The SECRET to Gain Chess Elo

ladies and gentlemen it's 2023 there has literally never been a better time to learn chess on YouTube there are so many learning tools and resources there are so many amazing video titles like the seven reasons you're stuck under a thousand or if you if you don't know how to get better click here or 34 middle game Concepts you got that's all great but you've clicked on this video and I am going to share with you in my opinion and I have taught chess for over 10 years both on YouTube and offline I'm going to share with you the one skill that I think is by far the most important that you are missing from your toolbox that's preventing you from getting better now for a lot of beginners this skill is just moving your queen out and it gets captured moving a piece out it gets captured your opponent moves a piece out you fail to capture it one movers this video was more for the beginners at the tail end of the beginner level and mostly for the intermediate and advanced folks now if you're watching this as a beginner don't click off I know that sidebar looks appealing give me about 20 minutes of your time I will blow your mind because this is a skill that is important in every single game it's the skill to get into your opponent's head a lot of you play chess completely selfishly you completely don't realize that there is a person sitting across from you digitally or physically and it's preventing you from making good decisions to prove my point I have selected five games today and I don't want you to watch this passively I don't want you to throw this on in the background just to listen to me talk be interactive with this video I can't speak to you but we're gonna do this kind of like a conversation all right I've selected five of my recent games this skill is so important that literally all of my recent games featured a moment that was teachable here's a game that I played I was playing an international Master uh from uh I believe that's Romania yes and this is the situation you're playing Black Gotham is playing White your queen is under attack you can Retreat and offer a queen trade or you can take a free Pawn and threaten another Free Pawn so after you take this one you might be able to play Bishop takes the question is what does white want it's not about what you want what does white want feel free to pause I told you this is going to be interactive it's going to be a unique video normally I blah blah blah blah blah make some jokes you laugh you thumbs up the video whatever what does white want now a lot of you might decline this move because I don't know you don't want a queen trade Queen trade boring well here's the truth all right taking this looks fine what does white want white wants to take the Knight open up the king and launch an attack as you get better at chess you're going to get into situations where you can successfully identify what the opponent wants you see in this game my opponent took my Pawn look at the eval because I went here I opened up my opponent's king I immediately attacked the Queen the queen was promptly booted from the position and now let me ask you another question how will white get in how is white going to get in over here how's it possible do you see a way might take a couple of moves do you see any weaknesses can you identify anything weak in the black position again feel free to pause maybe there's something like this but you can't really move the queen because then right so why don't you start by moving the bishop and see what my opponent didn't realize here is there's no way to guard this pawn and once I get in it's real bad it's real bad Bishop takes Bishop takes and look at White's advantage I managed to open up my opponent's side of the board here with an exchange of Bishop for Knight and by going to gobble one of my pawns my opponent didn't fully anticipate that an attack was coming and a queen trade severely decreases a person's chance of attacking you that's just the way it works now okay this might be a little boring right okay I gotta trade Queens whatever I played this game a little bit earlier a little bit earlier than that game all right my opponent just castled and just to give you the context I just played the move Queen to B3 because it's a dopamine move I attack his Pawn he goes here I have a pretty Pleasant Advantage right look point seven you don't know it's 0.7 during the game but uh okay what's the best move here for white white to move 0.7 you must have a big Advantage feel free to think about it what's the best move here for white all right I'm gonna give you like five seconds I don't know maybe maybe you're gonna pause maybe not um a lot of you including me might say A4 A5 A6 right that looks Supernatural that's exactly the point that's exactly my point I played that move even I can learn from my own videos look at the eval fall off a cliff how is that possible nobody asked themselves what does black want how are we not thinking how was I not thinking of that in this position black wants something very simple in fact you should know what black wants if you think that you need to attack G5 G4 who's faster black because when that pawn Line's there it's over this position is opening up so why does white have an advantage because white needs to play the move H4 