I play the farfalle (transl: butterflies). This is where a new piece which looks like a butterfly flies over the king‘s head and shits on him. The king is so pissed of that he kills the queen and himself = I win the game.
Just wanna point out something interesting: 12:28 the Alapin variation of the Sicilian Defence with c3 and d4 is the EXACT reverse of the main line variation of the English Opening with c6-d5. Both of them are bad for the one playing against them. Please, LISTEN to this man and take some of his advice to heart.
I've played the Alapin with white and there really isn't much if black just plays d5. Banking on your opponent to go wrong is not a good long term strategy and won't help you improve.
@@joel9137 yeah, i see c3 i play d5 and I enjoy equality :). Honestly as a Sicilian player i have a worse score against the Morra Gambit, even though i Already studied so many times
Wild. I learned the Queen's Gambit accepted and in my second game I got to pull it off perfectly. I play the Ruy Lopez and I do pretty well with it at the 1300 level although I don't understand it's deeper lines very well. I've never played any of the others.
Accepting the Queen's Gambit still remains to be my most traumatic experience in chess. I remember innocently grabbing that pawn and immediately regretting playing chess.
As a humble ~800 player, my experience with the Ruy Lopez may be inconsistent on losses and victories but I can say it has been consistent with fun. A tutorial I watched on the matter described it as an opening where tactics and calculation are at the forefront and, possibly it might be placebo, but it definitely feels like playing the Spanish made me aware of applying those skills in my gameplay
Here I'm gonna share my golden experience. So I studied French, and there's almost 15 systems such as Advance, Winawer, Classical, Open | Closed | Modern Tarrasch, and there's also ton of sidelines such as King's Indian System where white playing d3 instead of d4. Also in Grunfeld which is my favorite against d4, just so insanely complex and there's also more than 10 systems in this opening. I also studied KID, Budapest, Caro Kann, QGD, Slav, Sicilian, and I'm totally agree with Levi that some openings just doesn't belong to amateur play. Budapest, Ponziani, Englund, Scandinavian probably the easiest opening to play than any other else. However we shouldn't memorize chess openings because it isn't effective. I studied tons of openings but I always found my enemies playing weird chess, and shockingly I don't know what to do. Then I realize it is far more effective to study pawn structure such as Caro Formation, Slav, Maroczy, Benoni, Stonewall, etc than study opening. Believe me, opening always share many pattern between each other. You can play KID as white against Caro Kann, French, Sicilian if you know the system with e4, d3, g3-Bg2, Nc3-Ne2, Nf3-Nh4/Ne1 then goes for f4. I think the big idea arises because of the pawn structure. In the Dutch Defense, one of black common maneuver is to play Qe8 then Qg6/Qh5 but that also because of the pawn structure makes it possible. If we play a French and somehow black play f5-e6-d5, we can also do our maneuver in the Dutch with Qe8-Qg6 or we can also do the Budapest rook's maneuver a5-Ra6-Rg6/Rh6 in other opening. So I believe memorizing chess opening isn't important, it's all about the pawn structure and couple of ideas we can absorb in many different openings.
@@jackanderson719 perhaps, but I can't think of any. Unless you mean "similar" in that the light-square bishop is locked in. But the ideas are wildly different. The main strategic feature of the French (in its most critical variations) is the central pawn chain, something that pretty much never occurs in the QGD. More similar to the French would be the King's Indian Defense, since both involve pawn chains, but they play very differently
"we shouldn't memorise openings" Honestly, thank you. I fully agree, but I'm waaaaay too much of a beginner to really feel confident in expressing that opinion, however I totally agree. Rote learning specific moves seems like a really inefficient way to learn, at the beginning.
QGA player here. I kept running into literally the exact problems you listed in that section of the video. Recently I tried the Benko Gambit in one game to see how well it would do; had a completely dominant position after like 12 moves. Excellent video as always. Keep it up!
I play the QGA with a lot of succes. There are 2 positions I get 95% of the time: After white goes 3.Nf3 of 3.e3, I play Nf6 and most of the times, I transpose into the main line, where white goes Nf3, e3 Bc4, and 0-0 and I play e6, c5 and a6. Plans are not easy, but this works. If white goes 3.e4 or 3.Nc3, I play 3...e5 and after 4.d5 Nf6, white plays either Nc3 or e4 (the one they didn't play on move 3. Black has there a strong move 5...b5 after which I win more or less 70% of my games. I'm not saying you have to play this, but if you want to investigate it again, this is what I would recommend (I'm rated 1800, right on the line between intermediate and advanced.
I switched from the QGA to the Benko too. One of the nice things was, I might have been lost in some positions, but I was able to fight a lot more than in the QGA, and that was important to me. It also made me less scared to sac pawns for activity in general, too!
Throughout this video Levi is saying to avoid openings that are complex and difficult to learn. Given that, you'd think he'd be an advocate of the QGA, which is not a difficult opening at all. Just realize that as a general rule it's a bad idea to try hanging onto the pawn. A typical move order to start the game is 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 (if 3. e4 then 3...e5 or 3...Nf6, as suggested in the video, are easy to play and perfectly okay) e6 4. Bxc4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c5 (using the c-pawn to challenge the center is an important point to equalizing quickly) 6. O-O a6, reaching what can be considered the starting position of the QGA. What's nice about this position is the light-squared bishop has the a8-h1 to play on, instead of getting stuck behind pawns as in the QGD. From here, just get your pieces out to good squares, and with reasonable play you'll be surprised how often you attain the advantage around moves 15 to 20.
I have been playing the Grünfeld for sometime now and honestly, against 1300 lower its not that bad if you do a little study. Won very good games with c5.
Hey Levy! Loving these videos! I have an idea. Most of us have difficulty punishing "bad" moves when it comes to the opening. Can you perhaps make a video about explaining certain principles on how to spot these miss-steps? :)
This, my God this. As a beginner nearing 1000 elo, this is still the hardest part of the game. Opponent will play something stupid, say jumping the knight into the position on move 3 or something. I'll try kicking the knight out, make an inaccuracy or something, and now the opening is in unfamiliar territory, and well... It's time to wing it and play some chess
@@markrichardson2512 I'm only a 500 but this drives me nuts. It's hard enough trying to start out and learning an opening only for my opponent to make some wild move 10 seconds into the game and I'm freaking out wondering if it's a legit move only to learn that it really wasn't and I'm just bad lol.
@@timothymantor7332 You learn an opening not by memorizing moves but by knowing which principles you have to follow and what this opening is about. Too many players just memorize moves and play bad moves after their last book move. Levy´s video is very important here.
I like the Semi-Slav but too many people play the Exchange Slav. The solution is to play the Winawer Countergambit and really bring them out of their comfort zone
I started chess playing the Ruy Lopez and after the invariable Morphy Defense my bishop always ended up on the same diagonal as the Vienna Game - so I said screw it and started learning the Vienna and never play the RL anymore.
Same when I started learning opening some blog on Google suggest the ruy lopez I was just 200-300 elo after learning ruy lopez I lost to some fishing pole trap etc and I switched to the Vienna gambit
given Gotham doesn't do much editing etc. I don't see why he doesn't occasionally make 2-4 hour videos where he just talks about openings and chess philosophy etc. Especially since he's kind of plateaued at blitz and there's no point in him playing anymore unless he takes 6 months off for hardcore classical study
He did a tier list of openings with Hikaru for three levels: grandmaster, intermediate, and beginner. If you're looking for ideas for openings, they're great vids to check out.
@@waltlock8805 he should do full strategic overviews of these openings and play some games, also should go more in depth into middle game structures and all the weird little non intuitive things masters are aware of, it's frustrating because I feel I am way more talented at chess than Gotham he just knows more stuff I don't have the time to learn through trial and error
I'm 1800 in rapid and I started to play the sicilian (najdorf) when I was at 900 elo I want to say, you'll learn the side lines and how to punish them way before having your first open sicilian. people just know 2 moves of theory and just let you do your things and then get crushed. the only real problem you'll have I believe is that most of the side lines are more oriented towards positional chess instead of attacking chess. But I've come to really like the expansions on the queen side when facing the grand prix and especially the fake one (with f4 on move 2). also people seems to prefer the delayed alapin (to the alapin) which is just not good of an opening. and for the najdorf yes it's really hard but you should manage if you learn to know when to castle and when not to... but around 1500 people seems to like putting a knight on d5 really early in the game which is really bad as it releases the pressure instantly and you just end up in a better position if you just take it (in the early part of the game the d5 square isn't attacked enough in most lines and a white pawn arrive on that square)
I remember reading a beginner's chess book and the first opening it introduced was the Ruy Lopez and I never understood why the bishop had to attack the knight only to backtrack after the pawns kick it away again so I'm surprised this is the first opening I shouldn't learn
If Black kicks the bishop back straight away then you're just in a better version of the italian game where you have a bishop pointed at f7 that can't be hit with tempo by a d5 push. And in all of the positions before the bishop is kicked, Black is under constant pressure due to the tension on the knight that's defending the center, so White can use this to influence the position slightly in his favor. I'm not a titled player but that's basically it.
I’m not a good player as I simply don’t put in the time. I have found that with the scotch game I can get myself into better positions more often because there’s not much the opponent can do to avoid the game I’ve played hundreds of times. Glad you suggested it for a similar reason as I play it. That is also why I play kings Indian defense vs d4. I don’t have the time to learn anything else. Against e4 I play the French defense, with which I’ve spent time remembering the lines enough to where the first 8-10 moves is well prepared. Is the French defense a good go to or should I be looking at something else?
it does have a decent number of variations, coming from a guy who plays the French, but it's rather simple. At my level too, only 2 variations pop up usually, Advanced, Exchange. Rarely the Two Knights or the 3.Nc3 lines, and I've yet to see a Tarrasch
As you've said that you play KID and Scotch you would probably enjoy Sicilian/Open Sicilian. It's often said that the Sicilian and the KID have the same spirit, They are both aggressive openings where black is taking a risk to play for the win. However, Sicilian often results in more open positions like the Scotch. Open Sicilian is basically playing the Scotch against the Sicilian except it's even better in this case.
French is decent but you have to work around a tight, closed position with a bad light square bishop. In this sense, it's like the KID, except in the KID the light square bishop is the good bishop and the dark square bishop is the bad bishop (unless the board opens up). Caro-Kann is very solid. It aims to strike in the centre with d5, like the French, without blocking in the light square bishop. The disadvantage is that you have to spend an extra tempo on playing c6-c5 instead of playing it in 1 move like in the French or Sicilian. For this reason, the Caro-Kann has a reputation as a more slow, passive opening.
@@wildorca4500 personally I enjoy direct moves that focus on tactical play. When playing the scotch, the opponent really has to play my game for a time. There are barely any viable options to deviate from it. This is the reason I enjoy the French defense too. I play kings Indian defense because I have no interest in playing into a queens gambit. It is a fairly safe opening, with not much room for the opponent to catch me off guard early.
One of the best parts of the Kan is that a lot of people try to play the "English Attack" against it with 6.Be3 just like in the Najdorf. The problem is that after b4 and then pinning white's knight to the king, the attack is not nearly as effective against the Kan as it is against the Najdorf. It's not completely losing, but it's just a little bit too slow to be scary, and if white stubbornly moves the Queen into the bishop's path with Qd2 in an effort to long castle black is already better. I've had this happen more than once. A good opening against players who play routine moves without actually considering the position.
I agree that the Sicilian can be tricky to grasp and a lot of time to undertake but I also thinks it’s given me super interesting and dynamic positions, and as long as you are comfortable working through different positions that come up, like the alapin or 2.Nc3 or the rossolimo then I think it’s a really good choice. I play the accelerated dragon and you can crush people very quickly with it.
I’m glad you changed your mind about the Grunfeld. I’m not high rated but I’ve had a lot of success and fun playing it. I’ve found the games to be tactical and sharp.
