Calculation Technique: 2500 GM vs 2000 ELO vs 1600 ELO

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In this video lesson, GM Igor Smirnov illustrates how chess players of different levels (ratings) calculate variations. With the example of a chess position, you will see exactly how a 1600 rated player, a 2000 rated player, and a 2500 rated Grandmaster think and calculate variations.
You will learn the right techniques to improve your chess calculation skills. GM Igor Smirnov presents to you 3 useful tips to calculate variations easily and effectively!
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► Chapters
00:00 Improve Your Calculation Skills in Chess
00:17 1) How a 1600 ELO Player Calculated
03:06 2) How a 2000 ELO Player Calculated
03:52 3) How Grandmasters Calculated
05:04 4) How GM Igor Smirnov Calculated
05:20 Grandmaster's Calculation Technique
08:26 Calculating opponent's forcing moves
09:37 What separates GMs and others?
10:28 Calculating the line further (actual threat/goal)
11:40 Summary: 3 Tips to Calculate Easily
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[@GMIgorSmirnov]

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[@jurrgames309]

Absolutely love this kind of content Igor, very insightful. I always learn the most from watching your video's. Thank you!

[@GMIgorSmirnov]

Happy to hear that!

[@reidflemingworldstoughestm1394]

This is a great lesson. Really gets down to the nuts and bolts of finding good moves.

[@giftphiri4617]

Thank you Igor,you are one of my best online coaches so far

[@austin7553]

You really do need to make a lot more of these videos. They definitely help a lot more than most other chess videos as far as I am concerned

[@OcteractSG]

I did find the collinear move move of Re7, and that's actually pretty typical for me. Finding aggressive moves is no problem. What trips me up so often, though, is missing my opponent's resources.

[@Dr_Cardiologist_99]

whats ur elo praggy praggy . gime ur username to crush ur soul

[@Nurrad]

MAN! I'm so happy and proud that I somehow found Re7 in maybe 3 minutes or so .... being 1400 rapid elo rated .... on Lichess!! 🤣 I think solving puzzles really helped me in these case Thank you for your instructive and helpful content!

[@ChristopherBalbuena]

Thank you coach Igor! I learned something brilliant again today!

[@chessbulletschannel5889]

Best teaching forever

[@Holdem17]

Great content. I think the hard part of finding a move like Re7 is that you are threatening a capture or check on the 2nd move, not the first. For example, you are threatening Bxf7+ next move, and if Qxe7, then you push the pawn to d8 and queen with a check.

[@Blinkers2007GameDev]

No, I swear on my life and my family's life I found it almost immediately. I'm probably underrated since I play otb and can win against 2000s quite easily, but I am still 1700. Crazy how I found that. Willpower and looking for all checks captures and attacks helps

[@nickmeyer1030]

Also to a low-rated player like myself, it looks like black can just take the rook. So my lazy brain just says "oh that's no good" and moves on.

[@themoneymaker03]

I agree 100%. It's not a forced move because black can move any piece he wants after Re7 so you end up having to look at almost all of blacks pieces to see what happens if he were to move either one of them after Re7. There isn't any specific move black is "forced" to make like moving out of check but I guess there also isn't any move he CAN make to save himself from checkmamte after Re7 so does that mean it is a forced move?

[@Blinkers2007GameDev]

@@nickmeyer1030 I am 1700, but clearly I am overrated because otherwise I might have thought like you. One tip: Look for what you want to happen, and see if it can happen. Dont just go like "this is not possible" there are always sacrifices looming. In this case, the imbalances of the position requires an attack on the king through that pinned and weak pawn, a promotion of the pawn or using the pawn as an anchor, after which you can feast on opponents pawns. In this case, attacking the king cannot be stopped because you have to be able to see that you can promote. Found it in a couple of seconds, im not even joking.

[@SnapThority]

My logic for rook to e7 was rooks like being on the second last rank 😅🤣🤣

[@MVuke84]

One of the first couple moves I thought was Re7, and I'm not that high of a player. However, do love those puzzle rushes. Really nice one here. 👍

[@lemomar]

Love this concept!

[@dr.deepakgore1079]

Beautiful example for how to calculate explained by you sir ,Kudos to you ,hats off to you ,you are best teacher,guide,coach , mentor 🎉🎉❤❤

[@R.Akerman-oz1tf]

Not eureka 4 Me, but I zeroed in on an assault; then brain-freeze. This Guy is so much fun.

