00:00:00
Mel nich tal aka the magician from Ria
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was a lvan Soviet chess genius who many
00:00:05
would regard as the greatest attacking
00:00:07
player of all time in the 628 page
00:00:10
Mammoth book of the world's greatest
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chess games Talus featured more than
00:00:13
literally anyone else he was the eighth
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world champion and an esteemed chess
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writer credited with some of the most
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poetic statements ever written about the
00:00:21
game in today's video we're going to
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start off with one of these statements
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and from it build a process for finding
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exploring understanding and learning all
00:00:28
the opening theory that you need to
00:00:29
become a chess expert let's begin you
00:00:32
must take your opponent into a deep dark
00:00:34
Forest where 2 + 2 equal 5 and the path
00:00:37
leading out is only wide enough for
00:00:39
one this is where we're starting by
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understanding all the possible games of
00:00:43
Chess as potential paths through an
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incredibly large Forest by the best
00:00:46
estimates there are something like 10 to
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the 120 possible games of Chess just for
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a bit of perspective it's estimated that
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there are something like 10 to the 80
00:00:54
atoms in the known universe I.E 100 Duo
00:00:58
decillion times less atoms than than
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possible games of Chess this is a fairly
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large Forest when you sit down to play a
00:01:03
game of chess you and your opponent
00:01:05
prepare to take a walk through the
00:01:06
forest from T's metaphor each with the
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intention of being the one who makes it
00:01:09
out the other side in this sense opening
00:01:11
preparation is a map that you're allowed
00:01:13
to bring with you the problem is your
00:01:15
opponent gets a map as well also each
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map will show you such a minuscule
00:01:19
fraction of the total number of pass
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through the forest that you won't even
00:01:22
have one Duo trillionth of the
00:01:24
information necessary to have seen so
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much as one quadrillionth of the total
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expanse of the forest that makes our map
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fairly useless fear not however your
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opponent has the same problem on your
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walk through the forest you and your
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opponent take it in turns to choose the
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path that you will both take at each
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Junction choosing one from something
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like 30 different paths to continue your
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journey down this happens again and
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again and again until you're both left
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standing in front of a singular path
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leading to the capture of one of your
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kings at which point the loser gets
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molded by a bear or something I don't
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know there's another crucial aspect to
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this unnecessarily extended metaphor
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that makes this seemingly ruthless
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Journey a little less daunting you can
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walk through the for Forest as many
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times as you'd like you don't even need
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someone to walk with you can spend
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thousands of hours roaming the forest on
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your own familiarizing yourself with the
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different biomes and structures around
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you to the point where you know vast
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areas like the back of your hand even if
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they aren't paths on your map the job of
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your map then isn't to plot your exact
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route to Victory but to be optimized for
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leading you into mostly familiar and
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previously explored areas that you are
