The poor guy @6:00 is trying so hard to calculate why John blundered his rook thinking that there is some crazy line that he just doesn't have the ability to calculate lol
Skywalker Maybe he thought that in this "line," taking with the knight (the expected move) would put him in an unforeseen trap in the future, so he looked for something unconventional. Or maybe he was just so distraught by the sacrifice that he simply wasn't in the mindset to think as logically lol
I love John's mindset. I've watched his videos a dozen times, and it's like meeting an old friend. "Hey, I blundered a rook. No problem. We can talk about the correct mindset." The Bob Ross of the chess world.
@@JohnBartholomewChess thank you for being so awesome. And Chessable is a wonder. Been there for over a year now and loving it more and more every day 💙
John, I'm a newer subscriber, but I just wanted to say that I think you really hit the sweet spot with your videos. There are some Chess streamers that probably have a skill edge on you but aren't nearly as likable or instructive. There's also a streamer who is extremely likable and instructive, but probably not really at your level. I think you're a great middle ground. I hope your channel gains some popularity and you can monetize it, because you're definitely worth it.
+Mike Garner Hey, Mike - thanks a lot for the vote of confidence! I really enjoy producing chess content for you guys, so I'll keep plugging away :) Thanks again for your comment.
+Mike Garner I am curious who are the other streamers you have mentioned. I am a big fan of NM Jerry ("ChessNetwork"), because, although he is not as instructive as JB, he has a contagious cheerful humour that makes his games a pleasure to watch. Then there is also GM Ben Finegold from the Saint Louis Chess Center, who is the least instructive, in my opinion, but the funniest. :D Eric Hansen is fun to watch, because he is very skilled, but he rarely comments. So if you have more recommendations, I am interested in suggestions. ^^ Thanks.
@@JohnBartholomewChess You sure did stick to your word. Looks like it's starting to somewhat pay off with Chessable. You deserve the money and hopefully it grows to be even more profitable. Thanks for the vids, I echo what Mike has said.
this playlist is bad ass. Went from blundering against 1300-1400's to competing against 1500-1600's in a week. mostly from watching these and trying to follow the same sort of thought process. (Also I stopped playing the King's Gambit lmao)
John *Blunders a rook* "Oh well. Let's work on coming back from this" *Wins with a great checkmate* Me *Loses a pawn* "Oh well. I can come back from this" *gets obliterated in 10 seconds*
Yes, I fiend the way John dealt with blundering his rook to be a very instructional method of dealing with mistakes. When one blunders like this it can lead to more blunders. John's mental approach in this game was a great demonstration of a better approach to dealing with mistakes.
When you grind away with supporting pieces and methodically invade far into the opponent's territory, the math is so good it simply doesn't matter with a large or sometimes a large and a small blunder. Good chess will reward you up to a point.
He kinda did go on about it for the next 15 mins. I think he WAS cursing, but only inside. He contained his emotions within and controlled them, but he was annoyed at that. That's my impression at least.
John, you captured my attention and held on to it for a marathon lesson. I just watched the five first video's from this playlist in a row and stayed focused for practically the whole time. I learnt a lot and replayed the recording from time to time to get exactly the point of what you were saying. Very useful informations formulated in clearly comprehensible English.
+John Bartholomew Yea zero inaccuracies or mistakes in a 40+ move game against an IM is extremely unlikely for a 1744 player, and is probably a tough accomplishment even for a GM.
+Jason Rawls Not to mention the time used for the game. It's bizarre for me, just sad folks spending their free time feeding engine moves into a game to beat other people online - no skill, no bragging rights, no money. It's hard to understand.
It's crazy how you make your decision making look so simple and grounded in priciples. It's really a blessing to see your games like this bro! Thanks so much for the tons of value you offer!
I likely commented in the PAST Big John, BUT MUST REACH OUT Bro to say You're my most FAVORED Chess Host / Instructor out here! SO MANY THANKS FOR YOUR STYLE & contributions to OUR Community my man! You Flat Out Rock! Many Blessings of Appreciation from Oregon #1, Always a Joy and Take Away ever time I tune in.With Sincere recognition my Friend for Your Relentless Generosity, ... MIKE.
5:00 - 0:03 "Well after all that talking I'm a little low on time and I haven't even made my first move, 3 seconds left, lemme just -- do a quick little *chess pieces rapidly moving* checkmate. Yeah, so unfortunately this guy didn't see his king hanging"
I like John too. I learned so much from his climbing the rating ladder series. I love the game of chess and have books my Silman Polgar and Yasser but I struggled to improve my game play. Since I watched his series my chess strength improved. For a very long time I was getting schooled ("adopted" chessbrah lingo) by players below 1200 now I can play toe to toe with players 1600- 1900. I even beat Stockfish at 2000 strength with the white pieces. Thanks John.
One of the lessons I'm taking away is that you are playing the math so well that your opponent has almost no choice but to make what appear to be "mistakes". However as you continue climbing the ladder, I'm noting that opponents have stronger counter play in the middle game that will expose any problems if you don't continue understanding their ideas and how to counter them. Great stuff. Would love to see some updates in 2019!
I know, right!? I feel like I briefly examine 2 or 3 possible moves and lose minutes off the clock, and this guy manages to have full lines assessed and even talk about the last game while maintaining control of his time. It's really beautiful to watch.
The mouseslip at 5:23: I have made it a habit to let go of the piece OUTSIDE THE BOARD instead of "putting it back" as if it was a real piece. That has ruled out some of the "interesting" moves ... though I still make a lot of them! ;O)
Although it was clear that the game you lost was against an engine, it was impressive how you played that game. You were still able to explain ideas in the grunfeld and give Stockfish a nice game, even in blitz:) All the other games were very instructive aswel, thanks!
Very instructional. It's impressive how quickly you come up with good ideas (probably why you're so talented at bullet chess). I was able to 'predict' the moves in the more simple positions, but I missed a lot of the ideas in the complicated/tactical middle games. You're the best - by far - chess personality on youtube, John!
Man I literally just blundered a pawn in my last game and I raged crazy. Seeing how John reacts to blundering a rook while giving us a lesson is so inspirational man. John you are the GOAT in my eyes.
Some of the best educational chess videos on the internet, bar none. Every moment is instructive. I revisit these videos often and gain so much value from them each time.
