These are the video ‘s I was waiting for. This is not to long at all! I’m not so much interested in your individual games, but in your project, your inprovement, what you are doing, what is working, what not… Questions: no & no
Yes this precisely , me too 👍 As someone that has been through all these early stages of improvement it’s interesting to view someone else’s approach - but watching low level games explained poorly is not very interesting, nor would I pay for any of this
This is good to know, thank you both. Unfortunately, these videos are less popular and more work than games so, until now, I've been drawn to the gameplay stuff. Perhaps I could intersperse the week with short, single topic videos when things pop up. "I've just realised something I was doing wrong in my visualisation..." Then you'd get more of what you're interested in.
@@pifflesticks I find that very believable since you’re likely strong enough to teach chess to the average TH-cam watcher now, so they would quite enjoy hearing your thoughts whilst you play slower games (not something most can get when blitz content is rampant). I feel relatively new to chess as well myself despite starting in 2020. I sympathise with your struggle as I started as a 20 year old which felt like an uphill climb, alongside working full time. I enjoy the overviews and seeing the general struggles of improvement + the success people have using different methods. I have since managed to push my ECF up from 1350 to 1900 which involved a ton of studying since I started at a meagre 900 online rapid rating. Long term I want to become national master (2200+ ECF) and if I achieved that perhaps do some teaching.
Oh wow, you managed to climb up the ECF ladder very quickly! I wish you all the best in your NM quest. What area of your game do you think improved the most between ECF 1500 and 1900?
@@pifflesticks 100% my middlegame play - it’s all I worked on. Up until 1500 ECF it was just tactics (and some TH-cam) then only middlegames for 1500-1900 (without watching any TH-cam) I read two books on it (during the off season) and when it’s the chess season I play around 30 classical matches and analyse them but don’t get any time to study using those 7ish months. My openings and endgames are very iffy but I only think they matter once I get to 2000 ECF I’ll have a closer look at them. I also don’t bother playing online chess which is probably a mistake but I haven’t really had any time for it since lockdown ended.
Chesscoach Andras has a great video on calculation which goes over some of those mistakes you were talking about - it's the main inspiration for my own calculation rigour and I think it's a big reason why I consider calculation one of my strengths.
Excellent explanation of the main takeaways from our lesson! Broad, not deep. Concrete calculations are necessary. You don't need a rolling index of the relationships between every single piece on the board, but you do need to constantly update your conscious or subconscious index of the relationships between all the pieces that are in contact with others. That way you notice instantly when a piece is suddenly undefended (or less defended) than last move. You notice instantly when a new check for your opponent appears. You notice instantly when a piece can be pinned. You notice instantly when your rook is opposite their queen/king. Etc. I do believe it will help your classical chess significantly. In that OTB game you zipped through, noticing Qh5+ was nice once they played f6, but you also needed to notice that moving your knight away from the center meant that fxe5 and then exd4 is coming to undermine your entire center. Once you notice those pros and cons, concretely calculating the specific ramifications of Nh4 might have dissuaded you from making such a move. Nice comeback though and great job editing the game into this recap!
Thank you and good clarifications! I did understand I was abandoning my centre, I just missed the idea of running away with the king to the queenside. I thought I was either going to destroy the kingside and trap the king there, or win the exchange and felt that that was compensation for my centre collapse, which I now realise isn't right.
1. not a member on any YT channel (didn't know you could do that; sounds new) 2. did use patreon in the past 3. where I exclusively followed music and tech related creators I've heard good things but also bad things about Patreon from creators, so YMMV
Thanks for your answers! It is pretty new. You might have seen a Join button next to Subscribe. That's for memberships which has a similar model to Patreon.
1. I am not a channel member (is this the official term?) of any TH-cam creator/channel. I would be curious what the offering would be or what a successful channel membership looks like. 2. I do pay on Patreon for a couple podcasts where I get one bonus podcast per week. 3. I have not paid for chess content on patreon, but have used my free subscriber (with Prime) for chess creators on twitch before.
3:18 What's the reasoning behind the question mark given to 6 Bd3? As a French player as black and advanced French as white, it seems pretty normal. Maybe I'm missing some subtlety between the standard 5..Qb6 line and 5..Be7
Yeah, in my opening prep, I had Be2 instead to avoid blocking the queen's view of the pawn. In the 5...Qb6 lines, I'll sacrifice the d-pawn for pieces activity. I'll just 6.O-O allowing 6...cxd4 which I basically ignore and just get on with 7.Re1
I think the gambit is a solid choice if you commit for Bd3. Otherwise you can run into some trouble after even 6… Rc8 7. 0-0 xd4 8. xd4 9. Nb4. It’s not loosing but black gets a pleasant position right away
These are the video ‘s I was waiting for. This is not to long at all! I’m not so much interested in your individual games, but in your project, your inprovement, what you are doing, what is working, what not…
Questions: no & no
Yes this precisely
, me too 👍 As someone that has been through all these early stages of improvement it’s interesting to view someone else’s approach - but watching low level games explained poorly is not very interesting, nor would I pay for any of this
This is good to know, thank you both. Unfortunately, these videos are less popular and more work than games so, until now, I've been drawn to the gameplay stuff. Perhaps I could intersperse the week with short, single topic videos when things pop up.