which is such a tough move to play unless you go through this mental checklist the bishop is guarded sorry the Knight is guarding the pawn from the bishop G5 is now impossible and the move H4 completely shuts down the attack and then you can go do what you want and it's very difficult for black to make a move because if the Knight goes to B6 you can play Bishop G5 you can put a knight in the center you can play A4 A5 now you have a Target H4 is necessary look what happens in the game because I don't ask myself what does black want he finds G5 and he finds G4 and then he brings his Rook and then he sacrifices his Rook look at this position I am getting brutalized and I went on to lose I went on Toulouse it was a bit of a scramble it was a Blitz game it wasn't the cleanest conversion by my opponent but if I if just a few moves back I went what does my opponent want I would have seen the move G5 I didn't even I didn't even stop for a second and think what's next and after G5 like it's over I have nothing I can do here if I try to save my knight and I you know okay I saved my night question what does the opponent want what does the opponent want okay you you save the night the opponent's gonna it's gonna kill you on the H file I was thinking Queen H5 but even Rook H7 or Rook H5 how do you get out you can't you can't you can't get out you get absolutely brutalized here so this is the thing folks you've got to be able to stop and think and I I did not I mean I just I was like oh he canceled oh I'm gonna go here and then all of a sudden one move to knock on your door and the game's over it's too late already one pawn move and I was a moment too late if I had played the move H4 you know it doesn't matter if he goes after my Pawn I have Bishop G5 I'm stopping the attack before it can cultivate into anything and this doesn't matter either because I'm in and I'm gonna win a decisive amount of material and the g file doesn't open but I didn't do that and now G5 and G4 one pawn move in the game is over I got crushed because I didn't stop my opponent from playing G5 G4 this happens in every single game look first of all your opponent goes Queen B6 isn't that just a free Pawn Bishop takes right huh what an idiot blunder that right well hopefully some of you are asking yourselves what is the idea of Queen B6 that is literally the purpose of this video Queen B6 what is the threat the threat is to attack that pawn that's just a very clean one move threat you haven't castled yet that's awfully convenient right all right Rook C8 is there a threat no well idiot now I can take that right you gotta think a move beyond that you can't just think oh I take a pawn and I attack The Rook I'm so smart look at me yeah Bishop take and then what what is the opponent gonna do the opponent's not just gonna applaud you and then hang The Rook the opponent's gonna go here and then what do you do what do you do you don't do anything because your Bishop is hanging you can't take that and if you back out of the position Knight C4 and you lose because of this and this and mate just lost the game I don't know we're completely unprompted because you just decided to take a pawn you didn't even think for half a second about what your opponent was gonna want to do right so that's the way it works folks like that this is the way you have to approach the middle game you can't just go and by the way this game has another plot twist don't go anywhere there's many lessons I've been teaching chess for over 10 years I'm 27. I've been teaching test since the end of high school okay I I gotta get this into your heads in this game by the way I didn't take the pawn 97 in this game I ended up blundering all right I blundered a little bit later my opponent played a nice combo and um we had a position that arose a little bit later and let me flip this all right you are now playing Black you're winning what are you winning by let me tell you both sides have a bishop both sides of a queen both sides of a rook the evaluation is Rook for Bishop black is up two points right it's clear that black wants something over here what does white want can you answer that what do you think white wants look around I'll tell you what white wants because I did it in the game if white just sits around White's gonna lose white cannot afford a queen trade and a bishop trade in a rook trade White's gonna lose the end game because it's Rook for Bishop White's gonna lose the only thing that white can do is attack Black's King how is white gonna do that maybe push the pawn maybe attack on the dark squares that is the stuff you need to identify if you get good at identifying stuff like this you're gonna get to 2 000 which 2000 puts you at like 0.0001 of all chess players on the planet and humans by the way because I mean it means your brain is like enormous not like unhealthy enormous but not like fatty brain or whatever but um so you need to be wary of that right so watch as my opponent Retreats all the way back completely isolating their pieces in a corner here and what do I do well I do exactly what I want now my opponent has an option to prevent this but I also need to prevent this what does my opponent do they play H5 the problem is now there's no good way to prevent Queen H6 and uh you can play F6 but then you've weakened this