@@foxyy2048 i mean, he is a fine chess player. Introvert and shy, almost by definition. Why else would he like to spend so many hours in front of a board? In his house and in front of his camera he can pretend to be as cool and outgoing as he fantasizes. But with so many people outside... that's a different story. With such publicity though, he will get better.
@@Goatama1 he beats top gms pretty often, but I will concede that its not over the board. Levy is extremely good at chess and is its top content creator - not a pointless video
if you're wondering why en passant exists, basically its to prevent a pawn to have the ability to slip by another pawn without getting captured. A lot of chess endgames are about pawns controlling other pawns so it is actually pretty important that they're not able to slip past.
Yes, it's also a compensation made to allow a pawn at 5th/3rd rank pawn to control 3 files again, after allowing pawns to move 2 squares at their first moves
Yeah I think he should have mentioned the rule change that preceded en passant - allowing a pawn to move two squares on its first move. Apparently this happened around the year 1500. There would be no need for en passant if pawns always moved one square at a time.
I always thought it was more about stopping pawns in front of a castled king not being able to block the position so easily. En passant leads to more exciting chess.
Yeah for real lol. I don't watch any of his streams or stream clips because he can be such a jerk in those (I have a sense of humor, I can enjoy a roast, but he's gotten straight up _mean_ in some clips I've seen) but man his planned content, especially when he's a guest on something else, is absolutely fantastic. He's downright classy and especially mega articulate, and a really good communicator. I'm so stoked the game has blown up and that he represents and promotes it so well
"A lot of park chess players are actually really good" This is so true. I studied chess and really, I was unbeatable in the club with bunch of college students like me. My elo is 1600 in FIDE, I'm 2200-2300 on online chess. I felt badass after reading numerous chess books. Once I came to this old damp cofee shop. I saw 7-10 old man close to their 60s and looked like they barely even studied chess or go to school. I played them all, struggled to win and several times, I lost the game. Didn't know what happenned though but now, I think it is because "old" guys really love to talk more than this generation. They love to analyze without using engine, just screwing around and try to play like human, not machine. And in fact, they all have a good time management, more than me.
When I took martial arts, my instructor said "Take one guy, give him access to the most sophisticated gym and access to a video library of every professionally fight ever recorded Now take two guys, give them an open boxing ring to just practice against each other all day, everyday. In 6-monthd either of the guys who d*cked around in real 1 v 1s and gained practical experience will absolutely CRUSH the guy who has only studied theory."
@@737215 Yes that's the point man. Sometimes I feel kinda weird to know like in your case, the duo that practiced against each other could made something out of it. They may fight like a 10-yo kid, don't know how to land a solid punch or whatsoever. However, these people really grind their way up in a "dirty" way to actually capable of knowing coventional theories in an unconventional ways.
Eh, doesn't really apply to chess as much. Having theory makes learning much easier, and works as an amplifier to improvement. For example, you can play 100 games of E4 c5, but most of your opponents wont know the right move, or repeat the same ones. A player actually looking into the theory, understanding the concepts and then playing a bit, will crush someone who just plays. @@737215
Well, this is kinda biased. The real situation isn't random 80 year olds playing a bunch and thus being insanely good. It's also that the people that choose to go outside to spend hours playing random people in chess, probably already know chess well. They most likely have history with it and know theory. It's survivorship bias of sorts. It's not necessarily that playing in parks makes you great, its that great chess players go to parks to play.
@@trafalgarlaw8373what you’re saying makes sense, but that is definitely not the only reason. It’s shallow to think nobody learned playing chess at these parks, or developed their skills by playing at these parks
Levy might not be a GM, but he does have a very good understanding of the game and he's a good teacher. He's also entertaining and funny, which is why GothamChess is a successfulv channel.
He's an IM, which means he's still really, really, really good at chess. There are only like 4,000 IMs in the world, which would put Levy in like the top 6,000 worldwide. That may not sound that impressive, but when you consider around 650 million people play chess, it puts him in the top 0.001% of all players.
If he's been around for that long, he could have talked about some of the older balance patch rule changes... Queens used to be WAY worse when they were Viziers / Fers. Only puttered around diagonally, one or two spaces at a time.
Actually, the balance patch wasn't "adding en passant", it was to allow a pawn taking two steps in one move (while still on its starting position). En passant simply exists to allude to the fact that the pawn actually takes those two steps, so it sort of pauses after the first step and gets taken there. This story is quite helpful for students to understand en passant.
Can you imagine just how outraged ppl were though lol. Chess has been around for 1500 year. Imagine the greatest player of the time looking at the new rule like WTF is this lol. We are use to it now with football and basketball but I bet it took like a 100 years for people to accept it consistently.
And like castling, en passant was to speed up the game since they were moves players were always making. When both players move their king forward, move their rook to where the king was, then move the king back, it's 6 moves. Castling is just one move. En passant came about for the same reason. Each player moving their pawns up one space at a time and not really affecting the game state was needlessly time consuming. So they added the rule you could move two spaces, but then had to create en passant because otherwise pawns could "dodge" getting captured.
