Excellent video - you're right, not much out there on quick and accurate evaluation which combined with visualization is the basis for calculation. So this last position, white is better - king safety is about even with both sides having their back rank safe and some luft for their kings, with no immediate threats to the kings present. In terms of piece activity, it seems to correlate with space, as whites rooks have more maneuverability than their counterparts as well as controlling the a-file. although his bishop is just a tall pawn, his a rook is set to invade on the 7th pinning the black bishop which can then be attacked by the white bishop - hence better coordination than black. his other rook is xraying the queen, as he is ready to push the e pawn and open lines of attack on the queen and enemy position with possible infiltration of the other rook. Whites queen has the h6 diagonal to infiltrate at some point as well. Blacks pieces are buried, his bishop is blocked by d5 and relegated to guarding a8 against whites rook infiltration, his rooks are blocked by his own pawns, his knight is a horrible creature. Again - excellent video, amazing that such high quality instruction is available here for free! And your chessable courses are just as if not even more amazing and instructive. Can't wait for more!
Such lovely feedback. Thank you for your excellent and detailed answer! So motivating to hear your thoughts on my Chessable courses! More is on the way! ☺️
Thank you for taking on the another of the more challenging skills in chess. In this position I prefer white. White has better King safety Whites rooks are on the open a file and the e file and can support an e4 e5 push. Black's B and N are both buried and the rooks aren't much better. W's Q will be on h6 soon. Black's Q is probably's B best piece but without much hope. Dr. Can you can make a whole series of just doing evaluations. I will be most interested in looking at positions where each side has its own pluses and minuses. Again thanks the video.
Homework spoiler - no engine White is better by +2 Their rooks currently contol the open a-file and can invade. White's king is safer. Black's king is exposed with weaknesses along the dark squares. Black does not have an active plan, nor a king-side pawn storm, which would be unwise at the moment. The pawn structure in the center is locked and with a black weakness with a backwards d6 pawn without compensation. Black's knight is buried on the side. And black's bishop can not invade. White's bishop has a good diagonal that might open up later. (edit: in 10 seconds I did not see the e5 pawn break, but it favors white in my overall evaluation).
Thanks Dr. Can, great lesson! Keep up your great work, it really helps us to learn and improve. Looking at all these positions you can get a "sense" of the initiative/momentum on the board, even if you don't know who's turn it is... things like: open files, having more forward/active pieces for one side over the other, seeing buried or stuck pieces, and king's safety are all factors I looked at when I did your 10-second tests. As far as evaluation values, not sure how that's calculated by an engine, but I would guess each of these factors to be adding around ~0.5 each to the eval... Re: Homework - I see edge to white... white Rook has the open file with threat of Ra7 followed by doubling on the a-file, white Bishop and Knight have some mobility, white Queen can invade h6 anytime, black King has a lot of dark square weaknesses that cannot be covered because they have no dark square Bishop, black Bishop is buried, black knight is somewhat buried.
White looks better because: 1. Rook on e1 and N on f3 support e5, giving an open file for the rook, 2. a file is being controlled by White rook. 1. Ra7 Ra8 2. Rea1 Rxa7 Rxa7 pins the black bishop and the black queen could get stuck guarding it. 3. Both black rooks are behind their own pawns I closed files. 4. Black Knight on h7 has no good squares because g5 is controlled by White. 5. Black's h6 square is weak. 6. White King is relatively safer because of better pawn structure in front of it. 7. White bishop is a tall pawn now, but it can be activated after e5 pawn push. I can't think of anything else. Perhaps higher rated players can see better. Thanks for the excellent video, again!!!
I love your observations! Thank you so much for taking your time and writing them down! White (Anand) had a clear edge in that position against Kamsky.
