3 Rules Only Strong Chess Players Know SECRETS Revealed

In this video, I'll show you a simple idea that can instantly make your chess more dangerous. I'm Grandmaster Igor Smirnov, and let me ask you, how would you play here as white? Now, black has just played Qf6, an unusual move, but nevertheless, most players would probably just develop their pieces one way or the other, Bc4 being the most played move. However, it is actually not how strong players handle chess, because they ask themselves a different question. They ask themselves, how can I make a threat? And here, Morphy played Nc3, and we'll use this game of Morphy to see clearly this golden rule of chess, and exactly how you can apply it to maximize your results. The Nc3 move creates that first threat, and that already made black nervous, and black played c6 just to cover that weakness. Now, you see the power of white's previous move, and why Nc3 was better than Bc4? Now, black is wasting time just to prevent this knight from jumping forward, and guess what Morphy played here? Again, most players, they would just develop, right? Classical rule of chess, develop pieces, castle, all that stuff, and it's all good, it's all right, but there is a next level to it, and the next level is, again, you keep making threats, and Morphy played d4, another move that creates the next threat. I call this strategy keep punching. You try to create problems for your opponent as often as you possibly can. Now, Morphy challenges this pawn in the middle of the board, while also preparing his other pieces to be brought into the game. Now, black captured on d4. Again, black cannot play any move he wants to, right? He cannot develop because he has to address this very straightforward threat. Black captured here on d4, and once again, you can clearly see the difference between Morphy and the rest, right? What would other people do? They would definitely recapture, probably would not even consider other options, right? They would just think whether to take with a knight or with a queen, or they would just capture with a knight and that's it. Now, knowing the rule, think about this for a second. How would you play here as white? Are there any aggressive moves that you can play? And Morphy played e5, attacking the queen, a good move, but frankly, I like even more the move Bg5, the move that pursues the same purpose, and at the same time, also develops a bushing. Either way, both moves are nice, and you see that you have way more options than you think initially. Now, he played e5, also not bad, hitting the queen. Now, the queen went here to g6, and again, oh, everybody would just recapture, but we know that Morphy was really brutal. He had a very rare chess problem. He was struggling to find a worthy opponent. He was just too good for his time, and instead of recapturing, he played Bd3. He came up with one more rule, one more move to keep creating threats. By the way, let me ask you another interesting question. What do you think about a move like Nh4? Is that also an attacking move worth considering? There is also another quick note to be made here. Sometimes, you're watching a game of, let's say, Tal or Morphy, you get inspired to play in that style, and then you go on to that chess app, and you try it out yourself, but then it doesn't go exactly the way that it went for Tal and Morphy. As one of you guys wrote in comments to one of my previous videos, this is exactly the way I play, skillfully blended with spectacular blunders. Now, having said that, there are two very important ideas to understand here to be sure you actually make it with this rule, and one of them is you want to attack while bringing new pieces into the attack. This is exactly what differentiates those great players from beginners, because beginners, they run around with the same piece, trying to create those one-move threats, and it most of the time fails. Like, think of Scholar's Maid as an example of that, right? What is running around with the same queen, just trying to create threats with this whole chess attitude, versus strong players know that they want to bring new pieces into play, those which are not yet developed, because you, generally speaking, want to just outnumber your opponent, that's the easiest way to dominate. Now, let's count pieces that are currently active. White's got two knights, all right, two. Black's got a queen, one. We've got two versus one, not bad, but after Morphy played Bd3, now we've got three versus one, that's already much better. Black played Qxg2, hitting the rook, but luckily for Morphy, he's got Rg1, counter-threat. Now, after queen retreats back to h3, now we've got 1, 2, 3, 4 versus one, and basically Black is done. Now, of course, it still takes skill to convert it, and not to blunder throughout the game, but generally speaking, you're already totally dominating the game. Now, Morphy is asking himself the very same question, how can I create the next threat? He comes with Rg3, keep punching. Queen comes back, Rg5, and White keeps hunting. Poor queen, instead of a light morning jog, she had to run a full marathon. Queen to h3, all right. Now, by the way, this knight on c3 is still handy, let's not forget about that. And how would you play here as White? Quick side note, we're currently looking for a social media specialist to join our team. If you'd like to work with me, or if you know somebody who might be a good fit, you can find all the details in the description below the video, and if you refer someone who ends up joining the team, you'll also get a referral bonus for that. All right, back to the video. Morphy here played Bf1 to attack the queen that way. