TRAP THE QUEEN!! | Deep Dive - Pirc Defense: Classical | GM Naroditsky’s Top Theory Speedrun

00:00 Intro
01:04 First Move
01:10 Game
25:20 Analysis
30:46 Example Position
31:50 Back To Game
39:00 Example Position
41:15 Back To Game
52:00 Example Position
56:35 Back To Game
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The Pirc Defense (also known as the Pirc-Ufimtsev Defense) is a chess opening characterized by the moves 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6. It is named after the Slovenian chess player Vasja Pirc, who popularized the defense in the 1950s.
The Pirc Defense is classified as a "hypermodern" defense, meaning that it allows the opponent to occupy the center of the board with pawns, while the defender develops their pieces on the flanks. The idea behind the Pirc Defense is to challenge the opponent's control of the center and to create counterattacking opportunities on the kingside.
One of the main variations of the Pirc Defense is the "Classical Pirc," which continues with the moves 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7. This variation is characterized by a solid and flexible pawn structure, with the black pieces attacking the white center from the flanks.
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Background created using Stable Diffusion V2!
Edited by ‪@ClydeBarber‬ (check out some of my original music on YT)
#speedrun #grandmaster #stablediffusion

[@Rohith_E]

@57:53 King can escape via f6. Stockfish evaluates this position as - 3

[@fiddydollas]

Dude I had to literally plug that position into my phone after he said during the game that would be checkmate lol. Glad I’m not the only one

[@666via]

Came to the comments to make sure I wasn’t insane

[@codegeass7162]

I thought I was on crazy pills. Yeah, this is a blunder XD

[@liquidcrystal47]

I was so confused

[@vincentpanhuysen9771]

Funny thing is that GM Jeffrey Xiong was going crazy in the chat over how cool the tactic is.

[@chessicles99]

it would've been so funny to see danya think a botez gambit was a mating combination and not hear the checkmate sound effect.

[@Madchemist002]

If only the knight hadn't moved. Lol

[@arleyantes9321]

I wish we could see his response to this. What was on his mind? Maybe he was thinking of another line?

[@Madchemist002]

@Arley Antes Maybe he was confusing Black's knight's control of the f6 space for his own control?

[@jaakezzz_G]

@@arleyantes9321 there was another GM in the chat who suggested the idea so Danya was just trusting him, remember Danya is sick

[@Vladislav-Listev]

I think he would've checked that move more precise before playing it

[@cyin974]

12:51 That knight is literally the piece Danya tells us about that climbs mount everest and delivers covid vaccine in the same time 😂

[@bhagen40]

Right! 🤣🤣

[@allisonsutherland1144]

23:28 that is not checkmate, as the king escapes to f6 in the given variation.

[@stormixgaming8389]

Was looking for this comment

[@sn00k3_9]

Saw it too. We are better than a GM

[@christor2907]

Probably already been said but @15:30 Danya's Queen is also taking part in the queen trap by defending c2 and the rook. So 23 points of material

[@skye2192]

On the resigning note, if I knew I was playing Daniel Naroditsky I wouldn't resign at all as I'd want to learn as much as possible from the game! The same goes for other players but maybe not to the same extent. Point being, I think not resigning is mostly for people to learn or let the opponent execute the checkmating pattern (obv different at a much higher level though) Love the content as per :)

[@monstermagnet3150]

Seems legit

[@Roninboyzz]

22:30 how did he calculate my next move? The watch and Netflix?! 😳😂

[@ShaShaSha534]

This man has single handedly elevated the game of chess worldwide. That's not hyperbole either.

[@chueumolepo8130]

Finally. The kf6 stuff. Been waiting patiently for this video bro.

[@ricoqi9527]

For reference, the Caruana game Naroditsky was referencing at 41:09 he actually did an analysis of it at kzbin.info/www/bejne/nniyfJ96or5nn8k

[@hervebari1688]

Thank you

[@codegeass7162]

Danya your content keeps me wanting to get better! Thank you always!

[@neBzeGaming]

On that queen sac mating construction, doesn't black have kf6?

[@TuckyTuck]

That’s what I was wondering. His confidence confused me

[@thechessfish]

Yes. Obviously he's not at 100% here. Would have been entertaining to watch him fight back in that position

[@maestrosock9360]

@@thechessfish That's savage lol

[@kierkegaard54]

Indeed

[@islandpenguin5056]

I literally set it up on a board because I thought I was going crazy but yeah after that queen sac it's an equal position lol losing all advantage

[@chessloversonly]

Awesome work, Daniel!! Your videos are so instructive!! ^^

[@mrxpibb]

Finally a Pirc! I'm a Pirc player through and through and would love to see you play it as Black.

