Stuck At Chess? Click here.

in this video i am going to teach you how to  stop being stuck at a chess rating so many   of you volunteered for this video when i made the  community post almost 4 000 comments and what i've   done is i've selected four really good profiles  and if you're close to those people in rating then   you should pay attention uh the ratings are from  750 to 2000. we're actually ending with an example   of myself my own personal life um and we're going  to kick things off with nico who said that he   stuck at 750 since he began the game we're gonna  look at every single profile and i will give you   my opinion of what's good what's bad and what  these people should do to improve now nico 750 so   what you need at this level is a solid  opening base you need to do your puzzles   maybe 10 to 15 of them a day try to get them right  get basic checkmate patterns and practice now   first thing we do when we look at niko's profile  nico doesn't do a lot of puzzles almost none and   if we also take a look at some of his statistics  in terms of rapid chess which is what he primarily   plays with white nico does quite well nico scores  50 with the white pieces you should always look at   your own statistics and with black i mean you  know the stats are a little bit more or less   balanced maybe losing a little bit so the point  of nico is that he's not skewed one way or the   other he seems more or less balanced however  upon further investigation what i found with   a gentleman from georgia is that he there's  a lot of this stuff going on in the opening   a lot of inventing is what i call this oops sorry  a lot of inventing what nico needs to do if he   wants to break out of 6 and 700 is he's got to  pick a couple of very simple openings with white   and with black if he doesn't have a lot of time  because he's working a lot maybe with white nico   plays the london system just a very simple d4 and  bishop f4 learns it watches a couple videos and it   seems to me that the biggest flaw for this person  rated 750 700 680 is the fact that they don't have   a solid opening base and they're not doing a  lot of puzzles they're playing a lot of games   because they enjoy them but overall uh nico is not  doing a good job with generally studying and then   implementing that kind of a thing and actually  you know i don't mean to put nico on the spot but   nico's guilty of it himself he said i figured i  kind of need to learn openings like king's indian   i simply have a poor understanding of the concept  well that is chess there is a learning curve and   he says that i prefer a quick mate in the least  possible amount of moves so nico and all beginners   rated about 800 and lower you all have to have  a good understanding of fundamentals you need to   diligently train that is truly what holds a lot  of the beginners back is that we are convincing   ourselves that we are studying by playing but  it's not quite the case and no three-minute games   nico plays a lot of fast games you want to  be a improving beginner 10 minutes at least   15 minutes preferred quality over quantity two  games a day max win or lose don't play anymore   analyze those games and study study study before  you just jump into the pool you don't swim before   you know how to swim you don't just jump in the  water right so nico and all beginners that is my   advice to you now for the second person in this  video we are taking a look at caden says he's   right at 12 50. stuck for 10 months age 20 studies  in university like many of you and caden's profile   is very interesting okay i had a lot of fun uh  with this one so if we go back and uh his username   is stockdad so if we go back to caden right uh  caden actually plays a lot of games not rapid   but blitz caden has almost four actually over  four thousand blitz games played uh and if we   look at the puzzles caden does do puzzles but  look at cadence solve rate so this is number one   220 out of 450 is just under 50 if you want to  improve it puzzles you need to go for 60 scores   okay and what i've done is i've taken a look  and i say there's a lot of blitz in here   and the thing about three minute blitz games and  five minute blitz game sometimes you pop off with   97 which is what he did in this game and sometimes  you win again a game playing 20 we want to cut the   variance what is this we can't play a game 20  accurately right if we're trying to get better   that is the problem now again this person is  in university many of you are in university it   is hard to study while you're studying for things  that are more important than chess crazy right but   now what i found uh in taking a look at his blitz  games is with black 49 loss rate and with white 44   loss rate right so he is very solid with the white  pieces very good over 51 still we want about 51   but we want to take a deeper look here and at the  rating of 1250 1350 1450 1550 all of this applies   that i'm about to tell you once you go and and  start doing your puzzles 15 correct every single   day you want