He really is a fountain of knowledge. I have read quite a few full length chess books that were from beginner to master and have never heard of evaluating a pieces worth based on how many of the opponent's squares it attacks.
Yasser is the Richard Feynman of Chess. Listening to him everything in Chess suddenly makes sense and just seems almost obvious.. but it takes someone truly gifted to make it this clear.
Never thought about that comparison before but it’s very true; they both have a way of making complex topics very clear. And coincidentally one of my favourite explanations by Richard Feynman is when he describes the scientific method as like working out the rules of chess by looking at a chessboard.
You are so kind and gentle teaching this most magnificent game, you are like a four star general talking to children in a language they can understand. I was born in the Soviet Union and I learned the basics of chess early. Now, at the age of 46 I am returning to this game and you, Mr. Seirawan, are a magnificent teacher. God bless you for doing such wonderful job and being such a decent and patient human being.
I am not good at many things, but as it happens counting is one of these things I can do particularly well. So naturally Yasser's idea of 'counting' space by simply count what amount of my opponents squares are attacked by my pieces really appealed to me. However as I tried as exercise to do this count in various different positions and this raised some interesting questions that I wish to share --> Should every square be counted as '1'? --> What about batteries? Imagine an empty board except for a white bishop on g2 and a queen on h1. Does white control 12 or 8 enemy squares in the space count? --> Does every piece excert the same amount of 'control'? Situation 1: black pawn on f6, black Knight of f7. White Queen on d4. Situation 2: black pawn on f6, black knight of f7. White pawn on d4. In the first scenario black can play Ne5 without losing material, in the latter the second player can't without sacrificing the knight for a mere pawn. --> I now simply count a square twice if it is attack twice. This seems fair to me because I do excert more control, but what if a square was attacked 5 times? That would in many situation be overkill except if my opponent had the square also covered many times. which brings me to my last question. --> In your lecture you used the words 'attacked' and 'controlled' interchangably. Is that fair, or does control require you have more/lower ranked pieces on a square compared to your opponent. In other words. Isn't control relational and attack absolute? Of course all of these questions are highly theoretical and perhaps not worth considering during a game, but they are fun and interesting nevertheless. @Yasser: Thank you so much for your interesting lectures I really get a lot of joy from watching them.
This is one of the finest video you have made, Yasser! More please! Something i would love to be learning more about are «tempo/tempi» in the middlegame. I understand the concept until castling and easy pawn-ending there the pawn are queening first, and the easy concept with scandiavaen i can, but im struggling with the tempo/tempi in the middlegame after the we have castled and how to calculate before end-game who are tempo/tempi up to win the game.
According to "Play Winning Chess" the value of King is infinite because its loss means the loss of the game... I did hear that 4 is Kings "fighting value' though.
Chess theories develop... According to play winning chess their are 4 elements of chess space, time, Pawn structure, force but now it's 5 by adding king position.
Love it! Suggested a similar idea to Eric when he was playing blitz a few days ago. Chess Brahs just earned a twitch subscription from me. I reckon they'll smash it with this format.
I'm 1600 and I think for players my level and below the minor pieces go up in value as most games are won or lost based on minor piece play. I'd be tempted to say that rook and bishop are almost equal and knights slightly less. The rook is only worth 5 if you get to a lot of endgames (like GM's do) which will increase the average value of the rook in your overall games but for players like me I really believe its closer to 4.
such clear explanations...Never understood why pieces were given their assigned point values, and thinking of chess as a game of space makes so much sense. Thank you for the amazing, free content :D
I love it! It reminds me of playing at wire works coffee house. But the king isn't worth 4 just like the queen being worth more because of the perpetual the king is worth less because of the check, so 3 maybe... And it is all still relative to the position a pawn that is queening next move is obviously more valuable but it's worthless of your getting mated as soon as it dose. One of the things I like to do is think of the number of spaces I control and how guarded vs threatened each minor piece is on either side as well as what spaces they would like to ocupy, then look at tempo, and when I say that I put green and red counts next to each square red threatened by opponent, green guarded by me and vice versa, and do this for two or three possible or likely moves for each piece, this will allow you to see where weaknesses can form or breakthroughs can happen in 3 moves I can threaten c4 4 times but they can only defend 3 times. The real problem with trying to numerically define a position is that every move in chess dose something, but it also stops doing what it was doing as well. Ultimately; to progress is to create weaknesses, to push is to over extend, and your worst nightmare is a pawn with delusions of grandeur that may just come true.
