32 Year Old Boomer Blames New Monitor Instead of Old Brain (Chess)

PLEASE NOTE with my new streaming schedule (11AM-4PM PT every day but Saturday) some of this chess content will come from my past broadcasts. I apologize if you've seen it before!
I'm playing on Chess.com -- these aren't sponsored videos but the site seems pretty cool.
Chess has been having a resurgence in popularity this year so I have finally acquiesced to semi-popular demand and started to play a bit. First, let's hone our skills and get a little more warmed up and then let's conquer chess dot com one board gamer at a time.
If you enjoyed the video, please consider hitting the Like button. It helps me out a lot!
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Follow me on Twitter: / northernlionlp
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About this game:
the horse moves like an L

[@bosshunterman]

2020 - Eyy Everybody! 2021 - _T H E D U T C H D E F E N S E_

[@colinpaton3304]

this sent me

[@Szanth]

"It's kind of a weird start" HE'S SELF-AWARE ABOUT IT

[@UaWPaW1415]

I read this the exact same time he said it. The timing was pog tier.

[@Hao1981]

G E K O L O N I S E E R D

[@indeimaus]

good news is soon you'll be versing dan in the matchmaking

[@MrMoptop47]

Indeimaus why you gotta do our boy like that 😂😂

[@osep5581]

Collab with dan at 300 elo. Who can get to 400 elo first

[@jesseengland5967]

Dan would improve rapidly if he was taught how to think about the game. Right now he seems to think chess is like football, or big brother. He doesn't look for optimal moves.

[@hellzbasket7653]

I put this on in the background just for the soothing taps and interspersed "let's get weirds"

[@Threedog43]

Friendship ended with asmrchess. Egg is new sleep chess master

[@ChileanIggy]

The best of lullabies

[@magenoir999]

Here for the yoinka-dunka-dunks

[@Sephiko]

lo-fi taps to get weird to

[@miguel7888]

Nothing quite like thinking of a cool line and waiting until the end of the match to see if the engine agrees and then the egg hits you with the "No analysis needed for that one"

[@ninjacell2999]

Our backseat can only be contained via in-depth analysis

[@elijahamgast]

@@anewfuture I think that’s fair. He’s new father and just took up the new streaming schedule to balance work and family time better. He probably doesn’t devote too much time and brain power to chess outside of the videos/VODs

[@Lord_Epsilon]

You can set up the board on Chess dot com to see that.

[@isaacballenger7560]

@Bobby Bobby That seems kind of not true? He's had two lengthy lessons with an IM and started an episode a few days ago by learning an opening. It's not like he's not working on getting better, but sometimes tilt or impatience leads you to not take every available opportunity to learn.

[@gregorybenavides8518]

@@anewfuture omega false

[@ryanjones4199]

"You won by resignation" "Ok Thank You" Most Canadian thing to say I swear

[@Kracklezz]

21:05

[@BMS_]

@@Kracklezz thank youu

[@Metaknightkirby2]

@@BMS_ Most Canadian thing to say I swear

[@BMS_]

@@Metaknightkirby2 😂😂

[@KitZunekaze]

I think you've reached a plateau where your ELO is bouncing back because you are learning that you must pivot from raw chess acumen into actual chess knowledge. You're a good player, from a purely raw standpoint. But you've hit the ceiling of where good players go unless they start to learn some actual chess theory. I know you think that content would be boring.... but you might be surprised what your viewers will get pogged up about while you learn. The way I see it, you've started that journey. Getting chess-lessons and looking at book openings and such. I think the new knowledge is destroying some of the synapses you had before tied to 'good moves, in theory.' But in the end, this is good. You need to unlearn your mistakes, and learn the 'meta.' So I think that's what this slump is. You've learned some new stuff, and it's kicking out the old stuff you used to know, so you're slipping in the ranks a bit. In theory when you continue to learn the new stuff, you should climb even higher than before. I'm here for the journey, if you're willing to record it. I think I'm not alone.

[@TrippyStack]

The good ol' regression before progression in play.

[@devi0121]

I'm with it.

[@JaboRuizLuque]

What's a good way to learn the new meta?