2:52 Elo is the last name of the person who created the system of rating. Rather than create something else to define the rating number, they use the name of the system. This is why you can have Elo in many other games.
Most memorable move for me was Ding Liren in the world championship. When he was low on time and everyone thought he was going to repeat moves to make a draw… but then he gambled everything by going for the win. It was so shocking, but it worked. He won the game and became the world champion. Incredible courage to go for it.
Well deserved tbh. But also it couldn't have been the most memorable because the previous world chess champion chose not to defend his title. So ding qualified bec someone else didn't want to play. Which is unfortunate, but magnus gave a chance to someone else. I hope he comes back for the next world chess championship
What’s funny about this to me is Ding probably went for it because in his eyes it was the last time he was playing chess. He hasn’t touched chess in a while but only plans on playing for the title and that’s it.
I want to add to the first question about trash talk in chess that in XIX and early XX centuries chess players were notorious trash talkers. Staunton and Saint-Amane were insulting each other in their chess magazines before and after their match, Alekhine and Capablanca had a very infamous feud, there were heated debates about chess openings... In fact, the only reason why chess trash talk fell out of favor was that between 1945 and 1990 about 80% of top chess players were Soviet and they obviously couldn't do that (even if they wanted).
I'd also like to add that surrendering in a chess game is a sign of respect towards your opponent. It shows you're confident in their ability to beat you, so instead of dragging the game on, you surrender. Sometimes in online chess, people deliberately drag on the game when they know they've lost and it's just a very scummy thing to do
You may have to differentiate bishops or queens if you promoted a pawn to either. Now you may have multiple light (or dark) square bishops, or multiple queens, and you may need to disambiguate. (I know, I know, not likely at all)
Sure it is. A second Queen on the board is quite common… that’s why chess sets come with 4 Queens not just 2. Now under promotion to a bishop would be very strange because if you didn’t want to promote to a Queen due to a stalemate then the next best option is likely a Rook or sometimes a Knight for a fancy checkmate or even as a defensive trap or to stave off checkmate for a few moves to maybe win on time. But yes I’ve never heard of a under promotion to Bishop unless it was meant as an insult to shame your opponent for not resigning.
@@lyingcat9022 yeah, I meant that an ambiguity on the notation because two queens on the same row or the same file (or in certain configuration the same diagonal, now that I think about it) can move to the same square is the rare thing. Two queens on one side or even both sides happens reasonably often, but generally either they get traded down quickly, or there's a resignation. Good point for the underpromotion to bishop, but I think there are puzzles where underpromoting to a bishop is actually the only move to win. Also, the trolling factor of promoting to a bishop :D
You can even get into a weird situation where you have 4 knights that stand on the corners of a 3×5 rectangle, and then, if you move one of them to the center of a rectangle, you have to differentiate by both rank and file. You can do the same with 4 bishops or rooks.
@@2712animefreak huh that is funny but I think that’s true if there’s only 3 Knights as well. And it’s even more funny cuz only ONE of the Knights would require annotating both rank and file. The other two would need either rank or file respectively but not both.
13:00 - on rule changes, as a kid I placed marbles representing power-ups around the board that pieces could collect. Stuff like lightning bolts where a piece could take another piece that would be a legal move but without moving, or speed boosts for the pawns. My grandfather didn't quite understand it for some reason.
9:23 You may have to do it with bishops or queens too, in case you promote a pawn. If you have three queens you might also have to specify both rank and file in the move!
There are other minor patches to chess. According to wiki, the 50 move draw rule was increased some time in the 20th century. It was later reset back to 50 in 1992.
What about the change to queens chess being the dominant variation? There was a ton of controversy due to a female implied piece being the most powerful piece on the board and a lot of men hated it.
Three fold repetition and instant promotion of a piece of any color(revised to instant promotion to a piece of the same color) were rules made in the 1800s.
The easiest way to explain en passant is through the history of pawn moves, which is to say that pawns used to only be able to move one square at a time (even on the first move) But then the double first move was implemented in order to speed up the game (since it was so common to move the same pawn twice, and take up and central square/rank). However, that meant the opponent could now use their double first move to entirely avoid capture by your opposing pawn, in the case where you had advanced a pawn to your 5th rank on an adjacent file. Ultimately, this was an unintended consequence or “bug” in the double first move Therefore, they had to allow “capture” of such a pawn as if it had only moved one square (in order to balance the game), but only if the capture is performed immediately. Otherwise, the double first move is considered to have taken full effect, and you can no longer capture it
Well said. People would be SOOOO much less confused by en passant if it weren't explained as "if pawns are here and here then you can move like this" but rather with the "if a pawn just moved two squares, and the opponent has a pawn that could have captured it if it had only moved one square, then the opponent can take it by basically pretending it just moved one square"
13:00 another fairly recent rule change (I think 50s or 60s) is that castling is not allowed across a file, it must be across a row. There's a famous chess problem that exploits this before the rule change happened.
Imagine Hans Neimann doing this. I can already see his answers. Q1: Is king safety the most important? Hans: Chess speaks for itself. Q2: What is more valuable, bishop or knight? Hans: Chess speaks for itself. Q3: What opening do you recommend for each color? Hans: Chess speaks for itself. Q4: Does chess speak for itself? Hans: Chess speaks for itself.
