Chess Tips: Spotting Weaknesses

[@Zephirum37]

My weakness in my games is my brain

[@TuequoiseQueso]

My weakness in my brain is my games

[@ConcordMass]

@@TuequoiseQueso xD

[@InfernalLegion84]

Yea, when I win more than 50% of my games during 'session' on chess.com (10 minute games), my concentration is ok, but when on losing streak, with every lost game I gradually lose my calm and tend to do more blunders :p

[@panda4247]

Then remove it

[@Ishikawa-Goemon]

My weakness is my brain. xD

[@aleksnguyen5818]

Hikaru: *reads title* Hikaru: yes Levy is weak indeed

[@panda4247]

More like: Yeah okey yeah i mean yeah he is weak yeah, okey chat

[@aka5]

@@panda4247 I read that in his voice

[@detectivemarkseven]

Hikaru: reads title Hikaru: GG YO

[@eduardoayala3204]

@@panda4247 totally nailed it

[@sidekick8983]

My Weakness: I go for the scholars mate, if you notice, I resign.

[@yousefalnahar2567]

Me

[@68blake]

still the same?

[@yousefalnahar2567]

J Guo nah

[@James-ip5gz]

Lmao.

[@santinoespinoza7471]

I say nah to the scholar mate, ez to counter

[@sidarthur8706]

my weakness is that some bastard bishop comes out of nowhere and ruins my plans

[@yamahapiano]

Same so I just decided every move to check the bishops line of attack.

[@bustersbrain]

Rapidly becoming my favorite chess channel, 10 minutes at a time.

[@laimantaslaimantas4618]

Check agadmator hes also not bad

[@aaliyan22]

@@laimantaslaimantas4618 He's great but Levy teaches us in a simple manner which even a beginner can understand.

[@SARTHAKOP0707]

​@@aaliyan22that's right 👍

[@HasifShaikh]

This man has raised my elo from being hardstuck 1400 to 1600

[@HasifShaikh]

@Mekal Covic Hey we all start from somewhere my man/woman. Keep trying!

[@Danxsh17]

Wholesome

[@rexknowsless3187]

how lopng u been playing chess? at the time of your comment

[@ChristinaMyBeloved]

@@HasifShaikh A guy who includes "man/women" when gender unknown.. You truly are Cultured

[@HasifShaikh]

@@rexknowsless3187 Hey! I learned to play chess when I was 4 years old and I played semi-competitively in tournaments until 8th grade. However, after like a 4 year hiatus I picked it up during quarantine after my senior year of high school and have been playing at least 2 rapid games a day since

[@jamesknochen2834]

Biggest weakness: Blunder I am almost always in the better position but then I just blunder a piece and everything collapses

[@MattiMCFC]

Same, or I just don't find a plan and end up trading down, either player blunders a piece and that's the game

[@jakeandersen8809]

I can get a good postion at times and I don't blunder a piece or I can have a bad start and panic and then blunder

[@cubing7276]

Idk how but according to analyses I am ok at exploiting blunders

[@hapainess3636]

relatable

[@somethingbeautiful3347]

Couldn't be more right,or I have no bloody idea what to do,then blunder,then tata for me

[@yashu9700]

This content is AMAZING! I cannot stress enough how well you are explaining situations and I love your style and clarity. Keep up the good work!

[@aaditsisodia419]

Hi levy, big fan, I won a tournament because of your opening lessons, thank u!

[@Lak1148]

Congratulations on your victory my dude :)

[@aaditsisodia419]

Thank u

[@moses4203]

rating and was it the courses?

[@ekhazar9806]

Congratulations

[@aaditsisodia419]

No courses

[@XoIoRouge]

You sir, Levy, are an amazing teacher. You admit and acknowledge your losses and learn from your mistakes. But it's one thing to look back in hindsight and learn.... it's another thing to be brave enough to show your fans one of the worst games you've had. You either take losses very professionally (read: not personally) or you hide it well. Whichever, it helps you focus on teaching us, and it doesn't distract us from the lesson at hand. I've learned a lot from you. ...I'm finally rank 600. 😅😛

[@calebhanly2026]

congrats!

[@darkalpha6530]

Good Luck for your next games 😃🙂👍👍.

