Wow. I’m not very highly rated, so neither are my opponents. I tried the colle for the first time, and I got a crushing position, forked the rook and king, and back rank checkmated king while taking the rook!! That was a lot of fun!
After watching this video today, I just used this opening to perfection in one of my games! I can't believe I remembered all the ideas too! Awesome! Thank you Chess Vibes for teaching me something!
Outstanding again Nelson! Its perfect for me, since I have been playing the London 100% of the time as white. I can't wait to surprise my chess partner with the Colle! Thank you!
I'm trying this it's not only the teaching but it's the way he shows other tactics or what ifs that solidify the strategy and the structure bro is on another level respect senpai 💯💪🏾
Hi Nelson! Really nice run-through of this game, I enjoyed it tremendously. The Colle also gives lots of attacking ideas that transfer straight across to the Stonewall as well - nice! 😄
Two Questions about the Colle: 1: If Black does take at the start and you have to play exd4, what is White then looking to do in the middle game, now they cannot play E4? 2: You mentioned that a lot of pieces are lining up on the King Side and the importance of h7, what if Black opens with a response that allows them to Castle Queen Side?
Great video. I play the London, having learned it from a Hikaru lesson. The switch was fairly easy. as I am somewhat familiar with the structure, I played a few games and I am liking it more and more.. It certainly adds variety. As far as I can tell, based on my limited knowledge, it provides for a relatively early h3, as per Hikaru. I guess because not only does it contro;l a key square. it also provides an escape square for my B as you describe in your video. BTW, when the black Q attacks my pawn in the London, I offer a Q trade and then play chess.
The Colle was the first opening I learned. Specifically the Colle-Zuckertort variation that fianchettos the dark bishop; making progression a bit easier for beginners. That was recommended in the first two video courses I got, by Jeremy Silman ('The Great Courses') and Susan Polgar ('Winning Chess the Easy Way').
Also another thing about this is many times black will push that C column pawn forward instead of trading thereby stopping your bishop from taking the center of the party hat.
Nelson goes ahead and finds a 18 moves checkmate and he goes like: - That's a more advanced move, it's ok if you didn't see it - Bro, I'm still looking for the E4 square mentioned at the beginning of the video 😒
Super interesting video. After playing Colle for a while, I came to London. But I have to say that London only has advantages if the opponent doesn't know it or only knows it a little. In contrast, Colle offers some surprises, which are shown here, and even if the opponent knows it, you don't get into disadvantages as easily as with London.
What's the best strat for castling? I find I do not try to castle, I find it a wasted move. I only castle to save a piece, relieve pressure or if I need a waiting move. I think the idea behind maintaining tempo and constantly improving the position offensively is the way to go.
the idea of castling early with Colle is Ne5.. Pf4 and get the castled rook out ...Rf3...Rh3 to begin an attack on their kingside. but this game took a different turn, Colle has lots of variations and transpositions. even the best of the best GMs argue over whether to take position or initiative. For me positional play is intuitive and i feel like i shoot myself in the foot a lot less.
I was the first view and I can say this is a pretty great opening I could use later on. I could get my rating back up to 1000 blitz (I recently had a massive rating loss streak, so I'm trying to regain.) I will also try to get the other time controls like rapid up. Thank you nelson!
Beware of the black plan of delaying Nc6 and playing b6, a5 and Ba6, and gone is your attacking bishop. This is how I play against the Colle, and mostly get a pretty comfortable position without worrying about my king
11:00 black should recapture with the queen. Keeps knight defending h7, centralizes and activates queen, and prevents white going Qd4. Basically the entire rest of the video is possible only because black departed f6 with his knight
The biggest problem I run into with the Colle is black rushing to occupy e4 before white can set up protection, and fork the knight and light square bishop. Even though the engine calls it a mistake, it basically stops the Colle in its tracks. Do you have any remedies for this early advance?
100% my same problem with Colle. I end up keeping the light bishop on e2 for a while until I see the risk of a fork is low. He doesn't address it here, but I get forked there every time with a black pawn on e4. Although, he did say that c2 is also ok for light bishop if it is under attack from c4. I may try keeping it on c2 and see if that works.