[@AuXDubstep]

Just want to say sincerely thank you for making these videos. Have recently rediscovered chess and binge watching these speedrun videos is really helpful.

[@Kreenick]

Wow black had kf6 and he’s probably winning. That’s quite a throw lol.

[@rbarreira2]

It wasn't played on the board so I don't think it counts as a "throw".

[@rogerwarr4673]

You’re the man and thanks for the dedication to those of us who benefit so greatly in so many ways from your content.

[@chrismtauer]

So glad I got to participate in this class, hope to see you in the next one and guess more moves!

[@iaspati610]

Thank's Danya! I meet the pirc all the time. Most appreciated.

[@TobyDunan]

At last, the legendary Kf6 game

[@nellsummers7921]

Thanks for the content, you always produce Danya!

[@SumNutOnU2b]

Loved this game! I was so sleep deprived last night that I fell asleep twice and got nothing out of this. But fortunately I decided to watch it a third time this morning and really give myself a chance to learn something. I've never played the Pirc, but I did like to intentionally choose openings that were equally unpopular (to get out of book quickly), so I felt invested in the game very early on. I was admittedly disappointed that black took on b2. Back when I was playing at this level it might have seemed forgiveable, but with the recent popularity of the London, which has an almost identical trap that is so very well known, I feel that a player at the 1500 level should know better by now. But Danya still managed to pack an amazing amount of instructional content into his banter as the game played out. For me anyway, this was probably the single-most helpful chess video I've seen in about two years. Definitely glad I watched! Now I'm off to go play a few games and see if anything actually sunk in. (Probably not as much as should have, but one can hope)

[@Usman_Sajjad]

As always, GM Naroditsky's speedrun was packed with useful information and exciting chess action. Can't wait for the next one!

[@dragon-db6uc]

English, clarity of explanation, nearly flawless, doubtlessly the best!

[@calvinlittle7]

Just finished my first USCF tournament today and it wouldn't be without the guidance of these videos over the past few months. Thank you very much for this content, and the sincere willingness to teach and inspire others behind your actions.

[@brunilda]

Great! Tournaments are super addictive. Good luck!

[@calvinlittle7]

@@brunilda Thanks!!

[@GiannisBak]

Great Video. Thank you!

[@maoropizzagalli4153]

It's amazing how much I learn from these videos. In 1hour I got myself a solid understanding of a line to play against the pirc and reinforced my knowledge of KID ideas. Thanks for your work, you are truly making me progress a lot

[@luketinger3435]

YES I LOVE U THANK U I NEEDED THIS

[@martinezgutierrezluisenriq633]

Having this kind of content in yt for free it's just amazing

[@Ctz1H]

Great content, as always! So instructive. Interesting that in this speedrun there was not a single e4 e5 game yet.

[@CrashSomeMore]

Thanks!

[@robdubent]

Thanks for the excellent content once again! Get better! I just got sick again. I’ve been sick on and off for well over a month.

[@jackbicknell4711]

Sleep brotha. Gets lots of sleep

[@hardik05jain]

Great Content Brother. Appreciate it...👍❣

[@victorvandenhende6571]

I m proud to still be higher rated . Last speedrun I was struggling in the 1200s now I m curtently 1530 after one year of Chess . Proud of my progress and ty for all of what you do in the chess world

[@Ammar-Farid-2007]

Qxg6 doesn't work cause black can go Kf6 after taking the queen

[@bensnyder9262]

Kf6 and black escapes the mate, no?

[@aribluffstone4475]

Danya "no automatic moves" Naroditsky, best chess lecturer

[@lars-christianheinz6902]

Thanks for these incredible insights in off beat opening. I would love to see a Chessable course with the recommendations for black and white. I can say from my games that the Alapine for white is a great choice that I was not aware before.

[@pmlouisjuste]

Impressive display of teaching skills

[@codegeass7162]

Wasn't there king to f6 in the "mate" Danya mentions at the end??

[@aaronjosephs2560]

yes there was

[@thejuiceloosener150]

I love that Jeffrey Xiong just in the chat adding commentary. Nothing like a super GM just chillin.

[@TroglodyteIsaac]

If the prophet has 500,000 fans I am one of them. If the prophet has 500 fans I am one of them. If the prophet has 0 fans than I am deceased.

[@hardikconilingus6569]

Thanks for calling Danya a prophet

[@TroglodyteIsaac]

@@hardikconilingus6569 anything less would be a falsehood

[@arkenmissawy5731]

That’s weak! even if I was deceased my ghost would haunt someone’s computer just to keep up with Danya’s videos!

