💡Register to GM Igor Smirnov's FREE Masterclass "The Best Way to Improve at Chess INSTANTLY" - chess-teacher.com/masterclass 💲Join the RCA Affiliate Program, promote our courses, and get 50% commission - chess-teacher.com/partnership/

Note for self: 1) Move your piece to the most advanced square that's possible under the circumstances. 2) Don't make your bishop a tall pawn. 3) Defend only when needed. Work out the possible threat in your mind first to decide if it's one at all. 4) When in doubt what to play, make your least active piece better. Fantastic advice and so easy to follow.

Been subscribed to your channel for while and I just reached 1000 elo and finally posted my first chess video (I'm 13 years old) your videos really helped!!

I am a chess coach in Japan. The rules you mentioned in this video are all advice that I want to tell my students! You make them simple and easy to memorize. Great job!

When i was a kid i had a baseball coach that was a great player but not a great coach. My dad explained that sometimes people that are good at things are bad teachers at it because it came naturally to them and communicating what they did is difficult. Your comprehension of the thought process of lower level players and ability to communicate these ideas is so incredible (your puzzle ones where you show how each level of player would calculate the lines are incredibly accurate) and makes you one of the better coaches ive seen for any sport, not just chess. your channel is going to get huge and get some merch! Especially about aggression in chess 😍 (the optimal way to play, keep creating threats!)

I’ve just tested the principles and I could notice the difference, 😊, oportunities simply expanded

This is very good! The positional plays can be very hard but I really want to improve it. Thank you for this such video. Love you and Messi ❤️

Your the best chess Mensa online. Your kind, humble, coherent, and don’t talk down to your audience. Thank you Igor!

This might be the best single chess lesson I've ever seen on KZfaq. Thank you!!!

Love that your channel is focused on actual strategy with no distraction of laughing at low level play

This is an outstanding chess channel, and you're an excellent coach, GM Smirnov. Keep the videos coming! :)

Warm, communicative, insightful - as always your video sessions are much appreciated.

It's amazing how instructive these mini-lessons about a single position can be, even for very experienced players. The g5, ...Nh5, gh6 g6 line was especially enlightening.

We are extremely lucky to have you as a chess teacher! This was one of the most valuable video chess lessons I've ever seen on the net! Thanks a million, GM Igor!!! 👍👍💪💪😎😎

One of the better bits of chess instruction I’ve seen, really helpful.

Happy Father's Day. I'll be sure to play a game with my son today as well.

This is so helpful. you should make more videos like this.😊

Excellent description. Thanks for sharing

I love your advice. You're an amazing chess teacher.

Thank you so much for the tips!!!

Invaluable! This provided a thought process to keep my focus during the difficult stages of the game.....Great job!

Very helpful Igor.. Thank you for the vid!

This is very useful teaching. Thanks!

Your videos are very straightforward and contains good content. Keep it up please, I would love to see more from you!

Thanks. Please make more content along this line🙏

Great advice(s), thank you!

Invaluable tips in a very short video. Outstanding !

Thank you for sharing. I've been making lots of the mistakes that you mentioned. I've got lots to learn about chess.

► Chapters 00:00 Best Chess Strategy to Reach 2000 ELO 00:06 Example-1 01:00 The Most Important Concept to WIN in Chess 02:39 Chess-Football analogy, be like Messi! 03:00 Rule-1: Move your pieces forward (most active square) 03:53 Rule-2: Do NOT make your bishop a tall pawn 04:59 Rule-3: Do NOT defend unless you have to 06:54 Rule-4: To take is a mistake 08:37 Rule-5: Improve your least active piece 09:29 GM Smirnov's Father's Day Special

Thanks for this new great video, happy sunday to you. Greetings from France :)

Love this strategy tip series. Very actionable advice. Subbed.

When I think about it I always hear high Elo players talk about finding the most active squares - piece activity ,piece activity and piece activity ad infitum

Very nice video, thank you.

What a fantastic video! Thank you.

You learn me something! Many Thanks🎈🎈

I play chess as a hobby for 15 years now, but this video really said new things to me! Thank You Igor! Greetings from Hungary!

This was a great, helpful video!

love the illustration with Messi!! Awesome ; thanks for all your help!!

