I know your "special" videos (eg Play Magnus, themed tournament streams, dual commentary) get a lot of love/views/comments but wanted to say thanks again for these "regular" videos! Especially standard videos since it's actually at a pace where a noob like me can ~somewhat~ follow along your thought process. Btw, when you pronounced that Dutch town, I keep hearing "shenanigan". Though that would be a pretty cool name for an opening. Sounds mischievous ;P And I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a chess opening called shenanigans given Frankenstein and Dracula had one named after them lol
Fantastic game John! Back and forth tactics the whole way with a really cool defensive idea in g5. It is amazing how harmonious the pieces and pawns are in the Najdorf, which allows black so many defensive resources even while down in development with a king in the center.
I'm really liking the fact that you're not afraid of playing those theory-heavy lines. Anyway when it comes to this opening, I think Scheveningen nowadays is almost exclusively reached via 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 move order, because that has an advantage of eliminating 3. Bb5+ lines. Personally I play either Ng4 or mainline e5 lines against the english attack so I'm not as familiar with this exact opening, but in general I believe if you go 2. ... d6 it always makes sense to play the Najdorf instead and later transpose if necessary, no reason to allow Keres attack (unles of course you have some specific preparation). Mostly it's due to the fact that in so many lines e5 is considered the critical response for black. Still, very nice games, always good to watch a stronger player dive into my favourite positions :)
+pjrutkowski I've heard varying opinions of the Keres Attack, and it actually seems to me that some Scheveningen players don't mind playing against it at all. Your 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 move order suggestion makes sense - I'll look in to that. Thanks!
Interesting game. I agree that it is difficult to keep the game in independent Scheveningen lines if white doesn't go for the Keres attack (although I can't figure out why White doesn't always play the Keres attack, it's the most testing line by far). If you want to try another semi-uncommon Sicilian, maybe a classical? I know that you've played it once or twice before, but I don't remember you playing it recently.
Hi John - I just got back into chess after last being absorbed in the mid 90's and am going to have to rethink C4 verse E4 as my standard opening for black. I've always used it having studied Fischer's games way back then. I chose C4 mainly because it was supposed to be a winning response for black to E4. But your thoughts on it being theory heavy and not a good choice possibly for players in the 1500 to 2200 range really struck a chord with me. What openings would you suggest to study that are safer / quieter and may be better for players similar to me (1500ish - did the elo test and was rated 1600) to learn for black? Thank you for taking the time to produce so many amazing videos!
+chiproller For safer/quieter responses to 1.e4, I can recommend the Caro-Kann and the Scandinavian. There's also 1...e5, of course, though that entails quite a bit of theory (on par with the Sicilian).
John how do you feel if, for instance, you are playing an important OTB game and after a clearly winning position you blunder? And what about when you were younger? Please be completely honest. Loved that Shenanigan opening :P. Thanks!
+martín Blundering in a clearly winning position is always traumatic :) I have been upset with myself before for blowing winning positions, but I will rarely show that emotion. Best to take your lumps and move on.
please play this more john. this is very exciting for me. even if you lose your rating. i think if you sacrifice some rating points to entertain you fan base it well make you fill better knowing you have really dynamic chess games. please play more sharper lines for us john you are very talented player and if you keep pushing yourself it will make you better and the channel better.
John Bartholomew when you played the halloween gambit tournament on lichess over halloween weekened. the games were amazingly fun dynamic. surprising white side of the board in those games did remarkably well.
Why didn't you consider 13...e5? Seems like that would be a decent if risky way of striking back in the center and generating some immediate counterplay
+Tremendous Sax Good question! I'm not sure why I didn't consider 13...e5. The engine claims that 14.g5! is still excellent (+2) for White after 14...exd4 15.Qxd4, but I definitely wish I would have examined 13...e5.
I'm around ~1100ish rating and I try to play the Sicilian, but I'm often met with Bc4 3rd move. I've been searching for variations of this opening but I cannot find any on RUclips. Is it called something specific? (whenever I search up Sicilian defense, only the open variation pops up) Thank you to anyone who responds!