[@TheDUDE-tp7uq]

What is ur elo now?

[@XoIoRouge]

@@TheDUDE-tp7uq In games less than 5m, I'm ranked 800, climbing slowly. In 10 mins, I'm ranked 1000? Been up to 1100 but fell down after not practicing for a bit.

[@edwinpalliyan8426]

My weakness is getting better😂😂😂😂

[@JosephLachh]

My biggest weakness is that I didn't watch GothamChess videos for the first 18 years of my chess career.

[@whatswithme]

When I asked some people "How do I study my own games?" The answers were so simple and not helpful, but with this I feel like now I can understand more about my mistakes and learn from them. Thanks, levy.

[@MrTuxedoNat]

Same here.

[@kamalkumar7978]

They just say to analyse and play what computer says.

[@ordinarryalien]

Can you please create a playlist for this "Chess Tips" series?

[@Ny_babs]

Levy this is great. Each of the types of weaknesses needs its own video. Knight outposts, isolated pawns, backward pawn, color scheme weakness, knight vs bishop or bishop pair.

[@g.h.g.1106]

In the example against GM Bruzon (8:07) if Nxe4 to open up the bishop on g7, rather than dxe4, White can trade queens while winning a pawn via Qxd5+ because after the Night retakes on d5 it hits the forking c7 square. There are also no other tricks with the g7 bishop. At first, I was not sure about this variation, thus I share it here. In the last example, after a minute or so, I identified both of the ideas he eventually discusses. My problem is in such situations I sometimes do not have the confidence to go with it (e.g. trading the bishop for the knight while opening the g-file for his rook is not an easy trade-off to assess for me), or take too long time to decide between options. When I see masters discuss positions, most of the time I absolutely get it, but in my own games trusting my evaluation is not easy since I am only 1900 or so. Still way too many oversights.

[@416loren]

You have my respect. You use examples from your losses. You are more interested in teaching than feeding an ego. I subscribed.

[@tfhahs9619]

note: this was filmed during a 2 am twitch stream

[@Milton_PSD]

You're such a good teacher. Thank you.

[@markowitzen]

That was extremely helpful... as somewhat of a beginner in chess, it's kind of hard to understand positional play. When I watch high-level games (there are many titled players just running around on websites that you can spectate literally whenever you want), I find myself not really understanding the logic behind most moves unless there's some very clear tactic involved and there doesn't seem to be that much documentation on things like this. Quite a lot more suddenly made much more sense after watching this, so many thanks to GothamChess!

[@stephenleavitt1003]

I got the test wrong... until he showed my idea and said “but this is a really cool idea...”

[@lochfoster1514]

Target consciousness of weaknesses helped me improve so much, especially for positional chess improvement.

[@Şehsaid]

Alternate title: how to win pawns in middle game without trading

[@the_pokemon_bros]

Beautiful concept! Just changed the way I view the middle game. Fear me! Thanks Levy!

[@kalloop5526]

Best chess KZbinr/streamer out there

[@Zero-ef4sc]

agadmator has entered the chat.

[@TheMegadomino]

Zero yuuuup, none can defeat the water sipping king

[@MrTorticolis]

Hello everyone

[@oldgods914]

@@Zero-ef4sc agad and his audience is cringe. Levy is far far better Teacher and a chess youtuber

[@Zero-ef4sc]

@@oldgods914 "agad and his audience is cringe" agad himself isn't and only a small minority of his audience is. You look at Levy's audience, you can see the same number of cringy scrubs. "Levy is a far better teacher" Maybe you think that because agad has rarely ever made an instructional video that is specifically for teaching a concept, or because he is the worse player, so he has less lessons to teach? "and chess youtuber" factually incorrect. 700k vs 26k subs. And I can guarantee you that if both channels started out around the same time, agad would still have more subs. Levy is better for higher rated players, agad is better for normal players which is the majority of chess fans. And in the real world, the one who appeals to the majority wins in the end.

[@IC-kf4mz]

I always wanted a content like this. Concepts simplified without focus on numbers much C5, B5, F4...

[@ImprovePath]

3:17 i think you mean your knight was attacking opponent's queen so your opponent took it by bishop.