"I've just realised something I was doing wrong in my visualisation..." Then you'd get more of what you're interested in.
@@pifflesticks I find that very believable since you’re likely strong enough to teach chess to the average TH-cam watcher now, so they would quite enjoy hearing your thoughts whilst you play slower games (not something most can get when blitz content is rampant).
I feel relatively new to chess as well myself despite starting in 2020. I sympathise with your struggle as I started as a 20 year old which felt like an uphill climb, alongside working full time. I enjoy the overviews and seeing the general struggles of improvement + the success people have using different methods. I have since managed to push my ECF up from 1350 to 1900 which involved a ton of studying since I started at a meagre 900 online rapid rating. Long term I want to become national master (2200+ ECF) and if I achieved that perhaps do some teaching.
Oh wow, you managed to climb up the ECF ladder very quickly! I wish you all the best in your NM quest. What area of your game do you think improved the most between ECF 1500 and 1900?
@@pifflesticks 100% my middlegame play - it’s all I worked on. Up until 1500 ECF it was just tactics (and some TH-cam) then only middlegames for 1500-1900 (without watching any TH-cam) I read two books on it (during the off season) and when it’s the chess season I play around 30 classical matches and analyse them but don’t get any time to study using those 7ish months. My openings and endgames are very iffy but I only think they matter once I get to 2000 ECF I’ll have a closer look at them.
I also don’t bother playing online chess which is probably a mistake but I haven’t really had any time for it since lockdown ended.
Chesscoach Andras has a great video on calculation which goes over some of those mistakes you were talking about - it's the main inspiration for my own calculation rigour and I think it's a big reason why I consider calculation one of my strengths.
Excellent explanation of the main takeaways from our lesson! Broad, not deep. Concrete calculations are necessary. You don't need a rolling index of the relationships between every single piece on the board, but you do need to constantly update your conscious or subconscious index of the relationships between all the pieces that are in contact with others. That way you notice instantly when a piece is suddenly undefended (or less defended) than last move. You notice instantly when a new check for your opponent appears. You notice instantly when a piece can be pinned. You notice instantly when your rook is opposite their queen/king. Etc.
I do believe it will help your classical chess significantly. In that OTB game you zipped through, noticing Qh5+ was nice once they played f6, but you also needed to notice that moving your knight away from the center meant that fxe5 and then exd4 is coming to undermine your entire center. Once you notice those pros and cons, concretely calculating the specific ramifications of Nh4 might have dissuaded you from making such a move. Nice comeback though and great job editing the game into this recap!
Thank you and good clarifications!
I did understand I was abandoning my centre, I just missed the idea of running away with the king to the queenside. I thought I was either going to destroy the kingside and trap the king there, or win the exchange and felt that that was compensation for my centre collapse, which I now realise isn't right.
Great stuff. Looking forward to it..!
It is currently BST not GMT in the UK... for foreign viewers.
Tx
I was hesitant to say Fridays at 3pm GMT + 1 or BST, so I thought I'd stick with 2pm GMT :D
@@pifflesticks ok, so 4pm in Brussels
1. not a member on any YT channel (didn't know you could do that; sounds new)
2. did use patreon in the past
3. where I exclusively followed music and tech related creators
I've heard good things but also bad things about Patreon from creators, so YMMV
Thanks for your answers! It is pretty new. You might have seen a Join button next to Subscribe. That's for memberships which has a similar model to Patreon.
1. I am not a channel member (is this the official term?) of any TH-cam creator/channel. I would be curious what the offering would be or what a successful channel membership looks like.
2. I do pay on Patreon for a couple podcasts where I get one bonus podcast per week.
3. I have not paid for chess content on patreon, but have used my free subscriber (with Prime) for chess creators on twitch before.
Thanks for the taking the time to answer! It's very useful information.
3:18 What's the reasoning behind the question mark given to 6 Bd3? As a French player as black and advanced French as white, it seems pretty normal.
Maybe I'm missing some subtlety between the standard 5..Qb6 line and 5..Be7
When black includes Bd7, Qb6 after Bd3 actually threatens the d4 pawn. So Bd3 is misplaced
Yeah, in my opening prep, I had Be2 instead to avoid blocking the queen's view of the pawn. In the 5...Qb6 lines, I'll sacrifice the d-pawn for pieces activity. I'll just 6.O-O allowing 6...cxd4 which I basically ignore and just get on with 7.Re1
I think the gambit is a solid choice if you commit for Bd3. Otherwise you can run into some trouble after even 6… Rc8 7. 0-0 xd4 8. xd4 9. Nb4. It’s not loosing but black gets a pleasant position right away
Ah makes sense. These dang move orders