[@fisheatsyourhead]

tbh when he started he wasn't a 1600 player it's just regression to the mean

[@aluminiumknight4038]

Converting winning positions in the end game is also very important to practice, like when you have an extra piece or an exchange, you should be able to win even with half the time of your opponent in most cases

[@Impact_Player]

NL: "Let's get weird with it" NL's elo: *oh no*

[@elijahamgast]

Gotham: NL is a genius! Strongest 1500 player ever! NL: YoU WaNnA GeT WiErD¿

[@screamingliner]

If you're not seeing anything, a faster time control isn't going to help.

[@isaacdalziel5772]

The comeback will start at some point

[@RelinaUlryy]

NL: “It must be my monitor.” Me: “It could be hubris.”

[@zenthwolf7370]

Overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer.

[@grubaskarpeta]

The daughter may also be the case - afyer my first child was born I've had few 'why are you stupid' talks at work; the amount of sleep is just meh. It destroys you after a while.

[@dingusrevolver]

19:04 nice guest appearance by Eric Rosen

[@pervasivedoubt150]

Collab when

[@michealjackson3520]

After watching Levy's stream today, I've learned that the key to chess success is actually just bananas, maybe you ought to give that a try.

[@Northernlion]

like eating bananas or going bananas

[@michealjackson3520]

@@Northernlion him and Hikaru were doing chess puzzles and they both ate bananas for more power, but you do you

[@mestiarcanus]

@@Northernlion If going bananas is the new getting weird, I'm ready for my daily dose of Pogtassium.

[@Mrcat-ue3ih]

@@mestiarcanus pogtassium was also brilliant lmao, actually made me laugh

[@flackbyte]

So, doing a kingside pawn storm in the dutch is not a bad move, it’s actually very thematic. There’s more nuance to the evaluation of pawn structures. It’s not “He moved a kingside pawn, I win!”

[@vitorodino8760]

heh, kid, his king side is SCREWED. You'll never get it 8)

[@sherllymentalism4756]

@@vitorodino8760learn the Dutch lmao

[@vitorodino8760]

@@sherllymentalism4756 learn sarcasm. it was pretty blatant

[@sherllymentalism4756]

@@vitorodino8760 my bad 😊

[@jacobsnapp]

When he hung his queen at the end of the first game I recoiled in fear

[@wsemenske]

It wasn't hanging, the other guy was in check from his rook so the queen could not take his queen

[@ryancoombes4360]

As a purely KZbin watcher, i am loving this stream content, :D I always love the chat banter it makes it feel a little more genuine.

[@morph4358]

"This doesn't look like a guaranteed win." 2 seconds later: "That's checkmate though."

[@sephiroth7655]

No chess in 3 days. I hope he doesn't drop it

[@mp7311]

I think hes become extremely discouraged lately. He's lost like 80% of his games the last 2 weeks. Half his audience wants him to play a little more serious, and the other half want him to keep being "zany".

[@sephiroth7655]

@@mp7311 sad. We all hit those slumps. The negativity is toxic though even if there are legit criticism. Win or lose it's good content for me.

[@EveloGrave]

32? Wow I remember him turning 30 can't believe how time flies.

[@Gorm169]

"I don't know about this one" he says as he blunders away his queen

[@DeanCulver17]

6:23 I so badly wanted to see knight to d5. If he takes, you take with the queen, and the fork opportunity is back. If he doesn’t take but moves, go get his white square bishop. If he doesn’t take and doesn’t move, double trade and fork?

[@jonathan2847]

Does NL know a window doesn't have to take up his whole screen? Just because your monitor is big don't mean you need to use it all.

[@rglrjhn]

The chess series is so pogged. When it ends I'm gonna be sat here waiting for the next episode like Seymour from Futurama.

[@MeierGlab]

day 2 of no chess and I'm starting to lose my mind. Please, I need my daily dose of pog egg father

[@AzureFlash]

As a fellow boomer I like to blame all of my inadequacies on loss of neuroplasticity

[@chrisbrindas1559]

damn kids flexing their neurplasticity and lack of back pain

[@brokenses4418]

Its just a slump the neuropogicity will return

[@chrisallen9509]

17:33 Mr. Shaibel: "You resign now"

[@Gorm169]

"no analysis required on that one" he says after a very interesting midgame

[@wcrb15]

The rebound is gonna be epic. If you can't handle NL at his 400 ELO you don't deserve him at his 2000 ELO XD

[@ChileanIggy]

I think the monitor is exacerbating an already existing issue: You've been losing sight of the board as you focus in on the ramifications of a single move. You are missing the forest for the twigs you might step on! Though either way, endlessly entertaining. I can't wait for the redemption arc!

