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  • welcome to the world of chess my name is levi  rosman i'm an international master from new york  

  • city hence the name gotham and in this video  i want to give you all the tools you'll need  

  • to learn chess and navigate it as a beginner i'm  covering five major concepts that i've picked out  

  • they're right here we'll talk about the board  and the setup and obviously all of the pieces  

  • how they move and how many points they're worth  then we'll talk about their interactions that  

  • means what pieces have what vision attacking  capturing creating threats and defending them  

  • that will flow into number three which is checks  and checkmate that's talking specifically about  

  • the king because checkmate is the goal of the game  in the fourth category i will show you some basic  

  • opening ideas how to start a game with white and  with black certain traps to avoid falling into  

  • the middle game will be tactics and strategy  the two major branches and talk a little bit  

  • about end games as well what are the most  important end games for beginners to know  

  • and last but not least we'll just talklittle bit about a study plan all right  

  • sounds good let's go first things firstchessboard is an 8x8 square which has files  

  • which are the a file the b file the c file and so  on and ranks the first rank the second rank etc  

  • boards with coordinates as you see here have a1  b1 and so on white starts on one and two and if  

  • you don't have those coordinates the bottom  right hand corner should be a light square  

  • okay each side has eight pawns they go on  the second and seventh rank respectively  

  • then the back rank of pieces you can put the  rooks or the castle-like structures in the corners  

  • followed by the knights or the horses however you  want to call them the bishops go next the ones  

  • with the pointed hats and in the middle you've got  the royalty the king and the queen the easiest way  

  • to remember how to put the king in the queen is  that the white queen likes to uh have a white  

  • dress with white shoes she likes to stand on the  same color square the black queen likes a black  

  • dress with black shoes so the black queen will  stand under the dark square and the light screen  

  • a light queen white queen will stand on a light  square the kings will obviously stand adjacent now  

  • kings you can also remember are on the e file and  the queens are on the d file that's one more way  

  • to remember it now this is a lot of pieces so  what i'm gonna do when i'm teaching you about  

  • peace movements is i'm gonna cut back a lot  now hopefully all of the games that you play  

  • look like this well you will be playing with the  white pieces hopefully in this position you're up  

  • 35 points of material let's start with the pawns  pawns are worth one point they only move forward  

  • they do not move backwards on their first move  pawns can go up two in one go like this however  

  • after that they can only move forward one  square if a pawn makes it all the way to the end  

  • of the board you can promote it to a queenrook a bishop or a knight even if you already  

  • have the two you know the two knights for example  that you start with you can have a third one  

  • one thing about pawns the way they capture is not  forward it's diagonally one square so for example  

  • in this position the white pawn would oh sorry  wrong arrow the white pawn would capture the  

  • black pawn like this that would be the capture of  a pawn okay um now there's one other bonus rule  

  • of pawns that i'll include here just for the sake  of including it it will confuse you and you might  

  • be tempted to leave this video but that rule is  called on passant there is this special rule i did  

  • not invent it so please don't hate me which looks  something like a software glitch and it goes like  

  • this if an enemy pawn moves two squares okay two  squares and stands side by side with your pawn  

  • you can take that pawn via something called on  poissant in passing only on this move if you  

  • wait one turn you can't do it and it looks like  this you say levy i'm only like five minutes into  

  • this video you're already confusing me i don't  feel safe i listen it's just my rule it's just  

  • my job to report the rules okay that's the only  special rule about pawns okay all good terrific  

  • now let's move to knights and bishops together  because those are called the minor pieces and  

  • they're worth three points okay bishops are  very simple they can go forward and backward  

  • diagonally on their own color solight squared bishop that's how it moves  

  • a dark square bishop in this case would go all  the way down here if it could but it can go to  

  • any of these squares you can go one square three  squares whatever nice knights are the most unique  

  • they move in little l's so that would mean up two  over one okay or up one over two so what does that  

