I'm a begginer and I've been playing chess for 2-3months. And I can proudly say that I can remember every move and the coordinates of each pieces from the Paul Morphy Opera Game, although it's only a 17 move game there still is room for improvement.
I honestly can’t believe it, I was outside doing yard work when I had the thought “Damn, I need to get good at knowing the squares when I play” then I come inside and bam, a notification for this video. Insane.
This guy is sincerely trying to help us master Chess. And Chess is a game worth mastering (not just learning). Let's thank him! Thank you, GothamChess!
Isn't it technically everybodies thing since if it exists in one dimension then it exists in all. So even if there is the smallest of odds that it is somebody's thing, then there would be a 'verse for it and it would then exist for all? Quantum mechanics is not something I know, so don't shoot me if I am wrong.
Either you're an expert troll and totally just owned my basic ass troll with this, or you're gonna win over me by pulling me out of my own troll-mode as I say "yes yes I absolutely agree". Very suspicious. Although, the way you said " 'verse " right there was superb.
Not having played chess for years, when it was all 'Pawn to King Two,' etc, I memorised the squares by giving them names: H and A - Heavy Artillery (Rooks sort of are...) G and B - Galahad and Bedivere (Knights of the Round Table) F and C - Faith and Church (Bishops) E - Emperor D - Drottning - Swedish for Queen (or Dronning in the closely related Norwegian - tribute to Magnus Carlsen!) Then I promptly forgot them all...
@@Kh79797 In descriptive notation, as was used by this comment, ranks are numbered 1 to 8 from near to far for both players. For instance, the second rank from White's side would be numbered 2 for White and 7 for Black. For both players, their pawns start on rank 2, and pawns can only move forward, so neither player can play P-K2.
Wait, you see black’s POV as the ‘normal’ way reading letters alphabetically right to left and counting down from top to bottom?! This has blown my mind.
Yeah, that kinda seems like a counterintuitive way to teach it. Personally I think it’s better to teach from white’s perspective so you’re going in alphabetical order from left to right because that’s more “cognitively ergonomic”
Please more of these! I just started on Lichess after playing some as a kid, I'm 34 now, and my rating is around 1400, but some of my moves are like 1900 moves and some are like 300 lol. So basically I blunder or make huge inaccuracies alot because I don't see things fast enough. This type of chess talk helps me the most. Thanks for doing this, and other ones about ending patterns, raising your rank, beginner strategies, etc.
This is me except I DO visualize the board very well. The issue is sometimes I just dont care to check any other pieces and only the one i just moved (tunnel visioned)
I don't often comment on videos, but this one requires me to compliment you, Levy. I took up chess again a month ago. I found many great videos, but yours are particularly good. It is hard to believe how quickly this old retired guy is picking up the game, mostly thanks to you. This one might be the most educational, unique video on the interwebs. Huzzah, sir! Very well done indeed. I'm a subscriber, and deeply in your debt.
Great video! I got over my last plateau in chess by improving board visualization and it’s crazy that just knowing the names of squares and saying them to yourself whilst playing stops you from dropping not only pieces but important pawns in your camp
3:30 just realized after so many chess videos... I Never thought about Controlling empty squares over trying to Control the squares that have enemy pieces occupying them or Controlling the battlefield before the war starts. Not sure why but i never thought about empty squares in the right way until it was worded how you did in this video.
Along with memorizing openings, this has historically been the hardest part in chess for me, so thank you. EDIT: Nailed all exercises yet except the second one.
Are the first examples meant to be solved without looking at the board? Just imagining the board in your head and playing the moves in your head right?
I just trace it with my eyes. Or I can just use audiation. Your brain has the info, you just can’t consciously see it. We have ways around actually seeing things in our heads.
you can try to understand the patterns of the squares and the geometry of the board without seeing it, how the diagonals are linked together, and how the board can be divided into many parts that are easier to understand, I can't project images either but I can feel the organization of the board, I'm learning it right now and what I said above is what I'm doing, I'm pretty confident it will work
Yes, you're right. However, the point in analyzing the control of squares is to overthrow your opponent. Black can't get to c3, so you shouldn't really care if the c3 square have control or not. It's like the point of caring about the control of squares that will allow you to advance in the game, or controlling squares to diminish your opp's activity. I guess he could've stated that.
In the second real game example, on 13:53, isn't the best protected square f1? Protected by the king, the bishop, the knight and the rook, so 4 times! AM I THE NEXT LEVY ROZMAN???!?!