@@tessg4799 As far as I can tell, this seems to be a thing about lower- vs higher-elo players (I’m the former). Players at my level are *way* more likely to advance the e pawn before the c pawn, because that’s just what they’re used to (most of them would rather be playing an e4 opening, anyway!). The other problem I run into as a low-elo Colle player is that I’m trying to deploy a 8-10 step system before attacking, whereas my opponent says to themselves, “Uh, pawn out, knight out, bishop out - time to start attacking!!!” And even though it’s easy to quash an uncoordinated attack, their kamikaze tactic still takes out pieces you need, and depending on what gets taken out, they can even the odds pretty quickly.
@@jmgerraughty Came here to say the same. I enjoy and understand the Colle and Colle Zuckertort pretty well but opponents at my lowish rating often just throw pieces into an attack and disrupt what I'm trying to accomplish. Heck, perhaps that's the secret to defending against the Colle - attack, attack, attack!
@@SEAKPhotog I forget where I was reading this, but playing Colle also means knowing when to pivot to other d4-based openings on a dime. Basically, when black advances on the e file, the Colle's over. You're playing a modified QGD now. You can almost count on the bishop pin coming next, like clockwork. So far, the biggest breakthrough I've had with the Colle was learning when to abandon it mid-game and just play chess.
@@jmgerraughty PLEASE play the Jobava London. Very easy to remember, very aggressive, very sound and very successful in both low and high Elo games. It's all the nice attacking aspects of the colle without losing time.
At 20:15, isn't bishop to C5 a far better move? The only defence I can see is bishop to H6 to block the queen, which gives a free bishop to white, or rook to E7 for a rook bishop trade. If black fails to spot either move then it's checkmate in 1, but if they do spot it and lose either their bishop or rook, white can still do knight to C5 for the queen or bishop as shown here
Sorry, bishop to H6 is what I meant - my mistake. Thanks for pointing out, I have edited
3 หลายเดือนก่อน
@@birdbrain4030 I guess we discuss about 20:00 after black queen goes to a6. What is better for white to play knight or bishop to c5? For bishop Kne7 defends. Q takes on e6 next.
If, after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 c5 4. c3, Black plays 4. ... c4 right away, you can't develop the light square bishop to its optimal diagonal. I think that will still not go especially well for Black given the overextension of their pawns, but it would be worth throwing in something about the best way to handle this.
I’d try b3 at some point to chip away at the c4 pawn! And if their stubborn and try to keep a pawn there with b5 a4 is a good way to of undermining black’s pawns
Now I need some help on the line after you get here for the ANTI Colle lol All of a sudden everyone at 500-600 knows the anti colle and I am getting smushed LMAO Yes yes yes I can go do some board analysis... but so good at explaining!
At the 11 minute mark you assume black would take the pawn with the knight, whereas i think most players would choose to take with their queen. Perhaps you could add another bit on what to do in that scenario?
Qxd5 would be vulnerable. White would have c4, Bc4 lining up black's Q and K on the diagonal, Be4 if wanting to keep sights on h7 or Rd1 ready to move the N and B out of the way discovering the attack on the Q. So Nxd5 is the better move
@@nickf31 ah ok I guess so. What do you think about this strategy? I'm only around 6-700 I think and wondering if I should use it, or perhaps something different?
Thanks for taking my recommendation from last live stream and showing this. I always play D4, NF3 as white and then it's Colle System or London System if black plays something that the Colle is less effective against. Chess is hard. These two openings are not. 😂😂😂
What to do if opponent doesn’t block off their light square bishop by playing e6 and instead covers the square we want our light square bishop by playing bf5?
No, no, no! Colle was Belgian and spelled his name with no acute accent on the 'e'. This means that his name should be pronounced as 'col' and not 'collie' or 'collay'. Some of your students might someday meet a European player, and they will look pretty stupid if they copy your pronunciation.
I've lost a lot of games using this. Now I see the mistake I've done all the time is moving Bd3 before pawn C2 when they bring out pawns or knight on left side.
I like to play 1. Nf3 because I've found that 1. d4 invites black to play something they've prepared against d4 whereas Nf3 is less common of a move but can still transpose into the QG or Colle or London System depending on what black does.
1. Nf3 is pretty effective in blitz and bullet at lower levels. I started using it and shot up from 300 to 800. I think it just confuses people and they panic
@@mitch9237 Bro, can't tell you how many blitz games I've won just because black premoves e4. My win rate for those games is like 90%. I usually transpose to King's Indian Attack in those games. Easy.