As a kid, I read a book called "Underhanded Chess" which I loved, which discussed Fischer-Spassky in terms of the mind games Fischer appeared to be playing on Spassky. It's almost enough to make one wonder if that bishop blunder in the first game was another intentional part. (Of course, with Fischer's behavior in later life, one wonders how much of all that was intentional mind games, how much of that was just how he was happening to be beneficial in shaking things up at the time and putting the more "traditional" types of the day off their game.)
There have been a few other rule changes in chess but more related to the administration than the gameplay, e.g. the rule about draws being reached after X-number of moves without a piece captured (75, then 50) and the end of adjournments. Time controls have also changed. I think the last rule change related to how pieces can move was clarifying the castling rules after the famous 1972 puzzle that used vertical castling in its solution. That's now officially outlawed by a rewording of the rule. In practice though it made no difference. I think there are even old rules that are more recent than en passant, like 'white moves first'.
13:43 A couple spring to mind, 47... Bh3 by Shirov v Topalov 1998, just for how bizarre and yet totally winning it was. Also 25... Qd3 by Leko v Kramnik 2004; although Leko lost the match, in this game he managed to outfox the computer preparation of Kramnik's team. Oh, and 15. Nd6 in Spassky v Bronstein 1960, a game which was referenced in a James Bond film no less. Anyway, thanks for the video!
Levy is a great dude. I don't know ANYTHING about chess, everytime I've tried I am absolutely terrible (I can't think far enough ahead, but he makes me feel like it's possible to be decent enough to have fun, he's got amazing analysis, and he's a very humble dude. Keep making amazing content Levy!
Tip: think, no seriously before making a move geneiunly think about what pieces open up and what pieces get attacked and what not. It helped me improve alot.
at my second ever chess tournament, both my opponent and myself didn’t really know what en passant was, so we both just en passanted like any piece that was on the 4/5 rank and next to a pawn
13:45 I would say The Game of the Century, queen sacrifice. the least trivial way to win a game by not defending the queen and also not taking any other piece immediately.
I did really enjoy Levy's short on an en passant checkmate, based on when the question was asked about his favourite checkmate, en passant checkmate is mine.
There is an upgraded version to the En Pessant and it's the La Revolucion. Basically, if you can corner the opponent's pawn with 3 of your own pieces, you can coerce that cornered pawn to instigate a revolution. All the remaining pawns of your opponent will become yours (changing colors) and you can then use them normally. Trust me bros.
6:46 engines that have been around for a while try every move on the board then use an evaluation function to tell them how good a move is this all happens on your computer not a server but sped up with a lot of optimisations so it works a lot better. More modern engines like torch use neural networks which I don't fully understand but have a basic idea of
Levy could've explained the chess engine segment better. For all the programmers out there who play/ interested in chess programming, there is a recent video by Bartek Spitza. That video is amazing
I mean levy presumably doesn’t have a background in AI or related matters. He has a stats degree, which probably required him to take a semester or two of C++ and maybe matlab.
@@AP0PT0SIS Basic chess programming doesn't have to be an AI but I get what you mean. I don't think he has had any C++ or other languages though. He went straight into Servers which isn't the case with most engines that just run on your phone or web browser client side. Maybe something like the Lichess request analysis or Sesse computers are servers.
@@akarshJD I see yeah that makes sense. He could’ve done a better job there. I thought you were expecting him to go into more detail on the math behind all the algorithms used.
There was a major change to chess that was done by FIDE later than en passant, when they figured out that under a very specific set of circumstances it was possible to castle vertically instead of just on the back row. And they had to make that an illegal move.
@@Ploeppsel that was a major change in the sense that they had to actually change the rule for it. How often do you get to say that you had to change an actual rule in this game?
“The average skilled chess player probably doesn’t know how to make toast. Chess is not an indicator of intelligence. Except in my case.” Levy you’re killing me with this, a few more lines like this and you’ve got a standup routine
Great to see Levy here again 🙂 I'm surprised by the take on Fischer's blunder though, surely he didn't just "overlook" g3? He just miscalculated the line after that, where it's not so obvious that the bishop really can't be saved?
It's very nice that Levy's personality shines through in these Wired appearances. I sometimes get the feeling that the professionals/professors appearing here are a little bit awkward because of the massive nerves of being on camera.
Interesting choice for the most famous move, I would’ve said Morphy’s checkmate at the end of the Opera Game, but now that I think about it there were most definitely way more eyes on that World Championship
opera game, yeah true that. I am proud cause I thought of Fisher bishop before I watched the clip and just saw the thumbnail. The pattern is named for that game, after all.
Just wanna say Thankyou Levy for being so involved in the chess community. The love you have for the game is shared by many of us, and you do a fantastic job expressing that with all the content you put out. You are appreciated my friend ✌️
Most satisfying mate is en passant checkmate followed by bong cloud checkmate, long castle checkmate, short castle checkmate, and as Anna suggested, checkmate with pawn aka Uber pawnage.
