My Strategy against Lower-Rated Opponents | Round 1 Charlotte Rapid vs. 1796
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2023
- On May 27, 2023, I participated in my first serious tournament in 3.5 years: the Charlotte Memorial Day Weekend Rapid & Blitz in Charlotte, North Carolina! This is an analysis of my Round 1 G/45+5 game against Enzo Restelli (USCF: 1796).
Review this game on lichess.org: lichess.org/RVYFuwcG
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We viewers are so lucky that we can access an in depth analysis from an IM about one of his OTB tournament games for FREE. Thank you John, this isn’t taken for granted 🐐
Finally climbing the rating ladder IRL 😁
Next time: climbing a literal ladder
My favorite running joke on this channel is the growing pressure on John to climb a literal ladder and farm it for content.
I am not sure why exactly, but seeing OTB game self-analysis is always so exciting, also feels extra informative.
I've never clicked on a JB video faster. Looking forward to more analysis from the Charlotte Rapid
@Billy Mumphry hahaha thank you mate. Been playing chess more or competitively for a number of years now. JB is one of the best! Maybe JB and i can do a collab. I teach him some deads, he teaches me some scandi haha
This one's for the Analysis Gang! Thanks for walking us through John.
After watching this game, I no longer "kick" knights, I cook them! Thanks for the in-depth review John, and I'm looking forward to round two!
Caught your lecture at the chess center Tuesday night and appreciate your taking time to share your knowledge.
Great to see you back in the tournament hall, John. I knew you were missing it.
This covered some of the main strategies of outplaying someone. They were:
1. Maintaining flexibility
2. Not trading too much material
3. Maintaining the tension of trades if possible
4. Preventing the opponent’s possible plans and ideas
5. Continually setting small problems when given the chance 6. Continually improving the pieces
To add to this:
When playing "lower rated" opponents, play in such a way as to not give them "easy decisions" -- get inside their head, infer what their goal is (move to move + longterm). Play solid and wait for an opening rather than "getting fancy"
I loved this message and felt like it was tailor made for me. I haven't played OTB in years but practice a lot, and I wanted to come out after COVID and prove I'm a CM. Round 1 I have black, play simply and positionally, and my 1600 opponent just had no idea what the middlegame was about and made a bad positional decision, the game won itself. Round 2 I face a 2100 with white. I want to win, I want that CM title, so I play an outrageously provocative line I'm inventing over the board trying to press for attacking chances... my position collapses like a house of cards and I lose. Just like you're saying. There are 3 phases of the game, make them show they can play all 3. Probe their weaknesses until they reveal themselves! 😂❤
I'm sorta like the lower rated player in this case. I follow the good principles like centralizing and activating my pieces after the opening, but after that I just kinda have no plan on how to take down my opponent. This basically leads to me thinking for a long time giving my opponent a big time advantage. I win games if there are direct winning chances like a tactical blunder by my opponent, but if they play solid chess, I usually just draw or lose by making some mistake myself.
You and me both
While some may take it for granted, I fully appreciate John telling us it's him in the intro.
Great video! Agree with a few top comments, a wonderful treat for the Analysis gang!!👍
John warming up to his transition to fashion advice youtuber. Collab with Guccireza any day now.
Hey John, as always, this is guys :)
Wow! What an absolute treat this video was, John! You really outdid yourself this time. Just chock full of nuggets of very useful chess advice and explanation, all delivered in the trademark John Bartholomew super clear fashion. The two big takeaways for me personally were: 1. When playing a much lower-rated (or even evenly-rated) opponent, don't feel you have to force the position with any sharp or tactical continuations; and 2. Don't give your opponent any easy decisions. Also, related to these two points is the observation that you shouldn't worry or feel uncomfortable if nothing seems to be happening in the position. It may look quite drawish on the surface but actually there are often subtle positional or strategic factors at play that the (especially) lower-rated opponent may not fully appreciate and that can easily lead to accumulating mistakes by the unsuspecting opponent, and eventually a losing position.
I also wanted to mention that your recommendation of 6 . . . Nbd7 (after 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qa5 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nf3 Bf5 6 Bd2) was a revelation to me. I had previously known about 6 . . . e6, the only move mentioned and recommended in "The Scandinavian for Club Players" by Thomas Willemze. But your warning that Black may experience dangerous, practical difficulties after 6 .. . e6 7 Ne5 Qb6 8 Qf3 etc. (unless armed to the teeth with precise theory) alerted me to potential pitfalls and issues with Willemze's recommended Scandi repertoire.
