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Category

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News
Transcript
00:00Ladies and gentlemen, whether you've been watching my channel for a long time or you're
00:06just getting into it, you should know I have a playlist.
00:12The playlist is called How to Lose at Chess.
00:18That is because in this playlist I analyze and break down some really fascinating regular
00:25chess games played by regular people all across the world.
00:30Some of them have been submitted to me, whereas some have simply been brought to my attention.
00:36I'm currently on a little trip here, I'm staying at a place that's not my normal place, but
00:42I had to take a few minutes out of my day to show this game to you because I just can't
00:49take it anymore.
00:51Sometimes I see chess games and they're so terrible that I need both of our days to be
00:59ruined.
01:00You and me, and the potentially hundreds of thousands, if not seven figures of people
01:04who are going to watch this video.
01:07So I have nothing else to say.
01:10Let's go.
01:11This was a game played between two players rated 900.
01:16Now, admittedly, they played Only Chess, which is the other major chess website, and
01:21there's a little bit, you know, they're probably more like 600 level players on Chess.com.
01:27Still, the play was inexcusable.
01:35Okay?
01:38But we are going to look at this game and we're going to laugh, we're going to learn,
01:43we're going to cry.
01:44Those are going to be the three emotions that we experience, I hope.
01:47By the way, I've never actually recorded a video with a clock behind me, so you can watch
01:51the clock go up.
01:53I don't know, maybe that'll be satisfying to you.
01:55Okay, so parsnip versus zongo.
01:58Parsnip is a parsnip and zongo is a waterfall, apparently, I didn't know that, in the Congo.
02:04There you go.
02:05I don't know if that person named themselves that to dedicate themselves to that waterfall
02:07or not.
02:08But here we go.
02:09We have E4, we have D6.
02:12For now, Chess.com giving these moves the book moves.
02:18Everything makes sense.
02:19Pawn to D4.
02:20Okay?
02:21Pawn to E6.
02:22I think GameReview just didn't want to make black feel bad already.
02:32This is called the small center defense, obviously, because the center is small.
02:42It's not any good, though, because you're blocking your bishops.
02:45You need at least something in the center, ideally.
02:50You don't have to, but then your setup should make some sense.
02:54This is a completely reasonable move for this level.
02:57I don't hate this move.
02:59Still, I would not make forward pawn moves unless they had threats on the knights.
03:04Now it is high time to develop both of your knights.
03:06But whatever, I'm not going to backseat just yet.
03:09Black takes.
03:10White takes.
03:11Black plays Nd7, which, again, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense because you've blocked
03:16your bishop.
03:17But if you're going to go B6 and Bb7, God bless.
03:20Nf3.
03:21And that is, in fact, what black goes for.
03:24The computer is giving it a question mark because it's not the right way to set up.
03:28You're basically moving your bishop into an apartment that stares at a brick wall.
03:33I don't know why you would do that, but maybe you live in New York City, and that's the
03:37best that you could do while paying $3,500 a month.
03:41By the way, I'm not sure if you know this, I think recently, average rent of a one-bedroom
03:50apartment in Manhattan, New York, crossed $4,000 a month.
03:55I think.
03:56I might be spreading misinformation, but that's what the internet is for.
03:59That's bananas.
04:04That's crazy.
04:05So, yeah, I mean, and this bishop wants to live in...
04:07He's only going to be paying $3,300.
04:10So white now does something that I need to condemn, basically, immediately.
04:17Here white does not play like a 979.
04:21White plays like a 79, and goes, hmm, you're going to put the bishop there.
04:30Me, too.
04:33Hmm.
04:34Yeah, look, you should be putting your bishop out to the traditional squares, and then you
04:38should be castling.
04:39There is no need to copy the opponent.
04:41You basically just behave like a toddler who saw somebody else get a treat.
04:45I mean, that's...
04:46Right, b3.
04:47Okay, now let's bring out the bishop.