@@gordontubbs 2... g6! Let's go! We're going into a KID structure with ...Bg7 and ...d6. Black holds all the cards. You're in my world now! What's more, you want to play the passive e3 which means you'll need another tempo to play e4. In the meantime, black is ready with two pawn breaks immediately available (...e5 and ...c5). No reply needed. Good luck in your games! :)
I play the KID as black with ...g6 and ...d6 instead of ...d5 and ...Be7. Black can answer the Colle system with a KID set up with white behind a move because eventually white will want to play e4 as you said. Black retains the option to break with either ...e5 or ...c5 so black is playing for a win while white is a sitting duck waiting to see what happens. The Colle System is a good system for someone who wants to fall behind in development and pass the initiative to black. At the master level the Colle system is played less than 1% of the time by white and black wins the majority of the time. Results are similar in the lichess amateur database excluding bullet and blitz games. The other option is to go into a stonewall structure with d4-e3-f4 which doesn't do anything for white against ...d6. Otherwise, nice video and good strategic breakdown.
I used this opening to beat my last opponent in my Atlanta Nationals 2024 tournament! But instead, the way I played it is you fianchetto (I think that’s how you spell it) the dark squared bishop and you don’t play c3
What to do if opponent doesn’t block off their light square bishop by playing e6 and instead covers the square we want our light square bishop by playing bf5?
Excellent question. This is called the anti colle variation. You have a lot of options here. Your position is still solid, but your gameplay may be quite different. You can still bring out your bishop as it's protected by the queen and the pawn, if they take you can recapture with either but obviously without the bishop, this entire gameplay is different. Many other options exist besides this though if you don't wanna trade that bishop. Look up "anti colle system" on TH-cam to find options.
step 1 : watch video
step 2 : apply in game
step 3 : opponent plays weird ass move
step 4 : lose and not play chess until next video
hahaaa
or dont remember nothing move and just push and lose.
The colle is actually rlly good bc u know what to do when ur opponent does shit
I prefer the "play in the wrong order and blunder" variation
😂
@😂enderyu
Thanks from Cork, Ireland Nelson. My game is improving markedly, thanks to your instructive videos. God bless you and yours.
Wow. I’m not very highly rated, so neither are my opponents. I tried the colle for the first time, and I got a crushing position, forked the rook and king, and back rank checkmated king while taking the rook!! That was a lot of fun!
After watching this video today, I just used this opening to perfection in one of my games! I can't believe I remembered all the ideas too! Awesome! Thank you Chess Vibes for teaching me something!
Very instructive, thank you for everything you do Nelson
Nels, Duke of Chess.
What a great teacher.
What a great explainer. Thanks Nelson!
love the Logical Chess series ,Nelson! another great episode!
I like when you throw in some of the advanced concepts too, even as an intermediate player it's interesting to see different levels of play
Great lesson.
Fabulous game & excellent lesson with the Colle - have tried it previously but this adds a lot to my understanding , thank you
Wearing my chess vibes pieces t-shirt while watching/learning from the best chess teacher on yt
Outstanding again Nelson! Its perfect for me, since I have been playing the London 100% of the time as white. I can't wait to surprise my chess partner with the Colle! Thank you!
I'm trying this it's not only the teaching but it's the way he shows other tactics or what ifs that solidify the strategy and the structure bro is on another level respect senpai 💯💪🏾
Hi Nelson! Really nice run-through of this game, I enjoyed it tremendously. The Colle also gives lots of attacking ideas that transfer straight across to the Stonewall as well - nice! 😄
Two Questions about the Colle:
1: If Black does take at the start and you have to play exd4, what is White then looking to do in the middle game, now they cannot play E4?
2: You mentioned that a lot of pieces are lining up on the King Side and the importance of h7, what if Black opens with a response that allows them to Castle Queen Side?
Great video. I play the London, having learned it from a Hikaru lesson. The switch was fairly easy. as I am somewhat familiar with the structure, I played a few games and I am liking it more and more.. It certainly adds variety. As far as I can tell, based on my limited knowledge, it provides for a relatively early h3, as per Hikaru. I guess because not only does it contro;l a key square. it also provides an escape square for my B as you describe in your video.
