Andras, this would be a brilliant idea for a future Chessable course! Most tactical courses are quantity over quality, and students have no opportunity to be prompted in positions where deeper thinking is required.
CM Azel Chua has a course on calculation for tournament players that has sold almost 1000 copies. It's mainly about calculating standard (usually forced) tactical motifs. Your video represents the next step in really thinking through and analyzing dynamic positions with multiple possibilities. Just thought you should know there's a lucrative market for it. :)
@@Panflap CM Azel Chua's course is excellent and I agree with this would be the next step in my tournament level to expert + level calculation training
I have read CM Azel's course and it's good it definitely helped me. But IM Andras is amazing. Honestly, his RUclips channel alone has boosted my ability so much I'm solving puzzles I barely understood before. Honestly, ANYTHING that IM Toth produces would be amazing. Calculation course or otherwise.
You can tell that Andras knows exactly by experience with his own students where the problems are for most players when it comes to calculating and the mistakes they make. Awesome video thank you so much for uploading this.
On the one hand, I often hear "Grandmasters don't calculate as much as you think... they typically only calculate a few moves ahead." On the other hand, I've seen many chess lessons like this that make you think that your calculation should virtually always be turned all the way up to maximum. I suppose that improvement means figuring out when to continue to calculate vs wasting a bunch of time in calculation. In other words, figuring out the right moment in the game to turn it up to max.
In my opinion the starting idea about grandmasters is just terribly wrong. Just watch a during the tournament interview with Grischuk. He wont tell you anything else but calculations. GM's "see" a lot without having to calculate, but that's an altogether different story. No chess player below 2300 is ever guilty of calculating too much.
When calculation is done for long lines it is critical that the moves be some what forced, through excellent pattern recognition the better player recognizes when a tactic (knight fork, pin, skewer etc..) forces a response because if it is not played they know they will obtain a winning advantage. Recognition of this leads to only a few replies that will continue the game and only those lines need to be calculated. It is more visualization that lead to victory as you need to accurately visualize the final position to ensure the advantage is with you at the end of all the forced moves
@@ChessCoachAndras I think this idea of GMs just “seeing” moves is a product of their past intense calculation work. In order to understand tactical patterns intuitively you rely on a strong foundation of calculation and visualization ability. It’s like the patterns become ingrained in the subconscious
I think this video should be labeled for beginners or intermediate players. I never had a coach and all this is common sense which I started doing almost as soon as I reached intermediate level.
What an incredible video. And it couldn't be more timely for me. I can relate to everything in this. Poor rushed calculation in shorter 10 minute time controls when I haven't even developed the ability to calculate well and accurately has cost me so many games. Only way to improve is longer time controls and actual mental effort.
Yes, I'm the same. I play a lot of online games with 10 minutes for each player, which simply isn't enough to make any kind of real progress as a chess player, but I find longer time controls unsatisfactory because so many of my opponents just let their clocks run down to zero, instead of making a move, when they are in a losing position instead of resigning honourably, which is incredibly frustrating. So I end up playing a 10-minute game on the basis that at least I don't have so long to wait if they start this nonsense. In fact, I will usually resign, rather than suffer a pointless wait.
More top notch content from Andras. Genuinely thoughtful prep in this video. So much more here than introducing a neat idea/theme/trick/opening/whatever. It’s real pedagogy and chess expertise in action. Andras is the Dvoretsky for club players.
im about 1900 Lichess blitz and am very much in the camp you described in the intro: decently developed tactical recognition -- calculation ability virtually nonexistent! Excellent, excellent video, Andras - would love to see more of these!
This guy is a proper coach. Such a good lesson. The one thing I take from this is that I basically don't calculate online. 10 min games not doing me any good.
I've seen some of your videos where you coach students and I can see the value in it. You'll be going through a game someone played and then stop it when you see an error. You ask them what they were thinking at the time, then suggest how they could think about the position differently. Then you coach them along this new way of thinking and help them figure out a better line. It certainly seems more effectively educational than reviewing the game and seeing what Stockfish would have played.
Fantastic video, and in watching I realized the source of some of my blunders, or many of them: Which is that my priorities in calculation, what I think is important based on current evaluations, affects what I perceive as the best moves. The line shown at 11:17 ... my previous priority was to try and defend g5, and so when I calculated Nh7 Qg5 Nxh5 I started to see that as just a failing line, thinking the attack depended somewhat on that Pawn's presence. But it does not. The important thing was to try and capitalize on the open h file attack White has been going for since the beginning (seems pretty obvious worded that way lol) and so finding a line which allows White to deflect Black's defensive resources is the priority. Thus allowing Nxg5 and counter-attacking with Nge4 Nxe4 Qh3 achieves this perfectly. Black can't bring the Knight back in the time, or the Queen up in time, and it'll be over very soon. Calculation Evaluation & Comparisons Draw a Conclusion (and I would add, recognize your priority) Thanks so much for your calculation videos, you're an excellent teacher.