  • look like well that looks like this one two turn  or one two turn or one two turn or one two turn  

  • knights can also go backwards and the cool thing  about knights is they can jump over other pieces  

  • so this knight doesn't have to ask permission  it can just directly move to this square  

  • with no issues now of course you can't take your  own pieces so don't try to do that but it could go  

  • two and one now obviously knights are a little bit  slower right it would take a very different amount  

  • of time for these two pieces to get to the other  side of the board uh they're each worth three  

  • rooks and queens are actually quite simple no more  fancy l's rooks go up down left right and they're  

  • worth five points in any direction that they want  so like this like this like this sorry not in any  

  • direction that they want i should say however  much distance that they want to cover queens  

  • are like a rook and a bishop combined queens are  worth nine points and they can go all the way here  

  • here here here here all the way this way and this  way whatever one of those squares that that queen  

  • chooses to go to it can go to it is super powered  you want to keep the queen it's your most powerful  

  • attacking piece but it shouldn't do damage early  you will be fighting against the fully loaded  

  • position last but not least we have the kings  kings are like queens except they're kind of  

  • not at all uh they can go in any direction that  they want but only one square so queen can go as  

  • much as it wants a king can only move one one more  bonus rule for you which is castling okay i said  

  • i might confuse you a little bit uh castling  is a is a move in chess is when you move two  

  • pieces at the same time it's your king and your  rook okay and what that looks like is let's say  

  • in this kind of a position so it's white's move  the king will go two and the rook will hop right  

  • over next to the king you can obviously only do  that when the king and rook can see each other  

  • and one more thing about that you can only play  the move castles as long as you haven't moved  

  • the king or the rook that you're trying to use for  castling you'll learn later in the opening section  

  • why castling is important it's an important move  because it gets the king out of the middle hiding  

  • it in a little vacation home on the side for now  don't be confused if you're confused it's okay  

  • all things will be explained later let's  talk a little bit about how the pieces  

  • interact on the chessboard the way i want you  to think about this okay is vision of a piece  

  • what does that mean well let's start with the  queen this queen sees all the way down here but  

  • it's all empty squares the board is split into  emptiness empty squares and physical pieces  

  • a piece that is there that is that we can see it  okay so first things first the queen sees the pawn  

  • who else is the pawn for black not for white but  for black you look around the rook sees the pawn  

  • so taking this pawn would be a terrible move  because the rook would respond with a capture  

  • that's a capture of a pawn that's what that's  called taking upon capturing a pawn the rook  

  • would take back we lose nine points in that trade  that's how i want you to think about it we get one  

  • one for nine is not a good trade what else can  we see our bishop can see this night who else  

  • this bishop sees this knight the bishops don't  see each other because the knight is in the way  

  • so if white in this position play the move  bishop takes knight and bishop takes bishop  

  • that's a fair trade that's three  for three that's not a bad deal  

  • okay that's how i want you to think about it when  you're first starting out three for three that's  

  • fine that's more than okay now what does this  bishop see bonus question uh-oh uh oh losing five  

  • would not be good unless we got more than that in  return or close like four four points now our rook  

  • here defends that that's what that's called  that's called defense same way that rook is  

  • protecting that pawn or defending that pawn  we're defending but that's not a fair trade  

  • so in this position let's move this rook here  for example on this square look who we see oh  

  • and the queen cannot come down and  take us that's a very important thing  

  • because the rook is protecting the rook  right now here how about this what if  

  • let's say black plays a move queen f6 the queen  sees the knight is it attacking the knight

  • no it's not because we're protecting it that would  not be a good decision for black to take and one  

  • more thing let's say in this position black plays  this move can we capture that bishop that bishop  

  • is trying to win our queen and many beginners  go oh god oh oh god oh my queen's in danger  

  • but hold on a second can't we just take is that  protected by anything no that's how i want you  

