Chess tips, annotated games, and openings.

Josh11live

Updated: Nov 8, 2025, 7:20 PM | 26

before you read: in annotated games part of this blog bold=100-800 underlined=800-1750+ both=600-1350 no bold and no underline(italicizing is excluded=all levels Italicized=important

even if it’s not your level I think you’ll learn alot from it so read everything.

Future things to be added

extra: put text into the analysis board so you can use the engine and the text at the same time without going to the board and the text many times

chess tips: none

annotated games: none

openings: Caro-cann

Table of contents.

Tips in chess:

Mental part of chess
what do I find hardest about chess and how do I overcome it
How to improve at chess for just learned the rules of the game level and 1400
How to improve and learn from a game for 1401-2200 (updated to 2.0)
to get started with practical endgames
Pawn weaknesses and how to take advantage of them
Weak squares and how to take advantage of them
Imbalances in the position and hot to take advantage of them
Rules to optimize the use of the bishop and the knight
Don’t make weaknesses in your position
Here are YouTube channels for chess tips
My thinking each move in chess
How to make plans in chess
How to choose your opening
How to beat your opponent’s bad moves in chess
How to get tactics and brilliants more often
How to improve your opening more(for people who have a great understanding of their opening and middlegame and endgame)
how to analyze your games and learn much from them

Annotated games:

how to attack with pawn storms and defend against them part 1
My game against a 1900 rapid explained(I was/am 1209 rapid here).
How to beat your opponent strategically and slowly get the advantge.
General Instructive game
How to defend against and attack with pawn storms part 2
My game against a 1900 who played the Spanish
How to attack an uncastled king.
My game against a 2000 explained
For 100-1700 instructive game
how to attack properly in chess
How to do positional play
How to attack+other aggressive plans
How to attack with the KID/King’s Indian Defense
A GM game with same side attack, how to put pressure, playing on both sides, and more concepts. Version 2.1(Highly recommended for 1400-2000 and it’s really instructive for all)
My game against an NM: Positional Concepts
How to convert a space advantage, piece activity advantage, and an attack into a win.

Openings

Colle-Zukertort
Ruy Lopez/ Spanish opening
Dutch defense system

1. Mental part of chess

Too many people focus on the rating and when they focus on the rating they play much worse. the mental part like removing distractions, your opponent’s elo so put it on focus mode so that you can’t see your opponent’s elo, and after every blunder you should try to forget the blunder and keep playing or rest.

2. What do you find hardest about chess and how do you overcome it?

the hardest part for me is the positional part of chess because normally you want to attack, but attack only comes from correct positioning of pieces like an attack comes from good planning. For positional style just do what I said about squares and pawns in my answer to question no. 1

3. How to improve at chess for just learned the rules of the game level to 1400 rating

You should play rapid games to help with your thinking and calculation and you should apply the things you learn online in your rapid games. You should have one opening for white that you’ll stick with until 1000(if you reach 1000 then you should learn different openings not to learn them and use them, but to use them to practice different positions with different piece placement and different pawn structure which you will understand as you learn more from online sources, but this is still not as good as learning the general plans from online videos so you can hold this off until 1800 so keep in notes and keep this in mind) and an opening response against 1. e4 and 1. d4 and make sure when you search online the opening that it is playable for your level and against all other moves you can just follow opening principles which is explained online too. Make sure to understand the plans when learning an opening so that you can use that for other positions and to be able to play your opening properly. For the middlegame you should always ask every move What is my opponent trying to do? And if you move What is going to happen when I do this move? And this will help with the no blundering process and doing this with more time helps you get used to it so that’s why I recommend 10min or more. You will learn more complex plans later on and learn what to do in endgames too and become a good player.

4. How to improve and learn from a game for 1401-2200 (updated to 2.0)

The mental part of chess is important so check no. 1 of chess tips in this blog about them first. You need to check what position you’re bad at playing or any part of your play that seems lacking then practice playing those positions and learn how to play with them. To analyze a game you should check for your opponent’s plan and your plans and compare them with the computer and see what the computer wants. If the computer likes what you/your opponent did then try to see what positions this move applies for and if the computer doesn’t like it then see why can check what the computer recommends applies to and make sure to do this many times in one game to remember what you analyzed. You should also learn different openings to learn plans from them and ideas and get used to the opening’s pawn structure, position, and piece positioning.

