This single video teaches more about calculation than hours spent doing random exercises It certainly has inspired me Thanks for the video!

The questions I ask: After opponent moves: 1. What does this move do? 2. Can they attack next move? Then assess my candidates: 3. Can I attack? 4. Can I improve? Then evaluate the lines, and the last question I ask: 5. What are opponent's aggressive replies? This helps me focus on attacking replies of opponents. And now I am trying to automate this process...Which is quite a challenge.

Thank you for this beautiful video! Today, I found the rook endgame in the second position you showed and the homework position very interesting. In the rook endgame, I first calculated 1.Rxg4 hxg4 2.h5 d4 3.cxd4 cxd4 and we have a race between the h-pawn and the d-pawn, which White wins because it is White's turn to move and he queen's with a check. At this point, I didn't calculate just counting the moves and evaluated this as winning. I also noticed that Black can play ..Kg7 when the pawn lands on h7, but i dissmissed it immediately because after the reply e6 the black king is outside the square. This is of course true if there is nothing else on the board than the white king, the e- and h-pawn versus a lone black king. To check this evaluation I did the calculation: 4.h6 d3 5.h7 Kg7 6.e6. The difference here compared to the position after 5..d2 is that is no longer a race between h- and the d-pawn, but a race between the e- and the d-pawn, and since it is black to move and he queen's with a check after 6..d2 7.e7 d1Q+ 8.Kg2 Qe2 and black wins. A clear example, of handwaving, where it was my pattern recognition in combination with lazyness which almost induced the error. I think this is quite common in my games. I also did a blunder check of 1.Rxd5 and this move seems to work after 1..Rxh4 2.Kxg2 Rh2+ 3.Kxg3 Rxb2 4.Rxc5 and I think white is better. It is interesting that if you put black's king e8 in the starting position instead of f8, white wins with 1.Rxg4. Its just a difference of one tempo! In the homework problem, two of the fallacies tried to rear their ugly heads, namely Kotov's syndrom and handwaving. I started with 1.d7 because I thought initially that putting both pawns on dark squares after 1.e7 would make my bishop bad. I first tried the tricky 2.Bd6+ after the response 1..Ke7 but I couldn't find a follow up after 2..Kd8. then I tried going after the queen side pawns with 2.Bb8 but that attempt is stopped in it its tracks by 2..Nc6. Here I stopped and looked at 1.e7 but I didn't see anything after 1..Kf7, so I went back to 1.d7 and tried really hard to make it work, slowly realising that after 1.d7 Ke7 2.Bc7 Nc6 that White can't defend his two passers after which White is probably lost. Here, I realised that the move to play must be 1.e7, but why. I took me a really long time to realise that I can play 2.Nb5 after 1.Kf7. The problem was that it leaves the pawn on b2 hanging, and after 2..Bxb2 Black has a protected passed pawn on c5, which could be dangerous. Here I was on the verge of giving up, when it dawn to me that after 1.e7 Kf7 2.Nb5 Bxb2 the idéa is to play 3.Nc7 and the e-pawn queens. If Black try 2..Nd5, White play 3.Nc7 anyway because after 3..Nxc7 4.dxc7 and white queens instead on c8. The final variation I calculated was: 1.e7 Kf7 2.Nb5 Nd5 3.Nc7 Nxe7 4.dxe7 Kxe7 5.b3, which I evaluated as difficult but probably winning for white. It was interesting to note these fallacies crop up in my thinking making me lose objectivity. Here I steared clear of them, but in my games so far not so much. Thank you for making me aware of them, so I can start to adress them!

Another awesome episode! Does anyone else find themselves clapping between puzzles 😅

My brain is much different for sure! @11:20, I saw 1.Bc4 Qg6 2.Bxe6+ fxe6 and then if I try to develop and castle: 3.Nf3 Qxg2 4.Qxe6+ Kb8 5.Ke2 (required to defend both the f3-Knight and the h1-Rook). This line, and the line the video followed (1.Bc4 Na5 2.Bxe6+ fxe6) are both about +2.0 in eval, but I dislike the resulting position in the line I saw above - my King doesn't seem safe (even though Black has no light-square Bishop), so I would try to find a better move than 1.Bc4 because that's just the way my brain works. Thanks for making me think here. My trouble is I don't seem to be able to see a position in my head where my King is on e2, and my opponent's Queen is all up in my business, and think - "yeah this is good for me." Sure, everything is defended, but my Queen is about to be hit by ...Rd6 and I can't possibly think beyond 3 moves, let alone 5 or 6, to get any confidence about the resulting position. 1...Qg6 just seemed more complex than I was capable of deciding/deciphering. Would I have found a better move than 1.Bc4? perhaps not, but all the calculation required to look for one would probably cause me to play some fool-hardy move for sure (not being able to convince myself that 1.Bc4 is in fact the best move in the original position because of the 1...Qg6 line).

I cheated on the homework. Couldn't decide between e7 or d7 (and read the comments with the solution). 😬 But I got the others right including Bc4. Dr. Can: This is the most underrated channel out there! Yours loyally, Manuel

Always fantastic! Exposing my time-wasting tendencies!

Thanks very much Dr Can for your excellent explanations

Thanks Doc, brilliant lesson as always

Fantastic video as always!

I read these books, but thank you for explaining these concepts

Hey dr can, can you please make a video on how to perform a same side castling attack? I have seen top players fearlessly pushing their kingside pawns and creating an attack by it. It would be really helpful.❤

Very, very nice work Doc. You are doing great work here. Thank you!