Seriously appreciate this video as a beginner. I was wondering how to start studying chess openings, because I do like chess alot but I also find it hard to sit down and study anything. It's definitely an optimisation problem for me and I was struggling with it for awhile, wondering where should I even start and it was very helpful to get some advice on which openings are even worth the hassle. Also I have to say the grunfield looks really cool. Thanks Levi.
I'm brand new just breaching the 300 mark. I picked the London randomly. I don't fully understand it. I don't remember the text book middle games and sacrifices that make the London strong. But the position has made my middle game stronger. And made my games longer. When I play high level players they don't destroy me early with it. And when I play people my level they get confused on how to break through my lines.
Small hint for anyone around my rating (1400-1500 Lichess): I've almost never had a opponent that knew what to do after the Albin countergambit as response to the queens gambit. I've never been allowed to play the trap, but generally do get a very good position after a few moves. (which I then screw up the way a 1400 Lichess player occasionally does :p )
I know exactly which trap you're talking about. Since I'm quite aware of it, I don't fall for it, but I also don't get much against the Albin. I mostly play the English these days
The Ruy Lopez is the first opening my dad taught me,and i play it all my life. It's really hard to know it well, but i've beaten 2200 with it as a 1650.
Hey man, if you know an opening and have practiced it, by all means use it. This video isn't for folks who already know the Ruy Lopez or QGA or whatever, this video is for folks who don't know their openings yet and are looking for openings to learn.
@@webbowser8834 Exactly, I have learned the Grunfeld the most out of any opening and I crush people easily with it as I am 1200. You can play any opening(low level) as long as you learn to refute the stupid variations which you know the opponent will play. You rarely get the main line in lower levels.
I learned so much more about opening theory by playing simple openings than studying the complex super GM meta openings. If anything, simple openings taught me some of the stuff you need to be aware of as a prerequisite for the complex ones. For example, the french taught me about the importance of pawn breaks controlling the center which helped me navigate the closed positions of the italian and spanish openings. The London helped me learn purposeful maneuvers to attack which is really valuable for me learning how to properly counter attack out of the more positional Sicilian positions. Now I am revisiting those openings with my new understanding to finally break past 1600
You did it again Levi! just what I need to hear in my struggle to learn the game. Focus on small success! keeps me challenged and not frustrated. Thanks for taking the time to make content at all levels.
Interesting. I am one of those annoying ppl who does very little study and plays about 1400-1600 most of the time. Some of my best and worst games are apparently the ruy Lopez. As white I usually make it all the way to pawn h3 (just thinking of how to restrict blacks knights). This explains so much!
The Ruy Lopez was my common go to as well and I consistently crushed....problem is that I didn't have access to a single chessbook, teacher or video. I had time to evolve it over 6 years of playing. Now a days though if I tried that same process of learning I would get crushed by people studying the foils to it. Just like video states it is too complex. Intermediate players should keep it simple.
Both Ruy Lopez and English are amazing for positional players that are not afraid of cramped positions. Knowing the ~ 20 moves plans in Ruy Lopez will win you lots of blitz games on time. In these openings you have to understand how to use a knight. Beginners usually discard knights and consider them inferior to bishops. That’s not the case with Ruy Lopez and English, where knights are the only pieces that can facilitate breakouts. Bishops become active much later in the game. The Najdorf Sicillian is for the mental asylum. More often than not white will attempt to crush you on the kings side and your counterplay is mostly on the queens side, hoping to drive away some minor pieces and push d5 while white goes g4-g5-h4 on your king. It’s like having two dudes with baseball bats attempting to hit each other in the head. Each move has to be active. Waste a tempo and you’re gone.
I think ruy is pretty good for intermediate players, i have been playing it on and off for 10 years and sure you need to have a weapon for berlin and other weird variations but it will greatly expand your chess knowledge, feel and intuition as well as your calculating skills. I main Kann for 2 years now and i love it greatly recommended for anyone who likes the Sicilian, also check the early b5 kann which is a great surprise weapon. Against queen's gambit i greatly suggest the nimzo indian, such an easy opening to understand and also leads to very interesting fun games.
As a novice it feels that the advantage of attempting the Lopez is that you get to practice dynamic games rather than rehearsing an open. It feels like something to throw in from time to time just to make sure you’re thinking and not performing an opening which I tend to do when I get too ‘deep’ in an opening
@@jamiewalkerdine3705This is not really relevant as there are a lot of traps in any opening. For example, there are loads of ways of crushing novice caro-kann players because they don't know their stuff. A lot of players still fall for 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Qe2 Nbd7 6. Nd6# lol. Even knowing that, there are loads of ideas about sacrifices on e6 that even some high level caro players are unaware of. I also play the panov attack because loads of noob caro players don't learn the theory and get crushed instantly. Very dangerous for black. A lot of novice and even some higher level french players still walk straight into a greek gift.
@@jamiewalkerdine3705 If you check the lichess database a lot of people are still falling for common caro-kann traps. A lot of the time the move that falls into the trap is the 2nd or 3rd most popular move. Also panov attack is very popular. A lot of low level caro-kann players will immediately play dxc4 which is of course a positional mistake. White is winning the vast majority of games from this position.
Traps in spanish is easy to figure out once you think and dont play mindlessly ffs. Theres no bishop traps, no space disadvantage, no nothing. You can play ruy without theory (thats what i do) because no lunatic studies ruy theory until like 2000. Also its the best opening to improve your middle gane planning because the ideas are fairly simple in ruy.
Good advice about not making it up as you go along in an English, and 1. Nf3 indeed makes good sense. However, 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 isn't normally regarded as an English (around 8:50) after 2 ...d4. As you mention later (10:30), it's a Reti (and a reversed Benoni), and transpositions to the English can be tricky and are not guaranteed, which might not suit everybody... 2 e3 is a well-regarded idea too, as you note. A early Nf3 cuts out lots of f4 attacks in the KID and Benoni, but such ultra-sharp lines might be best avoided anyway for most players. I'd add that there are way too many reasonable and diverse Black defences to the King's Gambit, but at least it's not the jungle that the Ruy Lopez is.
Against the Alapin, I recommend playing d5. You’ll have to take back with the queen if they take the pawn but there aren’t immediate threats on the queen which is nice so you can develop your pieces. I’ve seen top level games where black gets a comfortable position, including a monster game from Nepo. I suggest looking into some games.
I don't like the scandi so I play blackmar-diemer against it, but the knight kicking away the queen motif is still glued into my head. So when I see someone block that C3 early, instant D5 from me. You took away that knight's main development square and I'm sure as hell going to take advantage of it. That being said I don't like playing the sicillian either as either side lol.
I don’t know why but when i was starting chess i immediately learned the spanish and kept studying it without understanding how difficult it was, so i went up the rating ladders just playing it and the result is that i love the spanish
I remember when I first started I played the “Kadas opening”, I knew it was bad but I tried to make it work. Eventually gave up and just went for the stonewall
1400 ELO, Here are my favorite openings: White: Italian Game: Evans Gambit, Max Lange Attack (sharp) or Nahkmanson (fun!). Fried Liver if it's Classical. Against Sicilian: Smith Morra Black: Vs e4: Scandinavian Bronstein Variation, Petroff for Classical, or Stafford for fun. Vs d4: QGD going for Cambridge Defense (fun traps). I used to play Albin Countergambit. Vs London, I enjoy early queen b6 lines. Vs c4: Still working on a Reversed Sicilian repertoire. I still kinda sigh when I see this on the board. Just thought I'd share! Passionate about my choices and I took time to cultivate this repertoire, so I'm happy to answer questions or share my reasonings.
Most instructional chess video I saw in years. So many lines touched upon. I certainly agree with the ruy Lopez, I suggest adding the scotch gambit as a variation of the scotch game to the repertoire.
Man, the rui lopez is my second favourite opening for white after queens gambit/catalan if declined exactly because there are so many variations and shitty responses that i always have fun figuring out how to play against to sadistically restrict my opponent to zero and kill all his fun from the game, because he didn't prepare for literally even one lane that he could pick of all and that fact just annoys me. I guess it just fits my character. I love studying openings and always when i invent something new for me with engines, fire out 15 moves of prep for any oppenent's response with alphazerolike sacrifices against chesscom normies or my dad when i practise. And like exactly as gotham said. I love having no controll over opponents setup, because i love the strategic battle of setups. This is why i love chess. "Practicality" to be honest depends on the time that we spend. If you want to learn the game, choose opening that you can't afford to fully understand in like month period, so it improves all your knowledge as you learn it, different transformations of positions, middlegames, attacking, controlling strategical points. Gotham's content is very casual friendly as it should be for wide public and i wrote all of that just to say that i agree with him. That crap is impractical unless you are some tryhard like me and i felt like i had to change narration for second part of comment, because this is most entertaining chess channel, i liked the video. If someone had nerves to read it all, have a wonderful day.
Yep, I always challenge myself against incompetent chess players. I am not afraid to lose. Its more fun as a challenge. Repetitive game play is boring.
As an intermediate player, I actually really like the ruy. I feel like there are not plans, like in a lot of openings, but there's like a lot of moves that white wants to play eventually, and it never feels like there's enough time to play them all if black is combative enough, so you have to pick and choose. Through experience at my level (1600ish on lichess) I kind of feel like there are certain plans for black that are more or less effective, and a list of moves that I want to do over time. I feel like I develop chess thinking by figuring out which of the laundry list of moves are appropriate for the position. So for example, I know that in ruy positions I want to castle, break in the center at some point, (d4 +c3) and push c3 to retreat my LSB and allow it to defend the e4 pawn. (So I want to play bishop c2 at some point after bishop a5) I hope that my opponent extends the kingside to push the bishop back, and that I have pushed c3 before that, so I can retreat my bishop in a single tempo. I also potentially want to play re1, but that might weaken f2, so h3 might be useful to prevent knights or bishops dropping in. Basically, I feel like after move 4ish, I can play basically any of these moves plus a few other plans (a4? queenside knight to f1?) and end up kind of okay as long as I'm thinking about what makes sense. I also like that the ruy forces me to think only about one main pawn break in the centre, (in most games, it's certainly more complicated in practice) so I can focus on how the d4 push affects any bishops in the position. And I also like how it lets me play on all sides of the board and experiment with a- and b- pawn pushes. Then, if the queenside opens up, I can learn how to contest open files. And if I have c1/c2 bishops then a kingside attack looms. Basically, I think the overall rhythm of a ruy game is really conducive to my learning. I feel like I think about the moves instead of theory I've memorized. And some predictable plans by black (a7, b6) occur in many games and have fairly straightforward responses. Just wanted to add my two cents - there are certainly good reasons to recommend against the ruy for most levels, but I've found it really fun and fairly intuitive, actually.
I agree I don't think you need to learn that much in the mainlines. It's all quite logical. There are plans later in the game though, usually once the pawn structure changes. If it closes white often goes for a kingside attack where they try and get a knight sac on f5 for example. Or sometimes playing a5 and doubling rooks on the a file. Or just restricting blacks plans. Don't forget as well that YOU can pick sidelines that force black into positions they won't know and you will still probably have a slight edge because ruy Lopez is so strong objectively. Against the chigorin I like the d5 variation which is objectively fairly equal but you play g4 and move your queen and knights to the kingside and go for mate.
I think it really depends on what your goals are. Why would someone who actually has the time to memorize want to play a weaker opening just because he can get away with that against lower ELO players? That's how I've always felt ever since I was 800 rated.