I definitely agree that trying to find both the best attack and defense to a position is hard because it's so stressful, but playing more slow tournament chess is very helpful. I have sufficient motivation after thinking about tournament games where I'm desperately searching to see what my opponents best defenses are before sacking a piece... Which is certainly not a decision to take lightly. My coach recommends doing a lot of puzzles, so i do puzzle rush too, but i don't allow myself to move any piece until i have calculated all lines. An extra mini puzzle i like to play is "out of all the lines possible for defense, which will the computer play because in that line there is only one winning move and in other lines there are multiple". It's still just a supplement to analyzing my own games and studies like these with my coach but hopefully that gets a bit more value out of simple pattern recognition puzzles
Coach Andras, since you emphasize so often the importance of a chess coach, it would be wonderful if you did a video on how to find, choose, evaluate and work with a coach. If there are no chess clibs around and all you have is the opportunity of online play it is difficult to get the feedback you need. In addition since chess coaching can be costly it would be useful to have some guidlines in coach selection. How many lessons, how often, what to eexpect, what to ask for, when to know if you. have the right or wrong coach, etc. Thanks
Yes, you are right. Years ago I had stopped playing over the board for about 8 years. Then I decided to return and hired a coach. A strong player kept coming to my house (yes, here in Brazil there is such a thing) and to my big surprise, he always brought with him a book that he kept reading for me! I fired him and hired another one, this time an FM many times Rio de Janeiro champion. We worked (at my house) for 2 years and it was good. The interesting part is that he (!) learned a lot from me too. When I had enough I hired an IM specifically to make a repertoire. It worked but when the tournaments came I had forgotten a lot of lines, and it did not bring me good results. We worked for 3 years, sometimes twice a week. All this time I was playing tournaments and finally, I decided to hire a strong GM, above 2600, and through the internet and I must confess that I didn't like it at all because he began from scratch, showing and explaining obvious things as if I were a beginner. After those experiences that were quite good, I improved and obtained good results and went quite quickly from CM (which I already was when I returned to OTB) to FM. Now, because of my age which brought tiredness and a poorer memory my play has fallen dramatically, but I still enjoy playing and studying chess every day. Choosing and evaluating a good coach might be something difficult.
Thx coach, I've recently finished the CPR series and now working on "The Amateur mind", I have to save you really change my mindset and my point of view of the game.❤
I'd figured out for myself that visualisation and actual calculations were weaknesses of mine, to the point they are holding me back, but this is really helpful in giving clarity all the same. Thanks a bunch! You have a new fan here.
This video made such an impression on me that I watched it twice. Ironically, as enlightening as it is, I found it a bit discouraging as well. Maybe I was better off playing my old "system" openings where such breadth and depth of calculation is rarely required. But don't mind me, I'm in a bit of a depressed mood about my lack of chess improvement right now.
great explanation and example of the game how one should think before making a move. I often fail in my calculation because I stop calculating somehow and don't see the combinations after the move I want to play. I must get a chess coach..Thanks a lot for sharing this to give an insight into this kind of thinking/calculation. Cheers!
Idk these all just seem too unrealistic for that 1700 lichess player. Some of these are like eight move sequences in a complicated position. I'm sure it is a useful exercise but what happens when you just can't see the ideas or keep them straight in your head? I'm 2100 lichess and failed these miserably even after long seemingly thorough thinks. It's also a bit dicey if it leads to a position where you're down material and need precise calculation to not be dead lost. When I try this I tend to just be down material when the attack isn't as good as I imagined (usually I would just avoid this and go for something simpler, whether attacking or just positional play). Attempting to analyze and push further is a good thing, but most of us just can't rip off moves from the previous game off the top of our head as if we're moving the pieces in front of us, calculation and visualization is a talent. Do you think it would be better to look at simpler examples if hitting this brick wall? Or just keep head-butting it until you break through?
I definitely need to work on my calculation skills a lot more. I got most of the questions wrong. Funnily enough, I saw Qe8 at the end of the example, but broke the line off too early and didn't see the win for White. The video was very useful as always. Especially since it was interactive again. Thank you.
@10:17 RUclips just suggested your video after I watched another calculation video and it's the first of yours I've watched. I completely and totally command you as you're bringing out what kind of I knew but didn't know how to execute regarding three or four calculations. A few games of the four hours I played last night that I ignored pawn pushes toward my King to checkmate my opponent's King. Regarding the position at the timestamp I provided above: after about five minutes looking at it and I got to get things done so I can't really take more time right now. I cannot find a way for White to make progress when Black moves his f5 Knight to h7. The Rook-sacrafice doesn't work because White loses the exchange when the King recaptures. This Knight will also combines with the Qlack Queen to attack White's Pawn on g4. Additionally, the Black Knight on h7 also guards the f6 square in the event that the White Knight on g3 lands on it. Black does not want that White Knight on g3 being able to land on f6 while also being able to bring the Rook into the game the very next tempo at this point.