[@GMIgorSmirnov]

► Chapters 00:00 Improve Your Calculation Skills in Chess 00:17 1) How a 1600 ELO Player Calculated 03:06 2) How a 2000 ELO Player Calculated 03:52 3) How Grandmasters Calculated 05:04 4) How GM Igor Smirnov Calculated 05:20 Grandmaster's Calculation Technique 08:26 Calculating opponent's forcing moves 09:37 What separates GMs and others? 10:28 Calculating the line further (actual threat/goal) 11:40 Summary: 3 Tips to Calculate Easily

[@kayasper6081]

Very interesting video, thanks

[@TITANbyArbid]

Thanks for the tips, now I hope I will be able to think faster but also better

[@rupamdutta7963]

The video I was waiting ❤

[@gm2407]

I am going to adopt your heirarchy of candidate move identification. That sounds awesome and more structured than just taking in the whole board.

[@plexusavantmedia]

phenomenal channel, phenomenal content, best chess channel on the net

[@kalfus5134]

Amazing as always❤👏

[@joancarlesmestres5309]

Nice and effective teaching, as usual.

[@amrethesh]

Best youtube channel to improve your chess

[@chaosdemon1870]

What I have learnt from your videos isn't some nasty opening traps or how to calculate. What I have learnt is trying to go forward with every move and interesting things might happen. Following this approach has seen me become a much more attacking player . I have learnt that as long as you go forward with a piece it's a good move as long as you don't blunder it .This way you can keep improving your pieces and your position and when your position becomes superior tactics will naturally appear .

[@TwoHonest]

This is super helpful

[@brandonhursh286]

Ok. I watch and enjoy enough of your videos, I’m subscribed now

[@hunterklein9115]

Great video. Your content has helped me improve continuously which is what I’m after

[@GMIgorSmirnov]

Excellent

[@khinkyawhtwe8603]

Nice idea ❤

[@user-we3mi5qm1m]

Great video! You have to include the two checks into the candidate moves. In fact you will calculate them first - and find, that they are not winning, but they are candidate moves...

[@AseykinNews]

Игорь, побольше таких видео, пожалуйста. можно еще задачки подбные ?

[@AstroPinoy]

@8:06 Interesting video.. I stopped playing after senior high school but I started young as 10 and my grandma purchase a small chessboard for me and my brother. I did win our school sports event and we went district level, I lost but my team mate won, he was a 5th grader with dawn syndrome wearing thick glasses and barely able to move the pieces, this was in 1979. Thinking of it now he probably over 2000 ELO. Back to your content, I started to go back playing again so my brain will be active if I hit my 60’s and retire, the Rd8 came to me about 10min of thinking but did not follow up on it. I dont know my rating yet since we dont have it when I was young.

[@SudhirKishor6603]

I also saw Re7 but I'm just 800 rated 😮😮

[@surf2553]

Do more of these types of videos my friend.

[@twentyrothmans7308]

Thank you, Igor, outstanding content. One thing that made me choose Re7 was the desire to use his back rank against him. So while Bxf7+ looks exciting, Kxf7 frees him from the back rank and it looks as though you've thrown away a Bishop.

[@matthewcoffin5144]

Thanks Igor, I will give this a go! But surely it is CCA X 2 IE. Are there any checks, captures or threats from your opponents last move and then, if it is all clear CCA? The reason I ask is that I often get tunnel vision and throw away a winning position 😅😅

[@everythingj7875]

when considering checks/captures/attacks, before this video i never thought to examine each of my pieces individually from value highest to lowest. i just assumed looking at the board i knew all the moves i had available but i can see now how i probably have missed a lot of moves by not being more thorough

[@elseb80]

Really good explained 😉From where are you? Best from Germany 👍🏼

[@maximkharin]

Funny thing, I'm a beginner, but I watch Igor's videos regularly. And Re7 was almost the first move that I thought about. It was like ok, if I can't attack right now, then let's make some support for a bishop and check on the next move

[@Aarush.A.S]

I foung rook e7 in 4 minutes as 1500 currently

[@minibrawl6733]

I first thought of the move Qg5, pinning the knight with 2 threats: 1. Sacrifice the queen for the knight with a back rank checkmate 2. Re8+ And after the knight recaptures you take the queen and mate soon too But then i realised i just blundered the most crucial pawn

[@ShinySalamence1]

Re7 found in like under 30 seconds. 1200 USCF. I dismissed Qd5 and Bd5 at first partially because the video thumbnail and partially because I wanted to look at something more forcing first. Looking two ply in and it just looked lack-luster. I looked at the position to see what was going on. I see the pawn on the 7th with the rook on the adjacent file. I also saw the bishop’s pin. From there, I looked at aggressive moves that exploited these aspects. Quickly dismissed Re8 within seconds and Re7 was the second move I looked at.

