Analysis of tyler1's victory against a 2153 by uscf chess expert

I am rated 2046 uscf. I analyze tyler1's victory against a 2153 player on chess.com (in which he played the "cow" opening). By request on /r/chess

[@MasterInHD]

He went from 200-1900 in 8 months with the Cow Opening. I'm a 2300 Blitz player, and I'm one of the few guys that would say, "don't change what isn't broken". If it works, it works. So far, T1 has proven that the Cow Opening is a viable opening in the Intermediate-Advanced level.

[@zenchess]

I mean, just look at the engine output , 5 moves in he's -1 , go further it's even worse...I think tyler1 is just a good player playing with a handicap. If tyler1 can achieve his success starting out from a worse position, imagine what rating he could achieve if he actually gets equal or better positions as white and black

[@darkfireguy]

@@zenchess At the same time, -1 for the engine isn't really -1 for a human player. I'm not enough of an expert to gauge if it really matters at his level or not. Waiting on GM Hikaru to give his opinions on Tyler1 again (he was very negative the first time)

[@Tocinos]

Saying the cow is viable is like saying running backwards in a race is viable. It's not viable unless you're racing an 80 year old woman.

[@DeathMetalManiac]

I think people is just too used to see theory starting from 1300, at least a couple of moves, I've seen streamers trying to achieve 2000 being confused when opponents don't play any theory at all

[@raccoononymous]

​@@Tocinos 2153 in chess isn't exactly an 80 year old woman in a race.

[@RouskSour]

I can smell it.... The smell of blood in the air, as the league gladiator slays the chess titans with the play they never expected.....

[@thizlam4810]

Going from knowing nothing more than how the pieces move to 1900+ in 10 months is crazy. He even took a 3 month break as well, so it’s basically 7 months of playing to hit 1966. Wild.

[@assasin101011]

Tyler1 chess story is like anime isekai. No one expected him to be at that position figthing pro players

[@Erich614]

Hehe I love how Tyler plays dogs hit openings, its always mentioned in videos about his play (I know nothing about chess, come from league to watch the grinder). Why do you think he succeeds even without ever playing a meta opening? Could it be a league strat taken to the chess board? "If you don't even know what the fuck you're doing, how could your enemies know" -- imaqtpie

[@zenchess]

In the case of this game, it was mostly because his opponent got a bit careless, but before that tyler was much worse off. I haven't seen many tyler1 games, but it's very possible that he's just decently strong but basically plays with a handicap. In this game he was -1 according to the chess engine after like 5 moves, imagine what he could do if he started out his games equal or better because he had some opening knowledge! I have heard that tyler grinds a lot of tactics and that is a really good way to improve. That's probably what's carrying him.

[@gh3meister]

One thing that helps is he's always playing different people. If he played someone a bunch they could easily figure out the best strategy for his opening

[@devinfleenor3188]

@@zenchess But how many players have prepared against the cow opening? There must be an advantage to playing a un-studied opening that an objective evaluation bar can't see. A -1 in charted lines is a lot bigger deal then a -1 in uncharted lines. Exchanging objectively good lines that everyone knows for objectively weak esoteric lines where Tyler1 is actually a leading mind in relevant tactics. Is there merit to this?

[@Marc83Aus]

Yeah I wonder if because those openings are seen as bad they're underplayed and reacting to them isnt a skill that is frequently learned.

[@joddle23]

​@@devinfleenor3188 there is merit to this line of thinking, but the cow opening specifically is just too much of a handicap. i would say an opening that's offbeat and objectively dubious but has surprise value and concrete lines that you can prepare with an engine is a much better try. for example, consider dubov's 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.b4!? which is not great for white if black is prepared, but if black isn't prepared they can get into trouble (dubov-karjakin). the cow is more comprable to 1.g4 where you'll occasionally catch people off guard if they're careless or if they go for too much, but if black just plays sensibly they can achieve a risk free advantage. also keep in mind that in blitz, there's so many blunders anyway that players can recover from bad openings. i'm rated around 2550-2600 on lichess, and if i open every blitz game with 1.g4 I can probably keep my blitz rating to within -200 of where it is now, and maybe even win against some good players, but it won't be because of the opening!

[@zloidooraque0]

yep, tylor got gifted this game. ofc. he even wasn't playing it your 10 min analysis of this blitz game (that you have seen and also analyzed before recording) is perfect

[@manonamission9567]

Ayy Zenchess, good to stumble upon you, its Kakotiri here I'm not sure if u remember from Will's stream. If u ever want a sparring game to test an opening line hit me up, I'm 1929 fide currently.

[@svxtn]

i think a lot of his success comes from players undermining this opening due to it being very openly criticized. he has a solid attacking fundamental, but also relies heavily on the crutch of playing what is familiar to him. faced against a truly principled opponent, this opening will work 1 out of 10 times. it leaves too many pieces with little to no purpose, and weakens key squares that a sharp opponent would quickly capitalize off of. i will say i'm surprised he could reach 1900 playing like this, but the opening is extremely gimmicky and relies on opponents making mistakes. this opponent took on b2, opening a file for tyler's rooks, which i would already question doing in a position where you've castled queenside. however, if he were to retreat immediately after, the position would be more than defendable. taking c2 was greed, and e4 was pure gluttony. with 16 points worth of pieces sitting in the back 3 rows, taking pawn after pawn is only going to give your opponent consolidation time. the game is not won by he who takes more pieces, but he who coordinates his pieces best. neither player did the latter well, but black's greed allowed white ample compensation for such a dubious opening.

[@Orca007]

Exactly this.

[@seneca983]

"i think a lot of his success comes from players undermining this opening due to it being very openly criticized." That doesn't make any sense. Did you mean players are *underestimating* (rather than undermining) the opening?

[@christopherfreeman2858]

I feel like Qb6 wasn't a good move, even though it ended up being productive. The queen should've stayed near the middle to help in a catastrophe, but also because Tyler's opening is easier to tackle with slower methodical positional moves like throwing pawns at his kingside potentially. The opponent played very messy chess, and greedy aswell. Aggressive chess is fun, but piece activity is something that people NEED to focus on. I've screwed it up a lot, but when it's going well, it can easily end up going great.

[@lionelwitherspoon5410]

nice job Zen, thanks

[@zenchess]

lionel, from icc, is that you?

[@lionelwitherspoon5410]

@@zenchess of course ;)

[@afonsopereira2703]

Hello, can you tell me what app did you use to analise the game? Is it free?

[@zenchess]

It is chessbase 17. It is not free, it is quite expensive, especially if you get the chessbase 17 + megabase bundle that makes it most useful

[@chessgodGal]

might be a dumb question but is that a free program?

[@zenchess]

it's called chessbase, it costs money sorry. you could try a free chess gui called 'en croissant'

[@Saniteee]

Mouth/lip noises kind of ruining your video for me personally. Maybe a pop filter and a glass of water to improve the audio quality.

[@zenchess]

Hey I appreciate the feedback. It's something I need to work on for sure. Maybe I can use some kind of filter or ai to remove or different mic settings

[@StoneCorazon]

Tyler1 is better than you.

[@zenchess]

No way bro. I'm 2046 USCF, if tyler joined the uscf i doubt he would even be 1600. When I played on chess.com i also had a much higher rating than him.