04:49Okay, we couldn't even finish that thought process, because we thought that the bishop
04:56was attacking the pawn.
04:57Now, again, in a nutshell, in a vacuum, I don't actually care about the move knight
05:01c3.
05:02I'd like the move knight c3, but it's already protected.
05:06Anyway, knight f6, fantastic.
05:09Bishop b5.
05:10Yeah, look, again, it's the top move of the computer, but practically speaking, you know,
05:16what's going to end up happening to this bishop is you're probably, you know, I imagine you're
05:19going to trade it for the knight.
05:21Is that what happens?
05:22Yes, that's exactly what happens, which is terrible.
05:25It's terrible.
05:26It's completely...
05:27There's no point just giving away a light squared bishop.
05:29If you basically cannot explain to your six-year-old relative why you traded the bishop for the
05:34knight beyond I don't like knights and I don't really care about, you know, trading pieces,
05:41you need to be able to explain yourself.
05:42Otherwise, keep the damn bishop, because it's better in the long run, in more positions
05:47than not, a bishop is better than a knight.
05:49This is...
05:50Y'all got to stop doing this bishop and then taking the knight once you get attacked, like
05:55figuring it out when we get there type of a thing.
05:57You guys got to stop doing this and you will gain rating points, I promise.
06:02So, bishop b5, bishop takes, queen takes, nice.
06:09By the way, I still am waiting for this move, which clearly you played to copy your opponent.
06:15Black plays a5.
06:16This is a fascinating move.
06:18Now we are going to enter a phase of the game, which without exaggeration, and I don't mean
06:24any offense by what I am about to say, I mean no offense whatsoever, what we are about
06:29to witness is one of the worst middle games played between two 900s, probably in the history
06:35of humanity, and I mean that with zero disrespect for the players.
06:40Okay, maybe some disrespect, and also I may or may not be exaggerating for comedic effect,
06:45which I do quite frequently on this channel, but then I still try to educate.
06:49Now, the move white should play here without even thinking is rook e1 check.
06:56Knight a4, I mean, I don't know, maybe you need like a MRI of the brain, frankly.
07:04I don't even, I mean, if you ask me to explain this move, I would tell you, well, you know,
07:11white wants the bishop to go here and wants it to be up.
07:13I don't know why we wouldn't just do the first thing, but, you know, again, why do you play
07:18rook e1?
07:19Not because it's a check, it's because you're activating the rook.
07:21The rook is coming to the middle, it can't be a bad move.
07:24And you know, if you do that, you can then team up with the queen and the rook to put
07:28pressure on the bishop, which is probably going to block, right?
07:32Just in the, you know, knight a4s.
07:34Now again, at like a 400 level, I would think, well, that you're threatening the pawn, but
07:38it's very clearly protected, so you're obviously not going to take it.
07:42g6, okay, a mistake, but black obviously likes putting the bishops on the edges of the board.
07:49Still bad, but not horrendous.
07:51Okay, now again, rook e1, bishop b2.
07:54Oh, look at that, you know what, you know, maybe knight a4 made sense after all.
08:02You wanted to do connect4.
08:05Wrong game, but frankly, I don't mind it.
08:07I don't mind that you have a very powerful pawn wall.
08:10In fact, a few moves ago, you could consider a pawn wall even here.
08:16It would have not been a bad option.
08:17And then what you would do is play bishop and knight, and you would have a very powerful
08:21attack on this diagonal.
08:22So you know what, fine, fine, you have explained yourself sufficiently.
08:27Black plays bishop g7.
08:28Again, this is your last moment.
08:29Folks, when you see an opponent's king dead center in your sights, chances are targeting
08:40it is the right move.
08:43Rook e1.
08:46And as fate would have it, you play bishop to b2 at literally the worst moment since
08:55you played the move b3.
08:56b3 was played on the sixth move of the game, and only on the 13th, double the time later,
09:04did you play bishop g2.
