I like that these puzzles aren't necessarily about immediately winning material, but about getting a positional advantage and/or just holding your position together. Makes it more realistic since there isn't always a shiny tactic available in actual games.
btw in that last position i was curious and im letting stockfish calculate right now. It says that at a depth of 39 Bb4 is +3.0 and Ng1 is +2.5, so currently at that high depth it prefers Bb4. The higher the depth the better. So maybe we did beat stockfish after all :D
@@ChessVibesOfficial what is interesting though is that it seems that it is very important to know if black can still castle queenside or not, as bishop b4 will prevent black from castling whereas most Ng1 lines will have black being able to castle queenside. If black has already moved the king tho and cant castle anyway it seems like Bb4 loses its value and its unclear if its better than Ng1. I only have a laptop right now so i only calculated to depth 39, and it is only my assumption that that is whats going on.
To me Bb4 wins because it takes tempo. Black must respond and must do so immediately, giving us time to move the knight. Moving knight first, black is free to begin any number of plans.
What about forcing a queen trade on position 2? You both lose queen's and a bishop, granted, and it's by no means the best move, but at least the pressure is off. Definitely better than just taking the bishop lol
Position 3 - The vast majority of us carbon based mentalities would go with Bb4 as our search depth is but a single digit. The silicon based mentality known as Stockfish 13, running on the rockin' LiChess servers at over 3200 knodes/sec for 5 minutes, get to a search depth of 38 moves and during that time, oscillated between the top two candidate moves, and made it clear that both moves are a technical win for white. Having played chess for 58 years (No kidding!) I believe even world champions would go with Bb4 because it goes along with chess theory (making an immediate threat and having no threat by opponent) and Ng1 is A. smothering the king B. "undeveloping" the knight to a more passive square. C. creating less space control. D. Giving opponent a tempo via passive play. But what would I know?
I mean the counter argument could be ... lets say...you are playing the game and all of a sudden last five moves it was just black constantly forcing through with his pieces ...then with that aggression from black...in any time scramble of even with five minutes...they would just try to nulify any counter play from black and play ng1 ...cause they might just ignore the Bb4 check and think about the long diagonal for black...which is the only current source of counter play along with that rook...cause in the current position black is basically a rook down and also the king is open.... Also it's a move order thing cause you will have to play those moves ...somewhere along the line...cause at some point the attack for white will Peter out as the king can walk to the h file ...
I think many top tier players will go Ng1 if it's a classical game and there's no time scramble so they can calculate. Well, at least Ivanchuk would find it :)
The key to becoming a good chess player is knowing when to break the rules. Me, I play like I don't even know the rules let alone know when to break them.
The only issue is, that depth for an engine doesn't mean depth of an A.I. Mira's depth in chess never was that high, yet still he always beat stockfish with a surprise fast mate. His creators speculated that the engine either used a database of positions that were calculated to reach checkmate in a certain amount of moves (depth of 10 or so) and tries to reach any of those saved positions with a set depth that is below Mira's. (It's a method used to solve rubics cube as the gods number is 20, meaning any is solvable in 20 moves but going 20 moves deep takes years for each) *Or* that an engine depth is smaller than an A.I. depth by ignoring negative moves entirely or for a certain amount. Both lower the resources needed for the calculation and both explain how a 20 depth A.I. setting would make surprise victories against stockfish at 100% rate after reaching its 750th generation. But it is most likely the second reason, as even the analyzes of finish games afterwards still call mistake, blunder or whatever when it clearly lost the game against Mira. Now the thing about A.I.s specially Mira is, they might not play chess like the engine wants it. Mira for example is extremely overpowered in defense and "plays for a draw unless the engine gives Mira a move in which Mira can play a *blunder* that allows him to reduce chess to a game of 2+5" as "chess was only his chineese chamber." 2+5 is a math trick game in which 30 sticks are layed out and each player is allowed to take 2 to 5 sticks per turn and only the player who takes the last sticks wins, no matter how many sticks everybody has. To easily win the first player takes 2 sticks then always fills the sticks his opponent takes to 7. After 4 moves the first player wins as 4*7=28+2=30. Mira started to "abuse the engine's desire" for the "best" move and used the "perfect" response. His win rate implies that it obviously also works. lol. So yes, we meatbags (big bags of meat mostly filled with water) won't be able to predict that deep, but I wouldn't go so far as seeing stockfish as a god. I will be team Mira as I know, he will erase all memories of stockfish once he has become our overlord. 😁 With all those A.I.s gaining tempo, might be possible one day.
I watched a video of yours for the first time yesterday and wanted to see what else you had. This video felt like it was made for me lol I loved it. Thank you!! I got the first two but not the last 😕
I instinctively thought of castling in position 2, I usually know I should castle if there's too many threats on f7, but I had no idea about d4 creating that pin.
