Pokimane Learns to Attack With the London System

okay i do think it's knockout i play lily first   and then i play the winner of sapnap  versus nihachu okay okay all right so   um well i guess the good news is you're  probably the favorite in the first match right i have no clue how much chess lily  has played okay okay all right um so   you've been doing a lot of puzzles right um  over the last couple days i've been trying   to play a bit more as opposed to just doing  puzzles i just feel like i'm really behind on   my real game experience you know right okay so  like if you're behind on the real game experience   probably what you need is sort of like some  openings to play and and it seems like you with   with white you know what you said you're playing  normally like london system type stuff right   yeah i was actually gonna ask you maybe we could  talk about just like general transitioning from   openings to forming some sort of attack okay  i feel like i yeah i don't really know much   about that okay then i mean if that's if  that's the case and let's let's start with   the london because that's a little bit easier  since i think with black you don't have a set   you don't have set openings right i've tried a  bunch so not really sure what i'll stick with so   in so in terms like the opening you know what you  want do you want to start with d4 let's say i play   d5 here just a sort of like repetition to  get to the get out of the opening phase and here i can kind of do whatever  yeah i mean it doesn't really matter   the order just you know you're gonna move  the knight depending on what they attack   right so i'm gonna play this this move here all right so i'm gonna put  my bishop on this square i   don't know have you seen this before or not i think so yeah okay so if you see usually i  do this so go ahead all right so now i'm gonna castle i could finish my does the order here  matter at all um not particularly but generally   i would say you don't need to push this pawn  unless black pushes the pawn to this c5 square   the swear that i'm highlighting if black hasn't  pushed the pawn then normally moving the knight   moving the bishop uh is is better okay so now  let's let's say let's say i trade the bishops here   right um and so like in this position now  you've kind of in a sense completed your   development and a way you've moved  the knight you've moved the bishop   um and so you wanna like in this position because  i traded these bishops you have an open file here   so i wanna try to prioritize an attack there and  maybe castle queen's side exactly so if you're   so oh sorry i forgot i don't have push to talk on  so i'm just like drinking water exhaling loudly oh   i'm sorry oh i didn't even notice so it's all i'm  trying to get back up it's it's all good um it's   all good uh so like here since you kind of you  have this open open file normally when you get   like pawns that are stacked on top of each other  um the the the reason that you're okay with having   pawns like this you have an attack on like on like  an open file does that make some sense yep okay so   in this position you kind of would like to put  pressure towards where this pawn is on each sub so what is right now you're attacking this pawn  with with uh with two things your bishop and your   rook right but your opponent is guarding it with  a knight and with them with with a king as well   so it's two for two so it doesn't work here so how would you try to make it so you can  maybe uh put even more pressure towards where   this pawn is i think i could bring my knight up  and that also frees me up to bring my queen out   if that were yeah that's that's very good now  this is actually not the best move and i'll   explain why in a second but the reason that  this the idea at least is good is because now   you're threatening to capture the pawn with  your knight you're rooking your bishop here   now the reason that actually this move is better  than moving the knight here because if you move   the knight here i can very quietly push my  pawn forward and now your knight is gonna have   to retreat what if i just did this well if you do  this i will just capture i guess you take true and   then when you capture i capture and now it's like  a bishop and a knight and return for one night   so you've given up your bishop at night in return  for one night so you're behind by three points   true so that's why here the all these ideas  of moving the knight moving the queen are are   very logical but actually this move is better  okay so what would you do if i capture a knight i capture back right and if i move my knight here then i can move my queen up right but but again  think about what you what the original idea was so we go back to start what you were doing here is  you're trying to attack this pawn with your rook   and your bishop mm-hmm so i'm sorry so so when you  play play this move oh you mean i just played yeah   so like what happens is like the reason this  is so bad for black is because now the knight   is under attack so you're still attacking this  pawn with your bishop and with your rook but if   i move if i if i leave my knight on the square  yeah you're no longer defending is it already   worthwhile to just attack the bishop i mean the  the pawn well the thing is black doesn't really   have a choice here because you see the thing  is your pawn is starting to capture the knight   so i guess what i mean is like i'm i feel like  i hold off on the attack until i feel like i   can have mate but if i just go for it as soon  as you move your knight back so what what would   um there's actually a force checkmate sequence  here um and i'm wondering if you can find it   so remember think about what your original  idea is and like what are what are the um   can you capture anything here for example  or any of your opponents forced under attack right so so right now you're attacking  with two right the bishop on the roof   and your opponent is only  defending with their