10:08 This is the advice I give people for fighting games as well. And it's universal for all forms of competition. When you want to learn and improve at a competitive hobby, be it to go pro or just to enjoy the craft, you need to acknowledge that only one person can win each game. When you have two equally skilled players, that's a 50/50 shot. When you're new, you're gonna be losing far more than you win as you learn the basics. And when you're already established and trying to get better, you're going to lose more than you're used to as you consciously break habits and fight your instincts to make the changes and adjustments you want to make. But let me tell you, no win, no tournament, no ranking will ever compare to the moments I've had where I no longer have to think about those improvements, and they just happen. When you stop having to think about the 20 moves ahead, and your brain just knows it. It's beyond satisfying.
there was a lot of theory behind the fischer capturing the poisoned pawn if you were to look deeper in analysis. it was a blunder of course but he calculated a sequence that could free the bishop if i could recall.
Thanks for inviting me AGAIN Wired, lots of fun!
hi gotham
you re welcome
hello mr gotham
Goatham
No one cares
It’s so fun to watch how calm levy is when he’s in any situation outside his own content
he is not even competing against top gms pointless video
it's kinda like being at someone else's house, you have to behave properly
@@foxyy2048 i mean, he is a fine chess player. Introvert and shy, almost by definition. Why else would he like to spend so many hours in front of a board? In his house and in front of his camera he can pretend to be as cool and outgoing as he fantasizes. But with so many people outside... that's a different story. With such publicity though, he will get better.
@@Goatama1 he beats top gms pretty often, but I will concede that its not over the board. Levy is extremely good at chess and is its top content creator - not a pointless video
@@flacarile9790”top GMs pretty often” no he doesn’t? Top GMs?
"I lost to a bunch of nine year olds" Team Small Child is the undisputed champion of destroying morale.
That's why he best kids
and he beats kid
or maybe idk:)
@@vuphong8631 In chess... Right?
nuh uh
Meanwhile Anish smashing kids
this guy looks like he knows how to sacrifice the...
ROOOOOOOK
NO WAY. CHESS ITSELF.
Roooooookkkkkkkkkkkk
Levy sack
Always castle the rook 100% of the time trust me
the roooook!!!
this levy guy should start a channel, id love to see more of him
I'm sure he'd hate when people sacrifice the rook tho
I think there is one
@@markruzal6984 oh really? someone should make an ironic comment about that, maybe someine named mememaster1655 or something?
He's already got one
Its a joke@@martinsamuda-cowan8099
if you're wondering why en passant exists, basically its to prevent a pawn to have the ability to slip by another pawn without getting captured. A lot of chess endgames are about pawns controlling other pawns so it is actually pretty important that they're not able to slip past.
Yes, it's also a compensation made to allow a pawn at 5th/3rd rank pawn to control 3 files again, after allowing pawns to move 2 squares at their first moves
Yeah I think he should have mentioned the rule change that preceded en passant - allowing a pawn to move two squares on its first move. Apparently this happened around the year 1500. There would be no need for en passant if pawns always moved one square at a time.
@@edhunterofmaidengrad India didn't adopt the rule. The Indian defense is named after the one square move of the pawns when setting up the defense.
I always thought it was more about stopping pawns in front of a castled king not being able to block the position so easily. En passant leads to more exciting chess.
Waaa
wired never fails to include levy in their videos
Levy is to wired what Magnus is to Levy
But they have failed in every other video except one
@@ChezburgerLeaf Next up: Mortician Support with Victor Sweeney and Levy Rozman
levery video
@@TheArborphiliacVictor M. Sweeney and Levy Rozman play chess while answering questions
It is funny to see how Gothamchess's personality changes. He can be formal and he can be the wildest man alive
Honestly guy😂😂😂
PAWN TO A6! *Makes gorilla noises*
Yeah for real lol. I don't watch any of his streams or stream clips because he can be such a jerk in those (I have a sense of humor, I can enjoy a roast, but he's gotten straight up _mean_ in some clips I've seen) but man his planned content, especially when he's a guest on something else, is absolutely fantastic. He's downright classy and especially mega articulate, and a really good communicator. I'm so stoked the game has blown up and that he represents and promotes it so well
Levy is the type of person to see a chess set and ask “is anyone going to eat that?” And not wait for an answer.
"A lot of park chess players are actually really good"
This is so true.
I studied chess and really, I was unbeatable in the club with bunch of college students like me. My elo is 1600 in FIDE, I'm 2200-2300 on online chess. I felt badass after reading numerous chess books.
Once I came to this old damp cofee shop. I saw 7-10 old man close to their 60s and looked like they barely even studied chess or go to school. I played them all, struggled to win and several times, I lost the game.
Didn't know what happenned though but now, I think it is because "old" guys really love to talk more than this generation. They love to analyze without using engine, just screwing around and try to play like human, not machine.
And in fact, they all have a good time management, more than me.
When I took martial arts, my instructor said "Take one guy, give him access to the most sophisticated gym and access to a video library of every professionally fight ever recorded
Now take two guys, give them an open boxing ring to just practice against each other all day, everyday.