09:05Fine, black castles.
09:06Okay, now how are we going to play a bad middle game from here?
09:09This is actually a very rich position.
09:12Rich meaning a lot of possibilities, a lot of imbalances, a lot of pawn breaks.
09:18You know, black might play b5 or c6.
09:21White might try to put pressure on this diagonal.
09:22White will go here, try to set up.
09:24If I'm playing with white, I'm going to try to set up a bishop and queen battery on this
09:28diagonal.
09:29That looks really appealing to me.
09:31Maybe I'll jump my knight into one of these positions.
09:35Yeah, I mean, like, it's like, this is like you went into the Museum of Natural History
09:49and you just vomited on the floor.
09:51You just, I mean, there is thousands upon thousands of years of history.
09:57You are in a very rich, nurturing environment that will cultivate curiosity.
10:05Okay, outstanding.
10:11Let's proceed.
10:12That's just...
10:13Okay, now you have the exact same position that I just described, very rich and full
10:17of possibilities and ideas, and you just don't have a knight anymore.
10:23Okay, let's just proceed like nothing happened.
10:28You just ran a car straight through a wall, and you're like, yeah, knight d4, obviously.
10:33Okay, bishop a6, not a bad move.
10:34You know, what I would do here is I would probably play a4 to restrict this pawn.
10:39And again, we need to go rook e1.
10:40Queen e2, again, I don't hate this move, but, you know, black will go here, probably.
10:48Or that, for some reason.
10:51Okay, I get it.
10:53I, you know, generally going back with the knight, like nine times out of ten at beginner
10:57level will not be the right move.
10:59White plays knight c6, okay.
11:01By the way, when you're down material in chess, how do you fight back, right?
11:05How do we defend in a chess game?
11:06I'm currently writing my second book.
11:08I'm writing How to Win at Chess 2, and one of the chapters is on defense for intermediate
11:12players and early advanced players.
11:16If you're watching this at a time, the book is available.
11:18There will be a link in the description.
11:19But yeah, you have to defend by either just sitting back and patiently waiting and stopping
11:23your opponent's threats, or creating counterplay.
11:26One of the ways to create counterplay is to trade pieces near the opponent's king.
11:30Black kind of ignores.
11:32I here would take the bishop.
11:34That's what white does.
11:35And now I would replace the bishop with the queen.
11:38Fantastic.
11:39You see how earlier I said this was one of the worst middle games ever played?
11:43It is.
11:44But I was, you know, slightly exaggerating.
11:45I actually don't mind this.
11:47And if I'm playing with black here, I probably try to block things.
11:50I don't really want my king to go back and then be severely restricted.
11:53If you're ever in a position where you are very close to being checkmated, but it somehow
11:59doesn't work, it's not a good feeling.
12:02Like knight here is made if it wasn't for the queen.
12:05So right away with white, you've got to think rook e1 or queen f6 to enable the move knight
12:11e7 check or start launching your pawns to open up the king.
12:16You know, fantastic.
12:18The computer gives it this sign, which was like, and not good enough.
12:22This is like the parent that, you know, you came back from class, you got a 94% on your
12:27exam and your, and your parent says, what happened to the remaining 6% toxic parents.
12:33They also had toxic parents, right?
12:35You ever felt you weren't good enough in your childhood house?
12:39Me all the time.
12:40But you know, toxic parents come, they don't come from nowhere.
12:44You know what I'm saying?
12:45They also had it probably very difficult growing up.
12:48They never managed to find a level of emotional stability and maturity to make you feel fulfilled
12:53as their child.
12:54It's not your fault.
12:55When did this turn into a therapy session?
12:56I don't know.
12:57The whole thing has been one therapy session.
13:00Point is knight e7 check, right?
13:03Is there.
13:04And rook e1 is a good move.
13:07Black now plays b5.
13:13That is so blissfully ignorant.