[@mohammedshafi4422]

Thanks

[@michaelr1661]

5:45 - computers actually don't consider them most of the time either, because they find the much better attacking ideas a lot faster

[@aminalamyaar525]

Excllent Video

[@Brlitzkreig]

Sir the quality that you put in each video is amazing it's just drama and emotion. Stay humble though!

[@salamon9114]

I found rook e7 in about 5 mins and i cant express how happy am i as 1800

[@brabrubro]

I am 1600 rated player: I found the queen move for less than a minute then I stopped the calculations on this line.I considered it kind of ok line.Because I knew there should be better move I kept looking for it and found the rook move for 3-4 mins.Thanks for the video

[@tobiass3540]

tbh, I think it's only practice and experience. I play chess since 4 years, am rated 1780 FIDE. One year ago I started studying and got a coach. Winning combinations are usually my homewrok studies as well as some endgames. One year ago, I might not have found Re7. Today it took me 3 minutes. First I tried, Re8 and Qd5 lines. When they didn't work, I found Re7. The more you expose yourself to moves like this, the easier you will find them. I think, that's pretty much it

[@dethor6251]

Ngl i only thought about luring the queen with re7 but yeah the other line is good aswell

[@jaybingham3711]

Really nice example. At an in-between 1800, I found the representative evaluations to be spot on. To find Re7 (as a TT problem), I fold in what I call an F/U move as a supplement to CC&A. These moves crop up a lot in training problems where your initiative is so strong that it opens the door to a square that normally otherwise would be rightfully/easily dismissed. These kind of moves are super disrespectful...often involving squatting all up in your opponent's business. So if you're struggling for a solution to a tactics problem, see if an F/U move isn't the way forward.

[@Dakodii]

What is an F/U supplement? What is a TT problem?

[@alanmccormick6911]

I'm 1900s and I found Rd7 in about a minute or so. I also considered the possibility of Rc1+ by black but after QxR QxR Qc8+ wins.

[@808JuJu]

It’s so annoying, I’ll play chess and I’ll find the moves brilliant moves in like 10 seconds and I’m good with taking risks. I’ll know the sequence for the brilliant moves but when it comes to middle/end game I just can’t see the obvious moves, it’s like my mental energy just dies. My rating was 1650 and dropped to 1350. What’s causing this? Like where I see the extremely complex moves but struggle with the simpler moves.

[@TimothyZhou0]

Adam's laughter should become a viral meme. It's totally infectious.

[@koroshabdoli1739]

Hi very good Thanks

[@mahdirahimipour7472]

you: only GMs can find this move me: rated 1300 and still find Rb7 in 3 minutes

[@sam2725]

I found out Qd5 isn't amazing since knigth can retreat and cover mate, but still didn't find Re7 or anything better. In a game I would have played Qd5, Qxd7, Qxd7, Nxd7, Re7 and white's position seems slightly better

[@universalnetwork264]

RE7 found in 4 mins @ 1300 elo. Can't believe 1600 and 2000 rated players didn't find it. It takes a bit of thinking but it's not that hard to find. I don't do puzzles and 1300 is my chess plateau atm but I've only been playing blitz, maybe I should go back to playing rapid, maybe I do have potential.

[@Thete]

Oddly, my first guess was Re7, but I obviously couldn't see it all the way through from the starting position

[@golduzbek2123]

I respect your opinion about attitude to play on normal players of chess but I think the problem is being in the moment like when I see this in game I would notice rook to e7 but now my goal is not there like I didn't made the past moves so I don't have plan for that situation

[@haiyamaster]

I finally got it! My FIDE rating is supposed to be (I'm 1203 by the way): Classical: 2500 Elo Rapid: 1800 Elo Blitz: -2882 Elo

[@Bilalmaker1-gq1ti]

queen df is the move i think in first puzzle but i am 300 elo not a gm

[@adventureboy444]

I did consider the move Re7 but dismissed it because Bf7, Kf8 and I couldn't go Re8 because after Nxe8, dxe8=Q, Qxe8, I am a Rook down... Turn out I totally forgot about the Bishop on f7 so I think I could calculate better if I somehow able to not forget about the pieces on the board

[@Dakodii]

1600 elo: My thought process was that the pawn on d7 has two attackers. So, we need two defenders. The only logical responses are Re7 and Rd1 to defend the pawn. Re7 is positionally better as you wouldn’t lose the queen first recapturing.