BTW, when the black Q attacks my pawn in the London, I offer a Q trade and then play chess.
The Colle was the first opening I learned. Specifically the Colle-Zuckertort variation that fianchettos the dark bishop; making progression a bit easier for beginners. That was recommended in the first two video courses I got, by Jeremy Silman ('The Great Courses') and Susan Polgar ('Winning Chess the Easy Way').
Never been so early. Sending support, keep it up Nelson
Nelson Lopez you are awesome I've been playing the colle and this is a great explanation of middle game tactics thanks.
Love your channel and thanks for all the content! If you're doing another book after this one, do you know what it will be?
I have a few ideas but haven't locked in the next book yet!
Also another thing about this is many times black will push that C column pawn forward instead of trading thereby stopping your bishop from taking the center of the party hat.
Nelson goes ahead and finds a 18 moves checkmate and he goes like:
- That's a more advanced move, it's ok if you didn't see it
- Bro, I'm still looking for the E4 square mentioned at the beginning of the video 😒
Nelson, when you play Caro Kann Finnish system?
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 h6
12:08 black kn d5-f4 seems a good opportunity for me
Super interesting video. After playing Colle for a while, I came to London. But I have to say that London only has advantages if the opponent doesn't know it or only knows it a little. In contrast, Colle offers some surprises, which are shown here, and even if the opponent knows it, you don't get into disadvantages as easily as with London.
What's the best strat for castling? I find I do not try to castle, I find it a wasted move. I only castle to save a piece, relieve pressure or if I need a waiting move. I think the idea behind maintaining tempo and constantly improving the position offensively is the way to go.
the idea of castling early with Colle is Ne5.. Pf4 and get the castled rook out ...Rf3...Rh3 to begin an attack on their kingside. but this game took a different turn, Colle has lots of variations and transpositions.
even the best of the best GMs argue over whether to take position or initiative. For me positional play is intuitive and i feel like i shoot myself in the foot a lot less.
I was the first view and I can say this is a pretty great opening I could use later on.
I could get my rating back up to 1000 blitz (I recently had a massive rating loss streak, so I'm trying to regain.) I will also try to get the other time controls like rapid up. Thank you nelson!
Beware of the black plan of delaying Nc6 and playing b6, a5 and Ba6, and gone is your attacking bishop. This is how I play against the Colle, and mostly get a pretty comfortable position without worrying about my king
Yep, killing that B is the key to wrecking white's play. :)
Can you tell about the two knights against King and pawn check mate?
Were those tactics too advanced or I’m just not in the mood today? I almost didn’t find any of them!
11:00 black should recapture with the queen. Keeps knight defending h7, centralizes and activates queen, and prevents white going Qd4. Basically the entire rest of the video is possible only because black departed f6 with his knight
The biggest problem I run into with the Colle is black rushing to occupy e4 before white can set up protection, and fork the knight and light square bishop. Even though the engine calls it a mistake, it basically stops the Colle in its tracks. Do you have any remedies for this early advance?
100% my same problem with Colle. I end up keeping the light bishop on e2 for a while until I see the risk of a fork is low. He doesn't address it here, but I get forked there every time with a black pawn on e4. Although, he did say that c2 is also ok for light bishop if it is under attack from c4. I may try keeping it on c2 and see if that works.
@@tessg4799 As far as I can tell, this seems to be a thing about lower- vs higher-elo players (I’m the former). Players at my level are *way* more likely to advance the e pawn before the c pawn, because that’s just what they’re used to (most of them would rather be playing an e4 opening, anyway!).
The other problem I run into as a low-elo Colle player is that I’m trying to deploy a 8-10 step system before attacking, whereas my opponent says to themselves, “Uh, pawn out, knight out, bishop out - time to start attacking!!!” And even though it’s easy to quash an uncoordinated attack, their kamikaze tactic still takes out pieces you need, and depending on what gets taken out, they can even the odds pretty quickly.
@@jmgerraughty Came here to say the same. I enjoy and understand the Colle and Colle Zuckertort pretty well but opponents at my lowish rating often just throw pieces into an attack and disrupt what I'm trying to accomplish. Heck, perhaps that's the secret to defending against the Colle - attack, attack, attack!