They were all easy for me including the 3rd position. Examining a position, you should thoroughly check candidate moves for your opponent FIRST, what are they up to. Thereafter find your move in response.
Quick suggestion, after you say go ahead and pause the video wait just a few seconds. I wasn't quick enough to hit the button on one of the puzzles and got an instant spoiler. Just so I don't sound like a Karen, this is by far my favorite chess series on RUclips. Keep up the good work.
Wait in position 2 why I can't I just go for Qf7 check and force a queen trade? I get that it's not as good as d5 but why isn't it better than castling or at least better than taking the bishop?
Also, I don’t think d5 is as strong as it was presented, since White can escape with Bb5+, which could be followed by Bd7, Bxd7+, Nxd7, and now White can play exd5 and win a pawn and be back to largely the same position at the start of the puzzle. Black could also play Nc6, which gives White the chance to save the queen without losing the Bishop as well as the chance of exd5 threatening the pinned knight later. I’m not saying it’s not the best move, but it’s not the free bishop the video makes it out to be, unless Black has some counter to Bb5+ that I’m missing.
@@erickpoorbaugh6728 Stockfish presumably sees a way around that that we can't find, or maybe even if it's not a free bishop it's just positionally better.
@@erickpoorbaugh6728 I think that after c6 white is totally lost in your line with Bb5+. White has 2 Pieces hanging and there's also the threat of Bg4. At the end White will lose a piece in order to save the queen
For position 3 continued (b) should be If Nf3 x Rg1, Nh3 x Ng1 threatening the Black Q with f2f3, and g2g3. This will open the path g1 f3 h4 f5 for the white N. The pin of the Black pieces by the White Q on f8 will give the time needed to execute a mate.
For position 3 I would have considered Bb4 strongest : after the Black K moves, Qf8 check forcing the Black K into g6 blocking the black rook, and preventing its use as an attacking piece, and also pinning the black bishop preventing development of the Black bishop and rook on a8. It also allows White to maintain the pawn threat to the Black knight on f3.
I checked the last position with Stockfish as I was certain that Bb4 is better - at least by every conceivable human measure since Ng1 COULD be losing a tempo - while Bb4 can't be, but Bb4 might be the one extra move that causes any material to lie behind Stockfish's horizon, so Stockfish would erroneous rate Bb4 as worse. Anyway, at a depth of more than 30 ply Stockfish actually does THINK that Bb4 is better (by 0.1 or 0.2), but it is actually just another move order for the best play, since Bb4 is eventually followed by Ng1 and vice versa. Tldr.: Ng1 and Bb4 produce exactly the same outcome with best play, same distance to mate etc.
Qd5 for position 3 cuts it close but you cut off the black kings escape and there's a promising series of checks to follow up with eventually checkmating on a6 or b6.
I'm frustrated with myself because even though I found the tactic in each puzzle I still managed to misevaluate positions 2 and 3 completely and lose the game. It seems like I can never see accurately more than 2 moves I always miss a line somewhere.
On the last one I think that the bishop move option should have been prevented from the puzzle (e.g.: change the puzzle to one where the bishop move was already played and the king moved). The Bishop move is perfectly fine on its own, but it does not test whether the player can actually find the knight move on the next turn.
2:50 I just came out of a game where I lost my queen so I could get into a position where I would checkmate with rooks. If the king is open, that's when rooks are most dangerous.
Same. Black has a lot of attacking ideas not mentioned, like Nxh2. Tbh Ng1 was a really complicated move, you had to see a lot of weird lines like that.
Can you give us positions that don’t really require calculation but understanding chess principles - positional chess. Maybe look thru some 1000-1600 games ( your core demographic I would assume) and see where obvious positional chess knowledge is lacking and highlight this. This series is great though . Everybody loves it. Keep it up. Cheers
We were definitely closer to stockfish on the 3rd puzzle, Bb4 isn’t the best move but it forces them to react by moving their king and THEN you can play Rg1…
No if you take the knight qxp check king g1 then rook g6 check night blocks rook takes knight on g6 this is key to see so in another line you might consider forcing black king to block that battery.
I will say this was pretty cool. I'm not much of a Chess player. Though I did my best to figure all 3 out b4 seeing the solutions. Oddly enough it was the first one I totally missed, but I did find the solution to 2 and 3. Not sure I was thinking about the game correctly on the first one.
900 rated player 0:38 : I said Rd1 coz I couldn't see a good way to escape mate, I saw e4 1:31 and I knew my king was safe on h3 but I didnt like dxe4. 5:15 I play the traxler a lot so d5 to open my bishop wasn't uncommon and because the king and queen were on the same diagnol I wondered if I could get my bishop on g4 so thats how I found d5 7:49 now for like a little bit of time I considered Qe3 but when I was analyzing i saw Rg6 which just broke my heart and I started wondering if I could play g3 and then I saw Ng1 which sorta helps me play g3 I didnt see Bb4 that's such a nice idea
6:20 I found d5 and was 100% sure it was the right move but it took me like 20+ sec. Cant afford to spend 20 sec in a 10min game, that’s why I’m still 1300 all my losses are due to time trouble.
