How To EASILY BEAT The Fianchetto Setup 

With regards to tip 7, “pieces are not the only thing worth something.” All too true. There are three main advantages one can have in a game of chess: 1) material advantage. This is the easiest to determine, just add up the value of the captured pieces on both sides. Whomever has the largest number has a material advantage. 2) positional advantage. This is difficult to determine until you get some experience. This can take into account things like; batteries, open files, opponent’s undefended pieces or pawns, kings lined up with major pieces (queen, or one of the rooks), doubled or isolated pawns, weak squares, etc… 3) temporal advantage. This type of advantage is mercurial and can change in an instant with one inaccurate move, but most often shows up in zugzwang, or when a player is trying to maintain the initiative. At the beginning of the game, white has a minute temporal advantage; they get to move first. During a chess game, these advantages often trade with one another; a player will offer a pawn (material) for more development (position), or the use an advantage in position to gain material, or a mating attack. I’d even go so far as to say this is the essence of a chess game; knowing when to trade one type of advantage for another. 😊

loving the logical chess episodes so far! lesson learned is not give up your bishop since theyre very good at controlling the diagonals!

This is such a wonderful series, because it's easy to find videos or use stockfish on tactical patterns, but much rarer to find good discussion of long term strategic weaknesses and how to capitalize on them. Love it. I'm still working on "don't blunder while building up long term advantage" but eventually we'll get there 😅

This channel is giga-underrated

In a fianchetto set up with white, you don't normally play h3, but if you do, Kh2 will always follow. So it is not easy at all to beat the fianchetto set-up unless white is a Troll.

I love how you taught me to completely CRUSH the Finchetto setup. I played it against an International Master today In NYC Bridge Park and we set to play the English and I totaly BEAT him even having the FIDE rating of 1963

its fascinating how one move that "you normally play" but isn't correct for that position can kill your game. I do Kings Indian as one of my main opens and i always ignore that bishop in the beginning. I'll get him eventually but that white squared bishop is a pivotal piece

Great video, as always! Lol, I have a buddy who almost exclusively plays the King’s Indian (on both sides of the board), and I invariably use some of these same principles (which I actually learned from some of your previous videos), to devastating effect. I’m not significantly better at the game than he is, but I’ve learned that every time I put my bishop on g4 he tries to kick it with h3, inducing a long term weakness that I target later. Because I almost always play Bg4, sometimes he even preemptively plays h3 just to prevent Bg4 (which is great for me lol). I have about a 5 to 1 win ratio against him using this simple strategy. I’ve even told him that moving pawns in front of his king is a bad idea, but he still can’t resist trying to kick that bishop. Very powerful move.

I think this is the first video where I answered correctly every time you asked what the move should be! (I’m 1100) getting better with your videos!

Watching these videos begins to change the way I look on the board. All of the sudden empty squares are meaningful and the value of certain structures becomes clearer. I played chess for a long time but Nelson opened a the door for far more advanced view on the choreography of the pieces. You're a great teacher, Nelson!

Loving this series Nelson.

I've gotten better watching your videos. I love how patient you are and slow things down where I can understand things better

Nelson, Your comments as you go through these videos are invaluable to students. I’ve noticed the same in your videos where you play live against various opponents on your way to a pre-set elo rating. It’s a valuable view into the mind of a high rated player. Thank you, Nelson.

I know you're a busy individual and I appreciate the free content you've given us so far but could you put all the logical chess videos in a playlist on your channel?

Sorry, not a good description. I was expecting a guide against the fianchetto setup, instead white plays bad moves with giving up the white squared bishop, which makes it easy for black.

Any chess teacher will tell you not to bring out your queen too early, but whenever my opponents do, I lose half my pieces and my king ends up in the middle of the board before the 15th move.

At 17:48 you mentioned that White is totally fine after not getting the pawn back. What do you mean by that? From a human perspective, losing a pawn is actually a huge deal. It's also not easy to get it back, right? But I don't think that's the actual error. I think the error is when White did not see the positional tactic Bxf3 and should have played Kh2 instead to defend the hook pawn with the king.

i havent seen this channels videos in a few months but coming back was a shock! your commentary is much more fluid and paced well! keep up the good work!!!