Very nice Vid. When i first explored this channel i always thought who is this Yasser guy Eric is talking about. Then i saw him first time and now i cannot get enough. Nice and slow voice and nearly always smiling. Keep up the good work guys!
I seem to remember some different elements mentioned by Aron Nimzowitsch in his book “Mein System” (My System). Hold on, let me find the book... Yes, here they are: 1.The Centre 2.The Open Rook Files 3.The Play on The Seventh and Eighth Rank 4.The Passed Pawn 5.The Pinning 6.The Discovered Check 7.The Trading of Pieces 8.The Pawn Chain
I’ve been studying AlphaZero and LeelaZero games in recent month. Both love to push A and H pawns. When Yasser implies not all pawns are created equal, this is a prime example. These AI based programs are always ready to push those pawns on the side of the board because they are really good as battering rams to disrupt the opponents king safety, but aside from that, their value is quite limited.
That's a good point. I think, per rook, it does reduce the "space value". However, as opposed to having one rook worth 5 and another worth 2, both attack a total of 18 unique squares giving them an average value of 4.5 rather than 3.5. So, you are still increasing the overall value of your position, but not quite as much as placing the first rook into your opponents space.
As a teacher I can vouch that Yasser is a great teacher. An inspiration for me. Looking forward to part 2. Is there a schedule when these will be uploaded or should we remain patient? Have a nice day!
Yassar you should create/present your own channel. I know you present here n elsewhere but you would get a good following by yourself. You present very well, give of good vibes, have an excellent voice and your chess acumen is exceptional. Why not ??? Maybe start off presenting your books or just going over instructive games
what he means is that the queen can not checkmate by itself without support of pieces or pawns. that is still true when checkmating via backrank as the "supporting" pieces or pawns are those of your opponent obstructing an escape of the king. you cant setup the board with only 1 queen and 1 king and deliver mate.
Gonna watch the entire playlist, you are very skilled sir ❤️ Thank you for this ❤️ I'll update how much I improved. Was at 650 when I watched 3rd video from the playlist. Day 1: 730+ Bots I have beaten without any theory or help (3 stars obviously):
I also love Yasser! And would also be up for adoption even though I’m in my 40s Every thing he does is just so good. I wish Yasser would give us a lesson a week with chess.com.
I'm a chess idiot of 1150. I'd almost give the King a 3.5 too, based on the reasoning behind the Queens 9. The King in turn can never be traded or check the enemies King. So it loses two features every other piece has.
An interesting corollary of the space argument for piece value is the relative value of the rooks and pieces. Often when we analyze great games we see strong exchange sacrifices or big attacks where the pieces are prioritized over the rooks, since the more cluttered the board is, the less time the rooks can spend on the other side of the board, effectively making them worth '2' until late middlegame or so. Just a way to semi-quantify the generality that pieces are better than rooks in the early parts of the game
It would be interesting if you did some of these for the main Faery pieces. For example the Marshall (rook and Knight - 16 points), the Princess (bishop and Knight -12 points). ty
Great video, thank you GM Yasser. Would you mind putting these into a playlist / titling them so that it's easy to find them all together? I worry I'll miss some otherwise.
More Please, Yasser is like the bob Ross of chess
JJ Hugo Jackson-Jones
And that’s a fact!
Perfect analogy
Fact!
Yasser is very good chess player unlike Bob Ross in painting (Bob is beginner in painting!). So you are saying insult to Yasser!
If you can't wait for more Yasser, here is a list of his lectures I've found: th-cam.com/play/PLVWaFpMwtaGiVZ77NhhvGGGzvF7oFSWcA.html
not enough of Yasser. Going to need at least 46 more hour long episodes. Thanks.
He really is a fountain of knowledge. I have read quite a few full length chess books that were from beginner to master and have never heard of evaluating a pieces worth based on how many of the opponent's squares it attacks.
If you can't wait for more Yasser, here is a list of his lectures I've found: th-cam.com/play/PLVWaFpMwtaGiVZ77NhhvGGGzvF7oFSWcA.html
I think u mean 64
Yasser is the Richard Feynman of Chess. Listening to him everything in Chess suddenly makes sense and just seems almost obvious.. but it takes someone truly gifted to make it this clear.
Never thought about that comparison before but it’s very true; they both have a way of making complex topics very clear. And coincidentally one of my favourite explanations by Richard Feynman is when he describes the scientific method as like working out the rules of chess by looking at a chessboard.
I love this so much. I would pay money to get more chess, and life, lessons from Yasser.
yasser has released many great chess books and dvds. You should buy them all.