This is better than any tutorial.. I've increased rank 300pts from these.. Awesome to see the mouse slip can happen to anyone.. Keep up the awesome work!
@@JohnBartholomewChess Very nice dimension there, could maybe deserve a video of its own with some nice examples! This is when chess practice crosses over into synergies with life skills in general, in this case decision-making under stress :)
@@JohnBartholomewChess Very impressive how you shrug off the rook slip and are back in control ten turns later. I see the same thing in poker. One of the biggest differences between good and bad players is how they respond to adversity, poise vs implosion. Wonderful series. Thanks for posting.
oh my God you had such a good game against engine. I knew you can beat easily lower rated players, but that performance against engine shows that you really hit the spot! I learned so much from your videos. Big thanx!
Back when I was a teenager little brat I remember I was using engines a lot. I didn't play 100% engine moves, I didn't see a point to that but once I got to a position where I didn't really know how to proceed I immediately switched on my Fritz 11 to see what plan it comes up with and how it executes it. I wouldn't say it was entirely useless I implemented some "ideas" of the engine into my play that I saw occur regularly, but nontheless it was not ethical at all. However needless to say, I have quite an experience with engines even more so because I even used the engine to play against other engines to see how that would turn out. I regularly encountered other cheaters as well and I could identify them very easily simply because I know how engines play differently than humans. I can guarantee you 100% that that player was definitely cheating. Absolutely no one on that level can play with this accuracy. There is simply no way a player at the 1700 level has the positional understanding and tactical awareness of not making a single inaccuracy against an International Master in such a complicated opening as the Grunfeld and an actually challenging endgame. I know first hand because I used to beat this rating range to the ground with engines and even the better players were making small inaccuracies that something like a Fritz 11 could capitalize on, but in the case here there were simply no mistakes and that just doesn't happen normally. In fact this rating range has so little understanding of endgame technique that usually my engine could win theoretically lost endgames (anything below 2 pawns disadvantage and the engine won 90% of the time) Actually you hardly ever see this accuracy even on a GM level. Most suspicious moves: 22...Bxd4 30... Rd2 and the Knight maneuver from move 38. And the fact he knew like 17 moves opening theory of the freaking Grunfeld. But especially 30... Rd2. Give this position to a hundred 1700-1800ish players, I guarantee you 10 of them will mess it up with trying something fancy and 90 of them will play either h5 or h6. Which is not even bad, it is totally sound, Rd2 is just the most accurate, Rc5 similar strength according to Houdini. In fact, at this point black's advantage is still not decisive so the fact he could convert it with such precision makes it absolutely clear that he was cheating.
yeah,personally i use engines in very closed postions where i just don't know what do (beside a useless trade).only on long games thought.help to unlock the game but that's really not fair to my opponent:/ i'm positively sure that guy was cheating...and maybe some others too
Indeed, his account has been closed for cheating (www.chess.com/member/leinuyrelos). I suppose if he's sitting around wondering where he went wrong, the answer would be, "Don't try to cheat when playing a game against one of the most popular TH-cam chess coaches around. There's a *slight* chance that one of the 127,000 people who view the video will recognize that you were using an engine :-P"
That first game was brilliant. Coming back from accidentally losing a rook with a cheeky mate I completely missed when watching it. Another great video, thanks!
Drops a whole rook by means of a misplaced piece, still wins the game. Brilliant. Btw, the person to whom you lost was definitely using an engine, my engine suggested 95% of the same moves in that game that he played so don't feel bad about that. No human plays as strongly as engines do these days!
Love your videos man. The way you explain your thought process is head and shoulders above other chess videos on here. It's taken my game to the next level.
To be honest my games improved tremendously ....... the amount of knowledge I gathered from your instructive videos is remarkable. In the last game I was able to play with 0 mistakes, 0 blunders, 2 inaccuracies and 23 average centipawn loss ......... I've one thing to say ""YOU ARE THE BEST INSTRUCTOR"" HATS OFF
just went over ur game with leinuyrelos with engine all moves r 1 or 2 engine sugestions :) , i was cirous and went over some other game that he played and guess what.. same thing haha
+John Bartholomew Doesn't work in Lichess though, so don't make it part of your muscle memory. It used to, but now it does those annotations unfortunately.
I'm a bit surprised that Lichess hasn't taken over the market yet. As more top players switch over, it has to pick up steam. There servers aren't great yet, but it seems to me to be by far the best free option.
I think that the only error was the rating of leinuyrelos ... it should be around 3000 ... isn't that a good number for an engine ? :) ... another great video John ... thank you for your valuable insights !
The question I have is, what happens to the rating of all the people he scammed? Does the game get recounted as a win or at least restoring lost points?
You Sir are a class act, not only do you blunder a rook and maintain a level head, but you turn it into an educational motif, and go on to win the game. Impressive. I wish you the best for your norms!
What would be super cool is to look up these same players you played and play them NOW. A sort of grudge match with education in mind in terms of their chess development.
In first game, I like the way you explain the your mental focus and not beating yourself up about a mistake. One mistake often leads to further mistakes if one dwells on the mistake. This is awesome. I really appreciate observing a good chess player overcoming their own blunders in a game.
Oh God, that Rook blunder was hilarious. That guy was so: "What sorcery is this!? and that Rook could not have been more under fire, 2 pawns and the Knight. A few moments later, I love how gingerly you picked up the Queen. You moved it one square, but with a lot of care and attention to detail. ;)
It’s the best feeling ever when I think about a move that might be good and a few seconds later you say that this move would be a great idea. Doesn’t happen too often though
Thank You John, I was glad you made no assumptions about viewers understanding main lines in the Sicilian by having pointed out the Queen's response to Nc6xp. Always greatly enjoying your instruction. Warm Regards, ... Mike.
I love your cool demeanor. Great virtue in chess. However, I’m here sweating bullets when you accidentally dropped your rook and casually conversing away while time is running. Most entertaining. I’m a 1000 score level player and working my way up. I’ve learned a lot from you. Thanks John.
Another great educational video ! The contrast between the two Grünfeld games is quite telling, despite the opponents boasting roughly the same rating. Anyway, I don't expect you-know-who to stay unpunished for very long...
In game two, you demonstrated balancing good defense while pursuing the attack. I liked the two knights defending and especially the way you explain what's going on and why you're playing what you're playing. When you go back over the games it's helpful too. I'm a new subscriber to your channel. I like the way you play and demonstrate a solid way of playing chess. Keep up the excellent work.