Yo Levy, could you make a video talking about how to study chess? I love this game and find it really satisfying to beat someone by punishing a mistake I've already seen. Still, I've tried to read books on openings, some 1.d4 stuff, some book on the French Defense and I think the usual "memorize the moves" approach to be somewhat dull and dry. Would be great if you, as a teacher could point us to some other learning method for the amateur player, I've always thought about some kind of concept based learning, like study about pawn breaks, in general, then apply it to some opening you already been playing for awhile, or something along these lines. Love your content!
first lesson as a amateur players about "studying", do not learn much opening theory, do tactics,middlegames and endgames, learn chess fundamentals like it's a bible, around 1500, start having a simple repertoire with white and black against most popular responses, after a while learning to calculate is important.
I remember when I started chess again around a year ago, I started to study the Ruy Lopez, and then saw a video of Gotham where he said almost exactly what he’s saying here… I stopped playing the Ruy Lopez immediately and started studying some other stuff, and looking back at it a year later and 400 points higher, it was the best decision I ever made (chess-related)
Idk man I’m 600 points higher than a year ago and it’s by far my favourite opening and I now know enough of all the variations to destroy everyone else because they are completely incompetent in the ruy lopez
@@r.m2192 I’m 500 points higher than a year ago and playing the ruy gives me good success. I’m still under 1400 so people don’t know variations at all yet but I feel comfortable with it
I recently put together a comprehensive Gambits Repertoire for myself and have been having a lot of fun and a good amount of success with it, partially exactly because I have a response ready to most openings that forces my opponent to play into my opening, not the other way around - so in around 90% of my games I get to play the way I want.
I like playing the Sicilian because my opponents have no idea what to do against it. I have a 70% win rate in the Sicilian even though I am butchering it objectively.
I don't play Sicilian against higher rated opponents. Played it once against a 1400. I was better in the opening but he stomped me with a kingside attack.
I knew a coach who never even played tournament chess, and he was recommending the grunfeld to players around 1100-1300. After a tournament where dropped from the 1900s to the 1800s, losing to many weaker players, my parents decided that it was their playstyle that caused my defeat. So they took me for a few sessions with the coach I mentioned above, and he, who’s strongest students is like 1700, also recommended me the grunfeld (I was playing the KID back then) It took a year as my rating continued to drop for other reasons to get back to the 1900s level, but 2 more months later, I reached 2000 and said goodbye to the 1000s. Looking back, this change was one of the key reasons I was able to crack 2000 as I realized how limiting the KID is for black when white plays counters like the f3 or h3 variations. If the grunfeld is bad for beginners, than the KID may be even worse. F3 or H3 and if you don’t know key lines you will be passively defending the entire game.
So, yes I play the Ruy Lopez and after a fair bit of study it does wipe the opponent off the board most of the time. It is defiantly not a casual opening. It was part of an openings course that I've spent literal days studying. About 5 months in and I haven't started the Sicilian or the Nimzo-Indian, so I agree. Not casual openings but very effective.
I do feel like the study you have to put in to learn the ruy if you are good enough to actually understand the plans is definitely worth it. You have guaranteed small advantage even if black plays perfectly and usually a +1 or more if black plays inaccurately or some dodgy sideline. And once you have that advantage and know how to nurture it and grow it, your opponent is kinda helpless. There is a reason they call it "the Spanish squeeze". It's an opening for life. I want to take like a year to study it fully (I'm about 1800) because once I have I'll have an opening I can play for life and get great positions and lots of wins where I just get a small steady advantage and squeeze black till he resigns.
I’m studying the English atm (specifically the Botvinnik variation by Simon Williams) and this variation really does present consistent results and the best thing about the opening is the ideas are easy to understand and you can get the same set up for most of blacks responses, of course there are specifics you need to keep in mind but it’s very good because if you can spot and figure out blocks plan and actively stop it, it pretty much plays itself :D that’s my opinion on the matter 😂
What's your ELO? I'm looking to grind against the English because I'm still so unfamiliar with it. Not too common and I don't have practice in facing it. I'm around 1400 rapid.
I agree and disagree with Levy The "hard opening" such as Ruy or Najdorf leads to various structures, for each position you can't play three games and then improve. So it takes a lot of time to play and analyze the games in different kinds of positions. You may not feel your improvement since there is a lot of work needed to be done first. However, as a 2-year Najdorf player. I feel myself knowing the main line as well as the sidelines gradually since I play a lot of games in different positions. And thanks to the variety of the positions in Najdorf, I think I have become a better "chess player" instead of only good at some openings. So I think you can play whatever opening you want, just stick to it and play a lot of games, you'll feel the improvement.
Yeah, but I think this video is more targeted towards beginners or intermediate players who will most likely not want to study all the lines or just not play a shit ton to face all the possible options
@@blazer7731 Yeah but the thing is your opponents don't know the theory either XD. So I think you should not study too much before playing, you play and then study. I think the best way is to treat the courses and GM repertoires as dictionaries instead of textbooks. After you play a game, you check the courses and learn the main ideas, but do not study what you don't face.
I had White in a U.S. Open against a man who had Bobby Fischer's scalp. I played 1.c4 and lost. I was on a team playing a correspondence game with Sammy Reshevsky. It was in progress when he died. We had Black and had an even position from a Gruenfeld opening.
Superb insight! Contrarily, sometimes I like to take the approach of entering a dark forest and applying theory when I've learned it and principles and calculation when I can. That's why I have played the Ruy Lopez as white for such a long time, even welcoming the Marshall. Indeed, the number of variations is staggering. I feel, no matter the number of variations within choice of opening, it is the dark forest element of play of the game that makes me love it.
KID and Sicilian Dragon as Black (you have to know sidelines and relevant main lines obviously) and Catalan as Black. I'm 2130 rapid Lichess and I have not played any other opening since I was 1650 back on 2018. Your ratings shoot up when you know what to do in the opening and middlegame.
I don't suggest KID because if opponent knows theory then KID is just bad. My win rate against KID is 76% because I know KID theory (tried to learn it before I switched to slav)
@@shouryaaswal5681 ya but there's a bunch of lines where you can trade into an equal position out of the endgame. You can usually tell by the tenth move what you're up against. In the slav, its much harder to play for a win when your opponent does not know what to do.
I tink there are better choices than going into the Catalan as black , but KID and dragon are good openings for intermidiate and low key advanced players.
@@shouryaaswal5681 I don't suggest any opening because if opponent knows theory (better than you do) then any opening is just bad? Most would agree the KID is not a good suggestion for beginners, but that's because it doesn't reinforce the basic principles and pretty much teaches bad habits. However, that is not what defines a bad opening within the context of the video. It's also not like the benchmark for a "good opening" was stated as "you don't need to know any theory at all". From the perspective of "is it worth it to learn the theory I NEED to learn in order to play this opening with success?"(which seemed to be the angle), the KID is fine. Also, you might have a win rate of 76% against the kid, but that doesn't mean your opponents have only 24% win rate with KID. Just because the KID is "bad" against you specifically, doesn't mean that it is "bad" across the board. You are using anecdotal evidence to support a general conclusion/claim, which is a fallacy.
All of that applies to the Vienna or the London. People play random moves starting from move 3. I believe that strategic patterns and plans are a million times more important than the opening, as well as knowing the concepts of compensation, bad piece, activity and initiative my level (1500). If the material is equal a +2 evaluation does not really mean anything. Even losing a piece in the opening is not a guaranteed lose, it's like 60% loss.. So I don't even need to learn that much theory unless I want to improve my rating a lot..
1.Understanding the opening and all the plans 2.Practically, how many lines it has, how much do you need to study 3.How common is it? You learned all the variations but at you level they even play it?
Nice call on the kan sicillian . I used to play dragon and its super strong until about 1600 when f3 systems just are miserable. The kan is very good and the theory doesn't have to be too dense as all e6 sicillians are super similar like taimanov and kan always transpose.
@@hector9586 most people don't know how to play anti sicillians and it can be easy to equalise as black, if they play the open however if they know more than black it will always be tough to equalise. So if you're white if you wanna challenge the sicillian probably Check them in a prep battle
@@evantm2588 lichess database as well Chessbase gives the Alapin bigger win rates at 53%, goes higher on lower ratings the most common move is Nc6 and it's terrible even there are lines with 60%, Alapin particularly is extremely easy to play you just want to control the center and get space and avoid black development, even some lines marozcy bind is difficult to play against.
I actually spent a huge amount of time studying all possible lines of ruy as a 1300 but i think its worth it because it was fun and i like the opening.
My recommendations for beginners: White: ponziani, italian against e5; Magnus Sicilian against the Sicilian; 2 knights against french and caro. If you don’t want to learn all these then just play london or colle system. Reti opening is also good. Black: French, Caro against e5. Against d4 nimzo or a3 qgd
I think the problem with the English opening is the move g3 on move 3. Playing c4 right away isn't really the problem, and I actually think the English is a really good opening for beginners to learn as long as you don't play g3 on move 3 and instead play Nf3. The reason being after 1.c4, e5 2. Nc3, c6 all you have to do is play Nf3 to refute the d5 on blacks third turn. That way if black tries to force the issue with d5 on turn on 3, then they simply lose a pawn, and if they don't then they wasted a move developing their c6 pawn which is probably a better square for the Knight after Nf3. The engine actually gives white a slight advantage in this position. Basically, you don't need to play the Reti opening in order to refute blacks early d5 push. You just need to play Nf3 on the third move. If they prepped 2. c6 3. d5 then you walk away with a development lead and if they didn't then you can just play the English normally. It also converts into a reversed Sicilian really easily which usually hampers blacks development.
Some Giri guy made a course on how to really ask some questions in the Dragon. Since I studied the Dragon for White, I score pretty well. Admittedly, I always f it up before that. Wouldn't want to play such an opening with Black though.
“Can’t event cook simple dish, but wanna do complicated dish” (paraphrased) I feel personally attacked. I like to try complicated dishes for fun and it hurts me at the end :(
There is power in knowing the complexities of a particular opening. One's choice in an opening cannot simply be that it's "easy to learn." If it's easy for you - then it's likely easy for your opponent. If the first several moves are practically "forced" with few branches, then all you're doing is kicking the can down the road where, inevitably, your opponent will have a bewildering number of options. Yes, the first several moves of the Scotch are pretty simple and straightforward but, at some point, it will become complex. It always does. Heck, even the most drawish of openings - and one that is very easy to learn - like the Slav Exchange - gets complex with many nuances at some point. It's chess. It's going to get complex at some point. I guess one has to decide if they want that complexity to happen later rather than sooner. For instance, I play the Traxler Counter Attack against the Italian Knight Attack. It's complicated - yes. But I have studied those complexities. I remember beating my first 2000+ rated opponent, when I was only 1500 by playing the black side of the Traxler. I didn't defeat him because I was a better player than he was. I defeated him because I was booked-up better than he was. He risked much when he played 5.Nxf7. Players with much higher ratings than their opponent should avoid book lines so as to avoid being out-booked instead of out-played.
15:30 I've got a question for Levy: Why is it every chess coach I've ever encountered advocates for playing the open games first before moving on to system openings? They all say system openings stunt your chess growth if you try to start off approaching the openings that way. You need open, tactical games to get the most benefit when learning.
As always, Gotham, another piece of brilliance from you. Each of these openings you mentioned I was nodding my head and laughing in agreement. The Roy Lopez is more complex than astrophysics, the Queen's Gambit accepted is a bear trap, and to even attempt the Naidorf is indeed attempting to scale Everest. I love the passion you have for the game and the exceptional verbal communication skills you have. Your videos are always so informative and genuinely entertaining. You're a brilliant teacher. Thanks again so much.👏
Playing classical openings like Ruy Lopez and queens gambit is far better for improving than stuff London and Caro kann. Also, you can easily play ruy Lopez with d3 after Nf6 avoiding complex theory.
Hey, thanks Levy. I was actually trying to figure out what to play with black against d4. Also, you really helped me out with the Vienna gambit. I don't always get the position but it's a huge amount of fun when I do and it's easy to learn. Thank you.
