As a 1750 rapid player who plays the Sicilian, I can't stress enough how useful this is for me. You explain so clearly why certain setups work and others don't. Highly needed for sidelines in the Sicilians, where my knowledge is greatly reduced compared to something like a mainline Najdorf. This is basically a high-quality personal chess session. Thanks coach Danya
There’s nobody better at explaining why a move is good or why it’s bad. You can learn so much in just a few games watching Danya maneuver his pieces in any position. Impressive.
It's funny, I faced this opening today (1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5) as black and won the game. I was trying to remember this game but could only remember the opening. Only now I realise - I hadn't finished this video yet and was only halfway through. It still helped though! It was a crushing victory as well, winning a piece (due to threatening to pin his queen) and then breaking through with bishop and rook attacking f2. This was around 1760 level, 15+10.
He's got the point though, Four Knights Scotch is easy to learn and many moves that seem natural for black are either inaccuracies or blunders, people on lower levels don't see it that much and don't know how to respond. Definitely recommend giving it a try
After losing over and over again to the Grand Prix in the Sicilian, I started playing it myself as white. Best decision I ever made! This video was super helpful; thanks Danya!
Funnily enough, the general structure and game plan for black are almost the same as in scandinavian where white goes 2. e5 instead of exd4. This is used to happen a lot when I was 1300, and I even see it above 1600 sometimes.
That happens when player are afraid of Scandi which is funny because it is a rather bad opening. I used to be a Scandi player when I was around 1400-1500 in rapid 10 and 15 min and realized my best games occured when my opponent goes e5, which transposes into a fairly common Advance Caro Kann setup. I'm now a Caro-Kann player and I must say you have to know what you're doing -let's say 5 first moves + main ideas like the c5 push- against Classical, Exchange and Advanced Variation (basically this is the one we can see in the video) but other than that it is a pretty good opening, more positional than active where you can learn a lot about spaces and pawn pushes, pretty easy to reach 1800 rapid if you follow habitual advices like the ones provided by Danya :)
It's amazing how you can just bring up all of these examples with similar moves and concepts. I wonder if you really just remember all of these off the top of your head or if you sometimes look up move sequences in something like chessbase during the video.
I'm a Najdorf player, but I play 2...g6 against the closed. I figure 90% of the time the reason my opponent went 2. Nc3 was to flick the stereotypical Grand Prix Attack at me. I set my pieces and pawns up to get an iron grip on the f5 square so that the usual Grand Prix attacking plans don't work as well; I often have both g6 and e6 (gasp!) covering it. And the only reason I don't play the Accelerated Dragon is because of the Maroczy, which is how I meet the line myself with white (and I have an extremely strong score with it); 2. Nc3 rules this out, so in effect, I see it as white having move-ordered *themselves* out of meeting my setup in the most testing way.
The 2nd game was a lot more interesting. I only really play the Caro Kann but it's interesting that the Sicilian you played ended up playing similar to how kingside development goes in the advance caro kann
As a 1500 player, it is amazing to see how you dismantle players that are just above me. It is just so surprising to me how many of them just end up blundering pawns and pieces in one move. Having you walk us through the way you maintain tension and steadily keep applying pressure is really an invaluable resource.
I used to play Sicilian Defense as black quite a lot. Recently I have mixed it up and reply with French Defense, Caro-Kann or Ruy Lopez opening with success.
The line with 1.e4 c5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 Nf6 is called the Tal Gambit! Coincidentally I was black in this opening in a game earlier today. My opponent trapped their own queen on move 8, so I'd agree that it's good for black.
I’m surprised that you may not be aware, but 1.e4 c5 2.f4 is officially called the McDonnell Attack. I personally appreciate that it has a different name, because obviously it allows for a whole bunch of counters that aren’t possible from the Grand Prix
Hey Daniel, trying to tell you for some time now and I hope you see it. If you want timestamps on youtube to work, you'll have to start with 0:00. For example "0:00 Game 1".
@TKD432 RU-vid has this feature called timestamps. You can create chapters for the video you created, for example "Game 1", "Game 2", "analysis". It is then shown on the red progress bar, so people have an easier time finding the stuff they might be looking for. Daniel is trying to use those timestamps for a few months now (you can see them if you check the description) but it never works because he has to start with 0:00.
It’s amazing isn’t it? As a 700 who began playing a few weeks ago I feel like I understand everything he’s saying, try and replicate the thought process in my games and fail miserably. It really is years of practice.
I'm around 1100-1200 and have two questions about this game if someone could answer. 1. At 9:20, if white's pawn wasn't at f4 would you still move the knight to h6 since the bishop could take it and ruin the pawn structure? Or in that case would you go ne7 and ng6? In the game you showed us afterwards that you played you still put the knight on the rim immediately but I've heard you talk about previously how this could be problematic because you can just take with the bishop and at that point the kingside does look rather bare. 2. At 13:20, whats the play if white goes b4? Would you just capture the knight with the bishop?
1. Mostly coming from my experience playing similar structures in the Tal Variation of the Caro Kann, but I think part of the idea of h5 in similar structures is to prepare Na6 by allowing Rxa5 in response to Bxa5. The important thing to remember is that the reason people stress castling is because castling activates the rook and brings the king to safety. Rxa5 removes castling rights but activates the rook. And the king is relatively safe on e8 and can tuck itself away on f8 if need be. 2. I assume Bxd4, though Nxd4 is probably also playable thanks to the intermezzo Nxf3+. Either way, you win a pawn.