[@alyks5478]

I love the way you explained mistakes clearly without attacking the person making them. Especially on the games against subscribers. Definitely Subbed :)

[@anaxmalakas]

These lessons have really been helping me in my games. I hope you keep them coming.

[@SolutionsbyDrDave]

Not recognizing and playing toward my opponents weaknesses is a weakness of mine

[@thearm95]

Same. I've paused the video on Levy's first example and have no idea of the answer...still looking...

[@euclid9492]

You’re starting to fill that void John Bartholomew left in the KZbin space for really quality chess lessons after he got more involved with chessable. Big fan now levy keep it up!

[@billowen3285]

What's chessable?

[@esven9263]

6:22 Doesn't queen takes run into knight d5. No matter what you take the knight with you lose a pawn after the trades. If you take with a pawn it ends up isolated and attacked by the bishop after the trades happen and if you take with knight the trades end with bishop takes d5 and when you take back with the pawn it ends up isolated and attacked by the rook. Just seems like that line always seems to end with at best even material. If you instead go straight for the queen trade you get hit with knight f6 as an inbetweener which messes up the pawns in front of your king and again leaves you with even material. Knight takes, which is the line you went into, I think is the better variation.

[@joshuadickerson1902]

This was a great video. Some weaknesses are very hard To spot. The way that your opponent best you by seeing that you couldn't defence your central pawns was crazy.

[@robtroup6360]

Watched the video.. then watched it again.. played a game on chess.com and hit 91.1% accuracy as a 950 rated player..... I have never seen a bot cry before... so .. well.. having reached my peak I will now retire.. .and think of myself as a legend..

[@UpperCrustthe3rd]

Well-described tips. Interesting to see the examples from your game against GM Lazaro Bruzon; I had the opportunity to play against him recently as a part of a simultaneous exhibition he held. For a while I held my own, but then I blundered a rook and he easily outclassed me; I was proud to last 30 moves.

[@erwinbesina8739]

A very good lesson, crystal clear, direct to the point and not boring. Not just like other teachers here in YT they are just showing the game without giving the idea and they are just showing off that they are titled.

[@manavjaison]

3:44 that was awesome Levy 😂😂❤

[@kepadi6939]

11:27 guys it's, it's the wooden shield

[@sumantchopde9039]

Wow! I've seen a lot of chess tips videos but this one was actually great! I never thought that colour scheme weakness was a thing. Thanks a lot!

[@myrusEW]

Wow. I just subscribed because of this video. Most chess teaching online is like move here and here because this here will want to move here so you're going to deny that. And I'm like..I get it...but I don't understand the whole picture. You totally helped me understand the board and position a lot better

[@Shome2049]

You're explanations are very easy to understand. Thank you

[@johnpeddie4138]

This is wonderful. Finally an introduction on how to approach the middle game. The concept of thinking in weaknesses should be helpful! Thanks for the video

[@santiagovelez9191]

My weakness in chess it's the endgame, im 1600 but i can't stop losing completely winning or drawned positions in the endgame

[@ekhazar9806]

My weakness is fail to understand the opponent's tactics against me for defending

[@brayanchaves8198]

Man, your channel is awesome! Great content, superb explanation. Im learning so much! Keep up w the great work! This Chess Tip series is opening my mind.

[@jothello9162]

Very grateful for the numerous examples. I think the most helpful thing in chess tip videos is demonstrations of how to put knowledge into practice. Thanks Levy!

[@codykaufman2835]

Levy I will subscribe after this one. Not only because you mentioned over 60% of KZbin watchers aren’t subscribed, but the content is great! Keep it up

[@BusyB07]

12:00 I thought the principle was: if your opponent has a strong presence on light squares. Take the dark squared bishop. How did he know to take the knight? I also found it very unintuitive to take the "pawn duo" because they're guarded by the knight. So basically sticking to principles is hindering me. For example, in this position I would've played pawn D6 to solidify pawn structure. I'll re-watch this though, the examples are great.

[@Budha3773]

The knight was the only piece defending the dark squares and in particular the central pawns I think once the knight fell there was no good way to defend d4 and if d4 is falling then e5 is falling. Also almost everything in the white position is on dark squares, the central pawns and all the pieces and the king. Everything except the light squared bishop and some flank pawns. Also I think splitting the king side and immobilizing the f and h pawns on dark squares is good for black.