[@gbfootball9625]

!!

[@Rundik]

Fanboy

[@chessify518]

Best on KZbin 🎉

[@richardlong5928]

The intros are spoilers imo. Love the content! I’ve been watching for years. Thanks for all the hard work.

[@rodneygreenwell7620]

Hi Daniel love watching your channel probably one of the best and most instructive channels I've found on you tube. But I must correct you NM Robert Ramirez ( the first chess player I followed ) plays the pirc as his main opening and has beat some very high ranked players using it but I must admit you in my opinion are a better teacher and obviously much more skilled player over all and that's why I now mainly watch this channel in my attempt to improve my chess skills

[@worsethanjoerogan8061]

He has no obligation to resign and at 1500 it's probably good to play bad positions out because people do still blunder. If they just leave and let the clock run out that's a different story.

[@TheWonderBreadAct]

Letting the clock run out is just being a poor sport. I assume the thought process is, "yeah, you beat me but I'm gonna make you waste 5-10 minutes of your life waiting for the clock to run out" Also, I've had people do this.. and then 5 minutes later play a move. Almost in hopes that I'm somehow not still paying attention and then my clock runs? It's really quite rude. Resign or play on.

[@monstermagnet3150]

plus 5 position okay but this was plus 60 at least

[@robertr7923]

On lichess I always add 5 minutes to their timer and enjoy the waiting game

[@orbow]

Whats funny is Daniel would of blunder when he tried sacking the queen at the end to mate the king. He blunder his queen. The king could of escaped.

[@staurneskristiansen8376]

Thank you Daniel! I pay for youtube because of content creators like yourself. That you don't have a million subs yet is a mystery! All the best. J.

[@matthewslater3254]

Does the king not have f6 in this position kzbin.info/www/bejne/inrThneDr7aJo7c? Am I crazy?

[@helpstone9101]

I thought the same, maybe we're both blind

[@gomjabbar6246]

@@helpstone9101 yeah, I assume there's some continuation we're missing, but it isn't, at least immediately, checkmate. This might be why the checkmate eval isn't shown. edit: got to the end of the vid...get well soon Danya.

[@AnkhArcRod]

No you are not. I think he actually missed it. Its -1.8 as per stockfish at that point! It would have been fun to see Daniel wriggling his way out of that one though. The computer shows a nice line Kf6, Ne8 Kf7, d6 Kxe8, d7 Ke7, Bc5 Kf7, d8=Q and it is over. Obviously, black should not take the "free" knight.

[@helpstone9101]

@@AnkhArcRod oh that's actually funny. Especially since at 23:13 he says that a lot of people in the chat were also seing what he was planning

[@Cunningstunts23]

You’re not crazy, I watched live on twitch and the entire chat was trying to tell him but he was tired and had checked out by then

[@WhizzerdSupreme]

11:40 Nb3 traps the Queen and Bc1 wins it. Two move sequence instead of 3. It does drop the e4 pawn, but you're up a Queen for a piece at most.

[@alexf0101]

thanks

[@emilsadykhov123]

Interesting speed run. I was thinking the quickest way to trap the queen would be Nb3 followed by Bc1 but black has the opportunity to play Nb4 and save himself, so playing a3 is correct-simultaneously traps and prevents any knight reinforcement. Also, at 18:20 I was thinking 1.Nxd6 Rxd6 2. BxN bxN (if 2..RxN 3.Qb7) 3. Qb7 and the Rook has no where to escape to without getting forked, attacked or taken.

[@willhocks19]

GMs: “if you’re under 2000 you should never resign” Also GMs: “why doesn’t this 1500 just resign”

[@beaumatthews6411]

56:48: Nxd5 actually allows a queen trade via the following Ndc3, which Stockfish 15.1 evaluates at +4.21 when the trade is over: a pawn and queen each and the loss of the heroic black knight makes the trade in white's favor, not accounting for positional advantages. Recapturing exd5 allows e6 into queen e5, attacking your bishop on g5. After h4 and Qxd5, the position is evaluated at +3.8 for black as they only traded a knight for your two center pawns and the life of their queen. Stuff like this is why I love chess

[@stopfish6817]

10:21 A very important moment of the game.

[@jaydub2971]

Listening to Danya's dis track re: my favorite response to 1.e4

[@VoidghostII]

I like it when opponents don't resign. Playing against a GM is already a "lost position". So best outcome is for both players to play their best moves all game long. As we have seen, this results in maximum instructional value for the audience People that get bored and complain easily should stick to TikTok and Instagram reels

[@P.sherman45]

I 100% agree When I was a kid I played competitive chess and I was quite strong. I let go of chess for 10+ years and I have come back. Now I have 0 knowledge of openings But I play middle and end game like a 2000. A lot of my wins are comebacks since my opponents don't know how to convert winning advantage properly.

