This was a great explanation of several instructive concepts that are newer to me. Thanks for framing this in terms of concepts I can remember and apply (far better than play this on move 9 v that theory). Thanks to Tim for submitting the game, it's nice to learn from others this way.
I’m glad Kraai is still a fan of the Morra Gambit. Back in 1988, I think, I was rated 13xx and faced Kraai, who was already an expert, as Black in a Morra. Needless to say, I got crushed. Later, I started playing the Morra myself, and had excellent results with it.
I said "TL;DR" today when I was teaching class...and right after saying it, my immediate thought was that it made me sound like an old guy trying to be hip.
Games like this make me despair of ever improving at chess. I would probably make most of the "natural" moves that Black plays here. I nod along to terms like "strategic domination", but have never really understood them.
As for "strategic domination": the simple fact is that by move 12, if you just look at the position, White has plenty of ways to improve their position (O-O, Rc1, Ne4-c4, Rd1, pushing in the centre, pushing on the queenside, maybe even h3 and Kh2 later), while Black has no way to improve. Black's pieces have no good squares to go to (as we see in the game). All Black can do is sit and hope that White makes some mistake.
I find Kraai to be a less effective commenter than Kavutskiy in going over these user submitted games. Kostya is more demonstrative is showing alternative lines of play which Jesse doesn't really do as well. Take this video - Jesse spoke about how black failed to capitalize on his lead in development (very true) but could not really offer an alternate string of moves that would have shown to the viewer, "See...this sequence would have opened up these possibilities..." and so on.
yes, I agree. What i did like is the explanation of the strategic goals of the Sicilian. This is the type on insight i am missing in a lot of videos. I understand that Kraai is trying to let the students do the work, but for such an instructional video, showing how to select moves that achieve the strategic goals would have helped elevate this video to the next level. I usually watch Kostya's videos and have somewhat shunned Kraai's for that reason. This one I found quite helpful nonetheless.
@@ChessDojo agreed, different styles and approaches are great. You learn the subject from different angles, and that deepens understanding. It's one of the cool things about ChessDojo that you have different coaches with different approaches.
Krai is a great teacher!
Very good explanations that I never heard before about the Sicilian
This was a great explanation of several instructive concepts that are newer to me. Thanks for framing this in terms of concepts I can remember and apply (far better than play this on move 9 v that theory). Thanks to Tim for submitting the game, it's nice to learn from others this way.
Flipping the colours brilliant. Not only do I better understand the Sicilian, but now also the English opening. Thanks!!!! 🤔👏
I’m glad Kraai is still a fan of the Morra Gambit. Back in 1988, I think, I was rated 13xx and faced Kraai, who was already an expert, as Black in a Morra. Needless to say, I got crushed. Later, I started playing the Morra myself, and had excellent results with it.
Really interesting explanation of positional concepts.
Anyone have a link to some of those Fischer Simuls he mentioned? I'd love to look at those Sicilian games.
From the title, I thought that this video was going to be about the hokey pokey variation of the Sicilian.
I said "TL;DR" today when I was teaching class...and right after saying it, my immediate thought was that it made me sound like an old guy trying to be hip.
MUST HAVE THAT NOTEBOOK!
Why is nd4 a good response to the fianchettoed bishop, and why does the knight on f3 stop it?
Grandmaster Kraai can we cover your one of your games?
The 2007 Foxwoods open vs Hikaru Nakamura was a positional beauty!
Games like this make me despair of ever improving at chess. I would probably make most of the "natural" moves that Black plays here. I nod along to terms like "strategic domination", but have never really understood them.
As for "strategic domination": the simple fact is that by move 12, if you just look at the position, White has plenty of ways to improve their position (O-O, Rc1, Ne4-c4, Rd1, pushing in the centre, pushing on the queenside, maybe even h3 and Kh2 later), while Black has no way to improve. Black's pieces have no good squares to go to (as we see in the game). All Black can do is sit and hope that White makes some mistake.
White is up 3tempi. Really?
I find Kraai to be a less effective commenter than Kavutskiy in going over these user submitted games. Kostya is more demonstrative is showing alternative lines of play which Jesse doesn't really do as well.
Take this video - Jesse spoke about how black failed to capitalize on his lead in development (very true) but could not really offer an alternate string of moves that would have shown to the viewer, "See...this sequence would have opened up these possibilities..." and so on.
yes, I agree. What i did like is the explanation of the strategic goals of the Sicilian. This is the type on insight i am missing in a lot of videos. I understand that Kraai is trying to let the students do the work, but for such an instructional video, showing how to select moves that achieve the strategic goals would have helped elevate this video to the next level. I usually watch Kostya's videos and have somewhat shunned Kraai's for that reason. This one I found quite helpful nonetheless.
That's ok! Lots of fans prefer Kraai. Different strokes!
Kraai is awesome!
@@ChessDojo agreed, different styles and approaches are great. You learn the subject from different angles, and that deepens understanding. It's one of the cool things about ChessDojo that you have different coaches with different approaches.