Top notch video John. I love how educational the c3 pawn was. And how passively defending your weaknesses is not as good as going for counterplay in most cases. Great game & well played sir! :D
At 17:39, after 9... Ne5 10. Nxe5, instead of recapturing right away on e5 black can play Qxc3+ and regain the piece which wins a pawn and doesn't damage black's structure
Wow! How did I just come across this channel? I literally spend 80% of my time on youtube watching chess videos and your video never shows up in the recommended area. I actually learned about your channel from a comment. Anyway, subbed, great work!
Great video John. Very instructive. I'm currently reading The Amateur's Mind by Silman and the similarities between his positions in the book and this game are staggering.
John, have you seen the recent ChessExplained video about the Bird's? The thing is: after 1. f4 you can play the funky-looking (but definitely neat) 1. Nh6 and the idea is, if I understood correctly, after the very natural 2. e4 strike in the centre with 2. d5 - Scandinavian flavour! :-)
I have an OTB tournament coming up and I'm watching your Standard videos for the ideas in openings and such! Thank you very much for your videos and especially for the awesomely detailed 15 min standard games and its analysis.
+John Bartholomew Just won the tournament I was talking about, including a last round victory against 2050 uscf rated player! Your videos, especially standard games have been an enormous help. Thank you very much!
+johnie john While overall I can agree, ICC tends to have the better of the crop... or maybe I'm out of touch. Because the way it used to be was that ICC folks tended to be approximately 100pts give or take, when compared to chess.com or lichess. Maybe the field has changed... I just recently signed up for an ICC account after years away. :) Point is, ICCers on the whole tend to be a good field of competitive players. 1800 player in 15-min can still give John a little bit of trouble. Btw - Fins, congrats on being the highest rated in the 15-minute pool! With a stat like that, everyone else is lower rated. :) I'm looking forward to sharpening my skills and getting in that pool, get myself on TV. "look Ma! I'm on TV" xD
With all the respect, John. Wasnt the analysis somewhat biased? after d5 which you regarded as a good move, the computer gives a pawn advantage for white after a couple of moves. Do you think the move was ok anyways?
+PFC2222 I'm not sure what you mean by "somewhat biased", as I demonstrated how White could have obtained an advantage according to the engine. In particular the sharper 10.Qb3 Qd7 11.Nh4 ought to have been preferred over the routine 10.Bd3, though this continuation is pretty specific and not simple for a human to find (especially playing quickly). This was only one moment in the game, and in my mind the larger story-line was White's inability to find a plan. Regarding 6...d5, it seemed OK to me during the game. Would I repeat it? No, I would grab the pawn with 6...Nxe4 instead.
When watching this video, I thought : "okay, knowing how to play some standard pawn structures is really important". Would you say there is some truth in saying for 1.e4 players, maybe the French pawn structure is the most useful, and for 1.d4 players, the KID ?
+Laurent SaltofLife Hmm, I wouldn't say those are the most important structures for the respective players, no. For 1.e4 players probably Ruy Lopez or Sicilian structures are more important to master; for 1.d4 players I'd say Queen's Gambit Declined structures are key.
Great to see all these Sicialian videos lately. Really exciting and instructive
+jazzbassmatt4 Thanks for your positive feedback, jazzbassmatt4!
Top notch video John. I love how educational the c3 pawn was. And how passively defending your weaknesses is not as good as going for counterplay in most cases. Great game & well played sir! :D
At 17:39, after 9... Ne5 10. Nxe5, instead of recapturing right away on e5 black can play Qxc3+ and regain the piece which wins a pawn and doesn't damage black's structure
+Alex J Yes, you're right - I missed 10...Qxc3+ in my analysis. Good catch!
Wow! How did I just come across this channel? I literally spend 80% of my time on youtube watching chess videos and your video never shows up in the recommended area. I actually learned about your channel from a comment. Anyway, subbed, great work!
+alivfishland Interesting! Well, I'm glad you found your way over to my channel, alivfishland :) Thank you for subscribing!
Great video John. Very instructive. I'm currently reading The Amateur's Mind by Silman and the similarities between his positions in the book and this game are staggering.
+curtis v Thanks for watching, curtis v! Yes, there are some similarities in the way Silman writes and the commentary I often give in my videos.
