CANDIDATE SLOWKARU IS PLAYING THE DRAGON!!!

0:00 Welcome back everyone.

0:01 For today's video, we are back and we are going

0:04 to be continuing with our educational speed run series today.

0:08 Now, our rating is near 1,700,

0:10 so let's jump right into the action with a rapid game of 10 minutes.

0:14 Here we go with the start button.

0:24 [music] [music] [music] And here we go.

0:48 First game, we have the black pieces and we get to move pawn to e4.

0:52 And after the move e4 today, I think I'm going to play the move

0:55 pawn to c5 as saying classic Sicilian defense here.

0:58 One of many systems we get knight to f3.

1:01 And the system that I'm going to play is the move knight to c6.

1:03 I do think for for a beginner level up to maybe intermediate or amateur level,

1:08 maybe around 2,000 even.

1:10 I think the accelerated dragon is one of the best

1:12 setups you can play in the Sicilian because

1:14 it's a very straightforward and standard setup and there

1:16 isn't really a whole lot that you need to know.

1:18 You generally play play the same way no matter what your opponent does.

1:22 Now, we get the move pawn to c4.

1:23 Normally, white would play d4,

1:24 but this actually is going to transpose cuz when I play the move g6,

1:28 if white plays d4, we trade and I go for the move bishop to g7.

1:33 Now, of course, as with a lot of the games that we're playing now,

1:36 we will of course um take a look at the game review after

1:39 this game and so in case you didn't catch exactly what I'm saying,

1:41 I'll explain it afterwards.

1:43 So, we get b3, a little bit of a strange move.

1:45 I go bishop g7 here, putting my bishop on the diagonal.

1:48 Of course, on top of attacking the rook,

1:50 I simply want to move this knight and castle

1:52 the king out of the middle of the board.

1:53 Now, as a general rule, I would say that the most important thing

1:56 in chess it besides of course not getting checkmated

1:59 in a couple of moves is having a basic opening

2:01 so you can get your king out of the center.

2:03 If you can reach a middle game where you're

2:05 able to develop your piece and castle your king,

2:07 you're all you're already well on your way.

2:09 So, we get the move pawn d4.

2:10 Now, this move looks like a mistake cuz I'm attacking with one, two, three.

2:15 White is guarding with one and two.

2:17 So, with three attacking, two guarding, I can take.

2:19 Now, the question is which way do I want to take?

2:21 Now, I could obviously take with the pawn, that would be fine.

2:24 But here, I'm going to take with the knight because

2:25 I really want to keep this diagonal open for this bishop.

2:31 So, we get the move knight takes knight

2:33 and now I'm going to play bishop takes knight.

2:35 And already here, my opponent is actually in severe

2:37 trouble because the pawn guards this bishop here on d4,

2:40 but the rook on a1 is actually simply super

2:42 weak and it will probably hang on the next move.

2:45 Now, one of the funny things is that I'm sure

2:47 the people who are watching this video right now are like,

2:49 "How does this happen?

2:50 I can play these openings.

2:51 How is it that you're playing someone who's actually close

2:54 to 1,700 and literally in the first seven moves of the game,

2:57 they simply hang a rook and they're going to lose very,

2:59 very quickly?" Probably a lot of people are like, "How does this happen?

3:02 This won't happen to me." Now,

3:03 here I'm going to I'm going to play the move pawn to d6.

3:06 The reason I'm going to play this is that I

3:07 want to open up the diagonal for the bishop.

3:09 I could of course just retreat the bishop back first.

3:11 I'll take.

3:12 My goal now is to move the bishop, move the knight, castle the king.

3:15 Let's just move our knight.

3:16 Idea to castle the king here.

3:18 Now, if my opponent's really smart, he'll play bishop h6.

3:21 We don't get that.

3:21 Instead, we get bishop f4.

3:23 Okay, so after bishop f4,

3:24 I think I'm simply going to castle my king out of the middle of the board.

3:27 Trading and then castling completely fine as well.

3:30 But I'm simply up a clean rook here.

3:31 My opponent's way behind in development to boot.

3:34 So, this will be a very, very quick game.

3:40 So, we get the move pawn to h4.

3:42 I'm going to go bishop g4.

3:43 Knight guards the bishop, threatening the checkmate on d1 here.

3:46 Let's see what my opponent chooses to play.

3:48 Queen d3 actually only move to stop the checkmate.

3:51 I don't know.

3:52 I'm going to be honest with you guys.

3:53 I don't know if this opponent necessarily uh

3:56 should be rated the rating that they have,

3:58 which is uh nearly 1,700 because it seems like a very, very quick game.

4:02 And I think my opponent may might have just created the account at 1,600 and won

4:05 a couple of games cuz that really didn't feel

4:07 like a game that was befitting of this level.

4:10 So, as I said before, let's jump right into it into our recap.

4:14 So, I played the move knight c6 and one of the reasons that I

4:17 think this is one of the best systems to play is that here,

4:19 white does have many options.

4:21 You can play d4, you can play bishop b5.

4:24 You can also play something like c3 maybe,

4:25 but in general, if white plays bishop b5,

4:28 you can play the move pawn g6 simply trying to fianchetto your bishop to g7.

4:32 Against d4, you can trade and play g6

4:34 with the same idea of fianchettoing the bishop.

4:36 And it's you're always going to play g6 and bishop g7.

4:39 Now, of course, I am a little oversimplifying it a little bit.

4:42 There are many different setups.

4:43 You don't just have to play the accelerated dragon,

4:45 but I think if you're looking for something that's more

4:47 simplistic and easier to play with clear develop developmental plans,

4:51 this is probably what I would recommend cuz you can

4:53 play this move pretty much no matter what white does.

