A Puzzle That Tells YOUR Chess Level

💡 Want to master middlegame play?

Learn 3 Ways To Improve Your Chess Results

In this video lesson, GM Igor Smirnov challenges you with a really interesting chess puzzle that will determine your chess rating level.

Feel free to pause the video, take enough time to calculate the variations, and try to solve this puzzle. After that, you can find out your chess rating level. Also, please let us know the variation(s) you calculated and your chess rating level.

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► Chapters

00:00 This Chess Puzzle Determines Your Rating
00:35 Your Rating Level is 800 IF...
01:25 Your Rating Level is 1000 IF...
01:48 Your Rating Level is 1300 IF...
02:39 Your Rating Level is 1600 IF...
03:25 Your Rating Level is 1800 IF...
04:29 Your Rating Level is 2300 IF...
05:13 Your Rating Level is 2600 IF...
06:46 Your Rating Level is 2700 IF...
07:45 Your Rating Level is 2760 IF...
08:10 How to calculate variations in the middlegame?

#IgorNation #ChessPuzzle #ChessTraining #ChessPuzzles

[charliecroker]

Spotted the 1600 level and that your opponent didn’t have to take back but completely overlooked the castle capture! Which is why I blunder so much.

[ElBoutre]

One problem i find with puzzles is, that you just know theres something good in that certain position, so you kind of eliminate all the ''boring'' moves that dont do anything in the first place. In a normal game u might not see the forcing line, because you dont know theres something concrete on the board. I like those kind of videos though, please do more.

[dixonbuttes]

Super accurate actually. I’m 1600ish and got the 1600 rating. I definitely quit calculating and just said, “it’ll work out” after 3 moves

[MuneebBhat]

7:48 I did calculate upto this level but there is no way on the face of this earth that I’m 2600. If I’m 2600, then my brother who beats me on a regular basis is Magnus.

[jonsaboe]

So here is what is strange. I actually calculated all the way TO the Qxh4 variation! But I totally missed the fact that my rook was hanging. As it turns out, it didn't matter -- but I'm not sure if my rating is 2700 or 800. 🙂 Very fun and practical puzzle!

[GMIgorSmirnov]

► Chapters

00:00 This Chess Puzzle Determines Your Rating
00:35 Your Rating Level is 800 IF...
01:25 Your Rating Level is 1000 IF...
01:48 Your Rating Level is 1300 IF...
02:39 Your Rating Level is 1600 IF...
03:25 Your Rating Level is 1800 IF...
04:29 Your Rating Level is 2300 IF...
05:13 Your Rating Level is 2600 IF...
06:46 Your Rating Level is 2700 IF...
07:45 Your Rating Level is 2760 IF...
08:10 How to calculate variations in the middlegame?

[LanceNYC]

Yes! More "what's my level" challenges. Fun and interesting!

[ajazguliyev]

I found another variation: Black takes knight, white queen takes rook, Black Bishop takes the pawn that didnt strike back from earlier, white takes black bishop, Black rook comes to g8 (giving a check), white king to 1h (there arent any other moves) and the black queen takes pawn at 4h giving checkmate. Now please respond to this cuz I spent much time and I really wanna know my rating (I cant think this clearly during games). 😢

[LeventK]

As an 1800 player, after visualizing Bxf3 Qxb4 Rb8 g3 i really went "Nah this ain't working" and went for the overwhelmingly less calculated Rg8.

[admiralbone]

Saw the bishop take, saw the follow up and saw the queen takes. I didn't calculate whites checks with the queen which can sometimes be my downfall. My strength i feel is tactics, weaknesses being moving too fast, not fully calculating, or as you mentioned hoping that an attack works out

[xebrax]

i first thought 1800 level, but after seeing the 2300 move Rg4 (which i have no idea how i missed), i immediately found the 2700 level Qxd4. after seeing the board im ok at calculating but im absolutely horrible at visualizing the board after 3 or so moves since i get easily confused

[moky]

I enjoyed your analysis :)
It’s important to mention that puzzle ratings aren’t so close to ELO. Mine’s 1650 and 2850 so you can see the difference.

[Richard-scyq]

More chess puzzles like this one are always appreciated. Chess games at the grandmaster level which did not result in a draw, are always good as a learning tool.

[AwareLife]

You are a great teacher Igor. Thank you.

[Sesquipedalian]

4:20 I completely missed that the queen could take in my head! I was imagining that the bishop was still there in my calculations, so I just took the pawn with my queen. We'll get 'em next time!
I think something went wrong in my calculations with Qxb4, because in my mind that was an optional move because it didn't adress the attack at all(I was wrong), so because I didn't think it would affect the game, I completely ignored it, when I shouldn't've. I was completly bind to this move for a while until 7:20!
Conclusion: Spend more time considering intercepting pieces, and when a piece moves/is revealed to get more squares, i.e. a reveal attack, to make sure I know where all the peices are moving.
What are your takeaways? Feel free to review with me!

[puzzLEGO]

you should do more of these, but also throw in ones where the best moves are not forcing. in puzzle positions like these you overlook boring moves because you know it’s a puzzle

[kalyanmaybhattacharya]

You are one of the best coaches on the internet.Please provide more such content for your viewers. The analysis was very helpful.

[instrumentalpersonae]

I'm 800 rated and my first through was the 1600 move, but I legitimately didn't even notice my rook was hanging so...

[andraspongracz]

0:18 You shouldn't have said this: "Feel free to think about it, *or I'll just give you a couple seconds to think about it* while I'm talking." This suggested that the assignment is to think about the problem for a couple seconds, and then based on what you see in the position in that short time, your level is evaluated. You should be clear about the assignment.

[identityelement]

First thing 1600 wish attack. Then 1800 calculation, saw attack not really working. Then more positional thinking resulted in 1000 decision(c5, a5, Qe7). But Rg4 is beyond my current calculation skill!!!