking about the game as you play it  is anything protecting that am i attacking it   the point value system okay because this queen is  not attacking this pawn because it's protected but   if no one was protecting that pawn then it would  be hopefully that kind of begins to cultivate the   thought process of how pieces interact in a chess  game one thing hidden in all this is the fact that   white can play a move queen c4 and that hits the  king that's called a check this next part will   cover just checks and checkmate so we'll move  ahead to this position here it's white to move   white has a million ways to attack this  king a check is an attack on the king   it threatens to capture the king and chess there  is no capturing of the king the king has to escape   danger so for example let's say the white queen  goes here check well the king would slide out of   danger otherwise we would take the king and so on  but what if we put the queen here that's a check   the king anywhere it moves remains in check which  means that we have put the enemy king in a check   that is unavoidable nothing that black  can do that is check mate and we would win   the game checkmate happens at the beginning  of the game sometimes sometimes all the way   at the end okay sometimes in the middle but  checkmate will ultimately decide the game   one little more i've got to include a little bonus  here this position is a little bit different let's   say it's black's move here black's move not  white's move it's white's move we give a check   but if it's black's move can black move legally no  because black cannot put the king in danger that's   not allowed you can't give up your your king but  is black in check is the queen threatening the   king right now to take it no because the queen  doesn't actually see the king it just doesn't   there the queen does not see the king this is  called stalemate stalemate is when one side has   no legal moves but is not in check the king is not  in danger that is a draw not a win for one side   but a draw a tie you say levy that's stupid what  if i'm up 37 000 points of material i accidentally   stalemate tough luck it's a draw we're working  on it it's december 1st 2 2020. if the rules   change in the future i'll make an update  video but as far as it goes this is still it   i'm very sorry now as i said checkmate  can happen at the beginning of the game   right so the fastest checkmate known to  well chess is called the two move checkmate   and essentially it's it's it's this i mean i'm  just going to show it to you so you know it   but on the second move black can play  queen here if white starts out with   pawn to f3 and pawn to g4 and now you're in  check and check is unavoidable you don't always   have to move your king when you are in check okay  you can also block the check if it's possible   you can also capture whatever is attacking  your king but in this particular case you can't   now i promised you that we would look at openings  and we're going to do that now how do you start   the game of chess here you are you're sitting  there you studied this video all right levy   let's do something let's go in the beginning of  the game you want to take control of the center   of the board this area for advanced  beginners maybe a little rectangle   best way to do that is to put pawns in the  center so that might mean something like e4   or d4 both are okay all right now just for  instructive purposes i'm going to do nothing   with black i'm going to move the knight back and  forth to give us the most perfect setup possible   if you can put a second pawn in the center you  should do that without it getting captured if   you can do it make sure you can do it okay i'm  gonna continue to do these things over here   next come the knights again to the center of the  board better because from there they control more   squares knights on the side they don't really  do that okay no i'm still doing my thing over   here two nights that's usually the best way  to go if you can the bishops will go next   all right and one thing that you have to remember  bishop can go to c4 or to d3 or even to e2   as long as you're getting out the bishop you want  to give everybody a turn in the opening before you   start repeating moves you don't want to move the  same piece four or five times that's not how chess   works you don't need to reinvent the wheel at  the beginning of a chess game because we already   kind of know how to do that i'm these are the  secrets so again black is just doing goofy stuff   and i'll show you obviously a legitimate game  after this now i'll put the second bishop just   don't want the bishop to feel left  out remember that castling rule   get the king out of the center of  the board two squares with the king   and the rook will jump right over and be adjacent  okay i want you to remember to do this if you try   to do it at home on a computer you can just  kind of drag this over here and it will happen   or on a tablet or a mobile phone but uh over  the board you have to know how to do this then   you can bring the queen up and connect the rooks  that's kind of called the golden moves of chess   now here's the problem uh if you have a strong  opponent and they just do the same thing which is   probably what will happen you can't quite just go  put two pawns in the center because they will take   oops and it's not a good idea to bring your queen  out very early because the queen can be attacked   right black just has way too much going on both  sides have too many pieces to bring in your most   powerful piece your most powerful piece will get  taken everything in the position is protected very   well so if they play e5 you can delay this move  for now you don't have to always go two squares   you can still get the night out attacking this  pawn let's say they go knight c6 this is very   classical they defend now bishop to c4 or  the second night the second night bishop   to c4 would be another way castling night out on  out and so on the difficult thing about openings   is that when you're first learning you're very  tentative you're thinking about your own moves   all right i got to get all these pieces to their  right squares i better not lose any of the pieces   and also beginners do all sorts of wild stuff in  the opening they don't always follow the rules   you know uh i will teach you the four move  checkmate momentarily but beginners do crazy   things in the opening so if your opponent is out  here doing things like bringing the queen out   you're like wait can't i just take that yes  of course you