Haha, for a second I wanted to ask if you would make a course about evaluation. But you did already of course: 'The Value of Pawns: Evaluating Material, Quality, and Time'. Interesting! First I want to finish the Calculation course completely. I have now done 35% of the lessons. (The further I get, the more I like it!) You said: "Dynamics, means piece potential". Finally this concept is explained, thank you 😀 I've focussed a lot on the opening fundamentals last year, like development of the small pieces, taking over the center. And that's important in the middle game too. So that's all about piece potential! I feel like a beginner but I do understand more and more about what's really going on in chess. Happy about that! My thoughts on 'Guess the Evaluation: 1. My quick guess: -4. Black has more active pieces. It looked like Black has all the options to attack. 2. Quick guess: +2. I noticed the battery of Rook and Queen. Having both open files. And I noticed the more active Knight. 3. My guess: somewhat equal. I didn't found the time to analyze the Bishop (and it turned out to be a bad one heh). But I didn't notice the strength of the Knight either. I only saw the easy pawn move to kick the Knight. Conclusion: I do know how to evaluate good/bad Bishops and Knights, but I am very slow still. And sometimes I mistakenly think a Bishop is bad. Oops! Need to practice more. (More games.) 4. My guess: +3. Open space, so Bishops have the advantage. Homework guess: +1. The open file for Whites Rook. But the Bishop of White is weak right? But Black has a passive Knight at the rim. (But okay, it's somewhat protecting the King.) I found it hard to get a good grip of the evaluation. Thank you for this interesting lesson! I keep on taking your lessons/coachings 💪👍
Thank you soo much for your encouraging words and detailed evaluations!! Position 3 - yes, as you grow stronger, you will notice those things a little faster, so don't be too harsh on yourself. Bishops are usually bad when a central pawn is blocked on the same color of the bishop, which was the case in that position.
Calculation Plan Idea 1.Material Count (Imbalance) 2.Identify Tactical Ideas 3.Candiate Moves 4.Checks 5.Captures 6.Threats {If none of the above,try to improve your position(Kings move,Pawn move,Double rooks on a file and so on}...
Just make sure you don't lose on time looking at every check capture threat :) And don't forget to blunder check in the end. And don't only look at material while figuring the imbalances. Spend enough time on that orientation phase and let the board open up to you :)
What a fantastic topic for a lesson and super instructive... Homework, I'll be honest and say I needed more time but I did managed in ten seconds to see white had a slightly safer king, and better piece activety. I saw the open file with the rook already placed on a1 and a passive black knight but that's as far as I got in the time allowed but certainly an episode I enjoyed and with a bit of practice I can improve on, congrats to all those that achieve far more than me 😊
Thank you for your kind thoughts 🙏 Good vision in those 10 seconds! White has a clear edge in that position (Anand - Kamsky). That game was featured in one of my recent videos (How Anand found the strongest move in chess history).
Positional Testing Results in Real Time: 1) black -3 or better, at least enough to win. Both of their pieces are active and are attacking the base of the pawn chain. I didn't think white's g & h-pawns are any threat. Black has to watch out for traps to not lose an exchange or be forced to trade all the pieces. 2) white +2 or so. This was the botvinik alekhine game of your previous video, black's pieces are helpless, the b6 pawn is very weak, white will invade on the 7th rank and win. 3) white +1.5. Not sure if you posted it before in a game, I didn't have time to check if the white Queen get's trapped on the a-file. However, it looks like white has a knight pressuring the base of black's pawn chain and black's bishop is doing little on the wrong color. In 10 sec was too hard for me to be sure. 4) black -1.5. with two outside connected pawns on the queenside, black can win if it can deny white piece activity in their space advantage. With two knights against two bishops, it would at first seem white has an advantage, except one bishop is stuck defending the c5 pawn giving black time to maneuver his knights. My mistake, I didn't see quickly enough that black has no moves and white can exploit every weakness. Advantage white.
White is better. Not winning, but definitely an edge. First, white gets a slight nod for king safety, as Black has some serious holes around his king. Second, White's knight is better. Third, White's queen is slightly better, given that it can penetrate into the enemy king's camp. Fourth, while White's bishop looks like a tall pawn, it can be activated by playing e5. Black's bishop is biting on granite, and it will take several moves for it to improve.
Thanks for another deep and educational video. Really instructive ideas. Homework. King safety equal. Both sides had space. Both bishops were a bit locked in. The black rooks were not doing much, pointing at their pawns so the central files looked more under white control. White better probably.
Thank you so much! White had a clear edge in the hw position ☺️ On top of more active pieces, White also was ready for the e5 pawn break, while Black's queenside pawn majority was blocked.
In the last game, white looks better to me. The black rooks did not control the files and looked trapped. The white rooks were much stronger. That's what I saw.
I choose White in the hw because Black's pieces are less active (to me). Black's Rooks are stuck behind their own pawns (defending and blocked), the Bishop stares at a pawn wall, and the Knight seems stuck on the rim. White's counterparts are more active (on open diagonals and files), Black's King seems a bit less protected to me. Thanks for this insight! Taking away which player is on the move really helps me focus on the position itself, amazing!!