I usually don't comment on chess videos but I can't help myself with this one. THANK YOU!!! Although your speaking pace is a bit fast, you really had a lot to say for 800 players to think about! I will need to watch this video a few more times, but your clarity on what to consider playing at my level is spot on! Even more important is the way you discussed the priorities for the average player to consider. I have been focusing on a 4 Knights philosophy which gives me lots of opportunities, but I am now reconsidering my philosophy to align with what you have identified as priorities. I'll get back to you in a few weeks and let you know what I think works well for me.
As an over the board 1400ish player I'd say there is nothing wrong with playing the Najdorf as an intermediate player, I use it with pretty good success as you mostly need to know the main lines of 7. Be3 and Bg5, e5 h5 against h3 and more general ideas and setups against the rest. Also, if your opponent is less prepared than you, it's often easy to find why a certain move is not part of the theory and exploit it. Currently my repertoire is King's Indian Attack and Vienna for white and Dutch, Najdorf, Dragon and Kan for black, highly recommend these to intermediate club players like myself from my personal experience
@@samoppedisano3994 playing overly theoretic openings as a beginner instead of learning good opening principles and play something easy to learn and setup like is a good way of not getting any consistency in your openings and over complicate things
@@samoppedisano3994 + there’s no such thing as an opening that’s only good as an beginner. Openings like the scotch and the London is easy to learn and works on a lot of levels.
If you are willing to look, there are a lot of wacky things you can do even if you play the London. For instance, in acc London, if they go c5, you can try dxc5, and you get completely different lines now, or if they copycat with Bc5 2nd move, you can go c4 immediately or later. Both examples are engine supported, and guaranteed to surprise your opponent
The only opening I have played with white to get from 800 to 1100 was the Ruy Lopez, so when that was the first opening and you said that it was too difficult I got a little upset, but when you then said: "I am not saying that you should stop playing this if you are up for the challenge and like the opening, I am saying there are better alternatives" I was like... "Damn that sounds good actually". Great inspirational video as always Levy!
I think something important to note is some of these openings are ok IF you are willing to put in the time to actually properly study them. So try to think of it as how much time are you willing to invest to prepare these openings. For example, I play the English, and I don't like playing knight f3 so early because I like having the flexibility to play e3 knight e2 if I want to later. I always know I'm playing c4 and knight c3 the majority of the time. If black does try to break in the center with c6 then instead of playing g3 and fianchettoing the bishop, that's when I play knight f3 , threatening to win a pawn. I personally just like the playstyle of the English. I will however, will not go near the Najdorf or Ruy Lopez at my current level of playing.
Recently picked up the Grünfeld again, mainly because I'm struggling against d4. And mind you, I'm 1841 currently. The major difference between e4 and d4 is how cramped Black plays. With the Grünfeld the plan is simple. d5 grabs center space, and if White declines it it's pretty much instant equal. Black's equally developed and has no apparent weaknesses. If White accepts he gets the center with a hefty tax, as it's unmovable early on and Black gets an endgame advantage in the queenside majority, especially after cxd4 once. It's intricate yes, but at least you get to play with Black, which generally lacks in d4 systems. The only alternative I'd say you get play is the Dutch, but that's more complicated than the Sicilian (with a similar unbalanced center).
15:30: There is also 1. d4 c6 which (probably) transposes into either a Caro-Kann or a Slav/Semi-Slav, unless White is trying to play the London or something.
IMO: London for white. Nearly the same moves every game. Pirc Defense for black against e4, King's Indian Defense against d4. They basically play the same moves in a slightly different order, and you can pretty much play the same moves every game.
Learning a principled opening with rich theory is great for beginners, it allows you to grow into the opening as you improve. Learning a trappy one-trick pony opening is the only bad choice in my opinion.
Totally agree. And as you get better the gruenfeld, KID, and Dragon as he suggests will take waaayyyy more studying to just not lose. He also suggests the Albin in this video and the wing gambit in his course which with proper play are losing. I used to play the vienna and the most common thing I faced was the Nc6 declined lines which are incredibly drawish. I have been picking up the Ruy Lopez and I always feel like I've won the opening phase. I have a strong center, active pieces, tons of plans to attempt, and even if its closed the pawn structure tells me what to do. I do worse in positions with symmetrical structures and no obvious plans. The semi slav is way more solid than he makes it sound as long as you know how to activate your bishop. The botvinnik is insane but you can just play the Cambridge springs until you are ready to take that on.
I'll disagree on the Ruy. Yes, black has a lot of options but a lot of the same ideas apply to many of those options and at my level (~1800 online) I rarely find black players knowing any of the sidelines well enough, nor are most of them dangerous enough, to torch a Ruy player who understands most of the Ruy's fundamental ideas. Plus, the Ruy is really all about fundamental principles like fighting for control of the center so it's one of the best openings to train those fundamentals while also allowing you opportunities to figure out novelties at the board rather than just learning a few lines by rote. Scotch and Vienna are fantastic as well but I just love the complex positions I end up in with the Ruy that challenge my positional knowledge and tactical calculation.
Also another advantage is the thousands of brilliant gm games and lectures you can use to study from. Saint Louis chess club has great videos on ruy Lopez. This is the main thing I like about studying main lines. You don't have to buy some course you can enjoy going through the history of chess and learning at the same time. The Kasparov Karpov ruy Lopez games are simply amazing as are the bobby Fischer games.
Also yeah if you are a good positional player (which you will become if you play the ruy) you have a big advantage against those who are good at tactics but don't really understand pawn structures and manoeuvreing and you can easily just get an overwhelming positional advantage just applying ideas.
@@tameshrew469 Both great points, Ivan. I guess the only "counter-argument" would be is that many of these same points also apply to The Italian and Scotch and both have a lot less theory to study/learn. I think much of it depends on how much you as a player enjoy being in novel (to you) positions where you have to use your positional knowledge to figure things out OTB rather than just by having memorized best moves. The Ruy offers endless opportunities to learn positional chess; the Italian offers many too (not as much as Ruy) and The Scotch some but less. I do agree, though, that I often find myself in Ruy games where I get an advantage just by knowing the positional ideas better even when I'm out of book before move 10.
1:22. Absolutely crushed my confidence. Playin Rui Lopez Since I was 800. But honestly you are right. I win more game with black than white which is a rarerity. Around 60% win with black(caro-kann) and with white rui lopez 57% and the major reason is. I don't know what to do in the long term. I give them the opportunity to develope and play I get the same I don't really get an advantage. I am 1200 so noone knows berlin or martial. But still if they play normally. I don't really get any attack. Since, it is very positional and I am not that good. I tried to learn all the main lines but still unclear. But I will continue with rui lopez though.
The Baltic defense is literally refuted after cxd5 because in many positions white can bring the queen out early and it's hard to remove the white queen from its position when the pressure is enormous, the black bishop also become a loose piece and there's nothing.
Confused at why you "can't" take that at 2:00 in. Sure, queen D4 would force the knight to move, but couldn't you just move the knight back to f3 and let the queen take kings pawn? This would put you in check, but then you could just trade queens. You'd lose the ability to castle. But, they'd have stacked pawns, and zero pawns in the middle columns. Now, I'm far from some chess master, but this doesn't seem like a bad position to be in imo. Also, at 2:55 why do I need a weapon against this Berlin defense? That bishop is my weapon against the Berlin, could I not just continue doing what I was doing, and take the knight/pawn? I see no reason to do that complicated set of moves you showed in that situation (I believe you called this the Berlin end game, but I'm bad at all these names so I don't know for sure)
I'm a 1070 and i love playing the Catalan. And yes, black makes a lot of mistakes. I used to play the Najdorf but the sicilian lines are EXTREMELY difficult, so i just play e5, or something like Philidor and Kings's Indian Defense
Bong cloud has one variation super easy to learn and surprises the opponent. Has to be the top 3 openings
*Among us* 😳
magnus plays it, so it must be good, right?
@@justdidyourmomlol exactly???
Yes, in this video
@@justdidyourmomlol hikaru also
1:20 *Ruy Lopez*
7:00 *English*
10:52 *Najdorf*
15:25 *QGA*
19:24 *Grunfeld*
Thanks! I just wanted to know how it was spelled
Thanks
I think I’m just gonna play the Vienna.
I play fianchetto
I play the farfalle (transl: butterflies). This is where a new piece which looks like a butterfly flies over the king‘s head and shits on him. The king is so pissed of that he kills the queen and himself = I win the game.
Just wanna point out something interesting: 12:28 the Alapin variation of the Sicilian Defence with c3 and d4 is the EXACT reverse of the main line variation of the English Opening with c6-d5. Both of them are bad for the one playing against them. Please, LISTEN to this man and take some of his advice to heart.
Alapin is hardly scary for black if black knows what they're doing. It's not like you need to know deep theory to play against it anyway, just go d5
if black knows which move to play, alapin is practically useless. Yes you have attacking options, but they can easily defend.
I've played the Alapin with white and there really isn't much if black just plays d5. Banking on your opponent to go wrong is not a good long term strategy and won't help you improve.
I ALWAYS listen to Levy and take all of his advice to heart. Who wouldn't ? Levy is a great teacher.
@@joel9137 yeah, i see c3 i play d5 and I enjoy equality :). Honestly as a Sicilian player i have a worse score against the Morra Gambit, even though i Already studied so many times
It’s bold of you to assume I knew I was playing these openings.
My man
Highly under rated comment
I laughed for 3 seconds. Thank you sir.
My favorite opening is when I haven't botched my queen is the first 5 moves. I call it the "Nonblotchqueen" opening.
Also known as Botez gambit declined.
@@dave4lexking omfg
@@dave4lexking well done
This is super easy to play. You leave the queen in its starting position...
You need to learn the Botez Gambit
1:20 Ruy Lòpez / Spanish Opening
7:00 English Opening
10:52 Najdorf Sicilian Defense
15:25 Queen’s Gambit Accepted
19:24 Grünfield Defense
Wild. I learned the Queen's Gambit accepted and in my second game I got to pull it off perfectly.
I play the Ruy Lopez and I do pretty well with it at the 1300 level although I don't understand it's deeper lines very well.
I've never played any of the others.
Accepting the Queen's Gambit still remains to be my most traumatic experience in chess. I remember innocently grabbing that pawn and immediately regretting playing chess.
Been there, done that. When you hit 1000 elo and people start playing the Queens Gambit... I was black and thought "What could possibly go wrong" lmao
Grabbing that pawn is okay, it is hanging on to it that causes the said trauma.
@@smort123 don't try to protect it, let the opponent capture back
@@dkpandey1996 Wise
Playing 1d4 and 2c4 against a beginner is just cruel!
As a humble ~800 player, my experience with the Ruy Lopez may be inconsistent on losses and victories but I can say it has been consistent with fun. A tutorial I watched on the matter described it as an opening where tactics and calculation are at the forefront and, possibly it might be placebo, but it definitely feels like playing the Spanish made me aware of applying those skills in my gameplay
fun? are you a psychopath?
where ya at nowadays oliver
Im 2200 now, still playing ruy lopez, exept now I play everything but c5(its shit)
For a beginner or sub 1400, all openings are fine, including the Spanish.
As a 450 elo, Scholar's mate opening is the best 😂
Here I'm gonna share my golden experience.
So I studied French, and there's almost 15 systems such as Advance, Winawer, Classical, Open | Closed | Modern Tarrasch, and there's also ton of sidelines such as King's Indian System where white playing d3 instead of d4.
Also in Grunfeld which is my favorite against d4, just so insanely complex and there's also more than 10 systems in this opening.
I also studied KID, Budapest, Caro Kann, QGD, Slav, Sicilian, and I'm totally agree with Levi that some openings just doesn't belong to amateur play. Budapest, Ponziani, Englund, Scandinavian probably the easiest opening to play than any other else.