This is actual practical advise. Really helpful

Another gem. Where tactics, openings and mating patterns are about Quantity (variations, moves, patterns, etc), I've come to need to improve on the Quality of my chess (position, strategy, principles). Engines don't tell you "Why" another move would have been better when looking over lost games. This is the stuff I need after being stuck around 1750 Elo in Lichess for 2 years! Thank you for understanding the needs of players to have simple rules/principles to improve their game.

Thanks for these tips. I've always run into situations where I don't know what to do or how to continue, so i just go for a trade or do some random move like push a pawn, but this idea of repositioning non-active pieces instead is such a great advice. It's of great help to players at my level.

Great vid. Thank you

Excellent Igor and Happy Father's Day!

One of your best videos imo. Thankyou, and Happy Fathers Day.

This is so good! Thanks for the advice, this video is so informative it helps me alot with that kind of issues

Your videos are so informative and well done! They are exactly what I’ve been looking for since I started getting back into chess and I’m very grateful that you’re sharing your knowledge with the world. God bless.

Great tips!

Always great advice. Thanks!

Once again, your easy way of explaining things just helped me win 2 games against higher ranked players, and I played white and black. Black was more satisfying, he though (so did I) that he had the win in the bag but my queen got him on the back tank with a rook behind her.

Not just chess but life in general...people assign more importance (value) in terms of losses rather than gains. By roughly a ratio of 3:1. That's encoded deep into our genetic makeup. It's hard to disabuse ourselves of that. But clearly to play chess well that's what's needed. Still there are times a purely defensive play is the best. But that very much is the exception. Always be looking to counterpunch. And complicate. You get more out of a loss under that scenario than the occasional draw brought about from a defensive masterpiece. Probably with a payoff of at least 3:1. Fight your tendency toward passivity. Passivity still sometimes has value. But be extremely judicious in making use of it in tense moments.

Nice video and very useful advice!

You are an excellent teacher. TY.

Ah, ini baru satu konsep catur yang harus diketahui ya? Seru juga nih belajar secara detail. Mungkin aku bisa menang lebih mudah nanti. Thanks for sharing!

these are the best kinda chess videos. the ones about strategy

One of the best channels to improve your chess for free . Keep up the amazing work .

First 1:00 - 3:20 minutes are great strategy explanation by GM 🎉💚👍🧠

Great video!

Love your genuine spirit

Thanks. Good advice👍🏾

Thx This Was Helpful

Best video. I feel like I understand chess when I listen to you. Im going to inprove, and be a LOT calmer at the board

Great, thank you

@GMIgorSmirnov Hey Igor, love your videos but this one’s… Outstanding! Much love brother 😉👍🏼 🌞

When I want to watch chess games, I always go to Nakamura's channel, but when I want to learn and improve, yours has always been my top priority to watch. Keep it going sir. 😊

Thanks, you have been a big help to me. This video I find the most helpful. I have a question about opening strategy. What should the player with the black pieces try to achieve out of the opening? And likewise, what are some goals for the person with the white pieces? Thanks an advance.

Best video by GMIgorSmirnov so far!

How to find an equilibrium between the most active square a piece can have and its stability, i.e. how to find the most active and stable square a piece can have?

good video, thankz

Love it thanks as always

It’s also assessing if you have a plan to go there or any ideas long-term. Of course, chess will have those moments where the best move is counter-intuitive to what you’re taught and that’s what shows mastery. You’ll be able to swerve around main chess principles simply because the exact position allowed for it, like going back with a knight move or bishop, it seems silly on the surface but it goes deeper. When I first began learning chess I would be oblivious to why they move their pieces certain ways. Why they just didn’t take a knight or pawn if they could capture it. It baffled me to see them dance around without a clear plan (in my view at the time), but now it’s obvious to me that these moves hold deep weight and implications in every situation. The goal of chess is to outmaneveur your opponent, to restrain and dominate. It took me some time to realize that pieces aren’t the only thing that hold value, but squares and control of them. They’re the window to victory in most situations. They facilitate tactics and prospects. Moving with purpose is the key. But it is much easier said than done, and it can take years to fully appreciate and understand certain positions and concepts. You will naturally stop ever considering too passive squares, the inaccuracies, and sub-conciously not see some moves that you once saw as a beginner as somewhat sensible. They once did a test (I forgot which or where) where they asked groups of players, from sub 1000 ELO to GM level how many moves a certain piece had, or how many squares they had available during a certain time-frame, through positions the testers picked- and they found something fascinating- the gist of it is that GMs didn’t ever consider blunders as possible moves in the position. It is completely off their radar. The way I see it… as you get better at chess, the more you begin to filter out impurities in a position, to the point the path to victory becomes clear, it becomes obvious, and that’s why it becomes hard for some high ELO folk to understand how to teach lower ELO folk. They can’t fathom their less clear mind. (Not to say it in a bad way but- in a way, their mind is more fuzzy or foggy). Like being illiterate? Chess is a language. The earlier you were taught it, the better. GMs have a clear board in their head, they can picture every single square, from A1 to H8 front and backwards, and be able to envision it in such a way they can have an entire conversation or analysis with other GMs with it just fine. But to most… they can only nod and pretend that they’re following.

