4:30 Me, thinking about where to move the queen to defend the night. Danya saying that you should first take his bishop. Me looking around the board for what bishop he is talking about.
21:18 The knight can get to e4 in 7 moves (instead of 8): Nh8 Ng6 Nf8 Nd7 Qf7 Nf6 Ne4. Of course, your point remains valid: Black will lose before they can take advantage of the weak square. Great example; thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and analysis of these games, chess for me at least, its kind of a lonely game (because I only play online), so having a GM like yourself explaining your thought process is super fun and interesting!
Thanks for this series, it's my #1 go-to to get my chess head on each day. Not all GMs can make chess thinking understandable but you're one of the very best.
Thanks to watching Danya’s videos, I jumped almost 200 rating this week in rapid! (930-1110). Seeing you’re thought process has helped me come up with solid moves more consistently
good video as always but at 1:22 I am surprised Danya didn't even mentioned this in the analysis after the game that after Nc6 white can go a3 with b4 next and hold onto the pawn and there is no way for black to exploit it in this particular position (stockfish says +1 for white simply up a pawn). in the normal queens gambit accepted you can undermine it and win the pawn back but not in this particular position
Nc6 a3, then there is a5. I guess Na4 could be annoying but I haven’t looked too deeply into it. I’m not using an engine btw so I might be a bit wrong lol
@@ethanl.1699 yes Na4 is the move that keeps the pawn in this particular position, I did used an engine to see this variation fast but I am sure if I spent some time as the player playing white in this position (and wouldn't play automatically) I could have find a3 with this ideas. normally in positions like this the queen's knight isn't developed yet that's probably why Danya thought he can just automatically play Nc6 and regain the pawn later
Thanks for the comment! You're absolutely right. To be honest, a3-b4 completely escaped my mind in that position. I guess the knight on c3 threw me off somehow. I analyzed at a high depth, and the simple 4...e6 is probably best; then on 5.b4, Black of course has 5...a5. After my move, Black must indeed part ways with the pawn if White plays correctly. Thank you for watching so carefully and I apologize for the mistake. I stand corrected and I'll make a mention of this during my next speedrun game!
Thank you for this series, it's always great. I was watching an old speedrun video and for the first time ever I heard Danya say something objectively incorrect. It's nice to know GMs can blunder a piece in the opening too.
7:18 very fair assessment, and I would play that move against higher rated opponents, but against a 1500, e5 makes things tricky by preventing white from retreating with Nf3 7:51 Here I think a trickier way to play would be Ba5 pinning the Knight. 1500s hate feeling suffocated or having their ideas stopped, so if c3 is induced, that would make castling either side harder and create an outpost on d3. If White commits to castling, you can play f5 then and still have a great position
THANK YOU for the coocking remark. I'm a chef and DID understand the idea and the concept about Jobaba London. I wont even try to play that. I'm light years from that level.
They’ve definitely increased mine, and I watch them pretty much just for entertainment and don’t memorize the moves but I feel like they’ve helped me just understand the game a little bit better.
The massive pawn center was cool. Also, there was a cool tactic if White chose to play Nxc6 instead of taking the bishop immediately. I think the knight gets trapped at the end of the line when black plays bishop a6 instead of taking the knight on d8 after it has captured the queen.
Beef Stroganoff with thousand-dollar truffles is super easy, because anyone can make beef stroganoff and shave thousand-dollar truffles on it to make it great. What's tough: make pasta carbonara with $5 of ingredients for which you can charge $50 because it transcends all mastery.
Again such worthwhile explanations - the reasoning behind the moves! At my beginner level it’s hard to imagine players around 1500 as white making a sketchy decision on move 3.🤔 Again GM Danya’s analogy got me😆 14:05 but such useful content!🙏
Dude, even 500 points higher people continue playing sketchy stuff. It`s still not always easy to refute, and you get stomped by the Stafford, KingsGambit, Englund etc.
According to the computer, 4...e6 and then recovering the pawn with the standard "queen's gambit accepted" type stuff is correct. Black can defend the pawn with a3 and then b4, and ignoring that with 4...Nc6 hands the advantage back to white. Sometimes the amateurs know!
I'm a novice but it seems like at 9:20 Qg3 would have been a strong defense? It puts pressure on the Rook, defends the pawn, and opens up the possibility of Bxe5 threatening checkmate.
Yep actually stronger than it looks at first glance, at least to my understanding. I guess one can defend the e5 pawn with something like Bc7 and then start with a5/a4 and so on since white is kinda paralyzed there anyway, but nice catch I think!
11:31 h4 weakness of the last move is the queen is undefended, black can play Bxa3 bxa3 Qxa3 Bb2 and then Qxg3. Completely unnecessary but I think it's the fastest path to victory.
I'll hold my hands up & admit it was me in the chat who stupidly suggested castling at 3:45. 🤦♂ In my defence it was like 3am and I wasn't paying attention...
So I think Danya, and it is entirely up to you whether or not to incorporate this of course, but at 10:20 when you notice Bb4, these are the sort of mistakes I think viewers sometimes want you to allow, to show how to continue pressing a position when you let the advantage slip somewhat, the reason being is that it feels like a much more natural blunder to someone lower rated, understandably I imagine it’s hard for a 2600 gm to figure out what that is for their viewers
A bit late to the party, but at 10:55 would Bf2 have worked instead of dropping the bishop to c5? There's potential queen traps happening, and a lot of the lines I tried to explore end up with black winning anywhere from a queen for a bishop to just a clean bishop. I tried to use an analysis board to explore different lines, but I couldn't see any clear weaknesses that Bf2 causes for black.
If you're around the strength of the opponent in the game, I recommend the Torre System. Very similar looking, but easier to pick up with concrete plans that are effective around that level.
That's why nobody listens to what the engine says. It might be smarter than all of us combined, but it's still the kid who reminds the teacher of the homework
Hey Danya one question. I the last position showed in the video, instead of taking the queen couldn't you take the pawn in front of White's king and open up the king?
It only comes with practice. As well as solving normal puzzles for pattern recognition you should regularly attempt higher rated ones which you fail more often. You need to have the discipline to visualise the winning line, and any possible responses/sidelines, all the way to the end before moving a piece. If you're solving and you find you're often surprised by the computer's response to your move then you're doing it wrong. Take your time and don't guess moves when doing them online - even if you know it's probably the right move strain yourself and calculate from the initial position as far as possible first. Studies are good for this too...but most of them are extremely difficult. Some people might find it too frustrating to work on positions that seem almost unsolvable. But with studies it's more about the process than the solution - even if you never correctly solve a single one just the act of thinking deeply about a position for 20/30 minutes or more is a great mental workout. I find this is even more useful if you write all your calculations down on paper and compare with the solution after.