Another excellent video! The Kasparov on Evaluation idea was new to me. But where to go for further examples? (Your Pawn-Picking course seems to be Calculation -> Consequences rather than static evaluation, per se) As a Chess Scholar, (as well as a common or garden-variety Scholar): which book focusses directly on the classic phrasing: "Who is Better, by How Much, and Whhhyyy?" (The best I have is Amateurs Mind, which, if you just look at the diagrams and Evaluate, then Silman"s next few sentences are generally Evaluation, before he dives into the calculations. This just a workaround though. Possibly there is a purpose-built resource out there somewhere. If not, perhaps your next Chessable course... )
Thank you for your kind words. It is hard to install such a course on Chessable, that is why I chose this calculation + evaluation mix. You should check "Evaluate Like a GM" by Solon and Perelhsteyn.
First time watcher, first time homework! White looks to have a crushing position in a Benoni gone wrong for black. White bishop fixes the queenside and helps lock the b7 bishop out of the game. The knight on h7 is also terrible. In fact, I’d say white is winning on all three parts of the board - Ra7, e5, and Qh6 all look potentially devastating
What a super fantastic video 👏👏💯 so many important points🎉I tend to believe that there are habits good or bad tend to stick with us when we are novices, and may have to unlearn.that very important point of evaluation being more important than calculations is striking,i wonder why such knowledge are not made available at the early stages of learning chess so these habits may set in even for youngsters 🤔 even books on the topic are not so abundant
Super happy to read your kind feedback! That was also not talked about too much as I was learning chess. Obviously we read GM's annotate and evaluate certain positions along the way, but targeted approach was lacking.
Intuitive thoughts for the positions 1st: Black is clearly much better if not winning due to his more active pieces and because whites pieces are tied down to passive defense and cant really move. 2nd: White is definitely somewhat better due to the activity of their pieces and dominance over the two open files. Doesnt seem totally over for black though as it's hard to spot infiltration for white. If white could find a way to infiltrate the 7th rank it would be crushing. 3rd: White dominates the A files but black dominates the b file. Hard to see a clear infiltration for white. Possibly good knight vs bad bishop situation. f4 break may be possible in the future. Seems close to equal but probably a small positional advantage for white like +0,4 4th: really hard to say in 10 seconds. White has the bishop pair which generally are good in open endgames, but the knights can be dangerous. I see that the c pawn is really weak and likely to drop off while black is up two pawns and have an intact structure. However, my spidey senses are tingling for some tactic but I don't see it yet. Maybe the d knight will be lost with all the pressure? Pretty happy with the first three but the 4th I really missed just how bad blacks position was:)
Super happy to read your feedback. Thank you for taking your time and sharing your thoughts! Excellent observations indeed for the first 3 positions within 10 seconds! The fourth one was the most difficult to judge within 10 seconds :) Don't be harsh on yourself for that one!
The homework position looks suspiciously like Anand vs Kamsky ;) So I think White is better because the bishop on b7 is restricted and can't be improved easily as even on the c8-h3 diagonal, there are no great prospects for it. Moreover, White can choose when to open up the position with e5, or if they rather want to double on the a-file, or reposition the knight on f3, maybe to c4, which is weak due to the black pawn on b4. Black doesn't have the same opportunity as the potentially best square for their knight is e5, which White could still control by playing f4.
Homework: l think white is better because it has a better knigth and has the king in a safer position. In addition, White has a rock that controls a line.
White is better here. King safety is a big factor. White is threatening to infiltrate Black's position with Qh6 for example. White also has mobile d and e pawns that mean the white bishop can free itself quite easily. Black's knight is poorly placed, on the edge of the board and performs a defensive roll in keeping white's knight out. and Black has a terrible bishop that has little prospects at the moment. White's pawns, especially around the king, are also better. Black is very weak on the dark squares there. e5 at some point looks like a great move for white. Probably something like Qf4 first to remove the queen from discoveries, support the pawn push, put pressure on f7, and guard the white Knight should the diagonal open for black's bishop as a result of the central pawn advances. Oh, and White also has the a file under control with the Rook. So, Ra7 at some point is also a big threat.
