The London Accelerated...Accelerated My Decline in ELO (Chess)

[@robinvik1]

**9 o clock central european time** Me: "IT'S TIME!" My roommate: "Time for what?" Me: "Time to get weird with it."

[@LixxLixx]

Uh

[@untexan]

That “intermediate chess genius???” video was like a kiss of death, you hate to see it

[@Northernlion]

"Strongest 1500 Ever" - Levy Rozman immediately decays to 1450

[@notrab13]

Strongest 1350 now?

[@makytondr8607]

@@Northernlion Sometimes your rating dips when you learn new concepts because you’re playing in an uncomfortable way and making mistakes, but you’ll climb back up again once you become more familiar with them. Edit: Oh nevermind, I typed this about two minutes before you said something similar yourself.. lol

[@blakeshaneour1702]

@@makytondr8607 I read this 30 seconds after he said it.

[@louieberg2942]

@@blakeshaneour1702 I read this four hours after your post

[@garrettmeek1828]

“Ironic, he could protect others from The Grob but not himself”

[@Vengatio]

"Is it possible to learn this opening?"

[@IceFire9yt]

​@@Vengatio Not from a GM.

[@davieslovesfloyd]

win or lose, I'm here with my NL sign in the crowd

[@ImEverythingYouCrave]

you, me, and everybody else bud

[@Ichthaeus]

Egg 3:16

[@Szanth]

Algorithmic engagement

[@einstein780]

You know you're an egg dad when a 4K, 144hz, 32 Inch monitor is hindering your chess gaming and making you lose that precious ELO score

[@grobattackappreciator5930]

The Grob Attack... Attacked my ELO. It really did I'm at like 800 now. The Grob opening opened me up to failure.. a Faustian bargain indeed but worth it in the end

[@DMAN123223]

Zaniness was the Faustian bargain all along.

[@marksolvent3259]

Play and you’ll get better fast. Think more about how to protect your pieces when doing the openings for a start and you can cross 1200.

[@jamesatherton6231]

Nice title

[@CamposVerano]

18:25 This is a pattern worth remembering when you fianchetto your bishop! The queen-bishop battery that white has is a common theme - one thing they are threatening is Bh6 to remove your fianchetto bishop and therefore weaken the defence around your king. Ng4 is a great was to neutralise it.

[@Pyronar]

Yup, which is why white shouldn't rush into it and should block the knight move first with something like f3. It also illustrates why developing the knight to c6 is preferred over d7 in the Dragon (which is what NL basically played) since it would put further pressure on white's centre, reducing their options.

[@aberrant_bunny]

I like your funny words, magic man

[@brandonevans4295]

I don’t understand why I enjoy watching you play chess so much when I can watch Hikaru or another gm. But I just keep coming back and enjoying it here

[@Northernlion]

don't question it just pog up

[@doesnotexistyet11]

I know what you mean! I think for me he just hits that sweet spot of being high enough elo for the games not just be complete low-elo slugfests that could have happened in my account but not so incredibly much better that I can't relate to or keep up with the thought processes anymore. Watching GMs is fascinating to me, but I don't keep up with what's happening most of the time and don't really learn much either because it's too much information on too high a level unless it's a video specifically aiming to teach a technique or opening to (almost) complete noobs like me. But Hikaru just playing games and commenting on it feels like he's talking a different language or at least a lot of it happens at a speed where I just can't keep up and think along being the noob that I am. On the other end of the spectrum there's also a lot of chess streamers that are at like 800 elo which can be fun to watch for different reasons but I don't find a lot of it interesting since the games look mostly like my games, just people hanging pieces left and right and there isn't that much strategizing going on. NL is just right in the middle of the two and that's why he's the perfect chess streamer for me right now. I also haven't really come across (m)any other streamers that cover the elo range from like 1300-1700 that I feel is most fun for me to watch at my current level. Plus NL is just chill and enjoyable to watch at any game (been a fan since the old Isaac days!) so even if I did find others at that elo I'd still prefer to watch this channel ;)

[@Ali.Abdulla]

NL's a cunning linguist. An oratory tour de force. Plus most chess personalities have the people skills of milk toast in favor of strict logic and competitiveness. And in the case of naka my dude repeats phrases more times than anyone else I know: "..Do you really want me to shave my head chat? Chat, should I really shave my head chat? Thank you for the bits nakalover6969. Also thank you for the sub from victimlesslover. Chat, should I really shave my head?.."

[@jacobmaul6339]

9:46 rook pushes pawn on h7 wouldve been a whole new game

[@lesfrisbees]

26:23 NL’s position here is so funky, and the pawn take was just magnificent.

