I Beat a 2700 GM Using the Lessons He Taught Me

A 2700 rated grandmaster once told me some ideas that changed how I understood chess. He's a former top 20 in the world and one of the strongest players I've ever learned from. I'm playing right here against Viktor Bologan. And by the way, you probably don't know this name, but back in the day, like I said, he was one of the top 20 players in the world. He won some big tournaments, including Dortmund ahead of Anand and Kramnik. And there are two cool things about this game, and that's why I decided to share it with you. So first off, I could understand what really makes those top guys so special, right? And what exactly separates a strong player like myself from world's top player like Bologan is. And secondly, what's a little bit funny is that I could use those ideas against himself, right? Against the guy who taught me these rules. Now we've got the cover count defense. I'm trading on d5 and going for the so-called Panov attack. And after a couple moves, I'm capturing on d5. And instead of recapturing, black delays it because this pawn is weak and normally black can get it back anytime they want to in the future. And this is actually the first position where I'd like you to think about it and ask yourself, how would you play here as white? Because I think that's the first, like, really an eye-opener that can help you understand and upgrade your level of thinking and see how strong players think differently. Now, because there are many normal moves that you can play, such as just developing your knight, right? Or maybe you'd look at this pawn that is hanging and you decide, okay, let me bring up the bishop and support it. So that's how normal players think. And that's also how I used to think. But while interacting with him, I actually learned an interesting thing that the rule that we all have heard many times, develop pieces in an opening, is kind of wrong or rather incomplete, right? Because the rule that I learned from him is that And I played Bb5. So what's the difference? The difference is you can just develop a piece, such as Na3 or any other usual developing move. But it's not the best move to play. The best move to play is if you can combine two things in one move. When you can develop a piece and disturb your opponent, make it harder for your opponent to restrict something, you know, make his life difficult. And so Bb5 is the first move in that direction. It develops a bishop and also it forces black to make a decision. Black covered with a knight, but now you see that, at least temporarily, this blocks out his bishop, blocks out the queen, and makes a little bit of inconvenience. And now the same situation happens one more time. Again, how would you play here as white? And you see that, again, the normal move that comes to mind is Na3, castle, right? Just all the usual moves. But keeping in mind that idea, develop and disturb, I'm also asking myself, what is black trying to do here, right? And is there any way for me to disturb and prevent his plan? And with that in mind, I play d6. Now the move that otherwise would not have come to your mind at all, because it just gives up a pawn for seemingly no reason. But now we see that he's about to castle, and I can play this Qe2+, which is very uncomfortable for black, because they basically have to lose the right of castle, right? They move the king out, now the rook is stuck, the king is stuck in the middle, they cannot castle anymore. In the game, black played Qe7, which is certainly much better, which, again, one of the classical Yggdrasil rules that you know to take is a mistake. So Qxc7 was a move. However, in an endgame, having centralized king would not be such a big obstacle for black. And so instead, I keep asking myself, is there any way to put pressure on black to develop my piece and disturb black? And with that in mind, I played Bf2, f4, which targets this weak pawn and forces black to make a decision and maybe waste time to defend it. By the way, a quick warm-up for you. What if black plays a6, attacking the bishop? How would you play here as white? Please think about it and let me know in the comments down below. I want to engage you, because then you will also retain all this information much better. Now, back to the game, black just traded on e2, and for some reason, I captured it with a bishop. Nowadays, I really dislike it, right? Having recorded all the videos about Capablanca and encouraging you guys not to overthink, these days, I would definitely just develop a knight and recapture it. Back then, I took it with a bishop. I dislike it now. Anyway, my point was that potentially there is this knight jump that can create problems for black, and so I thought that it could be unpleasant for black. Now, black has to protect this pawn, potentially, but there is also this knight jump, which can be really annoying. Black just castled, which is probably the best decision to play, gives up this pawn. However, black completes his development normally, black is even a little bit ahead in development, putting some pressure down here, and, I mean, objectively speaking, the position is still more or less balanced. Now, Nf3, Nb6, both sides just developing their pieces. Black is also untangling his minor pieces. I castled and knight to d5. Now, how would you play here as white? And this brings us to the second big, big idea, which may sound simple, but there is really a lot of wisdom here. So, here's the idea. See the threat, but look for counterplay. And like I said, this very short phrase actually is pure gold, because the first part is, see the threat, right? You gotta ask yourself, what does he want? What's the point of his move? Such as in this case, right? Black moved the knight to d5. What's the idea, right? Because if you don't ask yourself this question, it's very, very easy to blunder. Let's say you