  • to start thinking about the game as you play it  is anything protecting that am i attacking it  

  • the point value system okay because this queen is  not attacking this pawn because it's protected but  

  • if no one was protecting that pawn then it would  be hopefully that kind of begins to cultivate the  

  • thought process of how pieces interact in a chess  game one thing hidden in all this is the fact that  

  • white can play a move queen c4 and that hits the  king that's called a check this next part will  

  • cover just checks and checkmate so we'll move  ahead to this position here it's white to move  

  • white has a million ways to attack this  king a check is an attack on the king  

  • it threatens to capture the king and chess there  is no capturing of the king the king has to escape  

  • danger so for example let's say the white queen  goes here check well the king would slide out of  

  • danger otherwise we would take the king and so on  but what if we put the queen here that's a check  

  • the king anywhere it moves remains in check which  means that we have put the enemy king in a check  

  • that is unavoidable nothing that black  can do that is check mate and we would win  

  • the game checkmate happens at the beginning  of the game sometimes sometimes all the way  

  • at the end okay sometimes in the middle but  checkmate will ultimately decide the game  

  • one little more i've got to include a little bonus  here this position is a little bit different let's  

  • say it's black's move here black's move not  white's move it's white's move we give a check  

  • but if it's black's move can black move legally no  because black cannot put the king in danger that's  

  • not allowed you can't give up your your king but  is black in check is the queen threatening the  

  • king right now to take it no because the queen  doesn't actually see the king it just doesn't  

  • there the queen does not see the king this is  called stalemate stalemate is when one side has  

  • no legal moves but is not in check the king is not  in danger that is a draw not a win for one side  

  • but a draw a tie you say levy that's stupid what  if i'm up 37 000 points of material i accidentally  

  • stalemate tough luck it's a draw we're working  on it it's december 1st 2 2020. if the rules  

  • change in the future i'll make an update  video but as far as it goes this is still it  

  • i'm very sorry now as i said checkmate  can happen at the beginning of the game  

  • right so the fastest checkmate known to  well chess is called the two move checkmate  

  • and essentially it's it's it's this i mean i'm  just going to show it to you so you know it  

  • but on the second move black can play  queen here if white starts out with  

  • pawn to f3 and pawn to g4 and now you're in  check and check is unavoidable you don't always  

  • have to move your king when you are in check okay  you can also block the check if it's possible  

  • you can also capture whatever is attacking  your king but in this particular case you can't  

  • now i promised you that we would look at openings  and we're going to do that now how do you start  

  • the game of chess here you are you're sitting  there you studied this video all right levy  

  • let's do something let's go in the beginning of  the game you want to take control of the center  

  • of the board this area for advanced  beginners maybe a little rectangle  

  • best way to do that is to put pawns in the  center so that might mean something like e4  

  • or d4 both are okay all right now just for  instructive purposes i'm going to do nothing  

  • with black i'm going to move the knight back and  forth to give us the most perfect setup possible  

  • if you can put a second pawn in the center you  should do that without it getting captured if  

  • you can do it make sure you can do it okay i'm  gonna continue to do these things over here  

  • next come the knights again to the center of the  board better because from there they control more  

  • squares knights on the side they don't really  do that okay no i'm still doing my thing over  

  • here two nights that's usually the best way  to go if you can the bishops will go next  

  • all right and one thing that you have to remember  bishop can go to c4 or to d3 or even to e2  

  • as long as you're getting out the bishop you want  to give everybody a turn in the opening before you  

  • start repeating moves you don't want to move the  same piece four or five times that's not how chess  

  • works you don't need to reinvent the wheel at  the beginning of a chess game because we already  

  • kind of know how to do that i'm these are the  secrets so again black is just doing goofy stuff  

  • and i'll show you obviously a legitimate game  after this now i'll put the second bishop just  

  • don't want the bishop to feel left  out remember that castling rule  

  • get the king out of the center of  the board two squares with the king  

  • and the rook will jump right over and be adjacent  okay i want you to remember to do this if you try  