[@Chizzle69420]

It might be a while, but I beleive in NL. He'll become good again.

[@renkanestark6945]

@@hdysicjegk what are you on about?

[@renkanestark6945]

@@hdysicjegk What I meant to say is "you're onto something".

[@a4435ify]

At the 33:55 mark you had an amazing setup I think. Your queen (9 points) was essentially paralyzing their knight, rook, and bishop (11 points). To move any of those pieces at any point would mean losing 1 of the other pieces that does not move. Their currently "free to move" piece (dark squared bishop) can only help this situation by defending the knight. Which still means everything is stuck because if they move their knight, they lose the bishop. If they move the bishop they still lose the rook. They can move the rook, but nowhere useful.

[@vitorti2529]

33:50 Queen to A4 is a blunder because your queen is ideally placed on C2. Your opponent couldn't move his rook, bishop and knight. If you want to improve your game, you should start to not only think "how to win a piece", but also think on "how to restrict your opponents pieces". If your opponent cant move, you are sure to win.

[@brandyb9987]

Remember, sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take a step forwards in the future.

[@blakeshaneour1702]

Went back and liked any chess videos I happened to have forgotten to on. I've followed you for 5, maybe 7 years, who knows. I've wanted to see you play chess and go on the real jeopardy. You're half way there, don't mess this up. P.S. your high intelligence and amazing memory is what I love. Ten minute chess is the lowest time you can go and talk through moves, you're still quickly finding yourself 3 min down the whole game, before you're even out of the early game. I do the same thing in my games, I'll play 4 half games in my head based on the early game that actually happened and then blunder 8 turns later because I don't have the time to run though plays after an unexpected move. Then you go shorter times and you don't even have time to say a midgame move was a blunder so we know here at home, because you're behind on time for talking through early game thoughts. If I'm ahead on time in my game my win rate is 8/10 compared to 3/10 when behind after early game. Not because I had fallen behind in pieces or development and needed to use time to find a best move. But because it's the midgame and I'm 2 minutes up because I pushed my time hard. Instead of overthinking early moves. I know you pushed for same with Gothenchess but your chess will be better if you build some openings. Play one way 20 games, figure out what you r best move is as each opponent takes a different development. That will help you know the answer to some moves I've watched you literally spend 2 minutes on. My opponent is playing faster, unable to check all the outcomes and will blunder, misclick, play a waiting move for time that gives me momentum. All because they need to keep every second because they don't know how far the end game is and need time for checks. I'd love to see you in a state tourny or something. You just have to put more priority on thinking about the game, maybe not taking so long explain a train of thought that plays in your head in a quarter second. Reading chat. Chess players point at pieces and say bang, that's enough info for me to see the action going on in game/your head. It's chess, a lot of new bad players out there who just like hearing ryab talk, sure, but I think if this becomes a long term series your main watchers will be people who watch EVERY video you put out, and people who want to get better at chess. You're very intelligent and you know those Russians figured out your elo is directly related to IQ. You're elo is way higher than mine so don't listen to me. Losing on time after telling a great story or something just doesn't do it for me. Your popularity with Issac was from playing well and talking the whole time. I don't want you to be on mom's heart telling a killer grocery story only to get hit because you wanted to see chat laughing and now the run is done, video is done, I barely remember the story and am left unsatisfied. I sound super critical, I'm sorry, , it's 5am on a sober all nighter, so grain of salt on tone. But I hope you understand it's because I have enjoyed watching your success. You've been a great virtual friend in a decade that was very busy for me. Thank you.

[@msu_kevin]

Common misconception is that “missed win” means missed mate. It could just mean missed capitalizing and getting a significant advantage 😁

[@destinygames5778]

true!

[@Jiyoon02]

Your laughters in these older chess videos are hilarious. It's quite addicting to be honest 10:34 h'hi'hi'h'heheheha

[@varishnakov]

at around 10:25 that was really strong analysis. The lines he chose are backed up by the computer and would have won him back the piece.

[@alessandrofinocchi5608]

Hi Northernlion! I'm new to your channel, and if I'm being honest, I only watch your chess content. For what I've seen before, I don't think it's the best idea that you play the Dragon Sicilian: you are more of a maneuvering kind of player, and the Dragon it's about being really aggresive from the start, and where you need to study A LOT on how to get counterplay and not being inferior fast. If you want to play a Sicilian, I think you should check out the e6 sicilians: the Kan (a little bit slower), and the Taimanov (a little bit sharper), that would let you maneuver a little bit more. And even then, I think playing e5 against 1.e4, or the Caro-Kann, would suit you better.

