Chess master I'm going into battle and I would like to buy your Sicilian. "Sicilian is only for the strongest chess players and you are not one of THESTRONGESTCHESSPLAYERS YOU ARE ONE OF THE WEAKEST". Chess Master... please
I think what he meant is that if you're playing Sicilian and you're against an opponent who knows that he's doing then there maybe a lot traps that can backfire against you if you dont know theory.
I checked a bot stream where the viewer can play by giving move commands. When I started to move pawn to c4 after bot plays e4, it become an error and bot replied chat that it was an illegal move. I laughed so hard when I saw that lmao
All of your proficiency in English needs enhancement. I recommend refining your language skills to achieve better fluency and clarity in communication.
@@ultru3525 lol MVL, 2770+ rated player is an expert in the Sicilian. As was Kasparov. It's definitely a legit, and arguably the best opening black can play in response to 1.e4.
@@ka4421 Of course it's legit, it's just one of the more difficult openings to master, which is why Levy only recommends it for 2000+ rated players, like MVL and Kasparov. It's probably easier to get to 2000 rating using easier openings like the French, Caro-Kann and KID.
@@Gamer-uf1kl it depends always on the power level of your opponents. I agree with Levy that the accelerated dragon is a good way to cut some theory and get sound positions.
I am only a 1200 player and the Sicilian is the most fun and interesting opening EVER. I tried to stay to Gotham’s suggestion by not playing it until I am 2000, but I played one match with it and I couldn’t go back. It’s super fun.
"Don't play the Sicilian until you're 2000 rating" how about instead of waiting for something that'll never happen, I'll do it anyway because games are supposed to be fun
Yeah, I started studying chess so I can play with my dad, becoming 2000 rating player is totally cool but that's not my target, I do it because it's fun. sorry for my english btw.
tbh i think he said it because the sicilian has many variations which requires a lot of memorisation but tbh if you play casually do whats most fun for you
He's not trying to forbid you from playing the sicilian, or gatekeep the opening. He's saying that it's very hard and won't be good in the hands of a weaker player.
One of the reasons I really want to learn the Accelerated Dragon Sicilian is because I play the Kings Indian as black. And to me, they both seem so very similar. It just seems natural to learn those together.
The most hair-raising Sicilians are the ones where white castles queenside and attacks on the king's wing. Then it becomes a race of who gets to the enemy king first.
Im 600 and play the French and I’ve actually really looked into the e6 Sicilian when I play against immediate knight moves. It’s worked really well for me so far and am on a 15 gam win streak. Before I was 400 something
The Sicilian Defense intrigues me very much, although I'm only about an 800 rated player. I just really want to learn it and try it. As black I usually play an open game with e4, e5 or the Caro-Kann with e4, c6. This was a nice video, covered a lot of things and introduced me more into the sicilian. I definitely gotta check out some cool variations
Been playing the Sicilian for most of my life with a high rate of success, and I am not a 2000 rated player. It's all about becoming comfortable with the position and understanding the reason behind the move C5.
if you've been playing it for all your life and haven't reached 2000, wouldn't that mean you haven't been having a high rate of success ? Unless by all your life you meant the few games you play every month.
Watching this because I fell in love with the vienna after seeing your videos on it, but as I expected today in a daily game someone did not respond to e4 with e5. Instead they have forced me into the Sicilian. And these 10 min videos are the best thing on the internet for getting a feel for the basics of an opening.
exactly!! when he says dont play the sicilian until you’re 2000 plus is like saying don’t play baseball until you make it in the majors!! hello!! how the fuck am I going to make it in the majors if I don’t play baseball first??! duh
@@jrviade85 you don't need to know any openings until you hit 2000 and it is a lot easier to reach 2000 without Sicilian because it breaks a lot of principals
I love these, they are so helpful most opening videos go way too deep for my level (currently 1350, but have drawn games with 1700+ several times). This is digestible
I'm 1650 and I play the najdorf in the open sicilian just because I like it. I have reasonable success with just knowing the main ideas and some popular lines. Don't be scared!! I play magic the gathering!
Yes me too. Theres no tricky knights or bishop cause of a6 and 9/10 times they play a bishop move after the najdorf setup. Just put your own knight and bishops out and castle and attack!!
I’m rated at about 1730 for classic and 1900 for blitz. But I’m just getting into the Sicilian since most of my opponents play d4 so I come back with F5. But I got a tournament coming soon and I’ve gotta have something besides F5 because a lot of play play e4 then ninja queen. So I gotta stop it with some good shit.
Sicilian was the reason I quit chess. Years and years all noobs like me played e4 e5. (a rare d4 (queens gambit) if white felt adventurous). Then suddenly everyone started playing sicilian, and memorizing a dozen moves ahead. Winning by winging it (not making obvious mistakes and hoping the opponent would) no longer worked! I had so much success with Scottish gambit, the only opening I really kinda studied, but no longer got to play it...