I find it kind of strange that everyone is suggesting you should make a chessable course about this...of course I have no doubt that it would be excellent and that it would do well if you did. But it's funny to me because I think your current chessable courses (both the CPR and MYC series) already provide an excellent source of material for this type of training! If people would just slow down and take 20-40 minutes per game to really try to think through the puzzle positions using your three-pronged calculation approach here (of course before going through your/Judit's full game analysis!), they would find more than enough challenge for quite some time. Most of the highlighted positions are fairly rich in that they have a reasonably high level of tension and apparently a number of resources for both sides. But they're also not too difficult. Yusupov's series must be mentioned as an excellent collection of such rich positions. Despite what people say, I think they're actually decently well-targeted at roughly 1300-1500/1500-1800/1800-2100 as the type of work one needs to do to push oneself to the next level, provided people expect them to be challenging and not like puzzle rush (and also provided people don't expect them to contain too much instruction). They're basically thematically organized calculation puzzles of increasing difficulty.
The Jussupov books were the first thing that came to my mind as well. Even that he demands you to sit down with a pen and paper and set the timer to 5-10min for every puzzle tells you, that the approach is different than in other puzzle books. Even though I have to say, that the difficulty range is pretty all over the place. In his mating patterns I always have the full or close to full points. While in his endgame puzzles I don't even meet the minimal requirements for passing 😬
@@simonhinkel4086 It's interesting, I think I have my second strongest performances in the endgame chapters (after the tactics chapters). The only major exception I remember so far (I'm on book 6) being the chapter on QvR endings...yikes. On the other hand, for me I'm almost guaranteed to fail or barely pass the tests on strategy. I think I usually find the positional play tests quite hard too, but since they're a little more concrete I end up doing better than I expect there. Although the difficulty can fluctuate quite a bit within a single book, I still feel that the typical difficulty (in terms of depth of variations but also the number of difficult moves to find per variation) definitely increases steadily both within and across the levels.
Huzzah, Andras. I love your videos and get the lessons, but when players deviate too far I got bollocks to combat them. Either way, I still love your lessons. Thank you
Wow. I saw Ne4 but before Qg4 and later tried to make Qh8, Ke7, Qf6+, Kd7, Rh7…with an eventual g6 work and missed that earlier pawn push as the winning move. Brilliant game and lesson.
Thanks a lot for this video and topic 👍 Maybe you had no time to speak of every move, but I wonder if you have in your analysis (or in the book) the lines : 1) 12...Nxg5 13.Nge4 Kg7 14.Nxg5 Rh8 which looks not far from equal 2) 12...Nxg5 13.Nge7 Be7 14.Nxg5 Bxg5 15.Ne4 Kg7 (same idea but no as good as the 1)) Thanks, keep going!
It was very hard for me to find good candidate moves. Also I feel like the skill of being able to evaluate a position is rarely talked about but is a vital skill. I feel like where I struggle most is that I can calculate a line but not be able to then evaluate the subsequent position.
3:30 calculated several short lines. all of them were either starting with d5 or e5, or hxg5 hxg5 and then d5 or e5. hxg5 hxg5 Nxd4 Qxd4(gxf6 Qxf6 Qh5 Qh6) Nh7(e5 Qd1!) was my main line. I didnt see d6 at all nor understand the logic of it. I very briefly considered g6 but didn't calculate it as I "Subconsiously" saw(my major problem in calculation) gf6 Qxf6 and didnt see how white continues the attack.
I came up with hxg5 hxg5 Re8 gxf6 Qxf6 Qh5 Kf8 so in case of Qh8, black runs away to e7. I think this variation is fine for black at 9:33 I think e4e5 is a good move, the knight may go to h7 then we can consider Ne4 or Qg4 and this is tough!!
There are positions which require little or maximum calculations. From what I've seen most IMs have difficulty knowing how much to do and how to stay on track (best direction for the game) and connect that to their calculations. The result is their games get messy and out of control. Some love that kind of game because it lets them exercise their strength - calculations, but it also leads them away from GM goodness.
I think the examples are too advanced to be of use for 1700+ players. Calculation is a skill that can be greatly improved by doing chess puzzles for one or two hours a day. I've paid chess coaches $80 dollars an hour to learn this but came to the conclusion that I can learn it by myself if I'm disciplined enough.
bad thing that i didnt calculated lines when black keeps the knight hanging. good thing i imediatly thought gxN Qxf is worse for white, and thought if e5 gets something better. but then it stopped again.
I wish I had u as my coach .. seems easy but once the calculation starts mind wanders n I keep calculating the same thing again n again before playing a move I didn’t evaluate n eventually lose . Could u give some tips how to visualize the position or how to avoid haphazard calculation
I understand the lesson of calculating hard choosing the most resilient defences. But in a real game situation would you really take the bishop knowing that you don't win material and that then you would be defending a tricky position. Even if I could calculate all what was shown in the video, how can I know I'm not missing something?
@@ChessCoachAndras I trust that my skills are probably not enough to counter the attack. But I trust that my skills are sufficient to hold the position or win it against a similar strength opponent if I don't take the bishop. Let's say I'm on a path in the mountains and there is a shortcut that will make me win 5 minutes but that is really dangerous. I wouldn't take the shortcut even I could slightly gain from it.