I think white is better, because of the rook on the open file and their active queen. Blacks bishop also looked pretty bad. But it was hard to notice everything in 10 seconds
Doc the ability to identify imbalances and playing with those imbalances are considered as positional/strategic play or tactical/dynamic play. What is the style called because I myself love to play with imbalances or try to play. Please check out this comment
It is generally considered to be positional style - but everything is interconnected in chess, e.g. if you see that imbalances are favoring your opponent in the long term, than you should play dynamically and change the natural course of the game.
Black's pieces are suffocated, the knight is stuck defending b6. The black rook has no entry point, and the most recent move has locked it down even further. White's rook is very well-placed and the black knight's unfortunate spot makes it hard to attack (you'd otherwise have Kd7). That alone's not enough to decide this. White having the b4 pawn break, however, probably is. I'm not great at these positions, but if it were on me, I'd move the king over to c3 to back up an unstoppable attack. While that does open up the e/g files, the rook is probably too stuck defending to make use of those.
Excellent video, but I see a lot of grandmasters talking about evaluation and planning. How does that corespond with eachother. Like I evaluate a position and then I should find a plan? If so how to do it
Thank you so much. Yes, usually evaluation and plans are connected: evaluating the situation usually takes place in the orientation phase when you look at the position and understand what is going on - what are the imbalances, who is better statically and dynamically, etc. Once you do that, you generally form a plan - if you are worse statically, you should play dynamically and change the natural course of the game, etc. If you evaluate the position as much better for yourself - then perhaps you should try to simplify (especially if the advantages are long-term). But if your advantage is dynamical and time-dependent, then you must strike when the iron is hot and play energetically. Does it make sense?
@@Dr.CansClinic yes, it makes a lot of sense, thank you very much. But I have one question, jeremy sillmans book ”reasses your chess” talks about that your thought process should be to evaluate the position and figure out what side of the board to play on by looking at where the imbalances are. So i am really confused because some players say evaluate the position and formulate a plan by knowing if you should play dynamicly or staticly, and someone like jeremy talks about that you should find plan based on where the imbalances are and where you want your pieces to be placed. So this really confuses me and I get really confused in a chess game, (i dont know how to think)
@@BMotivation205 Plans are also based on weaknesses in the position and active/passive pieces. If you see a clear target in the position, then you form a plan by orienting your pieces on that weakness. In this case, we may talk about 'evaluating' the position around weaknesses. Similarly, if you spot a bad piece in your camp, you form an improvement 'plan' around that piece. Or you form an exchange mini-plan and trade off your bad piece for an enemy good piece. They are connected. You don't also need an extremely precise evaluation with these things. You can say: trading off my bad piece for the enemy good piece will surely shift the evaluation bar into my favor, even though you may still be slightly worse by the end of that trade.
Great video explaning on how to evaluate positions quiclky but also accuratly. I just had one question, when you play a chess game you can't really win by knowing who is better you need to know what to do with your evaluation. So my Question was, what do I do with my evaluation?
That is a million dollar question :) You play the position according to its requirements, using your evaluation. If your evaluation says you are so much better, perhaps you minimize counterplay and win simply in the long run by trading pieces. If your evaluation says you have static (long-term) weaknesses, then you should play dynamically to change the natural course of the game. Or as Carlsen example shows, you obtain that good knight bad bishop position where you correctly evaluate to be better for White, then comes the technical phase where you create the second front and win...
Excellent video - you're right, not much out there on quick and accurate evaluation which combined with visualization is the basis for calculation.
So this last position, white is better - king safety is about even with both sides having their back rank safe and some luft for their kings, with no immediate threats to the kings present. In terms of piece activity, it seems to correlate with space, as whites rooks have more maneuverability than their counterparts as well as controlling the a-file. although his bishop is just a tall pawn, his a rook is set to invade on the 7th pinning the black bishop which can then be attacked by the white bishop - hence better coordination than black. his other rook is xraying the queen, as he is ready to push the e pawn and open lines of attack on the queen and enemy position with possible infiltration of the other rook. Whites queen has the h6 diagonal to infiltrate at some point as well.
Blacks pieces are buried, his bishop is blocked by d5 and relegated to guarding a8 against whites rook infiltration, his rooks are blocked by his own pawns, his knight is a horrible creature.
Again - excellent video, amazing that such high quality instruction is available here for free! And your chessable courses are just as if not even more amazing and instructive. Can't wait for more!