13:16Like your king has been attacked multiple times.
13:21The only, and I literally mean only, check in this position for white, with the exception
13:25of losing the queen in one move, is knight e7.
13:28You must scan these things for your opponent.
13:31You must.
13:32You must look.
13:33Does my opponent have any threats?
13:34Knight e7 check.
13:35After the move rook e1, the game is over.
13:47No but see, now your parents are justified, right?
13:50Because in the previous, you actually did a great thing and you didn't get enough credit
13:54from your hypothetical situation regarding your parents.
13:57But I mean, rook c1 is absurd, no I mean, but this is, I mean, no you have to look for
14:05threats for yourself and for the opponent, right?
14:09Like, black allows it again, man.
14:14Black allows it again, like, and white wakes up, white wakes up, finds knight e7, winning
14:23the game on the spot because black simply has to lose the queen, it's the only move.
14:27Now white is up a queen for a knight and a bishop, and maybe a pawn, no, not even a pawn.
14:33The knight is hanging.
14:35Now the way you win this with white, ideally, trade the rooks, ideally, get rid of all the
14:39rooks and then the queen picks up some pawns and then you likely promote a second queen
14:46or you promote a pawn and the opponent has to give up one of the pieces for it and you
14:50win an endgame.
14:52Don't hang a rook.
14:53Okay, so far so good.
14:56Keep not hanging a rook.
14:58Let's not hang a rook.
15:01Okay, we hung a...
15:06Now again, look, white has three pieces, that's it, and they are the most powerful.
15:12White quite literally has the utmost power, right?
15:19How do you not even, like, this is a fork.
15:22You're gonna win a rook and give up a knight.
15:27This is just a free rook.
15:29You have three prized possessions here as white and you gave one away like it was a
15:36tissue paper that you used ten times.
15:40I mean, that is crazy.
15:43And then for black to move a pawn in the midst of all of this is bananas.
15:48White plays rook d6.
15:51Another thing that white should do here, like, okay, let's get the queen out of the way first.
15:55Let's get the queen out of the way.
15:56What white should do here, although even here there is a threat because you're being really
16:00bothered, you need to make sure your king can never get back rank mated.
16:05As long as your king could get back rank mated, it's a problem.
16:08Now the move that I would play here, obviously you're about to be forked, but if you weren't,
16:12is not play it safe.
16:14I would use the h-pawn.
16:15You need to be aggressive.
16:17This is something you should do when the opponent has a pawn in front of their king that is
16:21slightly advanced.
16:22In a position like this, you're actually very close to opening up black's king and getting
16:27a decisive attack.
16:28You're also very close to blundering, you know, the game away.
16:32And actually what's crazy about this position is this is just about the worst way to utilize
16:36the three most powerful pieces in chess.
16:39Black has a rock-solid center and you're not going to break through three pawns like this
16:43unless you use your own pawns.
16:45It's kind of like, what is that?
16:48Three houses?
16:49Is that the three little pigs?
16:50I'm like mixing up my favorites.
16:52The one that the wolf tried to blow over all the houses.
16:54This is the last house.
16:55I mean, it's made of stone and this is just not going to do it.
16:58I mean, you're not going to be able to...
16:59And by the way, black's major asset now is this pawn and should start advancing it.
17:04Okay, black keeps making solo attacking moves.
17:08Black actually can almost win the game if they start advancing the pawn.
17:12That's a little bit hard to come up with though.
17:14Queen c5.
17:15Again, a4 now, completely winning.
17:18Okay, black obviously, very sneakily going for a checkmate.
17:23Very nice.
17:24Well protected.
17:25However, the better move here practically is to use this pawn as an attacking mechanism,
17:29not a defensive one.
17:31Black just gives the check out of inertia.
17:33This is typical 900 chess.
17:35Even if I think time was maybe a bit lower here, we're later into the game.