can a free queen is very good   even if it's not free queen is good take a  queen if you can in the beginning of the game   be vigilant you're already in battle it's not just  about positioning in the beginning of the game   your pieces are coming out and they're fighting  for squares as much as they are also targeting the   opponent's pieces so as soon as move one already  be vigilant what can you capture what's a fair   trade what's a free piece what's hanging material  and so on there's certain openings that you can   look up the biggest difference between openings  in chess are openings that are called theoretical   and openings that are called setups setup openings  for example like the london system with the white   pieces you play d4 i don't know why this is here  you play d4 and then you play the bishop out and   you kind of play the same way every time d4 and  bishop f4 the london system is something that you   can do the same every game basically every game  unless black like does something totally crazy   uh and loses a bunch of pieces early on with  with the king's pawn you can't really because   when you play the king's pawn here there is  a lot of different ways that black can play i   mean i know it doesn't seem like it if you're just  starting out but black can play the french defense   black can play king spawn black and played  the sicilian defense shout out to beth harmon   kara khan defense so you have to know what to  do a little bit about everyone and you add your   knowledge incrementally but one thing i'll flip  this to black is uh this the early queen attacks   and in particular something called the scholars  mate if you're not careful with the black pieces   you will immediately misunderstand what this  move is all about white wants to play bishop c4   and checkmate you that would look something like  this the ship c4 queen h5 why does this work   this is the only square near the king which is  only protected by the king yes only protected   by the king which means if white is able to land  the queen on f7 or f2 if you're playing with black   and the queen is protected by the bishop it's  mate you lose four moves done game is over so   how do you avoid this happening every beginner has  fallen for this at some point something on f7 okay   how do you avoid this happening well let's say  you play you know play e4 e5 and they play queen   h5 first things first this is not an attack here  it is an attack on this pawn though so don't go   g6 because they will take they will take and that  will be a double attack of your king and your rook   very common trap what i recommend if you play pawn  e5 is to always develop your queen's knight next   whatever white plays unless of course white offers  you a pawn capture in the center of the board   that's why you put the pawn there is to capture so  bring out the queen's knight that defends the pawn   and if they go to mate you make sure they can't  take this defend it with the queen for example   with the queen for example now you can block  because your knight protects your central pawn   okay there's a lot of ways to not fall into  this so fast uh at the same time if they you   know bring out their bishop on the second  move uh then you can also play knight f6   now the queen cannot go here because your  knight covers that little tricks to avoid   losing very quickly otherwise the standard  game of chess might look something like this   this is what a lot of beginner games look like  and this will flow into something called the   middle game which is the ocean in which chess  players try to swim but it's not so simple to do   the middle game is split into  two things strategic play   and tactical play beginners games are decided  95 of the time with tactics i will give you a   very simple example of what a tactic is a  tactic is a forcing move or sequence of them   that guarantees gain of material so look at  the position that you have in front of you   how do we get this knight with the king that  would be a three-step process one two three   that's a bit more strategic in nature in positions  with many more pieces on the board strategic plans   take two or three moves often times it means  re-rounding a piece to the other side of   the board to make it more active gaining very  good control of a square tactics are immediate   they are the most forcing moves in the game they  make they make your opponent react so for example   here there's something called a double attack  or a fork the queen can go here attacking the   king and the knight that will guarantee that  you win the night guaranteed because the king   has to move and then we would take the  knight there's one other way to do this   and that would be here because that's all  the same that's how powerful the queen is   another kind of pin sorry another kind of tactic  i should say is a pin and a pin means a diagonal   or a vertical or horizontal attack on a piece that  can't move it just can't move this knight cannot   move because we would win the king and we cannot  capture a king look it literally won't let me move   this is a pin on the knight to the king this can  also happen in reverse there is some debate as   the skewer x-ray pin but the concept is all the  same and by the way if it was black's move in this   position black can fork or double attack the queen  and the king themselves tactics are so important   you should do as many of them as possible there  are workbooks my favorite one is 1001 chess   exercises for beginners they did not sponsor  this video i just recommended that book   that book goes chapter by chapter every single  kind of tactic deflection pin you know discovered   attack there's a lot of different tactics a  lot of different ways to solve these tactics   um that's what you should do chess is so much  about pattern recognition and puzzle solving   because you don't need to reinvent the wheel when  you play the game of chess uh for end games you   know i i as we move to end games end games are uh  a series of positions toward the end obviously of   chess games which you should know how to win so  for example king and one pawn versus king endgames   that's something that without any knowledge you  would not be able to figure out yourself that's   something that you can pick up and learn there's a  book a hundred end games you must know for example   it's a great book um but more importantly for  beginners is how to checkmate for example with   a queen and a king versus king like that is  something you should be able to do like that   or a ladder checkmate a ladder checkmate