to get 15 out of 15 as close to 100  as possible set aside an hour if you can but take   a look at this i went to the opening explorer  okay for stock dad now with the black pieces   e4 stock that is playing a lot of e5 and  he doesn't have a very good score with   the black pieces why is that well it looks  like if you follow hit all the top moves   he goes for a lot of this stockdad is worried  about the fried liver in e4 e5 positions   but maybe stockdad should incorporate the fried  liver into his repertoire and play and learn the   traxxler openings at this level to counteract  your opponents at twelve and thirteen hundred   so so so important so allow the fried liver and  crush them with a traxler counter attack very   easy to learn watch one video from this guy on  youtube named gotham chess kind of a stupid guy   but has some pretty good content bishop c5 and  and crush people okay none of this h6 right this   is kind of a shortcut that you take but if you  do a little bit of diligent study at this level   really analyze what the problem is with white  and with black in the games that you're playing   you're gonna be great maybe we take a look at d4  d4 he when he's playing black a lot of london's   knight c6 see this is not the best way to play the  london i just launched an episode of how to win   at chess episode five uh where the very first game  i'm i'm playing in london and i'm showing that you   have to go c5 so fine tuning your lines against  the openings at this level is super important   and you can use this to get up to 18 1900 but  how about with white with whites look at what   stock dad plays once one stock that has the white  pieces e4 e5 and we could flip this right e45   knight f3 knight c6 knight c3 but this is not  a very challenging approach to the opening this   is just a very solid approach just developing  your pieces instead why don't you learn a gambit   with white or with black play a danish gambit  do you know how much you will destroy people   at the 1250 level playing like this you will  crush them so your openings are very calm and   you've you've learned what nico should learn  right nico the first beginner we analyzed   the solid opening base but now it's time to  challenge people don't forget the opening   is still a competitive affair you're right the  opening is not just i got to get my pieces out   and then we go to battle no you cannot it's a  fight it's like a mixed martial arts you can knock   someone out in five seconds there's no rule oh you  gotta wait like a minute before what no you could   start knocking people out in the first few moves  so stock dad with the puzzles should calm down   solve puzzles diligently and more frequently they  don't do a lot of puzzles more frequent puzzle   solving trainier tactics and then fine-tune your  openings play more aggressive openings at this   level 12 13 14 1500 i have openings courses but  if you can't you know if you're a student you   don't want to spend money on chess there's a lot  of content on youtube for aggressive uh and tricky   openings uh and things of that nature so hopefully  that helps now for this third person i'm gonna go   back to full screen mode and just quickly talk  about this for a second this next person uh is   from france 32 years old and works in finance  now when you're an adult and you're trying to   get better at chess whether you played it in your  youth or you're just starting out and you work in   something like more corporate it is going to be  difficult to find time to genuinely study because   you are working a lot maybe chess is your escape  maybe chess is something you do for 10 minutes   when you sit on the toilet at work but in either  of those cases if you actually want to get better   this next person earnest from france this is  going to be a very interesting example um this   person stuck about 15 1500 15 1600. all right  let's take a look so what is the problem here   whereas the last person that we just looked  at doesn't do enough puzzles this person   does far too much on their chest they do too  much you look they play non-stop okay and what   i call this is empty games you see a lot of bullet  games you're not gonna get better playing bullet   you're not gonna get better just spamming random  things this person plays just for the love of the   game and that is great but they did submit  themselves to be a volunteer in this video   so if you want to get better at the 15 1600 level  you got to do everything that i just told the   other person at 1250 you but but look this person  overdoes it and sometimes the people who love the   game study it the worst and what i mean by that  is we take a look at puzzle stats this person   does a lot of puzzles that's a lot of puzzles  and look it's every day it's every day bro in   the words of logan paul i can't believe i just  said that out loud scrub that from your memory   he is the guy that made that video this song  right anyway so look at all these puzzles   but look at this 12 seconds 4 seconds 30 seconds  a