John, I wanna thank you so much for the advice in this video. just today I was playing online when I blundered my queen away for a knight. I thought about just resigning then and there, but I thought about this video and decided to use a combination of forks and skewers to win back my queen, and get up 3 points in material. watching your videos has definitely improved my chess game a lot.
I really like this series, and your calm, helpful mentality, John. There are other guys online I appreciate too- Jerry on Chess Network, Mato, Kingcrusher...- all likeable as well as instructive. You give a sense of wellbeing, thank you
Yeah, that's the reason I stopped playing on chess.com: too many cheaters (leinuyrelos). There's always cheaters on every site but the frequency on that site was too high. My speculation is that's cause the site is like a chess Facebook, like you have little awards and people know you and can post on your wall... well, one of the biggest incentives for cheaters is status... that would be the causal link. Of course, this is just from personal experience, not based on statistics or anything serious.
***** hahahahah really? That's nuts dude. But there seem to be more and more cheaters everywhere. Right now I'm playing on Lichess and the amount of cheaters I encounter is ridiculous. But at least you can report them and the moderators are more or less paying attention. Sometimes they give the rating you lost back. Does that happen on chess.com? I don't know how it has evolved since I left. From what you mention I infer not much.
Yep one of the most frustrating things. You get on a roll of good games, you're feeling brilliant and then encounter an engine user. You hold your own for the first 15 moves but then some obscure move he made on move 12 bites you on move 22 that the engine saw as a positional advantage and you know you've been hooped. So frustrating.
@@JohnSutcliffe1988 I play on lichess and I never come across cheaters. I think they don't bug the lower rated players, as I am rated around 1300. So what is your rating and at what rating do you think cheaters start appearing?
@@dekippiesip I'm around 2200. I haven't played there in a while but I started seeing cheaters at 1900. They were doing a good job banning them when I was playing regularly there. I hope it's better now.
5:20 Since it's not a physical board, those mouse slips are easy to prevent. Simply don't ever put a piece back! Instead, you could drop it in an area that's nowhere near legal, in this case the h8-f6 area, and the software will beep and put it back for you :) Or perhaps you can even drop it outside the board, that'd be a great easy habit if it works These series are awesome, thanks a ton!
This serie is amazing, I love the explanation and solid chess games. I've noticed though that around 1000 level players seem to be a little tougher than when you uploaded this.
+John Bartholomew One more thing - I found this channel through you playing other streamers (on lichess I think), so that's a data point towards proving that playing other streamers may increase your own audience! :)
Hi John! I really like your videos. What I like the most is how you say out loud the logic for each of your moves. It has really helped me improve as a chess player. Thank you!
John I've been following your videos and playing (correspondence) games on Lichess, it's a bit soon to tell but I think my calculation ability has improved quite a bit! Your videos are very instructive, thanks a lot
Seriously? 0 Inaccuracies, 0 Mistakes, 0 Blunders? I guess that's because you can't have a negative number of those. We should see the guy beating Carlsen, however, OTB it's not that easy to hide the computer.
+GeorgeAlexanderOz I'm assuming you are trolling but in case you aren't: It is much easier to play games that have no innacuracies, mistakes, blunders, when your opponent is lower rated than you. Carlsen's opponents are playing chess 250 ratings points higher than John and are giving him many more chances to make innacuracies, mistakes, blunders, etc. I am rated 1500 on chess.com and I have played several games with no inaccuracies, mistakes, or blunders, simply because I played main line in the opening, and my opponents gave me obvious best responses thereafter. John is 800 points higher rated than the people in this video. It is extremely easy for him to see his opponents ideas and pick the best moves to refute them. This would be like me playing a 700 rated child. I probably would play almost "perfectly" against them.
+thefallen250 That said it is even easier for John because the 700 would leave me so many good options it would be hard to choose the best, whereas a 1600-1800 is going to play solidly enough that there aren't a plethura of good options to choose from, but they exist and he chooses them.
thefallen250 So you are the guy who won this unprobable game? Frankly, I believe you were cheating. If I went to your channel to say that, I might be trolling, but to me it looks like you are the one who is trolling. Be sure, I will never visit a channel of a guy who I am convinced is cheating for some cheap wins. I just express my honest opinion on a channel I like. So be gone and stop trolling me.
+GeorgeAlexanderOz I think you were confused about what I was saying? I was saying John can play perfect games against much lower rated opponents and so can I. I can provide you links to some of these games I have played if you would like. The reason this is possible is because those games are about 20 moves long with about 10 moves of theory and maybe 5 moves of intermediate play with no inaccuracies, then maybe 5 moves of a forced mate. Rare and difficult but when you play enough games it is possible. That said I was also confused about what you were saying and thought you were questioning how John could play a perfect game against these lower rated opponents. But now I see that you meant the other guy. And by my same logic as I gave above I definitely agree he was cheating or it is a one in a million chance otherwise.
Hi John, whether you see this or not, you have inspired me to grow my chess game and would like to thank you for that. You've gained a subscriber looking forward for more. God bless
Minute 44:07: The move #5: f3 was a mistake. After move #6: knxe5 and pawn xe5 white has the move #7: qh5 check. After black #7: g6, white has the move #8: qxe5 check - winning a rook. What do you think about this?
In a way I'm glad this cheater became a part of your series. We've all had to deal with online cheaters so it's relevant to today's chess scene. Great videos!
Why didn't you make a new account for this? I feel like you being rated 2250 is going to affect how the opponents play against you compared to how they would against someone their own elo
+John Bartholomew You're right. If your strength is 2300 and your rating is 1500, then your opponents will lose much more points than they've deserved to lose.
+John Bartholomew Maybe you could kibitz some games between lower rated players as well? Though I'm certain that playing against someone so much stronger more effectively illustrates potential mistakes, some might be curious as to how these miscues affect games between players of a similar rating. As far as your strength in comparison to your opponent's, maybe holding a simul on Lichess would work? It might "weaken" you a tad, and offer your fans and followers an opportunity to both participate and play against you. Also, when do you tend to play on Lichess? I've finally gotten my bullet rating up around 1800, and it's still increasing. If I wasn't on a laptop, it would be even better. I've never had any formal instruction, read a book, or done anything more than watch some TH-camrs. Maybe I need an instructor? Though maybe I'm a little old for that.
