Sicilian Najdorf | French | Alekhine | Chigorin - GM Yasser Seirawan - 2013.07.17

Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan presents a lecture to members of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, answering questions from the audience. Topics Covered: Sicilian Najdorf, the French Defense, how to respond to the Alekhine, the Chigorin Defense and more.

[@superposition9497]

this is such good content for free

[@tim3898]

hehe 100th like

[@forthesect]

22:32 is just hilarious. I love GM Yasser Seirawan

[@william7yifans]

34:30 too kek

[@RobinTeuwens]

What an awesome lecture! Kudos to the cameraman for following Yasser's pointing this time. More like this!

[@diptarupdas3098]

over the years i've been in a lot of classes and met a lot of professors and teachers but in my heart i know GM Yasser is someone whose lecture i'd sit at gladly for hours. he is such a gift to listen to.

[@vincelviss]

He continues to surprise me. What a fantastic teacher.

[@dragondomestifier]

GM Seirawan, you are simply awesome and highly appreciated. Best regards from Germany.

[@ehsanmo1367]

The best chess teacher ever!

[@larryschmollinger7212]

Yasser. I love your lectures. You present ideas in such a calm, collected manner. Thank you so much for this.

[@tonysu8860]

Of the many Seirawan talks in this series, this is one of the best. Although not trying to analyze a specific variation (he actually demos about 4 different lines on request), for each he describes a line of his choosing to provide some flavor and describes the evolution of thought behind what he's showing. Also, I fully endorse Seirawan's recommendation to look for the world's greatest proponent for whatever the student is trying to learn. This is the inverse of what I teach is that one of the first things the beginning student should do is discover his personal playing philosophy and then find a world class player (historic or current) to be the model for choice of openings. The result is that this video is filled with not only some excellent Seirawan dommentary, there is a splash of how to learn and colored with personal anecdotes of his conversations with other world GMs. Very enjoyable.

[@vojtechdrabek1159]

The Nimzowitch reference is so true. If you read My System you know what I mean.

[@dougbrown4537]

Vojtěch Drábek Totally! It’s one of the first chess books I read. I had thought Chess Masters always annotated like Nimzo! To see him make fun of it was hilarious!

[@MrMartinmozz]

Love this guy's voice :)

[@pbaylis1]

Yasser is so easy to listen to and learn from.

[@pwnedd11]

Oh my word. I had questions about some of these precise lines. And then bam. I find a Yasser video. He's so awesome! Yasser Seirawan and Daniel King are the GOATs of Chess teachers!!! (and obviously they were great players too!)

[@mrnasty4337]

It would be super awesome if GM Seirawan would do a lecture on the Caro-Kann

[@brickchains1]

The Dutch used the name of the seaside town of Scheveningen as a shibboleth to tell Germans from the Dutch ("Sch" in Dutch is analyzed as the letter "s" and the digraph "ch", producing the consonant cluster [sx], while in German it is analyzed as the trigraph "sch," pronounced [ʃ]). upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Nl-Scheveningen.ogg

[@KasperK0210]

Not Playin i'm dutch and pronounce Scheveningen no problem, but yasser's courageous try didn't come close... xD

[@CrystalSergeant]

you are true master. the only clearly explained openings on the world

[@TexasSizzle]

Fantastic once again! What a treat..for free!

[@jeffgreen3376]

Great lecture, as always. When I used to play the French Defense (as black), I had more trouble with Nc3 and Nd2 than I did with e5 (advance variation). However, I was only 1400-1500 rated at the time and playing against players of similar strength. They didn't know the French Advance as well as I did, since they also had to prepare for e5, c5, c6 and the off-beat defenses, as well. I did try out the Rubenstein, Winawer and Tarrasch variations, against Nc3 and Nd2, but didn't have a lot of success with them. I ended up switching to the Sicilian, after a while.

[@frodejohnsen8559]

Very instructive. Good lection.

[@arwanpawar419]

Good content and interesting analysis. Thanks Yasser...

[@dubsbarry9963]

Seirawan has such a gentle way about him. He can insult you without upset. "Turkey butt" cracked me up

[@sybrendelange7451]

scheveningen sounded more like shenanigans the way Yasser prounounces it, nice lecture as usual btw

[@clarkdelatorre4316]

great teacher...........

[@royalemaster3713]

Brilliant lecture

[@fakecubed]

Unfortunately I think a lot of this video is starting to get a bit out of date. Just FYI if anyone is looking to learn from it.

[@seanfortescue945]

PLEASE CAN WE HAVE AN EXCLUSIVE VIDEO ON THE ALEKHINE DEFENCE PLEASEEEEE!!!!

[@TrotisApple]

Sean Fortescue Who plays that shit?

[@miche1df]

I do sometimes over the board, mostly to mess with people who don't know much about it. I'd never make it a mainstay (even though it's not as bad as it's made out to be).

[@freedom9729]

Probs my favorite GM

[@PushyPawn]

Hilarious and educational! Yasser you're the best.