Any suggestions on how to strengthen the visualization component? In my chesstempo puzzles I'm usually guilty of moving the pieces before I have a full line; I have an extremely hard time seeing the whole line in my head and want to work on that muscle.
@@ChessCoachAndras so I've been doing this for an hour on my lichess puzzles (up 100 pts to 2100), and stupid obvious comment here, but it's a lot harder to get these wrongs if you calculate a whole line all at once. Haven't made a mistake yet!
problem here is to hod in my vision the position and go on calculating...one thing is seeing it on the board, another one is to see it in your mind! tips to improve?....
Unbelievable that g3 at 13:52 is not just lights out after bh4, nxd4! and if 0-0-0 then bb7! Black is hanging by a thread but somehow there is no way to break thru!
Hi Andraa, Can I give you some constructive feedback? Well I am going to anyway! 😁 I have noticed on this video and a couple before that, the engine's moves are briefly shown on screen, can you turn it off as it gives away the best moves. As an example: ruclips.net/video/cV0ZjdsMTRA/видео.html I missed the pawn to g6 move but when you played it out I recognized the idea behind pawn to d6! Luckily it was a split second before the said 'best move' was shown. Keep up the excellent work mate! 😎
23:36 Improve Your Chess Calculation by Ramesh is a book with exercises that are unlike typical tactic puzzles. But it is rather not an easy book for beginner and intermediate players. Book review: ruclips.net/video/ecn6l8EmEhA/видео.html (also by ChessCoach Andras, published a few months later than this video).
Chess make life very difficult. Life do not need all this calculation. If you can do this depth of calculation I advice you to use it your life to be happy: money+ ... + ect ect 😂😂
Just showed this game to a homeless guy and he showed me all key variations with the right assessments and evaluations And it took him around 5 minutes He is Peter
@ChessCoach Andras listen this is very important. It was a good lesson, but I'm not coming over here when a single video is chock full with 5 ads. FIVE ADS, ANDRAS ARE YOU CRAZY!!!!! Ok, allow 1 ad per video, fine. BUT CHANGE YOUR CONTENT SETTINGS FROM ALLOWING 5 ADS PER VIDEO. I'm done with this channel unless you reduce the ads to the minimum. Whatever mythical bump you think the RUclips algorithm is going to give your for allowing 5 ads, I cam assure you is massively outweighed by the number of otherwise loyal viewers leaving your channel because you spam FIVE ANNOYING ADS for desperate help from the algorightm.
Andras, you're the BEST. Truemendeous master Yoda in chessworld. Minimum. Thank you for free shring such a coaching masterpieces. I've made 69 thesises from ~30 your vids, pls keep going on this calc-evaluation-conclusion topic, I'm 2100 rapid rated on lichess and I've failed allmost all lines))) defensive moves is not my strong part :D Thank you and keep calm!
I got a different top line from the engines. A draw line. But they're all lines that neither player would find. r6q/p1pp1pk1/bpn1p1p1/4P1N1/1bPP2Q1/2N5/PP3PP1/2KR1B2 b - - 1 16
Andras, this would be a brilliant idea for a future Chessable course! Most tactical courses are quantity over quality, and students have no opportunity to be prompted in positions where deeper thinking is required.
CM Azel Chua has a course on calculation for tournament players that has sold almost 1000 copies. It's mainly about calculating standard (usually forced) tactical motifs. Your video represents the next step in really thinking through and analyzing dynamic positions with multiple possibilities. Just thought you should know there's a lucrative market for it. :)
@@Panflap CM Azel Chua's course is excellent and I agree with this would be the next step in my tournament level to expert + level calculation training
I have read CM Azel's course and it's good it definitely helped me. But IM Andras is amazing. Honestly, his RUclips channel alone has boosted my ability so much I'm solving puzzles I barely understood before. Honestly, ANYTHING that IM Toth produces would be amazing. Calculation course or otherwise.
Completely agree. My chess sense has seriously improved as a result of Andras' videos.
So true
You can tell that Andras knows exactly by experience with his own students where the problems are for most players when it comes to calculating and the mistakes they make. Awesome video thank you so much for uploading this.
My pleasure, glad you liked it!
On the one hand, I often hear "Grandmasters don't calculate as much as you think... they typically only calculate a few moves ahead." On the other hand, I've seen many chess lessons like this that make you think that your calculation should virtually always be turned all the way up to maximum. I suppose that improvement means figuring out when to continue to calculate vs wasting a bunch of time in calculation. In other words, figuring out the right moment in the game to turn it up to max.
In my opinion the starting idea about grandmasters is just terribly wrong. Just watch a during the tournament interview with Grischuk. He wont tell you anything else but calculations. GM's "see" a lot without having to calculate, but that's an altogether different story. No chess player below 2300 is ever guilty of calculating too much.
You can chess play in a few different ways.
When calculation is done for long lines it is critical that the moves be some what forced, through excellent pattern recognition the better player recognizes when a tactic (knight fork, pin, skewer etc..) forces a response because if it is not played they know they will obtain a winning advantage.