4:55 So, as I was pointing out um in the game after c4 g6,

4:58 white can go d4 transpose cuz usually in this bishop after d4 and g6,

5:03 white does have this option to play c4.

5:05 If white plays knight c3, you go bishop g7.

5:08 Either way, the idea is to develop your bishop very,

5:10 very quickly on the diagonal.

5:12 Now, I won't get too deep into the weeds of theory,

5:14 but just in case anybody is wondering

5:16 at the slightly higher level, maybe 2,000 plus,

5:19 one of the big issues with this is that white can play

5:21 the c4 move and this is what's known as the Maroczy bind structure.

5:25 And after bishop g7 and bishop e3,

5:27 probably what I would recommend is playing the move knight to f6,

5:30 knight c3, and this move castles.

5:32 Normally, white would play bishop to e2, you go d6, castles.

5:36 And here, what I would suggest is that you play the move knight takes knight,

5:39 bishop takes, and this move bishop d7 angling to put the bishop on c6 here.

5:43 Let's say white plays king h1,

5:44 you get this bishop and knight targeting the pawn.

5:46 A standard way that white's going to play here

5:48 usually is something along lines of queen to d2.

5:51 You go bishop c6, f3.

5:53 And now, you can play this move knight to d7 here,

5:56 offering the trade of dark square bishops.

5:58 If white were to trade for example and play I don't know,

6:00 let's say king h1, then you can play this move queen to b6 here.

6:03 Let's say white plays I don't know, rook a d1,

6:05 you go a5 here with the idea of knight

6:07 to c5 and bringing rook to center of the board.

6:10 It's a it's simply a game of chess.

6:12 Doesn't mean like white's better or black's better per se,

6:14 but it's a very easy plan to play for.

6:17 Now, I do want to point out one other thing.

6:18 If white were to play b4 here trying to stop knight c5,

6:21 you can go queen b6 checking the king and then

6:24 you take the pawn on b4 and black is much better.

6:27 This is probably what I would recommend um if if you're

6:30 at a higher level and you're kind of curious what your opponent's going

6:32 to play within the Maroczy bind because it can be a system

6:35 that's very hard to face where white gets a lot of grip.

6:38 So, that's for someone who's much higher level.

6:40 Let's get back more to the beginner level and the intermediate level.

6:43 So, in this game, we got the move c4.

6:45 I played g6 here.

6:46 Now, we got the move b3.

6:47 This is simply a mistake.

6:49 Again, d4 probably is is what I would would say is most likely to happen.

6:52 And then from a beginner perspective, if your opponent doesn't know theory,

6:55 very likely your opponent will trade

6:57 the knights and play something like bishop d3.

6:59 And now, you can go knight to f6.

7:01 If white plays e5 trying to kick the knight,

7:03 you have the standard idea with queen a5 checking

7:05 the king and hitting this pawn on e5 here.

7:08 Of course, it's a 90° right triangle.

7:10 If white blocks, you simply take the pawn, you're up a pawn,

7:13 and then you simply castle and the game continues.

7:16 Now, if white were to castle here,

7:18 what you probably should do is simply castle your king.

7:20 You could also play d6 first to stop e5,

7:24 but let's just say you castle, white plays something like knight c3.

7:26 And now, you can play this move pawn to d5 here trying to simply trade

7:30 off all the pawns in the center and have this great access for the two bishops.

7:34 You can bring your rook to an open file,

7:35 maybe even the other rook can come to d8.

7:37 So, with these active rooks, active bishops,

7:40 it's a very, very easy position to play.

7:42 All right, so back to the game.

7:43 I played g6.

7:44 My opponent goes b3 here, simply a bad move.

7:47 You should play d4 of course.

7:48 We get b3, bishop g7.

7:50 And now, it's imperative that you play the move

7:52 knight c3 and not d4 like in the game.

7:55 Now, if my opponent had played knight to c3,

7:57 what I would have played is knight to f6 here, temporarily attacking this pawn.

8:01 If white were to play bishop e2, I sack the knight.

8:04 If white takes the knight, he loses the rook.

8:06 Castles, castles.

8:07 Black simply has a rook for a bishop and with the material advantage,

8:10 black should be in very good shape.

8:13 After knight to f6, let's say white plays a move like um like rook to b1 maybe.

8:17 So, I take, take, there's no rook hanging in the corner pocket.

8:20 After a move like rook to b1, simply castles, d3.

8:23 And here, I would actually recommend playing the move e6, bishop e2,

8:27 and then the move d5 here trying to open

8:29 up something in the middle of the board.

8:32 All right, so we got we got this move d4 instead.

8:34 I take with the knight.

8:35 I think here, it's already close loss.

8:37 You can play knight to c3 because if takes,

8:39 takes, the queen guards the knight on on c3.

8:42 So, you're only down a pawn here.

8:44 After d6, knight f6 and castles, with the extra pawn in the middle of the board,

8:47 black should be well on their way to winning the game anyway.

8:50 We got knight takes knight, takes.

8:52 And now, with this great wooden shield in the middle hitting the pawn,

8:55 but much more importantly, hitting this rook on a1.

8:57 This is simply game over.

8:58 White has no way to save the rook.

9:00 If you go knight here, I take and then I simply take, take and play knight f6.

9:03 Same thing.

9:04 With castles coming, an extra rook on the board,

9:06 black should be completely winning.

9:09 We got queen f3.

9:10 I take.

9:10 And now, of course, the rest is just very, very basic.

9:13 Simply checkmate.

9:14 Nothing more to explain.

9:16 All right, so let's move on.

9:17 Let's go for our second game.

9:18 Here we go.

9:21 So, waiting for our next game to begin.

9:23 Here we go.

9:23 We once again get the black pieces.

