Your chess doctor! A Candidate Master, FIDE Instructor coupled with a PhD in Cognitive Science, I'm here to diagnose and help solve your chess challenges. This channel is specifically designed to address issues faced by beginner, intermediate, and advanced chess players alike.
Winner of the Chessable Community Author of the Year in 2022: www.chessable.com/blog/announcing-the-winners-of-the-2022-chessable-awards/
Winner of the Chessable Best Tactics Course of the Year in 2023: www.chessable.com/fundamental-chess-calculation-skills/course/123333/
You game, being so simple & logical, achieves elegance! (But it was virtually all Strategy, with minimal Tactics - as Silman would have liked and advocated.) But most games are far messier tactically, thus inelegantly pulling us all down into the Calculators Swamp...
At .11.18. instead of Black kt c5 .to D3 . Would kt c5 to B3. hitting both Queen and rook be the better move? Unless I'm missing White's counter response. Can anyone please help ? 🏴.
Unrated player. Puzzle #1: Yes. I saw the plan: Ne2, Nf4, Ne6. Took me about 2 minutes. Puzzle #3 (at 12 minutes): … NxC3. My weakness is: After emerging 2 pawns up, I don't know how to proceed. Puzzle #3a (15m30s): …h4 (took me 3 minutes). Puzzle #3b (19m30s): …a3 (but certainly don't take the bishop on h4).Puzzle #3c: Qf6 threatening mate. Puzzle 4 (at 21m): Threat? …c6 trapping White's bishop. Puzzle #5 (22m30s): Threat? Qc4! I am a little lost how Black should play. There are several options: defend the bishop, move the King, move the bishop. I would have played: Bd2 attacking White's rook. Puzzle #6 (26m15s): White's pawn on c3 is vulnerable. Defend or counter-attack? I would counter-attack. Rd6, giving up the pawn on c3 but attacking the pawn on a6 and threatening check on a7 winning the pawn on h7. I scored 100% on your puzzles. But I am slow. It took me 90+ minutes to watch this lesson. And now I am exhausted. Thank you thank you. I take your puzzles very seriously. I stop and THINK. It is like having a personal tutor. I am very slow at thinking, but I go through your list of typical mistakes and I listen to the questions you pose in each puzzle. About the unrated bit. Yes, I am unrated. I've only played recreational chess among friends, not often, not recently. I've made the decision to get serious about chess. I've read many books on chess (Logical Chess Move by Move for example). I've done about 500 problems in Polgár's book CHESS (mostly mates in 2). Your tutorials are the most helpful for me. Thank you.
Unrated. Inexperienced. But data is data. + equals slightly better. ++ equals significantly better. = equals balanced. 1. W+ 2. W++ 3. W+ 4. = 5- B+ 6. B+ 7. W+ 8. B+ 9. W+ 10. W+ I found this experiment extremely difficult. I did it thinking that I will look at it again after a year of study/play and see if my perceptions have changed. (My experiment.)
Thank you so much for taking your time and participating! It is a great idea if you check after a year. 5 seconds is extremely short indeed... Please check my followup video to see your results! It is on the video description of this first video.
It's nice the way you explain simple moves so elegantly❤ I wish if you could make a video that shows how to maintain an advantage... Sometimes when I'm up a piece or pawn, I don't know how to keep that advantage for the long term. Would love to know your experience and thoughts. I hope such a video would be a great lesson for many.
💯💯💯👏👏👏an absolutely spectacular video nothing is more enjoyable when we can express theory in actual action 🎉 deepens our understanding concepts, once understood never forgotten, theory in action👏👏something I noticed many years ago was amazed how I never forget certain things when a concept worked out over the board even though I wasn't very knowledgeable at that time,🎉
I play London System almost exclusively when i am white. The first six or eight moves mechanically by memorization. No why is explored. Obviously, this thinking will hold my progress down. If Smyslov was mechanical, he would not have come up with his maneuver. Your video here as well as most of your others is forcing me to explore the "why" for a move, position, etc. Patterns are key. Learning patterns takes a lot of practice against superior opponents (darn it, I hate losing) and going over master games. I am doing both. We will see if the patterns ingrain. We will see if I can apply them in new situations. For me to be a great London player, I need to know the opposition ideas. I can then be ready for a counter opposition idea. If there was no counter possible, the opening would disappear. But we know it is being played at the highest levels. So, there are counters. This video helps me deepen my understanding of this opening. Thank-you Can.
This is a video to watch several times. Not because I didnt understand it. But because its so rich. There is so much to learn. It felt like eating a gourmet dinner watching this lesson. Something Id want to eat over and over.
THANK you for looking through so many games to help me! Sorry that you had to suffer through so many Chess Crimes! Your hypotheses are spot on. 3-ply calculation. MUCH appreciated. Love these puzzles: what is the threat? Improve your weak pieces. Improve your position. Avoid mindless exchanges.
Super happy to hear your feedback! Shows that I may be on the right track with this series. I created a course about this series and it will be published by the end of this month! The Chess Elevator will be the title.
@@Dr.CansClinic I plan to take the course. When I enroll, I will confirm somewhere, somehow, so that you know how much I appreciate your RU-vid lessons.