At 1:11:26 isn't Bxb6 a better move? Seems like you will be down a pawn, not two. If he takes the light square bishop u will then be equal in material. Or am I missing something?
At 12:11, white could play Bc4 - a quiet move, which would put you in loss if you saw it down the line. There are no threats on the g2, but - white can offer a dark square bishop sacrifice on H6, provoking you to take with the g pawn. That opens the door for the rook on g8 check! Only way out is to recapture with the rook. And now you see the purpose of Bc4 - it is guarding the G8 square so you can't recapture the newly gained queen. But that would work only if you didn't bother about capturing the h7 pawn in time.
I'm kind of in the 1400s. This video highlighted a major problem in my game: laziness! I play the London system with white and the KID/Pirc with black because it requires less effort. If I want to improve further, I'll have to use the time my opponents are thinking to think like you do during all your games. Thanks, very helpful again. By the way, when beginners are looking for ways to improve their game, I often refer them to your series on fundamentals. Ciao!
Around 1:08:32 why did he not play Rce1? John explains that black can check with Bc4+ but he has his own bishop that can take it. It would be an exchange of bishops but I don't see any immediate weaknesses after black uses Nxc4 to recapture white's bishop if black uses Bc4+ EDIT: I recognize that as you trade down, even something as small as a single pawn becomes even more pronounced of a deficit. But given that John even calculated the passive move of moving his bishop to defend his pawn and seeing that it would lead to further loss of material, it made even less sense to me that he did not play Rce1. Am I missing something super simple (wouldn't be surprised if I was)?
If it weren't for this video, the "sudden death" mate at 14:22 probably would have caused the other guy to LEARN from that "deliberate" rook sacrifice that lead to this... John, with great strength comes great responsibility! Amazing.
The poor guy @6:00 is trying so hard to calculate why John blundered his rook thinking that there is some crazy line that he just doesn't have the ability to calculate lol
That's exactly what occurred to me; I can imagine him thinking that there must be some reason why he can't take the rook...
Mouse slips, OTB touch moves, these things happen to anyone and everyone
And I dont see why he took the rook with the pawn. He could have taken it with the knight and got it out
Skywalker Maybe he thought that in this "line," taking with the knight (the expected move) would put him in an unforeseen trap in the future, so he looked for something unconventional. Or maybe he was just so distraught by the sacrifice that he simply wasn't in the mindset to think as logically lol
Kai-Rey Lee k
I love John's mindset. I've watched his videos a dozen times, and it's like meeting an old friend. "Hey, I blundered a rook. No problem. We can talk about the correct mindset."
The Bob Ross of the chess world.
Thank you for the nice comment :)
@@JohnBartholomewChess thank you for being so awesome. And Chessable is a wonder. Been there for over a year now and loving it more and more every day 💙
You’re the man, John! ✊🏼♟
wondering if my opponents are having conversations and speaking this relaxed while beating me down.
Sometimes I find myself playing on Lichess mobile, I play games on the bus, making dinner, walking up the street, doing laundry, etc
@@boatsandhoes4381 same, I rarely play chess without doing something else
Haha
Nice thought
@@adamfirth3082 I can't think of multitasking while thinking to play chess at the same time tho... Is it making you dizzy or what?
John,
I'm a newer subscriber, but I just wanted to say that I think you really hit the sweet spot with your videos. There are some Chess streamers that probably have a skill edge on you but aren't nearly as likable or instructive. There's also a streamer who is extremely likable and instructive, but probably not really at your level. I think you're a great middle ground. I hope your channel gains some popularity and you can monetize it, because you're definitely worth it.
+Mike Garner Hey, Mike - thanks a lot for the vote of confidence! I really enjoy producing chess content for you guys, so I'll keep plugging away :) Thanks again for your comment.
+Mike Garner I am curious who are the other streamers you have mentioned. I am a big fan of NM Jerry ("ChessNetwork"), because, although he is not as instructive as JB, he has a contagious cheerful humour that makes his games a pleasure to watch. Then there is also GM Ben Finegold from the Saint Louis Chess Center, who is the least instructive, in my opinion, but the funniest. :D
Eric Hansen is fun to watch, because he is very skilled, but he rarely comments.
So if you have more recommendations, I am interested in suggestions. ^^
Thanks.
Dereque Kelley is really wonderful for learning the broad strokes of openings. Another very infectiously cheerful guy and he seems to know his shit.
@@JohnBartholomewChess You sure did stick to your word. Looks like it's starting to somewhat pay off with Chessable. You deserve the money and hopefully it grows to be even more profitable. Thanks for the vids, I echo what Mike has said.
Corona virus lockdown and i found this gem of a channel ❤️
Same
Same here.
Same....
Me too!
Same! Been bingin'
At the mouse slip, if I were in basekovsky's position and I seen that I would be thinking "Oh no. He's calculated a brilliancy."
For the first few moves after a blunder you can call it a sacrifice -Aman Hambleton
this playlist is bad ass. Went from blundering against 1300-1400's to competing against 1500-1600's in a week. mostly from watching these and trying to follow the same sort of thought process. (Also I stopped playing the King's Gambit lmao)
How's your game now?
John *Blunders a rook* "Oh well. Let's work on coming back from this" *Wins with a great checkmate*
Me *Loses a pawn* "Oh well. I can come back from this" *gets obliterated in 10 seconds*
Joe Blow wrong person,he’s talking about the first game
Me: the game is done. *resigns*
You made that guy second guess his entire life with that accidental rook blunder lul
omg thank you all on the 2 likes!
@@pmadood6970 omg you're welcome
John, after playing literally twenty moves in a row of pure opening theory: “I had a little knowledge of this line”
Cole’s chemistry channel it’s the absolute main line of the gruenfield actually
@@gnzlbr6173 Yeah. I know that now :)
Lmaooo yes
I like the way you say "WE won" at the end of each game. I hadn't ever "won" so many games against solid chess players in my entire life lol.
I love how he gives away a rook and just laughs.
I would be cursing and grinding my teeth but John is all chill.
Yes, I fiend the way John dealt with blundering his rook to be a very instructional method of dealing with mistakes. When one blunders like this it can lead to more blunders. John's mental approach in this game was a great demonstration of a better approach to dealing with mistakes.
Find, fiend was a typo.