Such lovely feedback. Thank you for your excellent and detailed answer!
So motivating to hear your thoughts on my Chessable courses! More is on the way! ☺️
Thank you for taking on the another of the more challenging skills in chess.
In this position I prefer white.
White has better King safety
Whites rooks are on the open a file and the e file and can support an e4 e5 push.
Black's B and N are both buried and the rooks aren't much better.
W's Q will be on h6 soon. Black's Q is probably's B best piece but without much hope.
Dr. Can you can make a whole series of just doing evaluations. I will be most interested in looking at positions where each side has its own pluses and minuses. Again thanks the video.
Homework spoiler - no engine
White is better by +2
Their rooks currently contol the open a-file and can invade. White's king is safer. Black's king is exposed with weaknesses along the dark squares. Black does not have an active plan, nor a king-side pawn storm, which would be unwise at the moment.
The pawn structure in the center is locked and with a black weakness with a backwards d6 pawn without compensation. Black's knight is buried on the side. And black's bishop can not invade. White's bishop has a good diagonal that might open up later.
(edit: in 10 seconds I did not see the e5 pawn break, but it favors white in my overall evaluation).
Lovely, excellent as always!
Thanks Dr. Can, great lesson! Keep up your great work, it really helps us to learn and improve.
Looking at all these positions you can get a "sense" of the initiative/momentum on the board, even if you don't know who's turn it is... things like: open files, having more forward/active pieces for one side over the other, seeing buried or stuck pieces, and king's safety are all factors I looked at when I did your 10-second tests. As far as evaluation values, not sure how that's calculated by an engine, but I would guess each of these factors to be adding around ~0.5 each to the eval...
Re: Homework - I see edge to white... white Rook has the open file with threat of Ra7 followed by doubling on the a-file, white Bishop and Knight have some mobility, white Queen can invade h6 anytime, black King has a lot of dark square weaknesses that cannot be covered because they have no dark square Bishop, black Bishop is buried, black knight is somewhat buried.
Thank you so much for your kind feedback and excellent answer to the hw position.
White looks better because: 1. Rook on e1 and N on f3 support e5, giving an open file for the rook, 2. a file is being controlled by White rook. 1. Ra7 Ra8 2. Rea1 Rxa7 Rxa7 pins the black bishop and the black queen could get stuck guarding it. 3. Both black rooks are behind their own pawns I closed files. 4. Black Knight on h7 has no good squares because g5 is controlled by White. 5. Black's h6 square is weak. 6. White King is relatively safer because of better pawn structure in front of it. 7. White bishop is a tall pawn now, but it can be activated after e5 pawn push. I can't think of anything else. Perhaps higher rated players can see better. Thanks for the excellent video, again!!!
I love your observations! Thank you so much for taking your time and writing them down! White (Anand) had a clear edge in that position against Kamsky.
Haha, for a second I wanted to ask if you would make a course about evaluation. But you did already of course: 'The Value of Pawns: Evaluating Material, Quality, and Time'. Interesting! First I want to finish the Calculation course completely. I have now done 35% of the lessons. (The further I get, the more I like it!)
You said: "Dynamics, means piece potential". Finally this concept is explained, thank you 😀 I've focussed a lot on the opening fundamentals last year, like development of the small pieces, taking over the center. And that's important in the middle game too. So that's all about piece potential! I feel like a beginner but I do understand more and more about what's really going on in chess. Happy about that!
My thoughts on 'Guess the Evaluation:
1. My quick guess: -4. Black has more active pieces. It looked like Black has all the options to attack.
2. Quick guess: +2. I noticed the battery of Rook and Queen. Having both open files. And I noticed the more active Knight.
3. My guess: somewhat equal. I didn't found the time to analyze the Bishop (and it turned out to be a bad one heh). But I didn't notice the strength of the Knight either. I only saw the easy pawn move to kick the Knight. Conclusion: I do know how to evaluate good/bad Bishops and Knights, but I am very slow still. And sometimes I mistakenly think a Bishop is bad. Oops! Need to practice more. (More games.)
4. My guess: +3. Open space, so Bishops have the advantage.
Homework guess: +1. The open file for Whites Rook. But the Bishop of White is weak right? But Black has a passive Knight at the rim. (But okay, it's somewhat protecting the King.) I found it hard to get a good grip of the evaluation.