@@SEAKPhotog I forget where I was reading this, but playing Colle also means knowing when to pivot to other d4-based openings on a dime. Basically, when black advances on the e file, the Colle's over. You're playing a modified QGD now. You can almost count on the bishop pin coming next, like clockwork. So far, the biggest breakthrough I've had with the Colle was learning when to abandon it mid-game and just play chess.
@@jmgerraughty PLEASE play the Jobava London. Very easy to remember, very aggressive, very sound and very successful in both low and high Elo games. It's all the nice attacking aspects of the colle without losing time.
At 20:15, isn't bishop to C5 a far better move? The only defence I can see is bishop to H6 to block the queen, which gives a free bishop to white, or rook to E7 for a rook bishop trade. If black fails to spot either move then it's checkmate in 1, but if they do spot it and lose either their bishop or rook, white can still do knight to C5 for the queen or bishop as shown here
There is no spoon and bishop to h7.
Sorry, bishop to H6 is what I meant - my mistake. Thanks for pointing out, I have edited
@@birdbrain4030 I guess we discuss about 20:00 after black queen goes to a6. What is better for white to play knight or bishop to c5? For bishop Kne7 defends. Q takes on e6 next.
Sorry I'm not sure what you're meaning? e7 is occupied by a pawn at 19:00?
@@birdbrain4030 20:00, fixed
Thanks, can You use the Colle with black....???
and then he castles queenside.
Great instructional video.
If, after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 c5 4. c3, Black plays 4. ... c4 right away, you can't develop the light square bishop to its optimal diagonal. I think that will still not go especially well for Black given the overextension of their pawns, but it would be worth throwing in something about the best way to handle this.
Yes, I was wondering how he would deal with this too.
I’d try b3 at some point to chip away at the c4 pawn! And if their stubborn and try to keep a pawn there with b5 a4 is a good way to of undermining black’s pawns
Colle looks like a variant of Stonewall. When I play a 1200 bot, it shreds Stonewall most of the time.
Now I need some help on the line after you get here for the ANTI Colle lol
All of a sudden everyone at 500-600 knows the anti colle and I am getting smushed LMAO
Yes yes yes I can go do some board analysis... but so good at explaining!
What if black castles on the other side--is it just as easy to attack on queen side with the colle?
1st attempt
1. d4 c5... d'oh
could you record more detailed video about the colle opening? it works very good for me even better than jobava or London =)
Great game, lots to learn
How do I react to an early Bf5 on the 3rd move? I'm supposed to have my bishop on d3, but...
It always happens in my games😅
For a reason bf5 is called Anti colle, colle fails miserably...major reasons not used at higher levels...
What about Rd1 instead of dxc5, which prepares e4 by protecting the d4 pawn with a tactic?
I answer a lot of your questions correctly but for some reason I have great difficulty in spotting the checkmates.
At the 11 minute mark you assume black would take the pawn with the knight, whereas i think most players would choose to take with their queen. Perhaps you could add another bit on what to do in that scenario?
Qxd5 would be vulnerable. White would have c4, Bc4 lining up black's Q and K on the diagonal, Be4 if wanting to keep sights on h7 or Rd1 ready to move the N and B out of the way discovering the attack on the Q. So Nxd5 is the better move
@@nickf31 ah ok I guess so. What do you think about this strategy? I'm only around 6-700 I think and wondering if I should use it, or perhaps something different?
Qxp is much better. Keeps knight defending h7. White can't trade it off either because his dark square bishop is stuck
Thanks for taking my recommendation from last live stream and showing this. I always play D4, NF3 as white and then it's Colle System or London System if black plays something that the Colle is less effective against. Chess is hard. These two openings are not. 😂😂😂
what about the black bishop? London is similar but better
What to do if opponent doesn’t block off their light square bishop by playing e6 and instead covers the square we want our light square bishop by playing bf5?
Great explanation...,thanks alot...👍👍
No wonder it looks so powerful in the thumbnail.. you didn't let Black make a move! ;P
Nelson, what would you do if opponent did not take with the knight on d5, but pushed the e pawn instead for a fork?
No, no, no! Colle was Belgian and spelled his name with no acute accent on the 'e'. This means that his name should be pronounced as 'col' and not 'collie' or 'collay'. Some of your students might someday meet a European player, and they will look pretty stupid if they copy your pronunciation.