However we shouldn't memorize chess openings because it isn't effective. I studied tons of openings but I always found my enemies playing weird chess, and shockingly I don't know what to do. Then I realize it is far more effective to study pawn structure such as Caro Formation, Slav, Maroczy, Benoni, Stonewall, etc than study opening.
Believe me, opening always share many pattern between each other. You can play KID as white against Caro Kann, French, Sicilian if you know the system with e4, d3, g3-Bg2, Nc3-Ne2, Nf3-Nh4/Ne1 then goes for f4. I think the big idea arises because of the pawn structure. In the Dutch Defense, one of black common maneuver is to play Qe8 then Qg6/Qh5 but that also because of the pawn structure makes it possible. If we play a French and somehow black play f5-e6-d5, we can also do our maneuver in the Dutch with Qe8-Qg6 or we can also do the Budapest rook's maneuver a5-Ra6-Rg6/Rh6 in other opening.
So I believe memorizing chess opening isn't important, it's all about the pawn structure and couple of ideas we can absorb in many different openings.
I agree. I notice the queens gambit declined and the French are similar.
@@jackanderson719 nah, the French is another animal entirely. It's underratedly very tactical
@@wandregisel6385 depends on the variation.
@@jackanderson719 perhaps, but I can't think of any. Unless you mean "similar" in that the light-square bishop is locked in. But the ideas are wildly different. The main strategic feature of the French (in its most critical variations) is the central pawn chain, something that pretty much never occurs in the QGD. More similar to the French would be the King's Indian Defense, since both involve pawn chains, but they play very differently
"we shouldn't memorise openings"
Honestly, thank you. I fully agree, but I'm waaaaay too much of a beginner to really feel confident in expressing that opinion, however I totally agree. Rote learning specific moves seems like a really inefficient way to learn, at the beginning.
QGA player here. I kept running into literally the exact problems you listed in that section of the video. Recently I tried the Benko Gambit in one game to see how well it would do; had a completely dominant position after like 12 moves. Excellent video as always. Keep it up!
I play the QGA with a lot of succes. There are 2 positions I get 95% of the time:
After white goes 3.Nf3 of 3.e3, I play Nf6 and most of the times, I transpose into the main line, where white goes Nf3, e3 Bc4, and 0-0 and I play e6, c5 and a6. Plans are not easy, but this works.
If white goes 3.e4 or 3.Nc3, I play 3...e5 and after 4.d5 Nf6, white plays either Nc3 or e4 (the one they didn't play on move 3. Black has there a strong move 5...b5 after which I win more or less 70% of my games.
I'm not saying you have to play this, but if you want to investigate it again, this is what I would recommend (I'm rated 1800, right on the line between intermediate and advanced.
I like to play e5 and b4+
I switched from the QGA to the Benko too. One of the nice things was, I might have been lost in some positions, but I was able to fight a lot more than in the QGA, and that was important to me.
It also made me less scared to sac pawns for activity in general, too!
Throughout this video Levi is saying to avoid openings that are complex and difficult to learn. Given that, you'd think he'd be an advocate of the QGA, which is not a difficult opening at all. Just realize that as a general rule it's a bad idea to try hanging onto the pawn. A typical move order to start the game is 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 (if 3. e4 then 3...e5 or 3...Nf6, as suggested in the video, are easy to play and perfectly okay) e6 4. Bxc4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c5 (using the c-pawn to challenge the center is an important point to equalizing quickly) 6. O-O a6, reaching what can be considered the starting position of the QGA. What's nice about this position is the light-squared bishop has the a8-h1 to play on, instead of getting stuck behind pawns as in the QGD. From here, just get your pieces out to good squares, and with reasonable play you'll be surprised how often you attain the advantage around moves 15 to 20.
Benko Gambit is a solid opening. If you get to an endgame it's always better for black.
I have been playing the Grünfeld for sometime now and honestly, against 1300 lower its not that bad if you do a little study.
Won very good games with c5.
Yo 🔥th-cam.com/video/rdJ9bsN7JAw/w-d-xo.html
Same, under 1500 everyone will just go for Exchange
Grünfeld* lol
@@nikmrn Sorry I am a little stupid sometimes.
Yeah grunfeld is a decent opening , I enjoy playing with it and against it ( mainly against it tho)
Hey Levy! Loving these videos! I have an idea. Most of us have difficulty punishing "bad" moves when it comes to the opening. Can you perhaps make a video about explaining certain principles on how to spot these miss-steps? :)
This, my God this. As a beginner nearing 1000 elo, this is still the hardest part of the game. Opponent will play something stupid, say jumping the knight into the position on move 3 or something. I'll try kicking the knight out, make an inaccuracy or something, and now the opening is in unfamiliar territory, and well... It's time to wing it and play some chess
@@markrichardson2512 I'm only a 500 but this drives me nuts. It's hard enough trying to start out and learning an opening only for my opponent to make some wild move 10 seconds into the game and I'm freaking out wondering if it's a legit move only to learn that it really wasn't and I'm just bad lol.
@@timothymantor7332 You learn an opening not by memorizing moves but by knowing which principles you have to follow and what this opening is about. Too many players just memorize moves and play bad moves after their last book move. Levy´s video is very important here.
@@markrichardson2512 whenever your learning theory there is a reason why would your opponent play a spesific move, if they don't it must be a mistake.
@@naxyan1193 that's not how theory works
I like the Semi-Slav but too many people play the Exchange Slav. The solution is to play the Winawer Countergambit and really bring them out of their comfort zone
I just find the slav very restrictive in general. Any recommendation for learning to play it?
And is it hard?
@Peter play it like a reversed London. Although be careful about the order of your development. Generally you should do Nf6 before Bf5.
I started chess playing the Ruy Lopez and after the invariable Morphy Defense my bishop always ended up on the same diagonal as the Vienna Game - so I said screw it and started learning the Vienna and never play the RL anymore.
Same when I started learning opening some blog on Google suggest the ruy lopez I was just 200-300 elo after learning ruy lopez I lost to some fishing pole trap etc and I switched to the Vienna gambit
you should make a series of this, for different rating tiers
given Gotham doesn't do much editing etc. I don't see why he doesn't occasionally make 2-4 hour videos where he just talks about openings and chess philosophy etc. Especially since he's kind of plateaued at blitz and there's no point in him playing anymore unless he takes 6 months off for hardcore classical study
We need this
He did a tier list of openings with Hikaru for three levels: grandmaster, intermediate, and beginner. If you're looking for ideas for openings, they're great vids to check out.
@@waltlock8805 he should do full strategic overviews of these openings and play some games, also should go more in depth into middle game structures and all the weird little non intuitive things masters are aware of, it's frustrating because I feel I am way more talented at chess than Gotham he just knows more stuff I don't have the time to learn through trial and error
fr, the ruy Lopez is really good above 1500
I'm 1800 in rapid and I started to play the sicilian (najdorf) when I was at 900 elo
I want to say, you'll learn the side lines and how to punish them way before having your first open sicilian.
people just know 2 moves of theory and just let you do your things and then get crushed.
the only real problem you'll have I believe is that most of the side lines are more oriented towards positional chess instead of attacking chess.
But I've come to really like the expansions on the queen side when facing the grand prix and especially the fake one (with f4 on move 2).
also people seems to prefer the delayed alapin (to the alapin) which is just not good of an opening.
and for the najdorf yes it's really hard but you should manage if you learn to know when to castle and when not to...
but around 1500 people seems to like putting a knight on d5 really early in the game which is really bad as it releases the pressure instantly and you just end up in a better position if you just take it (in the early part of the game the d5 square isn't attacked enough in most lines and a white pawn arrive on that square)
5 seconds in and I already know the sicilian is gonna be one of them.
I remember reading a beginner's chess book and the first opening it introduced was the Ruy Lopez and I never understood why the bishop had to attack the knight only to backtrack after the pawns kick it away again so I'm surprised this is the first opening I shouldn't learn
Got the same book. It says it’s not best for beginners but it’s still good to learn
If Black kicks the bishop back straight away then you're just in a better version of the italian game where you have a bishop pointed at f7 that can't be hit with tempo by a d5 push. And in all of the positions before the bishop is kicked, Black is under constant pressure due to the tension on the knight that's defending the center, so White can use this to influence the position slightly in his favor. I'm not a titled player but that's basically it.
Same
I’m not a good player as I simply don’t put in the time. I have found that with the scotch game I can get myself into better positions more often because there’s not much the opponent can do to avoid the game I’ve played hundreds of times. Glad you suggested it for a similar reason as I play it. That is also why I play kings Indian defense vs d4. I don’t have the time to learn anything else. Against e4 I play the French defense, with which I’ve spent time remembering the lines enough to where the first 8-10 moves is well prepared. Is the French defense a good go to or should I be looking at something else?
it does have a decent number of variations, coming from a guy who plays the French, but it's rather simple. At my level too, only 2 variations pop up usually, Advanced, Exchange. Rarely the Two Knights or the 3.Nc3 lines, and I've yet to see a Tarrasch
dude you have just described my entire repertoire but replace the scotch with the first 3 chapters of Gotham's e4 course
As you've said that you play KID and Scotch you would probably enjoy Sicilian/Open Sicilian.
It's often said that the Sicilian and the KID have the same spirit, They are both aggressive openings where black is taking a risk to play for the win.
However, Sicilian often results in more open positions like the Scotch. Open Sicilian is basically playing the Scotch against the Sicilian except it's even better in this case.
French is decent but you have to work around a tight, closed position with a bad light square bishop. In this sense, it's like the KID, except in the KID the light square bishop is the good bishop and the dark square bishop is the bad bishop (unless the board opens up).
Caro-Kann is very solid. It aims to strike in the centre with d5, like the French, without blocking in the light square bishop. The disadvantage is that you have to spend an extra tempo on playing c6-c5 instead of playing it in 1 move like in the French or Sicilian. For this reason, the Caro-Kann has a reputation as a more slow, passive opening.
@@wildorca4500 personally I enjoy direct moves that focus on tactical play. When playing the scotch, the opponent really has to play my game for a time. There are barely any viable options to deviate from it. This is the reason I enjoy the French defense too. I play kings Indian defense because I have no interest in playing into a queens gambit. It is a fairly safe opening, with not much room for the opponent to catch me off guard early.
One of the best parts of the Kan is that a lot of people try to play the "English Attack" against it with 6.Be3 just like in the Najdorf. The problem is that after b4 and then pinning white's knight to the king, the attack is not nearly as effective against the Kan as it is against the Najdorf.
It's not completely losing, but it's just a little bit too slow to be scary, and if white stubbornly moves the Queen into the bishop's path with Qd2 in an effort to long castle black is already better. I've had this happen more than once.
A good opening against players who play routine moves without actually considering the position.
I agree that the Sicilian can be tricky to grasp and a lot of time to undertake but I also thinks it’s given me super interesting and dynamic positions, and as long as you are comfortable working through different positions that come up, like the alapin or 2.Nc3 or the rossolimo then I think it’s a really good choice. I play the accelerated dragon and you can crush people very quickly with it.
I’m glad you changed your mind about the Grunfeld. I’m not high rated but I’ve had a lot of success and fun playing it. I’ve found the games to be tactical and sharp.
Seriously appreciate this video as a beginner. I was wondering how to start studying chess openings, because I do like chess alot but I also find it hard to sit down and study anything. It's definitely an optimisation problem for me and I was struggling with it for awhile, wondering where should I even start and it was very helpful to get some advice on which openings are even worth the hassle. Also I have to say the grunfield looks really cool. Thanks Levi.
I'm brand new just breaching the 300 mark. I picked the London randomly. I don't fully understand it. I don't remember the text book middle games and sacrifices that make the London strong. But the position has made my middle game stronger. And made my games longer. When I play high level players they don't destroy me early with it. And when I play people my level they get confused on how to break through my lines.