Thank you for this interesting lesson! I keep on taking your lessons/coachings 💪👍
Thank you soo much for your encouraging words and detailed evaluations!! Position 3 - yes, as you grow stronger, you will notice those things a little faster, so don't be too harsh on yourself. Bishops are usually bad when a central pawn is blocked on the same color of the bishop, which was the case in that position.
Calculation Plan Idea
1.Material Count (Imbalance)
2.Identify Tactical Ideas
3.Candiate Moves
4.Checks
5.Captures
6.Threats
{If none of the above,try to improve your position(Kings move,Pawn move,Double rooks on a file and so on}...
Just make sure you don't lose on time looking at every check capture threat :) And don't forget to blunder check in the end. And don't only look at material while figuring the imbalances. Spend enough time on that orientation phase and let the board open up to you :)
@@Dr.CansClinic I was hoping for your advice on that calculation checklist dr can,i see what you mean.It never felt quite right.Thank you sir.
What a fantastic topic for a lesson and super instructive...
Homework, I'll be honest and say I needed more time but I did managed in ten seconds to see white had a slightly safer king, and better piece activety. I saw the open file with the rook already placed on a1 and a passive black knight but that's as far as I got in the time allowed but certainly an episode I enjoyed and with a bit of practice I can improve on, congrats to all those that achieve far more than me 😊
Thank you for your kind thoughts 🙏 Good vision in those 10 seconds! White has a clear edge in that position (Anand - Kamsky). That game was featured in one of my recent videos (How Anand found the strongest move in chess history).
Positional Testing Results in Real Time:
1) black -3 or better, at least enough to win. Both of their pieces are active and are attacking the base of the pawn chain. I didn't think white's g & h-pawns are any threat. Black has to watch out for traps to not lose an exchange or be forced to trade all the pieces.
2) white +2 or so. This was the botvinik alekhine game of your previous video, black's pieces are helpless, the b6 pawn is very weak, white will invade on the 7th rank and win.
3) white +1.5. Not sure if you posted it before in a game, I didn't have time to check if the white Queen get's trapped on the a-file. However, it looks like white has a knight pressuring the base of black's pawn chain and black's bishop is doing little on the wrong color. In 10 sec was too hard for me to be sure.
4) black -1.5. with two outside connected pawns on the queenside, black can win if it can deny white piece activity in their space advantage. With two knights against two bishops, it would at first seem white has an advantage, except one bishop is stuck defending the c5 pawn giving black time to maneuver his knights. My mistake, I didn't see quickly enough that black has no moves and white can exploit every weakness. Advantage white.
Thank you so much for your honest answers! Position 4 was tricky to judge in 10 seconds, I completely agree!
White is better. Not winning, but definitely an edge.
First, white gets a slight nod for king safety, as Black has some serious holes around his king.
Second, White's knight is better.
Third, White's queen is slightly better, given that it can penetrate into the enemy king's camp.
Fourth, while White's bishop looks like a tall pawn, it can be activated by playing e5. Black's bishop is biting on granite, and it will take several moves for it to improve.
Love it! Excellent evaluation and observations!
Thanks for another deep and educational video. Really instructive ideas.
Homework. King safety equal. Both sides had space. Both bishops were a bit locked in. The black rooks were not doing much, pointing at their pawns so the central files looked more under white control. White better probably.
Thank you so much! White had a clear edge in the hw position ☺️ On top of more active pieces, White also was ready for the e5 pawn break, while Black's queenside pawn majority was blocked.
You and Alex Banzea are my best chess content creators.
Thank you for your motivating words 🙏
I found this difficult, please do more episodes focusing on evaluation
Thanks, will do!
In the last game, white looks better to me. The black rooks did not control the files and looked trapped. The white rooks were much stronger. That's what I saw.
Great judgement! White is clearly better.
I choose White in the hw because Black's pieces are less active (to me). Black's Rooks are stuck behind their own pawns (defending and blocked), the Bishop stares at a pawn wall, and the Knight seems stuck on the rim. White's counterparts are more active (on open diagonals and files), Black's King seems a bit less protected to me. Thanks for this insight! Taking away which player is on the move really helps me focus on the position itself, amazing!!
Excellent answer, thanks! Glad that you found it useful.