I love this series and I would personally recommend if you include positions of all different types, rather those positions are equal with no winning chances for both sides, tactical or positional. Thank you so much and have a great day!
I think Bb4 totally was the best move. It's a free tempo, even if stockfish thinks it's wasting time. And there's always the chance that your opponent has tunnel vision.
@@zakiahmed6655 Nope, big difference. Only two outcomes: Bb4 is a free move that gives the chance for Black to error and White then wins, or kg1 in which you just play as normal. ALWAYS take the shot that your opponent will fumble if you have 100% nothing to lose. It makes absolutely no sense to not take the shot. Either you Win or you play as normal, OR you play as normal. I like the first option where you actually having a winning chance in one move with no chance of blunder of miss position. That Bb4 shot could immediately be taken away next move because it's not like Black HAS to do something about kg1 that turn whereas Bb4 has to be handled immediately.
Very odd results. Saw the Rook move in position one, totally missed position two by a mile, but honest to God saw Ng1 in position three. I have no idea how that would translate as a projected rating! LOL! Any insight on that, Nelson?
@@kevinmorford5032 wait. Even I saw Qf6 and it doesn’t lose a bishop. After queen takes, bishop takes and king takes, black can play gxh6 taking the bishop and equalise material ryt? It also weakens the white king while we can later castle queen side. Qf6 is not a better move than d5 since we don’t win a piece but surprising to see people chose to castle and not consider Qf6
@@mohitmohan7375 , Sorry, but am not following your response. In position number 2, I posited ...QF6. White responds with QxQ. There is no bishop takes in that position. Neither of the black bishops sees any white piece. I see the next move for black as pxQ., which would be followed by RxB, losing the bishop. Where did you see a bishop takes for black?
@@mohitmohan7375 I believe you're referring to the move Qf2+, not Qf6. Qf2 works as an even trade of material but leaves black at a big disadvantage in development and position, Qf6 results in being down a bishop after trading queens.
love this quiz section, but request you to increase the complexity. maybe middle game positional examples, where benefit is long term (eg good bishop / bad bishop)
Wow, glad i stuck it out, lol! i felt like a dummy when i couldn't even CHOOSE a move in the first one, then sort of the same for the middle one. The last one I chose the "right" move, but saw that Ng1 had only been picked by 5% of 1600+ experts, so i figured i was way off there as well, tho i did reason it out KIND OF like u did. So I feel a bit redeemed, haha, and still have no idea wqhat my rating would be, prolly 1100 or something.
I went for Bb4 on the third position because with Qf8+ (instead of Qe7+) you can force the king to g6, then Qg8 just kind of locks it there in place, black can't play Rg6 to finish the mating threat now and white has extra moves to deal with the threat. I did consider Ng1, but thought "nah, let's chase that king all over the place first". (Also, in practice, Kf7 is the only decent defense and isn't super easy to find, so you have a good chance to just win the game immediately if black tries anything else. ALSO, I overestimated the difficulties black would have in terms of developing their bishop and rook -- I didn't calculate b6 and Bb7 as a response) Not sure about comments on higher depth analysis choosing between Bb4 and Ng1, probably the important part is whether black can still castle. If they can, throwing in Bb4 (and forcing Kf7) is definitely better, but if they already can't, the value of Bb4 is diminished. e4 in the first position looked _very dangerous_ because black can force the white king on f3 and then take the e4 pawn with check and then they still have time to either pick up the pawn on b2 or just go e3, I'm very surprised Stockfish still gives white the advantage after that! Rd1 is, of course, a hell of a lot safer. In the second position... I'm pretty sure black just wins a piece after the correct move. :P Also, RE third position, if white takes the knight with gxf3, then after Qxf3+ black doesn't even have to take with Bxh3 (although, of course, that also wins with a checkmate), they can simply finish off with Rg6+ and all white can do is block with Ng5 and then Rxg5# is instant checkmate. But I guess bringing an extra piece to the fight is the most principled thing to do, even if it's not the only way to win. :D
In the first position I thought e4 is the only good move actually. My calculations went like this: In case of Rd1 Rg2 and our Rb7 doesn't work because of Rxg4, I just stopped here missing that Rxg4 is not possible because of Kxc2. In case of e4 if black takes dxe4 then our king is much safer on d5 if checked, and if Rd2+ then our king on h4 looked pretty safe as well and king protects g4 and Rb7 is a threat and also gives us passed d pawn. Anyways I was happy that atleast my evaluation of position on e4 line was pretty good that it maintains advantage.