In 6-monthd either of the guys who d*cked around in real 1 v 1s and gained practical experience will absolutely CRUSH the guy who has only studied theory."
@@737215 Yes that's the point man. Sometimes I feel kinda weird to know like in your case, the duo that practiced against each other could made something out of it. They may fight like a 10-yo kid, don't know how to land a solid punch or whatsoever. However, these people really grind their way up in a "dirty" way to actually capable of knowing coventional theories in an unconventional ways.
Eh, doesn't really apply to chess as much. Having theory makes learning much easier, and works as an amplifier to improvement. For example, you can play 100 games of E4 c5, but most of your opponents wont know the right move, or repeat the same ones. A player actually looking into the theory, understanding the concepts and then playing a bit, will crush someone who just plays. @@737215
Well, this is kinda biased. The real situation isn't random 80 year olds playing a bunch and thus being insanely good. It's also that the people that choose to go outside to spend hours playing random people in chess, probably already know chess well. They most likely have history with it and know theory. It's survivorship bias of sorts. It's not necessarily that playing in parks makes you great, its that great chess players go to parks to play.
@@trafalgarlaw8373what you’re saying makes sense, but that is definitely not the only reason. It’s shallow to think nobody learned playing chess at these parks, or developed their skills by playing at these parks
Levy might not be a GM, but he does have a very good understanding of the game and he's a good teacher. He's also entertaining and funny, which is why GothamChess is a successfulv channel.
He's an IM, which means he's still really, really, really good at chess. There are only like 4,000 IMs in the world, which would put Levy in like the top 6,000 worldwide. That may not sound that impressive, but when you consider around 650 million people play chess, it puts him in the top 0.001% of all players.
@@JordanCS13 still not a gm so who gaf!
@@bestapexlegendsclutches8126weak bait
@@bestapexlegendsclutches8126 Surely some people do, and I don't think you'd even get to 300 Elo, you little troll :v
Levy never fails to be a Timelord who was there at the inception of Chess.
You mean when Gary Chess was born ?
If so, yes, Levy was there in the delivery room; 3000 years ago.
@@marianorivera3272 he was Levytating above them.
@@marianorivera3272 , yeah, but it was kind of weird. They were pagans, and to appease the gods, they had to sacrifice the ...
If he's been around for that long, he could have talked about some of the older balance patch rule changes... Queens used to be WAY worse when they were Viziers / Fers. Only puttered around diagonally, one or two spaces at a time.
I absolutely adore the idea of Levy explaining to Anna what a smothered mate is XD
Actually, the balance patch wasn't "adding en passant", it was to allow a pawn taking two steps in one move (while still on its starting position). En passant simply exists to allude to the fact that the pawn actually takes those two steps, so it sort of pauses after the first step and gets taken there.
This story is quite helpful for students to understand en passant.
Also it was introduced before the 17th century, not 200 years ago.
Can you imagine just how outraged ppl were though lol. Chess has been around for 1500 year. Imagine the greatest player of the time looking at the new rule like WTF is this lol. We are use to it now with football and basketball but I bet it took like a 100 years for people to accept it consistently.
And like castling, en passant was to speed up the game since they were moves players were always making. When both players move their king forward, move their rook to where the king was, then move the king back, it's 6 moves. Castling is just one move.
En passant came about for the same reason. Each player moving their pawns up one space at a time and not really affecting the game state was needlessly time consuming. So they added the rule you could move two spaces, but then had to create en passant because otherwise pawns could "dodge" getting captured.
@@Jayden-ce5mb I imagine the top players were the ones that decided the rule was necessary in the first place.
2:52 Elo is the last name of the person who created the system of rating. Rather than create something else to define the rating number, they use the name of the system. This is why you can have Elo in many other games.
ELO is a band, no?
@@swagmanmark2906 No. ELO is what British people say to greet someone
Most memorable move for me was Ding Liren in the world championship. When he was low on time and everyone thought he was going to repeat moves to make a draw… but then he gambled everything by going for the win. It was so shocking, but it worked. He won the game and became the world champion. Incredible courage to go for it.
Well deserved tbh. But also it couldn't have been the most memorable because the previous world chess champion chose not to defend his title. So ding qualified bec someone else didn't want to play. Which is unfortunate, but magnus gave a chance to someone else. I hope he comes back for the next world chess championship
@@pininja4981 Magnus will not be in the next championship unfortunately, he is not playing in the Candidates tournament!
Omg same, playing rg4 with 90 seconds on the clock was absolutely crazy 😱
What’s funny about this to me is Ding probably went for it because in his eyes it was the last time he was playing chess. He hasn’t touched chess in a while but only plans on playing for the title and that’s it.
@@khalil2460 He has had health issues and is looking forward to returning to Tata Steel in January!
Wow! Great job on the WIRED graphics team on making him look so realistic! GothamChess almost looks like a real person in this video!
I want to add to the first question about trash talk in chess that in XIX and early XX centuries chess players were notorious trash talkers. Staunton and Saint-Amane were insulting each other in their chess magazines before and after their match, Alekhine and Capablanca had a very infamous feud, there were heated debates about chess openings...
