Mastering Chess Tactics | Advanced Puzzles Explored with Daniel Naroditsky 

Finally after waiting for 2 weeks without sleep

Don't worry about the break in videos, Danya! Appreciate your recognition of other commitments and the continued excellent content you put out.

Don't apologise for putting quality over quantity. And more importantly, for putting your own health above everything else. You're setting a good example, keep it up

Glad to see you're ok! #1 chess educator out there, we can't lose you brother.

We know how passionate you are about bringing us content, better said good and highly instructive content. It's understandable to have these standards. I sincerely appreciate this commitment and respect your standards. At the same time I do not expect you at all to do all the things you do for us on this channel. Nothing is taken for granted and everything is seen as a precious gift. And when you are not uploading videos there is so much material to rewatch and extract knowledge from that I cannot become tired of. So thank you indeed for your help

The third puzzle was very instructive, moving the king to the center felt very counterinuitive to me. Man, am I glad to see a Danya video after several weeks xD

We are here when you post! No expectations, you are a gift to the chess community

He needs more subscribers.....very underrated channel....

Stoked to see you're back! take all the breaks you need, the content is worth it.

Oh my god I was waiting so much for this, thanks danya. BTW I got to 2000 blitz and 2150 rapid because of you man, I can't express enough gratitude.

There's enough free, high quality content on your channel that it would take even the most serious learner several months to go through and digest, and most of it will be assuredly relevant for the next 5-10 years, if not in perpetuity. Take care of your wellness, and the community will benefit.

I have love/hate relationship with chess puzzles. On one hand, I love when I understand WHY the solution is what it is. On the other, I hate those (unfortunately too frequent) moments when I realize the correct solution the very instant I make the wrong move.

Great to have you back!!! Thank you so much for your wonderful content!

At 34:22 I think the key intuition is not that the black rook blocks its kings retreat, because the white rook covers that whole file anyway. It's that your pawn was shielding the black king on that file, so queening and sacrificing that pawn eliminated that shelter, allowing the ladder mate. Thank you for another great video.

Paused the first example, and you were right about the tactical solution with rd7 for black, but I had also found the simple solution Qc5, exploiting the undefended queen!

Excellent lesson! Great to have you back!!

Very glad to see a post from Danya!

By far the best educational chess content on RU-vid. Thanks so much for all the work you do.

Thank you Danya! Great to see you back to making content. You are fantastic and please don’t feel pressured to constantly overwork yourself for us.

So nice to see you again!

3 weeks without Danya and I tilted from 2100 to 1900. Now I’m back to 2000 Rapid 😂

This is just Pure Gold Content! Absolutely loved it. Thank you so much!! You are the best

I know that Danya keeps saying 'pattern recognition' but I don't think that's necessarily the case every time. In Charles Hertan's book 'Forcing Moves' he mentions the concept of 'computer eyes'. Just by a combo of brute force, awareness/visualisation of where the pieces are at each and every turn (for both sides), plus comparison of similar lines to diagnose the problem, one can find winning lines without prior knowledge of a pattern. It might be slower but I think that's the more valuable part of the thinking process. After all, historically these patterns were noted and identified _after_ the fact. It would be a treat if Danya could show us what I think is the biggest weakness of us pleb chess players: how to actually VISUALISE chess positions without getting foggy!

Glad to have you back 👍

These puzzle videos are great! But one thing I would like to see more is puzzle about positional awareness. I think lichess has more puzzles about this. Hope Danya can do some puzzle solving on lichess as well!

I love listening to your logical explanations and thoughts. It is so crystal clear, precise and pure.

I was waiting for these, You have no idea

Love you puzzle videos! Make more like this. So amazing thank you.

I only watch on RU-vid so I’m stoked you’re back!! You deserve as many breaks as you need. Thanks for the content 😊

Awesome video, thanks Danya

Welcome back Danya! I missed your videos so much I joined your Twitch!

Take all the time you need! Whenever you post we will be back to watch! All the best

This was awesome!

love these videos!

Thank you so much for these videos. After watching these I always perform better in puzzles; as you said, it's very important to know when to stop and try other order-movements. I've never had a formal teacher so these videos are extremely valuable to me. I could watch hours and hours of you solving puzzles, no matter how easy or difficult, it always does good for my chess. I've also been kind of burnout and not paying much attention to chess, I don't know how much effort it takes for you to make one of this series, but if it doesn't take much effort, please know they're always appreciated and nutritive for those of us who are still learning tactics and calculation (=it doesn't really matter the level, just hearing you structure the thought process is absolutely inspiring). Thanks again Danya and hope we all find the balance we need into our lives!!

Great video. Thanks!

Love to see you solving puzzles :)

more speedruns on the way?

First puzzle after Rfe1 - black also has Qc5 hitting our unprotected queen and opening Rxe1+ intermezzo.

This is great content! I liked the last puzzle more

So good, I'm learning, thank you.

Woo, you just made my evening. Thanks for the video bro

Question for the first puzzle: Doesn't Qc5 also refute Rde1 since the white queen is hit and the rook can be taken with a check in case of a queen trade?

we miss you Danya

Very grateful for your instruction Danya

Eagerly awaited

Superb content. Finally danya releases a video.

I really watched and enjoyed the entire thing🎉🎉🎉

Hey, I'm really glad you're taking some time for self-care. Take all the time you need, I need to finish a few speedrun videos I missed

Danya is a treasure. TY for the videos.