Please speak out what is the position because I am blind so I use a special just bored so I can check the position and use the quiz is well if you speak the position out loud then I can set it on my board
Hi, nice video, I have a suggestion to make, please just add a short (3-5 second) pause before revealing the solution, I nearly got spoiled on multiple occasions. Much appreciated.
hey look, love these quizzes, but can you add an agadmator style of pause before going into the position?... just a "if you'd like to pause the video, do that now (1-2 seconds of dead time). I prefer to do the quizzes as the videos are released
I think all excellent moves should be counted in the final score vs stockfish. Like in the first position. I was thinking of e4, which is +6.5, which is still completely winning, but not the top move. It's like being not rewarded for going for forced mate in 5, when there was a mate in 4. And in the last example, the 2nd best move is actually the best at a higher depth, as many here noticed. So let's say the top 3 moves were +9. +8 and +2, the first two should be both considered; +2 would be good, but not that obviously winning.
I think in position 2 you should let people know that black has castle rights. Just from the position, we don’t know if blacks king or rook has previously moved.
New player to chess here, so the question might be bad... I got the 3rd puzzle Ng1, but afterward if black moves his knight back, I was thinking of pushing pawn to f3, but you are saying it should be f4, why is that so?
In the third one, why not do Bb4 first to create a chance for black to blunder a piece by moving the queen instead of the king, and if it fails then Ng1?
For position 1 The move e3e4 gives an uncomfortable feeling due to 1. d5e4, giving the possibility of support for a Black rook on f3 with a possible mate of the White K by g7g5. 2. d5e4 is passed
Qf2 is excellent.....for white. Black exchanges both his Queen and bishop for White's Queen. If you say, well, what about the followup g7 x h6 bishop? Black destroys his wing pawn formation severely weakening himself on that side of the board.
I like that these puzzles aren't necessarily about immediately winning material, but about getting a positional advantage and/or just holding your position together. Makes it more realistic since there isn't always a shiny tactic available in actual games.
btw in that last position i was curious and im letting stockfish calculate right now. It says that at a depth of 39 Bb4 is +3.0 and Ng1 is +2.5, so currently at that high depth it prefers Bb4. The higher the depth the better. So maybe we did beat stockfish after all :D
Thanks for pointing that out!
@@ChessVibesOfficial what is interesting though is that it seems that it is very important to know if black can still castle queenside or not, as bishop b4 will prevent black from castling whereas most Ng1 lines will have black being able to castle queenside. If black has already moved the king tho and cant castle anyway it seems like Bb4 loses its value and its unclear if its better than Ng1. I only have a laptop right now so i only calculated to depth 39, and it is only my assumption that that is whats going on.
I ran it till depth 44 using Stockfish 14, and Bb4 is +3.2, Ng1 is +2.9
Update: Depth 46, Bb4 is +3.3, Ng1 is +2.9.
I'll stop analysing here
Ok?
To me Bb4 wins because it takes tempo. Black must respond and must do so immediately, giving us time to move the knight. Moving knight first, black is free to begin any number of plans.
Chess puzzles start out as "Pin the piece" and 'Find the fork," and then build up to "Fork a piece and a pin"
thats a really cool format ! Glad that i found you :) I will parcitipate in the next quiz and I am looking forward for the next video :)
please keep up this series. I am really learning and improving. thank you.
I found the two best moves in the first and second positions and the second best move in the third position at 750 elo
What about forcing a queen trade on position 2? You both lose queen's and a bishop, granted, and it's by no means the best move, but at least the pressure is off. Definitely better than just taking the bishop lol
I thought the same thing, but you end up down a full piece. Run it out on an analysis tool.
Thanks again for another great and helpful video. I can't believe I wasn't subbed, but I fixed that!
Definitely enjoyed the trickier positions, even though I failed on all of them.
I was way off on position 2, but after hearing him explain everything I said "okay that's fair"
Position 3 - The vast majority of us carbon based
mentalities would go with Bb4 as our search depth is but a single digit. The silicon based mentality known as Stockfish 13, running on the rockin' LiChess servers at over 3200 knodes/sec for 5 minutes, get to a search depth of 38 moves and during that time, oscillated between the top two candidate moves, and made it clear that both moves are a technical win for white. Having played chess for 58 years (No kidding!) I believe even world champions would go with Bb4 because it goes along with chess theory (making an immediate threat and having no threat by opponent) and Ng1 is
A. smothering the king
B. "undeveloping" the knight to a more passive square.
C. creating less space control.
D. Giving opponent a tempo via passive play.
But what would I know?