I can relate to this so much. I was 12 and won 4/5 games at a chess tournament, the best from my school. Then a year later almost everyone I knew were playing c5 and I lost every game I played at the next tournament and that was it for me for the next 17 years lol.
This sorta thing just happened to me. There's a guy at a park that I can't beat. He always has a better position/material advantage in the opening. So I start reading about openings and I realize this mf'er is always running the Sicilian. So now I'm here (and also in a book) trying to learn it. Despite the fact that I've never wanted to learn openings. Did you ever get back into chess?
The vienna carried me though 900 and got me to 1000, then i started facing the sicilian, at the first time i lost but i know what opening it was, at the second i panicked and my unstoppable vienna just crumbled
Don't be ridiculous. Only 13% of low rated games black plays the sicilian. And you could play an anti sicilian, like the alepin or closed sicilian and probably be on even grounds.
Man thank you for being honest about what strategies to be using or not using as a beginner/intermediate. It can get overwhelming trying to figure out what to play or not and it's nice to be able to narrow the list down by knowing you aren't good enough yet.
I tried Sicilian at 850 a bit against players between 1000-2000 and I gotta say, the complete random energy of the matches actually netted me more wins than I thought would be possible. People do not enjoy playing against this opening 😅
It’s crazy how before I even think of a countering opening move he already has seen it and memorized counters to it...that’s a lot of chess. Makes me think of how Canelo or Mayweather are always at least one step ahead of their opponent
I have played chess for a long time already but didn't really picked up an opening theory until last year. My workmate who is also an amateur kept mentioning about Sicilian Defense but I'm not sure if he knows about it so I check its legitamacy and, I was amazed of how complicated this opening is. It didn't stop me to learn about it and even lose games playing it but little by little I kinda refined my style. Now, I can confidently say that most of my amateur opponents can't beat me. I was glad when you recommend e6 coz that's what I play most of the time. With that line, I feel like I'm playing French defense instead. Just my thoughts.
As a 1400 player without much time and/or desire to improve my chess, I usually play sicilian dragon or king's indian/modern defense kind of setup as black, and I'm quite comfortable with it. But what I found out is that 1500+ players often manage to get a middle game position that I'm not comfortable with. I feel like I screw smth up big time after around move 8-10. Nice vid btw!
It helped me a lot when I stuck to one opening for a few weeks. Finally got to the point where if someone follows the mainline Italian then I know how I can respond and honestly that's invigorated my love for chess. As someone who felt the same way as you I'd definitely recommend sticking with an opening to gain confidence.
I recommend learning the English attack against the Sicilian as white, even at low levels. It’s incredibly effective and creates my favorite games ever.
@@nivnavion The English opening and the English attack are different things. The english opening begins with 1. c4, whereas the English Attack is a system against the sicillian that involves playing f3, be3, qd2, casting queenside and starting a kingside pawn storm.
Woah great motivation... After answering all this questions 100 times a day on twitch you still find time and energy to repeat it all over again in separate yt vids. Keep it up.... Kinda persuaded to leave a comment. Thats like at most my 10th ever yt comment
I can't believe that I've been subscribed to your channel for about a year now and I didn't know this opening playlist existed!!! Thank you so much Levy!
My non-chess game: Magic: the Gathering. Been playing for years, just now getting into chess. They feel really similar, especially in terms of the tournament structure and etiquette.
In response to GothamChess's closing question "Games you play that aren't chess": - Music production - Music arranging (scores for ensembles, big bands, etc.) - Computer programming (C++, C#, Python, Perl, Java, Javascript, various SQL variants, etc., etc.) - Trombone, keyboards, vocals and, to a lesser extent, trumpet - Go (aka Baduk, aka Weichi) - Arimaa - A friend is coming over this afternoon to teach me Shogi (a kind of "Japanese chess") - Tarabish (barely) - 4-handed euchre Video games: - "Rebel Galaxy Outlaw" - "Don't Starve" - "Stardew Valley" - "Oceanhorn"
Hi Levy. I know you probs won't see this, I just wanted to say thank you! I found you pretty recently, after watching some of the vids you and Eric do together. I've been watching my way through your guides and openings videos, and they are incredibly helpful and informative, my rating has been slowly climbing up since taking on a lot of your advice. Hopefully I get a chance soon to drop into one of your streams and see the master play live!
I guess 1 e5 is the most natural and constructive move to play. (Then play main moves against the italian, the spanish, the scotch and all those rare lines, until you're out of book and just try to play the best moves (or play the Petrov…)). Some may say 1 c6 is good aswell, but it's kinda specific and perhaps better if you're a slav defence player against 1 d4.
I love this opening so much, it creates such a great layout for the rest of the whole game. Even if it doesnt fully workout youll still have some great moves to your availability.