Another great one.

Great information 👏💯 being coached one tends to measure position by concepts and chess principles an make judgements based those ideas,this video has really highlighted the need for other in-between ideas and possibilities that may arise , where we may have to change ones algorithm 🎉 great video 👏

Amazing ❤❤

Thank you

I See that e8 can Only be defended by the King...d8 can be also be defended by the knight via c6...also if the White pawns are on dark squares they are defended by our own darksquared bishop. That s why i would play e7...King hast to go to f7 and has to defend e8. 1. e7 Kf7 2. Kb5 Kd5 to prevent Kc7

Good lesson, and nice nod to Dan Heisman! So, if we're being "honest," can you tell us how diligent you have become at looking for Opp's best responses? Or do you still struggle with it?

Is that 'Cutoff' Syndrome, or some other spelling? I'm so guilty of it. It's a time management issue. All of my candidate moves suck, but I have to move. This one doesn't obviously suck. Actually it does, but it takes about 30 seconds to see it. I need to work on creating candidate moves. Thanks! It's easier said than done. It's one thing to ID threats and checks, but another to balance defense and offense. Using all parts of the board, being creative (or maybe just looking at all legal moves briefly), and giving the consideration to opponent moves. Those take time and mental flexibility, but we're here to solve tough puzzles. Thanks for the content. I appreciate the scientific methodical approach.

8:55 nice puzzle. i saw f5 traps the queen with threat of Rh6, but then i saw h4! This gives the queen a safe square on g5 which is covered only by my queen, and so it becomes a queen trade. I could then try R8f6, but i still don't see how to win material. p.s. i played a long game yesterday and lost due to Kotov Syndrome! It was just such a long calculation that caused me to play the next best thing after i couldn't make it work. And its not the 1st time i did that!

I spent 5-10 minutes on d7, thinking that a check such as Bd6 or Bc7 would get me home, but I simply couldn't make it work. Then I switched to e7, spotting that it forces Kf7 in reply and then you have Nb5 with the idea of Nc7, hitting the e8 square. I couldn't see any adequate defence to this; best seems 2. ...Nd5 3.Nc7 when 3...Nxc7 4.dxc7 and queens, or 3...Nf6 4.e8=Q Nxe8 5.d7. Finally, most accurate seems to be 3...Nxe7 4.dxe7 Kxe7, but after b3 White should eventually grind Black down, with N vs 2P.

I see d7 as bad as the king enters. But e7 looks better because the N can support queening square. Positionally, I would prefer to keep my pawns on white squares, but calculations say this is bad.

Homework. My first consideration was e7 but after black responds with Kf7 I can't see any way forward. The king is covering the promotion square on the E file and there's no easy way to push the king away. The pawn on d6 is stuck defending e7 so can't move forward either. Considering d7 black can follow up with Ke7. The king is now covering the promotion square of d8 but we can neutralise this by playing Bc7. But then there's blacks deadly follow up of Nc6. This reinforces blacks defence of d8 Personally I think this is a lost cause either way. Is there a winning strategy at all?

Where is the vedio next this please?

i would play 1.d7 ke7 2.bd6+ kd8 3.nb5(idea e7 kxd7 nc7) nc6 4.bc7+ ke7 5.nxc6 nd8 6. bxd8+ kxd8 7. nc6+ +-

Homework :- d7 does not work, Nc6, Bc7, Ke7,Nd5 Kxe6,d8=Q, Nxe8,Bxe8,Kxd5 ( There is no way to remove the dark square blockade ) e7 forces Kf7, Nb5 (threatens Nc7 to threaten e8=Q) Na6 Nc7 Nxc7,dxc7 and there is forced promotion ( Nc6 does not work either as thr Knight cannot control e8 square on time)

I calculated and thought Ne6 maybe playable in the first game missing Qh2#😂

Honestly, I saw g3 and said to myself “that seems like a pretty good move”😁

I still fall into every mistake category available. It's like learning a new language, some repeat mistakes get stuck over and over. homework spoiler - no engine d7 Ke7 Bd6+ Kd8 and black knight, bishop and king control the dark squares c7 d8 and e7 preventing promotion e7 Kf7 Nb5 Nd5 Nc7 Nxc7 dxc7 Kxe7 c8=Q edit add: in the winning line, black's dark square bishop is unable to help in the defense. In other words, it helps to find an endgame line where one of the pieces cannot defend. edit two: calculation errors. In the e7 line, Black gives up the knight yet white wins. In the d7 line, Nc6 before Ke7, not after, defends correctly.

Hi U from turkey?

8:15 I like Nh2... just 'cos they can't take it.

07:00 white lost.

Self coached

Good info but can do without the clapping. tbh.

The crow silhouette that you have behind you... Is it inspired by that of SCI-HUB (cf. Alexandra Elbakian)?

Hi Can, thanks for this great video lesson! I've a question about the Kotof Syndrome & Sunk Cost Fallacy puzzle 16:06 What is the best move? Or did I missed the solution haha! I was thinking about d7-d5. The white squared bishop is first and foremost finally free. Yes, white pawn can go to e6, but we can chase away the white knight on g5 with a simple pawn move a6. The only con is that white can take the black knight and create a double pawn. If you find time to answer I will be very happy! 😀

Thank you for the video. You’re the best ♟️