In fact, the only reason why chess trash talk fell out of favor was that between 1945 and 1990 about 80% of top chess players were Soviet and they obviously couldn't do that (even if they wanted).
Any particular reason you used Roman numerals for specifying which centuries you were talking about? I'm genuinely curious.
@@mastod0n1because when talking about centuries we commonly use Roman Numerals, No?
No… what?
?
@@mastod0n1 Most probably they're slavic. In most Slavic languages centuries are denoted with Roman numerals.
I'd also like to add that surrendering in a chess game is a sign of respect towards your opponent. It shows you're confident in their ability to beat you, so instead of dragging the game on, you surrender. Sometimes in online chess, people deliberately drag on the game when they know they've lost and it's just a very scummy thing to do
Thank you for being such a great ambassador for the game Levy!
I love the calm energy he has here. Very rehearsed and calm.
You may have to differentiate bishops or queens if you promoted a pawn to either. Now you may have multiple light (or dark) square bishops, or multiple queens, and you may need to disambiguate.
(I know, I know, not likely at all)
Sure it is. A second Queen on the board is quite common… that’s why chess sets come with 4 Queens not just 2. Now under promotion to a bishop would be very strange because if you didn’t want to promote to a Queen due to a stalemate then the next best option is likely a Rook or sometimes a Knight for a fancy checkmate or even as a defensive trap or to stave off checkmate for a few moves to maybe win on time. But yes I’ve never heard of a under promotion to Bishop unless it was meant as an insult to shame your opponent for not resigning.
@@lyingcat9022 yeah, I meant that an ambiguity on the notation because two queens on the same row or the same file (or in certain configuration the same diagonal, now that I think about it) can move to the same square is the rare thing. Two queens on one side or even both sides happens reasonably often, but generally either they get traded down quickly, or there's a resignation.
Good point for the underpromotion to bishop, but I think there are puzzles where underpromoting to a bishop is actually the only move to win. Also, the trolling factor of promoting to a bishop :D
A more likely one is a pawn, if two pawns can capture the same piece
You can even get into a weird situation where you have 4 knights that stand on the corners of a 3×5 rectangle, and then, if you move one of them to the center of a rectangle, you have to differentiate by both rank and file. You can do the same with 4 bishops or rooks.
@@2712animefreak huh that is funny but I think that’s true if there’s only 3 Knights as well. And it’s even more funny cuz only ONE of the Knights would require annotating both rank and file. The other two would need either rank or file respectively but not both.
13:00 - on rule changes, as a kid I placed marbles representing power-ups around the board that pieces could collect. Stuff like lightning bolts where a piece could take another piece that would be a legal move but without moving, or speed boosts for the pawns. My grandfather didn't quite understand it for some reason.
9:23 You may have to do it with bishops or queens too, in case you promote a pawn. If you have three queens you might also have to specify both rank and file in the move!
and also pawns
What if you have 9 queens tho
@@anexpertonthematter1468that’s impossible bro 😂😂😂 the opponent would never give up all their pawns. And their pieces
There are other minor patches to chess. According to wiki, the 50 move draw rule was increased some time in the 20th century. It was later reset back to 50 in 1992.
Also the vertical castling exploit got patched out in the 70s.
@@KingKlear definetely the wildest thing in chess I have ever seen.
What about the change to queens chess being the dominant variation? There was a ton of controversy due to a female implied piece being the most powerful piece on the board and a lot of men hated it.
@@shadycatz85 That was a big change, but it predated en passant by centuries.
Three fold repetition and instant promotion of a piece of any color(revised to instant promotion to a piece of the same color) were rules made in the 1800s.
levy never fails to take over a channel
schemacell moment
This guy knows what he’s talking about. He should be a chess player
Levy never fails to WIRED
glad to see another part of chess support
The easiest way to explain en passant is through the history of pawn moves, which is to say that pawns used to only be able to move one square at a time (even on the first move)
But then the double first move was implemented in order to speed up the game (since it was so common to move the same pawn twice, and take up and central square/rank). However, that meant the opponent could now use their double first move to entirely avoid capture by your opposing pawn, in the case where you had advanced a pawn to your 5th rank on an adjacent file. Ultimately, this was an unintended consequence or “bug” in the double first move
Therefore, they had to allow “capture” of such a pawn as if it had only moved one square (in order to balance the game), but only if the capture is performed immediately. Otherwise, the double first move is considered to have taken full effect, and you can no longer capture it
Well said. People would be SOOOO much less confused by en passant if it weren't explained as "if pawns are here and here then you can move like this" but rather with the "if a pawn just moved two squares, and the opponent has a pawn that could have captured it if it had only moved one square, then the opponent can take it by basically pretending it just moved one square"
"then i lost to a bunch of 9 year olds 😭"
that's relatable LMAO
Levy never fails to be GothamChess
Doesn't feel like a true Gotham Chess video without his staring at the camera wordlessly.
Also en passant mate is the most satisfying.
"The average really good chess player probably doesn't know how to make toast"
Dude was roasting Anna Cramling lol
Two of my favorites, combined. This was fantastic
13:00 another fairly recent rule change (I think 50s or 60s) is that castling is not allowed across a file, it must be across a row. There's a famous chess problem that exploits this before the rule change happened.