Recognition of this leads to only a few replies that will continue the game and only those lines need to be calculated. It is more visualization that lead to victory as you need to accurately visualize the final position to ensure the advantage is with you at the end of all the forced moves
@@ChessCoachAndras I think this idea of GMs just “seeing” moves is a product of their past intense calculation work. In order to understand tactical patterns intuitively you rely on a strong foundation of calculation and visualization ability. It’s like the patterns become ingrained in the subconscious
I agree with what everyone is saying, this would make for an incredible chessable course
Good idea
I think this video should be labeled for beginners or intermediate players. I never had a coach and all this is common sense which I started doing almost as soon as I reached intermediate level.
What an incredible video. And it couldn't be more timely for me. I can relate to everything in this. Poor rushed calculation in shorter 10 minute time controls when I haven't even developed the ability to calculate well and accurately has cost me so many games. Only way to improve is longer time controls and actual mental effort.
Get a blind chess apo. Solve some very simple puzzles on this app it really helps with calculation.
Yes, I'm the same. I play a lot of online games with 10 minutes for each player, which simply isn't enough to make any kind of real progress as a chess player, but I find longer time controls unsatisfactory because so many of my opponents just let their clocks run down to zero, instead of making a move, when they are in a losing position instead of resigning honourably, which is incredibly frustrating. So I end up playing a 10-minute game on the basis that at least I don't have so long to wait if they start this nonsense. In fact, I will usually resign, rather than suffer a pointless wait.
More top notch content from Andras. Genuinely thoughtful prep in this video. So much more here than introducing a neat idea/theme/trick/opening/whatever. It’s real pedagogy and chess expertise in action. Andras is the Dvoretsky for club players.
That is a lovely compliment, made my day !
Out of all the videos I have seen in RUclips I think this one is among the greatest!
Great video coach, awesome work
All the best to you!
Thanks, it’s very kind of you!
im about 1900 Lichess blitz and am very much in the camp you described in the intro: decently developed tactical recognition -- calculation ability virtually nonexistent! Excellent, excellent video, Andras - would love to see more of these!
This guy is a proper coach. Such a good lesson. The one thing I take from this is that I basically don't calculate online. 10 min games not doing me any good.
Thanks man, appreciate the comment!
I've seen some of your videos where you coach students and I can see the value in it. You'll be going through a game someone played and then stop it when you see an error. You ask them what they were thinking at the time, then suggest how they could think about the position differently. Then you coach them along this new way of thinking and help them figure out a better line. It certainly seems more effectively educational than reviewing the game and seeing what Stockfish would have played.
Fantastic video, and in watching I realized the source of some of my blunders, or many of them: Which is that my priorities in calculation, what I think is important based on current evaluations, affects what I perceive as the best moves. The line shown at 11:17 ... my previous priority was to try and defend g5, and so when I calculated Nh7 Qg5 Nxh5 I started to see that as just a failing line, thinking the attack depended somewhat on that Pawn's presence. But it does not. The important thing was to try and capitalize on the open h file attack White has been going for since the beginning (seems pretty obvious worded that way lol) and so finding a line which allows White to deflect Black's defensive resources is the priority.
Thus allowing Nxg5 and counter-attacking with Nge4 Nxe4 Qh3 achieves this perfectly. Black can't bring the Knight back in the time, or the Queen up in time, and it'll be over very soon.
Calculation
Evaluation & Comparisons
Draw a Conclusion (and I would add, recognize your priority)
Thanks so much for your calculation videos, you're an excellent teacher.
Thanks so much for the kind words, very much appreciated.
I definitely agree that trying to find both the best attack and defense to a position is hard because it's so stressful, but playing more slow tournament chess is very helpful. I have sufficient motivation after thinking about tournament games where I'm desperately searching to see what my opponents best defenses are before sacking a piece... Which is certainly not a decision to take lightly.
My coach recommends doing a lot of puzzles, so i do puzzle rush too, but i don't allow myself to move any piece until i have calculated all lines. An extra mini puzzle i like to play is "out of all the lines possible for defense, which will the computer play because in that line there is only one winning move and in other lines there are multiple". It's still just a supplement to analyzing my own games and studies like these with my coach but hopefully that gets a bit more value out of simple pattern recognition puzzles
Coach Andras, since you emphasize so often the importance of a chess coach, it would be wonderful if you did a video on how to find, choose, evaluate and work with a coach. If there are no chess clibs around and all you have is the opportunity of online play it is difficult to get the feedback you need. In addition since chess coaching can be costly it would be useful to have some guidlines in coach selection. How many lessons, how often, what to eexpect, what to ask for, when to know if you. have the right or wrong coach, etc. Thanks
Yes, you are right. Years ago I had stopped playing over the board for about 8 years. Then I decided to return and hired a coach. A strong player kept coming to my house (yes, here in Brazil there is such a thing) and to my big surprise, he always brought with him a book that he kept reading for me! I fired him and hired another one, this time an FM many times Rio de Janeiro champion. We worked (at my house) for 2 years and it was good. The interesting part is that he (!) learned a lot from me too. When I had enough I hired an IM specifically to make a repertoire. It worked but when the tournaments came I had forgotten a lot of lines, and it did not bring me good results. We worked for 3 years, sometimes twice a week. All this time I was playing tournaments and finally, I decided to hire a strong GM, above 2600, and through the internet and I must confess that I didn't like it at all because he began from scratch, showing and explaining obvious things as if I were a beginner. After those experiences that were quite good, I improved and obtained good results and went quite quickly from CM (which I already was when I returned to OTB) to FM. Now, because of my age which brought tiredness and a poorer memory my play has fallen dramatically, but I still enjoy playing and studying chess every day. Choosing and evaluating a good coach might be something difficult.