I’m no IM but one thing that’s helped me massively is committing master games to memory and playing through them move by move in my head, asking myself questions like “where are the rooks as of move 21” or “does white have any checks or captures as of move 14” or “what squares does blacks queen see in move 15” it’s made a massive improvement in my visualisation and I encourage others to try it out!
6:09 No need to count, just take the symetry of the movements into account. Since no movement of the Queen is blocked, all squares at her sight would depend on how far from the closest edge the Queen is. Right on the edge -> 21 squares, add 2 squares on sight for every square away. All possible amount of squares are {21, 23, 25, 27}. Here it's 25.
I think you forgot to put time stamps in the description, I only see "Intro 0:00". But it's a great video!! Thanks for all the content you've been releasing lately, it's great
For 14:11 I said d1, because although it is not a square of importance right now it has 4 pieces controlling it, both rooks the queen and the knight on e3
This is more of a novice chess lesson, but I like his examples. For at least 30 years I have known by heart the chess notation of each square, from either side. Visualizing where a knight can go in 3 moves is not too difficult. There is a knight move visualization exercise that I have given to my students: Put black pawns on c6, f6, c3, and f3. Put a white knight on a1. Only the white knight moves. The rule is that the knight cannot land on the black pawns, nor can it land on the capture squares of the black pawn. Then the goal is to get from a1 to b1. There is one way to do it in 3 moves: Na1-c2-a3-b1. The next goal is to go from b1 to c1: Much trickier. Nb1-a3-c2-d4-b3-c1. Then proceed to squares d1, e1, f1, g1, had h1. From there the next squares are h2, f2, c2, and a2 skipping over the forbidden squares. Then it is a3 to h3, and after that h4 to a4 until you have done the entire board. This is an exercise that many people find quite difficult. With practice, I can do the entire board in 3 minutes, but I might be a little rusty right now. Whereas many people find the knight a difficult piece to visualize, doing this exercise has made the knight my favorite piece.
8:00 This just reminded me of the "Oh so you like X? Name every Y" meme. "Oh, so you're an advanced chess player? Name every square your pieces are on."
"Looking ahead in the future, changing the position in your mind and deciding whether to make a move or not" I have aphantasia. I don't like this game.
nice video just to add, a knight on a black square moves to a white square (and a knight on a white square moves to a black square) at 4:59 our knight starts on a black square, and the queen is on a white square that tells us we can't reach the queen in 2 moves (or 4, or 6 .... ) but we might get there in 3 moves (or 5, or 7 ...)
This is extremely helpful for newer players. I know you pinned that comment from Tom Kot but that guy clearly didn't realize this video wasn't for him or people who are already past this level. Your explanations are critical for people to learn.
This is one of the most important things I think I’ve taken away from your teachings. I can’t thank you enough for making the whole developing my chess game fun and exciting.
One trick I realized is that if you want to know the color of a square and you don’t have a board, you can turn the letter part of the square’s coordinate into a number (like a = 1, b = 2, etc.) and add that to the number side of the coordinate. If the number is even; then the square is black and if it’s off then it’s white. For example, e4 would be 5 + 4 because e is the fifth letter of the alphabet, which equals 9, which is odd, meaning e4 is a white square
I'm 65 years old and learned chess with descriptive notation (i.e. N-KB3). Every book I read was in descriptive. The few books I had that were in algebraic were usually from non-US authors. I hated laboring through those books because I held such disdain for algebraic notation. It was like learning the metric system for an American. I resisted going in the direction of algebraic notation like a cat with its claws in the carpet. Yet, I adapted with the rest of the chess world. In time, the algebraic name of squares became second nature. I developed a "feel" for it. Knights usually moved c3, c6, f3 and f6. Bishops would pin the opposing knights on g5, g4, b5 and b4. The e-file is the king file. The d-file is the queen file. I eventually realized that I was making less mistakes when following through a game printed in algebraic than I did with descriptive. Nxd5 is much easier to visualize than NxP. Bb5 is much easier to visualize than B-QN5.
Hey - I’m new to your channel. Just wanted you to know that you’re REALLY good at this. You do an excellent job of breaking down concepts and helping folks build their skills in an entertaining way. Looking forward to following your work.
It's almost overwhelming until I think back many years ago when I first learned to drive a standard transmission car. SO many things to do at almost the same time - clutch in, shift, clutch out slowly as you give more gas, check mirrors, steer, adjust all that when going up or down a hill or traffic is stopping and on and on. But one day, you realize that you are doing all that automatically just as Levy is doing as he describes all the possible chess piece positions. So I have hope but it sure is a grind now.