Thanks yet again , Nelson , can't believe white gave up the white squared bishop !! Your videos & your commentary are teaching me a lot . Looking forward to more 😊

500k soon

Really enjoying these, thank you! The once-a-week is a good place and good progression each game.

That was the quickest and the most quiet and informative game ever.😎

This is more of how to take advantage of your opponent's bad moves which just happens to involve a fianchetto. White weakened his own fianchetto position with h3 then threw away the fianchetto'd bishop, and s/he wasn't forced by Black to do either. Black just took advantage of the bad decisions White made; Black didn't beat the fianchetto, White destroyed it for Black.

You should put Episode 12 in the title as well

You're the best Nelson

Hey Nelson, you're a very good chess teacher. I've learned a lot from watching your informative videos. I got first dibs on your future book. I just wanted to know what kind of notation is used in that book, Logical chess move by move. Also, I have viewed lots of chess videos, but not one of them explain things in great detail as you do. You make learning much more enjoyable. My game has gotten better since I started watching your videos. Thank you.

Glad to see this coverage! Would love a video on how to approach the King’s Indian Defense with the white pieces.

In the key position/At the start, why did White played Be3 blocking the Pawn? The Pawn was so important that he could let the Rook out instead of a cramped position at the end.

Yooo, congrats on 500k Nelson!!! 🎉

Thanks and nice video

The video was really great 👍. Can you please make a video on the King's Indian defence for black !❤

1. @2:45 its clear white is casting king side, so if i was playing black i would seriously consider casting queen side 2. 6:45 i would probably play rook d8 first

11:04 😂 it’s over; start a game 😂

At 15:15 I thought sacraficing the knight on e3 would be the best move. Looking pretty good. If white takes back, black takes on on g3 threatening mate on h7. To stop mate white have to sac the rook and queen for rook and pawn. If white takes on f1 we simply take back and mate is unstoppable.

Congrats on 500k subscribers!

I LOVE your videos. you make chess so fun to learn

Hello Nelson I really like your videos thank you so much for your effort and time! I would like to request if you could make a video about the "triangulation" tactic I think it would help so many chess players and also a video just pure pawn end game different situations for example when 1 pawn can stop pawns or pawn breaks etc... thank you so much if you consider it. 😊

Hi Nelson, I am enthralled by what I have seen of this series. Where can I find the playlist so I can start from the beginning?

thanks a lot that was very instructive

This book is available at my local library.... gonna have to check it out!!

Logical chess by Irving Chernev. The first chess book I ever read.

Hi still really appreciate your work with this series. Keep it up 💪

Nelson, thanks very much for answering my question from last time

Congrats on 500k subs! 🎉

I only play kings indian and one of the many things i learned is that in this opening you need to always be prepared to abandon the castle and move your king... when i saw queen to e1 i knew it was lost......

19:07 YEAHHHH!!!! RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥

Wow, you're a very talented teacher. Love your videos and have watched and learnt a lot from them. Btw do you take any kind of classes in real life?

First rate lesson Nelson! Thx.

Your videos are very helpful.

When white took the knight he may not have wanted to move the bishop backward as well, a flaw i certainly possess

Thank you! Now we know how to deal with this position when opponent is impatient and breaks it by himself. Unfortunately, we still want to know how to make him do it, and what to do if he doesn't.

Well, video was instructive, cannot deny that. But the title was misleading in my opinion. There was no general method of fighting fianchetto bishop fortress. White position fell rather because of mistakes - h3 and taking on c6.

7:06 but you win a pawn and also going to annoy your opponent a lot with their pawn structure. 9:27 I don't think its a good idea to trade that bishop for 1 pawn. Black's gonna have an easy way to attack. yeah, white went from +0.1 to -0.7 with just 1 move, weakening the king's safety and losing the amazing bishop pair 11:05 its threatening the bishop on e3, if it is traded then g3 pawn is undefended. can't find the second one. nvm, I saw that but didn't expect that count as a threat. 12:08 f5? just checked stockfish and it said white went from -0.6 to -2.9 with just Qe3 12:58 f4? 13:10 nah, I am 1400 and I only have 1 thing in mind when playing chess: checkmate the king, no matter the cost. I wasn't even sure I would even recapture if white capture that bishop. nvm, stockfish said taking back is better. 14:19 f3, exf3, Nf4, just completely ignore that pawn and white have no way to stop mate. (yeah stockfish also said that) 15:20 black just lose 4 point of advantage by ignoring that.