[@mattroxursoul]

26:25 that look said a whole lot. Well shit happens

[@hellzbasket7653]

I appreciate the willingness to branch out and try new things in chess. Keep on pogging egg daddy.

[@Tranchera]

"We've got plenty of time, I'm not worried about time." Is always down at least 3 minutes at the end of the game.

[@wodger9]

Egg you can adjust the size of the board by using the little symbol just outside the top right on the board, next to the time. You can drag that to change the size whatever you'd like. Big love my dude

[@smfisch]

skill issue

[@MrUgleh]

@Northernlion In the Explorer if you go to the gear symbol, while highlighting it you will see a button appear underneath it to flip the board. Unknown why it is hidden.

[@firehammock3021]

The chess titles for the last week have been some variation of "I LOSE!"

[@etopowertwon]

I blame at 40:53 move 25... Qxa3 (at FEN "2b3k1/p5pp/5n2/2Bp1p2/1P2p3/P2qP1P1/3N1PBP/4K2R b K - 0 1" position). This is where everything went wrong. Not later moves. Position begs Ba6 instead of greedy pawn eating. Even Stockfish agrees. Komodo's f4 is garbage. Once battery is formed, it's unstoppable and white at best starts bleeding material as it no longer has time to castle. And it's very forcing. I'm surprised Egg didn't find the line. He had 3 minutes at that point.

[@Darckseyes]

“Let’s give it another try, let’s keep it moving” Video Ends 😢

[@Pyronar]

Honestly, I wanted to write a comment about the inaccuracies in that Sicilian opening and the misunderstanding of tempo, but NL just looks tired. I hope everything is alright. Thank you for the good content, hope you're getting enough sleep and not letting the bad parts of the job get to you.

[@Northernlion]

bro everything's great I just have a newborn baby

[@olivergraf1360]

Oh god I'm going through the same shit, but you'll come back stronger than before. Or not. Who knows.

[@MrSunscoop]

there is an arrow thing on the bottom right corner and it lets you resize the board

[@toiryelhsa]

29:50 He is thinking the board in his gourd

[@ayebarberfuckmeup4689]

Hey man, it happened to me too. I was at 1505 and dropped all the way to 1330. But its in those type of situations where you learn the most, and I'm now happily back at 1500. :)

[@ynwa9885]

33:27 doesn’t queen to c2 just win a piece?

[@davider2913]

This is the best title I have ever read in my entire life!

[@brywnbray1382]

giving up the triple lockdown (Knight, Bishop, and Rook) position your queen has at the end of the second game for free instead of putting pressure elsewhere with your free pieces killed me inside.

[@koiiinu]

always a learning phase with new openings

[@Soronant]

That Travolta in Battlefield Earth impression was pitch perfect and only a handful of people will ever know.

[@inordirectional]

dunka glunka donka donka, honka honka badonkadonka

[@CharleneVanAs]

I don’t comment often on videos but i just want to say how much i am enjoying these chess videos !! Over all other games out there at the moment, i look forward to these chess videos the most. 😀

[@johnathanroth6205]

NL you aren't getting worse, you need to take a break. It only goes up after you take a little break. The same thing happened to me, I was skyrocketing in elo and then one day I just had loss after loss and the next week was basically the same thing and I thought, "I've lost my touch," I decided to take a break and when I came back I was playing much better, because my mindset wasn't focused on the losses but on how I could keep getting better. Even if you keep losing you can learn and if you aren't learning from your losses take a break and clear your mind of the game for a few days. When you come back I promise you will see a difference!

[@nilockin]

Poor egg is so concerned about his ELO and doesn't realize we'd watch him play some 10 ELO pogged losses and love it.

[@chrisegg7936]

I had to look it up to make sure but "missed win" is not "missed mate." It just means a missed opportunity to get a big leap in win probability, like by going up a piece.

[@ryanstephenson8422]

At 4:14 I don't know why you were so worried. I haven't watched the full video yet, but your knight protected that piece. If they took there you could take back. You'd have a good knight. And you'd of been able to make a more progressive move.

[@slingerofbeer1346]

"hes stealing my bicycle." Well if we didnt know that you lived in Vancouver before...