1500 here, for the first question its a bit too hypothetical of a scenario to answer since your plans can change completely after even one single move, for example if f4 didn't happen Danya's plan would probably be vastly different, but I like the thought of going ne7 to g6. For the second question: after b4 you can just trade the bishop for the knight and then win a pawn, resulting in you being 2 pawns up and completely winning, sometime its not about only winning an exchange or a while piece or checkmating, sometimes you have to play slow chess and overwhelm your opponent to the point where they are out of moves.
Hi, 2100 player here, 1. If White didnt have a pawn on F4, (which he should aim to do) you would continue with normal caro kann/french defence plans and getting your knight to C6 by going Nf7, Nc6, this in order to pressure the very important center pawns. But, since you have not yet castelled, you could still go nh6 as Danya did in this game, and if bishop takes. Then you have open file for your rook. Summary: both plans work, nh6 would be more aggressive. 2. B4 is a horrible move, just take the pawn in the middle and win it, B4 is also very bad because now the B4 pawn is overextended, so you are probably going to win that pawn aswell
@@dre4mz749 nf7? I haven’t seen that one before. I should clarify. I meant in terms of developing the king side knight, here he’s gone h6. I know he’s moved the h pawn ahead, so even if white didn’t have the pawn on f4 taking with the dark squared bishop wouldn’t make sense as he could just take back with the rook. But I guess I’m asking in an alternative scenario where the pawn doesn’t go to h5, is moving the knight to h6 typically a good or bad move knowing that whites bishop could take it and damage the pawn structure. And I’m referring to typical Caro-kann positions.
@@hellopleychess3190 I had the same thought, but white can go Nd4, attacking blacks queen and the pawn on e6, allowing white's g5 Knight to capture on d6 after the black queen moves.
6:30 why is Bf5 played prior to Nc6? i usually play Nc6 first to give white an option to play Nf3, then play Bg4 instead of Bf5. or does the bishop actually stand better on f5?
Valuable observations on knight to the edge then pawn trapping knight & the rerouting of knight & bishop like in the Caro…🙏 One sort of criticism… sort of because what may be obvious to more advanced players isn’t so obvious to me. The phrase “in such positions” seems to be popping up more frequently in these videos, and I find myself at a loss to understand exactly what “in such positions” really means in a given context. It sticks out like a sore thumb because the usual explanations are so clear, precise, and understandable even to someone at my level. Just my impression. Love the content!
I was slightly disappointed seen him playing against the grand prix insted of playing with it, but good game and analyses nonetheless. Maybe play the gran prix another time?
Danya paralyzed the white player! Going e5 for white ends up not developing a piece and overextending the pawns, which gives black a -0.76 advantage at 37 depth. Instead of playing c3, white had to play Be3 followed by an eventual c4 to not lose; however, finding that plan is just incredibly tough.
Not an expert here but to answer your questions, 1. Qb6 is simply more forcing than Rc8 so white is forced to react and likely take. Rc8 is however very much played in these kind of positions. 2. Didn't quite understand where Nh4 could have been played since h4 is always covered by the bishop on e7.
18:16, why did he say queen f3 was a nice move, black can just take the queen, ruin white pawn structure, and not lose the weak pawn by pushing it to c4. I also check it with the engine and it goes from +1.1 from white to -0.53. I don't even understand what queen f3, even threatens / accomplishes.
Nice idea. It took me a while to find the refutation but it doesn't work as far as I can tell. f6, white captures with pawn, black recaptures with pawn. White sacrifices knight on e6 for pawn. Black captures knight with queen. Whites other knight goes to d4, kicking black Queen off the h3-c8 diagonal. Also blacks Queen is blocked by pawn on f6 so can't defend the h5 pawn. Black moves Queen and White grabs h5 pawn with his Queen and with check. Wherever black goes white plays f5. If black captures f5 pawn with light squared bishop then the black knight on g5 is hanging from the discovered attack by whites dark squared bishop. If black moves the knight then you have a monster outpost for whites d4 knight to jump to e6. At this point with a knight in e6, Queen on h5 and pawn on f5 I'd say there is probably a win there and most definitely compensation for the exchange sacrifice. That resulting position looks absolutely disgusting to play as with black, no pawns around the king, checks from the knight and queen, dark squared bishop is coming to life, the d file will come open for the other rook, king stuck in the centre etc, a massive attack. I mean he wouldn't have bothered calculating but intuitively I think he knew it would play into whites hands. Maybe there is a defence but you would have to play the correct move every move, I would not want to go into that, personally.
audience : c4 c4. danya : _"i dont like c4 can somebody tell me why"_ *opponent start heading to weaken d4 square. there you go bois... that's why he is the GM while we are not
For some reason the more I watch videos the worst I get. I had this phase when I came out of a chess break when I was stuck at around 900 and won massively. Everything fell into place kind of. I gained 230 points within a few days... and it was so fun to play again that I started picking up tactics and opening theory again. Then I got this little hinge of elo anxiaty, turned off rated games and from there everything went to shit. Now I'm losing probably 60-70% of my games and I feel absolutely miserable. But I also can't stop playing... everytime I kind of hope that my mind remembers certain things about the game and that my moves progressively get better. But they seem to get worst and worst. I'm at a complete loss of how to approach this.
You need a proper break from chess, including no videos/puzzles. Your problem is more common than you might think. Good play requires clarity of mind and certain energy resources, which deplete quickly when you binge chess or chess content. Judging by your comment, you're experiencing a burnout, and that burnout is likely the only reason for your sudden drop in quality of play
So, now I see why people can get 1500 to 1600. They basically just memorized a lot of opening moves. When they get to their unfamiliar territories, they will not be able to handle anything.
it’s very silly to say that learning good openings isn’t a good thing, it’s a part of the game too, and holding an advantage is probably a more important skill than recovering from terrible blunders at most levels