9:26 And now, let's see what our opponent chooses to play.

9:28 Our opponent goes e4.

9:29 Excellent.

9:30 Let's play c5 again,

9:31 aiming for the classic uh classic um classic accelerated dragon set.

9:36 So, we get g3.

9:37 So, I'm going to play knight c6 anyway,

9:38 logical to develop the knight stopping d4.

9:40 And now, we'll go g6 and bishop g7 once again.

9:43 Now, this is really why I like these setups cuz it's very,

9:45 very flexible and you're almost always going to be able

9:49 to develop with the knight here and the bishop here.

9:51 The only question that can occur,

9:52 especially in these closed Sicilians where white also fianchettoes the bishop,

9:56 is where you put the knight.

9:58 Now, because the center if the center of the board were open,

10:00 I think a general way that I would I would think

10:01 about this or maybe I'll actually I'll explain this after the game.

10:05 Um Uh with this with in the closed Sicilian here,

10:08 because this pawn at E4 is not really target like if I put the knight here,

10:11 the pawn is guarded.

10:12 I do have options to try and develop the knight to another square.

10:15 So, in this case, I'm actually No, I think I'm actually going to E6 here so

10:19 that you guys see a little bit of flavor, a different variety.

10:22 I'm going to go knight G to E7 here.

10:24 And the point with the knight on E7 being developed is

10:26 that the knight supports both this pawn push and this pawn push.

10:29 So, both the pawn thrusts are available.

10:31 Whereas, had I put this knight here,

10:33 I would never be able to push this F pawn forward um on the F file.

10:37 We get C3.

10:38 I'm going to play the move D5 here.

10:39 I could castle first, but I want to play D5 because if I castle first,

10:44 say I were to castle, whoops, back here, if I were to castle,

10:47 white can play D4 building the big white center.

10:49 By going D5 first, I force white to commit.

10:52 If white plays D4, you would hang this pawn at E4.

10:55 So, you don't want to do that.

10:56 So, my opponent takes pawn at D5.

10:57 So, let's take back with the knight here.

10:59 I'm going to look to castle on the next turn.

11:02 We get knight A3.

11:03 So, of course, I'm going to finish my development,

11:05 castling out of the center of the board.

11:07 We get knight C4.

11:08 And now we have reached the middle game.

11:10 Now, when we look at this position, the only real issue perhaps that black has

11:13 here is this lack of development of this bishop.

11:15 You'll notice it's walled in by the pawns.

11:17 I will, of course, after the game ends explain why

11:19 I didn't take with the pawn to open up this diagonal.

11:22 Um but the bishop and the rook are

11:23 kind of the only pieces that aren't perfectly placed.

11:26 So, what I'm going to play here is I'm going to go for B6.

11:28 The idea the pawns support each other.

11:30 And now this bishop is free to go to either A6 or B7.

11:33 So, with the chain of pawn pawns connected,

11:35 the bishop being active, this is a very pleasant position.

11:38 Also, the bishop on B7,

11:39 it will potentially in the long run oppose this light square B as well.

11:42 This bishop probably is white's best piece here.

11:45 So, that makes a lot of sense.

11:46 So, let's go bishop B7, of course.

11:48 I want to move my queen, put the rooks in the middle of board.

11:50 So, let's move the queen here, put the rooks on these two squares,

11:53 potentially open up the center of the board.

11:55 And at this point, I should be quite a bit better.

11:58 Now, the main reason I should be better in this position

12:00 is that white has a severe weakness on D3.

12:03 When I go rook D8 here,

12:04 the rook is on this open file with the pawn and the queen on this file,

12:07 the ability to stack the rooks.

12:09 It's a very, very pleasant position.

12:11 I take with the idea of rook to D8 here with the double stack.

12:14 This is already very, very tough to play.

12:15 We get C4.

12:17 Um let's just go rook to D7.

12:20 Same idea, rook D8 hitting this pawn.

12:22 This pawn on D3 is actually what we call a backwards

12:24 pawn now because white doesn't have a pawn to support it.

12:27 If the pawn were on C3, you could then push the pawn.

12:30 But there's no pawn to support this.

12:31 So, with no pawn to support D3, this is a very, very weak backwards pawn.

12:36 And with the double stack, this is looking very, very pleasant for me.

12:39 So, you get rook D1.

12:40 Now, the move I'm going to play here is a I

12:42 I was going to say is a little bit finesse.

12:44 I wanted to play H6.

12:45 The more I look at this position,

12:46 the more I actually think I'm not going to do it.

12:48 Instead, I'm just going to play something much more simplistic.

12:50 I'm going to go to take advantage of this pawn.

12:52 I'm going to go knight to D4.

12:54 My opponent's going to take the knight.

12:55 And I'm going to take with the bishop putting this bishop

12:57 on D4 with a great wooden shield here hitting all the pawns.

13:00 Let's take with the bishop.

13:02 Now, this pawn is very, very weak.

13:03 I've got the double stack, very active bishop, very, very pleasant position.

13:08 So, now I could play E5 here.

13:11 I think I will just play it.

13:12 Why not?

13:12 Just attack the bishop.

13:13 I'm looking to trade these bishops on the next turn or two.

13:18 Okay, so I'm going to take the bishop temporary sacking the rook.

13:21 But if my opponent takes the rook,

13:22 I simply slide the queen over to one of these two light squares.

13:25 And with the weaknesses around the king, as we're about to see,

13:29 this is about to turn very, very bad for white in a hurry.

13:32 I have many, many ways to checkmate

13:34 this king with both these bishops on the diagonal, the active queen as well.

13:38 I think the game is effectively over here.

13:40 I don't know what my opponent's supposed to do cuz I'm just going

13:42 to move the bishop and go for a classic lolly mate on G2.