Hopefully this helps people also learning. I've been a fan of chess for a while but could never follow the square names well, just casually watched chess videos. Decided to learn chess notation too and the way I've just quickly learned the square names is using a physical board (get a cheap one from Amazon). There are many chess books that analyse great games, (I'm reading 'The Mammoth Book of the worlds greatest chess games' and on a kindle with a stand for convenience but any will do). Playing out the games and moving pieces following notation will quickly help you learn the places and within about 10 games you will notice how quickly you find the square. Once you get comfortable, play the next games out from blacks perspective switching it up (or just play from the colour that is the winner). So I'm learning notation, squares and tactics and openings all within a short a time, plus it's fun. Also this book advised getting a second board because they play through potential ideas or why an idea would not work etc, you can keep the actual game on board while using the second board to play out the other notated ideas. I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book and have picked up quite a lot. For shorter ideas out of the game in question, maybe only 5 moves ahead, I've followed the notation in my head visualising rather than playing out on the second board and that has helped a lot. Thought I'd share for others out there just wanting to improve too.
14:25 - C3 is also controlled by 3 pieces: the pawn, the queen and the knight. But technically the most controlled square by the white is C1 and D1, both controlled by 4 pieces, two rooks, the queen and the knight.
It's indeed a lot harder, but I can sort off trace lines with my eyes - it's just a lot to keep track of, because I have to remember which pieces will be gone..
When I started wanting to memorize the squares by heart I coded a small webapp where it tells you what square to click and then you have to click it. That helped a lot, also knowing the squares of your standard opening moves makes it easier to quicker zone in on other, lesser "well known" squares.
I came up with this and it helped me a lot to visualize the board and quickly find the squares I'm looking for: " if I'm playing wHite H is on my rigHt." The letter H is the key as word Black doesn't have H.
To preface what I'm about to say, your content has made me the chess player I am 1500ish elo, so thank you. Your k b2 q f6 example at 4:40 has a fourth solution. My notation is awful, k a4 b6 a8 c7 e8 g7. Reading the comments, I didn't see this posted and I just think it's a fun little solution. Edit: there is a fifth a4 b6 c8 d6
10:19 go rook to f 8 then if the rook takes bishop c4 check then you take the rook and checkmate or if the rook block then the opponent lose his/her rook
Two comments - if you are a little stronger and don't need the first section to learn algebraic notation/have done similar exercises, try noting down the piece positions and doing it blindfold for an extra challenge. Second comment is feedback for Levy - I think for the game examples, it could be very instructive to not draw colors or arrows, and instead describe only by notation. This would force viewers to see more in their heads and could be better to prepare for OTB chess calculation since it's more similar. I remember being forced by my coach to sit on my hands and not touch the pieces, and he would describe the variations to me for game analysis.
But then beginners would be like "This is chinese to me... this goes too fast... he's losing me" and they'll just leave to other content. I know that's what I'd do...
I use a very simple method to remember the colors of the squares: A,C,E,G- odd files B,D,F,H - even files first grade math: Odd+odd=black Even+even= black Odd+even=white
Yeah think he took it for granted that we know he means what vital central squares in the enemy’s territory. A square that one of whites pieces can be slammed down as a very annoying bone in blacks throat. Major or minor pieces in the 1st rank are not threatening at the least in the early middle game(most the time).
13:48 "I want you to pause the video..."
* pauses video * Okay, what do I do now. Levy? Levy?
L O L
thats a bit super obedient to pause the video right before he says "not yet" the second after.
*Pauses video* Speak to me Levy
Bruh
Did the same thing, kinda hard to understand what this video is about, guess I need to work on my telepathy skill first
6:00 : So I tried to draw arrows, but my opponent stopped me saying it was bad for the chessboard
B R U H
Stupit 🤣🤣
@@guyonYTube Bud lmao I think you just r/whoosed yourself hahah what I said was a joke to something Gotham has said before which is "Stupit" with a T
@@guyonYTube Not really... but pop off.
Obviously they don't want you to get better.
“Blindfold chess is a beautiful sight”
Levy Rozman 2020
Great quote
I see...
@@reshzy3807 but you're blindfolded so I guess you don't
@@tr1gger810 His joke but worse
Wow. Very eye-opening.
Weird how you think the coordinates are "wonky" for white. It's the exact opposite for me.
@Shawn Bliss keep in mind that Levy is Jewish and knows Hebrew
@@trollyh4ck3r59 gnitseretni mmh
same
I thought he was being sarcastic!