5. To get started with practical endgames:

Rook endgames: Protect your 2nd rank from the opposing rook and infiltrate to their 2nd rank, control open files, bring your king to weak pawns, and study the Lucena and Philidor positions.
Pawn endgames: Target weak pawns (doubled, isolated) and use your king actively.
Queen endgames: Activate your king but avoid perpetual checks, get your queen to an active position and prevent the opposing queen from attacking your pawns
Knight vs Bishop: Knight side: place pawns on the bishop’s opposite color. Bishop side: block the knight and limit its movement.
Opposite-colored bishops: Put pawns on squares opposite the opponent’s bishop. The king is key and these endgames usually lead to draws even though the opponent has 2 extra pawns.
Same-colored bishops: place pawns opposite the enemy bishop’s color, remember the king

6. Pawn weaknesses and how to take advantage of them

When facing a weak pawn, don’t rush. Add 1–2 attackers, not more, to make their defense overextended. Then shift focus to another weakness or improve your position. If they can’t defend and have no counterplay, it’s a free pawn. If they can, create a new weakness, maybe by provoking a structure break, using tactics, trading, playing prophylactic moves, baiting weakening moves. You can also switch sides to make them overextend their position. Remember weak pawns aren’t just to be captured, they’re long-term targets for gaining initiative and restricting their pieces.

7. Weak squares and how to take advantage of them.

A weak square is a kind of square that can’t be challenged by an enemy pawn and is controlled by your pawn/s. Create weak squares by baiting pawn moves (e.g., provoking a knight kick). Place a piece usually a knight on the weak square, not a pawn. Trade off the defenders of the weak square(if you have no time then don’t) and then put your knight(if you don’t have a knight or it will take too much time then anything else works except a pawn). For example, if only a bishop defends it, trade bishops first, then place your knight there. If you have to trade a bishop for a knight to get a weak square then do it, it is worth it most of the time.

8. Imbalances in the position and how to take advantage of it:

Imbalances are differences in position or material that affect strategy like Q vs 3 minor pieces, R vs 2 minor pieces, B vs N, space, structure, and more. Rules are helpful, but sometimes breaking them is the best move.

B vs N / N vs B: Against a knight, limit its squares and box it out. Against a bishop, put your pawns on the opposite color and protect the ones who can’t move the opposite color of the bishop.
Pawn Structure: Target weak pawns (isolated, backward, stuck, doubled, tripled), and defend your own.
Space: More space means more space to move. Focus your attack where you have more space (center or side), and squeeze your opponent.
Files & Squares: Use open files for rooks, long diagonals for bishops, and place knights on weak squares the enemy can’t control, but you control.
Development: Don’t rush with just a few pieces out. Finish development, then the tactics and attack will follow.
Initiative: Keep making threats to keep your opponent under the pressure. Use that momentum to finish development and launch future attacks.
Small material differences: Q vs 3 minor pieces. If you have the 3 minor pieces then make them all defend each other and defend your king to avoid double attacks and avoid opening lines for the queen. If you have the queen in this situation you need to open lines for your queen, find double attacks, and infiltrate your opponents position. R vs 2 minor pieces. On the side with 2 minor pieces you need to make your pieces defend each other, prevent the rook from infiltrating, and attack weaknesses. If you are on the side with the rook try to infiltrate, attack weaknesses, and put your rook behind either color’s passed pawn.
Opposite side castling: you should do a pawn storm against the opponent. Before I explain how to pawn storm, I will explain what a pawn hook is. A pawn hook is a pushed pawn(1 or 2 squares) on any part of the board. Now to use a pawn hook to our advantage, we go push with one pawn and have either 1 rook or 2 rooks(one is if you don’t have time and 2 is if you need more power), but only get 2 when you have enough time). Use the pawn to attack the hook pawn and if that move was a fork, let’s say of a knight and hook pawn, then a trade is forced to happen which accomplishes our goal of opening the file for the rook. If it is not a fork then it way not work. Against no hook pawns we are targeting the square g6(saying if our opponent has the black pieces and castled kingside) and we have to make sure that when we do g6, another pawn should defend it and after that it forces a trade which opens the file.

9. Rules to optimize the use of the bishop and knight.

Piece value depends on position.
Bishops are best in open positions.
A bad bishop is blocked by pawns—trade it off.
Bishops shine in endgames with pawns on both flanks.
The bishop pair controls both color complexes—use it.
Knights thrive in closed positions because they jump over pieces.
Knights are strongest in the center because they are short range.
Place knights on outposts—protected squares the enemy can’t contest. Trade off anything that can remove your knight before placing it.
Knights are great in endgames with pawns on one side—they're slow to switch flanks.
Prevent enemy outposts and remove their knights without weakening your own position. If you can’t remove them then just watch out for them, but it is always better to prevent than to successfully defend.