[@samvallier8876]

very true

[@avvvqvvv99]

that first game definitely warranted an analysis, it was a longer game that you were losing and won by flagging you need to play longer games and analyze them, and you should probably try to play some games with increment

[@DivyeshVartha]

He doesn't even analyse the games properly when he does. Like if there's a considerable point difference in one move, you should see what was the best move that took advantage of that. Instead he goes "welp thats a bad move, good move, etc"

[@oh_banana]

Something in NL's brain throughout the chess series has made him go from "Chat is gonna backseat me and chess will be miserable to play" to "I have a better ELO than average, chat is awful at backseating chess and I'm actually competitive at this ELO" lead him to be like "Yeah let's just be zany dude, the YT comments keep telling me to pick up soy milk" and now his ELO avg across all 4 modes he plays has dropped >250 and he still makes game ruining blunders. With as little offense meant as possible, whenever NL is like "I just wanna play people that are obviously worse than me all the time" I roll my eyes.

[@heykak]

Every 3 minute chess is destroying your brain.

[@jvcmarc]

so is the youtube content being just twitch vods here to stay or does it have a due date? cause it's kind of bummer to get excited for a new video only to realize I've seen it before reminds me of when I was 12 and got really excited for this one episode of iCarly that Nickelodeon was hyping up for, and then when it aired it actually was just an episode I had previously watched

[@MartinDe123]

C'mon son, Mr. Eggbert supplies us with our daily content, our blessed pogs and hallowed grocery store anecdotes, and yet here you are casting this paragon of modern Gamers in a bad light? Shame on you for biting the hand that feeds.

[@jvcmarc]

@@MartinDe123 I most definitely am not, kind of. Egg Father provides us with our daily dose of web enjoyment, and I am most thankful for it I see how my comment may have come through as being rude and not acknowledging the time issues The Egg faces now that he cares for a second human life. I pray the Egg forgives me for my sin

[@MartinDe123]

@@jvcmarc It's ok friend, i was mostly making a joke :)

[@forestshepherd253]

The missed pawn promotion around 15:20 got me shouting at the screen. White to play: Rd7 check. If Rxd7, xd7, Rd6, Be6, Be7, Rc1, Rxe6, Rd1... I don't know, there's something there.

[@chessgoalsyt]

Northernlyon You might not be flyin, Right now in your chess game, but one day you will reach chess fame, My sweet potato I'm not gonna let anyone mate yo

[@goidman]

Anyone else noticing how his video titles are becoming closer and closer to PornHub titles?

[@matthewfelty8999]

Yo, i played a few 10minutes today and got WWRREECKKEEDDD, it made me appreciate how quickly you can make these moves! would love to see a longer game but i know thats probably hard for vids

[@etopowertwon]

Egg should watch Levy's videos on danger levels. 16:42 was instructive in this regard. Instead of tactical sac, egg could develop with Rc1. Last video(where he went pawn eating instead of battery) also would benefit from knowing danger levels.

[@matthewpeckham3772]

strictly from a points perspective two rooks are worth more than a queen

[@llamaism1328]

it would've been two rooks and a pawn for queen and knight because that knight is not escaping that corner. you're right though and NL has made the mistake of not taking that trade before

[@jaaaadn]

Taking the trade is still a positional decision more than anything, you need to have good coordination with the rest of your pieces and preferably a safe king, since you’re vulnerable to forks from their queen. Besides that, it’s also much easier for lower ELO players to reason about the queen than to get your rooks in good coordination. So I wouldn’t always opt for the trade.

[@abadlydrawncoke4016]

Also from a practical perspective the rooks are better. Once they can coordinate (like being on the same open rank or file) the queen can't attack them and they just dominate the board. That's why if you have the queen you need to keep them separated or else your advantage goes away.