17:40Just because there is a check does not mean you have to play the check, but I will already
17:45forgive the players.
17:47Finding counterplay with the pawn is not easy.
17:49And you had the perfect position.
17:51There is a saying, four out of five times in chess, if you can push a pass pawn, it
17:56is the best move on the board, 80% of the time.
18:00Like in a position like this, provided you're not under any threat, it's probably the best
18:03move.
18:04Now you're kind of far away from doing that and you're still not doing it.
18:07Not only are you not doing it, you've now lost the pawn.
18:09Queen takes a5.
18:11As far as I'm concerned, all practical chances for black are gone.
18:16They're gone.
18:17You're never getting to this king.
18:18It's not possible even if white tries to lose.
18:20The only thing that now white can do wrong in this position is blunder in one move.
18:25Just straight up leave a piece to be taken.
18:28Knight attacks the rook.
18:30Okay.
18:31By the way, me, I would maybe even sacrifice the rook here for the pawn and the bishop
18:35just to then launch an attack.
18:37White prefers to do it this way.
18:40By the way, I don't know why this is given a double question mark.
18:42Actually, I have no idea why this is given a double question mark.
18:46Bishop takes.
18:47Yeah, I don't know.
18:48Anyway, I would do this.
18:49The computer is saying don't do it, but practically speaking, I think that this is the right decision.
18:55Now, just don't take with the queen and lose your other rook.
18:57You got to take with the rook.
18:58Nice.
18:59Like I said, practically speaking, I think this is everything that you should do.
19:03Computer thinks that it's equal.
19:04I'm not so sure.
19:05I don't think a queen is going to be more than capable of bullying the position here.
19:14So here we go.
19:17Ready?
19:18Queen d2.
19:20We lose the game on the spot.
19:23Why?
19:24Check.
19:25Check.
19:27Whenever you attack a knight, make sure it does not have a way to jump and counterattack
19:34you.
19:36This would have been fine, but you always have to look for checks.
19:40Queen d2 belongs in a book.
19:42And it might even go into my second book.
19:44Is there a problem with the move queen d2?
19:46It's a two-move combo.
19:47You don't even consider this move.
19:50Black plays knight e4 straight away.
19:53Not a single move from this point forward is going to.
19:54You're about to see a lot of question marks.
19:57Queen d4.
20:00Oh!
20:02Oh!
20:03No, you cannot!
20:04No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
20:06no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
20:07The king cannot...
20:08He can't be open like this.
20:09No, he's weak.
20:10No, you can't.
20:11No, because now you should go straight for the king.
20:14That's what you do.
20:15What?
20:16No!
20:17You got to go for the king!
20:18You got to go for the golden snitch!
20:23Queen d3 now.
20:24The rook jumps out of the way.
20:25Yep.
20:26Now, I still...
20:27Go here and come forward.
20:28You got this.
20:29You had so many moves that didn't lose the rook.
20:43How did you just give it away for nothing?
20:46Oh my goodness.
20:50Okay.
20:51At least give a check.
20:56At least give a check and win it back.
21:04You went here attacking it, but you could have went here.
21:08Now the knight's just going to go back to exactly where it was.
21:11Now, saving grace, black's king is weak.
21:14How do you win this position with black?
21:17Double up your rooks, coordinate, defend your king, advance, open up white's king, launch
21:22an attack.
21:24Do not, by any means, separate your rooks.
21:27Do not separate your rooks.
21:33Okay.
21:41Not only did you separate your rooks, you straight up gave it away.
21:44Okay.
21:45Fantastic.
21:46Straight up gave it away.
21:47Now it's a draw.
21:49You lose a full rook, it's a draw.
21:50Why is it a draw?
21:52Black is just stuck in a little corner here.
21:55If black plays the game correctly, white should not be able to infiltrate and actually cause
22:01any sort of damage.
22:02Again, a computer can draw this position with black.
22:05So can a human.
22:07Not these humans though.