10. Don’t make weaknesses in your position.

Avoid color weaknesses: Don’t push pawns onto the same color if your bishop can’t defend those squares or is gone. Force opponents to weaken squares with threats, then attack them using your pieces.
Avoid pawn weaknesses: Don’t allow backward, doubled, tripled, or isolated pawns. Trade when you ruin the structure of the opponent, but only do it when the piece you will trade with is positionally equal/slightly better/worse than the piece that you are trading for.
Avoid giving outposts: Don’t push pawns in ways that give your opponent strong squares for their pieces. Instead, force them to weaken their control over those squares and take over those squares yourself.

11. Here are youtube channels for chess tips.

Chessbrah’s habits speedrun, the Colle-Zukertort speedrun, and the queen’s gambit speedrun(new) which is nice if you are interested in learning the Colle-Zukertort or the queen’s gambit(it’s an opening/movie) then you should watch those speedrun series and the habits series too. I will let chessbrah explain the habits series. Explanation is the first part of ep. 1.
Remote Chess Academy: This YouTube channel is where you learn the middlegame stuff I talked about in #4 and the GM here explains it well and don’t forget this channel has a vid talking about the Colle-Zukertort too and endgames. This is the place where I recommend to search how to stop blunders.
Chess Vibes: Here is where you learn most of the small things that don’t matter as much as what Remote Chess Academy says, but all of the small things combined are more than what the YouTube channel Remote Chess Academy says combined and most endgame stuffs are here than other channels I have.

12. My thinking process each move in chess.

I think “what is my opponent trying to do” and forcing myself to draw arrows(in my mind) on where the piece could go and I mainly check the moves that brings their piece(that they just moved) closer to my position because that is where threats usually come. After that I check what move can I do that makes either a check, capture, or attack on my opponent’s side of the board and if I see one I will calculate until I have no more forcing moves(this way of calculating works because there is not much to calculate) and if it does not work and there are not more forcing moves to calculate I go to the plan of Least Active Piece which means to develop a piece to a more active position like moving a Bishop to not become like a pawn or moving a rook to an active square. If I also check improving moves that even give up a pawn. If all your pieces are good then find ways to attack, make your opponent’s position weak, and more.

13. How to make plans in chess

The trick to get better at chess is not through opening, but finding out plans for yourself and all this middlegame and endgame study that you need to do to improve more. Start with stopping blunders, then trying to make a plan in the middlegame, and then endgame principles and practicing practical endgames and theoretical endgames. To figure out a plan you should look for the pieces if there are any pieces that need to be placed in a better spot or finding weaknesses to target while defending your own or maybe trying to attack or defend, or maybe a potential sacrifice to make a passed pawn, ruin pawn structure(only if the rook is trapped and no other piece pls other than the rook), open up lines, or even trade of your inactive rook for their cool looking knight on your side of the board. Now all I said here, is just 3/4s of everything about middlegame planning, because you still have rerouting and prophylactic moves which are the hardest in my opinion out of all of these that I said. Understanding not memorizing your opening will help you in finding out your plan.

14. How to choose your opening

it depends on the person who plays the opening because all openings have disadvantages and advantages. For example we get the Italian game and it has the advantage of being reasonably easy, and is an opening that gives you different positions after it so that you can practice many positions, but the disadvantages are that the middlegames can be hard to play at times, can bait players to just doing the fried liver and not really learning, and at intermediate almost all players are prepared against it. What I am saying is that if you like the advantages and don’t mind the disadvantages much then the opening might be a good one for you and don’t forget about the style of the opening and if it’s not your style like for example positional style then it’s not for you unless there is another line that can’t go to your not preferred line in any way. I will say more examples of disadvantages and advantages. Advantage examples: easy to play middlegame and opening, is a system opening, gives different after opening positions to practice other positions, matches your style, and not baiting players into just trying to trap players. For disadvantages you have hard to play midgame and opening, doesn’t match your style, leads many players into just trapping people, and not a system opening.

15. How to beat your opponent’s bad moves in chess

You should just refer to opening principles, but if you’e in the middlegame already then ask yourself what is wrong with my opponent and then if you see that they are making a off to the side move, just pushing a pawn and not developing the 4 other stuck pieces and if they do these then striking in the center or developing is good, but never overreact to their move and if their move doesn’t make a threat or doesn’t make a really serious threat afterwards then you can try to figure out your own plan.