Small hint for anyone around my rating (1400-1500 Lichess): I've almost never had a opponent that knew what to do after the Albin countergambit as response to the queens gambit. I've never been allowed to play the trap, but generally do get a very good position after a few moves. (which I then screw up the way a 1400 Lichess player occasionally does :p )
I actually got someone to fall for it all the way through on lichess lmfao (he resigned after i took his queen)
@@echelon1014 lucky you 😊
I know exactly which trap you're talking about. Since I'm quite aware of it, I don't fall for it, but I also don't get much against the Albin. I mostly play the English these days
The Ruy Lopez is the first opening my dad taught me,and i play it all my life. It's really hard to know it well, but i've beaten 2200 with it as a 1650.
Yo 🔥th-cam.com/video/rdJ9bsN7JAw/w-d-xo.html
???
Hey man, if you know an opening and have practiced it, by all means use it.
This video isn't for folks who already know the Ruy Lopez or QGA or whatever, this video is for folks who don't know their openings yet and are looking for openings to learn.
@@webbowser8834 true
@@webbowser8834 Exactly, I have learned the Grunfeld the most out of any opening and I crush people easily with it as I am 1200. You can play any opening(low level) as long as you learn to refute the stupid variations which you know the opponent will play. You rarely get the main line in lower levels.
I learned so much more about opening theory by playing simple openings than studying the complex super GM meta openings.
If anything, simple openings taught me some of the stuff you need to be aware of as a prerequisite for the complex ones.
For example, the french taught me about the importance of pawn breaks controlling the center which helped me navigate the closed positions of the italian and spanish openings. The London helped me learn purposeful maneuvers to attack which is really valuable for me learning how to properly counter attack out of the more positional Sicilian positions.
Now I am revisiting those openings with my new understanding to finally break past 1600
You did it again Levi! just what I need to hear in my struggle to learn the game. Focus on small success! keeps me challenged and not frustrated. Thanks for taking the time to make content at all levels.
Interesting. I am one of those annoying ppl who does very little study and plays about 1400-1600 most of the time. Some of my best and worst games are apparently the ruy Lopez. As white I usually make it all the way to pawn h3 (just thinking of how to restrict blacks knights). This explains so much!
FIDE 1400-1600?
The Ruy Lopez was my common go to as well and I consistently crushed....problem is that I didn't have access to a single chessbook, teacher or video. I had time to evolve it over 6 years of playing. Now a days though if I tried that same process of learning I would get crushed by people studying the foils to it. Just like video states it is too complex. Intermediate players should keep it simple.
Both Ruy Lopez and English are amazing for positional players that are not afraid of cramped positions. Knowing the ~ 20 moves plans in Ruy Lopez will win you lots of blitz games on time. In these openings you have to understand how to use a knight. Beginners usually discard knights and consider them inferior to bishops. That’s not the case with Ruy Lopez and English, where knights are the only pieces that can facilitate breakouts. Bishops become active much later in the game.
The Najdorf Sicillian is for the mental asylum. More often than not white will attempt to crush you on the kings side and your counterplay is mostly on the queens side, hoping to drive away some minor pieces and push d5 while white goes g4-g5-h4 on your king. It’s like having two dudes with baseball bats attempting to hit each other in the head. Each move has to be active. Waste a tempo and you’re gone.
As someone who thrives on action--open or semi-open centers and activity--I struggle against such openings as the English.
I think ruy is pretty good for intermediate players, i have been playing it on and off for 10 years and sure you need to have a weapon for berlin and other weird variations but it will greatly expand your chess knowledge, feel and intuition as well as your calculating skills. I main Kann for 2 years now and i love it greatly recommended for anyone who likes the Sicilian, also check the early b5 kann which is a great surprise weapon. Against queen's gambit i greatly suggest the nimzo indian, such an easy opening to understand and also leads to very interesting fun games.
Love the Nimzo Indian as well, always fun games
As a novice it feels that the advantage of attempting the Lopez is that you get to practice dynamic games rather than rehearsing an open. It feels like something to throw in from time to time just to make sure you’re thinking and not performing an opening which I tend to do when I get too ‘deep’ in an opening
Play whatever you like sure you’ll lose some game but it’s about having fun. I’m 1900 + rated.
I've always felt bad for thinking learning the ruy lopez would be a waste of time so this video made me feel good
@@jamiewalkerdine3705This is not really relevant as there are a lot of traps in any opening.
For example, there are loads of ways of crushing novice caro-kann players because they don't know their stuff.
A lot of players still fall for 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Qe2 Nbd7 6. Nd6# lol. Even knowing that, there are loads of ideas about sacrifices on e6 that even some high level caro players are unaware of.
I also play the panov attack because loads of noob caro players don't learn the theory and get crushed instantly. Very dangerous for black.
A lot of novice and even some higher level french players still walk straight into a greek gift.
Same, I always felt it seemed needlessly reckless compared to Bc4
@@jamiewalkerdine3705 If you check the lichess database a lot of people are still falling for common caro-kann traps. A lot of the time the move that falls into the trap is the 2nd or 3rd most popular move.
Also panov attack is very popular. A lot of low level caro-kann players will immediately play dxc4 which is of course a positional mistake. White is winning the vast majority of games from this position.
@@jamiewalkerdine3705 That is true. This applies the same to traps in other openings like the Ruy Lopez though.
Traps in spanish is easy to figure out once you think and dont play mindlessly ffs. Theres no bishop traps, no space disadvantage, no nothing. You can play ruy without theory (thats what i do) because no lunatic studies ruy theory until like 2000. Also its the best opening to improve your middle gane planning because the ideas are fairly simple in ruy.
Welp, there's all my favourite openings.
Good advice about not making it up as you go along in an English, and 1. Nf3 indeed makes good sense. However, 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 isn't normally regarded as an English (around 8:50) after 2 ...d4. As you mention later (10:30), it's a Reti (and a reversed Benoni), and transpositions to the English can be tricky and are not guaranteed, which might not suit everybody... 2 e3 is a well-regarded idea too, as you note. A early Nf3 cuts out lots of f4 attacks in the KID and Benoni, but such ultra-sharp lines might be best avoided anyway for most players. I'd add that there are way too many reasonable and diverse Black defences to the King's Gambit, but at least it's not the jungle that the Ruy Lopez is.
Against the Alapin, I recommend playing d5. You’ll have to take back with the queen if they take the pawn but there aren’t immediate threats on the queen which is nice so you can develop your pieces. I’ve seen top level games where black gets a comfortable position, including a monster game from Nepo. I suggest looking into some games.
I don't like the scandi so I play blackmar-diemer against it, but the knight kicking away the queen motif is still glued into my head. So when I see someone block that C3 early, instant D5 from me. You took away that knight's main development square and I'm sure as hell going to take advantage of it. That being said I don't like playing the sicillian either as either side lol.
I don’t know why but when i was starting chess i immediately learned the spanish and kept studying it without understanding how difficult it was, so i went up the rating ladders just playing it and the result is that i love the spanish
I remember when I first started I played the “Kadas opening”, I knew it was bad but I tried to make it work. Eventually gave up and just went for the stonewall
Yo 🔥th-cam.com/video/rdJ9bsN7JAw/w-d-xo.html
is kadas 1.h4?
@@tdeleven yes, usually followed by d5 then Rh3
1400 ELO, Here are my favorite openings:
White:
Italian Game: Evans Gambit, Max Lange Attack (sharp) or Nahkmanson (fun!). Fried Liver if it's Classical.
Against Sicilian: Smith Morra
Black:
Vs e4: Scandinavian Bronstein Variation, Petroff for Classical, or Stafford for fun.
Vs d4: QGD going for Cambridge Defense (fun traps). I used to play Albin Countergambit. Vs London, I enjoy early queen b6 lines.
Vs c4: Still working on a Reversed Sicilian repertoire. I still kinda sigh when I see this on the board.
Just thought I'd share! Passionate about my choices and I took time to cultivate this repertoire, so I'm happy to answer questions or share my reasonings.
Most instructional chess video I saw in years. So many lines touched upon. I certainly agree with the ruy Lopez, I suggest adding
the scotch gambit as a variation of the scotch game to the repertoire.
Man, the rui lopez is my second favourite opening for white after queens gambit/catalan if declined exactly because there are so many variations and shitty responses that i always have fun figuring out how to play against to sadistically restrict my opponent to zero and kill all his fun from the game, because he didn't prepare for literally even one lane that he could pick of all and that fact just annoys me. I guess it just fits my character. I love studying openings and always when i invent something new for me with engines, fire out 15 moves of prep for any oppenent's response with alphazerolike sacrifices against chesscom normies or my dad when i practise. And like exactly as gotham said. I love having no controll over opponents setup, because i love the strategic battle of setups. This is why i love chess. "Practicality" to be honest depends on the time that we spend. If you want to learn the game, choose opening that you can't afford to fully understand in like month period, so it improves all your knowledge as you learn it, different transformations of positions, middlegames, attacking, controlling strategical points.
Gotham's content is very casual friendly as it should be for wide public and i wrote all of that just to say that i agree with him. That crap is impractical unless you are some tryhard like me and i felt like i had to change narration for second part of comment, because this is most entertaining chess channel, i liked the video. If someone had nerves to read it all, have a wonderful day.
Thanks, you have a great one as well! :)
Yep, I always challenge myself against incompetent chess players. I am not afraid to lose. Its more fun as a challenge. Repetitive game play is boring.
As an intermediate player, I actually really like the ruy. I feel like there are not plans, like in a lot of openings, but there's like a lot of moves that white wants to play eventually, and it never feels like there's enough time to play them all if black is combative enough, so you have to pick and choose. Through experience at my level (1600ish on lichess) I kind of feel like there are certain plans for black that are more or less effective, and a list of moves that I want to do over time. I feel like I develop chess thinking by figuring out which of the laundry list of moves are appropriate for the position.
So for example, I know that in ruy positions I want to castle, break in the center at some point, (d4 +c3) and push c3 to retreat my LSB and allow it to defend the e4 pawn. (So I want to play bishop c2 at some point after bishop a5) I hope that my opponent extends the kingside to push the bishop back, and that I have pushed c3 before that, so I can retreat my bishop in a single tempo. I also potentially want to play re1, but that might weaken f2, so h3 might be useful to prevent knights or bishops dropping in.
Basically, I feel like after move 4ish, I can play basically any of these moves plus a few other plans (a4? queenside knight to f1?) and end up kind of okay as long as I'm thinking about what makes sense.
I also like that the ruy forces me to think only about one main pawn break in the centre, (in most games, it's certainly more complicated in practice) so I can focus on how the d4 push affects any bishops in the position. And I also like how it lets me play on all sides of the board and experiment with a- and b- pawn pushes. Then, if the queenside opens up, I can learn how to contest open files. And if I have c1/c2 bishops then a kingside attack looms.
Basically, I think the overall rhythm of a ruy game is really conducive to my learning. I feel like I think about the moves instead of theory I've memorized. And some predictable plans by black (a7, b6) occur in many games and have fairly straightforward responses.
Just wanted to add my two cents - there are certainly good reasons to recommend against the ruy for most levels, but I've found it really fun and fairly intuitive, actually.
I agree I don't think you need to learn that much in the mainlines. It's all quite logical. There are plans later in the game though, usually once the pawn structure changes. If it closes white often goes for a kingside attack where they try and get a knight sac on f5 for example. Or sometimes playing a5 and doubling rooks on the a file. Or just restricting blacks plans. Don't forget as well that YOU can pick sidelines that force black into positions they won't know and you will still probably have a slight edge because ruy Lopez is so strong objectively. Against the chigorin I like the d5 variation which is objectively fairly equal but you play g4 and move your queen and knights to the kingside and go for mate.
I think it really depends on what your goals are. Why would someone who actually has the time to memorize want to play a weaker opening just because he can get away with that against lower ELO players? That's how I've always felt ever since I was 800 rated.