thank you, Sir, brilliant!!!!

Good video. Thanks.

Good rules for people who want to reach level ~2000, especially the 5th rule. But the bishop rule changes once you exceed level 2700 or enter engine-level territory (3000-3600).

Great stuff

Thank you

Great job

So very great 👍

Thank you for the amazing video! You are really doing awesome explanation as the concepts taught by you will stick to my mind

It's crazy how tactic attacks follow automatically when all pieces are active. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Happy Fathers day as well.

- Develop pieces to the most forward squares (3:01) - Do not make your bishop a "tall pawn" by restricting its activity (4:15) - Avoid defensive moves like Knight to H7 that decrease piece activity (5:44) - "To take is a mistake" - don't automatically capture and help your opponent (8:06) - Focus on repositioning the least active pieces to make them more active (8:39)

thank you Igor

I already loved the video but the Messi reference 🔥🔥 Great video

Great vid - I’m a real chess amateur. Anyway I just tried these principles as black in a rapid vs a higher rated player. Unpicked their Queens Gambit and mated in 22. Has opened my eyes to new ideas, thanks!

I like your expression “Don’t make your knight a tall pawn.” Great video.

Igor, you are brilliant! Thank you, the value of this lesson cannot be overstated. And your children are beautiful!

Aww your children are so cute 🥰. Great principles to keep in mind with useful examples as well. Thanks

this is a great video

Awesome, been stuck at 1700s for a while now, hopefully aiming to get to 2000 by the end of 2024. I'm 41 and my 9yo kicks my bum ) these tips are great and will defo come in handy to kick back his, thank you so much. )))

You're a great chess professor...

And if you say "I do all that, but why? I still lose" (like I said to my GM coach). He replied there's a certain "harmony" in chess, that when you control more and better squares than your opponent (better meaning centralized or in opponent's territory), it is more likely a tactical opportunity will present itself. That makes sense because you have more squares to move your pieces to threaten the opponent, and they have fewer to move out of the way (or counter-threaten you). Bottom line is just trust the video's advice and you'll see tactics open up. I went up 300 points USCF when I discovered this.

Superb.

Are those your kids? That is wonderful! You are right; it was my father who introduced me to chess. I am sure you're a great father!

very good advice I often do not comply

Thank you.....

Goal is Active. Advance Forward make them control quantity of squares. Make them attack your opponent. Does that follow of pieces activity You gotta move forward 1. When in doubt move your piece to the most forward available square 2. Pursing peace activity don not make your bishop a tall pawn 3. Do not defend unless you have to why would you help the oppent do what he wants 4. To take is a mistake when there's tension 5. Not sure what to do improve your least active piece

Hi Igor - great videos as always. I'm nowhere near your level obviously but I am wondering, your "Rule 1" example with the bishop gives me some concerns - I always think that while Bb5 is a nice pin, it's easy enough for black to respond with a6, forcing a retreat. If you play Bc4, you've wasted a move, as you could have gone to c4 to begin with. If you play Ba4 to preserve the pin, black can simply follow up with b5, forcing Bb3. This means you've wasted 2 moves, because although the bishop is now on a nice diagonal putting some pressure on the f7 pawn, again, you could have played Bc4 to begin with. It's possible that if black actually wants to castle queenside, it will keep the position more closed and leave the queenside pawns as they are. However, if the more common approach is castling kingside, it just feels as if white has wasted time while black has gained space. Any thoughts on that?

great content

Its funny because this is actually a great masterplan for me. Thanks. Best chess advice ever.

Very good strategies 👍👍