Wired we want more Levy features. Please have him on again in the future
Imagine Hans Neimann doing this. I can already see his answers.
Q1: Is king safety the most important?
Hans: Chess speaks for itself.
Q2: What is more valuable, bishop or knight?
Hans: Chess speaks for itself.
Q3: What opening do you recommend for each color?
Hans: Chess speaks for itself.
Q4: Does chess speak for itself?
Hans: Chess speaks for itself.
"Q4: Does chess speak for itself?
Hans: Chess speaks for itself."
The part that got me.😂
lmao
As a kid, I read a book called "Underhanded Chess" which I loved, which discussed Fischer-Spassky in terms of the mind games Fischer appeared to be playing on Spassky. It's almost enough to make one wonder if that bishop blunder in the first game was another intentional part. (Of course, with Fischer's behavior in later life, one wonders how much of all that was intentional mind games, how much of that was just how he was happening to be beneficial in shaking things up at the time and putting the more "traditional" types of the day off their game.)
There have been a few other rule changes in chess but more related to the administration than the gameplay, e.g. the rule about draws being reached after X-number of moves without a piece captured (75, then 50) and the end of adjournments. Time controls have also changed. I think the last rule change related to how pieces can move was clarifying the castling rules after the famous 1972 puzzle that used vertical castling in its solution. That's now officially outlawed by a rewording of the rule. In practice though it made no difference.
I think there are even old rules that are more recent than en passant, like 'white moves first'.
Always good to see Levy.
13:43 A couple spring to mind, 47... Bh3 by Shirov v Topalov 1998, just for how bizarre and yet totally winning it was. Also 25... Qd3 by Leko v Kramnik 2004; although Leko lost the match, in this game he managed to outfox the computer preparation of Kramnik's team. Oh, and 15. Nd6 in Spassky v Bronstein 1960, a game which was referenced in a James Bond film no less. Anyway, thanks for the video!
im so happy that you made another Chess support!
I think the coolest (and rare) checkmate is promotion to knight for an insta-mate
Levy is a great dude. I don't know ANYTHING about chess, everytime I've tried I am absolutely terrible (I can't think far enough ahead, but he makes me feel like it's possible to be decent enough to have fun, he's got amazing analysis, and he's a very humble dude. Keep making amazing content Levy!
Tip: think, no seriously before making a move geneiunly think about what pieces open up and what pieces get attacked and what not. It helped me improve alot.
Well, thats obvious. That like saying to be carefull when you are on a road...
@@TerabyteGaming_12345 I mean people *do* say that
I think i should specify with use the time u are given don't make a move in a couple seconds , think mark think.
@@TerabyteGaming_12345youd be surprized how many people just move without thinking
@@cheddarsunchipsyes8144 well yeah. People die on the road even if they are told to be carefull..
Based on the shape of the historical pieces at 12:29, it looks like Hans Niemanm went back to the fundamentals.
This truly was one of the videos of all time
Levy never slips a chance to talk about the 9 year olds that beat him
at my second ever chess tournament, both my opponent and myself didn’t really know what en passant was, so we both just en passanted like any piece that was on the 4/5 rank and next to a pawn
I don't know if it will go down as the most famous chess move, but Ding Liren Rg6 was incredible and won him the world championship.
Thank you Levy! Im currently stuck with my progress but your videos have been helping me. thank you!
13:45 I would say The Game of the Century, queen sacrifice. the least trivial way to win a game by not defending the queen and also not taking any other piece immediately.
Levy never fails to get on different types of podcasts.
1:02 having 4 of opponent's pieces on a6 while delivering smothered mate is the BEST mate ever.
1:03 en passant checkmate left the chat
Loved the "you got Anna for this?!?" And especially loved the answer to the question. Stuffing a king is so satisfying
Seeing Levy gets more confident feels very satisfying.
I did really enjoy Levy's short on an en passant checkmate, based on when the question was asked about his favourite checkmate, en passant checkmate is mine.
There is an upgraded version to the En Pessant and it's the La Revolucion.
Basically, if you can corner the opponent's pawn with 3 of your own pieces, you can coerce that cornered pawn to instigate a revolution. All the remaining pawns of your opponent will become yours (changing colors) and you can then use them normally. Trust me bros.
1:04 you're wrong. King moves with discovered checkmate and en passant checkmates are the most satisfying ones.
levy never fails to put wired in his videos
6:46 engines that have been around for a while try every move on the board then use an evaluation function to tell them how good a move is this all happens on your computer not a server but sped up with a lot of optimisations so it works a lot better. More modern engines like torch use neural networks which I don't fully understand but have a basic idea of
GUYS the funniest thing in the world just happened at 6:00 he said hey Siri and my Siri responded and answered the question 😂
It's always a wonderful surprise when Levy shows up on WIRED.
Levy could've explained the chess engine segment better. For all the programmers out there who play/ interested in chess programming, there is a recent video by Bartek Spitza. That video is amazing
I mean levy presumably doesn’t have a background in AI or related matters. He has a stats degree, which probably required him to take a semester or two of C++ and maybe matlab.