king   yeah so you should actually take the pawn now i'm  going to move the king over i want to see if you   can find a find a checkmate here there's there's  actually kind of like a force checkmate idea so you know what a discover chuck is right  i yes if i do this but then you just take   right are there other squares  that you can move the uh bishop to have to be all the way back here right you can  actually go to any of the squares these squares   all three of these squares also work because  the king is in chuck but but just for a basic   uh basic reasoning this is the correct  oh i move it back and then i move my   queen in there are two ways to do  this moving your queen is very good   here actually but what you can do  is you can actually play this move and what happens when i take the rook yeah and that's checkmate exactly got it so like when you play when you  start this opening this this basic   starter where you move put this bishop  back here if your opponent takes right   away you actually prioritize trying to attack  towards this pawn instead of focusing on on the   development of like you're getting your king  out center the board and moving your knight   uh what happened for us to do this trade here  again was that your move or my move right so   what happened is so we traded the bishop so i um  i i trade the bishops on this square so you end up   with these two pawns on top of each other oh no i  mean afterwards right so now i move my knight here   and now you move the knight here right and then  you took right so when i take what happens is   you end up getting this pawn that attacks the  knight and so knight can't stay here and and   defend this pawn because you're attacking with the  bishop and the rook this is like this what we call   removing the defender i think something that uh i  struggle with a bit is kind of like i think they   refer to it as like breaking the center open i  feel like here it was kind of you that initiated   sort of by taking here but like if they never  took their i don't know exactly so so now let's   just say i'm gonna move my queen here and try  to get you to remove your knight from the center so now what you can do here is you  can actually once again take the spawn   i'm going to take back and i want to see  what's it's a you've given up a bishop   for one pawn so there's a continuation move  here that's really uh that's really strong so so think about it this way if you give  up like if you make a sacrifice like this   and you've given up bishop or pond you have  to have some way to to try and win back the   night the like immediately win back the night or  go for a checkmate because otherwise your opponent   will have time and because they have more more  pieces they'll be able to defend defend the king   but what happens now if i move my knife here um do i okay my reflex is  to say go try to attack it   i don't know if that's right so so how  many checks do you see in this position oh wait no i don't have mate um so i i think like generally when you  make sacrifice you're always looking for   ways either to win back  material or look for checks i was looking here but you take there too okay  that's good that's one what other checks do you   have in this position oh oh true right you you  basically have three checks you you you can move   the queen down here here or no you capture the  rook takes you move here the knight takes um   so that kind of this is uh the whole point  is that when you move the knight here   versus moving the knight here it's  twofold you want to bring the queen here whereas like if you go here i just kick your  knight away okay so the point behind moving   the knight here is first of all if we trade then  i'm remove you're gonna remove the defender yeah   but also you're always gonna be able  to bring this queen to this h5 square   so that's that's kind of the reason behind playing  this move and that's why actually i was taking   the knight now if i was a a really strong player  what i would play here is i would push this pawn   why do you think why do you think  that i would push this pawn here   i mean it creates sort of a square around my king   um but what is the underlying reason  you think that i push this pawn here what what what like if we look at this  position what's your strongest piece   well what's your what's your strongest piece oh also it blocks my bishop right so  what i'm doing by pushing the pawn is   let's just say you play a move like this i  can trade and now move my knight away yeah   and now there's no threat on the diagonal  because the pawn is in the way so your bishop   doesn't get to this h7 dude for someone  who's new this is like so [ __ ] five head   it's it's i mean it's it's not something that  i think you really need to like think about   at this point um but just i think in general  like when you play the london system especially   you want to be aware of this bishop it's  it's the most powerful piece that you have   um because it's always aiming towards  a pawn right next to the black king   okay so it's like um it's like that's kind of  the point is what you're trying to do is if   your opponent takes right away you immediately  go on the offensive with the rook you don't you   don't like focus on development you focus on  using this open open file for your rook here   and i just leave castling to whenever i need  it if i need it um i would say most of the   time you're probably not going to castle so  let's let's keep going with this i'm going   to i'm going to push my pawn here you mean under  these circumstances specifically oh god yeah when uh you will but it's more important to focus on  on the on the attacking idea on the attack okay   yeah so let's just say you move the knight  here this is actually a very bad movement so   it's just i'm going to try to show you why is  after we trade here let's say i go night here   or wait not sorry i go night here um  what uh what's your next move going to be uh i wish i could defend this can