Good work man. Couple of tips. In the london, playing h3 is very common as your black squared bishop often needs to retreat to h2. So when your opponent plays Bg4, just play h3, because BxNf3 helps your development after QxBf3, or it kicks the bishop. Your other knight can still get to e5 after Nd2, Nf3, Ne5 if they trade bishop for knight. With h3, when they play Nh5 to threaten the bishop later, your bishop can retreat and you keep control on the diagonal. However, if you don't play h3, even Bg3 after Nh5 is not bad, because NxBg3, hxNg3, then your rook has the open file against the king side castled black king. Queen side castling is not uncommon in the london in lines where this happens. One of the other main ideas in the london is you want to keep your d4 pawn if possible as an outpost for your knights on e5. Often times you will delay playing c3 until after black plays Bb4 or Nc6 or threatens the d4 pawn. You're better off developing the bishops and knights first and then play c3 in response to black. Watch out for blacks knight to jump into e4. That's why Bd3 is a good defensive tool (but move order with the knights and c3 pawn is important here to make sure it's defended by either the queen or the c2 pawn). Edit: also, as you play more games in the london, you'll find that the b2 pawn is one of your biggest weaknesses because of putting the bishop out early. Qb6 is the most common attack on the b2 pawn. If you have already played c3, the best move in response is Qb3, inviting the queen trade. Don't force the queen trade yourself though, make them trade on b3 to open up your rook.
Thank you so much for taking the time to post about some of the theory behind the London. It'll surely help me and other players. I've also heard of using the dark squared bishop dropping back in order to force a trade and open up for the rook!
Well played and congratulation on finding the fork at the end. When your knight was pinned by the bishop, there could be some danger when black plays e4 attacking your pinned knight with the pawn. Your opponent couldn't make that work in that game. But it would't hurt to move the queen out of the pin just in case. The pin is like a tactical risk factor in the position. Undefended pieces are also exposed to tactics. Having one or two of these risk factors in your position might not kill you immediately but it can some moves later. So when you spot them, try to fix them.
Really good tip, thank you! Sometimes I noticed my opponents will address multiple points of my weakness at once. Trying to get ahead of them from now on.
Well played! :) After the last episode I am happy to see you chose the London system as your white opening. Your style so far is really solid and therefore the opening suits you. If you were inclined to all out attack every game then the London would not be so suitable. I chose to learn the London system as my first opening for the same reason :) If you are looking for a solid opening for black against 1.e4 then I would suggest the Caro Kann. It is solid aswell and I think it would suit you fine. Against 1.d4 I would suggest the Queens Gambit declined or the slav defense. The slav defense has the exact same 2 opening moves as the Caro Kann but will lead to a very different middlegame. You mentioned the Center Counter Opening (or Scandinavian) against 1.e4 in another episode. Any opening that is considered solid will do, so feel free to play multiple openings a little bit. If you feel like it is easy to navigate then I would consider that the signal that the opening suits you. So have fun and choose what you feel like is easy to navigate. Also a cool chess saying: Pawns are the soul of chess. This means when you choose your openings your pawns will define the pawn structure which in turn forces you and your opponent pieces to navigate around those pawns. This will also decrease the amount of possibilities in a game which will eventually save you a little time looking for moves. And yes you are right, there are so many possibilities so sometimes you just have to make a move and trust your intuition. Again, well played and looking forward to you reaching that 800 :)
Thank you again for the extremely insightful comment! I'm gaining a lot more respect for my pawn pieces and trying to utilize them more in my current and future games. They really open a lot in terms of time and tactics that I wasn't taking advantage of before. Looking forward to the future!
If you don't mind a suggestion, against the king's Indian a fun trick is pushing the h pawn to h4 and h5 with a rook sac after the first three moves. You can do a lot of damage against players under 1000. Good Luck!
I would play little bit difrent in the opening but then you find out nice tactics, good job. One thing, its maybe not the best switching between 1d4 and 1e4 openings, it leads to diffrent kind off positions, and you can create unnessecery confusion for yourself. If would ask me then stick with 1e4 or 1d4
Good work man. Couple of tips.
In the london, playing h3 is very common as your black squared bishop often needs to retreat to h2.
So when your opponent plays Bg4, just play h3, because BxNf3 helps your development after QxBf3, or it kicks the bishop. Your other knight can still get to e5 after Nd2, Nf3, Ne5 if they trade bishop for knight.
With h3, when they play Nh5 to threaten the bishop later, your bishop can retreat and you keep control on the diagonal.
However, if you don't play h3, even Bg3 after Nh5 is not bad, because NxBg3, hxNg3, then your rook has the open file against the king side castled black king. Queen side castling is not uncommon in the london in lines where this happens.