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better equipped to navigate than your
00:02:22
opponent and this is the key realization
00:02:23
that will allow you to cultivate a
00:02:25
healthy approach to learning opening
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Theory you are not trying to conquer the
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forest you will never conquer the forest
00:02:30
the best supercomputers in the world
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have not conquered the forest you just
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need to be better at navigating it than
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your opponent a lot of beginners when
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they start to prepare for the opening in
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chess try to learn as many moves of
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objective engine perfect Mainline Theory
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as possible just to see nine book moves
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in their chess.com analysis report so
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they can feel like a grandm I did this
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exact same thing when I was climbing
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from 800 to around 1200 rattling off the
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same seven moves of Roy Lopez Theory
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just to try and play as accurately as
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possible thinking that this was the goal
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of opening prep it is not doing this you
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are walking walking down the equivalent
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of a road in the forest a path walked
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down by millions before you and to be
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walked down by millions after you a
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massive 10 m wide strip of pristinely
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painted concrete that will lead to
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familiar territory for not only you but
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undoubtedly your opponent as well the
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purpose of opening prep is instead to be
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the first to take your opponent down a
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path that they've ideally never but at
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least seldom walked down a quick side
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note obviously this is much harder to
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get away with the better your opponents
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are if you're a world leading
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Grandmaster for instance I'd assume
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Magnus Carlson isn't watching this video
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if he is I love you but I I clarify that
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this video's target audience is rated
00:03:31
under 2700 cheers so after this
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completely unnecessary and long-winded
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metaphor we've established that our aim
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when building an opening repertoire is
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to find the dangerous looking less walk
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down paths and our aim when learning an
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opening repertoire is to familiarize
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oursel with the surroundings rather than
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stare at the floor I.E understand the
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structure and general ideas of positions
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in your opening rather than mindlessly
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memorizing move after move so now that
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we've established what we should be
00:03:55
looking for in crafting the ideal
00:03:57
opening repertoire the question is how
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do you actually achieve this it's all
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well and good knowing what to do but now
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I'm going to teach you how to do it okay
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so as I mentioned before there are
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generally speaking these four broad
00:04:08
Concepts broad categories uh that we can
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break down your approach to the opening
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repertoire into we've got finding
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exploring understanding and then
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learning so it would be lovely if this
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worked in a very nice flowchart for
00:04:20
instance where you find your opening