Don't respond to a threat the way you always do hits home. Makes perfect sense, but good to be aware of!

awesome video!

6:50 i was thinking about e4 to hopefully somehow make noise on the d file and maybe overloading the queen due to the then hanging knight.

its crazy I know I am improving when you say to pause the video and guess the next move and I am guessing the correct move everytime great content.

how to easily beat the fianchetto setup...need the opponent to ruin their own fianchetto setup

Sir, why both knights ended up on one side, like on Queen side ? What's the logic of king side knight retracting to Queen side ! Thanks !

You’re a good teacher

What's the rating of the people who played this game? Just curious?

Dont be sidetracked by irrelevant moves when on the offense was the word of day

It's too late for h3 after the bishop has already attacked the f3 knight with Bg4. I do h3 to prevent that attack in the first place. White's biggest problem is the two white pawns blocking his own queen from coming across to help defend his king. Re the last question: Ba3 becomes a bad bishop as the chain of black pawns blocks it out of play. You want to watch out when developing pieces not to place them where they will get stuck and become irrelevant.

Why did black not play C6 in the opening to blunt White's bishop? Is developing the NC6 better than blunting the white bishop with C6? I would appreciate a response.

You're the best chess teacher

Nelson if my opponent exposed his king how do I attack king .it would be hard to attack the king even if he move pawns in front of king

4:09 what is white trades the light squared bishop and puts all of his pawns on light squares. Isn't that a good way to counter the bishop? Or is it a bad plan? Coz I saw Many GMs do this.

Why get the king out of its starting square? It has less room to maneuver over in the corner.

Props for pronouncing fianchetto right.

Finchentto is a solid setup I think... SNIPERS IN CHESS

12:12 why not playing bishop b4? Queen ist defending the Position, so why dont chase her away?

5:20 Qd2 was a great alternative right?

11:25 they are not going to play that one it’s to long; they will build a defense up quick against that one

these glasses look good

Don't over sell C4. The fact that almost no one plays it is the only advantage I have when I almost always do.

This is a reversed Sicilian (Accelerated Dragon), not a King's Indian. The game was played by Rudolf Pitschak and Salo Flohr in 1934, so theory was low by today's standards, particularly since white is under 2500. That is presumably why he gave up his Dragon bishop so lightly; I doubt even an average club player would make such a decision these days. Anyone watching this video and thinking this will be an easy way for them to break down a king's position behind a bishop on g2 or g7 in general, rather than just for this specific game, is delusional and it is essentially click-bait to suggest that might be the case.

This is not a King's Indian but a Classical Dragon with colours reversed.

Nothing wrong with C4 ... Boom !

How to easily crush the Fianchetto setup if White does silly things like h3 and exchanging the Fianchetto'd bishop.

17:00 what’s wrong with rook to g6?

12:40, why bishop to b4?

h3,next move Nh2should still works.

3:43 video starts here.

So... The way to get through that defence is to rely on opponent's mistake? And what do I do if my opponent is doing literally nothing? Just, let's say, moving his king. And yet there's no space for my pieces to break in without pushing my pawns

I can absolutely see why White trading off that Bishop was bad, but what should White be thinking about doing instead? Surely they need to create a threat of their own somewhere?

Don't you tell them how to beat my favorite opening!

You are the best love from India 🇮🇳🥰

Good vid

Can you teach the caro?

11:42. White moves the rook to h6. Black has to move tge queen and tgreat is gone

We want a rating climb❤

Long story short: hope they give up the fianchetto bishop

nice :)

👍

Ok, so how can you EASILY BEAT The Fianchetto Setup? Just wait for your opponent to make a mistake - trade his fianchettoed bishop for your knight. That was really easy, thank you for the lesson

i literally just today failed miserably to beat this

Them pawn storms are annoying

❤that is my biy!

but pawns can't go back!!

Title is misleading. Black have the upper hand only because White is playing badly. After ...Bg4 is hard for White to play d3-d4 later. So White should play on the queenside with a2-a3. h2-h3 is a bad move.