When you grind away with supporting pieces and methodically invade far into the opponent's territory, the math is so good it simply doesn't matter with a large or sometimes a large and a small blunder. Good chess will reward you up to a point.
He kinda did go on about it for the next 15 mins. I think he WAS cursing, but only inside. He contained his emotions within and controlled them, but he was annoyed at that. That's my impression at least.
@@SpellboundSolution omg your comment made my day hahaha
You can rewatch these every year and still progress, this is how valuable these are for us John, thanks.
4 years later and still super useful! Beauty of the eternal game of chess and your brilliant videos!
Would be cool if people were still learning from this video 100 year later
How about 6 years later! Cheers from the future
After watching these videos: "yeah I get chess now, lets go play!" *immediately blunder my queen and resign*
lmfaoooo precisely what I did
No no no. Don't resign. John blundered his rook and he kept on fighting
@@ducluongdo8012 Well, that's John for you. I normally respond to a rook blunder by blundering the other rook. XD
@@ducluongdo8012 I can't help but resign in disgust as well, too annoyed to play on.
John, you captured my attention and held on to it for a marathon lesson. I just watched the five first video's from this playlist in a row and stayed focused for practically the whole time. I learnt a lot and replayed the recording from time to time to get exactly the point of what you were saying. Very useful informations formulated in clearly comprehensible English.
Lichess breakdown for my game with leinuyrelos: en.lichess.org/yvvCD2qq
+John Bartholomew Yea zero inaccuracies or mistakes in a 40+ move game against an IM is extremely unlikely for a 1744 player, and is probably a tough accomplishment even for a GM.
+John Bartholomew
Yeah, not only the zero errors made but also the fact that the account is a week old is quite suspicious...
+Jason Rawls Not to mention the time used for the game. It's bizarre for me, just sad folks spending their free time feeding engine moves into a game to beat other people online - no skill, no bragging rights, no money. It's hard to understand.
+John Bartholomew Fairly clearly the guy was cheating. Very cool to see you being such a good sport about it.
+John Bartholomew i looked up his account but I couldnt find it???
It's crazy how you make your decision making look so simple and grounded in priciples. It's really a blessing to see your games like this bro! Thanks so much for the tons of value you offer!
I likely commented in the PAST Big John, BUT MUST REACH OUT Bro to say You're my most FAVORED Chess Host / Instructor out here! SO MANY THANKS FOR YOUR STYLE & contributions to OUR Community my man! You Flat Out Rock! Many Blessings of Appreciation from Oregon #1, Always a Joy and Take Away ever time I tune in.With Sincere recognition my Friend for Your Relentless Generosity, ... MIKE.
I like your comment. Actually felt like writing something similar since i share some of those feelings.
5:00 - 0:03
"Well after all that talking I'm a little low on time and I haven't even made my first move, 3 seconds left, lemme just -- do a quick little *chess pieces rapidly moving* checkmate. Yeah, so unfortunately this guy didn't see his king hanging"
hahahahha
Loved that!
😂😂😂✌️
Jeez, John is pumping out the videos for these series. The dedication this guy has for chess, particularly teaching, is awesome!!
I like John too. I learned so much from his climbing the rating ladder series. I love the game of chess and have books my Silman Polgar and Yasser but I struggled to improve my game play. Since I watched his series my chess strength improved. For a very long time I was getting schooled ("adopted" chessbrah lingo) by players below 1200 now I can play toe to toe with players 1600- 1900. I even beat Stockfish at 2000 strength with the white pieces. Thanks John.
One of the lessons I'm taking away is that you are playing the math so well that your opponent has almost no choice but to make what appear to be "mistakes". However as you continue climbing the ladder, I'm noting that opponents have stronger counter play in the middle game that will expose any problems if you don't continue understanding their ideas and how to counter them. Great stuff. Would love to see some updates in 2019!
I get so anxious when he's talking and talking and his clock ticks down under :30...
I know, right!? I feel like I briefly examine 2 or 3 possible moves and lose minutes off the clock, and this guy manages to have full lines assessed and even talk about the last game while maintaining control of his time. It's really beautiful to watch.
I start to sweat...haha
The mouseslip at 5:23: I have made it a habit to let go of the piece OUTSIDE THE BOARD instead of "putting it back" as if it was a real piece. That has ruled out some of the "interesting" moves ... though I still make a lot of them! ;O)
+Stefan Holbek Yes, that habit (or placing the piece on top of one of your own pieces) is a better hedge against mouseslips!
Although it was clear that the game you lost was against an engine, it was impressive how you played that game. You were still able to explain ideas in the grunfeld and give Stockfish a nice game, even in blitz:) All the other games were very instructive aswel, thanks!
Just wanted to say thank you. You are the absolute best chess "explainer" and content producer. Keep up the first-class work!
Roses are red violets are blue Leinyloros uses computer clues
Very instructional. It's impressive how quickly you come up with good ideas (probably why you're so talented at bullet chess). I was able to 'predict' the moves in the more simple positions, but I missed a lot of the ideas in the complicated/tactical middle games. You're the best - by far - chess personality on youtube, John!
+sugarsmusic Thanks for your positive feedback, sugarsmusic. Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2016!
Man I literally just blundered a pawn in my last game and I raged crazy. Seeing how John reacts to blundering a rook while giving us a lesson is so inspirational man. John you are the GOAT in my eyes.
Just found this video series and I love it already. This is the kind of stuff sorely lacking from most chess streams.
Some of the best educational chess videos on the internet, bar none. Every moment is instructive. I revisit these videos often and gain so much value from them each time.
This is better than any tutorial.. I've increased rank 300pts from these.. Awesome to see the mouse slip can happen to anyone.. Keep up the awesome work!
I like how its Friday in 2019 and John was able to forsee me watching this video on a Friday night. Great Job and nice videos!
Keeping mental equilibrium in winning and losing positions, I need to work on that!
+Jansen Baja Yup! It's a struggle any chess player can identify with.
@@JohnBartholomewChess Very nice dimension there, could maybe deserve a video of its own with some nice examples! This is when chess practice crosses over into synergies with life skills in general, in this case decision-making under stress :)
@@JohnBartholomewChess Very impressive how you shrug off the rook slip and are back in control ten turns later. I see the same thing in poker. One of the biggest differences between good and bad players is how they respond to adversity, poise vs implosion.