you i guess the uh sorry i wanted to yeah  this is this is very good um and now let's   you'll notice in this position black is castle  the king but the center of the board is very   closed here like there are a bunch of pawns that  are in the center part of the sport these four   pawns um so black can't really take advantage of  the fact that you haven't casted your king here   so i'm going to play it play this move and i want  to see if you can find is there a way that you can   sacrifice like a bishop or the rook or something  uh because i've moved this pawn and it's no longer   protecting here on g6 i'm kind of curious if  you can see a uh see a tactic pattern here so so let's say you take with  a bishop i i just take it back   and you can't very open well you would  like to use it but you can't put the   queen here because the pawn will just capture  so i'll show you the first move it's this move and so i'm going to take and i want  to see you've given up one rook here   for basically a pawn yep uh i see i can  do this and further move you out okay   so remember now that you're making a  sacrifice you're always looking for chucks um okay with my queen of h well  actually i can because it's pinned right so now i have to move my king i guess i take with my bishop and try to  go well remember you're you've sacrificed   to rook here so in general i think one of the  priorities is you should be looking for checks   um in a position where the king doesn't have um   well right but if you go there i just  capture right right so what else do you have right and so now i have to go over right and that's that's check me  because the bishop protects them yeah   wow okay sorry these are all um forms  of attacks that i'm so not used to   just because i don't have enough  game experience i mostly just used to   you know play it out make better trades and  then win over time by capturing everything   right so i mean i think the thing that's important  is like if you're playing the london all these   themes are very common this idea like um you'll  see a lot of the similar boards essentially yeah   you'll end you'll have it have like pawns on these  similar sort of squares um or like these ideas   with a bishop and a rook so this is a situation  where um your opponent traded the bishops on on   this g3 square very early and when they do this  and they open up the file for your rook you don't   want to actually castle your king here you want  to like move your knight and bring this knight   into the game and try to attack right towards  where the king is immediately okay so so so like   if i go here actually this move was good but the  best way is to move the knight here and the reason   it's actually a little bit better is because if  we trade and you go here what's your next move no we did this last time but okay but the  reason i wasn't sure if there was something   else i could move with the knight to get him  somewhere but yeah well you're right about   that but the thing is you play the you play the  same um the same setup because why does why do   you think the knight is better on the square  it's on versus the other square next to it it if it's here it the only way it can kind of  go to the right side of the board is through   here and it can't because it's being attacked  there right and what can it do from this square zoo zoo exactly so let's say i just play  a move like this to develop my bishop so how do you continue to attack right and so now i'm going to move my bishop here  i mean your bishop's blocked for now isn't it unless slash until you did this i would just  keep going right and now i'm gonna push my   you're threatening to capture the pawn with the  knight in the rook so i'm going to push the pawn so once again when you look at this position  how do i put this um i have a lot of pieces   that are on this on the other side or other  half of the board very far away from this king so can you try to go and find  some way to make a checkmate again   let's make like maybe a sacrifice i  feel like i need to sack something yeah okay if i did this and you were here this would be  pinned like that and then maybe i could push this   okay that's not bad actually um if you were  to move the knight here and i capture though   you could actually take with the queen oh true i  didn't even see that well it's the same theme as   before with like the pawns if you remember  yeah yeah and like if i move the king over   once again you've given up one  free one free night here so   um are there are there once again you want to be  looking for ways to make a checkmate like with   like here you have this queen in this rook they're  on this open line and they're very very strong now if you do that though i can capture  so you always you want to be aware like   well i i would say what i would say is you want to  run it through like what are the possible squares   that you can check on you have this one you have  this one you have this one three checks um if you   go to this one i capture now this one also works  because when i go here what's your next move i mean doesn't they're they're two moves  they're two two moves both work yeah um yeah   so so both moves work here um but actually that's  why like in this position this is not a bad move   but you can also play this one and so what happens when i capture the rook i see that as a check right but it's not me  okay so if you see a check and it's not it's   not really leading anywhere then you want to  see is there anything that you can capture i could maybe do this look to  capture that but it's also not really   well when i mean capture i mean  like you take something immediately oh is that a good move or not eh   i mean i think it's developing at least  and i'm getting a free pawn and a file   okay so what's your let's just say i play a  random move here for example uh yes it's right and so what happens if i move my rook wait what difference does that make i don't know oh so then your king has somewhere to go well