“Don’t use the Sicilian until you’re 2000+” doesn’t mean you can’t learn it at a lower rating. It just means that you’re better off not using it in games with something important at stake, like tournament position, ELO, etc. It doesn’t even mean you shouldn’t play it in lower stakes situation like casual games so long as you don’t mind losing.
sicilian def is awesome for player under 2000+, just have to keep the attack coming once deploy. when black fall back to defense mode, it is extremely difficult if white know what it is doing.
1) How sound is it to put the knight on e7 rather than f6 after an accelerated dragon (or hyper accelerated dragon)? The sort of setup you're describing around 8:30 as a response to a king's indian attack is what I normally go with. How well does this work against other openings from white? In more detail I like to c5, Nc6 (if white plays nf3), g6, Bg7, a6 (if white has a knight which can jump to b5), e6, Ne7. Then either push through d5 or start expanding on the queenside. I'm 1000 so I doubt it matters, but I'm curious if there's a refutation. Engine doesn't see anything obviously wrong. 2) Not entirely a sicilian defense question, but how does one respond to bishop e3 queen d2 attack properly? You mention that dealing with this is important in your "learning the king's indian setup" video, though you may want to delay castling. Engine seems to think castling is fine, prefers to push a few queenside pawns first. How different is responding to this in the sicilian? If white pushes bh6 it seems preferable to let white take on g7 and take back with king when castled. Is it better to take bh6 when not castled, rather than move bishop or defend rg8?
This is 4 weeks old so maybe you got your answer but what I personally do is when I see queen and bishop trade prep from white i slide the f8 rook to e8 this allows me to deny the trade by playing bh8 and maintaining the diagonal then I quickly try to attack the bishop
I played Cricket entire life at the age of 21 i shifted to chess and now i am 25 and touched the rating of 1900 + but stuck for a long time i play Sicilian most often and i learned a lot from your videos i as well beaten NM with weapon a3 , b4 against Sicilian given by You 🙂
I started playing the sicilian at 650 and (as of typing this) I’m 847. It’s very true, I probably shouldn’t be playing this opening at all, it’s so complicated, but it’s just such a fun opening that opens up so much variation in your games, no matter how many times you play it. It’s by far my favourite opening out of every opening I know (including openings for white), and I just tend to play better using it. If you’re low rating like me and playing seriously competitive, use simpler openings that you can play better just to get your ranking up. However, if you just want to have fun (and potentially get very good, with risks of course) I definitely recommend this opening.
@@scrat9127 Well, I played about 5 - 6 years ago where I learned all the basics, tips for beginners, all that. Then I dropped it, but I’ve since picked it back up about 3-4 months ago I’d say
"Don't use the Sicilian until you're rated 2000+" Me who just got back into chess after 7 years because Baka Mitai chess memes and lost from a 1800 rated player: **surprised Pikachu face**
I used to play the French defence but kinda hated it, now I try playing the Sicilian Dragon, it has lots of parallels with the Kings Indian Defence in terms of the castled King fiancettod bishop
I took Levy's advice. I'm 2100 and I'm just starting to learn the Sicilian now, and you know what? I'm getting bodied by 1500s that already know the Sicilian. My advise? If you really want to learn the Sicilian, then you're ready to start learning the Sicilian, whatever your Elo.
I was going to say that telling someone to wait to learn this is wrong, but then i thought to myself you know, you're right. There is so much other stuff that newer players need to learn first, like pinning, and forking, that learning something this intricate, probably won't help them as much as learning basic stuff.
I started this video a few months ago. I got 3:30 in before I decided I didn't have a solid enough understanding of chess to get anything useful out of this video. Today I started this video again, and made it to 3:34 seconds. Progress is measurable lmao
He's talking about whether you play chess puzzles or bullet chess. Was also confused with where he got the word "game" from, but I then realized he meant to say lifestyle.
@9:34 the "pin variation"....I never understand this pin. What's the benefit of this if they can move pawn A3 and push it back? I try this and also whenever it's played against me, I push the pawn, and they always have to retreat...whats the right play here?
"I want the Sicilian"... "You can't handle the Sicilian!"
PAAA!
lol
But but I can.................
Chess master I'm going into battle and I would like to buy your Sicilian. "Sicilian is only for the strongest chess players and you are not one of THESTRONGESTCHESSPLAYERS YOU ARE ONE OF THE WEAKEST".
Chess Master... please
@@HomePremiered hahaha I had to go rewatch potion seller, thanks for reminding me of that gem
Gotham : Don't play the Sicilian till you're 2000
Me who barely rate 300 : This sign can't stop me cause I can't read
I play this at 900-1000 and actually it works really well lol
@@Eng586 400-500 Elo, and my elo went up 100points
Iam tried to play sicilian back when I was 500….and It went full carnage mode after just after c5 😂
@@shayandasguptateamx low rated players play a move you've never seen before and leave you flabbergasted
@@Eng586 I’m a 1300 at lots of people play this. I came here so I could learn to counter them, apparently it’s popular at all levels.