Wonderful series. Thanks for posting.
oh my God you had such a good game against engine. I knew you can beat easily lower rated players, but that performance against engine shows that you really hit the spot! I learned so much from your videos. Big thanx!
That first checkmate was awesome lol, that bishop pair did an amazing job in controlling the kings flight squares
Back when I was a teenager little brat I remember I was using engines a lot. I didn't play 100% engine moves, I didn't see a point to that but once I got to a position where I didn't really know how to proceed I immediately switched on my Fritz 11 to see what plan it comes up with and how it executes it. I wouldn't say it was entirely useless I implemented some "ideas" of the engine into my play that I saw occur regularly, but nontheless it was not ethical at all. However needless to say, I have quite an experience with engines even more so because I even used the engine to play against other engines to see how that would turn out. I regularly encountered other cheaters as well and I could identify them very easily simply because I know how engines play differently than humans. I can guarantee you 100% that that player was definitely cheating.
Absolutely no one on that level can play with this accuracy. There is simply no way a player at the 1700 level has the positional understanding and tactical awareness of not making a single inaccuracy against an International Master in such a complicated opening as the Grunfeld and an actually challenging endgame. I know first hand because I used to beat this rating range to the ground with engines and even the better players were making small inaccuracies that something like a Fritz 11 could capitalize on, but in the case here there were simply no mistakes and that just doesn't happen normally. In fact this rating range has so little understanding of endgame technique that usually my engine could win theoretically lost endgames (anything below 2 pawns disadvantage and the engine won 90% of the time) Actually you hardly ever see this accuracy even on a GM level.
Most suspicious moves: 22...Bxd4 30... Rd2 and the Knight maneuver from move 38. And the fact he knew like 17 moves opening theory of the freaking Grunfeld. But especially 30... Rd2. Give this position to a hundred 1700-1800ish players, I guarantee you 10 of them will mess it up with trying something fancy and 90 of them will play either h5 or h6. Which is not even bad, it is totally sound, Rd2 is just the most accurate, Rc5 similar strength according to Houdini. In fact, at this point black's advantage is still not decisive so the fact he could convert it with such precision makes it absolutely clear that he was cheating.
yeah,personally i use engines in very closed postions where i just don't know what do (beside a useless trade).only on long games thought.help to unlock the game but that's really not fair to my opponent:/
i'm positively sure that guy was cheating...and maybe some others too
Indeed, his account has been closed for cheating (www.chess.com/member/leinuyrelos). I suppose if he's sitting around wondering where he went wrong, the answer would be, "Don't try to cheat when playing a game against one of the most popular TH-cam chess coaches around. There's a *slight* chance that one of the 127,000 people who view the video will recognize that you were using an engine :-P"
Well said. Though I feel it’s even simpler than that. If you played that well, you wouldn’t be rated 1700.
Super stellar write up
Hi, Tal Baron!
That first game was brilliant. Coming back from accidentally losing a rook with a cheeky mate I completely missed when watching it. Another great video, thanks!
Drops a whole rook by means of a misplaced piece, still wins the game. Brilliant. Btw, the person to whom you lost was definitely using an engine, my engine suggested 95% of the same moves in that game that he played so don't feel bad about that. No human plays as strongly as engines do these days!
+Drumming411 Thanks, Drumming411! Yes - fortunately this player (leinuyrelos) was banned.
Love your videos man. The way you explain your thought process is head and shoulders above other chess videos on here. It's taken my game to the next level.
To be honest my games improved tremendously ....... the amount of knowledge I gathered from your instructive videos is remarkable. In the last game I was able to play with 0 mistakes, 0 blunders, 2 inaccuracies and 23 average centipawn loss ......... I've one thing to say ""YOU ARE THE BEST INSTRUCTOR"" HATS OFF
Best chess channel on the interwebs. Thanks, John!
just went over ur game with leinuyrelos with engine all moves r 1 or 2 engine sugestions :) , i was cirous and went over some other game that he played and guess what.. same thing haha
I had a feeling he was cheating.
You can see on leinuyrelos's chess.com account: "This account has been closed for violating our Fair Play rules."
@@MGStreak Good riddance.
If u beat the cheater who is engining does the universe fold it self in half and into infinite halfs and infinite more halfs?
This is some of your best content. Absolute gold.
When you're holding a piece, right click to let go of it. That way you don't mouse slip like at 5:20
+mike yaworski Didn't know this. Thanks!
+John Bartholomew Glad someone told you. I was coming here to tell you this after the second video in a row with a brutal misclick.
+John Bartholomew Doesn't work in Lichess though, so don't make it part of your muscle memory. It used to, but now it does those annotations unfortunately.
illegitimate0 I agree with you. It's caused me to misclick a lot on lichess. It sucks that the UI can't be the same across all servers :(
I'm a bit surprised that Lichess hasn't taken over the market yet. As more top players switch over, it has to pick up steam. There servers aren't great yet, but it seems to me to be by far the best free option.
I think that the only error was the rating of leinuyrelos ... it should be around 3000 ... isn't that a good number for an engine ? :) ... another great video John ... thank you for your valuable insights !
+skanarakis Thanks, skanarakis!
You can see on leinuyrelos's chess.com account: "This account has been closed for violating our Fair Play rules."
You can see on leinuyrelos's chess.com account: "This account has been closed for violating our Fair Play rules."
The question I have is, what happens to the rating of all the people he scammed? Does the game get recounted as a win or at least restoring lost points?
@@typedeaf yes. I have benefitted from it 4 times in last 7 months
How the hell did he see that mate in 1st game
he needed like 0.1 sec to see it :D
when you get to 2000 plus you usually keep score of the free squares around the enemy king.
I actually saw a (not) mate on h4 the move before. As said above, lots of tactical training pays off.
i saw it before him making that extra move and i am about 1250 so i think i just got lucky or what , every one is better when he is just watching
Really late but I heard Eric Rosen say the reason him and a lot of guys can see mates so easily is from childhood training.
I would never think to look for a mate there, but I am not at that level.
that is a fantastic teaching series!! You are a great teacher - thank you so much. Always enjoy listening to your reasoning!
You Sir are a class act, not only do you blunder a rook and maintain a level head, but you turn it into an educational motif, and go on to win the game. Impressive. I wish you the best for your norms!