13:48 When you combine that with this bishop on this diagonal as well,

13:51 it's just GG cuz when I move the bishop,

13:53 you'd love to move the pawn, but then it puts his king in check.

13:55 So, at this point, the game is over.

13:57 My opponent maybe can stop checkmate with queen to E2,

14:00 but it's the only way and at the very least,

14:02 I can just take this bishop for free.

14:04 And then with two bishops for a rook, the game will be very, very simple.

14:08 Or it will be simple to win, I should say.

14:13 Okay, so we do get a move queen to E2.

14:15 So, my opponent finds the only way to avoid

14:17 a checkmate cuz if I move the bishop, white can block with the queen.

14:20 So, what I'm going to play here is bishop

14:21 to F3 attacking the queen and the rook here.

14:24 I can always take the bishop if I want

14:26 to, but this this probably a little bit simpler here.

14:28 White's going to move the queen.

14:29 I'm going to take the rook.

14:30 Takes, takes.

14:31 I have an extra bishop.

14:32 Rest is very, very simple.

14:37 So, you get a move queen to F1.

14:38 Now, I realize I could just take the rook.

14:40 Actually, why not?

14:41 I'm just going to take the rook here.

14:43 When my opponent takes the bishop,

14:44 I will take take the white bishop on this back row here on D8.

14:47 So, if my opponent takes this, I take this.

14:49 Very simple here.

14:50 I simply have one extra bishop with the two bishops versus the one.

14:53 So, everything should be pretty straightforward.

15:03 So, now of course, with the extra bishop,

15:04 there's simply a matter of cleaning up the board.

15:07 We get queen A3.

15:07 Let's go here.

15:08 Maximum pressure on the pawns and the rook with my queen.

15:12 Rook F1.

15:14 Okay, what's the easiest way to win here?

15:15 I don't actually see a simple, clean, easy way to win.

15:18 So, what I'm going to play here is I guess I'm just going to start mopping up.

15:21 I'll take this pawn.

15:22 I'm going to bring the rook into the game.

15:26 Let's take this one.

15:27 Now, I can play bishop D4 again.

15:30 Queen H6.

15:30 Okay, no threats.

15:31 My king is very safe.

15:32 It's just a lone queen.

15:33 So, let's go bishop D4 here.

15:35 Hitting this pawn at F2 with some checkmate ideas.

15:38 Just nothing that white's threatening.

15:39 My king guards all the critical squares.

15:41 And it simply is a lone queen here.

15:42 One queen is worth pointing out is never

15:44 enough to simply checkmate checkmate your opponent's king.

15:47 So, if your opponent has like only a queen that's near your king,

15:50 you shouldn't ever really be super worried unless there

15:52 are other pieces nearby cuz this queen it looks menacing.

15:54 It's obviously the most powerful piece on the board,

15:56 but it doesn't really do anything super exciting here.

15:58 So, this actually allows a very cool setup.

16:00 So, I'm going to take.

16:01 You can't take cuz of the pin.

16:02 I'm going to go check and then I'm going to checkmate with rook G3 here.

16:10 And there we go.

16:10 We got the win.

16:11 So, this is checkmate.

16:12 White can't take the rook with the bishop.

16:14 And let's go all the way back to the beginning.

16:16 So, I played the move C5.

16:18 We got G3, G6.

16:20 And the point that I was starting to make here

16:22 and I decided I would explain it after the game

16:24 is that in these setups where you play this sort

16:27 of this setup with the fianchettoed bishop on G7,

16:30 I would say if you're The simple way

16:32 of thinking about it is that if it's an open

16:33 Sicilian where your opponent ever plays D4 and you

16:36 get something doesn't matter what the setup is exactly,

16:38 but just something like this, this or even knight to B3 for example.

16:41 With an open Sicilian where white has pushed the pawn to D4,

16:45 I would say like 90 I mean, probably 90% of the time,

16:48 even more if you're a beginner or or or or intermediate level,

16:51 is that you're going to put the knight on F6 to pressure this pawn at E4.

16:55 Now, I say this is a general rule.

16:57 There are going to be cases where it doesn't apply.

16:58 But if your opponent plays an open Sicilian,

17:01 open meaning that they they specifically play something pawn to D4.

17:04 They push the pawn and there's a trade that occurs,

17:06 it's almost always going to be you're almost always going to develop

17:08 this knight to F6 to pressure the pawn when you go for these setups.

17:12 Whereas, in a closed Sicilian,

17:14 which is where your opponent does not play D4 here, like this as we see,

17:18 or for example, another the usual way you get closed

17:20 Sicilian is something like this, this, this, this, this, this.

17:23 If your opponent does not play D4 and they leave the pawn

17:26 on D2 or even put it on D3, you have options.

17:29 You don't have to put the knight on F6.

17:31 And so, I think the simple way of looking at it is in the open

17:33 Sicilian where white only has where white

17:36 only has the knight that guards the pawn, the pawn isn't as well guarded,

17:40 you're always putting the knight on F6 to pressure this pawn.

17:42 Whereas, in a closed Sicilian like

17:44 this, you'll notice the knight guards the pawn, the bishop guards the pawn.

17:46 If white's even able to just to set it

17:48 up here uh in this position, white goes D3.

17:50 White has a pawn, a knight, and a bishop all guarding this pawn.

17:54 So, you don't have to put the knight on F6 because you can, of course,

17:57 and it's completely fine,

17:58 but there is no pressure on this pawn in the center of the board.

18:01 Of course, at the advanced level, you're probably going to say, "Well,

18:03 the knight belongs on F6." And in many cases,

18:05 you do go to F6 in a closed Sicilian.

18:07 But most of these videos are geared towards the beginner level.