What if they play 5 ... Ng4?
My first game they brought out queen second move.. they immediately attack the center with e4
After bh7+ k take h7 we can play qd3
This opening has taken me from 750 to 860. Thanks
im behind in the book ! you're mushing me Nelson 😅
I've lost a lot of games using this. Now I see the mistake I've done all the time is moving Bd3 before pawn C2 when they bring out pawns or knight on left side.
I like to play 1. Nf3 because I've found that 1. d4 invites black to play something they've prepared against d4 whereas Nf3 is less common of a move but can still transpose into the QG or Colle or London System depending on what black does.
1. Nf3 is pretty effective in blitz and bullet at lower levels. I started using it and shot up from 300 to 800. I think it just confuses people and they panic
@@mitch9237 Bro, can't tell you how many blitz games I've won just because black premoves e4. My win rate for those games is like 90%. I usually transpose to King's Indian Attack in those games. Easy.
1. Nf3 Nf6. Case closed.
@@MrSupernova111 2. d4
@@gordontubbs 2... g6! Let's go! We're going into a KID structure with ...Bg7 and ...d6. Black holds all the cards. You're in my world now! What's more, you want to play the passive e3 which means you'll need another tempo to play e4. In the meantime, black is ready with two pawn breaks immediately available (...e5 and ...c5). No reply needed. Good luck in your games! :)
I don’t play chess, but I love this series
I play the KID as black with ...g6 and ...d6 instead of ...d5 and ...Be7. Black can answer the Colle system with a KID set up with white behind a move because eventually white will want to play e4 as you said. Black retains the option to break with either ...e5 or ...c5 so black is playing for a win while white is a sitting duck waiting to see what happens. The Colle System is a good system for someone who wants to fall behind in development and pass the initiative to black. At the master level the Colle system is played less than 1% of the time by white and black wins the majority of the time. Results are similar in the lichess amateur database excluding bullet and blitz games. The other option is to go into a stonewall structure with d4-e3-f4 which doesn't do anything for white against ...d6. Otherwise, nice video and good strategic breakdown.
Can you use the Collie to attack the queenside?
I used this opening to beat my last opponent in my Atlanta Nationals 2024 tournament! But instead, the way I played it is you fianchetto (I think that’s how you spell it) the dark squared bishop and you don’t play c3
At what level did you play?
@@MrSupernova111 1300, probably would’ve been higher because the tournament was months ago and I made a few mistakes but I still did pretty well
@@5gearz . Cool! Congrats on the win!
😅 i thought i made the opening but mine i phienchetto the bishop
Checkmate by il Vaticano
Just got my first 97% accuracy rating because of this video 😂
Now I need some black sides setup
As a London player this is a good thing for my repertoire
Boring
@@AhiaAhia-iv3wv may be boring, but its a solid opening
Excellent
nice
I’m a beginner, I’ve been playing only the London, but definitely want to try this.
Cool.😮
I gonna give it a GO 🙂
I tried this in a game and I got 86% accuracy. Well, my opponent also played less than optimally, but still!
Tried and my opponent immediately played e5
In his chess classes, GM George Koltanowski always taught the Colle System 50 years ago.
interesting
Great, now that it's public, everyone knows how to beat it
Its Nbd2, not Nd2
Explain please
I will play the Colle when I mess up the London and forget to move my dark bishop out before the pawn block.
Test
My ELO has improved from a 1 to a 2
Rise and grind 😂
Colle System : Rigged version of the london
First comment. 😎
the Nerd system digga
Alles gut bei dir?
i stopped playing chess
Did you read my survey?! This was borderline creepy =D
No voice
Solid chess learning session while I take my morning shower. Now let's lock in and put it in to practice!
What to do if opponent doesn’t block off their light square bishop by playing e6 and instead covers the square we want our light square bishop by playing bf5?
Excellent question. This is called the anti colle variation. You have a lot of options here. Your position is still solid, but your gameplay may be quite different. You can still bring out your bishop as it's protected by the queen and the pawn, if they take you can recapture with either but obviously without the bishop, this entire gameplay is different. Many other options exist besides this though if you don't wanna trade that bishop. Look up "anti colle system" on TH-cam to find options.