[@gm2407]

Didn't take me half an hour to figure out the variations. Took 3-5 minutes (wasnt timing). I am 1200. I considered the rook move first, a bishop sack on f7, that lead me to the bishop queen battery and discovery that the knight cant move. Considered if knight took queen and if rook e6. Considered rxe6 and if pawn takes e6 or knight takes queen again. Went to the point I could guarentee a queen king fork with the rook and knight having moved trom f6, or that the pawn had taken back on e6 and queen got a check. It is only when writing this comment (and not watching the video beyond @3:08) that I realise the bishop queen battery has more than Qe6+ to be the end of this as black has. Kh8 where white needs to dislodge the queen, else face a bishop v knight endgame or (Kf8 qf7# is an optimistic blunder). I can not calculate from the opening position to dislodge the queen un an effective time. I feel the best response is to push Harry to dislodge the g pawn from the knight defense.

[@jasonchaille4088]

10 Minutes played Rook E7 also, but I doubt I'm a 1400 lol! Enjoy your content always, you are a great teacher, thinker, and player.

[@masonhill1354]

I saw the line bd5,Qd7,bf7, Qxbf7, Qd8,Qe8, QxQe8,NxQe8, RxNe8 mate. There are ways to win the rook or even the queen in some alternate move orders as well. For reference I'm 1100 and it took me around 11 minutes. I may be missing something though. I'd welcome someone to point out any errors.

[@teunhanemaaijer846]

Hello Igor; I think you have to have a closer look at the Danish gambit; you were a bit taken astray. At one move you swop a knight for a knight on d2. Yet knight takes the pawn on d6 is much stronger. Can you consider this move and look once more at the Danish gambit. TH

[@VioletGiraffe]

Why was the last black's move pawn to a6? What does it do? All of the black's problems come from not capturing the white's passed pawn with a knight, which seems a much better move than a6.

[@fullhouse-2065]

what happens if you focus your attention the enemy's side of the board and forgot that there is an attacking move from enemy on your side of the board?

[@bloomersound]

This video was kind of confusing to me, I was waiting for the explanation but it was never explained. I saw Re7 after about a minute, then I assumed Qxe7, you promote the pawn on d8, but then what about black Qf8? There’s so many places to blunder after that move.

[@princeblessededem8343]

Re7 was my first and honestly only move in less than 45 secs but I still find it difficult to get above 2100 in rapid chess games.

[@christianschellbruck9788]

Playing chess since three weeks online and rated 1300 found the move rouge to E7 in about 5-10 Minutes but i often lose to other 1300 - 1400 rated guys. In a real chess match you only got a small amount of time.

[@zorrozalai]

I have excluded Qd5 because of Qxd7, but I didn't find Re7 in 5 minutes.

[@user-kh6xl4yg1j]

Re7 is quite a shot; bravo

[@Sesquipedalian3]

I thought Ba4 was interesting but because I missed Qxd7 with the queen sacrifice, I played Qd5 without checking anything else. I completely missed Re7

[@chessidychess]

If you still have room in your title, I could be the 1200 Elo player

[@sachinss5854]

Do more videos like this...but instead of showing a position...play like an online game and walk us through your thought process like...what move you are going to play and why you're playing that move and what are the considerations you take into account before initiating a plan into action....you can play from lower elos to higher ones... and make like a rating climb series.

[@vitaminb4869]

I was almost certain it's gonna be some weird move like king to h1, which "automatically wins the game" :D :D

[@aleksandrdavydov7593]

Found right move and next few with winning ideas. 3 minutes, 1800 Didn't find Qd5, btw)

[@surajff5632]

What about black queen takes pawn please calculate

[@williamzheng8772]

I found the move rock e7 almost immediately but I'm 1400 rated, is that normal???

[@lucasbusselen9137]

No way that a 1600 would take 30 minutes to find that move. And an 2000 would definitely find the rook move in the puzzle format

[@ineedazerosuit6128]

I did not see Qd5 lol. I started with Bd5 and couldn't make it work. I had immediately recognized that checks with the rook and bishop weren't going to work so I was lost for almost two minutes on what to do. I saw tha Rd1 loses the pawn, and then suddenly after another minute of staring, I found Re7. I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't known to look for such a strong move though.

