Maybe try a more dynamic opening like the nimzo larsen attack, its worked great for me im 950 and climbing gained approx 200 elo since sept

Dont know if u read this Ivan, but why did you use to promote dislike button at 8:54? Mabey a mistake or a joke? 😂. Keep it up and gl on the grinding. Hope we can play someday 😊

dont forget about me when you are famous

Pro-tip: The pieces, like a bishop, are more valuable than pawns.

28:00 threatning mate in 1, where there is no good defence is too slow to you..? Instead you play a waiting move and hang a piece.. This guy is just hard to understand

The piece is attacked and about to be lost for nothing if you don't move it. You spend 60% of your remaining time on a move that should take a few seconds and still don't move it. This is elementary stuff man. You didn't take a piece after a fork a few games ago because you were afraid to lose a pawn. Now you don't save your piece because the opponent's pawn "will get to the square you don't like" (???). You need to stop seeing ghosts man.. When you teach kids to play chess, the first thing they understand is that losing their pieces is bad and taking opponents is good. You are so far into your head right now that you don't do it half the time. It's like the opposite of "hope chess". Despair chess? Even if you don't see a concrete threat or that threat is very weak you still think something terrible is going to happen. Yes, other people who are commenting are completely right about mid-game plans, pawn breaks, etc. But that's intermediate-level stuff. Meanwhile, you would easily win games if you just found some confidence in the elementary chess knowledge that even the kids a few days into their first chess camp possess.

When your enemy Queen is harassing your king like that at the end, you have always got to be thinking “how can he possibly checkmate me?”. Good luck in the next one!

That one slipped through your fingers Ivan. You were developed so much quicker than your opponent. That was the time to break open lines with your pawns. That way your developed pieces are much more active and able to take advantage of any weaknesses.

This game shows to me you don't really understand the main attacking ideas in the London system or the basic concept of when your pieces are better developed you should find a good pawn break and tactics should naturally show up soon after. You developed your pieces really well for once in this game in the opening and then started looking for the queen bishop mate while overlooking all the easily attackable pieces your opponent had. You aren't going to win with early checkmates very often in the London system On move 10 you have all your pieces developed. Your opponent has 1. My first thought was open up the position with b3 and the computer agrees. Move 11 and 12, opponent still has one piece developed, computer still wants either b3 or e4. Move 13 still one piece developed for opponent computer wants b3. Move 14 they block in their bishop, computer wants e4. After you finally opened up the middle you could have attacked their weak pawns easily as they were so underdeveloped. One big idea in the London system is if white or black can push their e pawn to e4 or e5 first they usually have an easy game. If you can push the pawn to e4 and can take back without losing material then you almost always should. A couple other ideas are the greek gift sacrifice (especially if they move their knight off f6) or castling queenside and pawn storming, and yes the bishop queen battery checkmate. It's a pretty flexible system but it is more positional, not quick tricky checkmates. If you get your pieces developed quickly and attack weak pieces of your opponent you should win enough material to promote a pawn and then checkmate after

tough game - better luck tomorrow

Firstttt

opponent actually played so bad in this one. just playing with fire, putting his pieces on bad squares all the time. stings twice as much to lose to someone like that.

13:28 moves like O-O here are something that I just cant understand lol. You see the fork, you win a piece, then you draw a couple nonsense arrows and talk yourself out of winning a piece without any good reasoning 😂 You already did the hard work just take the damn knight

That's a tough loss -- you played a great opening -- going full steam ahead on development and with your opponent's silly queen shenanigans you built up a pretty crushing position early on. 2:00 You were wondering if when the opponent checks you with BC5, if it's better to block with the bishop or knight -- it is actually better to block/counter-attack with the bishop (BD7). This wins you a development tempo, as white is basically forced to either take or go back. If he takes, you recapture with knight (ND7), meaning he's made 2 bishop moves just to go and die, while you have made 2 developing moves (one with the bishop, then one recapturing with the knight). Also, blocking with the knight forces a recapture with the pawn, which while it does move a pawn to the center, you end up with a backwards pawn which can be a weakness if you're not able to advance it into the front of the pawn chain. So blocking with the bishop and recapture with the knight. Your opponent bringing out the Queen was bad -- you absolutely played it right by continuing to make developing moves while attacking the queen -- he wasn't even really making any threats with it and just fell way behind in development as you noted -- the whole thing was fairly pointless.

I can't believe you forked the knight and the queen and you didn't capture the knight, being afraid to lose one pawn. That was so disturbing to watch.

Move 12 is a perfect example of poisoned pawn and why you should not be scared of queen and take the knight. Your pieces were aiming at the opponents king, he would have to sack his queen if played correctly. If you lose the game after that, it's fine, because you have to overcome your fear of atacking.

I wanted to play a friendly match with u ... Are u in .... ?