18:10 And so, it's just a general rule that if you're playing something

18:12 like the accelerated dragon setup or any fianchetto almost in the Sicilian,

18:16 when your opponent does not push his pawn to D4

18:18 and they leave it on D2 or D3, you have options.

18:21 You can also put the knight on E7 with E6 and knight E7 like I do in the game.

18:26 All right.

18:26 So, we got this position.

18:27 I play E6.

18:28 Knight A6 completely reasonable move, but I go for E6, knight E7.

18:32 And now the point is that I played the move D5 here.

18:35 And if the knight were on were on F6 for example,

18:37 after castles castles C3, if I go D5 here, white can play E5.

18:42 The knight guards the pawn.

18:43 I move my knight.

18:44 And after D4, you get this classic big white center.

18:47 And white is actually a little bit better here.

18:50 So, when I go for E6 and now I go for D5 here, this pawn can't really go to E5.

18:54 The knight and the bishop cover the square.

18:56 Say E5, takes, takes.

18:57 Extra pawn for black.

18:59 And now I can capture the pawn or the knight.

19:01 And I'm putting pressure on the white center.

19:03 The second point I want to mention cuz I did briefly hint

19:06 on this during the or touch pawns during the game was after castles,

19:08 white can play the move D4 building the big white center.

19:11 And in this position, yes, I can castle,

19:13 but I go D5 because castling is always available.

19:16 And here white can't play D4 because then you would hang the pawn.

19:19 Thus, I force white to make a decision here.

19:22 If white plays knight E2 and castles for example,

19:24 you still can't really go D4 cuz after takes, takes, it's simply a free pawn.

19:29 If white were to play rook to E1, which is another option,

19:32 castles and then D4 here, really trying to force it through, I can simply take.

19:36 And then after takes, takes, I can go E5 here.

19:38 There's this pin on the D file,

19:40 meaning that I'm targeting this pawn with the pawn,

19:42 the knight, the bishop, and the queen.

19:44 And black has a substantial advantage.

19:47 So, my opponent chose to take the pawn.

19:48 And here I took with the knight.

19:50 I did not take back with the pawn,

19:51 which actually looks very natural because it opens up this diagonal

19:54 for the bishop because here after move like rook to e1 and castles,

19:58 I was worried about knight bd2 unless you say I play I don't know random move.

20:01 What's a random developmental move like something like bishop f5?

20:04 White can go knight to b3 here attacking the pawn and after b6 and d4 here,

20:09 this pawn on d5 can potentially become a weakness later on in the game.

20:13 At a higher level, white is actually a little bit better here positionally.

20:16 So, that's the main reason I didn't take with the pawn.

20:18 Instead, I took with the knight because I understood that even though I

20:21 keep the bishop even though this diagonal is not available to the bishop,

20:24 I can always go the other way and fianchetto the bishop.

20:27 So, we get knight a3, b6 here,

20:29 I go bishop e7, queen e7, knight e3, rook d8 here.

20:33 I think I have to rook to e1 and rook a d8,

20:35 which is probably the alternate way to play it.

20:37 Black is simply a little bit better here because

20:39 white really can't play b4 cuz that hangs the pawn.

20:42 If you ever go d4 after takes, takes,

20:44 there's knight takes d4 cuz takes, takes and black wins.

20:47 So, because white can't really push this pawn or push this pawn here,

20:50 black can continue to improve the position,

20:52 develop the rooks, pressure this backwards or this weak pawn on d3 I should say,

20:56 and black has an advantage.

20:58 We got knight to e3.

20:59 Now, I played rook d8, takes, takes, c4, rook d7.

21:03 And this structure is what is known as this pawn is known as a backwards pawn.

21:07 With the pawn on c3 here, this pawn is weak but white can always try to play d4.

21:11 When you push your pawns and you've no pawns behind it, so for example,

21:15 just to set this up with another structure here is

21:18 that in this in this position if white goes c4,

21:20 this is what's known as a backwards pawn.

21:22 Now, this pawn isn't super weak here cuz it's on a closed file,

21:25 but this is a backwards pawn.

21:26 Whereas generally, if you have a pawn that's back

21:29 back like say you have this pawn on b2.

21:31 This pawn on this pawn on c3 is completely sit safe here.

21:34 Conversely, if you were to play I'm trying to think

21:36 of another way to set up a backwards pawn.

21:38 Um If you were to say just to illustrate the point, you got something like this.

21:43 This is also what's known as a backwards pawn

21:45 because you've pushed your pawns on either side forward.

21:47 So, you don't have a pawn that can support the pawn behind it.

21:50 So, when we get back to the game after c4,

21:52 rook d7 is played, this is a backwards pawn.

21:54 You don't have a pawn to support it and this is simply a very,

21:56 very weak pawn cuz generally, if you have this backwards pawn,

21:59 if you can get rid of a backwards pawn by pushing

22:01 it forward and say trading pawns for example, it's not an issue.

22:05 But here in this position,

22:06 you can't really push the pawn cuz you would simply hang the pawn.

22:09 So, this backwards pawn is a very, very easy target.

22:12 So, we get queen c2, I go rook d8, rook d1,

22:14 knight d4, we got the trade, bishop f4, bishop g5, I take.

22:18 And here, my opponent makes a fatal blunder by taking the rook.

22:21 My opponent should have played king takes bishop,

22:23 but after this move f6 here attacking the bishop,

22:26 if white takes, there's queen c6 to win the bishop.

22:28 And when white moves the bishop, I don't know, say c1, I can go check.

22:32 Let's say white goes f3 for example.

22:33 Now, I can start playing on the king side here trying to pressure the diagonal.

22:37 I actually think here there might be something better like h5, h4.

22:40 Either way, white's pieces are very, very passive.