Yo Levy, could you make a video talking about how to study chess? I love this game and find it really satisfying to beat someone by punishing a mistake I've already seen. Still, I've tried to read books on openings, some 1.d4 stuff, some book on the French Defense and I think the usual "memorize the moves" approach to be somewhat dull and dry. Would be great if you, as a teacher could point us to some other learning method for the amateur player, I've always thought about some kind of concept based learning, like study about pawn breaks, in general, then apply it to some opening you already been playing for awhile, or something along these lines. Love your content!
Levy has a beginner course that covers that. Buy it.
first lesson as a amateur players about "studying", do not learn much opening theory, do tactics,middlegames and endgames, learn chess fundamentals like it's a bible, around 1500, start having a simple repertoire with white and black against most popular responses, after a while learning to calculate is important.
Openings? Usually I just bend over and get spanked while my opponent explores my opening.
What.
Thank you very much . I didnt know such openings are complicated to understand
I remember when I started chess again around a year ago, I started to study the Ruy Lopez, and then saw a video of Gotham where he said almost exactly what he’s saying here… I stopped playing the Ruy Lopez immediately and started studying some other stuff, and looking back at it a year later and 400 points higher, it was the best decision I ever made (chess-related)
Idk man I’m 600 points higher than a year ago and it’s by far my favourite opening and I now know enough of all the variations to destroy everyone else because they are completely incompetent in the ruy lopez
@@r.m2192 I’m 500 points higher than a year ago and playing the ruy gives me good success. I’m still under 1400 so people don’t know variations at all yet but I feel comfortable with it
@@EMFObserver wait till you reach 1400😈
@@r.m2192 ruy lopez is ez to beat
Life is too short for the Ruy Lopez.
I recently put together a comprehensive Gambits Repertoire for myself and have been having a lot of fun and a good amount of success with it, partially exactly because I have a response ready to most openings that forces my opponent to play into my opening, not the other way around - so in around 90% of my games I get to play the way I want.
I like playing the Sicilian because my opponents have no idea what to do against it.
I have a 70% win rate in the Sicilian even though I am butchering it objectively.
Lmao. Meanwhile I don’t know any opening, other than “e4; confusing variation”
then you will reach 1500 and will face every single anti sicilian in history.
@@hector9586 1500s don't properly know anti sicilians either
I don't play Sicilian against higher rated opponents.
Played it once against a 1400. I was better in the opening but he stomped me with a kingside attack.
@@Mathijs_A I mean, Alapin is not hard to play the most weird looking moves is Na3 in some variations.
I knew a coach who never even played tournament chess, and he was recommending the grunfeld to players around 1100-1300.
After a tournament where dropped from the 1900s to the 1800s, losing to many weaker players, my parents decided that it was their playstyle that caused my defeat. So they took me for a few sessions with the coach I mentioned above, and he, who’s strongest students is like 1700, also recommended me the grunfeld (I was playing the KID back then)
It took a year as my rating continued to drop for other reasons to get back to the 1900s level, but 2 more months later, I reached 2000 and said goodbye to the 1000s. Looking back, this change was one of the key reasons I was able to crack 2000 as I realized how limiting the KID is for black when white plays counters like the f3 or h3 variations.
If the grunfeld is bad for beginners, than the KID may be even worse. F3 or H3 and if you don’t know key lines you will be passively defending the entire game.
You can't play the dragon without knowing what you're doing - you'll be eviscerated by the Yugoslav attack.
So, yes I play the Ruy Lopez and after a fair bit of study it does wipe the opponent off the board most of the time. It is defiantly not a casual opening. It was part of an openings course that I've spent literal days studying. About 5 months in and I haven't started the Sicilian or the Nimzo-Indian, so I agree. Not casual openings but very effective.
1. ... d5. And then all your hard prep is wasted.
@@iainmcclure416 actually, smile in amusement since that refutation line is extremely simple. To quote Fischer, Scandinavian is weak.
I do feel like the study you have to put in to learn the ruy if you are good enough to actually understand the plans is definitely worth it. You have guaranteed small advantage even if black plays perfectly and usually a +1 or more if black plays inaccurately or some dodgy sideline. And once you have that advantage and know how to nurture it and grow it, your opponent is kinda helpless. There is a reason they call it "the Spanish squeeze". It's an opening for life. I want to take like a year to study it fully (I'm about 1800) because once I have I'll have an opening I can play for life and get great positions and lots of wins where I just get a small steady advantage and squeeze black till he resigns.
I’m studying the English atm (specifically the Botvinnik variation by Simon Williams) and this variation really does present consistent results and the best thing about the opening is the ideas are easy to understand and you can get the same set up for most of blacks responses, of course there are specifics you need to keep in mind but it’s very good because if you can spot and figure out blocks plan and actively stop it, it pretty much plays itself :D that’s my opinion on the matter 😂
What's your ELO? I'm looking to grind against the English because I'm still so unfamiliar with it. Not too common and I don't have practice in facing it. I'm around 1400 rapid.
I agree and disagree with Levy
The "hard opening" such as Ruy or Najdorf leads to various structures, for each position you can't play three games and then improve. So it takes a lot of time to play and analyze the games in different kinds of positions. You may not feel your improvement since there is a lot of work needed to be done first.
However, as a 2-year Najdorf player. I feel myself knowing the main line as well as the sidelines gradually since I play a lot of games in different positions. And thanks to the variety of the positions in Najdorf, I think I have become a better "chess player" instead of only good at some openings.
So I think you can play whatever opening you want, just stick to it and play a lot of games, you'll feel the improvement.
Yeah, but I think this video is more targeted towards beginners or intermediate players who will most likely not want to study all the lines or just not play a shit ton to face all the possible options
@@blazer7731 Yeah but the thing is your opponents don't know the theory either XD. So I think you should not study too much before playing, you play and then study. I think the best way is to treat the courses and GM repertoires as dictionaries instead of textbooks. After you play a game, you check the courses and learn the main ideas, but do not study what you don't face.
I had White in a U.S. Open against a man who had Bobby Fischer's scalp. I played 1.c4 and lost. I was on a team playing a correspondence game with Sammy Reshevsky. It was in progress when he died. We had Black and had an even position from a Gruenfeld opening.
"Shut up, you're going to blow the kitchen up!" I love this stuff x
Superb insight! Contrarily, sometimes I like to take the approach of entering a dark forest and applying theory when I've learned it and principles and calculation when I can. That's why I have played the Ruy Lopez as white for such a long time, even welcoming the Marshall. Indeed, the number of variations is staggering. I feel, no matter the number of variations within choice of opening, it is the dark forest element of play of the game that makes me love it.
exactly. chess is at its best when it's crazy and complicated. i don't know why you would want it to be simple.
@@yaboi6851 because you win more
KID and Sicilian Dragon as Black (you have to know sidelines and relevant main lines obviously) and Catalan as Black. I'm 2130 rapid Lichess and I have not played any other opening since I was 1650 back on 2018.
Your ratings shoot up when you know what to do in the opening and middlegame.
I don't suggest KID because if opponent knows theory then KID is just bad. My win rate against KID is 76% because I know KID theory (tried to learn it before I switched to slav)
@@shouryaaswal5681 ya but there's a bunch of lines where you can trade into an equal position out of the endgame. You can usually tell by the tenth move what you're up against. In the slav, its much harder to play for a win when your opponent does not know what to do.
I tink there are better choices than going into the Catalan as black , but KID and dragon are good openings for intermidiate and low key advanced players.
@@shouryaaswal5681 I don't suggest any opening because if opponent knows theory (better than you do) then any opening is just bad?
Most would agree the KID is not a good suggestion for beginners, but that's because it doesn't reinforce the basic principles and pretty much teaches bad habits. However, that is not what defines a bad opening within the context of the video. It's also not like the benchmark for a "good opening" was stated as "you don't need to know any theory at all". From the perspective of "is it worth it to learn the theory I NEED to learn in order to play this opening with success?"(which seemed to be the angle), the KID is fine.
Also, you might have a win rate of 76% against the kid, but that doesn't mean your opponents have only 24% win rate with KID. Just because the KID is "bad" against you specifically, doesn't mean that it is "bad" across the board. You are using anecdotal evidence to support a general conclusion/claim, which is a fallacy.
My actual point was not which specific opening I play. Its that if you want to improve you need to create a repertoire and stick to it.
All of that applies to the Vienna or the London. People play random moves starting from move 3. I believe that strategic patterns and plans are a million times more important than the opening, as well as knowing the concepts of compensation, bad piece, activity and initiative my level (1500). If the material is equal a +2 evaluation does not really mean anything. Even losing a piece in the opening is not a guaranteed lose, it's like 60% loss.. So I don't even need to learn that much theory unless I want to improve my rating a lot..
I play the London and Vienna and absolutely no one knows the lines for them and im just winning immediately
1.Understanding the opening and all the plans 2.Practically, how many lines it has, how much do you need to study 3.How common is it? You learned all the variations but at you level they even play it?
Thank you for everything! Chess is getting much more fun with all the knowledge you share with us🔥
Nice call on the kan sicillian . I used to play dragon and its super strong until about 1600 when f3 systems just are miserable. The kan is very good and the theory doesn't have to be too dense as all e6 sicillians are super similar like taimanov and kan always transpose.
Ngl f3 is blissful as white
As an E4 player, I despise playing against Kans, so it's a great weapon to have
I mean, online you would just find anti sicilians not many play open sicilian.
@@hector9586 most people don't know how to play anti sicillians and it can be easy to equalise as black, if they play the open however if they know more than black it will always be tough to equalise. So if you're white if you wanna challenge the sicillian probably Check them in a prep battle
@@evantm2588 lichess database as well Chessbase gives the Alapin bigger win rates at 53%, goes higher on lower ratings the most common move is Nc6 and it's terrible even there are lines with 60%, Alapin particularly is extremely easy to play you just want to control the center and get space and avoid black development, even some lines marozcy bind is difficult to play against.
Ruy Lopez with bishop a4 is great. It develops tactical positioning.
ya but hard to learn
@@agnesmasih8277 hard to learn but worth it. Also learning ruy Lopez teaches you so much about chess in general.
@@tameshrew469 italian is easier to learn and teaches you as much about chess
@@tameshrew469 but the London also exists
I actually spent a huge amount of time studying all possible lines of ruy as a 1300 but i think its worth it because it was fun and i like the opening.
if it is fun, keep doing it?
@@its0dill659 i guess :D my only problem is the berlin though i dont enjoy playing against it.
If you like the positions you get, maybe it would be worth your while to put in the work and study the subtleties.
@@tabby7189 for sure will do that.
My recommendations for beginners:
White: ponziani, italian against e5; Magnus Sicilian against the Sicilian; 2 knights against french and caro. If you don’t want to learn all these then just play london or colle system. Reti opening is also good.
Black: French, Caro against e5. Against d4 nimzo or a3 qgd
I think the problem with the English opening is the move g3 on move 3. Playing c4 right away isn't really the problem, and I actually think the English is a really good opening for beginners to learn as long as you don't play g3 on move 3 and instead play Nf3. The reason being after 1.c4, e5 2. Nc3, c6 all you have to do is play Nf3 to refute the d5 on blacks third turn. That way if black tries to force the issue with d5 on turn on 3, then they simply lose a pawn, and if they don't then they wasted a move developing their c6 pawn which is probably a better square for the Knight after Nf3. The engine actually gives white a slight advantage in this position.
Basically, you don't need to play the Reti opening in order to refute blacks early d5 push. You just need to play Nf3 on the third move. If they prepped 2. c6 3. d5 then you walk away with a development lead and if they didn't then you can just play the English normally. It also converts into a reversed Sicilian really easily which usually hampers blacks development.