[@williamjefferson8280]

You don't have to play f4. You can also play Qd2, though this doesn't appeal to some aggressive players like Seirawan.

[@dago6410]

whats that parody part about? that part with those "introduced by myself' moves?

[@ashtonal]

Always the smOOth voice

[@spirit76100]

Is he talking about chess...? Or he is a standup comedy man..? :P

[@conradjenkings9413]

3. c4 is a very normal move in the Alekhine that transposes to the mainline. 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. c4 Nb6 4. d4 and we are back to the mainline.

[@casahilchoudhary]

Don't like calling Nimzovich horrible. He's one of greatest chess thinkers of his time, and has inspired a generation of chess player . With his book "My System"

[@danielescamilla9926]

Ik ben met seven schaapen naar scheveningen gegaan this was the key sentence to read and discover your hidden nationality if diferent from dutch

[@styhcic]

At 4:45 - 4:48 who is GM Seierwan giving the bird to?

[@ClarkPotter]

+Chris Stychinsky lol who points like that :D

[@Eliges]

Lol, i only understanded that schevaningang after he explained it was on the dutch coast :) Scheveningen is indeed really hard to pronounce as a foreigner.

[@nikstevlic3169]

Nimzo stuff was great

[@alchemist1202]

hhahah 22:59 I have read My System by Nimzowitsch and this is all true what Yasser is saying! lol I thought that I was the only one who noticed that :)

[@onegerard1]

that was fun. Oh and it is pronounced: 'Scheveningen' :)

[@onegerard1]

like no one pronounces my easy peazy name right. except for me that is.

[@stefanholbek2449]

My System is a great book as one of the first to be studied after you have learned the rules: Basic development and general ideas of sound play. It was written in 1925 - 1927 and is inarguably THE foundation of modern chess. It marks the end of old school ideas, mainly advocated by Tarrasch. These two guys were probably not friends on Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In ... (Before 1900 you even let your opponent win a "briiliant mating attack" that could easily be refuted out of gentleman-like courtesy. Good and solid defense was frowned upon!) To compare My System with modern works written 80 years later is of course inappropriate, and though Yasser is great fun it may be a bit unfair to ridicule Nimzowitsch like that. Yes, full of flaws and inaccuracies, and both Nimzo and Tarrasch took every opportunity to describe their own brilliancy ... "the battle of ideas" extended far beyond the board ... but it is so easy for us to point out fawlty play, even by the Super GM's of all times with engines of today. No question about it: There IS "before and after" My System in chess history. Yasser of course knows this. As he points out: "Learn from other people's mistakes." Chess authors write better books today ... but good ol' Nimzo was THE first reaching in to "the modern world" after Steinitz and Tarrasch.

[@yamiegg394]

Stefan Holbek Ridiculous to say that the old masters would lose games out of courtesy. Defensive technique was just worse than today. Also, Nimzo praised Tarrasch as a player and theoretician, but admonished his dogmatic adherents. He refers to the Tarrasch School, not the man himself, in his criticisms.

[@trojan88310]

Someone is supertriggered

[@thejupiter1744]

Thank you yasser, you give me an enormous amount of pleasure while i study chess with my faithul cat alekhine by my side. Surprised you did not mention here 6.f3 e5! (instead of your 6 . .e6 here ) When faced with the najdorf 6.Be3 i always play e5! but now if 7.Nf3 this always annoys me as the game will become rather positional when i always seek sharp tactical melees.I have finally, after many painful defeats realised that a knight on the f3 square is a long way from controlling the d5 square (especially if black has the time to cut out a white Bg5 with a timely . .h6!) and there ARE lines whereby black can 'tip toe' around a white controlled d5 square but it takes a good sense of position (not to mention courage) So, 6.f3 e5! and i now have my wish as 7.Nf3 is impossible. That said however, 6.f3 DOES cut out my favourite 'anti english attack' system via 6.Be3 Ng4!? so no easy draw by repetition possible there via 7.Bc1 Nf6 8. Be3 Ng4 9.Bc1 Nf6 etc etc. All in all 6.f3 in the Najdorf is best met by 6. . e5!? for a black 'najdorfist' and for a black 'scheveningist' then probably 6 ..e6!?

[@pastorofmuppets4552]

Isn't Bc4 in the Najdorf called the Lipnitzky Attack? Edit: Apparently both are correct.

[@StephenWhite55]

The name is even more elaborate: it's Ah-le-okh-in!

[@homology]

+Stephen White It's "e" after "l", not "eo". Pronouncing "eo" is a wide-spread mistake.

[@yp06407012]

Chess softwares which can move the pieces with voice commands are very much needed. Hope some one is working on this.

[@glenoconnor4477]

very good style

[@inanedevelop]

Wrong topics. The last part is not Cigorin defense but Ruy Lopez Chigorin variation.

[@amalgamage2749]

B

[@tonysu8860]

Yup. I noticed that, too. Misleading video title. But, OK.