[@menpower1]

I love how every bad play or devastating response happens right after NL comments on it

[@flackbyte]

Game one he did the accelerated dragon perfectly without even knowing it. Granted, the one he studied was the Najdorf, but I count that as a big win. Although, on the second game I'm pretty sure he was off book by move three on the Dutch. Maybe give King's Indian, nimzo Indian, or bogo Indian a look. The key in the Dutch Leningrad, aside from knowing the moves is to know when to break in the center. Specifically the e4-e5 squares. Also it might be scary to do a king side pawn storm when you're castled kingside but it can be a valid strategy in the Leningrad.

[@abadlydrawncoke4016]

He didn't play the dragon (I don't think it was accelerated because he played it after Nf6) correctly though. Didn't play Ng4 to harass the bishop when white didn't do f3, and developed his knight to d7 instead of c6. Tbf at the 1500 level that doesn't auto lose the game, but it's definitely not the proper way to play it.

[@flackbyte]

@@abadlydrawncoke4016 You're right, it wasn't the accelerated dragon, but it was a fine opening performance, the follow through will come to him.

[@zaaxi7424]

I'd love to see some more opening study stuff, just looking at non-database games, also do you know the Opening Tree website it's amazing, it shows you all the moves you've played arranged in a tree of moves and stats for all! Edit - also please don't just look at Master's Databases

[@savithasanjaya]

Please only look at masters databse they have prepared all openings the general database have games of 100 elo

[@zaaxi7424]

@@savithasanjaya Lichess Database has games from 1600+, although I generally just use 1800+

[@ThatSteemBloke]

Hover near the bottom right of the board, a little stretch symbol should show up. Click and drag to resize the board. I halved the size of my board and it's honestly helped me truckloads. You don't miss nearly as much stuff, in my experience.

[@ThatSteemBloke]

I knew something was up when I realised that I saw the board much better when playing on my phone 😂 Dead giveaway.

[@carlwei]

Sad Splunkey & Chess were reruns today, but understandable. Have a nice day.

[@f00ky3w2oob]

Would probably be decent for his watch time if it was somehow indicated, but I guess he doesn't care about KZbin anymore?

[@Flare3924]

@@f00ky3w2oob I mean he does have a kid to take care of.

[@hergz7]

To have a great comeback, one must first have a great deficit. Stay strong Egg Father!!!

[@leonjankov3410]

When analyzing you can click "show lines" to show the best computer moves if you want them

[@alexh.9630]

damn i was so pogged up but i've already seen it : (

[@nerothos]

Btw NL you can probably just resize the browser window (or use Responsive/Mobile view) to get the board smaller.

[@Corncycle]

I couldn't tell you why but I open the description on every chess video to read "the horse moves like an L"

[@Madhatter1781]

It's ok NL, my Elo is scrounging into the 1000s, pretty much maintaining my mid 900 rating atm. I desperately gotta learn more openings

[@zaaxi7424]

It definitely helps to have some opening prep, just people aren't gonna play "mainlines" but useful to get an idea of common variations :)

[@avvvqvvv99]

"checks, captures, attacks" both sides, especially after the midgame

[@makytondr8607]

26:25 was somehow really funny 😄

[@pixelpox11]

Ah yes. The standard dunka, glonka, monkaS play xD

[@KipCasper]

NL if I can give you a suggestion: make your chrome window smaller. I play on an ultrawide curved monitor and I just have the chrome window with chess as less than half the width of the screen.

[@Keenencates]

The chess arc has unleashed his true pogtential

[@TomZ1272]

NL plays with literally zero aggression and lets his opponent dictate the game. L’s after L’s because he plays every game the same: opening, confusion, desperation, realization, loss.

[@MedievalSolutions]

There should be settings on the site to shrink the chessboard and if everything fails, shrink chrome. *he said, expecting no technical development past the first 30 seconds of the vid*

[@migs6674]

I love watching your chess vids

[@michealjackson3520]

This incredible loss streak is kinda painful, you hate to see it

[@davidballantyne4492]

I'd watch an hour long game, I mean this video alone is 42 mins.

[@CJ-xw4tl]

Hey nl love your vids. You should try the Vienna System/Gambit it's super fun.

[@zaaxi7424]

Levy (Gotham Chess) deffo taught him this

[@slashdotism]

That first guy did some computer moves for sure

[@CJ-xw4tl]

Apparently I am unsubbed even though I've watched the channel for years. Interesting, youtube..

[@Cronos804]

Thanks to NL i know what i means for a piece to be pinned and the concept of a discovered attack, but i still dont know any basic play patters because i dont play chess. So whenever he tries to hype up the board state i can only realize that i watch this man purely for his style of narration.