  • to do it at home on a computer you can just  kind of drag this over here and it will happen  

  • or on a tablet or a mobile phone but uh over  the board you have to know how to do this then  

  • you can bring the queen up and connect the rooks  that's kind of called the golden moves of chess  

  • now here's the problem uh if you have a strong  opponent and they just do the same thing which is  

  • probably what will happen you can't quite just go  put two pawns in the center because they will take  

  • oops and it's not a good idea to bring your queen  out very early because the queen can be attacked  

  • right black just has way too much going on both  sides have too many pieces to bring in your most  

  • powerful piece your most powerful piece will get  taken everything in the position is protected very  

  • well so if they play e5 you can delay this move  for now you don't have to always go two squares  

  • you can still get the night out attacking this  pawn let's say they go knight c6 this is very  

  • classical they defend now bishop to c4 or  the second night the second night bishop  

  • to c4 would be another way castling night out on  out and so on the difficult thing about openings  

  • is that when you're first learning you're very  tentative you're thinking about your own moves  

  • all right i got to get all these pieces to their  right squares i better not lose any of the pieces  

  • and also beginners do all sorts of wild stuff in  the opening they don't always follow the rules  

  • you know uh i will teach you the four move  checkmate momentarily but beginners do crazy  

  • things in the opening so if your opponent is out  here doing things like bringing the queen out  

  • you're like wait can't i just take that yes  of course you can a free queen is very good  

  • even if it's not free queen is good takequeen if you can in the beginning of the game  

  • be vigilant you're already in battle it's not just  about positioning in the beginning of the game  

  • your pieces are coming out and they're fighting  for squares as much as they are also targeting the  

  • opponent's pieces so as soon as move one already  be vigilant what can you capture what's a fair  

  • trade what's a free piece what's hanging material  and so on there's certain openings that you can  

  • look up the biggest difference between openings  in chess are openings that are called theoretical  

  • and openings that are called setups setup openings  for example like the london system with the white  

  • pieces you play d4 i don't know why this is here  you play d4 and then you play the bishop out and  

  • you kind of play the same way every time d4 and  bishop f4 the london system is something that you  

  • can do the same every game basically every game  unless black like does something totally crazy  

  • uh and loses a bunch of pieces early on with  with the king's pawn you can't really because  

  • when you play the king's pawn here there is  a lot of different ways that black can play i  

  • mean i know it doesn't seem like it if you're just  starting out but black can play the french defense  

  • black can play king spawn black and played  the sicilian defense shout out to beth harmon  

  • kara khan defense so you have to know what to  do a little bit about everyone and you add your  

  • knowledge incrementally but one thing i'll flip  this to black is uh this the early queen attacks  

  • and in particular something called the scholars  mate if you're not careful with the black pieces  

  • you will immediately misunderstand what this  move is all about white wants to play bishop c4  

  • and checkmate you that would look something like  this the ship c4 queen h5 why does this work  

  • this is the only square near the king which is  only protected by the king yes only protected  

  • by the king which means if white is able to land  the queen on f7 or f2 if you're playing with black  

  • and the queen is protected by the bishop it's  mate you lose four moves done game is over so  

  • how do you avoid this happening every beginner has  fallen for this at some point something on f7 okay  

  • how do you avoid this happening well let's say  you play you know play e4 e5 and they play queen  

  • h5 first things first this is not an attack here  it is an attack on this pawn though so don't go  

  • g6 because they will take they will take and that  will be a double attack of your king and your rook  

  • very common trap what i recommend if you play pawn  e5 is to always develop your queen's knight next  

  • whatever white plays unless of course white offers  you a pawn capture in the center of the board  

  • that's why you put the pawn there is to capture so  bring out the queen's knight that defends the pawn  

  • and if they go to mate you make sure they can't  take this defend it with the queen for example  