play this game and you decide, okay, let me, I don't know, trade on d5. Now, you think, maybe I'm gonna activate my rook, right? And then, boom, you just blunder a piece. Now, that happens all over the place, unfortunately, right? And to avoid things like that, you gotta ask yourself, what does he want, right? You gotta see the threat. So, here, knight to d5 aims to trade off this knight on c3, which is a defender of the bishop. And therefore, if you do nothing, you're gonna blunder a piece. But then there is the second part of the phrase, which is equally important. See the threat, but look for counterplay. Because very often, when we see the threat, then we default to a defense. If we see that, let's say, this rook is attacking the bishop, then we're playing something like this to protect it, right? And that is okay, certainly much better than blundering. But, like I said, so here, by interacting with the world's top player, I see how they think differently. Their way of thinking is, okay, I see the bishop is hanging, but is there any counterattacking move that I can play? Can I solve this problem by creating a problem for black instead? And with that approach, instead of just protecting this bishop or moving it away, play Bb5, all right? And this is something that you can definitely use in your games many, many times. This is probably the most overlooked thing that can bring you a lot of great moves and great victories. Now, black goes rook to d8, hitting the bishop. Now, where should the bishop go? What do you think about that? That's another interesting question, because it can come to pretty much anywhere, right? Along these two diagonals, it can go anywhere. So where do you put it? And that's another very interesting thing, because back in the day, I would probably just retreated somewhere here to safety and, you know, would be pretty confident with my position. But then again, the third thing that I learned from him, from Balagan while interacting with him, is the rule that kind of can be formulated like invade, annoy, and don't retreat unless forced. So here's the thing. If you can't keep your pieces on opponent's half of the board, that is annoying for your opponent. And you gotta try to do it. And if your opponent wants to chase your pieces away, like, let him work. Let him prove that he can do it. And so what I learned is that you gotta try to keep this bishop somewhere on black's half of the board. And so the moves which I would look at now, first and foremost, would be Be5 or Bc5. Like, yes, you don't want to blunder a bishop, right? You don't want to go there and just blunder it. That's true. But still, if I can move it here or here, keep it on the black's half of the board and make him work, make him worry about this bishop. This is what I want to do. So here, I'm going Bc2, e5, potentially ready to trade off his Venkato bishop. And usually, your opponent does not like it, weakens his king, and forces black to make some decision around that. Black played pawn to f6 to avoid this exchange and push the bishop back. But the downside of this move is now this bishop on g6, on g7 is kind of dull, right? It's blocked by his own pawn. Black goes Be6, completing their development. Rook to e1, bringing rook into play and also hitting the bishop. King to f7 to centralize the king and to protect the bishop. And now, both sides more or less finished their development and we need to decide what to do next. Now, we rushed straight from the opening into the endgame because we traded queens early. But nevertheless, you gotta come up with the plan what to do next. And the challenging part of such positions is that there are plenty of moves that you can play and many of them would make certain sense. And again, you can ask yourself, how would you play here as white? A lot of players would definitely trade on d5 because they're not following this channel and they don't know that to take is a mistake. Also, I noticed that, like, especially beginners, they really love pushing these side pawns forward for reasons that I can't fully comprehend. But anyway, like, moves like that are often played in positions like that. And here's the thing. There's another thing which I learned actually from Tal, right, by reading his books. And he said that I love to grasp the initiative and not give my opponents peace of mind. And that was quite a nice insight because he's known for combinations, right? But those combinations were actually very rare, right? Much more often, he created, like, much simpler threats. And with that in mind, I played knight to e4, threatening either knight to d6 or knight to c5. And the good thing about this strategy is that when you create threats, even small ones, your opponent does not have time to organize his own. He's got to react to the threats that you create. And also, I understand it may sound, like, simplistic, but actually I can tell you that back in the day when I was a teenager and I was an international master, I was a champion of Ukraine under 16, I was really trying to progress forward, get to the next level. It has always been a struggle. But whenever I could find a good coach who could tell me some of these new ideas, you know, I always progressed straight up. For the next few months, I usually rushed forward pretty rapidly until I hit the next plateau. And now I'm just trying to give you these, like, most important ideas in a very condensed and short fashion, all right? Now, black goes pawn to a6, kicking the bishop out of b5. And again, in the past, I would just probably simply retreat the bishop without even thinking about anything else. Now, having learned that you got to see the threat but look for counterplay, now I'm thinking, is there anything like this, right? Can I play something like this? A counter check, right? Checking the king. If it moves, maybe I can grab the bishop. But in this