[@shikharbaral8235]

Yes, I found QD5 move.

[@JustinB_Oz]

In only 400 but just thought of pigs on the 7th concept and lol thats the best move 😂

[@titan4766]

Isn't Qg5 winning? it pins the knight which was protecting the e8 square if the knight moves, we capture the queen and if it doesn't move we capture it anyways, and doesn't matter which piece black takes we can move our rook to e8. Please tell me If this is wrong I am just an 800 elo rated player

[@masterofskills76]

Wow, this was helpful. I especially searched for this because I am 1600 kinda. Btw I did see Re7!

[@muncie1742]

1100 blitz player here... I actually found re7 in about 5 mins but admittedly I didn't see the full variation but i didnt see how they could defend the pawn so it looked good

[@Georgewalsh100]

“Create some devastation” 😂

[@tperm2348]

I'm 1830 and I found it in 30s 😌

[@jalilesama5763]

What about Queen d 4 want to sacrifice the queen for the knight and still protecting the pawn??

[@Earwaxfire909]

Re7 was the first move I considered. I think when someone presents a position as a puzzle its easy to solve. The hard part is getting the pawn to the seventh rank!

[@claytonbenignus4688]

I'm a 1200, but I still found the R-K7. This is because I saw this position as a Counterintuitive Position and I put on my Counterintuitive Thinking Cap. Suddenly, the move popped out at me.

[@user-fq9dn3mz7y]

I didn't find Re7, but I found Qd5 in about 2 minutes and I'm only 1100 - I don't get how it took 30 minutes to a 1600 player to find it... If it means my calculations skill is higher than my current elo - how can I identify what stopping my progress?

[@fivescoop]

Study middlegames in one or two openings at a time

[@user-fq9dn3mz7y]

@@fivescoop that's funny... I actually never learned middlegame of any specific opening🤦 I just learn an opening and try to find the best moves and ideas after the opening. I'll search for videos about the middlegame of my favorite openings - thanks!

[@Dakodii]

Sadly getting puzzles correct is not equivalent to real chess. There are 1100s with 2700 puzzle ratings. I recommend the book An Amateurs Mind by silman.

[@hummercatto.93]

Qb2?

[@retour.allahmaison9068]

@ 0:11 why black plays a6 instead of Qxd7 ?

[@quarter-lifecrisis5127]

because Qxd7 > Qxd7 > Kxd7 > Ba4 and white will either win a piece or checkmate black with the rook a6 prepares b5 to stop Ba4

[@bjaurelio]

1000 rated player. I spent about a minute and found queen takes d7 as a refutation to bishop to d5. I also saw that the knight covering d7 also prevents bishop takes f7 from working as a tactic to win the queen. I never saw Re7 as a candidate move. My solution was bishop to a4 to place it on the same diagonal to see e8. My full calculation was 1. Ba4 Rc2, 2. Re8 Nxe8, 3. dxe8Q Qxe8 4. Bxe8. At the end of the line, you are up material with a queen and bishop for a rook and pawn.

[@hirwaul]

Hi mate! I think after Ba4, ...b5 just loses a tempo for you and it's quite equal😥😥

[@bjaurelio]

​@@hirwaulThanks for the reply. That should have been obvious. I saw Qxd7, but I didn't see b5 in my line. It's probably because I only spent a short time thinking and was getting desperate to find something that could work.

[@hirwaul]

You're welcome:) Don't worry, always happens to me also to miss a move that destroys completely my ideas!!

[@diamondstudycentre]

After white rook e7 black will play rook to e6 blocking the line of white's bishop

[@pieskyy]

At first i saw Qg5 thinking then now Re8+ works as knight cant take because Qxd8 so Qxe8 dxe8+ now Nxe8 and now youve traded a pawn and rook for a queen but then i realised Qxd7 and so i then saw Re7 as i thought queen cant take as d8=Q+ Qxd8 Qxd8+ Ne8 Qxe8# but also bxf7 allowing Re8 Nxe8 dxe8 Qxe8 Bxe8, for reference im 1700

[@mikemckenzie3488]

I found it trying to make bxf7 work. It took a few minutes for me but I practice tactics quite a bit for being 1800. Its hardly a calculation study, it’s only a few move tactic.