What would be super cool is to look up these same players you played and play them NOW. A sort of grudge match with education in mind in terms of their chess development.
A fantastic blend of pragmatism and logicality to assess position and potential play on the chess board. Thanks John!!!!
In first game, I like the way you explain the your mental focus and not beating yourself up about a mistake. One mistake often leads to further mistakes if one dwells on the mistake. This is awesome. I really appreciate observing a good chess player overcoming their own blunders in a game.
i didnt see the queen fork, would have done the same as him, learnt alot from this video, thank you john
Oh God, that Rook blunder was hilarious. That guy was so: "What sorcery is this!? and that Rook could not have been more under fire, 2 pawns and the Knight. A few moments later, I love how gingerly you picked up the Queen. You moved it one square, but with a lot of care and attention to detail. ;)
It’s the best feeling ever when I think about a move that might be good and a few seconds later you say that this move would be a great idea. Doesn’t happen too often though
Thank You John, I was glad you made no assumptions about viewers understanding main lines in the Sicilian by having pointed out the Queen's response to Nc6xp. Always greatly enjoying your instruction. Warm Regards, ... Mike.
John, I am new to chess.com but I really appreciate these videos. Out of all the chess videos I have found, I enjoy listening to yours the most.
+Benjamin Cowen Thank you, Benjamin! That makes me happy to hear :)
I love your cool demeanor. Great virtue in chess. However, I’m here sweating bullets when you accidentally dropped your rook and casually conversing away while time is running. Most entertaining. I’m a 1000 score level player and working my way up. I’ve learned a lot from you. Thanks John.
İ am watching this now , almost 4 years later and it still educational . Pleasure to watch it thanks John
Another great educational video ! The contrast between the two Grünfeld games is quite telling, despite the opponents boasting roughly the same rating.
Anyway, I don't expect you-know-who to stay unpunished for very long...
In game two, you demonstrated balancing good defense while pursuing the attack. I liked the two knights defending and especially the way you explain what's going on and why you're playing what you're playing. When you go back over the games it's helpful too. I'm a new subscriber to your channel. I like the way you play and demonstrate a solid way of playing chess. Keep up the excellent work.
John, I wanna thank you so much for the advice in this video. just today I was playing online when I blundered my queen away for a knight. I thought about just resigning then and there, but I thought about this video and decided to use a combination of forks and skewers to win back my queen, and get up 3 points in material. watching your videos has definitely improved my chess game a lot.
I really like this series, and your calm, helpful mentality, John. There are other guys online I appreciate too- Jerry on Chess Network, Mato, Kingcrusher...- all likeable as well as instructive. You give a sense of wellbeing, thank you
Five-minute banter games are my favorite to watch, and that first one, the beautiful mate out of nowhere ... :-)
Great video John, you explain things really well. Thanks for the videos!
I really appreciate your videos. Your conversational style with your quality of teaching is phenomenal. Thank you!
This is wholesome. This chess lessons came with flavour of life lessons.
John,you are a great teacher,thank you for taking the time to make these instructional videos.It is very appreciated!
Lol..."ah, then I have mate..." Just out of no where
at 18:34 your position is still visually crushing. with moves like d5, bg4 and bg5 lurking with nasty pins, discovered checks, and/or mate threats.
Hey John, these videos are incredibly instructive! Thank you for taking the time to help us little folk.
Yes, like the teaching about recovering from a blunder accidental or otherwise, and keep on keeping on...you always have a chance to win or draw.
This is the most instructive chess content I've come across. Thank you!
1:04:36 "So I'm just going to play a little more conservative..." than *Karpov* of all people.
Yeah, that's the reason I stopped playing on chess.com: too many cheaters (leinuyrelos). There's always cheaters on every site but the frequency on that site was too high. My speculation is that's cause the site is like a chess Facebook, like you have little awards and people know you and can post on your wall... well, one of the biggest incentives for cheaters is status... that would be the causal link. Of course, this is just from personal experience, not based on statistics or anything serious.
***** hahahahah really? That's nuts dude. But there seem to be more and more cheaters everywhere. Right now I'm playing on Lichess and the amount of cheaters I encounter is ridiculous. But at least you can report them and the moderators are more or less paying attention. Sometimes they give the rating you lost back. Does that happen on chess.com? I don't know how it has evolved since I left. From what you mention I infer not much.
***** Lol thanks for sharing.
Yep one of the most frustrating things. You get on a roll of good games, you're feeling brilliant and then encounter an engine user. You hold your own for the first 15 moves but then some obscure move he made on move 12 bites you on move 22 that the engine saw as a positional advantage and you know you've been hooped. So frustrating.
@@JohnSutcliffe1988 I play on lichess and I never come across cheaters. I think they don't bug the lower rated players, as I am rated around 1300. So what is your rating and at what rating do you think cheaters start appearing?
@@dekippiesip I'm around 2200. I haven't played there in a while but I started seeing cheaters at 1900. They were doing a good job banning them when I was playing regularly there. I hope it's better now.
5:20 Since it's not a physical board, those mouse slips are easy to prevent. Simply don't ever put a piece back! Instead, you could drop it in an area that's nowhere near legal, in this case the h8-f6 area, and the software will beep and put it back for you :) Or perhaps you can even drop it outside the board, that'd be a great easy habit if it works
These series are awesome, thanks a ton!
This serie is amazing, I love the explanation and solid chess games. I've noticed though that around 1000 level players seem to be a little tougher than when you uploaded this.
I would love to see a 5+ minute match between you and Ginger GM Simon Williams!
+kwijung I gotta reach out to Simon and see if we can make it happen. I agree that it would be awesome!
+John Bartholomew I would love that as well! Do you plan to participate in the chess.com streaming championshop on Wednesday?
+John Bartholomew One more thing - I found this channel through you playing other streamers (on lichess I think), so that's a data point towards proving that playing other streamers may increase your own audience! :)
+Steinar Lima Good to know! Do you remember which streamer it was? Chessbrahs, perhaps?
+John Bartholomew Could it have been against KC in some Lichess tournaments? I don't think it was like a planned duel or anything.
Hi John! I really like your videos. What I like the most is how you say out loud the logic for each of your moves. It has really helped me improve as a chess player. Thank you!
John I've been following your videos and playing (correspondence) games on Lichess, it's a bit soon to tell but I think my calculation ability has improved quite a bit! Your videos are very instructive, thanks a lot
Why do some players play so fast? That last guy still had 5:00 on his clock when he lost.