[@DJKrisyKrisdude]

Honestly I feel like you're not doing as bad as you might think you are. There's always a decline when you're learning new things and trying to apply them until you're more comfortable. But once you are, you're gonna start shooting way up

[@appleguyyxozo]

You should try those 15|10 games. Those seem like a middle ground for learning and entertain.

[@alierk542]

You win some you lose some eggo! Still pogged out of my gourd for the content

[@adamwb8302]

fyi nl you can increase/decrease the size of the board by dragging the corner.

[@Mathmachine]

The London Accelerated is bad? I knew I shouldn't trust the Metro and should have stuck with owning a car.

[@Waghabond]

oh man, it hurt me that the video cuts when he says "lets give it another try, let keep it moving"

[@x3havoc]

Why not take ND4 w/ B? You had check to evade Queen capture

[@Cryzallite]

The major difference in this losing skid is NL playing reactive and not proactive chess.

[@nateguess9773]

Keep up the great content boss

[@TuucciZ]

I'm a ~1450 and most of my opening knowledge comes from your videos. Get your ELO down to my level so we can have fun playing

[@oldsuitman7762]

you can tell his feelings are hurt when he loses

[@ianfife7438]

When was the last time nl played a ranked mode? Dips are common with online competitions especially when it's only over the course of several days some people drop hundreds of points in a single day in league of legends xDD special case that game is though

[@foxyr4bbit]

have u tried zooming in instead

[@screamingliner]

Hoping he found out the board can be resized.

[@RhinoRin]

This needs to be top comment

[@Kiteon]

You've got this NL!

[@davidtownsend1999]

Best series

[@thecheesiestbiscuit]

You gotta get worse before you can get better. Learning openings is tough, and that shift in play is definitely hitting you hard, but i have faith it'll pog you up in the long run. Edit: i typed this too early lol the man acknowledged this fact already

[@thomasfairchild5538]

I'm feeling POGGY tonight

[@georgepantzikis7988]

The title is me if you change from London to accelerated dragon. I have been playing it recently and I have not won a single game with it.

[@zaaxi7424]

I don't like the Dragon setup anymore, I prefer my dark-squared bishop on E7, and then I go for either Classical, Najdorf or even the Scheveningengegen

[@georgepantzikis7988]

@@zaaxi7424 I used to play only Najdorf but I figure it's a good idea to become more familiar with other sicilian variants as well.

[@mattroxursoul]

You ever check out HangingPawns channel? He has a big course on the London system. May be of interest to you in free time. He goes over a few variations and how to handle different approaches black can take. Videos have stuff on the Dutch as well as King Indian. They do not change London system completely but give some ideas on things to do when facing off against different defenses. As well it really goes a long way in explaining the system

[@Pravinoz]

Can’t spell progress without POG

[@noahsherman6488]

he said lets keep it moving but the video ended :(

[@stauner32]

tfw he complained about the resize of the board on stream but my comment was lost in the wave :( Nl you can resize the chess board itself. Bottom right corner you can mouse over it and you can drag the symbol that appears. Right next to h1 if you're playing white or a8 if black

[@abdullahalamoudi8603]

Try a game with increment... 15-10 or 10-05

[@oh_banana]

Please put chat into future VODs, otherwise totally supportive of replacing most YT content with Twitch VODs.

[@matthewfelty8999]

Yo i might be biased towards clever girls, but i think you should try the raptor that Levy showed you! no real reason other than it sounds fun

[@jackweatherhead8171]

At the start of the game/video when you played knight e5 and the opponent responded with f4, unfortunately it looks like you need to admit your mistake and move the knight back to c6. But did you see how much effort you put into getting out of the mess and how little effort you put in that put you in that mess? We all do this sometimes, but if you're commentating it seems like you need to be extra careful! At your level, that one positional innaccuracy can be enough to cost you the game. At best, you're going to be then fighting for equality. On another note, learning new openings, tactical motifs, and other ideas in chess can strangely temporarily reduce your ability to win because you're learning to apply new concepts. This is important to know so you don't think you're going backwards in progress.

[@jackweatherhead8171]

you said part of this in the video lol

[@bakanur]

It looks like some cracks are starting to form in your chess playing. Those games were over too easy for your opponents. Sometimes when your brain is scrambled from repeated losses, its best to lay back for a while until you have some time to hatch some new winning strategies. Dont worry, you'll be back to beating your opponents in no time!

[@nerothos]

These titles are killing me lmao

[@gaetanorizzo5912]

I believe in your mind

[@GijsInc]

There was a move in the last position but you were v low on time to be fair

[@zorniclepeanutbutter3994]

London is simply op