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tick then you go and explore that
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opening oh beautiful then you understand
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the opening and finally you get to
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really learning that theory that would
00:04:30
be great however unfortunately as with
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most things in life it is not that
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simple the real flowchart looks a bit
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more like this with a million arrows
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going everywhere because it isn't just
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some linear process you can follow
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ticking boxes and just you know find
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something then I'm going to explore it
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then understand it then learn it it
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doesn't work exactly like that because
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okay for instance you find something you
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explore it but you don't like it so you
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go back to find something else you find
00:04:53
something and try and explore it but how
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can you really explore it without
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understanding and learning it at the
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same time how can you really understand
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an opening if you don't know any of the
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theory how can you explore it if you
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don't understand it and understand it if
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you don't explore it and how can you
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find anything if you don't learn
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anything in the first place and how can
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you do any of this the point is it gets
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a little bit messy I'd much rather model
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this as more of a pyramid as you can see
00:05:13
here only once we've found something and
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also we've explored it and we've
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understood it to a reasonable extent
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should we really delve into that opening
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and learn it you need all three of these
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kind of fundamental concepts that work
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very much in tandem with each other
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before you really get to know an opening
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now the learning at the top of this
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pyramid I mean obviously this whole
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process is kind of learning in a way by
00:05:33
learning what I'm referring to is the
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actual memorization of different lines
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uh there will be a segment at the end of
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the video where basically I talk about
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exactly how to do that with a very very
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useful tool that may or may not be
00:05:43
sponsoring this video which definitely
00:05:44
is sponsoring this video so please stick
00:05:46
around until the end to support the
00:05:47
channel thanks very much however before
00:05:48
we get to that learning segment let's
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retract that beautiful green look at
00:05:52
this animation by the way guys can can
00:05:53
you just subscribe like comment all of
00:05:56
that right now just for the animation
00:05:58
effort on Google Slides here please
00:06:00
anyway sorry before we get to that
00:06:01
actual learning stage the memorization
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of the lines and you know how to do that
00:06:05
with things like space repetition Etc
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it's super important that we first sort
00:06:08
of recognize these three Central tenants
00:06:10
as the groundwork for basically a good
00:06:13
opening repertoire now the rest of this
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video from here on out is effectively
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going to be me giving you a bunch of
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different recommendations uh different
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tools and ideas and websites and uh
00:06:22
books and even specific Grand Masters to
00:06:25
check out the games of on specific
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database websites I'm just going to be
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throwing you a bunch of information that
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I found personally very helpful on how