+Radu Firtat Hi, Radu! This Sicilian scenario (e.g. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 or even 2.Bc4) does come up frequently. Usually your best bet is to prepare a pawn advance to ...d5, attacking the c4 bishop (typically with ...e7-e6). Check out my "Chess Fundamentals" and "Climbing the Rating Ladder" videos; I recall facing this. Hope that helps!
I've never played the najdorf so I don't know theory, but why did you give up the initiative with 10. ..Qc7. I'm not sure if 10. ..Qa5 11. b3 Nc5 is working or not, but at least in that line black is maintaining an initiative and white is reacting to black's threats on the queenside. 10. ..Qc7 seemed passive to me and let white seize the initiative with his hack attack on the kingside which forced black to start reacting to his threats and stalled black's plans on the queenside.
+CoolStoryTyler 10...Qa5 is very sharp, and I didn't remember much about that line. 10...Qc7 seemed reasonable at the time, so I opted for the safer move. It does cede White the initiative, though - I agree.
I didn't really trust your position to be holdable but that was mainly because of b4 hanging with a mate threath. So when the mate threath was no longer around I was pretty confident you'd win. It's a pretty crazy game though, so many tactics, but one would expect this kind of madness to arise from the Najdorf. I usually play the Dragon. It's quite sharp too, but most white players go for Yugoslav attack and at least I know the theory of that, haha. Oh and John, I almost forgot. I have a question regarding the rules. So, I know that when someone runs out of time, and the other side doesn't have enough force to mate on the board it is a draw. But sometimes it can happen (I doubt it did because it is very specific), that you don't actually have to have the standard amount of force to mate. Classical example would be when a side is trying to promote a rook pawn, and the other has a knight. So what if a position arises, where it is already a forced mate, but the side with the pawn wants to play it unfair and doesn't let his opponent mate him and just lets his time go down? I'm pretty sure in a tournament situation this would be a win for the player with the knight but I'm not sure how chess websites would handle this.
Not to be anal about it, but @24:14, when you were analyzing that line with 22.Qxb4... you were thinking of Rb8 as the reply but that just runs into checkmate in one on e7 :D Thankfully he didn't play it anyways so you didn't mess up :p
+Chockrit Nope. That's not even the German way of pronouncing it. The German pronounciation is "Sheven Ing En". The Dutch way sounds more like "Skheiven Ing en".
+Marko Kostic I spelled it out the way I think John would be able to pronounce it best using English words. I wasn't really going for a precise pronunciation since it's tough for a non-speaker.
Man, Magnus age 13 will test your sharp theoretical knowledge, he'll punish you if you forget move 14 somewhere in the Sicilian or Kings Indian, lol, it's nuts.
I know your "special" videos (eg Play Magnus, themed tournament streams, dual commentary) get a lot of love/views/comments but wanted to say thanks again for these "regular" videos! Especially standard videos since it's actually at a pace where a noob like me can ~somewhat~ follow along your thought process.
Btw, when you pronounced that Dutch town, I keep hearing "shenanigan". Though that would be a pretty cool name for an opening. Sounds mischievous ;P And I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a chess opening called shenanigans given Frankenstein and Dracula had one named after them lol
+kozzi The Shenanigan Defense!
+kozzi And sure thing - I like producing these Standard videos. Thanks :)
Awesome game, one of your best in this series.
I really enjoyed this game. Thanks for the upload.
+Hungi Ayera Thanks - I appreciate you watching!
Fantastic game John! Back and forth tactics the whole way with a really cool defensive idea in g5. It is amazing how harmonious the pieces and pawns are in the Najdorf, which allows black so many defensive resources even while down in development with a king in the center.
+Chesster Board Thanks! The Najdorf can get crazy, yes. Black must have a keen sense of timing and excellent attack/defense skills.