"dont use the sicilian until youre rated 2000+"
okay im going to just pretend I didnt hear that
same
Same
hahahahahahaha made my day .. lol
Gotham: dont play Sicilian until 2000+
Me: plays e5 variant almost constantly
LOL SAME!!
"Wait until you're at least 2000 to play the Sicilian." Well, tell that to my opponents who keep playing this bloody thing.
I know it’s kind of a misleading statement.
Exactly haha
I think what he meant is that if you're playing Sicilian and you're against an opponent who knows that he's doing then there maybe a lot traps that can backfire against you if you dont know theory.
You should definitely study it as white, just to learn where it can go wrong for black and thus how to exploit that.
They're just retards who uses that opening. They don't know sicilian well and the theory behind it. You should counter it easily.
I tried playing the Sicilian at 700 and my wife left me.
😂😂😂😂😂
Lol.
You must have fallen for “treat your wife like a queen” fallacy…. Tal’s queen, that is…
🤣🤣
i troed playing sicilian im 200 elo now
i tried playing the sicilian as a 500 rated player my computer exploded
I tried to play the sicilian as a 900 rated player,, stockfish told me to turn of the PC and go to sleep.
lol thats exactly what im doing now
I checked a bot stream where the viewer can play by giving move commands. When I started to move pawn to c4 after bot plays e4, it become an error and bot replied chat that it was an illegal move. I laughed so hard when I saw that lmao
im 450.. .just gonnna back away now
I'm 450 now
"Let me play the Sicilian" "No. You simply lack the strength to play it. Your bodies would crumble as your minds collapsed into madness."
Thanus
Is it weird that makes me want to play the Sicilian even more?
@@killmeslowlyOfficialYes? Why hast thou summoned me?
All of your proficiency in English needs enhancement. I recommend refining your language skills to achieve better fluency and clarity in communication.
Levy: “dont play the sicilian until you're 2000+”
Also levy in his recent video: “i played the Sicilian until I was about 1800-1900”
In other words, he reached 2000+ by no longer playing the Sicilian.
@@ultru3525 lol MVL, 2770+ rated player is an expert in the Sicilian. As was Kasparov. It's definitely a legit, and arguably the best opening black can play in response to 1.e4.
@@ka4421 Of course it's legit, it's just one of the more difficult openings to master, which is why Levy only recommends it for 2000+ rated players, like MVL and Kasparov. It's probably easier to get to 2000 rating using easier openings like the French, Caro-Kann and KID.
@@ka4421 it is THE BEST response to e4 according to stockfish
@@Gamer-uf1kl it depends always on the power level of your opponents. I agree with Levy that the accelerated dragon is a good way to cut some theory and get sound positions.
Me : Trying to learn sicilian to reach 2000.
-"wait until you're at least 2000 to play the sicilian"-
Same
I am only a 1200 player and the Sicilian is the most fun and interesting opening EVER. I tried to stay to Gotham’s suggestion by not playing it until I am 2000, but I played one match with it and I couldn’t go back. It’s super fun.
I'm stuck 500-700 :^(
@@vishal_3101 I have fun playing chess I am 1400 wanna play together sometime ? Maybe I could teach you sometime helpfull.
@@gallaxial8361 mind teaching me? My id : XVsHighlights , pls comment your name here too so that ik it’s you
@@gallaxial8361my id is nauman98 if u could help me too!
@@gallaxial8361lol me too .My ID is Silent_Assasin123
Conclusion: Don't play the Sicilian but here are some lines
IKR?
"Don't play the Sicilian until you're 2000 rating" how about instead of waiting for something that'll never happen, I'll do it anyway because games are supposed to be fun
Yeah, I started studying chess so I can play with my dad, becoming 2000 rating player is totally cool but that's not my target, I do it because it's fun. sorry for my english btw.
@@bildanj5950 bro I straight up thought you were a native speaker
@@octavian2381 fr. Only problem is most of those commas should be periods, and that's a very common mistake even for native speakers.
tbh i think he said it because the sicilian has many variations which requires a lot of memorisation but tbh if you play casually do whats most fun for you
He's not trying to forbid you from playing the sicilian, or gatekeep the opening. He's saying that it's very hard and won't be good in the hands of a weaker player.
One of the reasons I really want to learn the Accelerated Dragon Sicilian is because I play the Kings Indian as black. And to me, they both seem so very similar. It just seems natural to learn those together.
Eric Rosen has a video where he teaches someone Sicilian Dragon and Kings Indian because they are similar.
One of the reasons I want to learn the accelerated dragon is because it sounds so cool
@@TedWilliams1 have you heard about the Hyper Accelerated Dragon? even cooler
@@SilverRoveri 1.e4, c5
2. Nf3, g6
The most hair-raising Sicilians are the ones where white castles queenside and attacks on the king's wing. Then it becomes a race of who gets to the enemy king first.
