Are you someone who makes random moves in chess games? Are you tired of making those long calculations, which never really work? I guess you are looking for some tips to find the good moves quickly? If you answered yes, then this is the post for you. So make sure you read this till the end because this is going to be really useful for you. And of course, I have a brilliant chess puzzle well. So stay tuned till the end and keep reading chess Talk.
I am sure most of you feel that chess is a very complicated game because it involves so much of thinking. You are already trying to find too many answers during a game like “what is my opponent thinking, what is the best Move that I can play, amI calculating correctly, should I attack, should I defend, different strategies, tactics, ideas.” Huh. So many questions you have.
But Hold on, are these the right questions to ask? Well, that’s what we are going to focus on this video. In this chess masterclass, I am going to share with you a simple 5 step thinking process and I can guarantee that If you follow this systematic approach of thinking, then you can easily take your game to the next level.
Okay, so what are these 5 steps? It is the very popular SWOT analysis + one extra step which I will discuss at the end of this video. As most of you already know, SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. How will we apply all this to Chess? Well, I will explain that through different examples so I request you to think along with me and this will be well worth your time. Okay, so let’s say, in this position, you are looking to play pawn to d3.
How will you evaluate this move? What should be the correct questions you should be asking yourself? When we are talking about your move, 2 basic questions need to ask. What are the strengths of this movie & what could be the potential weaknesses of this move? So let’s analyze the strengths first. What will this move achieve? Let’s take a look.
If you play this move, you can control these2 squares: c4 & e4. Right? You are consolidating the center by adding another defender to this strong e4 pawn. Another good thing is that you are opening up this diagonal for your bishop, which will help in developing it later on. Those are the strengths that we can see.
Now let’s look at the potential weaknesses. When we talk about weaknesses, you need to compare & evaluate. So this is how it is at the moment & this is how it will look after you play this move. What’s the difference? Does this move create any weaknesses? The obvious one is that you will lose control over these 2 squares: c3 & e3. Also, this knight becomes undefended, which makes it vulnerable to attack. Plus, this diagonal is also getting blocked, which will make this bishop less effective. And you can also say that your king is getting slightly exposed, which makes it a candidate for potential checks & pins on this diagonal.
Now in this same position, let’s try & evaluate another move. Let’s say, you are also thinking of playing this bishop to b2. Same thought process. Strengths First. What does this move achieve? It provides additional support to your knight. It provides support to your rook as well, which was undefended earlier. It develops your bishop on this long diagonal. Any time you can launch an attack on the center after moving your knight. Okay, now let’s find the weaknesses: What will this move no longer achieve? The only thing I can think of is that this pawn will lose a defender, but we still have some other pieces guarding it so it shouldn’t a problem.
Another one is that this bishop will be undefended this square, but we do not see any immediate threats as such, so that’s also fine. Okay, now we have all the basic information about the strengths & weaknesses of both these moves. What do you think? Which is a better move – pawn to d3 or bishop to b2? You can answer it in this poll by clicking on the I button above. I would think this should be an easy one. But still, let me know in this poll. Look, there are always going to be some strengths& some weaknesses behind each move.
Your objective should be to gather as much information as possible & use that as a basis for evaluating your moves. As you saw, we did not perform any calculations, neither did we think too far ahead. Our focus was mainly on the move at hand & that’ sit. If you have this basic information, it becomes so much easier for you to decide whether you should play a move or not? Anyways, let’s go a step further.
Now we will see how to analyze your opponent’s move and that’s where we need to discuss opportunities & threats. Let’s take a look at this game. The material is even, it’s your opponent’s turn and he plays knight to e4. Just like we did earlier, we need to think in the same way, but this time, it’s for our opponent’s move. So what are its strengths? What is this knight e4 move doing? Think along with me. He is centralizing his knight so that’s good for him. It’s well protected. You do not have any pawns to attack it so it will be difficult for us to push him back.