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to first of all get the inspiration to
00:06:33
play an opening but then really develop
00:06:34
a fluency and fundamental understanding
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of the opening that will lead you to be
00:06:38
able to not only learn it faster but
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obviously play it better so let's get
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into it now if you've been in this sort
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of Chess Community online for any amount
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of time you will have doubtlessly heard
00:06:49
about this difference between the
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positional and the Tactical and you
00:06:52
might have heard specific Masters
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referred to as or even just specific
00:06:55
players referred to as positional
00:06:57
players or tactical players UND
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doubtedly across history however we can
00:07:01
see that there have been these Grand
00:07:02
Masters who yes they've got a great
00:07:04
balance of both every grandmas will be
00:07:07
incredible at positional and tactical
00:07:09
chess however there are those who
00:07:12
definitely prefer uh these really
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outlandish sacrifices in these very
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flamboyant um and tactical games and
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there are others that prefer a sort of
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quieter more positional often more
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closed game where it's about you know
00:07:23
slowly improving your pieces and
00:07:25
eventually there's some crushing
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normally simple tactical finish to the
00:07:29
game now I'm sure each of you watching
00:07:30
this video kind of see yourself as
00:07:33
either a positional or a tactical player
00:07:34
if you don't that is completely okay but
00:07:37
consider what maybe appeals to you more
00:07:39
do you want a slow methodical very very
00:07:42
uh precise kind of fight where there's
00:07:44
you know maybe low risk in the short
00:07:46
term but each move might have these
00:07:48
really really unforeseen long-term
00:07:50
complications uh where you know it's
00:07:52
about putting your Bishop on C2 or D3 in
00:07:54
a little closed position which is better
00:07:56
you know the porn structure being closed
00:07:58
where's the backward porn or do you want
00:08:01
to crash everything open have an
00:08:02
absolute mess and you know take your
00:08:04
opponent into the forest and fight them
00:08:07
as M tal said now of course you can
00:08:09
guess where tal is on the Spectrum I
00:08:10
should clarify the Spectrum where it
00:08:12
says most and least we are talking about
00:08:14
most respect for material basically most
00:08:16
concern for you know having a porn
00:08:19
someone like kchoi uh who you see here I
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think he was famous for basically
00:08:23
shouting like no every Pawn is a
00:08:26
potential Queen when someone gambut a
00:08:28
pawn very very concerned about material
00:08:31
and really treated his pieces uh with
00:08:33
the utmost respect and so here I've got
00:08:35
this kind of i' I've put nine Masters
00:08:37
Loosely based around a spectrum found in
00:08:39
I believe Lev Albert's chess openings
00:08:41
for black explained if you want to check
00:08:42
that book out but here are nine players
00:08:44
ordered from most respect uh for
00:08:46
material to least respect for material
00:08:48
we've started with COO of course then
00:08:50
we're going to go for petan who is you
00:08:52
know very much still really respect the
00:08:54
material very positional kpov absolute
00:08:56
positional wizard then we get more Kappa
00:08:59
BL more Central we get Kasparov uh you
00:09:02
know almost I put him like bang in the
00:09:04
center he just had an absolutely
00:09:06
excellent balance of both again with fer
00:09:08
these kind of goats in the middle here
00:09:10
you know Kasparov Fisher obviously
00:09:12
Magnus could be on this list as well but
00:09:13
i' I've tried to go for sort of pictures
00:09:16
that could all be in black and white cuz
00:09:17
it looks cool and then of course we've
00:09:18
got Mel tal the goat himself Paul morphy
00:09:21
from the 1850s a real throwback there
00:09:23
and then nmet dinov we have Rashid nmat
00:09:26
dinov right at the end this man did not
00:09:29
even slightly care about any of his
00:09:31
pieces it was just sacrifice everything
00:09:33
and win every single game so we've got
00:09:35
this broad lineup we've got kcho petran
00:09:37
kpov capablanca Kasparov Fisher tal
00:09:40
morphy ninov that is by no means a
00:09:43
comprehensive list there are incredible
00:09:45
Masters like Alexis shirov honorable
00:09:46
mention would be towards the uh the sort
00:09:49
of n dinov end of the list but generally
00:09:51
speaking each really really talented
00:09:53
player will fall somewhere along the
00:09:54
Spectrum I think these nine are a great
00:09:56
example to basically pick one and check
00:09:58
them out out I would group them into
00:10:00
threes so if you generally consider
00:10:02
yourself more a positional player then I
00:10:05
would have a look at those first three
00:10:07
uh if you want to be extremely
00:10:09
aggressive and attacking look at the
00:10:10
last three and you know if you want a