@@trollyh4ck3r59 I'm jewish and i know hebrew but i agree with the above comment what's your point
Stoooop it at 14:30 I said “central squares” not some random f1/d1/c1 😂
Don't you have C3 with also 3 lines of sight? queen, pawn, knight? Or is C3 not a central square?
I need this so bad
Ok
How many squares Black controls? 35?
Figured that answer wouldn't be sensible, but that went over my head :D
The hardest part in about this video was trying to say the Alphabet backwards
I thought I was the only dumb one who could not do it effortlessly
I have to count from A to H in order to count it backward.
I swear that was what I struggled with most! Lol
tebahpla ehT
sdrawkcab tebahplA
Visualisation in brief: Hikaru looking in the ceiling to think. Lol
Who? This doesn’t make sense lmao
@@jahnbee7436 if you are able to memorize the whole board, staring at the board while calculating is not necessary, although sometimes still helpful.
@@jahnbee7436 you missed the joke
I think Hikaru usually just visualizes the pieces being set up for the next game, which I'll _also_ mark down as a win. - j q t -
Hikaru is looking at stockfish on the monitor above
I'm a begginer and I've been playing chess for 2-3months. And I can proudly say that I can remember every move and the coordinates of each pieces from the Paul Morphy Opera Game, although it's only a 17 move game there still is room for improvement.
Nice
Cool! I wish i could do the same!!!!!
useless
@@meesheijmink5029 get a life bro, instead of putting people down, actually give them advice
@@dzdraco19 indeed
I honestly can’t believe it, I was outside doing yard work when I had the thought “Damn, I need to get good at knowing the squares when I play” then I come inside and bam, a notification for this video. Insane.
r/thatHappened
@@Warrior25 I’m in that subreddit believe it or not idc
Law of attraction
@@Warrior25 r/ihavereddit
You're connected man!
"What square does white control the most? It's a tough one."
"D1 or C1?"
"D5" - Levy
"****"
"in the centre of the board" 13:50
i mean, its clearly F1, defended by the king, rook, knight, bishop
@@ProfGlitch D1, C1, and F1 are all controlled by the same number of pieces
C3 is also controlled three times but its not important.
@@ProfGlitch in fact F1 is only controlled by the bishop and the king, because if the king is taken, the game is finished 😂😅
What a lovely Christmas present, two Gotham vids a day
I guess we were not naughty this year. Not a single one of us...
It is technically 3 vids in a day for me lol
He visibly tries to avoid all the christmas songs and all the mood by nerding with chess on YT
Levi
This guy is sincerely trying to help us master Chess. And Chess is a game worth mastering (not just learning). Let's thank him! Thank you, GothamChess!
Man is a walking chess content machine like he literally uploads like 4 times a day
Plus he streams constantly, Levy does not fuck around
serious af
He’s smart, taking advantage of the extra interest in chess lately and he’s great so we all win
Like
Well... not literally.
whoa that was creepy, i jumped ahead and he said "if you've jumped ahead here, welcome"
Visualization :)
Haha!
"Looking ahead in the future, changing the position in your mind and deciding whether to make a move or not"
5d chess vibes
5d chess with multiverse time travel is a real thing, if that's your thing
@@alexanderreusens7633 if it's not my thing, does it still exist?
Isn't it technically everybodies thing since if it exists in one dimension then it exists in all. So even if there is the smallest of odds that it is somebody's thing, then there would be a 'verse for it and it would then exist for all? Quantum mechanics is not something I know, so don't shoot me if I am wrong.
Either you're an expert troll and totally just owned my basic ass troll with this, or you're gonna win over me by pulling me out of my own troll-mode as I say "yes yes I absolutely agree".
Very suspicious. Although, the way you said " 'verse " right there was superb.
@@bobbybobbatunday9959 *bang*
I've no idea what you talking about, but it certainly isnt QM.
Not having played chess for years, when it was all 'Pawn to King Two,' etc, I memorised the squares by giving them names:
H and A - Heavy Artillery (Rooks sort of are...)
G and B - Galahad and Bedivere (Knights of the Round Table)
F and C - Faith and Church (Bishops)
E - Emperor
D - Drottning - Swedish for Queen (or Dronning in the closely related Norwegian - tribute to Magnus Carlsen!)
Then I promptly forgot them all...
Woah dude this is actually genius, i'm going to use this now xd
According to wikipedia, algebraic notation was popularized in the English-speaking country in the 1970.
P-K2 is impossible; you can't move a pawn to your second rank.
@@isavenewspapers8890you can if you’re playing black
@@Kh79797 In descriptive notation, as was used by this comment, ranks are numbered 1 to 8 from near to far for both players. For instance, the second rank from White's side would be numbered 2 for White and 7 for Black. For both players, their pawns start on rank 2, and pawns can only move forward, so neither player can play P-K2.