[@treyebillups8602]

Two pieces vs a queen was shown very clearly yesterday when someone with a rook and a bishop opposed to NL's queen gave him a good beating

[@martincooper2175]

@@mint5836 not really. I’d take the pawns and rook against two knights if it was an endgame. Or any pieces really, cause worst case scenario I sacrifice my rook for one of the pieces and it’s a draw. So not the best analogy

[@fredrikbystrom7380]

I'm honestly not ruling out the possibility that his monitor is what's causing this. Sometimes when sitting in front of certain monitors (especially new ones with a very strong backlight) it's genuinely difficult to think, like my brain gets fried or something. No idea what's causing it. I have a heavy bluelight filter on my monitor as well as having turned down the brightness on the screen to 10%, that helps imo.

[@Better_call_Joe_92]

I've discovered your channel after the Levy lessons, great content man overall. The fishing simulator was awesome!

[@newyd1]

4th move: This seems familiar to me 5th move: Ok......I don't know what were doing here......

[@thecheesiestbiscuit]

Legit advice: shrink the size of your tab, you egg. Maybe making the board smaller again will help you see it better.

[@KitZunekaze]

Yeah he talked about zooming in last episode, and I was like... you can just shrink the window... right? When you get bigger monitors, you don't just make the windows full screen all the time anymore, you start being able to actually place multiple windows per monitor.

[@LuckyArrowftw]

playing with Dan must've done something to you, that's when the decline started haha

[@Baleur]

THIRTY TWO?!!!! I was sure you were 38 my dude!

[@ohno5506]

Eric Rosen when he tricks his opponent: 19:06

[@foxyr4bbit]

is this it? the rise and fall of northernlion

[@tannerlarson276]

May have seen this before, but worth a rewatch for certain. Thanks for the content NL!

[@TheBarfman1]

1100 Elo in the thumbnail, yeah right, nobody can be this anti pog. Right?

[@VasalisErretti]

Meanwhile me hoping NL drops enough that I can play him at 900s elo

[@SchadenfreudeUY]

At 19:02 the opponent moves so fast he hangs his queen twice in 1 move

[@LKBURN]

NL, you're trying new things after your lessons with Levy - playing out of your normal comfort zone. You may drop a little elo as you internalise these new styles but ultimately that's how you get better. Keep it up 😁

[@alancoe1002]

There are no 32 year old 'boomers'. Just math, not chess.

[@danieldweebler3392]

The best title in KZbin history!!!

[@Chaosuser32]

love the cold open here eggy

[@gambit7775]

20:35 my reaction to last year

[@MrMeddyman]

Getting bodied in that first game until the bullet chess acumen came into play

[@ThatSteemBloke]

I wonder if knight takes a7 is a move at 9:10. The only piece that can capture it is the rook and if it does you take his bishop, you'd be up a pawn. If he doesn't take not only would he be down a pawn but he'd also have to deal with the double attack on his bishop. Is it just winning? Probably a better move idk.

[@ThatSteemBloke]

Actually I think the queen might get trapped? Say if after rook takes knight, Queen takes bishop, then any king move that unpins the bishop it gets very scary. Queen b8 threatening the rook? Then probably queen A5 defending, then how do u escape, I don't see it.

[@johngleeman8347]

20:37 Baron Egg steps on his child's Legos.

[@partofthecreed]

GG NL, I had a good time that game even if I ended up getting flagged. I'm sure you'll get out of that slump soon

[@Hawlk12]

Did anyone else get suspicious of the first opponent after he took so long to move the pawn to e6

[@tappy8741]

You want evergreen chess content with a reason to watch the next episode if you've seen the last? Start 50 daily games with a 2 day time control, then once a day you play through the pending moves and make a video out of that. Once a game has concluded you start another, boom infinite content and you have a chance to puzzle out moves at your own pace. It's not as confusing as it might appear, if you have a plan there's a place for notes and you only have to scrub back a few moves if necessary to remind yourself of the position. It's the only way I play chess now, very chill.

