Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Bullet Chess Game 1 - An Unexpected Queen "Sacrifice"

Bullet chess may not be the best way to learn chess. In fact, I'd highly recommend that beginners stay away from bullet chess as much as possible because it teaches a lot of bad habits. 
On the other hand though, bullet chess is also a lot of fun, and for the very reason that both players typically make a lot of mistakes in a bullet game, the resulting positons are often unique and very entertaining. 
Today I recorded a video about one such game where I was forced to "sacrifice" my queen...
This is a position from a bullet game I played today. A lot of blunders, but a beautiful finish
This game is a great example that in bullet chess, even 2200-rated players (and above actually) make a lot of elementary mistakes:

Friday, May 24, 2013

The Importance of Playing it Safe

In this video analysis I look at what must have been a very frustrating loss for Pyre. He had a clear advantage and yet lost the game because he underestimated his opponent's counterplay.

This game is a dramatic example of the fact that when ahead in a chess game, playing it safe and reducing the opponent's counter chances are more important than greedily holding on to one's material advantage. In fact, when ahead it can often be very useful to sacrifice material to transition into a simpler, more easily won position. This is a concept I'll revisit in future lessons.

Starcraft 2 analogy: a player who is economically far ahead of his opponent can afford trading inefficiently because it hurts the opponent more.

Part 1:



Part 2:



I'm still learning how to use the video recording and editing software. I think I'll keep recording clips like these. Though I honestly believe that progress in chess comes mostly from playing and studying chess over-the-board. Youtube and other multimedia content can help, but their entertainment value is greater than their educational value.

One does not simply get better at chess by watching Youtube videos
One does not simply get better at chess by watching Youtube videos


Monday, May 20, 2013

Bishop and Pawn vs. Bishop

This is a position from a practice game against one of the people I'm giving chess lessons to. My opponent resigned a little prematurely. The remaining moves would have been quite instructive:

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Bullet Chess Adventures - Episode I - Humble Beginnings

I've decided to occasionally post some of my bullet games here. I want to start with two terrible games I played today. The games clearly prove that bullet has nothing to do with chess... I'll probably briefly discuss some of the games, too. I'm also doing this to learn more about how to best record and upload chess videos.