Great video 🔥

Babe wake up Danya posted!

Yeeeesss my favourite type of video

Daniel we appreciate the upload, thx 🙃

Yeah BABYYYY

Puzzle 1, 3:54 , danya states that after 1. Rfe1, Rd7 2. RxQ, RxR+ 3. Kh2, RxR that black has 2 rooks for a queen and the position reaches equally, how ever there is a beautiful detail that I feel he saw but forgot to mention. After 4. Qc3, (pinning Re5 to the king threatening f4) black has an amazing resource, Rd5! And after 5. F4, attacking his rook, black is able to force himself out of the pin with, Rc5, hitting his queen, and if 6. Qd4 maintaining the pin, Rd5. And if white tries to be sneaky with 5. B4, black has time to play Kg8 getting out of the pin. The reason I choose Rde1 was because I saw black had Qc5 after 1.Rfe1which keeps the balance of pieces even instead of a queen for two rooks.

Thank God he's back!

You're the best daniel!!!

glad you've taken some R&R, never apologise, we're lucky to receive such great content so well delivered for free. You're doing a great service to the people and thank you

Man I am running out of old speedrun videos. Let's hope sensei keep posting new content because this is just addictive and high quality stuff. Thanks

I love these puzzle posts, I struggle at 1700-1800 level puzzles so this is bad ass.

You're amazing, take your time, we're all in your corner cheering you on and rooting for your longevity rather than you burning out! ❤

Hey Danya are you considering to further making endgame series?

That Sevian Giri analysis was 🔥

Simply amazing. In the second puzzle. I came up with series of moves to win both bishops and rook for just my rook and thrn danya took it like 100levels above and found checkmate. Damn. What a player

Thank you

We missed you a lot Danya! That being said. Don’t ever worry about taking breaks. Do what’s best for you at any time.

The second-to-last puzzle seems to be from Anand vs Gelfand, Wijk aan Zee 1996. Cool to see Danya figure it out without remembering the game.

on first problem 1 Rfe1 also fails to the simple 1..Qc5! because if White takes on e8 Black takes on b4 and if 2 Qxc5 Black has ..Rxe1+ intermezzo and then Rxc5. While I didnt see Danya's 1..Rd7 move I saw 1..Qc5 therefore I chose 1Rde1! which wins on the spot

My elo hasn't gone up since 3 weeks and i was wondering why. Missed you Sensei.

you’re my favorite chess player bro respect 💯

Return of the king!

When speedrun?

Appreciated❤

Yes take breaks, keep yerself from burn out! Great job nakama, friend Shalum!

The puzzle where he sacked the rook and both queens were hanging was simply unfindable for me, I was stunned

thank you great Danya :)

THE KING IS BACK

he uploads again!!!!

For the first puzzle Rfe1 also fails to Qc5 Qxc5 Rxe1+! Rxe1 Rxc5. Gotta watch out for those zwischenzugs

@33:55 Danya is right you can't make a bishop because the king will run.

“The way to calculate is to backtrack to the last point in which you had a choice.” This is the advice I have needed to hear for 30 years.

Finally where have you been man !?

HE IS BACK

All your videos are instructive, regardless of the theme of the content. There wasn't a single move you made that wasn't something I should be able to find, but the reality is, you can see many many move themes at once, where a player like myself sees 1 or 2 and gets tunnel vision. I'm sure lots of folks can relate where after solving a puzzle and getting it wrong, there's a huge oh-my moment when we see the correct idea that clearly was something we "could" have found, but missed due to other tactical themes that clouded our overall vision. I don't know how to avoid this tunnel vision, but I would sure like to figure it out.

Don't apologize - you're the one of the greatest gifts chess has produced

An interesting line in the fourth puzzle is 1. Rad1 Kb8 2. Re8 Bc8. It's a mate in 2 from there, but it's maybe the best try for Black. I didn't see the correct move after Bc8 at first.

Greatly enjoyed this video! Love to hear your though process to better understand how to think/calculate. This was very helpful. Quality over quantity as always!

Thank you for the video, best teacher in the world

Take your time Danya, we love you

where have been Dana! good to see you

Danya, amazing video as always, I owe my progress largely to your work over the years. What do you think about the website you solved puzzles on (I can't say the name because YT bans my comments) preventing anyone who's not a titled player or select legacy user from having a leaderboard score above 49? It makes my work feel less important than that of other users, I'm sure a lot of your viewers have had the same experience. They couldn't even give me a straight answer on how to get approved to be on the leaderboard.

you back 🎉🎉🎉

First puzzle, after Rfe1 black has Qc5.

Wonderful. By far the most educational🫶

Lesgoooo danya

Our teacher is back now.thank you sir

At 4:44 currently…I had my own idea about puzzle 1 and that was after Rfe1, black has QC5! Danya didn’t mention it so far so I thought I was mistaken, I put it into lichess and the move it suggested after Rfe1 was in fact my move, whether that is the correct strength or not from my iPad is another story but that felt good:) I’m sure his moves are equally good at refuting the f rook moving, i just saw that whites queen was loose so black had that tactic too:)

just reached 2060 elo peak after only 10 months of playing.. I have watched every single speedrun video once and a lot twice, thanks danya 🙏

He is back 😳❤