  • with the queen for example now you can block  because your knight protects your central pawn  

  • okay there's a lot of ways to not fall into  this so fast uh at the same time if they you  

  • know bring out their bishop on the second  move uh then you can also play knight f6  

  • now the queen cannot go here because your  knight covers that little tricks to avoid  

  • losing very quickly otherwise the standard  game of chess might look something like this  

  • this is what a lot of beginner games look like  and this will flow into something called the  

  • middle game which is the ocean in which chess  players try to swim but it's not so simple to do  

  • the middle game is split into  two things strategic play  

  • and tactical play beginners games are decided  95 of the time with tactics i will give you a  

  • very simple example of what a tactic istactic is a forcing move or sequence of them  

  • that guarantees gain of material so look at  the position that you have in front of you  

  • how do we get this knight with the king that  would be a three-step process one two three  

  • that's a bit more strategic in nature in positions  with many more pieces on the board strategic plans  

  • take two or three moves often times it means  re-rounding a piece to the other side of  

  • the board to make it more active gaining very  good control of a square tactics are immediate  

  • they are the most forcing moves in the game they  make they make your opponent react so for example  

  • here there's something called a double attack  or a fork the queen can go here attacking the  

  • king and the knight that will guarantee that  you win the night guaranteed because the king  

  • has to move and then we would take the  knight there's one other way to do this  

  • and that would be here because that's all  the same that's how powerful the queen is  

  • another kind of pin sorry another kind of tactic  i should say is a pin and a pin means a diagonal  

  • or a vertical or horizontal attack on a piece that  can't move it just can't move this knight cannot  

  • move because we would win the king and we cannot  capture a king look it literally won't let me move  

  • this is a pin on the knight to the king this can  also happen in reverse there is some debate as  

  • the skewer x-ray pin but the concept is all the  same and by the way if it was black's move in this  

  • position black can fork or double attack the queen  and the king themselves tactics are so important  

  • you should do as many of them as possible there  are workbooks my favorite one is 1001 chess  

  • exercises for beginners they did not sponsor  this video i just recommended that book  

  • that book goes chapter by chapter every single  kind of tactic deflection pin you know discovered  

  • attack there's a lot of different tacticslot of different ways to solve these tactics  

  • um that's what you should do chess is so much  about pattern recognition and puzzle solving  

  • because you don't need to reinvent the wheel when  you play the game of chess uh for end games you  

  • know i i as we move to end games end games are uh  a series of positions toward the end obviously of  

  • chess games which you should know how to win so  for example king and one pawn versus king endgames  

  • that's something that without any knowledge you  would not be able to figure out yourself that's  

  • something that you can pick up and learn there's a  book a hundred end games you must know for example  

  • it's a great book um but more importantly for  beginners is how to checkmate for example with  

  • a queen and a king versus king like that is  something you should be able to do like that  

  • or a ladder checkmate a ladder checkmate is even  easier so when you have a queen and another queen  

  • or a queen and a rook for example or two rooks  and that's useful for positions like this like  

  • let's say you get a position like this in a game  with queen and pawn you go wait remember that rule  

  • i can go make a second queen it's much easier to  win with two queens versus a king and a latter  

  • checkmate uh would uh would look for example like  like this let's say uh we promote a second queen  

  • just you know you do a drill on ladder  checkmate it's when you use both of your pieces  

  • to cut the enemy king laterally and walk it  to the other side of the board so for example  

  • that might look something like this  queen b5 cuts the king laterally  

  • and now your your queens alternate  which row they're going to control

  • or rank right there you go that's something that  you just pick up as a beginner you go practice  

  • some ladder checkmates you go practice  how to checkmate with king and queen  

  • i will give you kind of the the two minute  rundown i don't know if it will be useful for you  

  • on please disappear thank you the easiest  way to checkmate with just the queen  

  • is to put the queen in what's called knight  opposition what does that mean that means  

