Chess.com

Jesus H. Roosevelt!  When is someone going to get the idea that these videos are both about chess and teaching!?  I would be hard-pressed to know which would make a better comparison: is this more like an AM radio jock doing a chess show Or an auctioneer selling off the Scotch?

As a former teacher I can tell you with absolute authority: you can't teach 'em if you can't reach 'em and many of these videos are simply doing a poor job at reaching the audience.  Some things to consider might be: modulate a little, set some learning objectives, very the visual prompts and, please oh please, consider slowing down and using notation alternatives.

I really like the scotch opening. Considerable diversity in positions and possibilities. I would love to see a slowed down beginner's version of this lesson. This lesson showed a much more aggressive and complicated line that was very impressive, just probably too sharp for me.

will sam shankland be doing more videos on the scotch?

at 8:43 in the contemplated variation doesn't Queen to g4+ just win instantly? Winning the holy man.

You didn't point out that Black had 3 pawn islands that openned a lot of maneuvers to you; also, I felt that you gave too many line to follow without a PNG file. I like that you pointed out that a position may come about that you really didn't want, and you had to find a plan and maneuvering order to bring about a win, a big part of playing chess. I find that sometime when I'm playing, I over think the maneuvers and in the end, I make mistakes, the less mistake the more wins.

What about messing with the move order a bit:

14...Ba6 seems natural, but what if 14...d5!? messing with the queen immediately and keeping Bxg2 as a possibility.

This looks a bit awkward for white.

15.bxa7 Kb7 and where does the queen go now?

16.Qf4 Bxg2 is just too good to give to black, and 16.Qf3 Ba6 looks like much better for black than the game. White needs to worry about e5 and think about the damage of black's ...d4.

17.Be3 Qxe5 and it's over (double threat - Qxc3 and d4).

And: 17.0-0-0 creates a new problem: 17...Ba3+ 18.Kb1 Qg6+ 19.Ka1 Rxe5 and white seems hurting. Hard to really do much, black ...Qc2 ideas are annoying, immediately threatened ...Be2. Wouldn't this be a better way for black to play? or am I missing something?

scaredgrove: I don't understand your post:

You say you want to learn strategies, but then you ask for ways to trick your opponent. Strategies have absolutely nothing to do with tricking your opponents.

Srategies use both your positional understanding and your logical thinking to form a plan according to which you believe you should play your game. Has nothing to do with tricks.

In the variation given after 12.c5, after Sam gives 12...Bxf1 13.cxb6 Bxg2

14.Qxg2 is not forced at all. Rather, 14.bxa7 seems like it's forcing 14...Kb7, after that, white can go into the crazy line he gives. Seems like a small improvement.

Black is unlikely to have the time to take this pawn anytime soon. But in the future, he'll have to do that sometime. Seems better than just leaving that b6 pawn hanging in the variation given.

If he states that it was playable for white before, I think it's even more so now.

Study Tactics and End Games - tricks rarely work ...

i want to plan stradigys on my opponent so can  somone teach me how to trick my opponents