22:42 In a lower rated game, this is not decisive.

22:44 The game isn't over automatically, but with so much more space, black is better.

22:50 Instead, we get bishop d8 and after queen c6,

22:52 the game ends because now the bishop's under attack.

22:54 If you move the bishop, then I go bishop h3.

22:57 You'd love to push this pawn, but you can't due to the pin of the king.

23:00 And so, the next move is simply going

23:01 to be queen g2 checkmate no matter what white does.

23:04 Therefore, we get queen e2, I play bishop f3.

23:07 Bishop h3 is also good enough to win the game,

23:09 but white does have queen to e4 and after takes, takes, takes,

23:13 black has two bishops for a rook and should go on to win,

23:15 but the game will go for quite a bit longer.

23:19 Okay, so we we got this queen to e2,

23:22 I go bishop f3 and now I'm simply up a piece.

23:24 Rest doesn't really require any explanation,

23:27 but we do get a really cool checkmate.

23:29 All right, so we have time for one more game, so let's jump right into it.

23:31 Here we go.

23:32 We do get the white pieces in this game

23:34 and I'm going to play the move pawn to d4.

23:36 Now, this game I think I'm going to play the London system.

23:38 Play bishop f4.

23:39 We are about to cross the 1700 mark just

23:42 in case anybody didn't catch the very beginning of the video.

23:44 So, we'll play e3, standard stuff here.

23:48 And now we get the move bishop e4.

23:50 Now, a fun little tidbit I will tell you

23:51 guys is that during the recently concluded Candidates Tournament,

23:54 towards the end of the event, I actually started looking at the London

23:57 system quite seriously uh from both colors

24:00 because I thought that one of my opponents might try to surprise me with it.

24:03 And also, I thought it might make for a good surprise deep

24:05 in the event just to take my opponents out of their preparation.

24:08 So, we get the move bishop g4.

24:10 Now, this is a little bit of an unusual move here.

24:12 I'm actually not 100% sure what the best move is,

24:15 but because this is a speedrun for the beginning beginner level,

24:18 we're just simply going to stick to the routine and play knight f3.

24:20 Even though I suspect the computer is going to say f3 is the correct move.

24:24 So, all right, let's play knight d2.

24:25 Very standard stuff.

24:26 Develop the knight, develop the bishop, castle the king.

24:28 All very normal.

24:29 Okay, we get knight e4 here.

24:31 I think I'm going to go bishop to d3 anyway.

24:34 We get knight takes knight, I'll take with the queen here.

24:37 If my opponent takes the knight, I'll take with the pawn.

24:39 Then I have the two bishops here at least.

24:45 We get knight d7.

24:47 Okay, so now I'm simply I could castle my king here.

24:50 I can also play c3 first.

24:52 I think I'm just going to go c3,

24:53 create this nice chain of the pawns like you usually do in the London system.

24:57 We'll take.

24:58 A little bit unusual cuz I have the double pawns,

24:59 but I do have the two bishops here.

25:01 And actually, with the two bishops

25:02 and this open file because I've stacked the pawns,

25:05 I very likely want to castle my king to the queen side.

25:07 So, this is a very unusual London.

25:09 This doesn't fit the standard standard pattern.

25:11 We get bishop d6.

25:12 I don't want to let my opponent trade the bishop.

25:14 If I castle, we get takes, takes,

25:15 that would be three pawns on top of each other.

25:17 That you never want triple pawns.

25:19 That's That is never a thing.

25:21 Um I would say 99% of cases,

25:23 there are occasionally top level games where you do,

25:25 but I would say for the most part at beginner level,

25:27 literally 99% of time you don't want triple pawns.

25:29 So, I'm going to drop the bishop back.

25:30 If my opponent takes,

25:32 I'll probably take with the h pawn so that I open up the h file here.

25:36 I also of course dodge triple pawns.

25:38 We get queen e7.

25:39 And now I'm going to castle my king to the queen side.

25:41 Now, almost always in this London system, you want to go king side.

25:44 With these double pawns, you don't want to go this way.

25:46 We get castles.

25:47 And now I'm going to play the move

25:48 pawn to e4 building this classic big white center.

25:54 If my opponent takes, I will take back with the pawn here.

26:02 Now, I have undoubled my pawns in the center of the board.

26:04 With no double pawns, this is looking very, very pleasant.

26:07 I could play f4 here, that's a very reasonable move.

26:09 I could also move my king.

26:11 I think the move that I'm going to play here is

26:14 I think I'm just going to go for f4 right away.

26:16 Really force my opponent to do something

26:18 in the middle of the board at this point.

26:20 Um if my opponent takes,

26:21 I get this this nice big chain of three pawns in the middle here,

26:24 which are very, very menacing cuz I'm threatening

26:26 to just push this bishop away with e5.

26:32 I also of course have the two bishops here.

26:34 We get bishop e4.

26:35 Okay, so that's logical move.

26:36 I'll sidestep the threat.

26:37 Now, I might want to push the pawn

26:39 to open up this diagonal with checkmate threats,

26:41 but a lot's going to depend on where this knight goes, knight goes to f6 or not.

26:45 So, we get knight f6.

26:46 So, after knight to f6,

26:48 I'm actually thinking here what makes the most sense because one of the problems

26:53 here is this pawn might be a little bit soft on e4.

26:55 The pawn on d4 is also a little bit loose.

26:57 If I go d5, there might be a rook to e8 as well.

27:01 So, I think I'm going to start with a3 attacking the bishop.

27:05 This bishop covers this e1 square,

27:06 which is really annoying cuz I'd love to put the rook here to support the pawn.

27:09 We get bishop a5.

27:10 Okay, now I'm going to do something a little bit unusual here, I think.