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure why not Bf5 with the same idea, that looks even more aggressive to me. But whatever, Bf1 is also not bad, still hitting the queen and somehow gaining one more tempo. All right, the queen retreated back to e6, and now finally Morphy was kind enough to finally recapture this pawn on d4, but even in this moment, he found a way to do that with a tempo, while hitting the queen once again. Okay, the queen retreated back to e7. Now, Black somehow never had a time to develop anything. Now, a quick question. What do you think about this move, Nf5? Is that a nice idea? Now, this is the second very, very important caveat. Nf5 initially looks just terrific. You hit the queen, you hit all around, looks like you're about to win the game. But this is where we usually, you know, start blundering. Before attacking, you gotta check your opponent's checks and captures. So here, Nf5 would actually be a blunder, because yes, it looks very good, but it blunders Qxc5+. And again, that is that super, super important caveat, because it's very easy to get focused on your own ideas. I keep punching, that's great, and start overlooking your opponent's counters. Now, you might have heard about that rule, checks, captures, and threats, right? In my experience, because I analyzed a lot of games of my students, I can tell you that most of the time, it is actually a capture, something like that, or something like that. In this case, Qxg5 is not an option, because of the bishop. But I mean, this is something that you guys typically overlook, right? Captures, 80% of the time. So out of checks, captures, and threats, I'd say you gotta be most careful with captures. And secondly, checks, all right? Threats is something that, in the ideal world, you should also take into account, but practically, you can even not think about it all that much. All right, so Nf5 would not be a good option, and in light of that, Morphy played Ne4, a much better move. Consolidating the position, and making a threat of Nd6+, but Black counters with pawn to h6, probably trying to get rid of this rook, and if the rook goes back, Black would be able to pick up this pawn on e5, which sounds nice, but now Morphy plays Nf5, following the ancient Sun Tzu quote, it's never too late to ruin a good game. Here Nf5, follows the motto, keep punching, but fails to follow the previous thing we talked about. You gotta consider checks and captures of your opponent. And here, after Nf5, Black's got Qxe5, yes, but even more so, Qb4. This hits both the king and the knight, and if White is trying to do something to save the knight, let's say, just move it back to c3, then this rook on g5 is simply hanging, Black can capture it, turning things around, and now Black is the one winning the game, just with the upper rook, and White's attack failed. But luckily for Morphy, the queen was so exhausted, it could barely make one step forward, and now everything works out for Morphy, he goes Nd6+, he keeps attacking, this time he gets directly at attacking his opponent's king, he goes to d8+, now White's rook on g5 is still hanging, but Morphy asks himself the same question, how can I make another threat, and he goes Bc4. Yeah, remember, everyone knows that you gotta develop pieces in an opening, but strong players know that you want to develop pieces while attacking, that's the next level thinking. Now the queen is attacked, it goes back to e7, the rook is still hanging, but Morphy's got Nxf7, this time for king, his opponent's king and rook. The king somehow hides on c7, it actually looks safe here, maybe Black was hoping for Morphy to just pick up the rook, but instead he found another brilliant attacking move, Qd6, checking the king, and now this little pawn made a really beautiful career, now it captures on d6, checking the king, while the knight still guards the square, pushing the king all the way forward, and now Be3, White keeps chasing the king, this rook on g5, still alive, also cuts off the fifth rank, and it almost makes it into a checkmate but c5, Black is still in the game, Bxc5, now there was a really interesting moment, if the king wanted to go to c6, which he didn't in the game, that will lead to Nd8, a very spectacular mate, basically, like, quite an unusual configuration, and really nice. The white rook is still hanging, by the way, but Morphy says, don't judge the rook by its cover, and reroutes it to the queen side So, remember these three ideas, first, keep punching, that's the core idea, keep creating new threats, that instantly makes you way more dangerous, but there are two very important caveats, the first one, attack while bringing new pieces into the attack, don't just develop pieces, develop and attack whenever you can, and the third, but also very important one, before every attacking move, check your opponent's checks and captures, to be sure, you're on a path to becoming a GM, not a BM. If you want to see how these ideas fit into one practical system, I've prepared a free masterclass, it breaks down the exact thinking process I use while playing, and the link is in the description. And if you want to master Morphy's favorite opening, check out this video.