  • if this piece was a knight it would be attacking  the king now you copy everything black does  

  • if black moves one square to the left you move  one square to the left if black moves one square  

  • diagonally backwards you go the same way and  you get this king to one of the final rows  

  • if the king gets locked on one of those  final rows you make sure the king cannot  

  • escape so like i said one square this  way one square this way this way this way  

  • this way this way oh the king's on the  back row now it's time to bring our king  

  • so for example here here here here here here the  king will prevent the enemy king from escaping  

  • the king cannot put itself in danger obviously  with our king there because we would capture it  

  • so for example now we deliver either this  checkmate or the checkmate i like to call  

  • in your face this is a check and the king is  protecting the queen otherwise if our king  

  • was back here the king can just take the  king can capture things for free of course  

  • but in this case the king would be defending the  queen so that's the use of end games as a beginner  

  • you learn how to checkmate for example with just  a queen you learn how to checkmate with just  

  • the rook there's all sorts of resources on the  internet for things like that but the point of  

  • this video is to point you in the right direction  you need to learn basic checkmates and ultimately  

  • just how to win a position where you have  like a huge lead okay hugely in in material  

  • trade the pieces down get it to an end game getladder checkmate checkmate somebody with a queen  

  • i told you that at the end of all this i would  recommend what i think uh is the best and kind of  

  • most reliable study plan i get asked this question  all the time especially now with so many more  

  • chess fans around the world because of the queen's  gambit it was december 1st like i said 2020 so  

  • whenever you're watching in the future if you've  made it this far in the video you want to know  

  • how do you get better at chess there's a ton of  books there's a ton of resources a few days after  

  • recording this i will have a beginner's course  it will be linked in the comments um you want  

  • to learn a few openings with white and with black  you want to be confident in how you start the game  

  • personally i don't recommend playing computers  or bots i recommend going to play people  

  • online or how you know over the board i recommend  longer games 10 minute games 15 minute games  

  • i recommend playing just a few games a day  and then analyzing and when you analyze with a  

  • computer it won't always be so easy to understand  and frankly there's no clear advice i can give on  

  • how to understand certain engine recommendations  the because it doesn't speak to you frankly  

  • when you look at a game with an engine you  need to look for your one move mistakes  

  • you need to like oh i blundered that piece that's  what i did i just literally left the piece hanging  

  • okay how did my opening go did i fall for a trap  try not to fall for the same mistake two times  

  • have your end games down and start slowly  adding a little bit of information to your  

  • end games learn how to checkmate with a rook  okay learn a king and pawn end game for example  

  • keep adding information there and for the puzzle  solving quality over quantity do 10 puzzles in  

  • one day spend as much time on them as you need  get them all correct when you solve puzzles  

  • you should look to solve them with  the process of checks captures attacks  

  • those are the most forcing moves in  chess moves that they have to respond to  

  • i have videos on puzzle solving so if you ever  want to watch videos on puzzle solving and how to  

  • improve at that that there's content out out there  for you as well but that's how you get better so  

  • you want to do 10 puzzles get 10 correct don't do  30 puzzles and only get 10 correct go for 100 that  

  • way you understand the pattern kind of immerse  yourself in it and that's how you would improve  

  • many people who start the game as adults gain  hundreds of rating points on chess.com or wherever  

  • they play just playing like that i don't really  have much else to add i think i've given you just  

  • about enough we're 30 minutes into this video  this is already a lot of information to intake  

  • if any of you have questions start conversations  in the comments i'm sure people would be more than  

  • happy to jump in and answer about books  training regimens and so on and so forth  

  • that's basically it welcome once again to  chess and if there's any other content that  

  • you'd like to see on my channel besides  the playlist that i have on these subjects  

  • let me know like i said in the comments  below enjoy welcome to the 64 squares

welcome to the world of chess my name is levi  rosman i'm an international master from new york  

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