Wait, you see black’s POV as the ‘normal’ way reading letters alphabetically right to left and counting down from top to bottom?! This has blown my mind.
He likes reading manga
Levy is also Jewish, idk if he learned it but they write right to left in Hebrew
@@stuckupcurlyguy did learn it, he was born with it.
@@Alkuf100 Wait, Jews are born reading!?!?!?
Yeah, that kinda seems like a counterintuitive way to teach it. Personally I think it’s better to teach from white’s perspective so you’re going in alphabetical order from left to right because that’s more “cognitively ergonomic”
all i want for christmas is
Chess Visualizing: How To Remember Squares
Perfect. Thanks for your hard work brother.
Please more of these! I just started on Lichess after playing some as a kid, I'm 34 now, and my rating is around 1400, but some of my moves are like 1900 moves and some are like 300 lol. So basically I blunder or make huge inaccuracies alot because I don't see things fast enough. This type of chess talk helps me the most. Thanks for doing this, and other ones about ending patterns, raising your rank, beginner strategies, etc.
This is me except I DO visualize the board very well. The issue is sometimes I just dont care to check any other pieces and only the one i just moved (tunnel visioned)
@@o_sch ?
@@o_sch that isn’t visualizing the board well then lol
teaching me the gosh darn alphabet again
abcdefgh
hgf-oh wait what again
Awesome video! A 67 y/o chess beginner, just found your channel! Thanks for a great lesson.
Levi at the beginning of the video: pause when I say pause
Me 50 minutes later, having still not finished the video:
This is way too underrated
I don't often comment on videos, but this one requires me to compliment you, Levy. I took up chess again a month ago. I found many great videos, but yours are particularly good. It is hard to believe how quickly this old retired guy is picking up the game, mostly thanks to you. This one might be the most educational, unique video on the interwebs. Huzzah, sir! Very well done indeed. I'm a subscriber, and deeply in your debt.
I love these kind of videos - I feel like I’m in a 1-on-1 lesson with Levy for free. Can’t ask for a better Christmas gift.
How to remember squares: don’t forget them
For me best visualization exercise is just solving a lot of tactics everyday.
I strongly agree on that
And also looking at variations in books without moving the pieces on the board.
Great video! I got over my last plateau in chess by improving board visualization and it’s crazy that just knowing the names of squares and saying them to yourself whilst playing stops you from dropping not only pieces but important pawns in your camp
3:30 just realized after so many chess videos...
I Never thought about Controlling empty squares over trying to Control the squares that have enemy pieces occupying them or
Controlling the battlefield before the war starts.
Not sure why but i never thought about empty squares in the right way until it was worded how you did in this video.
Have you acquired brain damage at some point in your life? Or do you have some sort of cognitive disorder? Or, perhaps, are you under ten years old?
Along with memorizing openings, this has historically been the hardest part in chess for me, so thank you.
EDIT: Nailed all exercises yet except the second one.
Are the first examples meant to be solved without looking at the board? Just imagining the board in your head and playing the moves in your head right?
developing this skill makes learning lines easier
As a chessplayer with aphantasia this is easier said than done
I just trace it with my eyes. Or I can just use audiation. Your brain has the info, you just can’t consciously see it. We have ways around actually seeing things in our heads.
I can do these without seeing anything in my head by tracing with my eyes, and using my minds ear.
Potatoes O’Grotten pretty cool answer to help us aphants out! could you elaborate a little on what you mean by tracing with your eyes?
@@crissanc1403
Like, literally moving your eyes to aid your thinking.
you can try to understand the patterns of the squares and the geometry of the board without seeing it, how the diagonals are linked together, and how the board can be divided into many parts that are easier to understand, I can't project images either but I can feel the organization of the board, I'm learning it right now and what I said above is what I'm doing, I'm pretty confident it will work
Levi it's almost a year now, when do I unpause the video.
@imconfused1712 no master Levi didn't order me to unpause, it stays paused unless captain Levi orders me
14:35 d1 is defended 4 times rather than 3
same goes for f1
f1 is not an empty square but c1 is
@@lenguyenuchung2676 you're right
But Levy said a square in the center..
ngl. this was the only part of the video that just didn't make any sense.
14:05 wouldn't the square white controls the most also be c3, with the queen, knight and pawn?
My idea was C1 and D1, both controlled by two rooks, the queen, and one knight
Yeah thats a good point, too. Maybe he's saying d5 because its in the center of the board? 🤷♂
You would be right but at 13:53 he specifies that he's talking about in the center of the board.