If you can't wait for more Yasser, here is a list of his lectures I've found: th-cam.com/play/PLVWaFpMwtaGiVZ77NhhvGGGzvF7oFSWcA.html
He is releasing a book on Chessable
You are so kind and gentle teaching this most magnificent game, you are like a four star general talking to children in a language they can understand. I was born in the Soviet Union and I learned the basics of chess early. Now, at the age of 46 I am returning to this game and you, Mr. Seirawan, are a magnificent teacher. God bless you for doing such wonderful job and being such a decent and patient human being.
Excellent explanation on the philosophy of chess. I learned so much. Keep the lessons coming. Thanks!
Can someone ask Yasser if he could adopt me ?
@srgito ehm.. sure...:P
Not at all that I wish he was my dad, no ofc not. That would be silly
Just play 10 matches in the same time control against him and you will be adopted
Yasser needs to do sleep meditation narrations, his voice is perfect for it.
Jesus Christ!! That was excellent!!! Totally changed how I see the game. I’m only 1500, but this immediately helped. Keep the series coming!!!!
Please more lessons from Yasser. He explains it so calm and understandable I enjoyed it really.
If you can't wait for more Yasser, here is a list of his lectures I've found: th-cam.com/play/PLVWaFpMwtaGiVZ77NhhvGGGzvF7oFSWcA.html
He should create his very own channel I would sub and probably become a patron/ financial supporter
Thank you Yasser and chessbrahs.
The clearest chess lesson I may have ever heard/saw
I bet you folks were unaware that Benicio Del Toro knew so much about chess.
MetaBiscuit Benico del Toro's dad you mean
ahahahhah fantastic comment
@@spiked415 Benicio del Toro's dad is Guillermo del Toro, without a doubt more famous than his son.
@@MusicbyWordPlay damn, Guillermo became a father at the age of 2? Impressive stuff
Yasser is a true chess legend 🙂👍🏻💖
I am not good at many things, but as it happens counting is one of these things I can do particularly well. So naturally Yasser's idea of 'counting' space by simply count what amount of my opponents squares are attacked by my pieces really appealed to me. However as I tried as exercise to do this count in various different positions and this raised some interesting questions that I wish to share
--> Should every square be counted as '1'?
--> What about batteries? Imagine an empty board except for a white bishop on g2 and a queen on h1.
Does white control 12 or 8 enemy squares in the space count?
--> Does every piece excert the same amount of 'control'?
Situation 1: black pawn on f6, black Knight of f7. White Queen on d4.
Situation 2: black pawn on f6, black knight of f7. White pawn on d4.
In the first scenario black can play Ne5 without losing material, in the latter
the second player can't without sacrificing the knight for a mere pawn.
--> I now simply count a square twice if it is attack twice. This seems fair to me because I do excert more control, but what if a square was attacked 5 times? That would in many situation be overkill except if my opponent had the square also covered many times.
which brings me to my last question.
--> In your lecture you used the words 'attacked' and 'controlled' interchangably. Is that fair, or does control require you have more/lower ranked pieces on a square compared to your opponent. In other words. Isn't control relational and attack absolute?
Of course all of these questions are highly theoretical and perhaps not worth considering during
a game, but they are fun and interesting nevertheless. @Yasser: Thank you so much for your interesting lectures I really get a lot of joy from watching them.
Thank you sir. I learned today both English and chess lessons. From Algeria
One of the best lecturers I have seen in my 49 years
Im still not believing that Yasser is a true person. There is no way a human being is that pure of heart.
yasser is legend
Thanks!
"I hope you enjoyed this lecture and I've got many more to come." Time to hit that notification bell.
If you can't wait for more Yasser, here is a list of his lectures I've found: th-cam.com/play/PLVWaFpMwtaGiVZ77NhhvGGGzvF7oFSWcA.html
Best video chessbrah has put out since Robin Van Kampen frequented the channel.
This is so relaxing and entertaining at the same time, great content!
Yasser lesson,... I cannot imagine a better video
yasser is amazing, his lectures are so insightful and rich. wonderful that he's always been so involved with giving back to the chess community.
I want Yasser to read me a book before I go to sleep at night.
This is one of the finest video you have made, Yasser! More please!
Something i would love to be learning more about are «tempo/tempi» in the middlegame.
I understand the concept until castling and easy pawn-ending there the pawn are queening first, and the easy concept with scandiavaen i can, but im struggling with the tempo/tempi in the middlegame after the we have castled and how to calculate before end-game who are tempo/tempi up to win the game.