This was an exceptional presentation. You had several key ideas that you explained up front and then showed how they worked together in a game. I was wondering if there other openings where the smyslov maneuver is often a good plan. Exchange Caro, slav, minority attack? Are there any conditions that make it better or worse?
I am so happy to read your feedback, thanks! It is seen frequently in Exchange Slav structures. In general, where the play is solely on the queenside for Black, this idea makes more sense (as both rooks are remaining on the queenside, one staying on a8).
Very nice lesson, I found I needed to watch a second time as there was a lot to take in but second time round and it became clear why moves were made, a lovely way of showing how different principles effect the play and where and when to apply them, very informative
Glad it was helpful! Yes, sometimes you need to rewatch it, it is totally fine. You can also revisit these videos few months later and see how well you can guess the moves.
A very helpful video, I dread playing the London. Do more of these! A bit off-topic, do you plan to make a Chessable course covering endgame strategy? Most endgame courses cover standard X vs Y endgames, but few cover the gap when the middle-game is almost or just finished. I often struggle finding a good plan that leads to a known winning end-game position.
Thank you so much, will do more of these! I have one course idea on converting a winning endgame advantage, but it is still vague. It will be about forming a winning plan and executing it to the end.
I love this kind of chess lectures where you're showing the concepts and chunks and putting them altogether in your actual games. The lesson is crystal clear and easy to follow. Please make more of such contents and looking forward for those contents. Cheers.
Hope to see more about this topic. So much patterns to learn from GMs of the past. It's always understimated; I played simillary with Qc7 instead Qb6 in the KIA against the French Semi Tarrasch structure .... also played by Kramnik and Karjakin. All engine approved! The best way to arrange black pieces
I'll give you a like...despite being heavily conflicted with the topic. Yes, of course...d4 is a delight! Accelerated London, JoLo, Queen's gambit. The palpable "Ugh" upon opening d4...which is weirdly detectable even with an online game...is just another reason for playing it. "Here's some cheese to go with that whine." 😁
Wonderful, marvelous video (as always). I really like positional chess, and your crystal clear e explanation is really an eye opener for me...thanks for your great work!
Thank you Dr. Can, very instructive, so many different techniques working together like a wonderful symphony in harmony... chess is truly a beautiful game!
That was excellent. One detail you have to remember: in the ...Bf5 Qxf5 ...Qxb2 tactic, you must remember that before doing ...Qxa1, you must first play ...e6, deflecting the white queen, so that after ...Qxa1 white doesn't have Qc2 trapping the black queen.
Excellent. I have a question. I am working through your Chessable course on calculation and the examples you give as puzzles are well chosen as they are like the chunks that you talk about that you used in your game. Clearly one benefit to your course is that you are practicing the thought processes that lead to effective 3 ply moves. Another benefit is that, with sufficient repetition, one will commit to memory many useful chunks. So my question is, do you think that it is important to do sufficient spaced repetitions on Chessable to commit the chunks to memory or is the most important aspect to practice the process of finding the mini plans?
I'm sure the answer is "both' but we'll see what Dr. Can says. Realize that if you commit the chunks to memory the process of finding mini plans will naturally occur
Thank you so much for your kind feedback and studying my calculation course. The answer is both obviously :) But the positional chunks and mini-plans chapter in that course align nicely with spaced repetition, as those are recurrent "actions" in those important positional chunks. In general, recurrent and important patterns in chess land nicely to spaced repetition. Chunks are connected to actions, e.g. when you see a juicy d5-outpost, you trade the enemy pieces fighting for that square and establish an eternal knight on d5 in the end. That is also precisely what my "Art of series..." trains. You learn to recognize a positional pattern and find the right action. So knowing those chunks directly connects to finding strong mini-plans (mini actions).
Hi Dr Can. Thanks for your videos again. Is it a good idea for black to play D4 at 12:42? White will lose Bishop if he takes by e pawn. Black will paly BB4, if black plays CXd4. Black will creates a very powerful pass pawn, if white trades Knight. Thanks!
@@Dr.CansClinic Maybe black can play DXc3 after Nxd3 to attack queen and Knight at the same time. If QXC3, black palys Cxd3, white will lose rook after the discover attack. If queen run away, black will take the Knight and have two strong connected pass pawns.😀
great video as usual thank you so much, i have a question what if Na4 right after casting (before a6) what’s the plan for the light square bishop? 16:03
Thank you so much. Great question. Then we go ...Be4 Nxe4 ...dxe4! and the knight on h4 becomes buried! I talked about this pattern in my recent video on the Slav defense.
@@Dr.CansClinic Oh i remembered i actually commented that i loved this new (to me ) idea but im old and my non sticky brain struggles to hold ideas 😀😀 thanks
I learnt that a good knight in the middle of everything is probably better than trading a knight for the corner rook which was passive. Thanks for the awesome videos! I found your channel a couple of days ago and have been consuming the videos. All of them have been very instructional to me (1300 elo currently). Loved the slav one as that cleared up some things I was hazy on.
That is so encouraging, thank you!! Please do not hesitate sharing the channel with your chess friends. I am struggling to make it more visible. Now you have around 100 videos to enjoy ☺️