is even  easier so when you have a queen and another queen   or a queen and a rook for example or two rooks  and that's useful for positions like this like   let's say you get a position like this in a game  with queen and pawn you go wait remember that rule   i can go make a second queen it's much easier to  win with two queens versus a king and a latter   checkmate uh would uh would look for example like  like this let's say uh we promote a second queen   just you know you do a drill on ladder  checkmate it's when you use both of your pieces   to cut the enemy king laterally and walk it  to the other side of the board so for example   that might look something like this  queen b5 cuts the king laterally   and now your your queens alternate  which row they're going to control or rank right there you go that's something that  you just pick up as a beginner you go practice   some ladder checkmates you go practice  how to checkmate with king and queen   i will give you kind of the the two minute  rundown i don't know if it will be useful for you   on please disappear thank you the easiest  way to checkmate with just the queen   is to put the queen in what's called knight  opposition what does that mean that means   if this piece was a knight it would be attacking  the king now you copy everything black does   if black moves one square to the left you move  one square to the left if black moves one square   diagonally backwards you go the same way and  you get this king to one of the final rows   if the king gets locked on one of those  final rows you make sure the king cannot   escape so like i said one square this  way one square this way this way this way   this way this way oh the king's on the  back row now it's time to bring our king   so for example here here here here here here the  king will prevent the enemy king from escaping   the king cannot put itself in danger obviously  with our king there because we would capture it   so for example now we deliver either this  checkmate or the checkmate i like to call   in your face this is a check and the king is  protecting the queen otherwise if our king   was back here the king can just take the  king can capture things for free of course   but in this case the king would be defending the  queen so that's the use of end games as a beginner   you learn how to checkmate for example with just  a queen you learn how to checkmate with just   the rook there's all sorts of resources on the  internet for things like that but the point of   this video is to point you in the right direction  you need to learn basic checkmates and ultimately   just how to win a position where you have  like a huge lead okay hugely in in material   trade the pieces down get it to an end game get a  ladder checkmate checkmate somebody with a queen   i told you that at the end of all this i would  recommend what i think uh is the best and kind of   most reliable study plan i get asked this question  all the time especially now with so many more   chess fans around the world because of the queen's  gambit it was december 1st like i said 2020 so   whenever you're watching in the future if you've  made it this far in the video you want to know   how do you get better at chess there's a ton of  books there's a ton of resources a few days after   recording this i will have a beginner's course  it will be linked in the comments um you want   to learn a few openings with white and with black  you want to be confident in how you start the game   personally i don't recommend playing computers  or bots i recommend going to play people   online or how you know over the board i recommend  longer games 10 minute games 15 minute games   i recommend playing just a few games a day  and then analyzing and when you analyze with a   computer it won't always be so easy to understand  and frankly there's no clear advice i can give on   how to understand certain engine recommendations  the because it doesn't speak to you frankly   when you look at a game with an engine you  need to look for your one move mistakes   you need to like oh i blundered that piece that's  what i did i just literally left the piece hanging   okay how did my opening go did i fall for a trap  try not to fall for the same mistake two times   have your end games down and start slowly  adding a little bit of information to your   end games learn how to checkmate with a rook  okay learn a king and pawn end game for example   keep adding information there and for the puzzle  solving quality over quantity do 10 puzzles in   one day spend as much time on them as you need  get them all correct when you solve puzzles   you should look to solve them with  the process of checks captures attacks   those are the most forcing moves in  chess moves that they have to respond to   i have videos on puzzle solving so if you ever  want to watch videos on puzzle solving and how to   improve at that that there's content out out there  for you as well but that's how you get better so   you want to do 10 puzzles get 10 correct don't do  30 puzzles and only get 10 correct go for 100 that   way you understand the pattern kind of immerse  yourself in it and that's how you would improve   many people who start the game as adults gain  hundreds of rating points on chess.com or wherever   they play just playing like that i don't really  have much else to add i think i've given you just   about enough we're 30 minutes into this video  this is already a lot of information to intake   if any of you have questions start conversations  in the comments i'm sure people would be more than   happy to jump in and answer about books  training regimens and so on and so forth   that's basically it welcome once again to  chess and if there's any other content that   you'd like to see on my channel besides  the playlist that i have on these subjects   let me know like i said in the comments  below enjoy welcome to the 64 squares

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 2,787,210

Keywords: Gotham Chess gives lessons, Gothamchess lessons, gothamchess openings, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess guide, gothamchess e4, gothamchess, gothamchess rating climb, how to play chess, chess, how to be good at chess, how to learn chess, learn chess, chess for beginners, beginner chess lessons, chess lessons for beginners, how to play chess for beginners, how to play chess for kids, learn chess for beginners, chess strategy, chess lessons, chess openings, learn chess fast

Id: OCSbzArwB10

Length: 31min 26sec (1886 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020