16. How to get tactics and brilliants more often

To get a tactic(except when you’re opponent blunders and easy tactic) or a brilliant move you need to first get a positional advantage and convert that into an attack and then you will get a tactic because it’s hard to defend and then you win. Positional advantages is space, initiative, strong piece, weaknesses, and time. You should convert each positional ong oiece should be used to support the attack on anything pawns that is weak that it’s controlling advantage like this. Space-initiative-time initiative-time weaknesses-initiative-time strong piece-initiative-time. Space should be used to attack pieces(initiative) then gain time. Weaknesses should be attacked gaining the initiative and time and the strong piece should support in attacking pawn weaknesses or making the opponent defend against the threat the strong piece has on them allowing us to get initiative and time. use your time to bring your pieces closer to the attacking position after you complete one of the ways to convert positional advantages and bring your pieces to the attack then you should try to attack. Here you get your tactics.

17. How to improve your opening more(for people who have a great understanding of their opening and middlegame and endgame)

Just go to analysis and explorer and test all moves and see how to will play out until mate or if you see that you can’t keep your good advantage and play yourself and if you can’t keep your advantage then find a line that is for you, keep in mind we are finding playble for your level positions from the opening that you have a clear plan in the middlegame and endgame and if you don’t have that throw that out the window and find a line that avoids it while going into your prep and keeping it a playable position that you already have and if you can’t do your prep and avoid that line at the same time which is almost impossible then I suggest study openings that are more complex as high level KID or equal to the level of high level KID or each variation of the Sicilian and see all the lines with explanation from a titled player like @DanielleNaroditzsky(sorry if this is wrong, I forgot) and try to play it to remember that plan as you go on and get used to the pawn structures and piece positioning and if you know that, but not the position you were first struggling on then there will be an opening that will satisfy what you want.

18. How to analyze and learn much from it

We have to get some things before we can say that we fully analyzed and understood everything we analyzed.

we compared our moves to the computer and seeing why it liked that move or why it liked your move or your opponent’s moves,
We saw the position many times so that what we learned will be in our head,
and finally we made a summarized conclusion on what we learned.

let’s take my last game for example.

Let’s see a point where the computer disagrees with one of our moves. 8. Nxd4 ia a mistake. To see why let’s see the computer’s suggestion. The computer says that cxd4 is best. To see why let’s see the cons and pros of each move

for Nxd4:

It has no real objective there on d4
it doesn’t gain a tempo unlike cxd4
It doesn’t add another central pawn unlike cxd4
for cxd4

Gets a tempo on the bishop
gets the 2 central pawns
by this we can see what my opponent could have done better. I conclude that Nxd4 is bad because

It has no real objective there on d4
it doesn’t gain a tempo unlike cxd4
It doesn’t add another central pawn unlike cxd4
and this will help us realize why our past mistakes like this is bad and not repeat it and it’s better to look at the position and say to yourself this again and again so that you will remember and use it in your future games and improve. It’s the same for cxd4 so I’ll skip that and move to another move as another example.

11. Ba6 is a bad move. To see why let’s do that method again. Don’t worry about this method being long because when you get used to it, it will be fast. Best move here was supposed to be Ng4. To see why let’s see the cons and pros of each move.

Ba6’s cons

it misses a tactical sequence
after the trade the rook ends up in a weird spot making it harder and takes more time to move to a better spot
Ba6’s pros

It removes a defender of the e4 pawn making it more susceptible to attack
from this we can see that we missed a tactical sequence, but it’s not always obvious because sometimes we want the knight in the center because we heard the quote “The knight on the rim, is dim” and yes that is true, but it’s better to look at it just in case. If you can’t remove that habit of not looking for moves that look weird then you should look at many examples where this happens. This can usually happen in the Italian sometimes. If it’s hard to look for positions like that then going forward to attack and make many threats and open up the queen is a good thing to know and get used to during a game. Now for the best move Ng4.

Ng4 cons

The knight doesn’t attack the e4 pawn so white could move more freely with their pieces instead of being stuck to a pawn.
good to note about Ng4: When you move your knight away from the defense of your king it will most likely get attacked and your you might lose and that’s why you should be careful when moving the knight near your king. I’ll guess your question and help you to answer it yourself so you can do that for other games and YouTube where they can’t explain everything. Your question may be “What if this?” “What if that?”. You can just use the cons and pros of the move method to explain why it is bad or good.

pros of Ng4

it makes a hard to defend threat
The pros shows that we should look for forward moves. Even weird looking ones because it may lead to a winning combination or a gain of initiative which allows you to make alot of threats and overwhelm your opponents and then use the power of double weakness and you win material. I’ll explain that maybe in the future.

annotated games:

How to attack with pawn storms and how to defend against them part 1
My game against a 1900 rapid explained(I was/am 1209 rapid here).
How to beat your opponent strategically and slowly get the advantge.
Instructive game
How to defend against and attack with pawn storms
My game against a 1900 who played the Spanish
How to attack an uncastled king.
My game against a 2000 explained
for 100-1700 instructive game
how to attack properly in chess

1. How to attack with pawn storms and how to defend against them part 1

Table of contents for the game

what you will learn in this game
the opening
When you should do a pawn storm and what I thought about it during a game.
When you initiate your pawn storm.
How to attack with or without hook pawns.
what to do after a pawn storm.
how to defend against a pawn storm.
Why I captured on g6 with 19. fxg6.
The switch sides attack.
The maintenance of the pressure.
The end of the chaos.
The tactic explained.
Endgame explained.