minute no no no no no you have to cut back   15 puzzles a day as i've been saying and that's  it it does not matter if i get them right or   wrong i'm gonna try to get them all right i will  spend three four minutes on a puzzle if i have to   if you don't have a lot of time because  you're working in corporate that's all good   make it 10 puzzles but don't do this you want  to get better at the game you want to improve   don't do this and one more thing about  earnest which i really did not like   is the openings earnest with the  white pieces i'm assuming it's ernest   i'm sorry if you're french it's probably ernest  okay i'm gonna say the american way earnest   um a lot of d4 with white which is good but  you gotta choose look at this bishop g5 and c4   even split pick one or do what i told the other  guy switch it up look at ernest with with white   63 win rate with e4 maybe that's all you need  and look at what you're playing knight f3 oh   look even here there's like king's gambit with  white so knight f3 knight c6 bishop c4 you are   winning so many games with the italian stick to  it what do you play against bishop c5 okay throw   in an evan's gambit learn a gambit focus on what  you're good at using the statistics page and keep   doing it now with black this is where it's very  troubling so look at what the black pieces i told   you people who love the game variety is not the  spice of life in chess 989 games of this and this   this is fine if you just want to be a hobby  player but if you want to go from 1500 to 1800   pick one and stick to it master it go and play  set yourself a maximum go back and repeat analyze   a basketball player will go to the court and  shoot 100 shots and that's it they will not   shoot 120 because they wanted to they'll shoot a  hundred see how they do they'll come back they'll   shoot a hundred there has to be structure when you  are training to improve at the game of chess okay   and you cannot have this much of a sample size of  openings pick one if you want to get better if you   just want to play by all means mix it up by all  means but if you are trying to get better focus   on one at most focus on two because you need to  master your craft if something's not working you   got to change it up okay that is one thing that  i noticed about ernest this person's 32 years old   like i said maybe they're working in finance and  chess for them is just a way to have some fun but   to get better at the game unfortunately you do  have to kind of cut back on the fun uh and um   you have to stick to something and i think one  more thing if we go back to the stance page just   very briefly um was there i think i noticed yeah  like with white ernest is winning nearly 52 of   games which is good it's very good i mean try to  get this up to 55 if you want to you know totally   dominate oh no i apologize that was all games with  white it was 54 that's huge that's massive that's   that's amazing 42 loss rate that's great it's  almost 40 that's great but with black look at that   an extra 5 loss rate so with black pick an opening  do well with it maybe play a gambit to throw your   opponents off with white dude do what you're  doing it's working right it's working you're   winning with white you're playing well with white  maybe play more gambits with white if you want   like with e4 we saw you win 64 of the time you get  those positions better that is what you got to do   and for this last one ladies and gentlemen i'm  gonna go back to full screen to introduce it   like i said for this last one we're talking about  meat gotham when i was 12 years old i crossed 2   000 for the first time you say love you that's  crazy you were better than me guys i played chess   since i was 5 years old that's all i did i ate  chess i i literally i probably swallowed a pawn   every now and then i slept chess i i i breathed it  when i was 12 i crossed 2 000 for the first time   okay and we're gonna take a look i was the same  level for three years i quit chess for gaps at   a time no studying i hated it i was dejected  and before we jump into the chess if you've   made it this far in the video um sometimes you  need a break you might hate that i'm watching a   chess youtuber telling me i need to take a break  yeah sometimes you need to step away take one or   two games a day and that's it just watch videos  and streams but don't always be playing because   tilt is real and everybody escapes tilt in chess  differently the other day i went down 250 blitz   points i got frustrated i played off stream on  my phone i got back into it i went 9-0 against   the grand master and it got me my mojo back but  if you've been at a certain rating and you drop   you're the strength you were you just aren't  performing up to par take a break take a walk   drink some food have some wine if you're of age  hang out with your loved ones or your friends or   play a video game and then come back with a fresh  and clean mind find what works for you now having   said all that we go to mr gotham chess levy rosman  this