Im 600 and play the French and I’ve actually really looked into the e6 Sicilian when I play against immediate knight moves. It’s worked really well for me so far and am on a 15 gam win streak. Before I was 400 something
What are you now bullet I am over 1000
My blitz I go to 800 and then back to 600
Good luck !!!
@@taylorg8509 I’m 678 currently in rapid I mostly only play rapid I did the comment 3 days ago
@@Ihffd nice good job bro
@@taylorg8509 hello Im ne to chess and I need help how do I get points and where?
hello Im ne to chess and I need help how do I get points and where?
my english is so bad, but im here just to say thank you for making this great video
well, you haven’t made a mistake so it can’t be that bad ✌🏻
You forgot to begin with a capital: 'My' XDDDD
Me too👍🏾
Thanks
*srry fer ma bad english
My English is so bad. I just play c4 and wing it.
"You should not play sicilian until your 2000." -gotham. Then theres me, a 500 continuing to watch the video anyways
Watching with 850 rating.
Welp, guess I’ll just die!
@@yungyosef me with 1300: y e s
Me a 650 player🤡
Gotham: don't play the sicilian till you're 2000
Me: i identify as a 2000
😂
"Wait until you're at least 2000 to play the Sicilian." when my rating is 900 : 👁👄👁
Back to the times when Levy's sanity was at a reasonable level.
"Wait until youre at least 2000 to play the Sicilian." Guess im never playing it lol
EDIT: my non chess game is Rocket League
Yeah me too, if i get to 1500 i am a happy man.
thx didnt care
Diamond 1 ;)
Yes SAAAME. I mean I'm like plat 3 but thats not bad
I'm wondering...Is RL some kind of gateway for chess? It's full of RL players around here...(I'm C2 btw)
You'll never know how this started 😭🤣
Lmai
Lmai
Lmai
Lmai
Lmai
Levy recomendations:
Versus open: the two knights or e6 systems
Versus closed: a6 b5
Versus alapin: d5 system
The Sicilian Defense intrigues me very much, although I'm only about an 800 rated player. I just really want to learn it and try it. As black I usually play an open game with e4, e5 or the Caro-Kann with e4, c6. This was a nice video, covered a lot of things and introduced me more into the sicilian. I definitely gotta check out some cool variations
Most People close 2 your rating will play something called the bowdler attack against the sicilian and its easy for Black 2 play against.
Hi, have you learnt it yet?
Been playing the Sicilian for most of my life with a high rate of success, and I am not a 2000 rated player. It's all about becoming comfortable with the position and understanding the reason behind the move C5.
would you mind teaching me? 😅
@@theone11977 Probably not as easily as you could learn it by doing a search on RUclips.
if you've been playing it for all your life and haven't reached 2000, wouldn't that mean you haven't been having a high rate of success ? Unless by all your life you meant the few games you play every month.
"You shouldn't be using Sicilian until you're rated 2000"
Me who's only 380: *NOTHING CAN STOP ME*
Watching this because I fell in love with the vienna after seeing your videos on it, but as I expected today in a daily game someone did not respond to e4 with e5. Instead they have forced me into the Sicilian. And these 10 min videos are the best thing on the internet for getting a feel for the basics of an opening.
To be a 2000, you have to practise like a 2000 😎
exactly!!
when he says dont play the sicilian until you’re 2000 plus
is like saying don’t play baseball until you make it in the majors!! hello!! how the fuck am I going to make it in the majors if I don’t play baseball first??! duh
@@jrviade85 you don't need to know any openings until you hit 2000 and it is a lot easier to reach 2000 without Sicilian because it breaks a lot of principals
I love these, they are so helpful most opening videos go way too deep for my level (currently 1350, but have drawn games with 1700+ several times). This is digestible
Dam those 1700’s are trash
@@ngawangr5324 or maybe he’s just a really good 1350
I'm 1650 and I play the najdorf in the open sicilian just because I like it. I have reasonable success with just knowing the main ideas and some popular lines. Don't be scared!!
I play magic the gathering!
Yes me too. Theres no tricky knights or bishop cause of a6 and 9/10 times they play a bishop move after the najdorf setup. Just put your own knight and bishops out and castle and attack!!
I play magic the gathering too! I'm still kinda new to chess but it's a ton of fun
I’m rated at about 1730 for classic and 1900 for blitz. But I’m just getting into the Sicilian since most of my opponents play d4 so I come back with F5. But I got a tournament coming soon and I’ve gotta have something besides F5 because a lot of play play e4 then ninja queen. So I gotta stop it with some good shit.
0:14 i did it on elo 600, horrible opening from me but somehow managed to clutch the game with rooks
Sicilian was the reason I quit chess.
Years and years all noobs like me played e4 e5. (a rare d4 (queens gambit) if white felt adventurous).
Then suddenly everyone started playing sicilian, and memorizing a dozen moves ahead. Winning by winging it (not making obvious mistakes and hoping the opponent would) no longer worked! I had so much success with Scottish gambit, the only opening I really kinda studied, but no longer got to play it...