[@VoidghostII]

@@P.sherman45 If I can blunder a piece, then so can my opponent. I am also good at forcing mistakes by creating threats and complications for my opponents to figure out. I have lost a knight/bishop early only to win back a rook/queen later on in the game many times. Turning a losing position into a draw is a "win" too. Time is also a factor. If you can create a threat in a couple seconds that takes 30-60+ seconds to figure out, then you are "time tempoing" your opponent. When they finally play a move, you may already be ready to fire off your next one by having used their time as your own! Welcome back to chess :)

[@frequensea9434]

I get this trap in the London a lot. But the other knight is never a resource so the follow up is usually Rb1 followed by Qc1 preparing Ra1 trapping the queen and forcing an exchange

[@TheRampax]

Whenever I watch deep dives on facing the Pirc as white, I always come away thinking the Pirc is simply a bad opening. The Pirc has been my main black opening for a few years now.

[@usageunit]

Refreshing to hear Danya pronounce "Pirc" correctly at least half the time in this video. :) Now to work on Levi's pronunciation of "Alekhine". Nice to see a Pirc too, since I've been playing the Modern recently as black, which seems to me to be a more flexible Pirc.

[@SumNutOnU2b]

Isn't Levi Russian? I'd think an actual Russian could be trusted to pronounce a Russian name correctly. My old mentor, who was a Polish immigrant, pronounced it like Ayl-YEKK-ihn, which was certainly a surprise to me at the time after only seeing it written and like a typical American assuming it must be al-a-KĪN. Hearing Levi pull out something more like al-YHŌ-kun seemed odd to me but possibly just a dialect difference. My default is just to assume he's probably close to correct on it. Do you specifically know otherwise?

[@usageunit]

@@SumNutOnU2b According to Alekhine's Wikipedia article, which cites an external source for this claim: "He became angry when Russians sometimes pronounced the ⟨е⟩ ye of Alekhin as ⟨ё⟩ yo, which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was "Al-YEH-khin."

[@SumNutOnU2b]

@@usageunit ahh. Thank you. That does make sense then. …Also, good to see you confirm that my old mentor Yuri was correct. I guess Gotham is just wrong on that one. Good to know

[@walterbrownstone8017]

Akobian did a class on the Czech Pirc with a very similar queen trap!

[@mrpocock]

At 1500, resignation later still gives you odds of the winning opponent blundering it all away.

[@mathematicalmonk1427]

Can you make a video on how to improve deep calculation and also on how to improve at Blitz

[@johnp845]

LOL @1:12 for the last 2 years I thought the Pirc and the "Pierds" were 2 similar, but different openings ! Thanks for clarifying !

[@kierkegaard54]

Yeah, i noticed that too

[@kingcarisma]

This is slaughter

[@blairs.4183]

I’m not sure if this has been done before, but I would like to propose the potential idea of videos that show examples of recovering from imperfect positions. As a newer player I find myself unable to relate to making main line/top moves every time. It’s more realistic for the vast majority of people to make less than perfect moves yet still be expected to win the game on the back end. Not exactly sure how this would be facilitated but food for thought for content

[@maxirhyme]

the reason so many in this level don't resign is because they don't know you're a GM, I'm close to 1200 Elo and had just a rook and a bishop and a devestated pawn structure and my opponent had two rooks a queen and a protected passer on the 6th rank but hung backrank mate because he just kept on pushing his pawn and disrespected the little counterplay I had

[@StefLynn]

Hi Danya, thanks for the amazing content you always put out! If you're ever blocked up like this I recommend some nasal spray with Oxymetazoline in it :) you can get it from any pharmacy and it does wonders. It's been a life saver for me for when I have to sing!

[@danielhooper]

It'd be cool if you did a chess960 speedrun. Could emphasize calculation over book knowledge

[@ropstensvaktare170]

nice

[@chengcheng5557]

hmm is 12 Nb3 followed by Bc1 not good?

[@bkokohut1980]

The reason they do not resign is, they don't realize they are playing a GM.... many 1500s blunder the win away.

[@gusd8989]

Exactly - and even a GM like Danya was about to blunder his advantage with the queen sac, that wasn't mate, so...still, it's gonna be very rare to get points from a losing position like that, so not sure the payback on your spent time will be that good 🙂

[@Frostgaming335]

57:48 Kf6? not checkmate or what?

[@aaronjosephs2560]

You're correct. He just missed this. Doesn't happen often but it happens.