is me this is me now this is my u.s chess   federation page and i'm going to take you through  a little journey of how i got back into chess   so in 2008 i hit right here 2 000. and back then  being a 12 year old 2000 was impressive in fact it   was so impressive that in august of 2008 i was the  second highest rated 12 year old in the country   number one you some of you might know him daniel  naredinsky streamer and youtuber number three my   best friend to this day alexander rystrovsky  and if you fuse rosman and oshrovsky you get   what do you want a lot of russians play chess it  was good but i was that rating for three years   until 2011 i quit chess i was a moody teenager  i was figuring out all sorts of different things   about life well not really actually i was  just being a teenager and what got me back   into the game was the fact that i came back and my  friend oshrovsky alex ostrovsky showed me a book   and it was a book on the karaoke it's called  lars skandorf grandmaster repertoire 7.   and i read the book and it was just i was a  clean slate i didn't hate chess anymore and   i was reading this book like this is kind of  interesting and you know what happened after   reading the book the very first tournament  that i played after i read the book um   i think i have it here i'm gonna have to move this  over the very first tournament that i played this   is gonna be ugly i'm very sorry i beat a master  look at this the very first tournament i played in   2011 i beat eight the person right above me james  west 2200 up until this point in my life i had   never beaten a master level player in a tournament  game this was a 30 minute game per player and i uh   i had never done it and i beat him with the  kara khan and that to me reinvi you know   reinvigorated a fire you'll notice my my year by  year statistics my peak rating in 20 in 2008 2060   my peak rating the next year 2057. i went down  three points in a year then i went up 30 but i   was the same strength for three years in 2011 i  played the most amount of games since one of the   earliest years of my life playing chess i won 63  percent of my games which is more than any of the   other years before except the very first one and  i peaked at 22.55 i gained 160 points in a year   all because i took some time off i only played  online or things that weren't super nerve-wracking   and stressful i learned a brand new opening and  i went on to win tons of games in the car con   because i loved it it was easy to understand and  i absorbed the information like a sponge and the   interesting thing is to this day my friends the  karo khan remains my first love against e4 my   main weapon is the karo khan defense and i win 62  percent of games with it against many many strong   masters i played a you know i've beaten many  many many strong grand masters with the karo khan   including a blitz game against hikaru it  was the only blitz game that i've beaten him   uh where and then he beat me 10 straight and  adopted me but it was the karo khan defense   and it continues to be my main weapon and  i love it and i keep adding layers to it so   listen um hopefully this helps if you  are a beginner focus on the fundamentals   make yourself do the work puzzle solving  a quantity over a quality over quantity   approach don't do 100 puzzles do 10 15  20 25 but get as many right as possible   you got to be better than 50 you got to be better  than 60 right on puzzle solving and gameplay um   if your 12 13 1400 openings are so important oh  my goodness for me openings kara khan saved me   at 2 000. so openings and adding new ones will  always make chess more interesting and exciting   find what works for you find how to mitigate  being upset and being in a slump and overcoming   that adversity when things are not going your way  and the most important thing is do not convince   yourself you are doing the work because oftentimes  you are not there is a better way to study and   better way to train cut back on the games that  you play cut back on the puzzle solving quality   over quantity my friends hope this helped let me  know if there's any questions in the comments if   there's any topics that i haven't covered also  let me know that as well i was very excited to   make this video and i'm very glad we kept it under  20 minutes so i will catch you in the next one

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 848,444

Rating: 4.9738808 out of 5

Keywords: Gotham Chess gives lessons, Gothamchess lessons, gothamchess openings, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess guide, gothamchess e4, gothamchess, gothamchess rating climb, chess lessons, how to get good at chess, how to win at chess, how to play chess, chess improvement, chess slump, chess lesson, chess lessons for beginners, chess lessons for intermediate, intermediate chess lesson, advanced chess lesson, chess lesson advanced, chess strategy, chess tips, improve at chess

Id: bK6rAfukA44

Length: 19min 5sec (1145 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021