I can relate to this so much. I was 12 and won 4/5 games at a chess tournament, the best from my school. Then a year later almost everyone I knew were playing c5 and I lost every game I played at the next tournament and that was it for me for the next 17 years lol.
This sorta thing just happened to me.
There's a guy at a park that I can't beat. He always has a better position/material advantage in the opening. So I start reading about openings and I realize this mf'er is always running the Sicilian.
So now I'm here (and also in a book) trying to learn it. Despite the fact that I've never wanted to learn openings.
Did you ever get back into chess?
The vienna carried me though 900 and got me to 1000, then i started facing the sicilian, at the first time i lost but i know what opening it was, at the second i panicked and my unstoppable vienna just crumbled
I missed the part where that’s my problem
Don't be ridiculous. Only 13% of low rated games black plays the sicilian. And you could play an anti sicilian, like the alepin or closed sicilian and probably be on even grounds.
1100 is close enough to 2000 right?
*dies of a brain aneurysm*
Man thank you for being honest about what strategies to be using or not using as a beginner/intermediate. It can get overwhelming trying to figure out what to play or not and it's nice to be able to narrow the list down by knowing you aren't good enough yet.
I tried Sicilian at 850 a bit against players between 1000-2000 and I gotta say, the complete random energy of the matches actually netted me more wins than I thought would be possible. People do not enjoy playing against this opening 😅
Levy: Don't use the Sicilian until you're rated 2000+
Me: Challenge accepted
It’s crazy how before I even think of a countering opening move he already has seen it and memorized counters to it...that’s a lot of chess. Makes me think of how Canelo or Mayweather are always at least one step ahead of their opponent
I tried playing the Sicilian, and got threatened that I would get roughed up by, "The Family"
Levy: Don't play the Sicilian until you are 2000 ELO
also Levy: Makes a video for chess noobs about Sicilian.
Well that's what he recommends, but he knows people are going to do what they think is fun anyway hence the tutorial video
How soft and well spoken Levi was untill he tried to teach Sicilian!
“Don’t use the Sicilian until you’re 2000+”
Me: “You underestimate my power.”
I have played chess for a long time already but didn't really picked up an opening theory until last year. My workmate who is also an amateur kept mentioning about Sicilian Defense but I'm not sure if he knows about it so I check its legitamacy and, I was amazed of how complicated this opening is. It didn't stop me to learn about it and even lose games playing it but little by little I kinda refined my style. Now, I can confidently say that most of my amateur opponents can't beat me. I was glad when you recommend e6 coz that's what I play most of the time. With that line, I feel like I'm playing French defense instead. Just my thoughts.
As a 1400 player without much time and/or desire to improve my chess, I usually play sicilian dragon or king's indian/modern defense kind of setup as black, and I'm quite comfortable with it. But what I found out is that 1500+ players often manage to get a middle game position that I'm not comfortable with. I feel like I screw smth up big time after around move 8-10. Nice vid btw!
when you fianchetto and castle kingside as black often h4->h5 moves hurts.
@@unknownsecret9717 h4, h5, h6.. yepp, i do that and it hurts goood
Gotham: "You can't play the Sicilian unless your 2000+"
Me: "well how do I do my assignment based on how I play the Sicilian? IT'S DUE TOMORROW!"
My brain can’t keep up with the 50 gagillion options in chess 🤯
It helped me a lot when I stuck to one opening for a few weeks. Finally got to the point where if someone follows the mainline Italian then I know how I can respond and honestly that's invigorated my love for chess. As someone who felt the same way as you I'd definitely recommend sticking with an opening to gain confidence.
Filter it down to what's important.
"Don't use the Sicilian until you're rated 2000+"
Me: I play it at 1900 level
Almost a CM, keep up the good work
I recommend learning the English attack against the Sicilian as white, even at low levels. It’s incredibly effective and creates my favorite games ever.
That makes no sense, white plays the English, and black moves after, why would they play c5 and how do you preempt they will play the Sicilian
@@nivnavion The English opening and the English attack are different things. The english opening begins with 1. c4, whereas the English Attack is a system against the sicillian that involves playing f3, be3, qd2, casting queenside and starting a kingside pawn storm.
Most important qeustion is what do for light square bishop he looks so sad trapped in their beginning.
Woah great motivation... After answering all this questions 100 times a day on twitch you still find time and energy to repeat it all over again in separate yt vids.
Keep it up....
Kinda persuaded to leave a comment. Thats like at most my 10th ever yt comment
nice
I feel like this video doubles as a great intro the the sicilian, but with a pretty clear warning to the lower rated players that we aren't ready.
I can't believe that I've been subscribed to your channel for about a year now and I didn't know this opening playlist existed!!! Thank you so much Levy!
"If you are playing the Najdorf or the Dragon you are playing into prep"
Bro, -1100s play the Italian against c5
Its called the bowdler attack.