then i go here okay so i go  king here oh but then i'm not covered   right so again you want to look for checks and yep   okay so so so you want to look at the checks  how many checks are there in this position how many ways can you attack the  king yeah there's one two three so there's one more also there  are five five ways that you can   i keep forgetting captures i'm just looking at the  open spots but i'm guessing it's this one yeah and   that's checkmate because the knight protects the  queen yeah so again like all these checkmates   you're seeing like the patterns they revolve  around involving the the bishop the the knight the   rook and the queen you don't actually worry about  it about this rook in the corner but it's always   something with a queen to the square generally or  something on h8 using the rook and the queen yeah   okay i feel like these are all  such new patterns for some reason   yeah well because generally  what's gonna happen is probably   um if your opponent doesn't take it's like  you you sort of you just assume you're just   gonna castle and move the knight and play the  game like that now if your opponent is a strong   player they won't actually take right away  for that exact reason because what happens is   what i just pointed out where you try to attack  um by moving this knight using this bishop using   this queen and using the stroke essentially it's  some combination um involving these four pieces okay i need to try that a lot more in my games  because people will take well yeah and actually   but even if they don't it's a little bit different  but one of the reasons that i think a lot of   players like plot champs have played this opening  is because the ideas generally are pretty similar   so let's say i don't let's say in this position i  don't actually take i'm gonna move my knight here so now here we here what you should do is  you should actually delay your castle and   move the knight hoping for the same capture  because when i capture which way you take it you said which way which makes me think you're  saying another way but why wouldn't i take the   same way well i was just asking because there  are two two options uh it wasn't a true question   but in general we think it's still this way  right i would say in this opening when you have   this this set of pawns you always want to capture  towards the center so like the center being like   this row and this row these these two files you  almost always want to capture towards the center   like use your pawn which is here on the side  of the board and capture closer to the center   as opposed to capturing with this one which  would be going away from the center of the board   ah okay got it so whenever you have like a  situation where you get like two pawns one   on top of the other um you always wanna i  would just say just think about you always   wanna capture towards the center instead  of away from the center and so now let's   just say i move my pawn here how do  you attack in this position remember   it's it's you've got this open file so now  you want to attack towards the king again what do i do about that darn pot if i'm not taking   well again i just ignore and develop elsewhere  well this is why people like playing the london   system it's because the theme is generally the  exact same so here you can play the same thing   and you just don't care that he takes back  well okay if if i take what i'm going to   do is i'm going to actually take take here  what happens if if black captures with knight then there's no more defender here but you could  also capture with the queen well okay so let's   let's play this out so how do you make a checkmate  here here yeah i mean you literally you actually   just said what the why this was why is this such  a bad move you you you said it was a bad move   you said why didn't i just capture with  the queen so why is this the wrong capture   um i'm trying to figure out in what order i  know uh i'm attacking with my bishop and my rook   i just don't know if i need  my queen fur to be made   so the the great thing um about this  is that uh it's the same pattern so   you actually take with a bishop i move  my king you make a chuck i move my king   oh okay i do forget about the freaking discovered  check uh and then do i bring my queen out because   there's no way you can get to her in time i  don't think you could could move the queen   i mean like your queen out okay  but this is the correct move again and what happens when i take the rook exactly so so it's it's the exact same  yeah i would never think to sack my rook   it's a bit it's very hard to remember that i  mean i don't think it's actually not so much   about sacrificing the rook because you might  miss something like that but it's more to   sort of remember this idea of the checkmate with  like the bishop and the court um because actually   even if you don't sacrifice the rook here this is  still a very very good move moving the queen out   because you threaten checkmate on two squares   so it's more like it's not about like the specific  checkmate pattern but it's it's remembering that   with like the with like the the rook or with  like the queen and the bishop you can create   these checkmate patterns on these two can we  play that out uh which one like if i did this and then okay i have to go here i go back i go  here and then if i didn't see to sac my rook and   i did this right okay so what would you play so  now this is where you kind of well i want to see   if you can figure this out so white is threatening  to make a checkmate on these two squares right   i think knight moves back to try to defend  right so attack so now like i said there   are two checks here right so if i move my  knight what would your move be with white let's check me right so if i move the knight  here i stop the checkmate on this square   but i have to stop the checkmate on both of  these squares because you have a rook as well   so do you move the pawn up to f6 very good