27:13 I'm going to go for this move pawn to d5 here.

27:16 My pawns are guarded, everything's safe.

27:18 And after rook to e8,

27:19 I'm going to play b4 weakening my queen side because I really

27:22 need this square to guard this pawn on e4 against the attacks.

27:32 Yeah, so I'm going to go b4 here.

27:34 Pawns guard each other, bishop's under attack.

27:36 We'll probably get bishop e6.

27:38 And now I bring my rook to the center

27:39 of the board guarding this pawn on e4 from being captured.

27:42 It's a very imbalanced position here.

27:44 I think I'm a little bit better, not much better,

27:46 but a little bit better here because I have

27:48 the two bishops and I have more space in the center.

27:50 But this is still very much a game.

27:52 Now, knight g4 is excellent move for my opponent here.

27:55 I I'm trying to figure out what I want to play

27:58 in this position cuz it's not an easy position to play.

28:03 Knight g4 is an excellent move, by the way.

28:05 An excellent move.

28:06 Um Okay, I think I'm going to get I'm going to get aggressive here.

28:09 I'm going to go e5 here.

28:11 Looks like I'm sacking a pawn, but if my opponent takes,

28:13 I have a check to win the rook.

28:15 I expect knight to e3 to be played.

28:16 I'm going to sack the rook and I'm going to move my king to b1 here.

28:20 And again, if my opponent takes this pawn, I have bishop f5 check.

28:24 If they don't, I have d6 here potentially putting pressure on this open c file.

28:28 So, let's see what my opponent chooses to do.

28:34 Very, very imbalanced position here.

28:35 We get bishop b6.

28:37 I think I can go d6 here.

28:39 You can't take cuz of the pin.

28:41 I got this chain of three pawns here.

28:43 I think bishop b6 very severe error.

28:45 Um maybe not the end of the world.

28:47 Uh if I go bishop f5, there is rook to e6, I suppose.

28:51 Play a4, a5, which is also very, very aggressive here.

28:54 I could also go f5, e6, which is very aggressive as well.

28:57 But I think it's it makes the most sense to be very stable here with bishop f5.

29:01 Now, let's go bishop f5.

29:02 Very stable to hit the queen.

29:08 I expect rook to e6.

29:09 I'm going to take the rook here.

29:10 Let's see what my opponent chooses to do.

29:12 Should probably take with the pawn.

29:15 Might take with the queen.

29:17 Okay, we get pawn takes, which I believe is the correct move.

29:21 And now I have to come up with with a plan.

29:23 So, I'm trying to figure this out exactly how I want to play this.

29:28 Now, f5, pawn takes doesn't quite work,

29:31 so I think I'm going to go for this move rook to d3.

29:33 And the reason I'm going to put the rook here is I'm looking to play f5.

29:36 I'm looking to take the pawn.

29:38 I think now I'm going to go for f5 cuz after takes,

29:41 I get this move e6 just opening up this diagonal.

29:44 Such a big mistake by my opponent here

29:45 cuz now everything is going to collapse immediately here.

29:49 We take the queen and the bishop guard the pawn.

29:52 I'm forking the king here.

29:53 The rook's active.

29:54 It's actually I think it's just just checkmate cuz you can't take due

29:57 to the pin and after queen c8 I simply take and it's checkmate in one.

30:02 So I'll pre-move this and then checkmate.

30:05 My opponent actually defended very very well.

30:07 This is one of the few games I feel like so far in the speed

30:09 run where at least for the first

30:11 20-ish moves my opponent was holding completely even.

30:14 I expect this to become more and more the case as we go on with the speed run,

30:17 but big kudos to my opponent for the defense.

30:21 Now my opponent resigns.

30:22 You can't take.

30:22 You have to block.

30:23 Then I go queen c7.

30:24 Bishop guards the queen.

30:25 You got to slide over and then I take with the classic back rank checkmate.

30:29 King has nowhere to escape to.

30:31 So all right, let's go back to the drawing board with our analysis.

30:34 We got this uh bishop g4 move.

30:36 I played knight f3 here.

30:37 I actually thought f3 at the higher level maybe is decent move.

30:40 Computer doesn't love it.

30:41 Computer wants queen d3 which is kind of a little bit strange to me.

30:44 Maybe it's okay.

30:45 But knight f3 should be fine.

30:47 I go knight d2, knight e4.

30:48 And actually here I made a mistake.

30:50 The computer says that you should trade

30:51 the knight and play h3 attacking this bishop.

30:54 After bishop h5 you go g4 and then knight to e5.

30:57 And I'm assuming after knight e7 you simply take here and you

31:00 can play something like g5 with bishop g2 to hit the pawn.

31:03 This is pretty advanced high-level stuff uh what what I'm explaining right here.

31:07 Just curious what the computer thinks with this weak pawn on e4.

31:09 White should be better.

31:11 Now do I think most people at this level are going to play like this?

31:14 Probably not.

31:15 You're not likely to have this happen,

31:16 but it's worth noting there are players of all ranges watching this video.

31:19 So here I played bishop d3 instead.

31:21 We got the trade.

31:21 We got this.

31:22 We got king stakes, bishop g3.

31:24 I did not move my king to say castle

31:26 cuz after takes this triple stack or the triple pawns,

31:28 you never want the triple pawns.

31:30 Just get it in your mind you never want triple pawns.

31:32 Now if you're ahead by like a rook or a knight, triple pawns don't matter.

31:35 Pawn structure's irrelevant, but in general if it's even material,

31:38 just just get it ingrained that you never want this pawn structure.

31:41 You never want three pawns on top of each other.

31:44 So it's also worth pointing out here that even though I have double pawns,

31:48 with the double pawns this does give me an open file for the rook to use.