and then Queen H6 is coming and then Bishop C2 is coming my opponent over extended their pawns and what did I do I got in there with my queen I got in there with my queen I got in there with my pawns and my opponents succumb to the pressure I mean it wasn't a perfect effort but it was exactly what I needed and all of a sudden it's black desperately defending against the mate but if we go back to this position like around here I mean and my opponent couldn't take the queen because I would have taken there like this position is is it's it's losing for white white hasn't developed anything black should have been faster shouldn't have been that passive alright now another example I have for you all right uh I was playing white in this game my opponent was playing Black I just played the move Rook to C1 so your opponent plays Rook C1 what's the first thing that goes through your head is there a threat is there anything that my opponent can do to me is there anything on the anything right Rook C1 okay well they can't take my knight um they can't give me a check you gotta look is there any way they can attack my queen yeah like Rook C5 but then I just move um Bishop C4 but that's not a pin right so I could just move so let me ask you a question in this position is the move B5 a good move and I'll tell you the idea of the move B5 the idea of the move B5 is that the Knight is under attack right so B5 where's the knights only safe Square Knight here and then A5 we're gonna go B5 A5 we're gonna chop down this position there's a king over there we're gonna win B5 A5 do you play this not a trick question B5 A5 looks very natural open up the king feel free to think or just wait for me to give you the answer because you're not actually watching this in an interactive way my opponent played B5 and my opponent got slaughtered what what but what about look at that look at the evil after A5 isn't yeah white is like completely lost I mean right like if you if you take on A5 Bishop A5 or Rook A5 and Knight B4 and Bishop like how did they get slaughtered well they got slaughtered because it's not it's not a game that necessitates moving the Knight I just told you what the idea was the idea of Rook to C1 was to play here and when you play the move B5 you completely disregard what your opponent wants you're only looking at yourself you're proving yourself right B5 got played and what did I do I played this because the queen is worth more than a knight my opponent proceeded not only to have to retreat the queen I got another question is it better to retreat the queen to D6 or to D7 D6 or D7 and it only has to do with your opponent's next move your opponent's gonna go here so between these two squares where would you rather have your queen of course you would rather have it here because this is not a pin but one mistake followed the other and in the game my opponent went here and walked directly into a pin not only did they walk into a pin they then walked into a fork and they lost all of their pieces my opponent resigned because they would have gotten there to this position and let me tell you two Rooks and two horses are gonna beat a queen so this game was all about not thinking and this is a 2650 right 2650 2700 level this game was all about missing your opponent's resources Rook C5 walking into a pin walking into a fork and then I just chopped down the rest of the pieces and that was simple right I simplified everything so my opponent wasn't able to make a comeback this was all because my opponent played the move B5 they didn't have to play the move B5 they could have played Bishop D6 preventing the move Rook C5 entirely and they would have had a nice advantage and then they could have went for this plan but they just completely didn't think at all what is my opponent gonna do right what does my opponent want and the last example that I have for you um comes from a game I also played yesterday this was against the Grand Master uh from uh Bulgaria yes my vexology is strong and um this is a very weird position right so you're playing in the shoes of the Grand Master um Gotham is playing with black now let me ask you a question if black is going to make progress anywhere where is Black going to make progress black can't really move much right I can't move a whole lot where is the only place on the board that I have any hope of moving not a trick question feel free to answer I can't hear you but I will give you the answer in a moment um black cannot make any progress like over here I mean you could try it ain't gonna work especially if the Knight moves only thing black can do is this that's it so white has an advantage it's it's a complicated position for sure what white should not do is induce the move B5 that is not what white should do because that is exactly what I want anyway that's the only side on the board I can make progress now your Bishop's sort of stuck all right and now the computer with black even wants to push this because the goal is not to trap the bishop it's to paralyze White's pieces white now has no Escape white can't move anything and if white tries to break out their King is there so why does actually weakening their own position right and I even have a strong Bishop here it's kind of a stupid Bishop it's kind of holding my position together um