One of the other main ideas in the london is you want to keep your d4 pawn if possible as an outpost for your knights on e5. Often times you will delay playing c3 until after black plays Bb4 or Nc6 or threatens the d4 pawn. You're better off developing the bishops and knights first and then play c3 in response to black. Watch out for blacks knight to jump into e4. That's why Bd3 is a good defensive tool (but move order with the knights and c3 pawn is important here to make sure it's defended by either the queen or the c2 pawn).
Edit: also, as you play more games in the london, you'll find that the b2 pawn is one of your biggest weaknesses because of putting the bishop out early. Qb6 is the most common attack on the b2 pawn. If you have already played c3, the best move in response is Qb3, inviting the queen trade. Don't force the queen trade yourself though, make them trade on b3 to open up your rook.
100!
Thank you so much for taking the time to post about some of the theory behind the London. It'll surely help me and other players. I've also heard of using the dark squared bishop dropping back in order to force a trade and open up for the rook!
Well played and congratulation on finding the fork at the end.
When your knight was pinned by the bishop, there could be some danger when black plays e4 attacking your pinned knight with the pawn. Your opponent couldn't make that work in that game. But it would't hurt to move the queen out of the pin just in case. The pin is like a tactical risk factor in the position. Undefended pieces are also exposed to tactics. Having one or two of these risk factors in your position might not kill you immediately but it can some moves later. So when you spot them, try to fix them.
Really good tip, thank you! Sometimes I noticed my opponents will address multiple points of my weakness at once. Trying to get ahead of them from now on.
London is what I play. You did much better than I did my first time playing it haha.
Realizing the London may not be for me, but I appreciate the love nonetheless!
Well played! :)
After the last episode I am happy to see you chose the London system as your white opening. Your style so far is really solid and therefore the opening suits you. If you were inclined to all out attack every game then the London would not be so suitable. I chose to learn the London system as my first opening for the same reason :)
If you are looking for a solid opening for black against 1.e4 then I would suggest the Caro Kann. It is solid aswell and I think it would suit you fine. Against 1.d4 I would suggest the Queens Gambit declined or the slav defense. The slav defense has the exact same 2 opening moves as the Caro Kann but will lead to a very different middlegame.
You mentioned the Center Counter Opening (or Scandinavian) against 1.e4 in another episode. Any opening that is considered solid will do, so feel free to play multiple openings a little bit. If you feel like it is easy to navigate then I would consider that the signal that the opening suits you. So have fun and choose what you feel like is easy to navigate.
Also a cool chess saying: Pawns are the soul of chess. This means when you choose your openings your pawns will define the pawn structure which in turn forces you and your opponent pieces to navigate around those pawns. This will also decrease the amount of possibilities in a game which will eventually save you a little time looking for moves. And yes you are right, there are so many possibilities so sometimes you just have to make a move and trust your intuition.
Again, well played and looking forward to you reaching that 800 :)
Thank you again for the extremely insightful comment! I'm gaining a lot more respect for my pawn pieces and trying to utilize them more in my current and future games. They really open a lot in terms of time and tactics that I wasn't taking advantage of before.
Looking forward to the future!
If you don't mind a suggestion, against the king's Indian a fun trick is pushing the h pawn to h4 and h5 with a rook sac after the first three moves. You can do a lot of damage against players under 1000. Good Luck!
I never mind a suggestion in good faith! I'll run some practice games and see what happens!
cool stuff. I'm 400 elo and It's great to watch your stuff. You're really good, you'll get to 100 elo quickly!
I'm happy you enjoyed the content and welcome to the channel! Here's hoping I keep on climbing haha
Nice find! Especially 0 blunders too!
The best kind of feeling, thank you!
That was a good move at the end 👌
I was so proud of myself, thank you! haha
Let's gooo,keep it up
Much love Steven!
love the video ❤❤
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Hella early💯💯
🗣️ TALK TO MEEEEEE
I would play little bit difrent in the opening but then you find out nice tactics, good job. One thing, its maybe not the best switching between 1d4 and 1e4 openings, it leads to diffrent kind off positions, and you can create unnessecery confusion for yourself. If would ask me then stick with 1e4 or 1d4
Definitely trying to stick to d4 from here on out until I get it down!
I think I found my new opening! 👀
I play the vienna as white and caro Kann as black. What you plan to play as black pieces?
I'm a queen's gambit myself but sometimes when i play the old variant i can turn it into a pseudo-london you should check it out 👍
@@einstein5030 I saw in a video how these transpose into each other quite easily. So will do!
Not gonna lie, it's a pleasant series to watch. London opening is quite nice.
That's all I could hope for, happy you enjoyed!