particular case, it doesn't work. Black can trade and then take this bishop on b5, which means that black got two minor pieces for the rook and it is good for black. We don't want to go there. Therefore, unfortunately for white, this check does not work here, meaning that the bishop actually has to go. It cannot go forward because of this knight from b6 that controls these squares. And I retreated all the way back. Therefore, of course, even though I'm talking about, you know, seeing the threat but looking for counter strike, it's not always possible, right? You don't want to be reckless. Of course, you will just lose material. But you got to look for those opportunities because very often, they are there. Anyway, back to the game. Now, knight to d6 is actually annoying or maybe knight to c5, putting some pressure on black. And black played bishop f8, a very logical move, taking control of these two squares, preventing the knight from coming there. But unfortunately for black, there is another trick that white has here, which you can find if you're familiar with those forcing moves concept. Checks, captures, threats, right? And here I played knight to g5, which is a little tactical trick. And after this trade, it's a temporary sacrifice, but it forces this fork, meaning white will get the piece back right on the next move. After king to f6, now knight takes e6. And as a result of this little tactical operation, white is winning one more pawn and also attacking the rook. Rook to e8, hitting the knight. What do you do now? Again, the usual way of thinking, if the knight is attacked, let's just move it back, right? Now, I'm asking myself, I know that I need to see the threat but look for counter play, right? So I played Bh4, not necessarily sure that it's the right move to play, but anyway, like, as a concept itself, I kind of like it. And it's always confusing for your opponent, right? When he's attacking you, you do ignore that and you instead force him to defend. Just psychologically, that is unpleasant for your opponent and, you know, somebody like Tal used it brilliantly to completely confuse his opponents. Now the king goes back to f7, the knight is still hanging, now it goes to c5, putting pressure to this pawn on b7 and there is no convenient solution for black on how to defend it. Sure, he can trade, but then white recaptures and that will hit the other knight on b6. It's also uncomfortable. Luckily, rook to a7, the move that looks awkward but other than that, it's not easy to protect the pawn. Now rook takes e8 and by the way, here's an interesting thing. I used to tell you to take as a mistake. Am I making this mistake myself or not? What do you think? I mean, technically yes, but I'm not saying you should never take anything, right? If you can take something for free, win material, definitely go for it. But the continuation of the rule is if you trade, be sure you're paid. Meaning you don't want to trade just for nothing. You want to trade and gain something out of it, right? Gain certain advantage. And here as we trade, we trade off black's active rook and we bring into the game our passive rook from a1 with a check. Definitely white gains something, right? We're attacking the king. It's pretty cool. King goes to f7. Alright, now what do you do? Again, we can come back to the rules that we talked about before. Invade, annoy, right? Create problems for your opponent. And with that mindset, I'm looking at the black's half of the board and asking myself how can I go there and annoy black. And I played rook to e5, also a move which initially may not look that bright because black can go bishop d6 and ask this rook to just come back, right? But now, again, knowing these ideas, you know that you got to see the threat but look for counterplay. Is there any way to counter-strike, create problems for black? And this move, bishop d6, wasn't played into the game because it's actually a bad move. By the way, it's a blitz game but still you see that black is accurate here. So bishop d6, not a good move because it allows this little trick, this little sacrifice followed by bishop to c4. And because the knight is pinned, means black is going to lose it on the next turn. Black will lose two minor pieces for the rook, which is not good. And that's not good for black. Back into the game, instead of this, black played bishop to e7, offering an exchange of bishops. And that's another interesting position to ask yourself, should you take or not? Is this, again, the case of to take is a mistake? And in this case, I did take on e7 because otherwise, I would have to retreat and waste time retreating. And I don't want to waste time. So here, the reason for the exchange is because we don't want to waste time defending. Now, knight takes e7, it also pushes the knight back. All right, what do you do next? Again, the same idea, right? Be like Mikhail Tal. Don't let your opponent peace of mind, keep creating threats. And I played knight to e4, threatening these two jumps of the knight. Nc6, black also comes with a counter-strike, attacking the rook and the pawn. What do you do here? A counter-attack. So I played knight to g5 check, the king comes to g7, now still the rook and the pawn is hanging. What do you do here? Again, previously, I'd probably just move something like rook to e4, trying to protect everything, right? But once I learned these ideas, like see the threat, look for counter-play, right? So mainly, I'm now looking at something like either knight to e6 check, which would be a counter-strike, or rook to e6, the move that I played. That follows another idea, invade and annoy your opponent. Now, it turns out that even though this pawn is hanging, he actually cannot take it because that would open up this file and my rook would capture the other knight on b6, which forces black to move the knight here on d5. Now this pawn is