The Amateur's Mind: How to Punish Opening Mistakes

This video is a lesson extract in which we analyse Daniel's game and mentality after a mistake by the opponent in the opening.

[Cheeseparadox]

Every time he says ‘Daniel’ i feel like hes yelling actually at me for every time i failed to punish. Thank you

[kalostekagathos]

I used to (and still) have trouble adopting this mindset. But what helps me a lot is a constant reminder that there is another opening principle (aside from the usually mentioned ones like fighting for the center, developing our pieces without unnecessary moves, securing the king..) that we amateurs always apparently neglect (or simply don't know): Try to seize the initiative!

Personally, I think many people have the mistaken impression that Morphy just developed his pieces and his opponents didn't and then they collapsed without any work. In fact, I think his games are often -presented- that way. But this is a little silly, what you should really try to learn from his games is how to seize the initiative when your opponents play timidly (don't fight for the initiative) and neglect the other opening principles. And seizing the initiative for sure takes some work and concentration.

I think to a lot of people, "punishment" means either checkmating or winning material. But really we should consider taking complete control of the game as a type of punishment too. Of course a checkmating attack does that, but it can also be as simple as finding strong ways to hinder the opponent's development.

[austinblevins]

Coach Andras, I've yet to comment on one of your videos. Just wanted to say a big thank you. I'm in the ChessDojo program/club. Your teachings are well known there! Your content is extremely instructive (especially when I pull a board out and watch "actively"). I have my 3rd OTB tournament (27 year old started in March) this weekend and will try to adopt these principles! Anyway thanks again 🙏

[jonide]

Another great lesson from ChessCoach Andras! So directly applicable to my mindset and playing. I too have the lazy habit of avoiding specificity and calculation by thinking in generalities instead. Such a valuable lesson to learn. Thanks! And thanks to Daniel for having the courage to share his lesson with the rest of us. 🙂

[ShinySalamence]

I guess my big issue is in distinguishing when your opponent can be punished by direct forcing moves and when you have to settle for getting more ahead a la “stupid/weird stuff loses to normal stuff.” It gets even trickier when stuff like 3. h4 is sound after d4-c4 against Nf6-g6. And when people play weird, passive stuff that is annoyingly solid.

[connectingthepieces]

Strong video. I usually instinctally punish the opening mistakes, but I fall guilty of the same things. 1. Thinking the lead in development is the punishment itself. And 2. The verbage and mindset of what a actual punishment is. 3. Step 3 digging deep with the calculation and not being lazy by saying I'm ahead bc xyz

[fabioghezzi]

I love the way Andras thinks and makes you think at the board.
Everything is backed by a basic principle, and the idea that when your opponent deviates from the principle (losing a tempo in this case) you should be merciless is difficult to grasp for a beginner but the truth is that many beginners have the calculation ability to exploit this error.
What we are missing is the bell ringing in the brain, that's why Daniel just used the tempo to secure his king. Not a bad move but not the ruthless explotation that a maestro would play in his shoes.
And once again Andras give us the value between knowing an opening line and understanding an opening line

[nomoreblitz]

Excellent lesson! Coach works hard to drag us club players out of our bad habits.

[jgjohnson]

Andras, you are by far my favorite chess coach on youtube. Thank you!

[rainerausdemspring]

Very instructive - as usual. Keep on with you good work!

[Shellback]

Andras from what I've seen is still the only channel that addresses thought process and mindset.

[RobFraser]

Excellent mindset explanation here. I started with Gotham and am hooked on Dayna, but you are truly helping to push me in my calculations work and mentality. Thank you for the instructive content.

[danielbourque]

Really instructive, Andras.

I don't know where this comes from, but I've also heard that when your opponent plays like this, that you should complete development and refute their play by being better in the position (- there is, of course, wisdom in not playing moves that only look aggressive). In practice, I find that sometimes that works, but sometimes that gives your (weaker) opponent time to consolidate.

I've watched an unreasonable amount of chess content over the last 3 years, but you're consistently teaching things that I've never seen anywhere else and that actually help me improve. Opening principles are something we've all supposedly learned as beginners... but a lot about how they should be understood and applied to concrete, practical situations is left out. You've convinced me to buy your Chess Principles Reloaded and Master Your Chess courses - I clearly have a lot more to learn.

[chrisb]

I love this video. I would’ve probably done exactly what the student did and castled. Even though I know it’s a mistake for my opponent to move his bishop twice, I can’t identify exactly what weakness that creates. Furthermore, to punish his moving a piece twice, the right move for me is to move my knight for the second time? It feels like I’m making the same mistake my opponent did, but you did a great job explaining why that is the right move in this case. The trick is applying this mentality to all situations when I know my opponent made a mistake in the opening.

[ShiningLion]

I love Andras Toth, how sharp-tempered and passionate he is. And how right he is here. :) It seems he demands his students to learn the ways of right play! :D

[DimitriNosarev]

The part where Arondir shouted to Galadriel: “Get to the choppaaa” brought tears to my eyes, best adaptation of Tolkien’s work ever. Good chess lesson too,

[dm_nimbus]

Coach Andras castles and my skull explodes because my brain grows so quickly.

[chimbiepaladin]

That was the greatest friggin lesson I have ever had. Thank you so much Coach Andras. I felt like I was sitting in Daniel's shoes and it made me have all the ah hah moments. 🙏

[gammalambda]

My favorite series is back. I still struggle with "punishing" and I think this video is going to help my a lot. Thank you.

EDIT: Corrected a funny mistake, Of course I want to punish my opponent not myself.

[Wibgloria]

It’s a great point however I do think it’s also necessary to point out that often there is no way of directly punishing such moves and instead simply continuing with your opening development and not wasting that extra tempo or tempos given to you is the best and in fact only way forward.