What you will learn in this game: You will learn how to attack with a pawn storm and how to defend against a pawn storm.
The opening: I played the King’s Indian defense/KID which I usually play against d4. On move 8. c6 I played that to defend my pawn against the queen on f3 and since I know that you might know that a bishop is better than a knight I will explain why I did the trade. 1. Because it’s theory. And 2. Because the f3 knight defends the e5 square and also I want to put my pawn on e5.
When you should do a pawn storm and what I thought about it: 9. O-O-O was the time I thought this game could be instructive for teaching and exiting because of the attack that happens.
When you initiate your pawn storm: 10. a5! The start of my attack. If you know the pattern you will immediately see moves 11-13 from black’s side because with Qc7 you want to defend the pawn and you push to attack. 13. Ne2 looks smart until you realize that you will lose the tempo anyways.
How to attack with or without hook pawns in a pawn storm: After moves 11-13 I saw a4 then b3 supported by a pawn. If your opponent has no hook pawns(search hook pawns up) then you need to do the setup I am doing. The reason why I choose b3 and not a3 is because b3 forks 2 pawn which forces a trade and removes the pawn from the file unblocking the file and I was planning to do Rfb8, but sadly I couldn’t so because my opponent made a hook pawn. When you see a hook pawn you should attack it with a pawn which forces a trade once again and if they push(I know they can’t, but let’s just say they could) we would try to attack the weakness and open up the file that way.
what to do after a pawn storm: You need to attack the pawns of the opposing king with your new gained help from the rooks you got and use the rooks to the best of their ability and start attack the pawns of their position and pressuring all the weaknesses of their position.
How to defend against a pawn storm: If your opponent has noticed I have not been taking the h6 pawn It is because if I did the g file would open and no one wants that. 21. Nh5 blocks the h file and a way white could have removed my knight was with their knight and trade it off.
Why I captured on g6 with 19. fxg6: I did it because the f file opened which is normally bad, but I have my own rook so it’s not that bad and I opened the file for my rook and not just their’s. You can see this happen on move 22. Rxf2.
The switch sides attack: I was attacking with the rook on f2 so I needed to find more power there so I took with 23. cxd4 and opened up my queen which could join the attack and defend my king.
The maintenance of the pressure: I did 25. Rf8 to support the rook on f2 and if I took then my attack would have been weakened.
The end of the chaos: On move 28. Qf5+ is where the queen trade happens, ending the chaos because I didn’t like the opposing queen on my territory, but still getting the pressure on my opponent with the rook which gave me material.
The tactic explained: moves 30-32. The pin on the knight was not enough to give me material in perfect play because it is not actually pinned because the rook behind is protected. Here are the other moves explained. 30. Kb2 is a mistake because now there is a pin and you can see how I punished it on moves 30-32. If any other move other than a knight or king move that does not blunder the knight is chosen then Bh6 just removes the knight’s defense and then d5. If instead of Bxd5 we see Bd3 then Nf4 wins because if you defend with the rook you will have to defend while my king goes up the board and I win.
Endgame explained: We were both low on time and I played 37. e6 because I want to trade, and I didn’t know what to do. Move 40. Rd2 states to put the rook behind the passed pawn. I was scared of there being a pawn on the b or a files so I kept watch of it. I prioritized it and if white attacked my bishop then h6 will work. When I did I 50. Kc5 I immediately saw Rc1+ afterwards and I was scared of it, but then I thought it would become a trade of passed pawns and then my h pawn would win because my f pawn would stop white’s rook and mine would stop their passed pawn, but it ended early.