@@AP0PT0SIS Basic chess programming doesn't have to be an AI but I get what you mean. I don't think he has had any C++ or other languages though. He went straight into Servers which isn't the case with most engines that just run on your phone or web browser client side. Maybe something like the Lichess request analysis or Sesse computers are servers.
@@akarshJD I see yeah that makes sense. He could’ve done a better job there. I thought you were expecting him to go into more detail on the math behind all the algorithms used.
"Do chess players trash talk?" lmao you asked the right person
There was a major change to chess that was done by FIDE later than en passant, when they figured out that under a very specific set of circumstances it was possible to castle vertically instead of just on the back row. And they had to make that an illegal move.
yes but that wasn't a mayor change. That only appeared in one study and there are no instances off it happening on the board
@@Ploeppsel that was a major change in the sense that they had to actually change the rule for it. How often do you get to say that you had to change an actual rule in this game?
“The average skilled chess player probably doesn’t know how to make toast. Chess is not an indicator of intelligence. Except in my case.”
Levy you’re killing me with this, a few more lines like this and you’ve got a standup routine
Why is nobody talking about this GothamChess guy? He seems like he would be a really good chess teacher to be honest
Yep, he should write a book or something.
9:21 I would love to see somebody actually promote a pawn to a same-colored bishop and see the crazy specific bishop notation.
Great to see Levy here again 🙂
I'm surprised by the take on Fischer's blunder though, surely he didn't just "overlook" g3? He just miscalculated the line after that, where it's not so obvious that the bishop really can't be saved?
Levy should know, he was there.
I mean, Nh5 and Be6 were better, both Fischer, and it says something that Bobby Fischer has multiple candidates for more famous move ever.
It's very nice that Levy's personality shines through in these Wired appearances. I sometimes get the feeling that the professionals/professors appearing here are a little bit awkward because of the massive nerves of being on camera.
14:55 its like quitting a casual match on multiplayer game
Petition to bring Levy back. But next time have a question that involves sacrificing a particular piece on the board that looks like a castle
i cant believe a random tweet i made is in this video 7:17
That’s a lot of underscores
People that watch Levy @ 2:00 : "wher caro???"
All top grandmasters @ 5:45 : ahh yes this is very useful information
This Levy person is very knowledgeable! Chess GMs are so cool!!!
This was great! Really well done in every aspect.
Interesting choice for the most famous move, I would’ve said Morphy’s checkmate at the end of the Opera Game, but now that I think about it there were most definitely way more eyes on that World Championship
opera game, yeah true that. I am proud cause I thought of Fisher bishop before I watched the clip and just saw the thumbnail. The pattern is named for that game, after all.
0:55 en passant checkmate clears both
10:08 Brilliant advice. Another great interview by Levy 🔥💯
It's awesome how you bring chess to the world and sorry to see you didn't get the chance to say bozo in this interview. Need that shirt too!
Oh my gosh more Levy! Love it
Levy is a great player and face for chess. Happy to see it on youtube!
Just wanna say Thankyou Levy for being so involved in the chess community. The love you have for the game is shared by many of us, and you do a fantastic job expressing that with all the content you put out. You are appreciated my friend ✌️
3:30 "and then i lost to a bunch of nine year olds"
that hits hard
levy never fails to sacrifice the ROOOOOOOKKKKKKKK!!!!
I'm 39 and this is the first time I've heard of en passant thanks!
Chess is love 🥰
and Levy aka GothamChess is just an amazing ambassador for the game 👍
Most satisfying mate is en passant checkmate followed by bong cloud checkmate, long castle checkmate, short castle checkmate, and as Anna suggested, checkmate with pawn aka Uber pawnage.
Best mate has to be knight bishop. Such a slick checkmate when executed properly
Gotta admire 3:46's Capablanca's photo is amazing.
This guy knows lot about chess.He should write a book.
Also, this guy looks like he is good at sacrificing rooks.
Why stop at a book? He should create a TH-cam channel.
10:08 This is the advice I give people for fighting games as well. And it's universal for all forms of competition.
When you want to learn and improve at a competitive hobby, be it to go pro or just to enjoy the craft, you need to acknowledge that only one person can win each game. When you have two equally skilled players, that's a 50/50 shot. When you're new, you're gonna be losing far more than you win as you learn the basics.
And when you're already established and trying to get better, you're going to lose more than you're used to as you consciously break habits and fight your instincts to make the changes and adjustments you want to make.
But let me tell you, no win, no tournament, no ranking will ever compare to the moments I've had where I no longer have to think about those improvements, and they just happen. When you stop having to think about the 20 moves ahead, and your brain just knows it. It's beyond satisfying.
The amount I know about chess now, compared to before the video, is like knight and day.
WOW LOVED THIS! He's so excited about chess it's infectious!!!
The spassky bishop block to me is the most well known chess move.
there was a lot of theory behind the fischer capturing the poisoned pawn if you were to look deeper in analysis. it was a blunder of course but he calculated a sequence that could free the bishop if i could recall.
6:53 Bro forgot Martin 💀