Another excellent video! The Kasparov on Evaluation idea was new to me. But where to go for further examples? (Your Pawn-Picking course seems to be Calculation -> Consequences rather than static evaluation, per se) As a Chess Scholar, (as well as a common or garden-variety Scholar): which book focusses directly on the classic phrasing: "Who is Better, by How Much, and Whhhyyy?" (The best I have is Amateurs Mind, which, if you just look at the diagrams and Evaluate, then Silman"s next few sentences are generally Evaluation, before he dives into the calculations. This just a workaround though. Possibly there is a purpose-built resource out there somewhere. If not, perhaps your next Chessable course... )
Thank you for your kind words. It is hard to install such a course on Chessable, that is why I chose this calculation + evaluation mix. You should check "Evaluate Like a GM" by Solon and Perelhsteyn.
First time watcher, first time homework!
White looks to have a crushing position in a Benoni gone wrong for black. White bishop fixes the queenside and helps lock the b7 bishop out of the game. The knight on h7 is also terrible. In fact, I’d say white is winning on all three parts of the board - Ra7, e5, and Qh6 all look potentially devastating
Beautiful observations, spot on! Thank you for the sub! I hope you will enjoy the previous episodes too (there are around 100 of them) ☺️
What a super fantastic video 👏👏💯 so many important points🎉I tend to believe that there are habits good or bad tend to stick with us when we are novices, and may have to unlearn.that very important point of evaluation being more important than calculations is striking,i wonder why such knowledge are not made available at the early stages of learning chess so these habits may set in even for youngsters 🤔 even books on the topic are not so abundant
Super happy to read your kind feedback! That was also not talked about too much as I was learning chess. Obviously we read GM's annotate and evaluate certain positions along the way, but targeted approach was lacking.
Intuitive thoughts for the positions
1st: Black is clearly much better if not winning due to his more active pieces and because whites pieces are tied down to passive defense and cant really move.
2nd: White is definitely somewhat better due to the activity of their pieces and dominance over the two open files. Doesnt seem totally over for black though as it's hard to spot infiltration for white. If white could find a way to infiltrate the 7th rank it would be crushing.
3rd: White dominates the A files but black dominates the b file. Hard to see a clear infiltration for white. Possibly good knight vs bad bishop situation. f4 break may be possible in the future. Seems close to equal but probably a small positional advantage for white like +0,4
4th: really hard to say in 10 seconds. White has the bishop pair which generally are good in open endgames, but the knights can be dangerous. I see that the c pawn is really weak and likely to drop off while black is up two pawns and have an intact structure. However, my spidey senses are tingling for some tactic but I don't see it yet. Maybe the d knight will be lost with all the pressure?
Pretty happy with the first three but the 4th I really missed just how bad blacks position was:)
Super happy to read your feedback. Thank you for taking your time and sharing your thoughts!
Excellent observations indeed for the first 3 positions within 10 seconds!
The fourth one was the most difficult to judge within 10 seconds :) Don't be harsh on yourself for that one!
The homework position looks suspiciously like Anand vs Kamsky ;)
So I think White is better because the bishop on b7 is restricted and can't be improved easily as even on the c8-h3 diagonal, there are no great prospects for it. Moreover, White can choose when to open up the position with e5, or if they rather want to double on the a-file, or reposition the knight on f3, maybe to c4, which is weak due to the black pawn on b4. Black doesn't have the same opportunity as the potentially best square for their knight is e5, which White could still control by playing f4.
You have great chess culture :) Excellent observations.
Dr Can blowing up the internet yet again !
The eternal lightness of being an unknown youtuber :) I may be blowing my hardcore subscribers, but not the internet for sure!
Good explanation
Thanks and welcome!
White's bishop and queen look a lot better.
Yes! White has a clear edge.
Homework: l think white is better because it has a better knigth and has the king in a safer position. In addition, White has a rock that controls a line.
Thank you! White is clearly better indeed!
White is better here. King safety is a big factor. White is threatening to infiltrate Black's position with Qh6 for example. White also has mobile d and e pawns that mean the white bishop can free itself quite easily. Black's knight is poorly placed, on the edge of the board and performs a defensive roll in keeping white's knight out. and Black has a terrible bishop that has little prospects at the moment. White's pawns, especially around the king, are also better. Black is very weak on the dark squares there. e5 at some point looks like a great move for white. Probably something like Qf4 first to remove the queen from discoveries, support the pawn push, put pressure on f7, and guard the white Knight should the diagonal open for black's bishop as a result of the central pawn advances. Oh, and White also has the a file under control with the Rook. So, Ra7 at some point is also a big threat.
