30:40 Analysis - Follow Daniel on Twitter at / gmnaroditsky - Daniel streams regularly on Twitch at / gmnaroditsky - Daniels Discord / discord #speedrun #grandmaster #chess
My god I love this series ... Like I know that you'd get bored with this probably, but I would continue watching this series forever, whether you restart it or just keep with higher rated players, or just randomly play any ratings. Again, amazing content, you cannot be thanked enough for this stuff!
Most informative chess streamer going. Gotham and Hikaru are sweet for more crude entertainment but Daniel's clean and concise delivery is head and shoulders above if you actually seriously want to improve. Rad stuff, cheers DN.
Absolutely blown away by how good these longer Speedrun videos are, even more so than the usual 3 or 5 minute blitz games (which are amazing, too). That you get time to really explain certain things to us, and the general quality of play is a lot higher because your opponent also has a lot of time to think, makes them very instructive. Hopefully you enjoy playing and teaching these kind of games and that we get to see more of these :)
Honestly, I'm just amazed that Danya is able to take a relatively boring game and turn it into something incredibly interesting. It isn't often that you see someone explain in depth slow, patient, and methodic moves to convert a single pawn advantage
Hey Danya, I got nearly this exact line opening (until ...Qxd6 with some transposition) in tournament this weekend. I felt prepared with the concepts and plans going into the IQP position and was happy to see my opponent go into it. They were slightly too slow with their development and I was able to exploit it with some interesting tactics to win material, and I eventually managed to close out a win vs an opponent ~400 points higher rated than me!!
Daniel, I have a question about thinking in chess: is it better to begin by calculating specific lines (checks, captures, attacks, intuitive moves) and draw general conclusions about the position, or rather to begin with a positional view and deductively choose a move/plan? Is it possible to do both? And which do you tend towards? I sense that teaching positional concepts is really impossible since your student only "learns" an artificial version of the concept and not one induced from their own experiences. When I instruct beginners I almost never teach them positional concepts. A player who consistently hangs pieces will quickly intuitively learn to be wary about their opponent's threats and will create their own concepts to fix the problem. When we teach tactical motifs and the endgame, by contrast, a student's understanding is concrete and certain. They develop a strong ability to calculate many variations at a deep level. When they improve drastically, they usually develop a positional understanding on their own.
Positional concepts, like tactics, vary in complexity. The first thing I teach a beginner is the piece value, and more specifically why these general values are assigned. This of course boils down to how the pieces move; how much space a piece can potentially influence. When the beginner understands why a queen for example is more valuable than a knight, then tactics can be introduced. The idea of space is purely a positional concept, but is very relevant for a beginner.
Kramnik made a chessable course where he talks about a few questions he asks himself when it's his move, *in order*: 1. Can I win material? Scan for tactics, hanging pieces, etc. 2. Is my opponent threatening anything? 3. If no for both of the above, what is my opponent planning? Maybe there's no direct threat, but he's building towards something beneficial (or perhaps not beneficial) for him. What is it, and how can i prevent it or take advantage if it's a mistake? 4. Finally, what is my own plan? How can I improve my position?
These are exactly the types of games I lose as a 1700. My strategy when learning chess was basically to win every game in the middlegame and never play an endgame. My feeling was that endgames were boring and if I was actually good I wouldn't need to play endgames vs low rated players, they'd've certainly blundered the middlegame and I missed it. Once you hit certain levels endgames become mandatory because there are times when middlegame just don't have wins of clean pieces.even for someone as strong as danya the only material win in the middlegame was a single pawn. Since I score about 25% in games without minor pieces, this game was wonderful for me. Thanks as always.
Yeah endgame proficiency is almost mandatory to become a good and well rounded player. Not every position can be won with attacks and tactics, sometimes, as is shown in the video, all you realistically get is maybe a minor piece imbalance and if you‘re lucky a pawn. Knowing how to properly convert positions not only makes your chess more aesthetic, it also allows you to be a bit more relaxed with your game, knowing you can actually win a winning endgame.
Daniel, I have been aware of your many successes but didn't realize you were instructing on RU-vid. I watch about 4 hours a day of chess vids and while all of the hosts are terrific, I find you to be the most instructive! You made this game seem so easy. Keep up the great videos. Thanks.
Awesome to see you convert a long positional game, I usually struggle with these games and a lot of the speedrun games have been brutal checkmates haha
We all knew he was a brilliant chess player, I was not expecting him to be such a brilliant teacher as well. It doesn't seem that too many people have these overlapping skills. Amazing series. Thorough and brief in all the right ways. Truly deserving of the "Master Class" title.
Wow, very instructive 👏. Thanks you Danya. Everytime I see your videos, I feel like I have understood more about chess. You are the best chess teacher 🥇
Thanks for bringing another instructive win to teach us. New to the channel...guess I have a lot of past vids to watch when time permits. Happy 2022 to you.
If I were a beginner to intermediate I’d avoid purposefully going into IQP positions. There are potentially interesting opportunities with an IQP, but they’re less intuitive for less experienced players and the play is more straight forward for the person playing against the IQP.
Yeah, this is what you should watch instead of Hikaru stomping on other players lol. I mean, this content is very instructive, he goes for the common moves we would play (as 1000~1600 rating players), explains why things are like there're done, and gives you pointers, etc. Thanks Daniel! Great Work!!
Danya are you going to stop speed running after this? I’m getting so much out of these games. Maybe you can do similar climbs focusing on certain openings? Levy did that last year and I really enjoyed the series, but you have a lot of experience in openings he doesn’t play. I get REAL excited every time you do an instructional vid featuring Sicilians especially. Looking forward to seeing your next series, whatever it is, but reeeeally hoping to see more longer format instructionals like these cause you’re one of the few people who are great at it.
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 in this position French players will often make the strategic mistake recapturing with pawn instead of queen and these IQP positions the pawn is weak without enough activity for black in compensation.
10:30 but why can't you capture the knight on f3. After white takes your bishop on e7 you will take theirs on e2. And after mutual queen captures you'll end up with extra knight, don't you?
I just watched a video explaining how the phrase ''obviously'' makes you unlikeable hahaha. Of course Danya is a super chill dude, but I can kinda see the point being made there.
I'm looking to learn more about pawn structures and the ideas/strategies associated with them. This was a really interesting video to learn about the IQP, but a lot of it flew over my head. I'm pretty much only comfortable in the Caro structure but it took a long time to learn, and I can only use that knowledge in similar Slav positions. What are the best resources for that? Ideally online resources but books would be good too
'Pawn Structure Chess' by Andrew Soltis and 'Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide' by Mauricio Flores Rios. These are the most highly recommended books for learning about pawn structures and the middlegame themes that arise with them on the board. I just started reading PSC and I think it's really good. Another book is 'Pawn Power in Chess' by Hans Kmoch.
I was thinking h6 not as a one move threat but as a preparation for knight f4 forking his queen whenever he moved up since his rook was still there but that might not have worked if he moved his rook. Idk
Control the square in front of it, try to push it if at all possible, obviously keep it defended and/or look for counterplay elsewhere if you find that you're being forced into complete passivity. I think playing with the IQP is much harder than playing against it for beginner and intermediate players.
Could you please record at a higher volume? Unfortunately, I have to use a sound booster to hear you. When the ads come on, it blows me off my chair. Thanks
2...e6 to blunt the bishop and Black already has an advantage on move two. Openingtree gives a 54% winrate for Black vs 40% for White on lichess (1800+, bullet games excluded).