[@sirkiz1181]

At 12:15 you can save the queen with knight to b4 but you lose the knight and all your queenside pawns and engine actually thinks it’s worse than just losing your queen for the rook. Point is if you take the knight now the a file is open and the queen can escape

[@anond2015]

Chess teachers: never resign. You should learn to force stalemate or allow your opponent to blunder. Also chess teachers: why didn't you just resign?

[@jonathanweir585]

Danya is the only Netflix show I tune into ✌️

[@bmatthews15]

Anyone know a Speedrun game where Danya made a lot of retreating knight moves?

[@Speedster___]

For those wanting to learn the pirc Robert Ramirez has great videos on it

[@TomJones-tx7pb]

I remember that game by Caruana. Very impressive.

[@matesenelinsti]

I don’t get the move a6 in the example game in 31:00. Does the trick works without that move?

[@Amoeba_Podre]

What is the stable diffusion hashtag in this video?

[@callmebogdan]

#suggestion It would be useful to have short (1-2 min) analysis of each game with an engine (after your analysis, of course) to find out accuracy and best moves

[@ryanboyd4770]

🎉cheers Danya

[@KironKabir]

Poisoned pawns are tempting to take

[@ChessJourneyman]

A relatively rare opening...that you face every other game above 2000. It's about as common as KID.

[@sasubpar]

Beyond the scope of this video but I'd love an explanation of why you recommend the 4 knights scotch instead of just the scotch?

[@disco_sugar]

b2 or not b2... whether tis nobler on the board to suffer the slings and arrows of spicy tactics 😻

[@spamonfire1472]

I think your Mate idea where you sac the Queen doesn't work...57:56 King can just go f6?

[@thejuiceloosener150]

Correct. I think Danya thought the pawn on e5 was white, covering f6?

[@ihorchupyk9724]

THANKS

[@realhercules]

13:46 Black could escape the queen trap with 1...Nxe4 2.fxe4 Bxe2 3.Qxe2 deflecting the queen away from the c2 square. If 1...Nxe4 2.Rb1 (intending Bc4) then 2...Nc3! 3.Nxc3 Qxc3

[@NeerajGupta___]

White doesn't have to fxe4 he can simply take with the knight

[@kierkegaard54]

The second variation it's not forced, after 2... Nc3 white can take the Queen then black takes queen and finally you take the knight and you're up a piece. Danya was not as precise as usual in this game, it think he was sick

[@realhercules]

@@NeerajGupta___ You're right

[@angosalvo5734]

Even though Arabic is my mother tongue, i didn't know about the "tabiya" before. For anyone wondering it is طبيعة

[@Andy-tf2ph]

At 14:00 why not Knight d2 to c4? Isn't that a quicker way of trapping the queen?

[@jadelamrani4509]

idk if i m wrong but i found the move kinght b3 followed by bishop c1 to trap the queen at 11:46

[@rasimofeliya421]

I am surprised that Danya thought the queen sac was leading to mate. He didn't know it was not mate even on the analysis board!? I wonder what would've happened if the botez gambit actually happened in the game lmao

[@TheMosayat]

32:28 surprised he used the word طابية 😂 though I thought it meant something different before tbh

[@BakIch-ov5on]

Oh the imitation of the old Soviet gm 😂 10:29

[@modolief]

10:19 - How to play like an old Soviet Grandmaster!

[@matthewcortecero703]

at 11:43 i was thinking you could queen trap in 2 moves, knight b3 then bishop c1. the top knight cut off all blue escape squares, 2nd knight blocked escape route and traps queen in while opening a spot for the bishop and the queen is trapped. am I wrong? i’m like a 1100 so sorry for the question friends

[@JFresh1977]

I have mixed feelings on the whole "when do you resign" issue. On the one hand - if this player knew he was really playing a GM - then ya (s)he probably should've resigned way earlier in the match. However, if you think you're really playing against a 1500 level player - then I think it's wholly appropriate to not resign until this person did. Personally I have been in some crazy positions that I somehow eeked out a win on. I recall a game where I was down 11 points of material and still won. In another - I was down a full rook in the endgame and my opponent - choosing to mop up my pawns and confident in their win - allowed me to walk my king 4 or 5 squares to get my king in opposition with theirs (where their king was on the side of the board) and then mated them with my rook. These weren't games against 900 level players - these players were legit 1500ish rating. Finally, I blame Ben "Never resign!" Finegold for a lot of players not resigning when they probably should :P .

[@aaronjosephs2560]

Yeah, I think if you know you're playing a GM, you're in a lost position before the game even starts

[@peterorosz9278]

and considering im at 1680 right now its been a lifelong dream of mine to play against you.