and there are multiple mini lessons even in this game okay we're gonna Now flip it back to my perspective a few moves later I played a move that was very bad are my pawns intended to attack or they intended to disallow any progress it's a very important question in the game I played A5 and my logic was I'm gonna trap the bishop because I'm so smart but this is a really stupid move because what is my opponent going to do in the face of me trying to trap the bishop pawns don't go backwards so what is my opponent going to do what if they do this now I'm in big trouble you see a move ago when I had that thorn there I wasn't in big trouble my pawns were restricting I didn't have to do this but I did it out of I don't know I was I didn't know what to do right so I went here A4 now I can't take why can't you take what does your opponent want that's a problem C6 is going to take it's very bad news so I can't do that and what happens if I go B4 well now I lose now I lose the battle now I allowed my opponent's Knight in and by just pushing one Pawn look how big the advantage ballooned all right the advantage got up to around plus five my opponent was out playing me the whole game look at me getting pushed back all right I am losing this battle on multiple fronts the Knight comes in I can't even I I don't think I can take on F5 because E7 check and then he takes my queen E7 check you've got to think about what your opponent wants right so what did I do instead I played King E7 now why am I lost why is it plus six it's plus six because these pawns are extremely powerful and like I said I'm losing the battle on multiple fronts my king is extremely weak delicate my pawns are weak there are two infiltration Spots I'm probably gonna lose this game right so what does the opponent want last thing this is the last thing I told you give me 20 minutes if you're still here you're great if you clicked off you suck and you will never know I told you that so final moment here what does white want with best play what does white want white wants to get in over here right do you think white wants to get in with the queen or does white want to get in with a rook probably with a rook so what does White's best move here White's best move ironically is to go out and threaten to infiltrate on two different sides of the board and black is helpless if I play something like Rook B6 that's temporary Queen D3 comes next all right then maybe Rook H5 comes let's say black plays I don't know D5 all right first of all white can even sacrifice I am ill-equipped to stop I just can't I can't stop this I'm getting brutalized out here all right it's a really bad spot King f8 looks fine Rook h8 checkmate so white needs to back out and make progress like this what does black want black wants a queen trade so this is a terrible move takes takes and now who do I seal out of the position D5 and that's why I won the game because my opponent traded the most powerful piece against my extremely passive Queen I proceeded to seal out my opponent's Bishop I immediately took this I stopped the pawn and that's it my opponent has nothing like that blink of an eye trading the Queens just desperately trying to make forward progress even Queen H7 would have even been better because at least you don't compromise your Pawn structure but it would have been even better to just take a step back to Target this to try to get in by sacrificing or to try to get something that looks like this to try to get in with the Rook now of course the computer finds some ridiculous King defense but my point stands sometimes you need to get out to get in and uh my opponent didn't do that my opponent tried to trade Queens with me I sealed out the bishop and I managed to hold on folks that's the whole video a lot of these were sophisticated examples from my own games all right and I might be 2 000 points higher rated than you and I'm Not tooting my own horn that just might be the reality as a beginner when you're like four five six hundred you need to get comfortable positions in the opening you need to prevent yourself from making one move mistakes but as you get better as you graduate from the level of oops I hung my queen oops my opponent hung their queen or they blundered a bishop or I blundered a fork or whatever I hung Checkmate in one you're gonna get to this level in chess where you need to stop playing selfishly there is a person sitting whether it's on a phone computer face to face with you that is also playing on the same exact board and it would really be to your benefit to get into their head and think what is the best plan for them what do they want and how do I adapt to that because a lot of you play selfish chess and you your opponents play moves and you go oh I see the idea you need to stop seeing the idea when the idea is played you need to anticipate the idea because that really is chess I hope this was useful um I hope this got you thinking in in certain different ways um and if you'd like uh instructional content of this sort let me know in the comments so I can make some more now get out of here

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 909,619

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna

Id: sdDPtk_Uz_A

Length: 23min 0sec (1380 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2023