These slower paced videos are amazing, please give us more!
More episodes of Yasser please! I could listen to him all day.
Yasser: "Hello Everyone!"
Me: Agadmator is that you?
ahhh hahaha
According to "Play Winning Chess" the value of King is infinite because its loss means the loss of the game... I did hear that 4 is Kings "fighting value' though.
Chess theories develop... According to play winning chess their are 4 elements of chess space, time, Pawn structure, force but now it's 5 by adding king position.
I can't think of anyone who truly loves the game of chess nearly as much as Yasser Seirawan does. By far my favorite GM
Five elements
1. Pawn structure
2. Space
3. MATERIAL OR FORCE
4. TIME (no. Of moves/ tempos)
5. KING POSITION
Started of really basic and I almost skipped. Glad I sticked through it! The last minutes were a revelation to me. Simple but thought provoking.
Thank you for posting. I hope all of these make it to TH-cam
Love it! Suggested a similar idea to Eric when he was playing blitz a few days ago. Chess Brahs just earned a twitch subscription from me.
I reckon they'll smash it with this format.
I'm 1600 and I think for players my level and below the minor pieces go up in value as most games are won or lost based on minor piece play. I'd be tempted to say that rook and bishop are almost equal and knights slightly less. The rook is only worth 5 if you get to a lot of endgames (like GM's do) which will increase the average value of the rook in your overall games but for players like me I really believe its closer to 4.
Oh yeah, I could listen to this all night, in fact I’m going to.
Great content, Soothing tones!
Thank you for posting this. Please do more. Thank you.
Yasser is my new grandpa ive decided. He is the uncle Iroh of chess. I cant explain how much I like his soul
Thanks Mr. Seirawan for the lecture and to chessbrah for having him on, keep 'em coming!
such clear explanations...Never understood why pieces were given their assigned point values, and thinking of chess as a game of space makes so much sense. Thank you for the amazing, free content :D
I love it! It reminds me of playing at wire works coffee house. But the king isn't worth 4 just like the queen being worth more because of the perpetual the king is worth less because of the check, so 3 maybe... And it is all still relative to the position a pawn that is queening next move is obviously more valuable but it's worthless of your getting mated as soon as it dose. One of the things I like to do is think of the number of spaces I control and how guarded vs threatened each minor piece is on either side as well as what spaces they would like to ocupy, then look at tempo, and when I say that I put green and red counts next to each square red threatened by opponent, green guarded by me and vice versa, and do this for two or three possible or likely moves for each piece, this will allow you to see where weaknesses can form or breakthroughs can happen in 3 moves I can threaten c4 4 times but they can only defend 3 times. The real problem with trying to numerically define a position is that every move in chess dose something, but it also stops doing what it was doing as well. Ultimately; to progress is to create weaknesses, to push is to over extend, and your worst nightmare is a pawn with delusions of grandeur that may just come true.
Very nice Vid. When i first explored this channel i always thought who is this Yasser guy Eric is talking about. Then i saw him first time and now i cannot get enough. Nice and slow voice and nearly always smiling. Keep up the good work guys!
Loving this serie already. Great work Yasser! ♡
11:57 he puts on glasses then takes them off. Just pointing that out for no particular reason
He takes a look at the chat
Would love to see more. Thanks, Yasser and chessbrahs!
Brilliant teacher! Well said!!
This was excellent! Fascinating stuff. More Yasser lectures please!
I seem to remember some different elements mentioned by Aron Nimzowitsch in his book “Mein System” (My System). Hold on, let me find the book... Yes, here they are: 1.The Centre 2.The Open Rook Files 3.The Play on The Seventh and Eighth Rank 4.The Passed Pawn 5.The Pinning 6.The Discovered Check 7.The Trading of Pieces 8.The Pawn Chain
I’ve been studying AlphaZero and LeelaZero games in recent month. Both love to push A and H pawns. When Yasser implies not all pawns are created equal, this is a prime example. These AI based programs are always ready to push those pawns on the side of the board because they are really good as battering rams to disrupt the opponents king safety, but aside from that, their value is quite limited.
I concur with many of the other comments, please make more of these.
This is suuuuuuperrrrr! Wonderful Thaaaaank you!
Absolutely fantastic!! Well done Yasser! We look forward to your upcoming videos!
Thankyou for the lesson.
37:52 How can 2 rooks control up to 20 squares? Isn't it 18? Does that mean that having 2 rooks in opponent territory reduces "space value" per rook?