2. My game against a 1900 rapid(I was/am 1209)

Here I was with the white pieces and since my opponent was higher rated than me(by 700 points) you’d think I was nervous, but I was more worried on when I was going to take a shower because the time control is 30/30.
the first half of the game I was losing because my opponent was crushing me. I made a trap on move 21. Be2 with preparation of the move Nxc5!!, but my opponent saw it and protected the knight behind so I can’t sacrifice.
On move 23. Rd3 I thought I was going to double the rooks and renew the threat, but in all the pressure I missed 23. Ne5! And I thought it was all lost because my pawns would be doubled and it would have been better for black, but then on move 26. Kg7 my opponent forgot about 27. Nxc5!! And I continued to win the game with disconnection from my opponent.
Here in the end you would think I was happy, but I was dissapointed(don’t worry, it’s out of my mind already) because I wanted to mate my opponent not win of a disconnect. What’s your opinion on this.

3. How to beat the opponent strategically and slowly get the advantage

In the opening the French is what I usually play and this is what I played as black is a system that can be played against basically everything. You have to remember the c6 move to protect your pawn and the rest of the opening moves are where the pieces should be placed.
14. c4 was an explosive move trying to open up the board(did you see what I did there c4 the bomb), but my opponent with the white pieces didn’t realize that when I took the pawn their d4 pawn would be isolated so I did just that.
15. Re7 is a miss(from my perspective) because d5 was allowed and they could get rid of that isolated pawn or make it passed, but me and my opponent didn’t see that. Here in this situation(where I forgot about the isolated pawn) I should have played Nd5 so that the pawn is blocked and I can attack it later.
16. Bg3 the first big mistake giving up a pawn(my opponent is playing well for a 500). Before I played 19. Rae8 I finally remembered that Nd5 is a move, but my opponent played 20. Bc4 which ruined my plan because I would give up a pawn.
21. Nb6 is a good move because I am trying to either trade off my knight for their good bishop or put my knight on d5(I chose to trade with 23. Nxc4 because I would allow pressure on my d5 knight). In the endgame I was trying to trade everything and attack pawns to make them defend, but the 500 couldn’t last any longer and lost a pawn and lost to a fork of their king and queen, but they played well.

4. General Instructive game

The Opening: the KID/King’s Indian Defense is what I usually play against 1. d4 and I forgot about the c5 move which I could have done than e5, but e5 is fine too.
The queen trade at 14. Raxd8: when my opponent did this I was happy because I could infiltrate the 2nd rank and attack a bunch of pawns.
The midgame plan after 16. Rab1: I played 16. Ne4 to try and trade off the dark squared bishop after g5 and try to ruin their structure and remove their bishop pair, but I failed to realize that the open file could cause problems for me in the future.
21. e4, the start of my pawn related problems in this game: 21. e4 make the opposing e3 pawn stuck and can’t move and since it’s on a dark square my bishop which is also on a dark square so I could attack then, but then I realized that I couldn’t position my bishop to attack their pawns and their bishop could attack my pawns now on their color of bishop and combined with the open file I created I have many problems to deal with and even thought stockfish might say it’s equal it’s very hard to play as black.
28. Be6, the start of their pawn related problems: now after the forced trade their advantage of a bishop is gone and some of their pressure is gone and my active rook has alot of threats and stockfish says it’s winning with an easy game for black.
the endgame: with my advantage of alot of passed pawns and my king ready to defend against their passed pawns, I have an easy game and my opponent resigned.

5. How to defend and attack against pawn storms

I had the black pieces here and the opening I chose is what I usually play against d4 which is called the KID/King’s Indian Defense and the setup my opponent played challenges my opening because of the pawn storm that’s about to happen.
7. Bg4 was a mistake according to stockfish because I had Bxh6! Qxh6 Ng4 Qh4 d5! To trade queens and remove the defender of f2 which is the queen and I would win a pawn with center space with d5.
10. exf3 is a mistake in my opinion because if gxf3 then the g file is open and white can just go with the h pawn and win by opening up the whole file. Remember when you’re doing a pawn storm, remember to always try to get tempi on pieces with your pawns, not push pawns in front of your king, and always remember to remember your goal in doing a pawn storm which is to make an open file for your rook to attack the opposing king. You may think that finding 18. Rxa2+ is hard, but one way I find out is too see the circumstances of the position and see if I have to do my attack fast and if I need to do my attack fast because my opponent is also attacking, I will consider sacrifices.