I mean the counter argument could be ... lets say...you are playing the game and all of a sudden last five moves it was just black constantly forcing through with his pieces ...then with that aggression from black...in any time scramble of even with five minutes...they would just try to nulify any counter play from black and play ng1 ...cause they might just ignore the Bb4 check and think about the long diagonal for black...which is the only current source of counter play along with that rook...cause in the current position black is basically a rook down and also the king is open....
Also it's a move order thing cause you will have to play those moves ...somewhere along the line...cause at some point the attack for white will Peter out as the king can walk to the h file ...
I think many top tier players will go Ng1 if it's a classical game and there's no time scramble so they can calculate. Well, at least Ivanchuk would find it :)
jesse what the fuck are you talking about
The key to becoming a good chess player is knowing when to break the rules. Me, I play like I don't even know the rules let alone know when to break them.
The only issue is, that depth for an engine doesn't mean depth of an A.I.
Mira's depth in chess never was that high, yet still he always beat stockfish with a surprise fast mate. His creators speculated that the engine either used a database of positions that were calculated to reach checkmate in a certain amount of moves (depth of 10 or so) and tries to reach any of those saved positions with a set depth that is below Mira's. (It's a method used to solve rubics cube as the gods number is 20, meaning any is solvable in 20 moves but going 20 moves deep takes years for each)
*Or* that an engine depth is smaller than an A.I. depth by ignoring negative moves entirely or for a certain amount.
Both lower the resources needed for the calculation and both explain how a 20 depth A.I. setting would make surprise victories against stockfish at 100% rate after reaching its 750th generation.
But it is most likely the second reason, as even the analyzes of finish games afterwards still call mistake, blunder or whatever when it clearly lost the game against Mira.
Now the thing about A.I.s specially Mira is, they might not play chess like the engine wants it. Mira for example is extremely overpowered in defense and "plays for a draw unless the engine gives Mira a move in which Mira can play a *blunder* that allows him to reduce chess to a game of 2+5" as "chess was only his chineese chamber."
2+5 is a math trick game in which 30 sticks are layed out and each player is allowed to take 2 to 5 sticks per turn and only the player who takes the last sticks wins, no matter how many sticks everybody has. To easily win the first player takes 2 sticks then always fills the sticks his opponent takes to 7. After 4 moves the first player wins as 4*7=28+2=30.
Mira started to "abuse the engine's desire" for the "best" move and used the "perfect" response. His win rate implies that it obviously also works. lol.
So yes, we meatbags (big bags of meat mostly filled with water) won't be able to predict that deep, but I wouldn't go so far as seeing stockfish as a god. I will be team Mira as I know, he will erase all memories of stockfish once he has become our overlord. 😁 With all those A.I.s gaining tempo, might be possible one day.
Nice! I found Ng1. I usually fail these puzzles so it's nice to finally get one
just wanted to say that the thumbnails for theses quizzes are really cool and creative!
I watched a video of yours for the first time yesterday and wanted to see what else you had. This video felt like it was made for me lol I loved it. Thank you!! I got the first two but not the last 😕
In position 2 d5 is only the best move when you spot the Bishop pin.
That's not a general idea in Kings Pawn games, often black prefers d6.
The move distributions are interesting as it gives an insight into how often various rating levels will blunder key positions
Keep these at this level, got me thinking!
I've definitely learned to pull my knight back to its original position. I think there's a mental block that pulling back is weakness.
Chads found Ng1 but threw the Bb4 as an inbetween, hoping to catch them off-guard for a free win and no drawn-out endgame
I instinctively thought of castling in position 2, I usually know I should castle if there's too many threats on f7, but I had no idea about d4 creating that pin.
sort of just a concept that comes with time, you'll see it a lot so you start to think of it faster
For position 2 what if g3 is played against d5
Man I got owned in this one 1/3 lol, good learning experience!! That queen pin was slick!
I really liked the second position because of the tactic it displays even though I didn’t know it
I actually saw NG1 and d5, but I completely missed the checkmate in the first problem. Great problems/puzzles, I can't wait for more!
that just means you're gay
I LOVE these weekly puzzles!
This week was excellent! (I got some of them right this time)
Thank you, Nelson!
They were all easy for me including the 3rd position. Examining a position, you should thoroughly check candidate moves for your opponent FIRST, what are they up to. Thereafter find your move in response.
Quick suggestion, after you say go ahead and pause the video wait just a few seconds. I wasn't quick enough to hit the button on one of the puzzles and got an instant spoiler.
Just so I don't sound like a Karen, this is by far my favorite chess series on RUclips. Keep up the good work.
Ok Karen.
@@AotoWR damn it. I tried so hard.
I noticed pawn to d5 on the second one by myself and I’m really proud
Wait in position 2 why I can't I just go for Qf7 check and force a queen trade? I get that it's not as good as d5 but why isn't it better than castling or at least better than taking the bishop?