What's your rating? I need practice against the English.
what do you mean the dragon sicilian is simple? you can mess up 15000 different ways with black if you dont know what you are doing
Some Giri guy made a course on how to really ask some questions in the Dragon. Since I studied the Dragon for White, I score pretty well. Admittedly, I always f it up before that. Wouldn't want to play such an opening with Black though.
Please don't be Scandi. Please don't be Scandi..... It's all I play into e4
“Can’t event cook simple dish, but wanna do complicated dish” (paraphrased)
I feel personally attacked. I like to try complicated dishes for fun and it hurts me at the end :(
There is power in knowing the complexities of a particular opening. One's choice in an opening cannot simply be that it's "easy to learn." If it's easy for you - then it's likely easy for your opponent. If the first several moves are practically "forced" with few branches, then all you're doing is kicking the can down the road where, inevitably, your opponent will have a bewildering number of options. Yes, the first several moves of the Scotch are pretty simple and straightforward but, at some point, it will become complex. It always does. Heck, even the most drawish of openings - and one that is very easy to learn - like the Slav Exchange - gets complex with many nuances at some point.
It's chess. It's going to get complex at some point. I guess one has to decide if they want that complexity to happen later rather than sooner.
For instance, I play the Traxler Counter Attack against the Italian Knight Attack. It's complicated - yes. But I have studied those complexities. I remember beating my first 2000+ rated opponent, when I was only 1500 by playing the black side of the Traxler. I didn't defeat him because I was a better player than he was. I defeated him because I was booked-up better than he was. He risked much when he played 5.Nxf7. Players with much higher ratings than their opponent should avoid book lines so as to avoid being out-booked instead of out-played.
15:30 I've got a question for Levy: Why is it every chess coach I've ever encountered advocates for playing the open games first before moving on to system openings? They all say system openings stunt your chess growth if you try to start off approaching the openings that way. You need open, tactical games to get the most benefit when learning.
As always, Gotham, another piece of brilliance from you. Each of these openings you mentioned I was nodding my head and laughing in agreement. The Roy Lopez is more complex than astrophysics, the Queen's Gambit accepted is a bear trap, and to even attempt the Naidorf is indeed attempting to scale Everest. I love the passion you have for the game and the exceptional verbal communication skills you have. Your videos are always so informative and genuinely entertaining. You're a brilliant teacher. Thanks again so much.👏
Playing classical openings like Ruy Lopez and queens gambit is far better for improving than stuff London and Caro kann. Also, you can easily play ruy Lopez with d3 after Nf6 avoiding complex theory.
Hey, thanks Levy. I was actually trying to figure out what to play with black against d4.
Also, you really helped me out with the Vienna gambit. I don't always get the position but it's a huge amount of fun when I do and it's easy to learn. Thank you.
I usually don't comment on chess videos but I can't help myself with this one. THANK YOU!!! Although your speaking pace is a bit fast, you really had a lot to say for 800 players to think about! I will need to watch this video a few more times, but your clarity on what to consider playing at my level is spot on! Even more important is the way you discussed the priorities for the average player to consider. I have been focusing on a 4 Knights philosophy which gives me lots of opportunities, but I am now reconsidering my philosophy to align with what you have identified as priorities. I'll get back to you in a few weeks and let you know what I think works well for me.
I've just started getting into chess. Awesome videos sir.
As an over the board 1400ish player I'd say there is nothing wrong with playing the Najdorf as an intermediate player, I use it with pretty good success as you mostly need to know the main lines of 7. Be3 and Bg5, e5 h5 against h3 and more general ideas and setups against the rest. Also, if your opponent is less prepared than you, it's often easy to find why a certain move is not part of the theory and exploit it. Currently my repertoire is King's Indian Attack and Vienna for white and Dutch, Najdorf, Dragon and Kan for black, highly recommend these to intermediate club players like myself from my personal experience
Dude really just named a bunch of fantastic openings
Not for beginners
@@Yesyesverynice playing beginner openings is the best way to stay a beginner
@@samoppedisano3994 playing overly theoretic openings as a beginner instead of learning good opening principles and play something easy to learn and setup like is a good way of not getting any consistency in your openings and over complicate things
@@samoppedisano3994 + there’s no such thing as an opening that’s only good as an beginner. Openings like the scotch and the London is easy to learn and works on a lot of levels.
@@Yesyesverynice guessing you’re about 1200-1300 and play only the London, Vienna, and caro?
Now we need a 4 easiest
Js play the London
I’ve been fighting Wally for about 9 months now. I use the London. Only the London. Maybe I need a new opening…
I quit the London for the Vienna Gambit, more success
I've beaten Wally only once
If you are willing to look, there are a lot of wacky things you can do even if you play the London. For instance, in acc London, if they go c5, you can try dxc5, and you get completely different lines now, or if they copycat with Bc5 2nd move, you can go c4 immediately or later. Both examples are engine supported, and guaranteed to surprise your opponent
@@randomdude9135 I’ve messed up a win about 10 times during the endgame. Once I had mate in 4 and blew it.
The only opening I have played with white to get from 800 to 1100 was the Ruy Lopez, so when that was the first opening and you said that it was too difficult I got a little upset, but when you then said: "I am not saying that you should stop playing this if you are up for the challenge and like the opening, I am saying there are better alternatives" I was like... "Damn that sounds good actually". Great inspirational video as always Levy!
I think something important to note is some of these openings are ok IF you are willing to put in the time to actually properly study them. So try to think of it as how much time are you willing to invest to prepare these openings. For example, I play the English, and I don't like playing knight f3 so early because I like having the flexibility to play e3 knight e2 if I want to later. I always know I'm playing c4 and knight c3 the majority of the time. If black does try to break in the center with c6 then instead of playing g3 and fianchettoing the bishop, that's when I play knight f3 , threatening to win a pawn. I personally just like the playstyle of the English. I will however, will not go near the Najdorf or Ruy Lopez at my current level of playing.
you can also 100% still play knight c6 against the alapin
My dad exclusively plays Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, and Queen’s gambit accepted.
The best way to play is to not play at all. :)
Agreed
😂🤣
I never lost against Magnus Carlsen.
Best advice a chess player can receive.
Is this a reference to "Wargames"?
The Sicilian Defense is difficult for both Black and White and this makes up for White's game.
As a 1400 rapid player who almost exclusively only plays the Ruy as white when it’s an option, I feel attacked.
Recently picked up the Grünfeld again, mainly because I'm struggling against d4. And mind you, I'm 1841 currently. The major difference between e4 and d4 is how cramped Black plays. With the Grünfeld the plan is simple. d5 grabs center space, and if White declines it it's pretty much instant equal. Black's equally developed and has no apparent weaknesses. If White accepts he gets the center with a hefty tax, as it's unmovable early on and Black gets an endgame advantage in the queenside majority, especially after cxd4 once. It's intricate yes, but at least you get to play with Black, which generally lacks in d4 systems. The only alternative I'd say you get play is the Dutch, but that's more complicated than the Sicilian (with a similar unbalanced center).
This video is just levy flexing how may opening variations he knows
My most common openings as white are the Ruy Lopez and the English 😭😭😭
U can debate
I have actually played the first one without knowing about it👍😂
15:30: There is also 1. d4 c6 which (probably) transposes into either a Caro-Kann or a Slav/Semi-Slav, unless White is trying to play the London or something.
IMO: London for white. Nearly the same moves every game.
Pirc Defense for black against e4, King's Indian Defense against d4. They basically play the same moves in a slightly different order, and you can pretty much play the same moves every game.
Learning a principled opening with rich theory is great for beginners, it allows you to grow into the opening as you improve. Learning a trappy one-trick pony opening is the only bad choice in my opinion.
Well said.
Totally agree. And as you get better the gruenfeld, KID, and Dragon as he suggests will take waaayyyy more studying to just not lose. He also suggests the Albin in this video and the wing gambit in his course which with proper play are losing. I used to play the vienna and the most common thing I faced was the Nc6 declined lines which are incredibly drawish. I have been picking up the Ruy Lopez and I always feel like I've won the opening phase. I have a strong center, active pieces, tons of plans to attempt, and even if its closed the pawn structure tells me what to do. I do worse in positions with symmetrical structures and no obvious plans. The semi slav is way more solid than he makes it sound as long as you know how to activate your bishop. The botvinnik is insane but you can just play the Cambridge springs until you are ready to take that on.
I'll disagree on the Ruy. Yes, black has a lot of options but a lot of the same ideas apply to many of those options and at my level (~1800 online) I rarely find black players knowing any of the sidelines well enough, nor are most of them dangerous enough, to torch a Ruy player who understands most of the Ruy's fundamental ideas. Plus, the Ruy is really all about fundamental principles like fighting for control of the center so it's one of the best openings to train those fundamentals while also allowing you opportunities to figure out novelties at the board rather than just learning a few lines by rote. Scotch and Vienna are fantastic as well but I just love the complex positions I end up in with the Ruy that challenge my positional knowledge and tactical calculation.
Also another advantage is the thousands of brilliant gm games and lectures you can use to study from. Saint Louis chess club has great videos on ruy Lopez. This is the main thing I like about studying main lines. You don't have to buy some course you can enjoy going through the history of chess and learning at the same time. The Kasparov Karpov ruy Lopez games are simply amazing as are the bobby Fischer games.
Also yeah if you are a good positional player (which you will become if you play the ruy) you have a big advantage against those who are good at tactics but don't really understand pawn structures and manoeuvreing and you can easily just get an overwhelming positional advantage just applying ideas.
@@tameshrew469 Both great points, Ivan. I guess the only "counter-argument" would be is that many of these same points also apply to The Italian and Scotch and both have a lot less theory to study/learn. I think much of it depends on how much you as a player enjoy being in novel (to you) positions where you have to use your positional knowledge to figure things out OTB rather than just by having memorized best moves. The Ruy offers endless opportunities to learn positional chess; the Italian offers many too (not as much as Ruy) and The Scotch some but less. I do agree, though, that I often find myself in Ruy games where I get an advantage just by knowing the positional ideas better even when I'm out of book before move 10.
This must be one of your most helpful videos for the student facing Opening Theory. Thank you!
1:22. Absolutely crushed my confidence. Playin Rui Lopez Since I was 800. But honestly you are right. I win more game with black than white which is a rarerity. Around 60% win with black(caro-kann) and with white rui lopez 57% and the major reason is. I don't know what to do in the long term. I give them the opportunity to develope and play I get the same I don't really get an advantage. I am 1200 so noone knows berlin or martial. But still if they play normally. I don't really get any attack. Since, it is very positional and I am not that good. I tried to learn all the main lines but still unclear. But I will continue with rui lopez though.
The Baltic defense is literally refuted after cxd5 because in many positions white can bring the queen out early and it's hard to remove the white queen from its position when the pressure is enormous, the black bishop also become a loose piece and there's nothing.
This guy really just ranked the ruy lopez as worse than the Saragossa opening 💀
he didn't say it worse, he said to avoid them
Real ones know this is a re-upload
I love the ruy lopez
Confused at why you "can't" take that at 2:00 in. Sure, queen D4 would force the knight to move, but couldn't you just move the knight back to f3 and let the queen take kings pawn? This would put you in check, but then you could just trade queens. You'd lose the ability to castle. But, they'd have stacked pawns, and zero pawns in the middle columns. Now, I'm far from some chess master, but this doesn't seem like a bad position to be in imo.
Also, at 2:55 why do I need a weapon against this Berlin defense? That bishop is my weapon against the Berlin, could I not just continue doing what I was doing, and take the knight/pawn? I see no reason to do that complicated set of moves you showed in that situation (I believe you called this the Berlin end game, but I'm bad at all these names so I don't know for sure)
I'm a 1070 and i love playing the Catalan. And yes, black makes a lot of mistakes. I used to play the Najdorf but the sicilian lines are EXTREMELY difficult, so i just play e5, or something like Philidor and Kings's Indian Defense