[@zenthwolf7370]

It could be good, for content and for puzzling, but it does have limits. 25 moves that you really concentrate on per day is a lot, and it does kind of go against the spirit of NL (stream of consciousness entertainment). It could be good to have a few videos start analyzing a daily game. Time is tight for him, so it's hard to give it as anything other than "consider it as an option, send it if it doesn't work for you". He could also run said games as a tournament with his community, since the organization is mostly computer automated, which I suggested. And there is sometimes less chill. Like when your awesome plan unfurls after you hang your queen. and now you don't know how to play pawn endgames and your opponent has 2 more rooks than you. For instance.

[@tappy8741]

@@zenthwolf7370 I thought having 50 games on the go at once would be stressful but it isn't, you don't really have to concentrate on 25 moves per session as most positions are obvious or planned. I've been playing like this for a few weeks now, in any given session there's maybe half a dozen positions that really need puzzling out. The beauty of it is that it's not really 25 moves per day, it's as many or as few as you like with a theoretical minimum depending on game count and timer chosen. I picked 50 games with a 2 day timer to balance NL's minimum requirement of one half hour video per day, with an option to create a backlog, and forcing the opponent to make a move every few days to keep the thread of a story going. 40 or even 30 games with a 2 day or 3 day timer probably plays out the same, but there's a higher risk of running out of moves in a session before you've gotten a video out of it. There's not a lot of difference between 25 and 50 simultaneous games for me, other than 50 being the upper limit of what I can reasonably remember without having to constantly get reminded about how a position was reached. Most people check in multiple times a day and often a session could last hours if you chose (flexible backlog) as many opponents will be live when you are, trading moves with you every few minutes if you want to. Openings can be blasted through pretty quickly as you're both normally online when a match starts, and positions you know will go a certain way can be predicted and done automatically with conditional moves if you like. A daily tournament is interesting and I suggested it once, but unless there's a high number of people per group (meaning a very large tournament) to have many simultaneous games, a session doesn't normally last long enough to make a video and NL is allergic to editing. Never tried a live tournament, was that your suggestion and how does that work? We all know egg daddy can stream of consciousness over anything ;)

[@zenthwolf7370]

@@tappy8741 Think we're looking at it very differently. I imagine NL is playing about as much chess as he can (or wants), and 50 daily games could then maybe replace what he's doing, but will take a while before content starts to generate- I don't think it's good for him to post updates- only reviews after games are done. Partly because creating content out of ongoing games is a bit more questionable in regards to how it fits with "no advice" rules. Unless he goes unrated, I wouldn't advise it. I'm thinking of dailys as being 1) a little spicy seasoning of content and 2) Just good for really puzzling moves thoughtfully as practice for the rapid chess games and 3) A bit of community engagement. Live tourneys I wouldn't suggest, except maybe very rarely. I don't play them, but my understanding is they can be done the same a daily tournament (round robin knockout, with placements basically done by the computer), Swiss Tournaments (round robin with no knockouts, players grouped more by skill) where players compete for raw points, or Arena, where matches are made constantly by availability, with bonuses for win streaks. Except for daily tournaments, late comers are welcome (if at a disadvantage) to about 30% of registrations. Since it is at a fixed time, it might not work well for NL compared to a daily tournament where players play over all hours.

[@tappy8741]

​@@zenthwolf7370 I don't see the point of only watching the post-game analysis. From a viewer POV we don't get to see the thought process as he does it which IMO limits the entertainment value. From a content creator perspective playing an entire game without recording it is a lot of prep for a video, and he has to remember his thought process well enough to make an interesting analysis which is questionable for a game which may have taken place over the course of a week or more. The no advice rule is easy to get around if it's even a problem, just record instead of stream (you'd have to anyway) and give it a week delay before releasing it. Move Isaac from recorded to streamed to make better use of time and still release the video on YT, he's been held back for a long time thinking people actually care if he "double dips" like that, it's not hard for someone to skip the YT video if they saw it on twitch. I don't think a live tournament would be good either, except maybe arena. Actually arena is extremely streamable, he should try a half hour bullet arena as a video to get a taste.

[@sabin129]

What a game to end on! Sadly bemoans his chess brain as he casually goes way up mom material and then mates.

[@CripticX]

When you started slumping i did too in both blitz and rapid .... Here's to us getting back were we were brother!

[@Sawowner]

btw for that first game, if black is allowed to push e5 against a london, its apparently really good for black.