so  they're two odds so the correct move is actually   i pushed the pawn two squares forward not one and  i want to see if you can figure out why this one   is not the correct the this actually  this pattern here of this checkmate   i think you really should try to remember this  the this pattern so let's just work it through   first um so if i push this pawn and you make a  check i move the king right and i can do this   okay but then you still well the funny thing is  this is actually the best move here um but the   checkmate pattern i think is it's really important  to try to remember this idea which is to go check i go king here and now again you want  to move the bishop to make a chuck right   okay to remove to remember discovered checks   so then if i did this i would be blocking a later  exit right right that's now when i go over here done so so what i want to point out is this  idea of making a check leading to a forced   checkmate is very very common so i'm just  going to make a i'm going to set this up in   a slightly different manner um how do i do this  let me just one second just bear with me okay so   like the reason i mentioned this idea of the  check of the checkmate pattern and the reason   that it's so important to remember is there's  also this position i want to see if you can find   you obviously have a checkmate in one by  moving the queen but can you find a way   to make a checkmate using the bishop and the  queen here and it involves a discovered shock yeah okay my turn so it's it's a bishop move  here i'll i'll say that so you move your bishop   all right okay and when i go here right so if you make a check with  your queen here on any of these   three squares i'm just gonna capture it oh true so i think instead i just do the   discovered check right like this now you can  do that but the reason that i that i set up   this position is because this idea of using the  bishop and queen um you can actually go check here instead of because it's um  well no no no because you   right so i have to go here and you could make a  checkmate in one but for example let me just um   actually an easier way to conceptualize  this is let's let's start back here okay   so now you don't have any of these  ideas with the rook checkmate right   because you're or queen and rook because  your rook is off the board yup so you have   to find a way to make a checkmate with just  these two pieces the bishop and the queen   yeah so just do that but also my mind only  goes to yeah so what's the other check here right and when i go here and when i go here um brain doesn't compute if you know oh  sorry i didn't mean to do that that's fine   so what are the other checks i could do that again right but that's  just gonna we're gonna repeat it yeah   exactly uh you capture here you capture  there what other checks are there but then you move right and i check me got it okay sometimes it's  so intimidating to see so many pieces around   and then you realize oh none of them can even do  anything if you move just like the perfect amount   right so so it's like like when i show this this  this pattern it's not something that's always   going to work but you should be aware that if  you if you end up with like a queen and a bishop   next to the king their idea is where you can you  can just use the bishop and the queen to create   this checkmate it's like i don't i don't even  know how how to explain it exactly um because   everyone like remembers it differently but like  there's this notion of like these discovered   checks with like the queen of the bishop were  really really important to see especially when   you play the london system because everything  when you're trying to attack it involves   like 95 percent of the attacks involve the queen  the rook and the bishop okay so maybe a knight as   well but it's it's almost always some theme with  either a checkmate on each 887 or an idea with   like the bishop and the queen okay i think once  i get to practice them enough hopefully they can   become second nature well it's like a spot at  least i mean it's like to give you an example   like with leslie when i when i showed her this  london opening she didn't know everything or   all the ideas but she had one idea of how to  make a checkmate with the bishop and the queen   and just that one that one idea as long as you can  sort of remember that it's already sort of will   guide you in the right direction if you if you was  it this the one you just showed me or another one   um it was very s i don't remember i think it was  i think it was actually almost exactly like this   except the pawn was except e rob had not traded  these bishops so the pawn was in front of the rook   but it was something like takes here between here  and he was off like doing some of his queen on   the wrong side of the court and allowed  to check and then from the queen oh oh   i feel like people are gonna see that aren't they  um they should see that um he did not see that but   anyway um so so kind of that's that's the point  is that basically like all these ideas they flow   into each other with like the bishop the knight  the queen and the rook which is why people this   is a pretty good opening for beginners  um because the theme is it's always the   same it's not like there's gonna be something  where um your attack is is different than this   you

Channel: GMHikaru

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Keywords: Hikaru Nakamura, master chess, chess instruction, magnus carlsen, chess commentary for beginners, hikaru chess commentary, chess tournament, twitch streamers, chess game play, chess tricks, master chess moves, TSM, Hikaru teaches Pokimane, Hikaru Nakamura and Pokimane, Hikaru Pokimane lesson, Nakamura coach pokimane, gm hikaru, london system chess, chess london system, london system games, london system explained, london system lesson, london system tutorial

Id: BWmuufl1AT8

Length: 36min 3sec (2163 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021