[@GogaDidi]

Graat video Levy and very educational as always!!! I love the last example and I look forward to video on pawn breaks!!! Thank you!!!

[@saathvikgowda9909]

Best chess channel on youtube period. Let's get him to 1M guys!

[@louisvuittondonvg9040]

Awesome video, color square weaknesses are the weakest part of my game right now, I struggle finding them. This was really helpful

[@emregeylani]

Helpful video Levy thanks. But at 6:22 computer dislikes 1...Qxd4 since there is 2.Nxd5 (-0.2). Instead 1...Nxd4 (-2.5) looks better.

[@antiquetalk1633]

You are a brilliant teacher of chess. Enthusiastic and logical. The weaknesses lessen is so important and seldom brought up by other chess teachers. Thanks. PS I am a subscriber to chess.com. Does that make me a "subscriber." Wayne from CT

[@Mason-lr5dz]

Wild how much Levy has improved at explanations in just the last 9 months. Great video, as usual.

[@christopherg1288]

My biggest weakness is probably endgames and maybe also openings that I haven’t studied and aren’t part of my repertoire. I have a fairly limited repertoire. I love your videos Levy thanks for explaining stuff in such depth and making such quality chess education videos. They’re very entertaining and interesting

[@wereszycki]

best chess channel thank you Levy

[@chessmaster5234]

last two examples where good the gm played beautifully thanks lavi please do more minute and cover more advanced topics good luck.

[@AKhoja]

Last position you showed, I thought a better way of getting at the advanced white pawns was trading the knight on f3 (removing the defender) and then playing c5. Stockfish seems to approve of that method too

[@monksoftheway8645]

I just reached 1200 and this video made something click for me. Till now I have been so focused on my pieces taking where they can that the concept of weakness as places on the board, with or without being occupied, was just not part of my process. I know that making a 1200 a better player is not really a big feather in your cap but I'm thankful just the same. Blessings of Buddha to you my friend.

[@chetheflin7447]

Great video, sharpening the eye to spot weaknesses. Looking forward to pawn play. Thank you!

[@TussharSingh]

Loved the video. Weaknesses in chess are hard to understand, but you explained beautifully with those examples.

[@MargusMartsepp]

At 2:48 you could have moved qa5, he cannot go Ne5 as you can just simply ne5+ and after Bxe5 bring ne5 that forces queen to back and nc3 wins at least a pawn. While he has a better position, now he is no longer penetrating the right side. At 4:18 it is better to move Qe8, the difference is that now after e4 qg8 Be5 you can bh6 and he is actually starting to help you develop. Unless he moves Kb2, the game is even if not better for you. You need to defend your white pawn structure and develop pieces so be6. As you see e4 is actually a weak move, it was defending d4 and it could be defended easily, so even your opponent makes mistakes. I do spot weaknesses in depth of vision, a lot of players can only see 4-6 moves ahead at best and that is nowhere close to 23-25. You can exploit those weaknesses. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGTPpH2jrLOCapI

[@mitchumvaz6580]

Really would like to see a more in depth video in opening systems, longer videos are totally fine.

[@TheHieutv]

12:15 what if white plays a3 after Black c5? Black dark bishop is then trapped and has to take the knight on c3.

[@kidgay3730]

I keep stagnating at around 1200 because I'm really bad at attacking unless there is something really clear. So, when my opponent makes a mistake I can be brutal, but if they don't I just make too many "nothing" moves so I create my own weaknesses.

[@JDeathcore94]

honestly some of the best chess content on youtube

[@AlexA-zh5cf]

You have a wonderful teaching style!!!!! Love the content

[@weandgoliath]

Great video. I want more like this that helps us think about how to create and spot tactics that aren't super obvious. Thanks

[@sc4ndal0us2]

I'm like somewhat new to chess with like 1190 rapid rating, but saw that bishop - knight trade and pawn push to weaken the position. I'm giving myself 10 ELO for that

[@Martin_Neal]

Pop quiz solution(?) at 10:00 into it: Bxc3 capturing a kNight; but, sacrificing your (bad) dark-square Bishop, right?

[@Gabberz123]

Reviewing my garbage play: What's the weakness here? Oh, right. The queen I left hanging.