[@aluminiumknight4038]

You should definitely swap the Bishop for the Knight if that makes you win a pawn

[@midonik4818]

The struggle of losing for no reason in chess is super real. You blame the monitor, I complain that my family talks over my head or that I'm stressed. I usually can play on the same level after a break, but moving back an forth between 1200 and 1300 chess.com's rankings is definitely tiresome.

[@vitorodino8760]

1200-1300 elo? lol. noob. im 750 elo. GOML

[@thomasfairchild5538]

It's always darkest before the dawn

[@Neil-ub7oh]

Thanks for giving us so much content NL

[@jonesj99]

2020: Levi>NL>Rob>Dan 2021: Levi>Rob>NL>Dan

[@aStarryBlur]

who's Levi?

[@Befooks]

@@aStarryBlur gothamchess, an IM

[@aStarryBlur]

@@Befooks Levy?

[@jeremymcadam7400]

Brain as smooth as your head

[@robinvik1]

NL, losing in a video game: "No biggy, it's just a game. It's pretty embarrassing when you see people on youtube completely lose IT when playing with what is essentially just a digital toy" NL, losing in chess:

[@420dax420]

I'm 1100 and you're way better than I am lol. Keep playing, it's great content regardless if you win or lose!

[@peniparker3336]

Had me at the edge of my seat with that first game goddamn. Great content NL

[@jonathankraig425]

this is so not pog

[@joehemmann1156]

NL's tombstone engraving is going to say "I thought I was so smart..."

[@itz_jolly4320]

I feel like without seeing the chat, it just feels like I'm watching you hang out with them because you're preoccupied reading chat. Maybe adding the chat overlay would be better for reuploads?

[@gnupfo]

I recently dropped in ELO as well, so seeing this _is_ reassuring.

[@stephenkamenar]

if your monitor is too big just shrink the browser ...

[@SovereignCat]

NL, you look tired! That's a real gamer dad right there :') best of luck for some good rest

[@stinksmcgee]

Hey NL/ NL's youtube comments! I'm hoping any of you have advice for me. I am a somewhat experienced chess player (currently just under nl on chess.com) and am growing at a satisfactory rate but I keep getting these absolutely demoralising slumps of bad performance where I just can't seem to even think straight. It's what put me off chess after I stopped going to tourneys. Any help at all would be very useful thanks 😊

[@cyberden]

How can a 32 year old be a Boomer...

[@jlanger6137]

Chess Genius in ELO-freefall

[@mrmeman816]

the eggs yolk is rotting

[@Rokfreakx]

I'm calling it: This is the greatest title of any NL Video 😂

[@RyeBread271]

I may just be a 900 ELO, but 19:04 is the Pot Play of chess

[@ApacheGamingUK]

You're half a decade younger than me. Dear gods, that's depressing! Haha.

[@megs5535]

That's only 5 years. Thats not a lot of time.

[@More_Row]

The title has real dad joke energy to it.

[@kittentreats6072]

Very pog title

[@circleviii1801]

against the dutch you really want to fight for the e5 square so Ng5 was everything you don't want to do. you should think more about controlling key squares if you want to really up your game

[@screamingliner]

How is it that chat didn't say the board can be resized?

[@tereziii]

NL forgets how to have a firefox tab in not fullscreen

[@johndollars8971]

Get some sleep before a monitor, it's said if your up for 24 hours you have the reactions of a buzzed person, not drunk but impaired / altered. New baby = no sleep. Might like "Chess not checkers" by Cal Scruby.

[@sixclawII]

The more twitch chat you read, the worse you play.

[@deepbluev7.x813]

Have you tried just making the browser window smaller?

[@MrDuckAlmighty]

i swear im wathing an egg slowly turn into a potato

[@Kiteon]

It's gotta be the monitor, for sure

[@duddy_dud]

Monitor too big .... What if you make the browser window smaller?

[@I3asher]

Have you tried attacking and defensive moves at the same time?

[@mybesttoast9605]

NL when he gets weird: :) NL when his opponents get weird: >:(

[@walkingin6375]

32 years = boomer? But I'm 31... Don't start with this. After very quickly googling: "Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. They're currently between 56-74 years old"