Thanks for the video. I just started playing on lichess and find it quite challenging. You have a good way of explaining things. Learning lots here
Basically the London system setup for black is a solid approach, especially when time is short.
Thank you John for your vids. I learn so much. Love from Denmark
Seriously? 0 Inaccuracies, 0 Mistakes, 0 Blunders? I guess that's because you can't have a negative number of those. We should see the guy beating Carlsen, however, OTB it's not that easy to hide the computer.
+GeorgeAlexanderOz I'm assuming you are trolling but in case you aren't: It is much easier to play games that have no innacuracies, mistakes, blunders, when your opponent is lower rated than you. Carlsen's opponents are playing chess 250 ratings points higher than John and are giving him many more chances to make innacuracies, mistakes, blunders, etc. I am rated 1500 on chess.com and I have played several games with no inaccuracies, mistakes, or blunders, simply because I played main line in the opening, and my opponents gave me obvious best responses thereafter. John is 800 points higher rated than the people in this video. It is extremely easy for him to see his opponents ideas and pick the best moves to refute them. This would be like me playing a 700 rated child. I probably would play almost "perfectly" against them.
+thefallen250 That said it is even easier for John because the 700 would leave me so many good options it would be hard to choose the best, whereas a 1600-1800 is going to play solidly enough that there aren't a plethura of good options to choose from, but they exist and he chooses them.
thefallen250 So you are the guy who won this unprobable game?
Frankly, I believe you were cheating. If I went to your channel to say that, I might be trolling, but to me it looks like you are the one who is trolling.
Be sure, I will never visit a channel of a guy who I am convinced is cheating for some cheap wins. I just express my honest opinion on a channel I like.
So be gone and stop trolling me.
+GeorgeAlexanderOz I think you were confused about what I was saying? I was saying John can play perfect games against much lower rated opponents and so can I. I can provide you links to some of these games I have played if you would like. The reason this is possible is because those games are about 20 moves long with about 10 moves of theory and maybe 5 moves of intermediate play with no inaccuracies, then maybe 5 moves of a forced mate. Rare and difficult but when you play enough games it is possible. That said I was also confused about what you were saying and thought you were questioning how John could play a perfect game against these lower rated opponents. But now I see that you meant the other guy. And by my same logic as I gave above I definitely agree he was cheating or it is a one in a million chance otherwise.
thefallen250 I were confused, you were confused. Now it's all well again.
Hi John, whether you see this or not, you have inspired me to grow my chess game and would like to thank you for that. You've gained a subscriber looking forward for more. God bless
That last game was so amazing, really cool that it was in the same line as the engine game. Glad you decided to play one more.
0:28 can somebody explain me please why white knight doesn’t take knight c6 ?
Since nothing defends it
Minute 44:07:
The move #5: f3 was a mistake. After move #6: knxe5 and pawn xe5 white has the move #7: qh5 check. After black #7: g6, white has the move #8: qxe5 check - winning a rook.
What do you think about this?
In a way I'm glad this cheater became a part of your series. We've all had to deal with online cheaters so it's relevant to today's chess scene. Great videos!
I'd be interested in seeing more D4 openings going back through the ladder but great videos I feel like I'm learning a lot!
Why not Rc8 pinning the Rook and offer the exchange at 1:10:00 then use your bishop pair to undermine his IQP?
Why didn't you make a new account for this? I feel like you being rated 2250 is going to affect how the opponents play against you compared to how they would against someone their own elo
+JackOscar I thought about doing this, but I don't think it's quite right to misrepresent my strength.
+John Bartholomew You're right. If your strength is 2300 and your rating is 1500, then your opponents will lose much more points than they've deserved to lose.
+John Bartholomew Maybe you could kibitz some games between lower rated players as well? Though I'm certain that playing against someone so much stronger more effectively illustrates potential mistakes, some might be curious as to how these miscues affect games between players of a similar rating. As far as your strength in comparison to your opponent's, maybe holding a simul on Lichess would work? It might "weaken" you a tad, and offer your fans and followers an opportunity to both participate and play against you. Also, when do you tend to play on Lichess? I've finally gotten my bullet rating up around 1800, and it's still increasing. If I wasn't on a laptop, it would be even better. I've never had any formal instruction, read a book, or done anything more than watch some TH-camrs. Maybe I need an instructor? Though maybe I'm a little old for that.
+Eric Jones That's a great idea sir. I'd love to see such a format!
At 1:11:26 isn't Bxb6 a better move? Seems like you will be down a pawn, not two. If he takes the light square bishop u will then be equal in material. Or am I missing something?
At 12:11, white could play Bc4 - a quiet move, which would put you in loss if you saw it down the line. There are no threats on the g2, but - white can offer a dark square bishop sacrifice on H6, provoking you to take with the g pawn. That opens the door for the rook on g8 check! Only way out is to recapture with the rook.
And now you see the purpose of Bc4 - it is guarding the G8 square so you can't recapture the newly gained queen. But that would work only if you didn't bother about capturing the h7 pawn in time.
I'm kind of in the 1400s. This video highlighted a major problem in my game: laziness! I play the London system with white and the KID/Pirc with black because it requires less effort. If I want to improve further, I'll have to use the time my opponents are thinking to think like you do during all your games. Thanks, very helpful again. By the way, when beginners are looking for ways to improve their game, I often refer them to your series on fundamentals. Ciao!
Around 1:08:32 why did he not play Rce1? John explains that black can check with Bc4+ but he has his own bishop that can take it. It would be an exchange of bishops but I don't see any immediate weaknesses after black uses Nxc4 to recapture white's bishop if black uses Bc4+
EDIT: I recognize that as you trade down, even something as small as a single pawn becomes even more pronounced of a deficit. But given that John even calculated the passive move of moving his bishop to defend his pawn and seeing that it would lead to further loss of material, it made even less sense to me that he did not play Rce1. Am I missing something super simple (wouldn't be surprised if I was)?
I love the frequency of these videos! You are great at doing instructional videos, keep it up! :)
If it weren't for this video, the "sudden death" mate at 14:22 probably would have caused the other guy to LEARN from that "deliberate" rook sacrifice that lead to this... John, with great strength comes great responsibility! Amazing.
John you are a very good and thorough teacher keep up the good work bro!