6. My game against a 1900 who played the Spanish

Here I had black and this was a 10min game with no increment and I played against my friend a 1900 and won again and for some reason the games that I won against them are instructive because all my other games against them is just me blundering a piece, but I went all in! My opponent played the Spanish which is very complicated to play, but with my knowledge of the Spanish by study and online vids talking about white playing the Spanish I somehow remember it, but I took some stops to make sure I remember so I lost some time, but not gamechanging.
Move 13 is pretty much the end of theory and the start of the middlegame and since I know white’s plan I tried to stop my opponent from playing Nf5 and considered g6, but I was too scared about weakening my king so I went with Bc8 instead.
On move 15. Nh4 I remembered about the quote “if you’re opponent attacks on the side, then attack in the middle, but then after the game stockfish didn’t like it, but stockfish will always see these crazy things so I didn’t care.
On move 16. d4 I didn’t care about my bishop because it’s not active and I can trade it for my opponent’s good horse.
On move 20. Nc6 was played because of supporting the d4 pawn.
I can’t explain 21. Kh1 other than trying to attack by bringing the rook to g1. All the moves that were before move 22 and above and some moves after move 22 that seemed useless were useless because we’re playing random move to not lose on time.
On move 24. Rf1 my plan was to put my knight on f4, but didn’t see f4 and I was scared of their counter play.
On move 26. Bb3 In my analysis I thought that c4 would be good, but after Bc2 white is fine.
On move 30 I felt attacked and was scared of their attack and tried to defend by attacking back a amazingly coordinating my pieces in an accidental manner.
36. Bxb4 was played because of low time, but I’ll still discuss if they didn’t play it. If they didn’t sac any piece or no big blunders then the weaknesses of e4 d3 and b2 will fall because my knight is nicely placed and my pieces are good and if my knight and bishop was traded here then I probably would have lost. I also sacrificed to keep the position simple, but on move 62. Qxh3 was played in time pressure.

8. My game against a 2000 explained

I had black and my 2000 elo opponent playing white in a 10min rapid game. The opening was pretty smooth so I’ll skip this because openings are not helpful in a chess journey that much.
Skipping to move 16. hxg3 we enter the middlegame and I’ll discuss all my plans here.
16. Nb6 is played after you ask What is a good square for my inactive knight and developing the rooks here is equal, but I did my plan because I like it.
18. a3 allows white to play c4 because I would have done Nb4 getting the good bishop.
19. Nxf7, this is what I saw, but I didn’t worry because I would have 2 minor pieces for 1 pawn and 1 rook which is good for the side who has the 2 minor pieces., but my opponent probably did this because of my isolated pawn on e6 so I wanted to remove the weakness as soon as possible by trading it off. 24. e5 was a bit tunnel visioned because I missed Rfe1.
26. Nf8 removing the queen away from the defense of g3.
Moving to 29. Qxg4 generally speaking In any kind of endgame or middlegame I usually asses all assets of the opponent and and my assets and my opponents weaknesses and my weaknesses and check for a move that attacks my opponent’s weakness and defends mine and if there is no attacking and defending move then attacking will be my suggestion to go with and you should do this on one move which is probably 15sec, but then every move you can use 5 sec for the weaknesses check after check what changed and what weaknesses you can take advantage of or your weaknesses you should defend or prevent from happening. I first supported the knight on g4 and didn’t want to lose it from that square and I saw no weaknesses in my opponent’s position, but I was scared of the passed pawn so I brang my king closer with 32. Ke6 to defend and I can’t attack anything so I just tried to defend against the passed pawn. There were no weaknesses in my position, but attacking/putting pressure on stuff might make a weakness or make my opponent do a mistake so my move 33. Nd7 had the plan of Nb6 Nc4 to put pressure on some pawns. 35. b3 stopped Nc3, but not 25. Nd5. Always think that when you have a plan always think what if they stop it and if you have a good response to their stopping of your plan then do it. 26. Nd3, now, I wasn’t sure what I was doing here, I think I thought that the knights looked cool so I put it there, but I had time so I should have considered other moves. They attacked my knight with 37. Rfe1 and if I didn’t retreat then they could trade and my knights couldn’t help block the pawns and then 38. Nfe3 and I thought Rfe1 Nf5 and repeat, but I didn’t see 39. Rd3 and now here I thought I was losing because of the pawns, but I could kinda hold maybe I didn’t check the engine with my knight blocking, but it’s hard to defend here. 43. Nfe3! Here I was relieved because I forked the king and the pawn and if they take I win the pawn anyway as shown when they take on the board. 47. Rxe6 and I was confused because my opponent was down one pawn, but I enjoy the win. On the pawn endgame where I got the passed pawn on move 51. hxg4 and I noticed I could waste a tempo which made this much easier, but I could also have sacrificed my pawn to distract the opposing king and get those pawns. You should use the plans I mentioned here and try to make them a habit to consider them in any position.