9:23 I do play Conways Game of Life
def gonna need tranquilizers to fully get this one
My non-chess game: Magic: the Gathering. Been playing for years, just now getting into chess. They feel really similar, especially in terms of the tournament structure and etiquette.
I play mtg too and I totally agree
In response to GothamChess's closing question "Games you play that aren't chess":
- Music production
- Music arranging (scores for ensembles, big bands, etc.)
- Computer programming (C++, C#, Python, Perl, Java, Javascript, various SQL variants, etc., etc.)
- Trombone, keyboards, vocals and, to a lesser extent, trumpet
- Go (aka Baduk, aka Weichi)
- Arimaa
- A friend is coming over this afternoon to teach me Shogi (a kind of "Japanese chess")
- Tarabish (barely)
- 4-handed euchre
Video games:
- "Rebel Galaxy Outlaw"
- "Don't Starve"
- "Stardew Valley"
- "Oceanhorn"
Niceee. Such detail. c:
Many of those are not even games
@@yunoewig3095yeah i mean
He said
Programming languages are games😅😅
Hi Levy. I know you probs won't see this, I just wanted to say thank you! I found you pretty recently, after watching some of the vids you and Eric do together. I've been watching my way through your guides and openings videos, and they are incredibly helpful and informative, my rating has been slowly climbing up since taking on a lot of your advice. Hopefully I get a chance soon to drop into one of your streams and see the master play live!
I saw it! You are welcome.
When your opponent plays the Open with d4, you MUST take. If you don’t take then they can push and have a huge space advantage.
I can tell from the first 3 minutes, he is indeed speaking in English. That's all I got from the first 3 minutes.
Gotham: "Don't play Sicilian until you're at least 2000."
Me, a 500: "I will play nothing else."
What opening would you recommend with black pieces against e4 for lower rated players (1000-1200)?
if you check out the link in the description, Levy has a full e6/b6 repertoire course for black for a small fee
you call this low rating? i have around 300 points
Sicilian Najdorf
@@shuqiongliang887 lmao, suggesting the single most complex variation of the most complex black side opening, for a beginning player. 10/10 XD
I guess 1 e5 is the most natural and constructive move to play. (Then play main moves against the italian, the spanish, the scotch and all those rare lines, until you're out of book and just try to play the best moves (or play the Petrov…)). Some may say 1 c6 is good aswell, but it's kinda specific and perhaps better if you're a slav defence player against 1 d4.
"opening seller, im going into battle, and i need only your strongest openings"
"my openings are too strong for you child"
‘Don’t use the Sicilian until you’re 2000+’
What if I accidentally did it during one of my first matches
"Don't use the Sicilian until you're at least 2000+"
**plays sicilian at 500**
I love this opening so much, it creates such a great layout for the rest of the whole game. Even if it doesnt fully workout youll still have some great moves to your availability.
I’ve never been overwhelmed by so many words before
“ye this is also known at the Sveshnikov”, “this is the karbonolitchkev, obviously……”
“Don’t use the Sicilian until you’re 2000+” doesn’t mean you can’t learn it at a lower rating. It just means that you’re better off not using it in games with something important at stake, like tournament position, ELO, etc.
It doesn’t even mean you shouldn’t play it in lower stakes situation like casual games so long as you don’t mind losing.
sicilian def is awesome for player under 2000+, just have to keep the attack coming once deploy. when black fall back to defense mode, it is extremely difficult if white know what it is doing.
thought I could do this after watching queens gambit. I was wrong.
1) How sound is it to put the knight on e7 rather than f6 after an accelerated dragon (or hyper accelerated dragon)? The sort of setup you're describing around 8:30 as a response to a king's indian attack is what I normally go with. How well does this work against other openings from white?
In more detail I like to c5, Nc6 (if white plays nf3), g6, Bg7, a6 (if white has a knight which can jump to b5), e6, Ne7. Then either push through d5 or start expanding on the queenside. I'm 1000 so I doubt it matters, but I'm curious if there's a refutation. Engine doesn't see anything obviously wrong.
2) Not entirely a sicilian defense question, but how does one respond to bishop e3 queen d2 attack properly? You mention that dealing with this is important in your "learning the king's indian setup" video, though you may want to delay castling. Engine seems to think castling is fine, prefers to push a few queenside pawns first. How different is responding to this in the sicilian?
If white pushes bh6 it seems preferable to let white take on g7 and take back with king when castled. Is it better to take bh6 when not castled, rather than move bishop or defend rg8?