That was quite the visually appealing mate. Thanks for the thoughtful analysis John
The explanation is again top class. Looking forward to this series of rapid games. You don't often hear about the psychology behind chess. Big part of the game! Also, that pressure against the e6 pawn with several pieces would stun the average/intermediate player.
That is an outstanding shirt. Thanks John for the upload 😀
Great content John! Super informative, and I enjoy the quizzes a lot!
Really excited for these!
thank you for posting this!
Man Man Man!
"Possibly cook the knight!" LMAO! That was a great one!
Nice game John. I think this is a great model game. I learnt a lot from this one. Thanks for posting
I will try this if I ever find a lower rated opponent.
Don't worry about you chess abilities, you're a magnificent singer!
@@mikaelplaysguitar My man
I was given this advice from IM Daniel Kopec ( RIP) - don’t simplify against me , I’ll kill you . Keep it complicated and doubled edged, then you have a chance . And from GM Walter Browne ( RIP) … he gave us 5 minutes to his 2 and killed us .
Oh man I can't believe I was so close to you during my vacation to Ashville, North Carolina. It's 2 hours away to Charlotte but it would have been great to meet you. We drove from NY 😆. Anyway, congrats on your tourney and cheers 🥂
great stuff! Very instructive
Lovely game. Congrats! Really nice analysis also.
Thanks for the analysis, John!
Love your videos John, keep them coming!! Hope to be seeing some standard chess videos again some time soon, love from Germany!!
Very informative 👏 You are one my favorite youtubers to watch. Thank you
Really appreciate that! Cheers!
Excellent analysis! Much appreciated.
Thanks, David!
instructive game :-)
oh and thanks for the tips for the scandi. I'm experimenting with that opening right now and it's fun
Some instructive chess
Thanks so much John
A dominant performance! Great analysis, John. Hands down the best chess content creator on CZcams.
I also appreciated the prompts to pause the video and find the best next move, I often forget to pause on my own so the prompts are a good idea.
Loved the game and the analysis, please upload the next 3 games!
You played this game like a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu master! You simply strengthened your position, waited patiently, and didn't give your opponent any openings--and when your opponent made a mistake you moved quickly to solidify the advantage. Thank you for sharing!
Such positional, patient play! I think this is great advice for playing equally rated players. Thanks for the Scandi, too!!
OTB tournament analysis series ?? Hallelujah!!
GM John Bartholmew. My life would be complete if I could witness that.
Love these real games in depth analysis
3:49 First ham knowledge.
That’s a glorious shirt John
wow 45 5 was the time control for the sunday standard tournie on FICS
I can relate with your comment about how important getting the practical experience playing the variations is.
I'm studying Christof Sielecki's excellent "Keep It Simple For Black" where he recommends playing the Caro Kann against 1. e4.
Recently I could try it out, but confused two variations. I lost of course, but it did make me restudy them. And next time my opponent will not be so lucky 😄
Nice game!
Well played (and nice shirt)!
Thanks as always John. Pointed and insightful analysis. Your comment about the "blunt" pieces (queen and rooks) vs the sharper minor pieces caught my mind. It's a cool concept and something to remember. In the kitchen you can't julienne carrots with a butcher knife and you can't carve a piece of meat with a yanagi ba, at least not easily. Tools have their time and place and it's good to keep that in mind, in chess as in the kitchen - and life.
Go John!
Was hoping you would show your games, thanks
At around 36:00 I thought of ...Be5, f4 Rxd1, Rxd1 Bxf4 winning the same pawn, but I guess white isn't as forced to kick the bishop with f4 to lose the pawn as the direct capture on f2 is, and while it doesn't lose the HUGE advantage black had already, it's still not the most active move I guess.
Great game and tournament, John! Keep winning and get those GM norms🎉
Climbing the rating ladder OTB edition. You must keep these coming John :)
I totally agree with the way to play against lower rated players. In a very different level (I am an amateur player) I do the same thing. But in my case, there are some games (for example some Catalan games) that I don't find a way to open the position and it ends in a draw, then I think: why am I not playing more aggressive? Thanks for the lesson!
And it’s a Scandi! Awesome!
I will make a series: “Going Down the Rating Ladder”😊
That's a juicy mate. Not a pattern you see often.
Scrumptious!
Hi, John. I'm so glad you've been back. Any chance that existing owners of your Qd8 scandi course could get an early shot at the new Qa5 course? :) Thanks!
This was a good lesson in chess the sport versus chess "the thing studied in books."