31:52 So the pawns aren't great, but I do have an open file and additionally

31:55 here the another reason these pawns aren't bad

31:57 is cuz I can play e4 as we saw in the game to build this big white center.

32:01 So we got bishop d6.

32:02 I drop back.

32:03 Of course I don't want the triple pawns.

32:05 We get queen e7.

32:06 If my opponent were to take,

32:07 I would take with the h pawn opening up the file for for the bishop and the rook

32:11 or opening the file for the rook

32:12 with the bishop and the rook attacking the pawn.

32:13 And after say h6 here, white can play e4.

32:16 White can also play c4.

32:17 White can also castle.

32:19 The game will go on, but white is looking to push one

32:21 of these pawns to try and open up the center of the board.

32:25 So we got queen e7, castles, e4, e5,

32:28 f4, takes, takes, bishop d4, queen c2, knight f6.

32:32 And here I made a mistake actually.

32:33 After bishop a5, bishop to h4 would be

32:35 a winning move here because you pin the knight.

32:38 If black moves the queen to say I don't know e8,

32:40 you can go e5 here and then the black's problem with the knight and the rook.

32:44 And if black were to take the pawn, I believe you go e5 here.

32:47 Now if you move the knight, you do a Budapest gambit.

32:49 If you were to say I don't know take this pawn,

32:51 I can simply take the knight and it might

32:53 look like black is okay after queen to e3

32:55 checking the king because black can take the bishop

32:57 here and black is actually ahead in material,

33:00 but white is winning the game cuz after pawn takes pawn,

33:03 when you go rook g8, now I can go bishop takes pawn.

33:05 Queen guards the bishop attacking the rook here.

33:08 You move the rook, I queen and win the game.

33:10 And if you take the pawn, I bishop f5 check and then I have to move rook

33:13 to d8 with the classic ice skater or back rank checkmate.

33:17 King can't get out of the box.

33:19 So bishop a4 would have been the winning move.

33:21 Instead I played d5.

33:22 I go b4.

33:23 Bishop to h4 again completely winning by the way cuz because

33:27 of this threat of e5 here with the pressure on the diagonal.

33:30 But I go b4, rook e1.

33:32 We get knight g4.

33:33 And now I played e5.

33:34 Queen to d2 is the computer move.

33:36 I was mildly worried there might be something

33:37 like a5 here to attack on the queen side

33:40 or a move like queen f6 or here there's just

33:42 e5 so I don't know what I was thinking exactly.

33:45 Queen e2 would be a better move.

33:48 But I go for e5 and it's actually kind

33:49 of funny that in spite of sacking the rook,

33:51 as you can tell from the valuation bar,

33:53 white is actually still completely winning.

33:56 So we get d6, bishop f5.

33:58 A4 actually is apparently the best move and after a5, bishop f5, rook e6,

34:03 I guess white can take and then you can play some bishop e4 move with f5

34:07 and these massive pawns along with the along

34:09 with the two bishops rolling through and white is winning.

34:12 Not super easy to play.

34:13 Also not something I would play in a speed run cuz it's a very very messy idea,

34:17 but it is worth pointing out.

34:19 So I go bishop f5.

34:20 I take.

34:20 Now I go rook d3.

34:21 My point behind rook d3 is that if I were to play f5 right away,

34:25 after takes and e6, black can simply take and now there's no threat.

34:28 So I take.

34:29 King's on c8, not b8 here.

34:31 Black just trades, takes and black will win the game.

34:35 Computer here also points out that after f5 takes,

34:37 apparently bishop to h4 would be winning cuz after rook to e8,

34:41 there's this move bishop to e7 here with this big threat of e6.

34:44 White's winning.

34:45 Say c6, you go e6 and d7 and boom goes the dynamite.

34:49 And if black plays something else like queen e6, you have d7 anyway.

34:53 So this would be winning.

34:54 This is very very random um but it is kind of cute to point out.

34:57 So I go rook d3 instead.

34:59 I king b7.

35:00 Now when I go f5, when we get takes and e6, now it's a check on the king.

35:04 The king's not on c8 so you don't have time to trade the rook and the game ends.

35:08 I think after f5 it's already very hard to play.

35:10 After rook e8 and f6 with all these passed pawns marching up the board,

35:14 the bishop eventually is going to become super active on the diagonal.

35:17 This is just curtains for my opponent.

35:18 There's no way to survive.

35:20 Instead we get takes and now after e6 the game just ends immediately

35:23 of course cuz after queen c8 you simply take and it's just checkmate.

35:27 So my opponent played very well in this game.

35:29 Kudos to my opponent.

35:30 I know that I was I could have been more precise of course,

35:33 but it was still fun to show you guys

35:34 how even though I had a compromised pawn structure,

35:36 the ability to push the pawns forward in the center

35:39 combined with the two bishops meant that the meant

35:41 that it actually was a very very good position

35:43 even though it looked like my pawns were compromised.

35:46 So we won all our all of our our games.

35:49 We crossed the 1700 mark.

35:51 And that is going to do it

35:52 for today's edition of our educational speed run series.

35:56 So I hope you guys enjoyed the games, learned something.

35:58 Make sure to leave your comments below what you

35:59 think about openings like the accelerated dragon and the London.

36:02 If you do have thoughts about openings that you want me

36:04 to play cuz maybe you don't play these this set of openings.

36:07 Of course I'm open to trying to play them.

36:09 So make sure you leave your comments.

36:10 And last but not least,

36:11 make sure that you don't forget to smash that subscribe button below and we'll

36:16 be back with more great speed run videos and everything else very very soon.

36:19 Hope you guys enjoyed it and have a great rest of your day.

36:22 See you guys.

36:23 Bye.

36:28 [music] [music] [music]