22:08Rook d8.
22:09We're going to separate the next rook from the king and lose that one as well.
22:13Queen e5, very nice move.
22:14Okay.
22:15That's what we've done.
22:16We've put every piece on the worst possible square.
22:20Queen e6 check forces the king to either this square, this square, or this square,
22:24all of which blunder a fork.
22:27You needed the knight to protect and you needed the rook to stay close.
22:33You know, if you gave me like a billion dollar check, I still would not be able to explain
22:39this move.
22:40Like I actually just straight up, I don't even, like maybe you tried to go there and
22:44it was a fork.
22:45I don't know.
22:46Time was low.
22:47No problem.
22:48Knight e4 back.
22:50Maybe the strategy is be as far away as possible because maybe the opponent's going to blunder
22:54something.
22:55By the way, this move blunders queen a2 check, which is a fork.
22:59Close enough.
23:01That move also blunders a fork.
23:03Okay, close enough.
23:05Now the king runs to safety.
23:07Queen f3.
23:09Knight back to e4.
23:12Pawn to h4, which corrals the black king, taking away some important squares, but otherwise
23:18doesn't do a whole lot.
23:20Rook d2 is excellent piece coordination and now white loses the game.
23:24White loses the game because here black has a beautiful little tactic.
23:28Again, you have to be very good with your knight.
23:30Knight f2 check would be really lovely and if the queen was on that square, it would
23:34be a fork and that's how you come up with moves like rook to d3, provided queen takes
23:38rook is not a check.
23:40Rook d3 is a beautiful move.
23:41It's an attraction tactic and knight f2 check becomes possible and then black would win
23:45the game.
23:46But the final hurdle is avoided and the game will promptly end in a draw after a couple
23:52of more accurate moves.
23:53White simply does not have the firepower here.
23:56So what black should do here is just come back and protect the king.
24:00The knight is hanging, the rook is hanging, but you move the knight with a check and then
24:03you bring the rook back.
24:04That's obviously far too sophisticated.
24:06Instead we're going to do it like this and we're going to lose the knight and now we
24:12are going to be completely lost.
24:14But to make sure that we lose the game, we're going to blunder our rook.
24:18Black is going to blunder the rook on h4, white is not going to take the rook on h4
24:23and now it's a draw probably and then black is going to really double down here and end
24:27up giving away the rook like this and resigning or losing on time, I think is the technical
24:45way this game ended.
24:52You know what I normally do at the end of How to Lose a Chess videos?
24:55What I normally do is I just end the video in a dramatic way.
25:02But I'm going to recommend that everybody who wants to improve at chess watches the
25:07How to Lose a Chess playlist because the point of it is it is hilarious and you must remember
25:15we're not laughing and insulting the intelligence of people.
25:19We are laughing at the pain of the learning curve of chess.
25:23There are a small percentage of people that watch these videos and feel offended on behalf
25:27of others but that's 2025.
25:30People don't need a second excuse or reason to get offended by something they see on the
25:34internet.
25:35They are choosing to do that.
25:39In reality, I fully understand the difficulty of improving at the game of chess.
25:43I struggle to improve to my next level which would be the Grandmaster title and a friendly
25:47reminder that we're all in this together.
25:49Laugh at yourselves first and then and only then laugh at others.
25:54Hope you enjoyed the video.
25:55You can check out my educational platform, Chessly, as a beginner or intermediate player.
25:59Like I said, I've got book one out already.
26:01Book two is on the way.
26:02Very excited for it.
26:04And I'm going on tour May 2025 in Europe.
26:07Looking forward to it very much.
26:08Anna Kramling will be joining me in Brussels.
26:10Danny Wrench will be joining me in London on May 9th.
26:12I've got a whole group of Polish folks that are going to be joining me in Warsaw and many,
26:18many more to be announced.
26:19So that's all I have for you today.
26:21What a game.
26:23Get out of here.