@@master11050 ohhhh haha very true, thanks for pointing that out 👍
Yes, you're right. However, the point in analyzing the control of squares is to overthrow your opponent. Black can't get to c3, so you shouldn't really care if the c3 square have control or not. It's like the point of caring about the control of squares that will allow you to advance in the game, or controlling squares to diminish your opp's activity. I guess he could've stated that.
The thumbnail is me thinking before playing a missed win
Insanely useful, one of the better videos about visualization
This is the first video on youtube on calculations which actually tells how to start with basics. Thanks.
what the C4 gonna do to the bishop
My dumb ass: its obviously gonna explode 🙂
Levy is easily the best and most expressive chess teacher on the tube. No one breaks it down for beginners quite like lev. Thanks man
A great tutoring style. Kudos. Just the right sort of level. Not crazy complicated, not condescending, but rather confidence inspiring.
Your way of teaching is so simple it’s helped me so much
I find it so funny that I know a lot of chess theory but all that theory disappears when I’m actually playing 😭😭
In the second real game example, on 13:53, isn't the best protected square f1? Protected by the king, the bishop, the knight and the rook, so 4 times! AM I THE NEXT LEVY ROZMAN???!?!
I’m no IM but one thing that’s helped me massively is committing master games to memory and playing through them move by move in my head, asking myself questions like “where are the rooks as of move 21” or “does white have any checks or captures as of move 14” or “what squares does blacks queen see in move 15” it’s made a massive improvement in my visualisation and I encourage others to try it out!
3:51 actually, if there arent any pieces blocking the trayectory of the rook, it always controls 14 squares.
6:09 No need to count, just take the symetry of the movements into account. Since no movement of the Queen is blocked, all squares at her sight would depend on how far from the closest edge the Queen is. Right on the edge -> 21 squares, add 2 squares on sight for every square away. All possible amount of squares are {21, 23, 25, 27}. Here it's 25.
I think you forgot to put time stamps in the description, I only see "Intro 0:00". But it's a great video!! Thanks for all the content you've been releasing lately, it's great
Now it's fixed
For 14:11 I said d1, because although it is not a square of importance right now it has 4 pieces controlling it, both rooks the queen and the knight on e3
14:20 which square does white protect the most , i had the right one at first but thought d1 was more protected :(
c1 and d1 are more protected but I guess he meant more relevant squares.
He asked which of the squares in the _centre of the board_ does black control the most.
You explained it so well i can't thank you enough ❤❤
First time I've talked out loud to myself to a video since Dora the Explorer. Great video Levy!
Levy is such a good teacher. I really hope his road to GM is a success and he gets the milestone. Wish you all the success Levy!
I’m a musician, it’s very hard for me to remember that there is a h. Am I the only one?😂
You ain't alone lol
fuckin. same.
No in Germany the b is actually named h and the b flat is named b😂
@@maru8703 even more messed up, what is the reason?
lol same
This is exactly what I've been looking for. Recently, I've been trying to play games from start to end on my mind, analyzing on board afterwards.
How to remember squares: be titled lmao
8:14 [panics and starts counting squares with fingers]
Lol just found out I have aphantasia, can't do this.
Nice.
I guess you suck at chess.... at least you’re better than me
same it sucks thats the reason I always blunder
I have aphantasia too. You don't have to literally visualize the position to make these calculations, though I'm sure it helps.
@@alex2005z aphantasia is when you cannot visualize in your head. Lets say you imagine an apple in your head. A person with aphantasia cant do that.
@@alex2005z it means an inability to visualize, having no mental imagery.
This is more of a novice chess lesson, but I like his examples.
For at least 30 years I have known by heart the chess notation of each square, from either side. Visualizing where a knight can go in 3 moves is not too difficult.
There is a knight move visualization exercise that I have given to my students:
Put black pawns on c6, f6, c3, and f3. Put a white knight on a1. Only the white knight moves. The rule is that the knight cannot land on the black pawns, nor can it land on the capture squares of the black pawn. Then the goal is to get from a1 to b1. There is one way to do it in 3 moves: Na1-c2-a3-b1. The next goal is to go from b1 to c1: Much trickier. Nb1-a3-c2-d4-b3-c1. Then proceed to squares d1, e1, f1, g1, had h1. From there the next squares are h2, f2, c2, and a2 skipping over the forbidden squares. Then it is a3 to h3, and after that h4 to a4 until you have done the entire board. This is an exercise that many people find quite difficult. With practice, I can do the entire board in 3 minutes, but I might be a little rusty right now. Whereas many people find the knight a difficult piece to visualize, doing this exercise has made the knight my favorite piece.