Mild Ibrahim: I though it was obvious, but the first "Play Magnus" video was just a fun, humorous thing :)
7am, putting on make up for work, and watching your chess video. Better than the news. :D Goooood morning!
+h3arty You sure you got that makeup right?! I was nearly choking on my coffee! Jeeee ... what a puzzle ... ;O)
I'm really liking the fact that you're not afraid of playing those theory-heavy lines. Anyway when it comes to this opening, I think Scheveningen nowadays is almost exclusively reached via 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 move order, because that has an advantage of eliminating 3. Bb5+ lines. Personally I play either Ng4 or mainline e5 lines against the english attack so I'm not as familiar with this exact opening, but in general I believe if you go 2. ... d6 it always makes sense to play the Najdorf instead and later transpose if necessary, no reason to allow Keres attack (unles of course you have some specific preparation). Mostly it's due to the fact that in so many lines e5 is considered the critical response for black. Still, very nice games, always good to watch a stronger player dive into my favourite positions :)
+pjrutkowski I've heard varying opinions of the Keres Attack, and it actually seems to me that some Scheveningen players don't mind playing against it at all. Your 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 move order suggestion makes sense - I'll look in to that. Thanks!
Very sharp position there toward the end. Sometimes trying to calculate everything in those types of positions literally makes my head hurt.
Interesting game. I agree that it is difficult to keep the game in independent Scheveningen lines if white doesn't go for the Keres attack (although I can't figure out why White doesn't always play the Keres attack, it's the most testing line by far).
If you want to try another semi-uncommon Sicilian, maybe a classical? I know that you've played it once or twice before, but I don't remember you playing it recently.
Hi John - I just got back into chess after last being absorbed in the mid 90's and am going to have to rethink C4 verse E4 as my standard opening for black. I've always used it having studied Fischer's games way back then. I chose C4 mainly because it was supposed to be a winning response for black to E4. But your thoughts on it being theory heavy and not a good choice possibly for players in the 1500 to 2200 range really struck a chord with me. What openings would you suggest to study that are safer / quieter and may be better for players similar to me (1500ish - did the elo test and was rated 1600) to learn for black? Thank you for taking the time to produce so many amazing videos!
+chiproller For safer/quieter responses to 1.e4, I can recommend the Caro-Kann and the Scandinavian. There's also 1...e5, of course, though that entails quite a bit of theory (on par with the Sicilian).
Hey just arrived at your channel and I think what you do here is great!!!
PS: Just a small query, what site are you using to play this game on?
Thanks, Nipuna! This is the Internet Chess Club (ICC).
Thanks a bunch John!! Keep up the good work!!!
Chess theory: The Scheveningen
John: The Shenanigan
very nice ending :)
I am confused in the video you played against Magnus. You were so different. Can you tell us why in your comment in this video??
nice ending play!
+Ben Scott Thanks, Ben!
John how do you feel if, for instance, you are playing an important OTB game and after a clearly winning position you blunder? And what about when you were younger? Please be completely honest.
Loved that Shenanigan opening :P. Thanks!
+martín Blundering in a clearly winning position is always traumatic :) I have been upset with myself before for blowing winning positions, but I will rarely show that emotion. Best to take your lumps and move on.
John Bartholomew
Thanks!
please play this more john. this is very exciting for me. even if you lose your rating. i think if you sacrifice some rating points to entertain you fan base it well make you fill better knowing you have really dynamic chess games. please play more sharper lines for us john you are very talented player and if you keep pushing yourself it will make you better and the channel better.
+Devvan Butler Thanks for the feedback, Devvan. I do want to open up my game a bit to sharper lines, so I'll try to implement your suggestion.
John Bartholomew when you played the halloween gambit tournament on lichess over halloween weekened. the games were amazingly fun dynamic. surprising white side of the board in those games did remarkably well.
+Devvan Butler They were a blast and very sharp, you're right.