I've been watching your videos for years and am glad you still put out content. I know you've said you put the goal aside but I wonder if Hikaru taking the World #2 in the live rankings yesterday after becoming a "full time streamer" will help get you the motivation to do one more push for the GM title.
I was like: "Did he just say cook the knight? Nah, I most certainly misheard something." John: "Did I just say cook the knight?"
Those bishops are glorious.
Nice game
12:47 *Breaking Bad Intro Theme Plays*
John is "cooking" 😆
This is premium YT content
John we have the same shirt... Cheers 😂
It's interesting. According to the lichess analysis, your opponent got a 92% accuracy rating with 6 inaccuracies and no mistakes or blunders. Normally, you would be pretty happy with that, but when you're up against a really good player, those 6 inaccuracies just get pulverised. Also, during the analysis, I was convinced your opponent would try 14. Nh4 after you play a6.
The thing is he's basically playing just not to blunder, so of course he didn't but at slow rapid, that's hardly good enough.
He went down without throwing a punch.
At 30:47, did you consider Bh5, when the queen barely has any squares? And g4 is more or less forced, if I am not mistaken, that is. Would love to know what you think! Is g4 something you would like to induce or does that complicate matters? :p
Thoughtful analysis. Him having to find good moves (with decreasing time) and with most of the pieces still in play is an uphill battle.
Killer shirt, IM in chess but definitely a GM in fashion
based shirt, John!
Hey John - after white played Qe2, why not take the pawn with bxc2?
That was good! Huzzah for Team Scandi! Dave from Ohio
I too like a good bishop flex
Chess is really amazing that way. You play some young 13-year-old and they could be anywhere from someone who just discovered the game to already having their GM title.
Cook the knight 🍽
Bro thought he could get the freshest haircut and not expect someone to compliment it 📈
That positional evaluation at 27:40 where white is a point up materially, AND controls TWO open center files yet is -4 according to the computer (and -1 according to you) is crazy to me (1600-1700 USCF). I'd think I was winning as white but as you show, it's more about positional understanding which just takes time and experience to develop.
Yes, one of those evals that modern engines more aggressively lean into, it seems! I think the main contrast of the position is how safe Black's position is (almost nothing to attack for White), whereas White has annoyingly weak pawns that will require support, and heavy pieces that will need to dodge attacks from the minor pieces.
hey John - special request - could you do one of these game analysis videos on a real board? that would be a real treat. Very instructive game, you are the Petrosian of modern times!
"Experience all that over-the-board chess is"... if you know you know! 😂♥
At 8:40, what if instead white played Nb5 as a discovery attack? Would ...Qb6 be black's best move?
I've recently switched to the English and the Dutch as my primary weapons, with almost exactly this philosophy. Play fluid center middlegames where there are tons of candidate moves and plans, and let your opponent show they are thinking about both tactics and positional ideas. If they survive that, say, ok, well done... but can you play a complex endgame? ❤
When he says “look up theory”, how is that done and what does that mean exactly?
You can explore opening theory by using books, courses, databases, articles - lots of sources. One easy, useful tool to play around with is the lichess database. Go to lichess.org/analysis, click the book icon in the bottom right-hand corner, and play around with various openings and see what's popular and how they score! You can use both the "Masters" database (highest-quality games; most of what forms theory), and the Lichess database (more indicative of what you might experience at various rating levels).
@@JohnBartholomewChess What does" theory" mean?
This is how good players beat guys who are not beginners but still not strong yet. As a weaker player against GMs always go for the complications unless its that 1 or 2% Gareyev/Shabalov/Kupreichik type player.
This is essentially a clinic in what Yermolinsky once called bombarding opponent with meaningless moves unless he collapses. All he's doing here is making moves that don't blunder anything and don't reduce complexity and waiting for his opponent to self-destruct. Always works on weaker players.
Game #1 position looks a lot like a classical Bf5 Caro
Why so many ads? I was enjoying the video but the ads ruins it
john likes to flash that symbol a lot eh?
?
A ethical way to smurfing
Your low rated opponent is 300 rating above me 😂
There are levels to this game! 😀
@@JohnBartholomewChess true true. A long time ago I have seen videos of yours on playing the Hedgehog for Black, are there any resources you would recommend? Thanks again
First
John why do you keep saying “they?” You are only playing one person and it’s a pronoun shift. Use ‘he’ when you know who you’re playing. I enjoyed your analysis. At all levels of chess people use too much time on basic opening moves when playing higher rated players. This only serves to give the Master a greater advantage and is unnecessary.