00:10:12
mix of both which a lot of people do and
00:10:14
also just whoever you are you will
00:10:15
benefit from looking at any of these
00:10:16
players games again I stress there are
00:10:18
many many many other Masters who should
00:10:20
be on this list however this is just to
00:10:21
give you a starting point to sort of go
00:10:23
off and explore and you could search for
00:10:25
instance okay players similar to M tal
00:10:28
there are none he's unrivaled but you
00:10:29
get my point now me personally I want to
00:10:31
be basically as close to the sort of T
00:10:33
morphe neov end of the spectrum as I can
00:10:36
it's far more exciting I don't really I
00:10:39
mean I can appreciate a beautiful kpov
00:10:41
game but personally I'm going to be
00:10:42
looking at these players uh and the kind
00:10:44
of openings that they're playing to find
00:10:46
inspiration for my own openings more
00:10:47
towards that scale so I'll be looking at
00:10:49
the games of Mor tal and neov just from
00:10:51
this example I think broadly speaking
00:10:52
the the most important takeaway from
00:10:54
this is not okay go and look at every
00:10:55
single one of Bobby fish's games I mean
00:10:57
you should do that but just to establish
00:10:59
in maybe a lot of the beginners watching
00:11:00
this mind that there is this kind of
00:11:02
spectrum uh that not all chess players
00:11:04
are just trying to play like stockfish
00:11:05
they are not just trying to play the
00:11:07
same style of Chess and it's not like
00:11:08
who can just do that the best people
00:11:10
have different playing Styles it is one
00:11:12
of the beautiful facets of this game
00:11:13
another honorable mention I've got to
00:11:15
say Richard rapor absolute goat again he
00:11:17
would be towards the right you can see
00:11:18
where my bias lies clearly but I thought
00:11:20
I'd include this section of the video
00:11:21
just in case some of you had absolutely
00:11:23
no idea when to start and you weren't
00:11:24
even very familiar with sort of famous
00:11:26
chess players of the past but okay
00:11:28
brilliant we've got we've got a grandm
00:11:29
to idolize what should we actually do
00:11:31
about that in terms of forming an
00:11:33
opening repertoire transition okay so
00:11:34
once you have a grandmas in mind or an
00:11:36
international master or even a national
00:11:38
Master someone that just their playing
00:11:40
style would appear to resonate with you
00:11:42
uh whether that be through videos you've
00:11:43
watched from YouTube or through one of
00:11:45
the recommendations I've just given you
00:11:46
I think it's often a really really
00:11:48
useful thing especially when you have no
00:11:50
idea what opening you want to play to
00:11:51
pick a master that you think you kind of
00:11:54
want to play like them you won't be able
00:11:55
to uh but you can at least try my next
00:11:57
Port of Call is uh chessgames.com now
00:12:00
they are very generous with the
00:12:01
advertising space but we can just scroll
00:12:03
past that it is not that deep and there
00:12:04
are many useful functions on this
00:12:06
website there is for instance the game
00:12:08
of the day uh there is the player of the
00:12:10
day there is the opening of the day you
00:12:11
can see here along at the left but what
00:12:13
I find most useful is okay let's say you
00:12:14
want to be a super super egregiously
00:12:17
attacking player with no respect for any
00:12:19
material whatsoever you might want to
00:12:20
search for the games of Ned dinov now I
00:12:22
find this database really uh really okay
00:12:25
apart from all the ads here I find this
00:12:27
database extremely useful especially
00:12:29
because of this page that comes up here
00:12:30
where you can see the opening name um I
00:12:32
mean the dates just because it's
00:12:34
interesting but the amount of moves the
00:12:35
game ended in and here we have like 500
00:12:38
pages of neov games all just at one
00:12:40
click away and what I do which is not
00:12:42
necessarily the most mature approach but
00:12:44
I tend to look for the games that end in
00:12:46
the fewest moves let's say for instance
00:12:48
this Vienna Gambit that ended in 15
00:12:50
moves that neov won against a man by the
00:12:52
name of samsonov and then here we can
00:12:53
just tab through this game and we can
00:12:55
see the extremely aggressive ideas uh
00:12:58
that of uses in this opening and okay
00:13:00
just quickly just because I want to show
00:13:01
you this game he sacks a rook and then a
00:13:04
bishop and then mates with a with a
00:13:06
smothered mate in the center of the
00:13:07
board this is like one of the most I
00:13:09
might cover this in like a YouTube short
00:13:10
or something anyway the point is that we
00:13:12
can just we can go on here we can go
00:13:14
back and we can look at any of these
00:13:15
games okay uh this game was with white
00:13:17
he won in 17 moves that kind of means it
00:13:19
has to be an opening success cuz you
00:13:22
know there wasn't much of a middle game
00:13:23
and so we can tap through this game we
00:13:24
can see the approach that he had to
00:13:26
alak's defense with this Chase variation
00:13:28
or is it the chase variation or the
00:13:29
Fisher
00:13:30
variation not entirely sure someone
00:13:32
check in the comments but the point is
00:13:34
that we can see C5 here was his approach
00:13:36
then Bishop C4 a very very very
00:13:38
aggressive setup against alak's defense
00:13:41
Knight to H3 and I mean you can gain
00:13:43
inspiration from this uh and he wins the
00:13:45
bishop there obviously the idea
00:13:47
initially all we're looking for here is
00:13:49
that spark we're trying to find
00:13:50