This is 4 weeks old so maybe you got your answer but what I personally do is when I see queen and bishop trade prep from white i slide the f8 rook to e8 this allows me to deny the trade by playing bh8 and maintaining the diagonal then I quickly try to attack the bishop
Nobody seems to play opn Sicilian. After Nf3 white paly Bc4. Or c3 then d4. Please discuss these lines
a6-b5 is really good against bc4, and you can get get an easy bishop trap bc alot of low elo players play bb3 after b5, where you can play c4
I am a 1900 and I just started studying and using the Sicilian, the narjdorf is my best
I’ve learned so much but nothing at the same time.
the fact that Levy is the number one Caro-Kann salesman makes this a lot funnier
"don't use the Sicilian until you're rated 2000+"
me winning with Sicilian on the tournament
Levy: Don’t play the Sicilian until you are 2000+
Me: well, I’m going to play it anyway.
did you like your own comment?
@@jorgemino3084 :)
@@anvithpothula1653 ._.
I played Cricket entire life at the age of 21 i shifted to chess and now i am 25 and touched the rating of 1900 + but stuck for a long time i play Sicilian most often and i learned a lot from your videos i as well beaten NM with weapon a3 , b4 against Sicilian given by You 🙂
Playing sicilian at 1300 feels like jumping out of a helicopter without a parachute.
I started playing the sicilian at 650 and (as of typing this) I’m 847. It’s very true, I probably shouldn’t be playing this opening at all, it’s so complicated, but it’s just such a fun opening that opens up so much variation in your games, no matter how many times you play it. It’s by far my favourite opening out of every opening I know (including openings for white), and I just tend to play better using it. If you’re low rating like me and playing seriously competitive, use simpler openings that you can play better just to get your ranking up. However, if you just want to have fun (and potentially get very good, with risks of course) I definitely recommend this opening.
For how long have you been playing chess
@@scrat9127 Well, I played about 5 - 6 years ago where I learned all the basics, tips for beginners, all that. Then I dropped it, but I’ve since picked it back up about 3-4 months ago I’d say
Me: i wanna play Sicilian
Gotham: you don’t got the facilities for that big man
"Don't use the Sicilian until you're rated 2000+"
Me who just got back into chess after 7 years because Baka Mitai chess memes and lost from a 1800 rated player: **surprised Pikachu face**
Me: hi levi! Levi: your should not play it until your at least 2000. Me: bye levi! Imma watch a different opening xD
"For low rankings, do the pin variation"
Uhhh, But lower rankings can't play....
People don't play Sicilian najdorf because they know what they are doing, they play it because it sounds cool
b-but the sicilian works for me, and by playing for some games, I "know" some main lines?
edit: around 8:25 is what you need sub 1200
0:14 it was at this moment that 99 percent viewers though, ‘huh, whatever I am still going to play ‘😂
Fantastic vid and commentary, helped me decide a lot in ten mins, cheers!
Hey ur not gavin jones!
@@Yoni-boy-l8c yeah, ik I'm a bit late
He is not!
Thanks for the vid I coach and play football and love seeing some of the parallels between chess and football from a coaching standpoint
I used to play the French defence but kinda hated it, now I try playing the Sicilian Dragon, it has lots of parallels with the Kings Indian Defence in terms of the castled King fiancettod bishop
"You should not be playing the Sicilian until you're at least 2000."
This sign won't stop me because I can't read.
I took Levy's advice. I'm 2100 and I'm just starting to learn the Sicilian now, and you know what? I'm getting bodied by 1500s that already know the Sicilian.
My advise? If you really want to learn the Sicilian, then you're ready to start learning the Sicilian, whatever your Elo.
If it ain't broke don't fix it. Just keep doing what got you to 2100.
Im playing nationals next month and i need to see this opening cause my opponents would defo play this😅 its my first national
Don't use the sicilian until you're rated 2000 or higher
Ok I've saved the video, hopefully the internet is still around by the time I get there
ur comment is underrated but I’m here 👑
Underrated
Never Forget 👑
I was going to say that telling someone to wait to learn this is wrong, but then i thought to myself you know, you're right. There is so much other stuff that newer players need to learn first, like pinning, and forking, that learning something this intricate, probably won't help them as much as learning basic stuff.
Oke I'm currently 1541 rated. What opening should I play against King's pawn opening as black?
Im 800 can I get a response (related to my rating) as well?
@@markbrugman6953 the caro-kann is probably the most solid defense there is, even on lower levels. Requires a good amount of studying, though
@@galador8089 Thx will try
I started this video a few months ago. I got 3:30 in before I decided I didn't have a solid enough understanding of chess to get anything useful out of this video.
Today I started this video again, and made it to 3:34 seconds. Progress is measurable lmao
I didn’t understand your question, there are other games than chess ?
He's talking about whether you play chess puzzles or bullet chess. Was also confused with where he got the word "game" from, but I then realized he meant to say lifestyle.
The game I play is trying to figure out if you are sarcastic or not while talking on stream. Absolutely harder than chess.
The sicilian is fun amd imma keep playing it even if im not 2000 rated ! Thats what i like about chess i can play however i want
Thanks for the video!
@9:34 the "pin variation"....I never understand this pin. What's the benefit of this if they can move pawn A3 and push it back? I try this and also whenever it's played against me, I push the pawn, and they always have to retreat...whats the right play here?