Awesome video... I found you thru the Chess Dojo work you did, and this is the best channel to learn how to improve your chess!
Thanks and welcome onboard!
Chess Principles Reloaded: Calculation
Confirmed...?
This is eye opening. Not only are tactics great but tactics with calculation study is key!
Thx coach, I've recently finished the CPR series and now working on "The Amateur mind", I have to save you really change my mindset and my point of view of the game.❤
I'd figured out for myself that visualisation and actual calculations were weaknesses of mine, to the point they are holding me back, but this is really helpful in giving clarity all the same. Thanks a bunch! You have a new fan here.
This video made such an impression on me that I watched it twice. Ironically, as enlightening as it is, I found it a bit discouraging as well. Maybe I was better off playing my old "system" openings where such breadth and depth of calculation is rarely required.
But don't mind me, I'm in a bit of a depressed mood about my lack of chess improvement right now.
trust me you will be a chess master one day, just believe in ur self and keep up
Great excercise and an eyeopener! It is indeed much more difficult than the average tactical excercise.
Any course you produce would be amazing. As an intermediate, nobody has helped me more than you have IM Toth!
great explanation and example of the game how one should think before making a move. I often fail in my calculation because I stop calculating somehow and don't see the combinations after the move I want to play. I must get a chess coach..Thanks a lot for sharing this to give an insight into this kind of thinking/calculation. Cheers!
wow!!!! Mind blown!!! Thanks!!!!!
Idk these all just seem too unrealistic for that 1700 lichess player. Some of these are like eight move sequences in a complicated position. I'm sure it is a useful exercise but what happens when you just can't see the ideas or keep them straight in your head? I'm 2100 lichess and failed these miserably even after long seemingly thorough thinks. It's also a bit dicey if it leads to a position where you're down material and need precise calculation to not be dead lost. When I try this I tend to just be down material when the attack isn't as good as I imagined (usually I would just avoid this and go for something simpler, whether attacking or just positional play). Attempting to analyze and push further is a good thing, but most of us just can't rip off moves from the previous game off the top of our head as if we're moving the pieces in front of us, calculation and visualization is a talent. Do you think it would be better to look at simpler examples if hitting this brick wall? Or just keep head-butting it until you break through?
What an amazing video. I'd love more like these; potentially (as everyone seems to be saying) on Chessable :-)
I definitely need to work on my calculation skills a lot more. I got most of the questions wrong. Funnily enough, I saw Qe8 at the end of the example, but broke the line off too early and didn't see the win for White. The video was very useful as always. Especially since it was interactive again. Thank you.
My hunch is that almost everyone gets these wrong (under 2300 or so) and he's just underestimating how easy it is if you simply try harder.😅
This shows me that I have a long way to go in terms of calculation 🤣 thank you for the great vid Andras!
Every time I see a new video posted by andras I feel hyper excited
Thanks!:)
@10:17
RUclips just suggested your video after I watched another calculation video and it's the first of yours I've watched. I completely and totally command you as you're bringing out what kind of I knew but didn't know how to execute regarding three or four calculations. A few games of the four hours I played last night that I ignored pawn pushes toward my King to checkmate my opponent's King.
Regarding the position at the timestamp I provided above: after about five minutes looking at it and I got to get things done so I can't really take more time right now.
I cannot find a way for White to make progress when Black moves his f5 Knight to h7. The Rook-sacrafice doesn't work because White loses the exchange when the King recaptures. This Knight will also combines with the Qlack Queen to attack White's Pawn on g4.
Additionally, the Black Knight on h7 also guards the f6 square in the event that the White Knight on g3 lands on it. Black does not want that White Knight on g3 being able to land on f6 while also being able to bring the Rook into the game the very next tempo at this point.
I find it kind of strange that everyone is suggesting you should make a chessable course about this...of course I have no doubt that it would be excellent and that it would do well if you did.
But it's funny to me because I think your current chessable courses (both the CPR and MYC series) already provide an excellent source of material for this type of training! If people would just slow down and take 20-40 minutes per game to really try to think through the puzzle positions using your three-pronged calculation approach here (of course before going through your/Judit's full game analysis!), they would find more than enough challenge for quite some time. Most of the highlighted positions are fairly rich in that they have a reasonably high level of tension and apparently a number of resources for both sides. But they're also not too difficult.