This knight is now attacking these 8 squares. And out of all these, we need to be particularly careful about knight f2 and knight g3, but at the moment, we have them well-covered. Also, if you notice, by moving this knight, black has opened up this diagonal for his bishop, making it a more active piece. Let’s do a final check. Are there any immediate captures or attacks that he has against us? His knight can capture this pawn, but it is well defended. He can take this knight, but that is also covered.
So you can safely say that there are some things you need to watch out for, in the future maybe, but there are no immediate threats as such. Now let’s look for any opportunities. For that, we need to find the weaknesses of this Move. Has he left behind any holes in his position? Let’s find out. Compare and evaluate. Earlier, his knight was guarding these 8 squares. He is not doing that anymore.
So can you find an opportunity here? I guess you found it already. Knight to d7. Forking the queen and rook. By following this structured process of thinking, you will never miss out on such opportunities in a game. That’s the power of this approach. It might seem that we are spending too much time on every move, but actually, if you start doing this consistently, it will become a habit and you won’t be confused anymore. You won’t make any blunders and that’s a big improvement already.
Anyways, let’s go a step further and look at another example. But before that, I wanted to give you a quick update about our membership program. The good news is that we have now added a new level of membership for just 59 rupees a month, which is like even less than a dollar. So if you want to become a member or even if you want some more details about this, you can check it out by clicking on the Join button right below this video.
Okay, coming back to the game, in this position, your opponent plays pawn to d4, attacking your knight. Again, let’s follow the same thought process. What are the threats here? The obvious one is that he is threatening to capture your knight. And I have seen many players make a big mistake in such positions. As soon as they see any of their pieces being attacked, they immediately start thinking of defending it. They don’t analyze any further and that’s a problem. You need to stick to the same process. This is just one of the immediate threats. Have you ever thought about the opportunities you have? Is there any weakness that black has left behind? Let’s compare and evaluate! He has weakened his control over these 2 squares, which this pawn was guarding earlier.
Another point is that this move might result in pawn exchanges and soon we might have an open center, And considering this black king is still in the middle, this is not necessarily good for black. Okay, What else? Can you see this pawn? As a result of this move, this pawn is now fully exposed. Can we launch an attack on this undefended pawn? Of course, we can. Our bishop is attacking this diagonal.
So we can simply gobble up this pawn & ontop of that, its a check, so black cannot take your knight. Instead, we take his rook first. This brings us to our fifth step, which is also very important. And that is, to always look for opportunities, even when there is an immediate threat. It’s all about positive thinking. Before reacting to anything, just ask yourself”Should I react to this? Is it even necessary to react to this?” That’s an important question to ask. Not only on chess but even in life.
Anyways, I hope you are enjoying this video. If you are, then hit that thumbs up buttonright now. It really motivates me to provide more qualitycontent on this channel. Okay, let’s look at another example. In this position, black plays pawn to f6,attacking your knight. Following the same thought process again. Just like the last example, the immediatethreat is that he is attacking your knight. Now comparing it to the previous position,we can see that this pawn is no longer controlling these 2 squares so they are relatively weak. His king is also slightly exposed along thisdiagonal. We have the basic information now.
So can you think of any way to ignore this threat and play a stronger move? I must remind you that you need to be extremely careful while ignoring any immediate threat. If you play a random forcing move like bishopb5 check, then you will be in trouble because black can simply block with his pawn and now you have 2 pieces under attack. So if you are ignoring a threat, then you need to have a powerful counter-attack so please double-check before taking any risks.
Okay, so It’s puzzle time. But before moving onto today’s chess puzzle,I would like to remind you that if you want to learn some cool chess tricks and become aBetter Chess player, then you should subscribe to our channel right now. And don’t forget to hit the bell to turn on notifications. Okay, so here’s the puzzle. In this position, It’s your turn and you need to find the Best Move continuation for White. If you are able to find the solution to this puzzle, then share it in the comments below. Whoever gives the correct answer with the perfect explanation, I will be pinning that comment at the top so that everyone can see it.
All the Best Guys! Let’s see how many of you can solve this. Well, don’t forget to Like this video & if you haven’t yet Subscribed, then Subscribe now. Thanks for watching & I shall see you in mynext video.