Excellent observations and evaluation, thanks!
As always, great video, however I've seen many of these positions before so I already knew the answers 😭
Thank you! We did some secret spaced repetition in this video. You are a very attentive student :)
I think white is better, because of the rook on the open file and their active queen. Blacks bishop also looked pretty bad. But it was hard to notice everything in 10 seconds
You saw plenty of good things in 10 seconds!
Doc the ability to identify imbalances and playing with those imbalances are considered as positional/strategic play or tactical/dynamic play. What is the style called because I myself love to play with imbalances or try to play. Please check out this comment
It is generally considered to be positional style - but everything is interconnected in chess, e.g. if you see that imbalances are favoring your opponent in the long term, than you should play dynamically and change the natural course of the game.
Black's pieces are suffocated, the knight is stuck defending b6. The black rook has no entry point, and the most recent move has locked it down even further.
White's rook is very well-placed and the black knight's unfortunate spot makes it hard to attack (you'd otherwise have Kd7).
That alone's not enough to decide this. White having the b4 pawn break, however, probably is.
I'm not great at these positions, but if it were on me, I'd move the king over to c3 to back up an unstoppable attack.
While that does open up the e/g files, the rook is probably too stuck defending to make use of those.
Great judgement! Botvinnik - Alekhine, 1938. I recently made a video about that game too :)
Though at 19;05 after Qd6 N7f6! oh I see, Qe6.
Indeed! :)
Excellent video, but I see a lot of grandmasters talking about evaluation and planning. How does that corespond with eachother. Like I evaluate a position and then I should find a plan? If so how to do it
Thank you so much. Yes, usually evaluation and plans are connected: evaluating the situation usually takes place in the orientation phase when you look at the position and understand what is going on - what are the imbalances, who is better statically and dynamically, etc. Once you do that, you generally form a plan - if you are worse statically, you should play dynamically and change the natural course of the game, etc. If you evaluate the position as much better for yourself - then perhaps you should try to simplify (especially if the advantages are long-term). But if your advantage is dynamical and time-dependent, then you must strike when the iron is hot and play energetically.
Does it make sense?
@@Dr.CansClinic yes, it makes a lot of sense, thank you very much. But I have one question, jeremy sillmans book ”reasses your chess” talks about that your thought process should be to evaluate the position and figure out what side of the board to play on by looking at where the imbalances are.
So i am really confused because some players say evaluate the position and formulate a plan by knowing if you should play dynamicly or staticly, and someone like jeremy talks about that you should find plan based on where the imbalances are and where you want your pieces to be placed.
So this really confuses me and I get really confused in a chess game, (i dont know how to think)
@@BMotivation205 Plans are also based on weaknesses in the position and active/passive pieces. If you see a clear target in the position, then you form a plan by orienting your pieces on that weakness. In this case, we may talk about 'evaluating' the position around weaknesses. Similarly, if you spot a bad piece in your camp, you form an improvement 'plan' around that piece. Or you form an exchange mini-plan and trade off your bad piece for an enemy good piece. They are connected. You don't also need an extremely precise evaluation with these things. You can say: trading off my bad piece for the enemy good piece will surely shift the evaluation bar into my favor, even though you may still be slightly worse by the end of that trade.
Great video explaning on how to evaluate positions quiclky but also accuratly. I just had one question, when you play a chess game you can't really win by knowing who is better you need to know what to do with your evaluation.
So my Question was, what do I do with my evaluation?
That is a million dollar question :) You play the position according to its requirements, using your evaluation. If your evaluation says you are so much better, perhaps you minimize counterplay and win simply in the long run by trading pieces. If your evaluation says you have static (long-term) weaknesses, then you should play dynamically to change the natural course of the game. Or as Carlsen example shows, you obtain that good knight bad bishop position where you correctly evaluate to be better for White, then comes the technical phase where you create the second front and win...
White is much better: better piece activity, safer King and potential king side attack. Also I think I saw White's open Rook file...
You saw great things :)
White is better! Black bishop is bad, knight is bad, rooks are in defensive mode, black king is open etc...
Definitely!
Example 3: Who is better?
Me: White
Why?
Me: Because he's Magnus Carlsen.
That is usually a good guess.
Good examples. But unfortunately for me I already knew all the games!
Good chess culture! We also did spaced repetition in this video :)