When I first learned algebraic notation, the first thing that occurred to me was, "Battleship"!
8:00
This just reminded me of the "Oh so you like X? Name every Y" meme.
"Oh, so you're an advanced chess player? Name every square your pieces are on."
"Looking ahead in the future, changing the position in your mind and deciding whether to make a move or not"
I have aphantasia. I don't like this game.
If I could link pictures I'd tell you but basically not having a visual imagination
I have Aphantasia too. I am 2000 in chess.com. There is hope.
@@peanutbutterconnoisseur4157 IS THE MESSIAH!
nice video
just to add, a knight on a black square moves to a white square (and a knight on a white square moves to a black square)
at 4:59 our knight starts on a black square, and the queen is on a white square
that tells us we can't reach the queen in 2 moves (or 4, or 6 .... ) but we might get there in 3 moves (or 5, or 7 ...)
Two videos a day, feels like it’s christmas al week
This is extremely helpful for newer players. I know you pinned that comment from Tom Kot but that guy clearly didn't realize this video wasn't for him or people who are already past this level. Your explanations are critical for people to learn.
This is one of the most important things I think I’ve taken away from your teachings. I can’t thank you enough for making the whole developing my chess game fun and exciting.
At 14:42, why isn't it d1? isn't it protected more than d5?
One trick I realized is that if you want to know the color of a square and you don’t have a board, you can turn the letter part of the square’s coordinate into a number (like a = 1, b = 2, etc.) and add that to the number side of the coordinate. If the number is even; then the square is black and if it’s off then it’s white. For example, e4 would be 5 + 4 because e is the fifth letter of the alphabet, which equals 9, which is odd, meaning e4 is a white square
5:10 Shouldn't it be at least 4? I thought of an incredibly rube goldberg type route but it works:
d1, c3, e2, d4, then take the queen
4:01 that moment when the queen actually has less controlled squares due to the bishop blocking the sight.
Rook: am I a joke to you?
I'm 65 years old and learned chess with descriptive notation (i.e. N-KB3). Every book I read was in descriptive. The few books I had that were in algebraic were usually from non-US authors. I hated laboring through those books because I held such disdain for algebraic notation. It was like learning the metric system for an American. I resisted going in the direction of algebraic notation like a cat with its claws in the carpet. Yet, I adapted with the rest of the chess world. In time, the algebraic name of squares became second nature. I developed a "feel" for it. Knights usually moved c3, c6, f3 and f6. Bishops would pin the opposing knights on g5, g4, b5 and b4. The e-file is the king file. The d-file is the queen file. I eventually realized that I was making less mistakes when following through a game printed in algebraic than I did with descriptive. Nxd5 is much easier to visualize than NxP. Bb5 is much easier to visualize than B-QN5.
Hey -
I’m new to your channel. Just wanted you to know that you’re REALLY good at this. You do an excellent job of breaking down concepts and helping folks build their skills in an entertaining way. Looking forward to following your work.
It's almost overwhelming until I think back many years ago when I first learned to drive a standard transmission car. SO many things to do at almost the same time - clutch in, shift, clutch out slowly as you give more gas, check mirrors, steer, adjust all that when going up or down a hill or traffic is stopping and on and on. But one day, you realize that you are doing all that automatically just as Levy is doing as he describes all the possible chess piece positions. So I have hope but it sure is a grind now.
I’m an intermediate player, and this video still helped a lot
Dear Levy, at 14:33 it should be d1 as it is controlled 4 times
Hopefully this helps people also learning. I've been a fan of chess for a while but could never follow the square names well, just casually watched chess videos. Decided to learn chess notation too and the way I've just quickly learned the square names is using a physical board (get a cheap one from Amazon). There are many chess books that analyse great games, (I'm reading 'The Mammoth Book of the worlds greatest chess games' and on a kindle with a stand for convenience but any will do). Playing out the games and moving pieces following notation will quickly help you learn the places and within about 10 games you will notice how quickly you find the square. Once you get comfortable, play the next games out from blacks perspective switching it up (or just play from the colour that is the winner). So I'm learning notation, squares and tactics and openings all within a short a time, plus it's fun. Also this book advised getting a second board because they play through potential ideas or why an idea would not work etc, you can keep the actual game on board while using the second board to play out the other notated ideas. I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book and have picked up quite a lot. For shorter ideas out of the game in question, maybe only 5 moves ahead, I've followed the notation in my head visualising rather than playing out on the second board and that has helped a lot. Thought I'd share for others out there just wanting to improve too.
i like this dude. speaks well and tries to give both chess ranked players and novices at least something to chew on and or acknowledge.