Yusupov's series must be mentioned as an excellent collection of such rich positions. Despite what people say, I think they're actually decently well-targeted at roughly 1300-1500/1500-1800/1800-2100 as the type of work one needs to do to push oneself to the next level, provided people expect them to be challenging and not like puzzle rush (and also provided people don't expect them to contain too much instruction). They're basically thematically organized calculation puzzles of increasing difficulty.
The Jussupov books were the first thing that came to my mind as well.
Even that he demands you to sit down with a pen and paper and set the timer to 5-10min for every puzzle tells you, that the approach is different than in other puzzle books.
Even though I have to say, that the difficulty range is pretty all over the place. In his mating patterns I always have the full or close to full points. While in his endgame puzzles I don't even meet the minimal requirements for passing 😬
@@simonhinkel4086 It's interesting, I think I have my second strongest performances in the endgame chapters (after the tactics chapters). The only major exception I remember so far (I'm on book 6) being the chapter on QvR endings...yikes. On the other hand, for me I'm almost guaranteed to fail or barely pass the tests on strategy. I think I usually find the positional play tests quite hard too, but since they're a little more concrete I end up doing better than I expect there.
Although the difficulty can fluctuate quite a bit within a single book, I still feel that the typical difficulty (in terms of depth of variations but also the number of difficult moves to find per variation) definitely increases steadily both within and across the levels.
Like before watching, since i know i will like it anyways
Me too, I pre-liked 😂👍🏼
Me too, especially since the last month my focus has been tactics (calculation)
Solid good lesson. No pain no gain.
Huzzah, Andras. I love your videos and get the lessons, but when players deviate too far I got bollocks to combat them. Either way, I still love your lessons. Thank you
great ! many thanks
Wow. I saw Ne4 but before Qg4 and later tried to make Qh8, Ke7, Qf6+, Kd7, Rh7…with an eventual g6 work and missed that earlier pawn push as the winning move. Brilliant game and lesson.
Lovely work Andras ... I would have enjoyed if the pgn was attached & I could take it to Stockfish etc for further deeper analysis training
Thanks a lot for this video and topic 👍
Maybe you had no time to speak of every move, but I wonder if you have in your analysis (or in the book) the lines :
1) 12...Nxg5 13.Nge4 Kg7 14.Nxg5 Rh8 which looks not far from equal
2) 12...Nxg5 13.Nge7 Be7 14.Nxg5 Bxg5 15.Ne4 Kg7 (same idea but no as good as the 1))
Thanks, keep going!
It was very hard for me to find good candidate moves. Also I feel like the skill of being able to evaluate a position is rarely talked about but is a vital skill. I feel like where I struggle most is that I can calculate a line but not be able to then evaluate the subsequent position.
Indeed evaluation is just as important as the calculation itself.
3:30 calculated several short lines. all of them were either starting with d5 or e5, or hxg5 hxg5 and then d5 or e5.
hxg5 hxg5 Nxd4 Qxd4(gxf6 Qxf6 Qh5 Qh6) Nh7(e5 Qd1!) was my main line. I didnt see d6 at all nor understand the logic of it. I very briefly considered g6 but didn't calculate it as I "Subconsiously" saw(my major problem in calculation) gf6 Qxf6 and didnt see how white continues the attack.
I came up with hxg5 hxg5 Re8 gxf6 Qxf6 Qh5 Kf8 so in case of Qh8, black runs away to e7. I think this variation is fine for black
at 9:33 I think e4e5 is a good move, the knight may go to h7 then we can consider Ne4 or Qg4 and this is tough!!
Rapid and blitz are highly favored time controls however I saw the most improvement playing correspondence chess with 2 days or more time controls
Just rewatched this, such good training
There are positions which require little or maximum calculations. From what I've seen most IMs have difficulty knowing how much to do and how to stay on track (best direction for the game) and connect that to their calculations. The result is their games get messy and out of control. Some love that kind of game because it lets them exercise their strength - calculations, but it also leads them away from GM goodness.
Thx mate 👍 Subscribed.
Welcome onboard!
I need the t-shirt that says: Calculate, Evaluate, Make the Call. I'm not the only one that would wear that proudly. On a related note: this is HARD!
I think the examples are too advanced to be of use for 1700+ players. Calculation is a skill that can be greatly improved by doing chess puzzles for one or two hours a day. I've paid chess coaches $80 dollars an hour to learn this but came to the conclusion that I can learn it by myself if I'm disciplined enough.
Great learning plz put more video on calculation
We will try
I can't calculate that far. 🤔 Great video as always, had to put on my thinking hat.
bad thing that i didnt calculated lines when black keeps the knight hanging.
good thing i imediatly thought gxN Qxf is worse for white, and thought if e5 gets something better.
but then it stopped again.
I wish I had u as my coach .. seems easy but once the calculation starts mind wanders n I keep calculating the same thing again n again before playing a move I didn’t evaluate n eventually lose . Could u give some tips how to visualize the position or how to avoid haphazard calculation
I understand the lesson of calculating hard choosing the most resilient defences.
But in a real game situation would you really take the bishop knowing that you don't win material and that then you would be defending a tricky position.