something exploring it a different
00:13:51
matter like picking up on the idea that
00:13:53
we're going to go for this knight uh and
00:13:55
play that variation instead of going for
00:13:56
D4 which I believe is more uh classical
00:13:58
or maybe Knight F3 or Knight C3 or
00:14:00
something like this going for C5 and
00:14:02
then going for Bishop C4 we can take
00:14:04
that little little nugget of inspiration
00:14:07
let's say and then we can move over to
00:14:08
something like leeches to actually
00:14:10
explore that with an engine and with the
00:14:11
Master's database in leeches to see how
00:14:13
people mostly respond also with the
00:14:15
database of actual leest players I find
00:14:18
this database really easy to navigate in
00:14:19
terms of this particular page here um
00:14:22
and also really really helpful when we
00:14:23
go onto the player profile to actually
00:14:25
see uh for instance like the number of
00:14:27
games they have the most played openings
00:14:29
which is a super relevant feature here
00:14:31
that you can actually see okay look
00:14:33
Kings Indian English Nimo Indian we're
00:14:35
looking at an English with C4 C5 like
00:14:38
symmetrical English and then with black
00:14:39
pieces the French the Sicilian Queens
00:14:41
Indian all very standard stuff however
00:14:44
uh you can see that these openings would
00:14:46
probably differ slightly from the most
00:14:47
played openings of Paul morphy for
00:14:49
instance which would just be Kings
00:14:50
Gambit Kings Gambit Kings Gambit Kings
00:14:53
Gambit okay so now what we're going to
00:14:55
do is we're going to go back to this Nez
00:14:56
de off game where I like the look of
00:14:58
this opening idea with C5 and Bishop C4
00:15:01
this is something I want to explore and
00:15:02
so I'm going to scroll down and download
00:15:04
the PGN you can see here PGN we can
00:15:06
download that and then we can hop over
00:15:08
to Lees here now this is why I love
00:15:09
leeches because we can go learn study
00:15:12
create a new study instead of just
00:15:14
immediately clicking create chapter what
00:15:15
I'm now going to do is go to my
00:15:17
downloads and drag that PGN into the
00:15:19
choose file option here you can see the
00:15:21
text all pastes and now when we create
00:15:23
the chapter you can see that up here
00:15:24
we've got Rashid jov versus vladas mik I
00:15:27
hope I'm pronouncing that right uh but
00:15:29
as our chapter title and we've got the
00:15:31
whole game here embedded into our study
00:15:34
immediately now we're not really
00:15:35
interested in much past the point where
00:15:37
our opponent made a really stupid move
00:15:39
other than just knowing in the back of
00:15:40
our mind how to punish it but what we
00:15:41
can do here and what I love to do is
00:15:43
just turn on the engine and open the
00:15:45
Master's database now here the leeches
00:15:47
Masters database is something that I use
00:15:49
all the time and currently what we're
00:15:50
doing is preparing against night F6 E5
00:15:54
uh Knight here and then C4 okay this is
00:15:57
all very standard D4 is the main move
00:15:59
however C5 is played 40% of the time at
00:16:01
Master Level Knight here and is Bishop
00:16:03
C4 the main move 41% of the time then
00:16:06
okay so Bishop C4 this is a line and now
00:16:09
we can investigate this opening because
00:16:11
I kind of like the look of it you can
00:16:12
see that the uh engine you know I mean
00:16:14
it doesn't think it's the greatest
00:16:15
opening of all time however we are
00:16:17
seeing that people will play E6 or C6 I
00:16:20
mean there really is no other option for
00:16:21
this Knight there's a potential trap
00:16:23
that we can now look into which is that
00:16:25
okay if Knight to F4 then D4 is going to
00:16:27
attack that Knight the knight's going to
00:16:29
have to move and we can just develop and
00:16:30
have a completely uh crushing Advantage
00:16:33
our opponent literally has moved one
00:16:34
piece and it's a knight to E6 that would
00:16:37
be kind of fun and it's at this point
00:16:38
actually exploring uh the the game and
00:16:41
also the opening that you can think okay
00:16:42
well you know Knight F4 it's probably
00:16:45
you know not many good players are going
00:16:46
to play this move it makes no sense D4
00:16:48
is obvious however especially if you're
00:16:50
a low rated player I mean just knowing
00:16:52
the fact that you are going to get this
00:16:53
Tempo uh could potentially be something
00:16:56
that you work into your repertoire even
00:16:58
D6 here and then you can see that okay
00:17:00
well what happens if I take this could
00:17:02
be something that you initially
00:17:03
investigate takes takes D4 actually have
00:17:06
you achieved much cuz after D6 one of
00:17:08
these pawns is going to drop you're
00:17:09
going to have to take takes here and
00:17:11
then I mean if you take and take you've
00:17:13
just achieved nothing uh and you've
00:17:15
given your opponent a bishop pair this
00:17:16
doesn't make sense but you see it's this
00:17:18
kind of reasoning that we really need to
00:17:20
establish in the sense that okay we we
00:17:22
decide that this is going to be part of
00:17:23
our opening but when I talk about
00:17:25
understanding as well as exploring they
00:17:26
kind of go hand in hand because as we
00:17:28
EXP where we can think okay well maybe a
00:17:30
natural move might be to try and take
00:17:31
this and double some pawns but the
00:17:33
reason that it's not necessarily a great
00:17:34
idea is because D6 we've lost our Bishop
00:17:36
pair that understanding is going to be
00:17:39
so fundamental but as we get deeper and
00:17:40
deeper into the opening okay E6 uh D4 is