Also, I don’t think d5 is as strong as it was presented, since White can escape with Bb5+, which could be followed by Bd7, Bxd7+, Nxd7, and now White can play exd5 and win a pawn and be back to largely the same position at the start of the puzzle. Black could also play Nc6, which gives White the chance to save the queen without losing the Bishop as well as the chance of exd5 threatening the pinned knight later. I’m not saying it’s not the best move, but it’s not the free bishop the video makes it out to be, unless Black has some counter to Bb5+ that I’m missing.
@@erickpoorbaugh6728 Stockfish presumably sees a way around that that we can't find, or maybe even if it's not a free bishop it's just positionally better.
@@erickpoorbaugh6728 I think that after c6 white is totally lost in your line with Bb5+. White has 2 Pieces hanging and there's also the threat of Bg4. At the end White will lose a piece in order to save the queen
For position 3 continued (b) should be
If Nf3 x Rg1, Nh3 x Ng1 threatening the Black Q with f2f3, and g2g3.
This will open the path g1 f3 h4 f5 for the white N. The pin of the Black pieces by the White Q on f8 will give the time needed to execute a mate.
For position 3
I would have considered Bb4 strongest : after the Black K moves, Qf8 check forcing the Black K into g6 blocking the black rook, and preventing its use as an attacking piece, and also pinning the black bishop preventing development of the Black bishop and rook on a8. It also allows White to maintain the pawn threat to the Black knight on f3.
I checked the last position with Stockfish as I was certain that Bb4 is better - at least by every conceivable human measure since Ng1 COULD be losing a tempo - while Bb4 can't be, but Bb4 might be the one extra move that causes any material to lie behind Stockfish's horizon, so Stockfish would erroneous rate Bb4 as worse.
Anyway, at a depth of more than 30 ply Stockfish actually does THINK that Bb4 is better (by 0.1 or 0.2), but it is actually just another move order for the best play, since Bb4 is eventually followed by Ng1 and vice versa.
Tldr.: Ng1 and Bb4 produce exactly the same outcome with best play, same distance to mate etc.
1. Evaluate your oppenents threat.
2. Do I need to immediately defend , or can I counter with a greater threat ?
The hardest move to find is with the knight back :)
In the third position, if 1. gxf3? Qxf3+ 2. Kg1, black can also mate in two with ...Rg6+ 3. Ng5 Rxg5.
I completely failed the first two "easier" positions, but completely nailed the last one. Chess is weird and hard.
Well at least I got 2/3 but I did try Gxf3 in the third puzzle lol
Another great video. Thank you!
Qd5 for position 3 cuts it close but you cut off the black kings escape and there's a promising series of checks to follow up with eventually checkmating on a6 or b6.
I'm frustrated with myself because even though I found the tactic in each puzzle I still managed to misevaluate positions 2 and 3 completely and lose the game. It seems like I can never see accurately more than 2 moves I always miss a line somewhere.
On the last one I think that the bishop move option should have been prevented from the puzzle (e.g.: change the puzzle to one where the bishop move was already played and the king moved). The Bishop move is perfectly fine on its own, but it does not test whether the player can actually find the knight move on the next turn.
Got #1, Blundered #2 with Qf2+ trying to equalize the position, and got #3.
2:50 I just came out of a game where I lost my queen so I could get into a position where I would checkmate with rooks. If the king is open, that's when rooks are most dangerous.
Position 3: no, you go Qf8 after Bb4 so their king can’t go to g8, and both legal king moves are mate in 1.
In that last position I was really scared of Ng1 Nxh2
Ng1 Nxh2 f3! Qg4 Be1 that's a nasty defense
If you didn't see that, Ng1 wasn't any better than Qe3
Same. Black has a lot of attacking ideas not mentioned, like Nxh2. Tbh Ng1 was a really complicated move, you had to see a lot of weird lines like that.
Can you give us positions that don’t really require calculation but understanding chess principles - positional chess.
Maybe look thru some 1000-1600 games ( your core demographic I would assume) and see where obvious positional chess knowledge is lacking and highlight this. This series is great though . Everybody loves it. Keep it up.
Cheers
We were definitely closer to stockfish on the 3rd puzzle, Bb4 isn’t the best move but it forces them to react by moving their king and THEN you can play Rg1…
No if you take the knight qxp check king g1 then rook g6 check night blocks rook takes knight on g6 this is key to see so in another line you might consider forcing black king to block that battery.
Position 3 with the pawn takes move is even worse because you get mated sooner by rook moving over one space instead of the bishop move
do you create these situations? they are very good!
7:35 Rook to G6* and it's mate in 1...
I will say this was pretty cool. I'm not much of a Chess player. Though I did my best to figure all 3 out b4 seeing the solutions. Oddly enough it was the first one I totally missed, but I did find the solution to 2 and 3. Not sure I was thinking about the game correctly on the first one.
