A Beautiful Attack. I would have applauded if this had been OTB. · Training Game

An attacking masterpiece in the Nimzo-Indian in which I allowed my opponent to conquer my kingside by weakening a single key square. He punished it beautifully and finished me off in a couple of moves.

This game is a great example of how positional weaknesses can lead to massive tactical problems. I weakened f4, failed to cover it in time, and my opponent simply brought all his pieces close and broke through. I had no idea what was going on.

The basic attacking principle in chess is bringing more pieces into the attack than your opponent has defending the king. That's what happened. He had more firepower and I was defenseless once I allowed that.

#chess

[OssamaGhorabah]

Wow two videos a day for the second day in a row👏👏. Keep up the good work I really enjoy your videos they are instructive and I learn a lot from them.

[EgoCZ]

The player-opening theme, Svidler and his Grünfeld came to my mind immediately.

[pearcr]

Im so happy that youll be covering Nimzo-Larsen! I've been playing it since 800 and it's serving me well

[HagedornL]

Hi Stjepan,
I'm very happy that you will continue your series on the openings, and that you will fill in the gaps (closed Sicilian and Open Spanish)!


I have the following suggestions:

Four Knights Game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6)
Although it's not so common at high levels, it's very common online.
The continuation 4. d4 trasposes to the 5. Nc3 Schmid Variation of the Scotch Game and you covered it. But the tricky “Spanish Four Knights” (4. Bb5) is very peculiar and black responses lead to different games (4...Bb4 and 4...Nd4).
Even the Glek System (4. g3, suggested by another user), 4.a3, 4. Be2 and the Italian Four Knights (4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5 6. Bd3) are sometimes played in tournaments.

Two Knight Italian Defense with 4.Ng5 - Steinitz Variation.
I would like to watch something about the knight retreat to h3. You covered only 9. Ng3 (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Be2 h6 9. Nh3).

Korchnoi/Tartakower variation of the Caro Kann

Would you like to add the pawn thrust to h5? (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ exf6 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Qc2 Re8+ 9. Ne2 h5) When you made the video this variation didn't exist but now it is by far the leading one and it has a lot of strategic implications.

Lijep pozdrav iz Trsta!

[Temiraker]

I would like to see you cover Fischer and Kasparov's Kings Indian Defense.

[kennethgatto]

I am ready for the Reti...especially the double fianchetto variations - Thanks!

[tobias]

About the player-openings topic: Your videos on Karpov, Alireza, Botvinnik, Gukesh playing the Caro-Kann highlighted how different players interpret the same opening. A similar series on a rich opening like the Catalan (Dubov has some very creative games) or the English (Ding has some stunning games!) would be great to see.

[SkibidiMiquella]

For certain players playing certain openings what about when top players play unsound gambits or lines that top players dont usually play
Like kasparovs evans gambit games
Spassky in the kings gambit
Fischer and tal playing the benoni

I think how a gm chooses a “pet” line can reveal a lot about what their chess values

[tobias]

What a treat! Happy to see you post videos more regularly again.

[duxi]

As someone who is very particular about their coffee, I found the most amazing gadget for travel, and that's Picopresso. You can make extremely delicious espresso coffee with it, just need espresso coffee and boiling water. In France, I had a similar experience to you. I think "french" coffee is usually some filter style coffee, which I didn't like at all while I was there.

[LG-fpji]

Regarding lunch hours in France it is true in small cities/towns (more likely due to a lack of staff than siesta as it is uncommon) but untrue in large ones including Paris

[bibekbirsingh]

Can you do a video on the Botvinnik Carls Defense in the caro-kann?

[eetuhentunen]

I would have tried to make counterplay on the queenside by sacking the dark squared bishop on c5 and use the central passed pawns

So more like 16. g3 and then trying that bishop sack maneuvering and the reasoning behind this is that that bishop isn’t doing anything useful.

Interesting to hear your thoughts

[gendbend]

if your revisting 1. e4 openings I would consider adding the Glek system (e4 e5 nf3 nc6 nc3 nc6 g3) and I can help you by providing some theory. (Ignore this comment if its already covered and I missed it)

[jaydub]

If you're taking requests, I would like to see you feature Paul Keres playing either side of a Symmetrical English. For example, a game he played against Vasya Pirc.

[shade]

I'd love to see some more of Simon Williams's Dutch!

[neeltailor]

Hello, greetings from india. I would like to suggest Kasparov in the kings Indian defence. I have studied few of them myself and they can be instructive as well as can make for good content

[СавелийБерезнев]

Karlsen sveshnikov games or maxim vachier lagrave najdorf

[KentStein-hjgm]

Thank you for the awesome video! Just one thing. I think you meant "Attack" instead of "Attach"

[Val-sjmw]

Is the Be3 Averbakh better than Bg5 Averbach? And how did you counter Nh5 ideas in the normal Averbakh?