00:17:43
the main move NE went for Knight C3 this
00:17:45
is still heavily played at Master Level
00:17:47
44% of the time they're at 84 Master
00:17:49
games uh but you know we stray further
00:17:51
and further away from that Mainline
00:17:53
Theory this is definitely not Mainline
00:17:55
Mainline would not have been going for
00:17:56
C5 Mainline probably wouldn't have been
00:17:58
going for Bishop to uh C4 and also
00:18:01
Knight C3 we are kind of picking the
00:18:03
second best or the second master move
00:18:05
each time the second was popular Master
00:18:07
move and now obviously we can prepare
00:18:09
against Bishop takes uh then D4 I mean
00:18:11
this looks really strong this looks
00:18:13
really interesting but okay takes takes
00:18:15
is the most popular move taking with the
00:18:16
D- Pawn is also most popular and then
00:18:18
Queen H4 Queen E2 and we are still in
00:18:20
six Master games Bishop takes porn and
00:18:23
you can see I believe in the liees
00:18:25
database no the N of the game won't come
00:18:28
up I think it's just happened a little
00:18:29
bit too uh early this was a 1948 game
00:18:32
right and then here you can look you can
00:18:34
actually see the Knight H3 uh is a move
00:18:36
that a master has played before not to
00:18:38
great effect apparently and we can look
00:18:40
at ne's move the point is we can delve
00:18:42
as deep as we like uh in this
00:18:44
environment of the sort of leez analysis
00:18:47
board we can make notes uh if we scroll
00:18:49
down here we can we can click on this
00:18:51
note function here I mean we we can make
00:18:53
whatever notes we want but the point is
00:18:54
that this completely random example I
00:18:56
didn't pre-select this game uh I just
00:18:58
ran I just genuinely okay obviously I
00:19:00
defined our nine Masters to look at
00:19:03
picked one of them just because it's the
00:19:04
most far right and it was the most
00:19:06
interesting to look at a random game
00:19:08
from him then and a random opening from
00:19:10
that and all of a sudden we've got this
00:19:12
kind of this kind of Brewing idea um
00:19:14
about maybe going for this hunt
00:19:15
variation and going Bishop C4 uh and
00:19:18
this is the kind of thing where Not only
00:19:20
would you want to look at the Master's
00:19:21
database but especially as a lower rated
00:19:23
player you want to look at the leeches
00:19:24
database are people playing Knight F4 7%
00:19:27
of people in the Lee database of playing
00:19:29
Knight F4 and it's these numbers that I
00:19:31
find super super helpful for Preparation
00:19:33
Knight F4 and Knight B4 make up 10% of
00:19:36
people responding to this now admittedly
00:19:38
that will be lower rated uh players
00:19:40
however most of you watching will be
00:19:41
relatively low rated players if night B4
00:19:43
by the way there's the very nice Queen
00:19:44
B3 uh which is a mate threat and a
00:19:47
threat on the Knight if you try and save
00:19:48
the Knight bang that is Checkmate so
00:19:50
again a little trap just to explore just
00:19:52
to familiarize yourself with and knowing
00:19:54
that here uh sorry knowing that here
00:19:57
people are going for okay yeah E6 you
00:20:00
can prep against this but again 10% of
00:20:02
the time people losing the game on move
00:20:04
5 this kind of starts to seem
00:20:06
interesting it HS back to that original
00:20:08
thing that I said at the start of the
00:20:09
video talking about that Forest metaphor
00:20:11
where basically you can walk the forest
00:20:14
as much as you like on your own uh and
00:20:16
this is a very very useful uh tool I
00:20:19
believe the leest database uh with the
00:20:22
it's just it's just a well- integrated
00:20:23
tool to allow you to really explore an
00:20:25
opening and then once you've got the
00:20:26
opening and you've understood ideas and
00:20:28
youve spent a good while looking at it
00:20:30
this is not the only tool this is just
00:20:31
the one I use and the one I think is the
00:20:33
most useful then it is time to learn it
00:20:36
transition okay so I'm recording this on
00:20:39
Friday the 6th of October and tomorrow
00:20:41
is the first day of a 2-day chess
00:20:43
Congress that I'm playing in depending
00:20:44
on when this video comes out you'll
00:20:46
either have seen the video about this or
00:20:48
you will be going to see the video about
00:20:50
this Congress but there are five rounds
00:20:52
all classical chest so 75 minutes each
00:20:54
plus a 10-second increment it's over 2
00:20:56
days I'm very excited but I I don't
00:20:58
really feel ready and the way I'm going
00:20:59
to get ready is by using chess book.com
00:21:01
now I know this is obviously a sponsored
00:21:03
segment however I genuinely have been
00:21:05
using this quite a lot pretty much every
00:21:07
day I'll come on here and do my uh
00:21:09
practice your repertoire feature where
00:21:11
they basically use space repetition uh
00:21:13
to tell you which aspects of your
00:21:14
repertoire you need to practice uh and
00:21:16
you can go through the moves move by
00:21:17
move but I'd say my favorite thing about
00:21:19
Chess book is almost certainly the fact
00:21:21
that it's just such a clean way to
00:21:22
synthesize all of the chess theory that
00:21:24
I get from uh YouTube from the leest
00:21:27
database from looking at Master games
00:21:28
from reading books from Friends
00:21:30
recommending it all the things that I've
00:21:31
talked about earlier in the video this
00:21:33
is a super super useful place to just
00:21:35
put that in and then learn it and not
00:21:37
only does it help you learn it but it
00:21:38
helps you understand it as well before
00:21:40
we jump into this one more thing is that