Why didn't you consider 13...e5? Seems like that would be a decent if risky way of striking back in the center and generating some immediate counterplay
+Tremendous Sax Good question! I'm not sure why I didn't consider 13...e5. The engine claims that 14.g5! is still excellent (+2) for White after 14...exd4 15.Qxd4, but I definitely wish I would have examined 13...e5.
I'm around ~1100ish rating and I try to play the Sicilian, but I'm often met with Bc4 3rd move. I've been searching for variations of this opening but I cannot find any on RUclips. Is it called something specific? (whenever I search up Sicilian defense, only the open variation pops up) Thank you to anyone who responds!
+Radu Firtat Hi, Radu! This Sicilian scenario (e.g. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 or even 2.Bc4) does come up frequently. Usually your best bet is to prepare a pawn advance to ...d5, attacking the c4 bishop (typically with ...e7-e6). Check out my "Chess Fundamentals" and "Climbing the Rating Ladder" videos; I recall facing this. Hope that helps!
I've never played the najdorf so I don't know theory, but why did you give up the initiative with 10. ..Qc7. I'm not sure if 10. ..Qa5 11. b3 Nc5 is working or not, but at least in that line black is maintaining an initiative and white is reacting to black's threats on the queenside. 10. ..Qc7 seemed passive to me and let white seize the initiative with his hack attack on the kingside which forced black to start reacting to his threats and stalled black's plans on the queenside.
+CoolStoryTyler 10...Qa5 is very sharp, and I didn't remember much about that line. 10...Qc7 seemed reasonable at the time, so I opted for the safer move. It does cede White the initiative, though - I agree.
I didn't really trust your position to be holdable but that was mainly because of b4 hanging with a mate threath. So when the mate threath was no longer around I was pretty confident you'd win. It's a pretty crazy game though, so many tactics, but one would expect this kind of madness to arise from the Najdorf. I usually play the Dragon. It's quite sharp too, but most white players go for Yugoslav attack and at least I know the theory of that, haha.
Oh and John, I almost forgot. I have a question regarding the rules.
So, I know that when someone runs out of time, and the other side doesn't have enough force to mate on the board it is a draw. But sometimes it can happen (I doubt it did because it is very specific), that you don't actually have to have the standard amount of force to mate. Classical example would be when a side is trying to promote a rook pawn, and the other has a knight. So what if a position arises, where it is already a forced mate, but the side with the pawn wants to play it unfair and doesn't let his opponent mate him and just lets his time go down? I'm pretty sure in a tournament situation this would be a win for the player with the knight but I'm not sure how chess websites would handle this.
+フィッシャー00769 It would be a win for the player with the knight on every site I'm aware of. It would also be a win in over-the-board play, too.
John Bartholomew
Thanks!
+フィッシャー00769 Sure thing!
Not to be anal about it, but @24:14, when you were analyzing that line with 22.Qxb4... you were thinking of Rb8 as the reply but that just runs into checkmate in one on e7 :D Thankfully he didn't play it anyways so you didn't mess up :p
+abouserie Yes, I realized that in the analysis.
Scheveningen = "Shaven Ing En"
+Chockrit upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Nl-Scheveningen.ogg
+Chockrit Nope. That's not even the German way of pronouncing it. The German pronounciation is "Sheven Ing En".
The Dutch way sounds more like "Skheiven Ing en".
+Marko Kostic I spelled it out the way I think John would be able to pronounce it best using English words. I wasn't really going for a precise pronunciation since it's tough for a non-speaker.
What is the name of this software?
+Mirdha Sultan This is the BlitzIn interface for the Internet Chess Club (ICC).
is it free? where can I download it
+Mirdha Sultan You can download it for free at www.chessclub.com. You have to pay for a membership in order to play games on ICC's server, however.
So, boo boos all around. Hope you keep doing these. :-)
First :P totally not been waiting all day
Man, Magnus age 13 will test your sharp theoretical knowledge, he'll punish you if you forget move 14 somewhere in the Sicilian or Kings Indian, lol, it's nuts.
+isaac10231 Heh, there's zero chance I would play a sharp Sicilian against Magnus 13 :)