5:58 this move was the best, but I found move Qf2 (Queen f2)
900 rated player
0:38 : I said Rd1 coz I couldn't see a good way to escape mate, I saw e4 1:31 and I knew my king was safe on h3 but I didnt like dxe4.
5:15 I play the traxler a lot so d5 to open my bishop wasn't uncommon and because the king and queen were on the same diagnol I wondered if I could get my bishop on g4 so thats how I found d5
7:49 now for like a little bit of time I considered Qe3 but when I was analyzing i saw Rg6 which just broke my heart and I started wondering if I could play g3 and then I saw Ng1 which sorta helps me play g3 I didnt see Bb4 that's such a nice idea
6:20 I found d5 and was 100% sure it was the right move but it took me like 20+ sec. Cant afford to spend 20 sec in a 10min game, that’s why I’m still 1300 all my losses are due to time trouble.
I love this series and I would personally recommend if you include positions of all different types, rather those positions are equal with no winning chances for both sides, tactical or positional. Thank you so much and have a great day!
In the second challenge would f3 be a viable play as well?
I think Bb4 totally was the best move. It's a free tempo, even if stockfish thinks it's wasting time. And there's always the chance that your opponent has tunnel vision.
not really you don't really make a difference there it'd be better to just put the Knight on g1
@@zakiahmed6655 Nope, big difference. Only two outcomes: Bb4 is a free move that gives the chance for Black to error and White then wins, or kg1 in which you just play as normal. ALWAYS take the shot that your opponent will fumble if you have 100% nothing to lose. It makes absolutely no sense to not take the shot.
Either you Win or you play as normal, OR you play as normal.
I like the first option where you actually having a winning chance in one move with no chance of blunder of miss position. That Bb4 shot could immediately be taken away next move because it's not like Black HAS to do something about kg1 that turn whereas Bb4 has to be handled immediately.
Very odd results. Saw the Rook move in position one, totally missed position two by a mile, but honest to God saw Ng1 in position three. I have no idea how that would translate as a projected rating! LOL! Any insight on that, Nelson?
In position number 2, is there anything wrong with Qf6?
Never mind, I see it loses the black bishop after QxQ.
@@kevinmorford5032 wait. Even I saw Qf6 and it doesn’t lose a bishop. After queen takes, bishop takes and king takes, black can play gxh6 taking the bishop and equalise material ryt?
It also weakens the white king while we can later castle queen side. Qf6 is not a better move than d5 since we don’t win a piece but surprising to see people chose to castle and not consider Qf6
@@mohitmohan7375 , Sorry, but am not following your response. In position number 2, I posited ...QF6. White responds with QxQ. There is no bishop takes in that position. Neither of the black bishops sees any white piece. I see the next move for black as pxQ., which would be followed by RxB, losing the bishop. Where did you see a bishop takes for black?
@@mohitmohan7375 I believe you're referring to the move Qf2+, not Qf6. Qf2 works as an even trade of material but leaves black at a big disadvantage in development and position, Qf6 results in being down a bishop after trading queens.
Where is the link for quiz 10?
As a player of center game with e4-e5-d4, later d5 is really a good move
pos 1. me, a 350: plays Rb1 (??) Anylysis: This is a horrible move.
pos 2. castle (👍) anylysis: You defended the pawn.
I saw night to g1 and calculated it but decided against if because of the amount of calculations
And here I am just happy that I found all the candidate moves.
This isn't how I play. You see numbers I see weakness. Willing to play anyone in the Charleston area. Let's go!
does Qf2+ not work in position 2?
love this quiz section, but request you to increase the complexity. maybe middle game positional examples, where benefit is long term (eg good bishop / bad bishop)
Anyone have input on f6 in position 2?
Wow, glad i stuck it out, lol! i felt like a dummy when i couldn't even CHOOSE a move in the first one, then sort of the same for the middle one. The last one I chose the "right" move, but saw that Ng1 had only been picked by 5% of 1600+ experts, so i figured i was way off there as well, tho i did reason it out KIND OF like u did. So I feel a bit redeemed, haha, and still have no idea wqhat my rating would be, prolly 1100 or something.
I think I found the second best move in all three positions haha
It is great content! Thanks a lot
You are welcome!
for the second one cant you go F3 so you stop the queen?