00:21:42
you see it says cover positions seen in
00:21:43
one in 400 games now this is an option
00:21:46
basically where you can decide your
00:21:47
coverage goal so 175 100 150 200 300 and
00:21:52
400 obviously going from basic to
00:21:54
bulletproof uh apparently tournament
00:21:56
ready is only knowing the positions that
00:21:58
occur one in 300 games but you know you
00:22:00
know we got to go for bulletproof so
00:22:01
keeping that in mind this 36% figure
00:22:04
might make more sense basically what
00:22:05
it's saying is that what I've inputed as
00:22:07
my white repertoire is 36% of all the
00:22:10
positions that occur at least one in 400
00:22:13
times if we go on keep building your
00:22:15
repertoire here uh you can either go to
00:22:16
the biggest Gap in your repertoire I
00:22:18
maybe the Sicilian Defense for instance
00:22:20
uh however if I choose something else to
00:22:22
work on you can see here that okay look
00:22:24
E4 I mean my coverage is okay for these
00:22:27
two not the best it's very good for the
00:22:28
carakan of course and it's pretty decent
00:22:30
for the French but I haven't even
00:22:31
touched the Scandinavian so if I want to
00:22:33
now input this blackma Dema line uh with
00:22:36
here here let's say Knight F6 F3 here
00:22:40
takes Queen here Bishop E3 Queen here
00:22:43
Queens side castles and then here I've
00:22:45
reached the coverage goal I.E that if I
00:22:47
carry on and click keep adding moves
00:22:49
this is now one in 23,000 games this
00:22:51
actually happens but I'm just basically
00:22:53
going to show uh the Knight B5 here and
00:22:56
this would be Checkmate very interesting
00:22:57
trap it's called the halar Trap and if I
00:22:59
want to add this to my repertoire all I
00:23:00
do is click save these moves to my
00:23:01
repertoire but of course the most useful
00:23:03
feature in the feature I'm going to make
00:23:04
the most of now is practice your
00:23:05
repertoire once you've now built it this
00:23:07
is going to go through the 75 moves that
00:23:08
it believes I need to practice the most
00:23:09
based on what I've got wrong
00:23:11
consistently in the past or what I
00:23:12
haven't practiced as much so I'm going
00:23:13
to blast through all of these to feel
00:23:15
prepared for
00:23:17
[Music]
00:23:26
tomorrow
00:23:29
[Music]
00:23:32
okay so I just gone through my practice
00:23:34
session I practiced 74 moves play them
00:23:36
right 93% of the time which is quite
00:23:38
helpful and these moves will be du for
00:23:40
review again in one day so very useful
00:23:43
stuff I'd really recommend checking out
00:23:44
chessbook partly because this is a
00:23:46
sponsored video but also like 95%
00:23:48
because I genuinely think this is a
00:23:50
really useful tool I believe there's a
00:23:51
free version where you get 400 moves
00:23:53
just for free just by making an account
00:23:54
and then I think if you want unlimited
00:23:56
moves it is something like $4 a month it
00:23:58
is ridiculously cheap for such an
00:24:00
all-encompassing and useful chess tool
00:24:02
that can help not only build your
00:24:03
repertoire uh but of course learn your
00:24:05
repertoire so click the link down in the
00:24:07
description if you want to check it out
00:24:09
okay so thank you very very much for
00:24:10
watching this video hopefully you guys
00:24:12
enjoyed that 4minute extremely high
00:24:14
effort animation process at the start
00:24:16
and also uh were able to glean some some
00:24:18
wisdom let's say from the master's
00:24:20
recommendation the whole going through
00:24:22
the chessgames.com lead chess study and
00:24:24
of course chessbook I'll leave links to
00:24:26
all of these websites I mean I'm pretty
00:24:28
sure you guys already know the links but
00:24:29
I'll leave the links in the description
00:24:30
anyway but I really hope you guys
00:24:31
enjoyed uh hopefully you got the sort of
00:24:33
overall message that I'm trying to
00:24:34
deliver here uh this is a kind of more
00:24:36
creative video on this channel obviously
00:24:38
this is not just me playing chess so I'd
00:24:40
really really appreciate any support and
00:24:41
any love you guys could show it if you
00:24:43
did enjoy liking commenting uh
00:24:44
subscribing if you're new would really
00:24:46
appreciate it uh and if you didn't enjoy
00:24:48
it comment and let me know why and I
00:24:49
will be extremely hurt but appreciate
00:24:52
your criticism anyway but yeah check out
00:24:53
those links in the description and uh I
00:24:55
hope that this video has helped some of
00:24:56
you most of you all of you in fact uh
00:24:59
feel more comfortable and more
00:25:01
understanding and more excited even and
00:25:03
more knowledgeable about how to uh craft
00:25:06
a really personal effective and
00:25:08
enjoyable toplay opening repertoire cuz
00:25:10
let's not forget guys chess is a game
00:25:12
you're supposed to be enjoying it when
00:25:13
you're playing it I mean unless you're
00:25:14
trying to make a career out of it you're
00:25:16
supposed to be playing fun chess let
00:25:17
your opening repertoire reflect that uh
00:25:19
is kind of all I'm saying here and you
00:25:21
know create something a little bit
00:25:22
personal using the uh sort of
00:25:24
overarching conceptual idea and also the
00:25:26
tools that hope hopefully you have been
00:25:28
uh aptly provided today thanks very much
00:25:30
for watching the video leave your
00:25:32
comments I really appreciate any
00:25:33
feedback on this genuinely uh it would
00:25:35
be really helpful I've spent about 50
00:25:37
hours making this video it might not
00:25:38
look like it anyway get waffling goodbye
00:25:40
see you in the next one subscribe