I am 446 and it was sad watching your starting game; maybe you will win the next one. 🤞

Hi Ivan, I'm 860 right now. Want to arrange a game? :)

keep going brother! Also would you like to play some games against me? i'm 1900 rated and i can definitely offer some help

I laughed so much when you came up with your plans + the way you analyse like a pro and loses a night like a noob. What a moment 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

10:23 instead of taking the knight you could have played pawn to e5. If bishop retreats you could have pushed the pawn to e4 forking the knight and the queen. It's not winning per say but you gain your piece back and the position is equal.

How do we join the discord

Nice

Why not see if you can eliminate the phrase "not gonna lie" from your vocabulary?

Offering to trade queens when you're down in material was certainly a decision lol

Offering to trade material when you're down by a piece is certainly a choice

9:15 e5 e4 wins a knight?

I have a new trick to prevent blunders during position assessment

I enjoyed, thank u.

Looking forward to watching your journey!

It's like watching myself😂

Wow you pulled that one out of a hat. Despite you hanging your queen in low time, you actually have very good board vision. If you just focused on better development in the opening you would be absolutely CRUSHING. Getting to move 17 before being fully developed is holding you back. Wouldn't hurt to learn some more Caro Advance theory which would help you understand the piece placement better and preserve your clock time for when you really need to think, but in the absence of knowing theory, your primary objective in the opening should be to get all your pieces out in as few moves as possible. And stop chasing around knights with your bishops -- trading that bishop to get a knight was a bad trade for you.

Does ivan reply to all comments? 🥺

wow...first he gives you his queen, then his knight and then his rook (which you didnt take), all for free? i wish I received opponents like that..:-)

Collab??

Chess up to a 1000 elo is really as simple as: follow principles, don't hang your pieces, and take what's given to you for free. While I like the content, it's somewhat cringy to hear you go into "pretend GM" mode and start explaining "intricacies" in the position while in reality, you are months if not years away (at a current pace) from 90% of your games being decided by one move blunders and elementary tactics. Furthermore, I noticed you have 2000+ rating in puzzles. So very obviously you are familiar with all basic tactical concepts. Yet, in the game, you can't spot a hanging piece one square away. I'd suggest spending less time on move 3 when it truly doesn't matter (within reason, if your opponent is going for scholar's mate it does matter) and simply playing more chess.

my guess is your opponent was distracted. I've started games, then had my son wake up, so I'm warming a bottle while he's screaming in my face and I'll go try to play a move every once in a while to not flag on time.

Bro I cannot believe you didn't take the free rook there. I think you just felt bad for the guy after he blundered his queen and knight lmao

8 fakeouts taking the queen and not taking till the 9th hover. Anxiety inducing style you have.

I believe you wasn't playing as well as you have done lately and missed many quite easy moves in this game. #1 If you play d1, you should go for fianchetto lines, like King's Indian - which is actually very good against London. Otherwise it can be really hard to develop dark square bishop. There's not many quick attacks against London system as it is quite solid. Rather should you concentrate on good development instead. #2 playing c5 opens up a diagonal to attack your king with bishop and queen and it can lead to really messy and complicated lines. #3 On move 11. there's a free rook with check that you didn't realize. The missed free knight later in the game you noticed yourself. #4 On move 16. pawn e3 either trades an undeveloped back square bishop for a rook (after which there's a possibility for back rank mate) or you win a bishop with your pawn. #5 On move 18. there's mate in 2 by Bf1. If rook takes the bishop, you back rank mate by Qxf1#, if he doesn't take, it's mate by Bxg2# and if he plays pawn h3 you simply mate with queen, Qxg2#. #6 On move 21. there's again mate in 2. just like you eventually did. It didn't change the outcome but missing ideas for check or mates gives your opponent time to react. This time it didn't matter (it would have if there was anything to protect the white rook at c2) but definitely something to get better with when climbing up in elo. Playing too many "safe" (i.e. slow) moves when winning may cost the victory very easily. Checks. Captures. Attacks.

11:00 just take the rook ;)

Huge choke with the queen 😭🤮😷

This was tough to watch. That queen blunder by your opponent. And you moving your queen away instead of taking the free rook. But a win is a win. You are continually inching closer to your goal.

Honestly bad match from both sides. You always spent a lot of time on every move, but when opponent gives you free pieces you move in 3 seconds. Happended twice in this game. If you would just elminate that you would have been a 1000 level player months ago.

that was a bold move, sacking your Queen for the content

Hey man, great game! When you start the Caro Kann defense and they don’t take you or push, it’s generally best to take their pawn on e4. It can lead to some kind of boring positions but it’s really easy to play

When you're so far ahead that hanging your queen makes little difference lol. But you got a bishop and rook (8) for the queen (9).

Great checkmate at the end. Your opponent did not seem to see it coming. Down in material, seconds on the clock and you pulled out the W.

Ivan go play lichess It'll give you free lessons. I'm a 1400 (today I lost to a 1000 that made a brilliant move when I analyzed)