[@ravivarma239]

Very instructive and useful.Thanks a lot dear.

[@ManOhMan_1]

8:05 this is my problem, i don’t have this vision that i can see the 3 or more moves that is gonna happen after so i can make plans

[@louisvuittondonvg9040]

I love that you show your losses you’re a cool dude

[@segretia]

Love these 10 min vids, super helpful.

[@hitmonrillo766]

Levy I have a question: So you mentioned that when you have such a dominance in one set of squares like the dark squares, that could mean that your weakness will be the light squares. Following up with that statement would that not mean that an opening that controls on set of squares such as the Stonewall would be a bad opening?

[@noxultionis3851]

Look where the opponent's bishop is m8

[@faznaz7455]

Murilo Matos In some cases yes, but there are playable openings with such structures like the Semi-Slav for example where Black establishes his light square blockade with the Bishop usually outside the pawn chain.

[@andrewbobak6894]

you have to give up squares, in order to get squares.

[@JJ_TheGreat]

8:43 Is it because those pieces are both hanging (not defended by any pieces) in the position?

[@bhairampally311]

Thank you IM Levy, I was unable to figure out the weaknesses before watching this video. But now I am maybe sure to find weaknesses in my opponents position.

[@Nvu26]

Me after the solutions: "Yea, I can totally see this" Me in a game: "Um, yea I totally know what to do"

[@Venomous_Network]

4:49 what about e6?

[@jonathenlester4780]

Glad to see a humble Levy.

[@ashwinbabu007]

you should make a series with this

[@sirdondaniel]

11:19 - what is wrong with taking the night, then taking the pawn on F2 and winning the exchange?

[@jayw5478]

It's kind of hard to know when to pause and solve. Love the content.

[@sudarshan3901]

I never thought of this type of weaknesses...It opened up my mind...Thank you bro❤️

[@gulagbatman1318]

Bruh, I just got an ad for a movie called 'cocaine bear'. I'm laughing my ass off. I just wanted to get better at chess. Lmao 😂

[@cthonianmessiah]

My biggest weakness in chess right now is that I am STILL dropping pieces from time to time by not checking whether a square is attacked before moving into it.

[@MrFreshEnjoyer19]

10:21 I’m confused as to why those two central pawns are weak. If they’re both guarded and controlling the center how are they weak?

[@QuadrivialArts]

Because like he said afterwards, the light squared bishop takes the knight, which is the solitary guard. Then he has the only dark square bishop on the board and is able to pick them off. There is also the rook but because of his knight, using the rook to defend would be trading down on material.

[@tutorthony3996]

That was so instructive! Thank you very much! 👍

[@Lets_MakeItSimple]

Bf3 was super cool ! i wish i had that kind of vision.

[@mykytasemisoshenko971]

Hey, Levy. Thx for this video. I am really appreciating you chess games and explainers. Can you advice some training tools that I can use for everyday practice of how good I see position on a board and can find a best move?

[@jeremy1909]

At 3:00 instead of attacking the queen, can't you just wait till he put his knight there and then trade it with your knight, that's what my opponent always does and I regret working so hard to put a knight there

[@divxthegreatgalaxy2641]

The best Chess tutorial ever, you are doing a great job Levy.. Big fan of yours...

[@oldgods914]

Levy the best.

[@aaronjohn6586]

Realizing with your help that I see what you do but am slowly learning on what to do. Actually had a couple of good moves in my last few games, Losing a lot more then winning but still trying.

[@jimmykey7303]

Excellent instruction, very enjoyable, thanjs.

[@jamesaburke7]

I have fairly strong chess tactics. Unfortunately I have a serious traumatic brain injury. My biggest weakness is my attention and I will often have missed wins. I actually enjoy playing much harder opponents more, because wins occur less, but for some reason when I play tough players, my wins are usually obvious. Still when I play a weak player, I tend to just miss their mistakes.

[@RaWMajkeL]

Your channel is great. Please keep up the work! It really helps

[@anuravsingh6831]

Man you're helping me way too much

[@jimwalsh2001]

Question: I'm just starting to learn strategy; should I start playing against others or should I wait until I have studied a certain amount of strategy and games...

[@mrcarlsjr12]

I paused the video and found d takes and castles long! Nice video Levy keep em coming.