John, have you seen the recent ChessExplained video about the Bird's? The thing is: after 1. f4 you can play the funky-looking (but definitely neat) 1. Nh6 and the idea is, if I understood correctly, after the very natural 2. e4 strike in the centre with 2. d5 - Scandinavian flavour! :-)
+ThinkingSk3ptically Funny - I know a GM who also advocates for 1.f4 Nh6!
I have an OTB tournament coming up and I'm watching your Standard videos for the ideas in openings and such!
Thank you very much for your videos and especially for the awesomely detailed 15 min standard games and its analysis.
Thanks for your comment. Good luck in your upcoming OTB tournament!
+John Bartholomew
Just won the tournament I was talking about, including a last round victory against 2050 uscf rated player! Your videos, especially standard games have been an enormous help. Thank you very much!
+the0cool0guy DUDE, that is great to hear!! Congrats on the tournament win, buddy :) Thanks for commenting back and letting me know you did! Cheers.
Thanks for the lesson Sir.
+My Diametrical Sure thing - thanks for watching!
I really like this video pattern - 3 bullet , 2 blitz, 1 standard...tutorials and friend matches from time to time are always welcome.
+Искрен Василев "3 bullet" as in you wish I released 3 bullet videos in a single day...?
I wish, but not necessarily in a single day.
Instructive game as to why strategy is important. Passive play bodes no reward!
3 Sicilian defense videos in a row :D
#teamsicily ?
seems like there arent many high rated players on ICC in the 15 min pool
+johnie john While overall I can agree, ICC tends to have the better of the crop... or maybe I'm out of touch. Because the way it used to be was that ICC folks tended to be approximately 100pts give or take, when compared to chess.com or lichess. Maybe the field has changed... I just recently signed up for an ICC account after years away. :) Point is, ICCers on the whole tend to be a good field of competitive players. 1800 player in 15-min can still give John a little bit of trouble. Btw - Fins, congrats on being the highest rated in the 15-minute pool! With a stat like that, everyone else is lower rated. :) I'm looking forward to sharpening my skills and getting in that pool, get myself on TV. "look Ma! I'm on TV" xD
+johnie john Yes, it's often hard to get games with 2000+ players on ICC. Maybe I should try Chess.com.
+Pablo Guastavino Hey, Pablo - Jan and I are playing on Wednesday, actually! I'll be publishing an announcement video tomorrow.
Always wanted to see you play a sicilian! Keep doing that! Shame he went for alapin
+TheBrammiej Noted - thanks, TheBrammiej!
nicely done!
+Dhruv Jain Thanks, Dhruv!
With all the respect, John. Wasnt the analysis somewhat biased? after d5 which you regarded as a good move, the computer gives a pawn advantage for white after a couple of moves. Do you think the move was ok anyways?
+PFC2222 I'm not sure what you mean by "somewhat biased", as I demonstrated how White could have obtained an advantage according to the engine. In particular the sharper 10.Qb3 Qd7 11.Nh4 ought to have been preferred over the routine 10.Bd3, though this continuation is pretty specific and not simple for a human to find (especially playing quickly). This was only one moment in the game, and in my mind the larger story-line was White's inability to find a plan.
Regarding 6...d5, it seemed OK to me during the game. Would I repeat it? No, I would grab the pawn with 6...Nxe4 instead.
+John Bartholomew I get it. I may have misunderstood your words during the analysis. Thanks for the vid!
+PFC2222 Sure thing! Thanks for watching.
+PFC2222
**I may have misunderstood your words…**
You always do, bitch. I read the email of the post you just deleted.
When watching this video, I thought : "okay, knowing how to play some standard pawn structures is really important". Would you say there is some truth in saying for 1.e4 players, maybe the French pawn structure is the most useful, and for 1.d4 players, the KID ?
+Laurent SaltofLife Hmm, I wouldn't say those are the most important structures for the respective players, no. For 1.e4 players probably Ruy Lopez or Sicilian structures are more important to master; for 1.d4 players I'd say Queen's Gambit Declined structures are key.
Please start a new serie on the channel :D If you can.
Great stuff John, thanks!
I always hated the Sicilian because I didn't understand any of it.
Now I understand some of it but, but I still hate it :)
+Erwt64 Thanks, Erwt64! The Sicilian is a galaxy in itself. So much to learn in this opening.
Test comment #2
Ok it works now!
+isaac10231 Success! Now we can actually reply to your comments :)