Even if I could calculate all what was shown in the video, how can I know I'm not missing something?
You probably would be missing something. So does Magnus.
If you have no trust in your own skills, why would you even start a game ?
@@ChessCoachAndras I trust that my skills are probably not enough to counter the attack.
But I trust that my skills are sufficient to hold the position or win it against a similar strength opponent if I don't take the bishop.
Let's say I'm on a path in the mountains and there is a shortcut that will make me win 5 minutes but that is really dangerous. I wouldn't take the shortcut even I could slightly gain from it.
Great Video!
Any suggestions on how to strengthen the visualization component? In my chesstempo puzzles I'm usually guilty of moving the pieces before I have a full line; I have an extremely hard time seeing the whole line in my head and want to work on that muscle.
By exactly stopping that! Don’t play moves out !
@@ChessCoachAndras so I've been doing this for an hour on my lichess puzzles (up 100 pts to 2100), and stupid obvious comment here, but it's a lot harder to get these wrongs if you calculate a whole line all at once. Haven't made a mistake yet!
Very interesting and helpful
Glad you liked it !
you kept mentioning "the book", what book did you find this game in? and who was it?
Essential Chess Sacrifices.
Do you have any alternative suggestions for ppl who cannot afford a chess coach?
I have been long thinking about that. Read a lot and have a very critical and inquisitive mindset .
Great material!
problem here is to hod in my vision the position and go on calculating...one thing is seeing it on the board, another one is to see it in your mind! tips to improve?....
The more you do it the better you become!
@@ChessCoachAndras i do like your teaching style, straight and instructive!
4:46 I found g6. But why does Nxe4 not work with a view to play f6 if white brings the queen to the h file ?
Nice video as usual.
Glad you enjoyed it
After QB2 dont you have RH8 check, K takes, QH4 check, QH7 Mate?
Unbelievable that g3 at 13:52 is not just lights out after bh4, nxd4! and if 0-0-0 then bb7! Black is hanging by a thread but somehow there is no way to break thru!
Hi Andraa, Can I give you some constructive feedback? Well I am going to anyway! 😁
I have noticed on this video and a couple before that, the engine's moves are briefly shown on screen, can you turn it off as it gives away the best moves.
As an example: ruclips.net/video/cV0ZjdsMTRA/видео.html
I missed the pawn to g6 move but when you played it out I recognized the idea behind pawn to d6! Luckily it was a split second before the said 'best move' was shown.
Keep up the excellent work mate! 😎
superb
so can we conclude that h6 is a fatal mistake since white didn’t castle? bare in mind i’m a very low rated player 1200 😂
Thank you veru much
23:36 Improve Your Chess Calculation by Ramesh is a book with exercises that are unlike typical tactic puzzles. But it is rather not an easy book for beginner and intermediate players. Book review: ruclips.net/video/ecn6l8EmEhA/видео.html (also by ChessCoach Andras, published a few months later than this video).
Nice video!
I just realized that I have never played chess in my entire life. Hopefully I can begin now.
I found g6! :D
Edit: Ok, after e5 I wasnt looking anywhere I just thought takes instead of a pawn move
Edit II: Ok damn my brain hurts haha
I’m taking the bishop 👊👍
Excellent material. Are You taking private students?
Chess make life very difficult. Life do not need all this calculation. If you can do this depth of calculation I advice you to use it your life to be happy: money+ ... + ect ect 😂😂
Just showed this game to a homeless guy and he showed me all key variations with the right assessments and evaluations
And it took him around 5 minutes
He is Peter
@ChessCoach Andras listen this is very important. It was a good lesson, but I'm not coming over here when a single video is chock full with 5 ads. FIVE ADS, ANDRAS ARE YOU CRAZY!!!!! Ok, allow 1 ad per video, fine. BUT CHANGE YOUR CONTENT SETTINGS FROM ALLOWING 5 ADS PER VIDEO. I'm done with this channel unless you reduce the ads to the minimum. Whatever mythical bump you think the RUclips algorithm is going to give your for allowing 5 ads, I cam assure you is massively outweighed by the number of otherwise loyal viewers leaving your channel because you spam FIVE ANNOYING ADS for desperate help from the algorightm.
omg i was just watching the video titled "
How to Get Better at Chess | Exploring Calculation Techniques | The Amateurs Mind #27"
what a coincidence
Ladies and gentleman? how dare you speak to a chico that way.
Andras, you're the BEST. Truemendeous master Yoda in chessworld. Minimum.
Thank you for free shring such a coaching masterpieces. I've made 69 thesises from ~30 your vids, pls keep going on this calc-evaluation-conclusion topic, I'm 2100 rapid rated on lichess and I've failed allmost all lines))) defensive moves is not my strong part :D
Thank you and keep calm!
I got a different top line from the engines. A draw line. But they're all lines that neither player would find. r6q/p1pp1pk1/bpn1p1p1/4P1N1/1bPP2Q1/2N5/PP3PP1/2KR1B2 b - - 1 16
Amazing video!
@@justskrobek803 thanks mate, very kind! I have a few more like this on calculation