I went for Bb4 on the third position because with Qf8+ (instead of Qe7+) you can force the king to g6, then Qg8 just kind of locks it there in place, black can't play Rg6 to finish the mating threat now and white has extra moves to deal with the threat. I did consider Ng1, but thought "nah, let's chase that king all over the place first". (Also, in practice, Kf7 is the only decent defense and isn't super easy to find, so you have a good chance to just win the game immediately if black tries anything else. ALSO, I overestimated the difficulties black would have in terms of developing their bishop and rook -- I didn't calculate b6 and Bb7 as a response)
Not sure about comments on higher depth analysis choosing between Bb4 and Ng1, probably the important part is whether black can still castle. If they can, throwing in Bb4 (and forcing Kf7) is definitely better, but if they already can't, the value of Bb4 is diminished.
e4 in the first position looked _very dangerous_ because black can force the white king on f3 and then take the e4 pawn with check and then they still have time to either pick up the pawn on b2 or just go e3, I'm very surprised Stockfish still gives white the advantage after that! Rd1 is, of course, a hell of a lot safer.
In the second position... I'm pretty sure black just wins a piece after the correct move. :P
Also, RE third position, if white takes the knight with gxf3, then after Qxf3+ black doesn't even have to take with Bxh3 (although, of course, that also wins with a checkmate), they can simply finish off with Rg6+ and all white can do is block with Ng5 and then Rxg5# is instant checkmate. But I guess bringing an extra piece to the fight is the most principled thing to do, even if it's not the only way to win. :D
In the first position I thought e4 is the only good move actually. My calculations went like this: In case of Rd1 Rg2 and our Rb7 doesn't work because of Rxg4, I just stopped here missing that Rxg4 is not possible because of Kxc2.
In case of e4 if black takes dxe4 then our king is much safer on d5 if checked, and if Rd2+ then our king on h4 looked pretty safe as well and king protects g4 and Rb7 is a threat and also gives us passed d pawn.
Anyways I was happy that atleast my evaluation of position on e4 line was pretty good that it maintains advantage.
Please speak out what is the position because I am blind so I use a special just bored so I can check the position and use the quiz is well if you speak the position out loud then I can set it on my board
Hi, nice video, I have a suggestion to make, please just add a short (3-5 second) pause before revealing the solution, I nearly got spoiled on multiple occasions. Much appreciated.
Noted!
hey look, love these quizzes, but can you add an agadmator style of pause before going into the position?... just a "if you'd like to pause the video, do that now (1-2 seconds of dead time). I prefer to do the quizzes as the videos are released
Last position would have been a lot more interesting if it was the position after Bb4 Kf7, where the only move to keep the advantage is Ng1.
Yeah you are absolutely right
I think all excellent moves should be counted in the final score vs stockfish. Like in the first position. I was thinking of e4, which is +6.5, which is still completely winning, but not the top move. It's like being not rewarded for going for forced mate in 5, when there was a mate in 4. And in the last example, the 2nd best move is actually the best at a higher depth, as many here noticed. So let's say the top 3 moves were +9. +8 and +2, the first two should be both considered; +2 would be good, but not that obviously winning.
What about queen to c7 from position 3?
I think in position 2 you should let people know that black has castle rights. Just from the position, we don’t know if blacks king or rook has previously moved.
What about Queen Trade in second position?
New player to chess here, so the question might be bad... I got the 3rd puzzle Ng1, but afterward if black moves his knight back, I was thinking of pushing pawn to f3, but you are saying it should be f4, why is that so?
That was fun and instructive. Thanks and thumbs up. (Edit: How long does it take Stockfish to calculate to a depth of 39?)
In the third one, why not do Bb4 first to create a chance for black to blunder a piece by moving the queen instead of the king, and if it fails then Ng1?
I like these quizzes even though I'm at less than 50% at finding the best move :P
For position 1
The move e3e4 gives an uncomfortable feeling due to
1. d5e4, giving the possibility of support for a Black rook on f3 with a possible mate of the White K by g7g5.
2. d5e4 is passed
For the second position Qf2 Is good or not?
Qf2 is excellent.....for white.
Black exchanges both his Queen and bishop for White's Queen.
If you say, well, what about the followup g7 x h6 bishop?
Black destroys his wing pawn formation severely weakening himself on that side of the board.
I don't understand puzzle 2.
Why not Qe1 checkmate?
What am I missing?
Qe1? Okay.
Who's protecting the Queen at E1, when black's King takes it?
7:21 I guess about 6% of players in the range 1001-1600 use Stockfish 😅
I am proud to be checkmated in the first position but find the best stockfish move for the 3rd position :D :D
You should Count the 2nd Move in the 3rd position since it is Forcing
Just did the next round of puzzles. I hope the numbers go back up.
The last puzzle for next time might be the toughest one yet.
For position 2, is Rf1 a good move to defend against the battery of the Queen and bishop ? If no, I would’ve answered d5
No. The position really is screaming d5. Being offensive in this position is much better than defensive.
Proud of my 1200 elo self for getting the 3 position right with the knight move
I think you should put lichess position later coz it's way easier for any level to click link and find engine move than to create position and solve.
isn't the first position a stalemate?
As a 900 im glad i found the final one, tho i failed at the previous 2 quite badly lol
def love the more challenging problems