I’m a simple man i see levy posted so i click
14:25 - C3 is also controlled by 3 pieces: the pawn, the queen and the knight.
But technically the most controlled square by the white is C1 and D1, both controlled by 4 pieces, two rooks, the queen and the knight.
I made the same mistake as u at first
He said the most controlled square in the "center" check the pinned comment
As a person with aphantasia, this is a lot harder than it seems...
What is that
@@sameerplaynicals8790 can't see images inside my head
@@giannisr.7733 Oh i wonder what that would be like
It's indeed a lot harder, but I can sort off trace lines with my eyes - it's just a lot to keep track of, because I have to remember which pieces will be gone..
For the example where he asked us which square white controlled the most I thought D8 because the rooks, queen, and knight on E6 where guarding it.
When I started wanting to memorize the squares by heart I coded a small webapp where it tells you what square to click and then you have to click it. That helped a lot, also knowing the squares of your standard opening moves makes it easier to quicker zone in on other, lesser "well known" squares.
I came up with this and it helped me a lot to visualize the board and quickly find the squares I'm looking for: " if I'm playing wHite H is on my rigHt." The letter H is the key as word Black doesn't have H.
Last time I was this early we were playing the Christmas Gambit!
3:55 black in fact controls more than half of the bord 40 squares to be exact if you count the squares with pieces which are not hanging.
What about c1 protected by 4 of white's pieces?
True but he said a square in the center only
I've asked about this a million times on your stream, finally it's here, thank you so much man!
1:30 How in the hell is white's perspective the wonky one?!
To preface what I'm about to say, your content has made me the chess player I am 1500ish elo, so thank you.
Your k b2 q f6 example at 4:40 has a fourth solution. My notation is awful, k a4 b6 a8 c7 e8 g7. Reading the comments, I didn't see this posted and I just think it's a fun little solution.
Edit: there is a fifth a4 b6 c8 d6
But isn't c3 equally well protected in example 3?
You would be right but at 13:53 he specifies that he's talking about in the center of the board.
@@Zdeno8525 A control doesn't mean that it's protected, it means that if any thing happens on that square thay have alot of things to do about it .
10:19 go rook to f 8 then if the rook takes bishop c4 check then you take the rook and checkmate or if the rook block then the opponent lose his/her rook
Then i play Rxc4+ Kxc4 and then Rxf1 and u r down bishop and a rook.
Two comments - if you are a little stronger and don't need the first section to learn algebraic notation/have done similar exercises, try noting down the piece positions and doing it blindfold for an extra challenge. Second comment is feedback for Levy - I think for the game examples, it could be very instructive to not draw colors or arrows, and instead describe only by notation. This would force viewers to see more in their heads and could be better to prepare for OTB chess calculation since it's more similar. I remember being forced by my coach to sit on my hands and not touch the pieces, and he would describe the variations to me for game analysis.
But then beginners would be like "This is chinese to me... this goes too fast... he's losing me" and they'll just leave to other content. I know that's what I'd do...
I use a very simple method to remember the colors of the squares:
A,C,E,G- odd files
B,D,F,H - even files
first grade math:
Odd+odd=black
Even+even= black
Odd+even=white
His videos are more informative than my school lol
3:20 you can go first d7 then f6 and then e4
🔥❤🔥We want PART 2❤💖
LEVY PLEASE MAKE IT
IT'S A HUMBLE REQUEST 🖤😇
At 14:30 C3 is also protected 3 times, queen, pawn, knight
My thought also. But i got it right because he said "center of the board".
C1 is protected by 4 but levy said at the centre of the board
Amazing content dude! I went from 200 to 600 thanks to you :D
What's ur rating now?
14:07 c3 is also controlled 3 times. c1 and d1 are both controlled 4 times.
D1 is actually the most controlled empty square for white :(
D1 and C1
said "in the central area of the board"
Yeah think he took it for granted that we know he means what vital central squares in the enemy’s territory. A square that one of whites pieces can be slammed down as a very annoying bone in blacks throat. Major or minor pieces in the 1st rank are not threatening at the least in the early middle game(most the time).
@@lyingcat9022 expect the unexpected
@@lyingcat9022 except he didn't take it for granted, he literally said central square people just aren't paying attention.
What i like from you is your articulation and the choice of words you use to explain things to your viewers, it's just easy to understand man