That's a good point. I think, per rook, it does reduce the "space value". However, as opposed to having one rook worth 5 and another worth 2, both attack a total of 18 unique squares giving them an average value of 4.5 rather than 3.5. So, you are still increasing the overall value of your position, but not quite as much as placing the first rook into your opponents space.
simply great . thanku
The chess instructor with the smoothest voice
Yes! Please more of this!
That was an awesome video. I logged in especially so as to leave this comment after watching on Xbox. Hope to see more like this in the future.
Such a Good Video. Still watch it from time to time. Very interesting ideas, Yasser is just such a good teacher! Greeting from Germany
great stuff for a beginner like me, thanks Yasser!
Awesome stuff! Thanks
Whatever happened to the remainder of this promised and excellent series?
my best chess lecture I heard, thanks
Will watch as soon as time allows!!
As a teacher I can vouch that Yasser is a great teacher. An inspiration for me. Looking forward to part 2. Is there a schedule when these will be uploaded or should we remain patient?
Have a nice day!
But.. The two rooks only control 18 enemy squares, right? 37:50
I just bought yasser’s winning chess tactics last week and I absolutely love the puzzles in that book. Thanks yasser
This is great content, would be interesting to see Eric or Aman try something like this on here.
Yeah would be awesome !
Eric could demonstrate the power of each piece while flagging your opponent.
more please. Yasser you are a real G. very much appreciated move to Alberta!!! lol
Yassar you should create/present your own channel. I know you present here n elsewhere but you would get a good following by yourself. You present very well, give of good vibes, have an excellent voice and your chess acumen is exceptional.
Why not ???
Maybe start off presenting your books or just going over instructive games
Holy cow!!! This was AWESOME!!!!
That was so instructive !
The 'ad' makes it look like Yasser plays in a pro-PUBG team, the notion of which has me giggling.
go yasser !
Thanks Yasser and Chessbrah.
Thank you, Yasser!
such a clean lesson by yasser
Great first lesson. Thanks!
Great lesson Yasser, looking forward for more of your lectures.
p.s. 42:50 The Queen can checkmste by itself, on the back-rank for example :).
what he means is that the queen can not checkmate by itself without support of pieces or pawns. that is still true when checkmating via backrank as the "supporting" pieces or pawns are those of your opponent obstructing an escape of the king. you cant setup the board with only 1 queen and 1 king and deliver mate.
What a sweet man who has the knowledge and the force of education of a lion!! There are lovely people in our world Yasser is one of them!
Magnífica producción felicitaciones maestro de Cd Juárez Chihuahua México
And I thought I knew piece values xD . Thanks Yasser, for showing the spacial approach towards the piece values
I love your voice and your teaching
I would love to see Yasser vs Matojelic. My 2 favorite TH-camrs.
Thanks Yaseer , you are the best teacher
Nice!!! Thanks Master Seirawan!!!
Gonna watch the entire playlist, you are very skilled sir ❤️
Thank you for this ❤️
I'll update how much I improved.
Was at 650 when I watched 3rd video from the playlist.
Day 1: 730+
Bots I have beaten without any theory or help (3 stars obviously):
This was so great!! Can't wait for more
Very cool, looking forward to the rest of the series.
one of the best lessons ive seen !!
I still can't believe these videos are free
Well, that was a nice surprise, thank you Yasser for your great insight; it was really fun and insightful. Go chessbrahs.
I also love Yasser! And would also be up for adoption even though I’m in my 40s
Every thing he does is just so good. I wish Yasser would give us a lesson a week with chess.com.
I'm a chess idiot of 1150.
I'd almost give the King a 3.5 too, based on the reasoning behind the Queens 9. The King in turn can never be traded or check the enemies King. So it loses two features every other piece has.
An interesting corollary of the space argument for piece value is the relative value of the rooks and pieces. Often when we analyze great games we see strong exchange sacrifices or big attacks where the pieces are prioritized over the rooks, since the more cluttered the board is, the less time the rooks can spend on the other side of the board, effectively making them worth '2' until late middlegame or so. Just a way to semi-quantify the generality that pieces are better than rooks in the early parts of the game
It would be interesting if you did some of these for the main Faery pieces.
For example the Marshall (rook and Knight - 16 points), the Princess (bishop and Knight -12 points).
ty
Great video, thank you GM Yasser. Would you mind putting these into a playlist / titling them so that it's easy to find them all together? I worry I'll miss some otherwise.
Ty yasser big time u the man