[@RayVitoles]

Lol against alekhine defence i play this variation on blitz games which is funny but requests attention and that is 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4!? Nb6 4.a4!? and now if black plays 4...a5 i continue with 5.Nf3 d6 6.exd6 cxd6 7.d4 g6 and 8.b3 with the plan 9.Bb2 and 10.Na3!(the key move that defends against Nc6-b4-Bf5 and also allows Nb5 at some time of the game) and i always get more space and the idea is that blacks Knight on b6 is misplaced since b3 and c4 are stopping his advance,thus its a loss

[@jesuiskit]

change the speed to 1.5x...just perfect...

[@quelpianiste]

Merci beaucoup pour cette lecture échiquéenne.

[@MjrLeegInfidel]

MVL is probably another najdorf player to adopt.

[@rickelmonoggin]

I know a gentleman of Dutch descent who is unable to pronounce his own last name.

[@pavanrajmahadik3588]

what is the name of the player whom the sir is refering to french defense advance varaition

[@SuperKaBlooey]

I was under the impression that "My System" by Nimzowitsch was a good chess book.

[@sauryasircar5326]

It has a lot of good ideas concerning the pawn chain stucture and stuff, but some of the things are a bit out-dated, and the presentation is kinda messy

[@tonysu8860]

"My System" is a great book but criticized by many as "dry" and difficult to read... Which is why others have written books on the same subject. But, to me "My System" has never been surpassed and maybe not equaled. It's the original work that defined pawn structure and its relationship to strategy and tactics.

[@selcukakyuz_marcom]

I like my Yasser Seirawan 1.5x speed

[@MrOboema]

@7:30 ah, you mean "Scheveningen" xD

[@yamiegg394]

Woohoohehehehehe! oh Yasser :)

[@r4bondadfamily677]

what if we're playing black?

[@Athenian888]

Love GM Seirawan and his lectures,wonderful man and teacher.With all due respect then, he shouldn't have described chess Master Sozin as a 'second rate master'' that was a bit cheap.A variation in chess takes its name from the person that invented it,not by the chess player who played it better in the history of chess.And since Sozin was born in 1896 ,Yasser's remark was unfortunate.

[@conradjenkings9413]

3. e5 is considered relatively passive against the French. 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 Black's position is perfectly fine.

[@Mallorax]

"They greedy busters" ;)

[@Krthik-rf5rx]

Wait so this opening is being demonstrated for BLACK yes?

[@schimper80]

At the 32 min marks, how is it you castle through check?

[@bucscw24]

schimper80 Castling is legal if the king is not in check when he castles, and the king must not pass through check while castling. Neither of these rules is violated at 32 minutes.

[@OMGclueless]

Yeah, I didn't realize the precise rules here (I'm pretty much a beginner) and was recently shocked when I had my knight on D7 and black castled queenside.

[@Evilanious]

22:34 That is funny

[@ludology7757]

4:44

[@RayVitoles]

of time and the knight must come all around again at d7 and possibly on f6 and white will have enough time to maybe attack on center or try to invade blacks queen side with the move Nb5

[@Querent2000]

I believe the name is a-Lek-in.

[@tonysu8860]

There's a whole bunch of those. I look to GMs who have spoken to other GMs to provide the correct pronunciation, but don't think that's very reliable, either.

[@Alberturkey54]

There's just soooo much theory.

[@williamjefferson8280]

Alberturkey54 The Najdorf is the most theory-laden of all openings. Only the Dragon Sicilian and the King's Indian are comparable.

[@TheClassicWorld]

+William Jefferson All the openings have endless theory, seemingly.

[@yamiegg394]

William Jefferson The French has loads of theory, as does the Ruy Lopez.

[@renehenriksen1735]

Strange that he never was worldchampion. He understands so much about chess. But it is so easy to overlook small things on the highest levels.

[@tonysu8860]

There's a lot that goes into becoming a World Champion. Some luck perhaps whether your style works against leading players of your time and the Champion of the day. Hard work. Support from a good team. Financial stability. Dedication. "Sporting" skills, which is what one needs in the heat of battle, sometimes recognized as the ability to rise beyond expectations and the ability to minimize mistakes.

[@renehenriksen1735]

@@tonysu8860 To be like Kasparov so to say. :)

[@larrybui5243]

Shay vuh nin geh

[@TheeFinalSolution]

***** I can pronounce this on my first try perhaps because I speak Russian?

[@conradjenkings9413]

How do you know?

[@TheeFinalSolution]

go on wikipedia and search the word or w.e and you can find the pronunciation

[@conradjenkings9413]

There is a difference between being able to pronounce it correctly and seeing the pronouncation.

[@TheeFinalSolution]

No you can literally hear the pronunciation as well

[@conradjenkings9413]

Was it by a native speaker?

[@murphycollinak]

12 minutes knightxf3 is hanging

[@raiduk]

no it's not

[@freedom9729]

5:06 I think I woke up my roommate laughing

[@justinjohnsonist]

haha those greedy bastards!!

[@Leorra]

4:45 LUL

[@brucewayne2184]

4:44 f u guise