still hanging, what do you do here? And again, think about that yourself, try to apply these ideas, then you will learn and, you know, practice them right away, right? So the pawn is hanging, what do you do? The counter-strike, right? How do you do that? I mean, there is a move rook to d6, attacking that way, or there is a move Bc4, which I played in the game, both are fine. Still, black has no time to take the pawn because now they have to retreat the knight. Nf4, black is also counter-playing, attacking the rook, and again, like, it might be tempting to go here to protect the pawn, kick out the knight, but now we know that you want to invade and annoy your opponent, and therefore, I kept the rook right here, played rook to d6. This protects the pawn, also threatens rook to d7, right? Checking the king and attacking all around, and to counter that, black played pawn to b5, which finally opens up the black rook, also attacks the bishop, but we don't have to retreat it because we can take right here. And by the way, you see how all these ideas work at pretty much every turn, right? And that's why I'm showing you this game, not to brag, because, yeah, I'm not obviously trying to say, like, I'm playing perfect chess all the time. This game was good, but the very first blitz match I played against Polygon, I lost 6-0, right? So that was a complete devastation. But later, as I learned these rules that I'm sharing with you, it got better, so hopefully, you will benefit from this as well. Now, black trades on c4, goes rook to e7, and as you know, you got to seal the threat, right? So, rook to e1, threatens checkmate on e1, very important not to blunder it, played king to f1, knight to d3. What's the idea of that move? Well, there are actually two. First, it reinforces the idea of this back-rank checkmate, rook to e1, and it also hits the pawn on b2. What do you do now? You seal the threat, but you look for counter-strike, right? Is there any way for white to make a threat onto black's half of the board? I play rook to c7, which is another little tactical trick. It doesn't win the game in itself, but it kills black's counterplay. Now, it just sacrifices the rook, but temporarily, because then we've got knight to e6 check. Knights are really tricky pieces, and now the next turn, you know, knight recaptures, attacks this pawn on a5, and we managed to neutralize black's counterplay. Now, white is just a couple of pawns up, should win the endgame, but of course, it's not that easy. If you ever had positions with advantage, you know that having an advantage is one thing. Actually, winning the game is completely different. Alright, now, since the black pawn is hanging, black moves it forward, and white needs to decide what to do about this threat, and if the pawn comes forward, maybe the knight can also come, you know, here and start attacking these pawns as well, right? So, what do you do about that? Now, this pawn is hanging. That brings us to the rule number five, which I actually learned from another grandmaster, also, like, around 2700, very strong guy, and he told me this. I assume that my opponent is wrong, and it is my job to prove it, and while it sounds a little bit cruel, maybe, at one point, but the idea is actually absolutely logical, because if you think about that, you cannot win the game unless you notice your opponent's mistakes, blunders, and take advantage of them, right? So, that is your job, and therefore, instead of being very reactive to his moves, very often you can come with that approach, like, hey, there must be a drawback of his moves, and many moves have certain drawbacks, like here, the knight, yes, it attacks you. That is an obvious problem for white. However, there is also a downside. This knight is deep into white's territory, right? For example, it can't go there because of these pawns, right? We can potentially attack it, and that might give you a hint that, you know what? What if we try to capture this knight? What if we can try to use his attack against him, right? And in your games, because I analyze a lot of games of my students, I can tell you for sure, very often, aggressive moves of your opponents are just big blunders, but we often don't even notice that because we are too focused on, you know, his threat, and what are we going to do about that, right? That's why this mindset shift is very important. Assume that your opponent is wrong, and it's your job to prove it. Alright, so here I play Ke2e2. I'm actually trying to surround this knight. I'm letting them capture this pawn, but now after Nd5+, and Ne3, it locks the door, making it very hard for this knight to escape, and now a couple moves down the line, the knight is going to a4, hoping to escape, but Nc4 controls the square, and now the knight has nowhere to go, and once again, it allows white to neutralize the counterplay, just trade off everything, and go straight to the pawn endgame, where it's pretty easy for white, it's just having a couple extra pawns, and now with a bit more moves, we're just promoting a queen, and then it's pretty simple. A couple moves, white wins. These are the five rules that help best players in the world dominate the rest. Maybe a bit more advanced stuff, but hopefully still useful. Let me know in the comments if you like it or not. Also, if you want to get a clear blueprint for you to get yourself to the level of 2000 and beyond, I recommend that you check out my booster elo bundle that I put together exactly to give you the most effective ways, the most critical things that you can study, even if you have limited time, to get yourself to progress in chess. And I also recorded myself playing live and commenting exactly how I think, so that you can see how to apply this in practice, not just in theory. Again, the link is down below, and have a great rest of the day, and I'll talk to you in my next videos.