9. For 100-1700 instructive game. There is a black background of the text and that’s unintentional so don’t mind it.

Note that all that I type are plans and things you should notice in a game and you should practice these ideas and terms to use them in an actual game. Here I had white and what I was going to play was my Colle-Zukertort, but in some lines it transposes into the Queen’s Gambit.
Whenever your opponent pushes the f pawn before castling always look for these Qh5 checks like what I did with 7. Qh5+ forking the pawn and king.
11. Bb5, and I thought here that I would trade if they don’t defend their knight with any other piece other than the piece that’s already protecting which is the b pawn so that I would get an isolated pawn on the c file which I will win because I have the half-open c file, but trading no matter what is also fine if you’re up a pawn.
16. Nc5 is going forward and this is very instructive because many beginners just go back, but most of the time forward is better, unless it’s a blunder.
17. Ne6 trading once again and you should notice(good to notice) is that my knight cannot be compared with the B on g7 because of it’s long diagonal so better to trade your knight for their bishop in this situation. 19. Bc3, try to make threats to gain the upperhand and get the initiative to get a big attack.
22. Bb4 to trade while up again and you might think why do I keep saying to trade when up? It’s because it’s better to repeat to remember what you learned because if you watch a video that has something you don’t know and you forget it then what’s the point.
23. Rxc8 shows that you don’t have to always react to a threat because you can always make another threat to do something that is more important for your opponent to deal with. 26. Ra1 seems really ridiculous, but pawns matter alot especially in the endgame so keeping all of them is crucial because if I hung the pawn then black has a 2 vs 1 pawn on the queenside which will help black create counter play and fight for a win and you must see that I will get to the open c file later if you calculated because after Ne2+ Kf1 Nc3 and now the knight can’t fork or check me so I can pin on the c file and if instead of 26. Ra1 I played Rc1 then it’s a fork. 27. Bb2, either trading while up or kicking out the knight so I can play Rc1. 30. Bb2 is a move that prevents nothing because if Nc3 Bxc3 bxc3 and there’s a passed pawn I can’t stop, but it has a plan to stop the knight from doing anything and this is used in the later part of the game.
31. Kf1, here I should have done f3 to stop the knight so that I wouldn’t have to think much about the knight forks or checks and here we are going for simplicity and not the best move. 33. f3 stopping the knight. By 35. e4 black didn’t get the king out yet and 35. e4 also stops the knight from going to d5. 37. Ke3 and many people would have done Kd3 that hangs Nf4+ and fork winning the pawn so you should always take your time in endgames and that’s why I recommend playing rapid especially either 10/5 or 15/10 or even 30min, but you might lose focus, but that’s part of the training so it’s not all bad. For those this far put the pawn emoji in the comments or if not in the comments you can emote my comment, thx for something this far. 39. a3 removing the future problems of a4 from black and trading and remember that we are going for simplicity and not the best move, big calculations, or problems. I won’t do the rest because it’s literally just trying to prevent the knight from creating problems and pushing the passed pawns. And my opponent resigned and thank you for coming this far and I bet most people would not even try to read it, but I appreciate you reading it, ok byeeeeeeee!

10. How to attack properly in chess

Here I had the black pieces and this game will show you how to attack properly and counter attack from unsound/bad attacks and some small tips along the way. My opening was called the French defense: exchange variation because the e and d pawns are exchanged and there’s a setup online that you should look for if you want to learn the exchange french as black and make sure to understand the plans and not memorize everything.
7. hxg5 is a lesson which is to always go slow and blunder check every move or else this will happen and that’s why I also recommend playing rapid games which is 10min-30min+the increment you like or if you don’t want increment then don’t add it.
8. Bxe2 trade when up.
9. Qe7 although looks like it blocks the bishop it allows me to castle faster and defends against the discovered check.
10. Nbd7 just trading because I’m up.
12. Nxd7 and I missed Qxe1# and I missed it because I wasn’t focused, you see 100% focusing in chess means you are playing at full power, but if you don’t you’ll miss backrank mate like me.
14. Rxh2, and here which one would you have played? Bxh2+ or Rxh2? The way to know is to see what you will do next. In this example if I had done Bxa2+ and Kf1 then what will I do because my rook is blocked and the king is about to escape and I can’t bring my pieces there in time and that’s what I saw, but it’s really hard to calculate so do the one that looks best to you if it’s too hard to calculate. I played Rxh2 because I saw that I would bring the other rook on the file, but if Bxh2+ then I could have used my connected rooks to stop the king from escaping to e2 and more on trapping the king on the next sentence.
16. Qb5+ looks like an ordinary check, but what it does is it’s trying to block the king off from e2 and escape and I saw c4 dxc4 and I threatened c3 discovered check and I stopped calculating because I thought this was good enough at the time, but my opponent helped me with Qe2 which blocks e2 entire and this will help me later. 17. Rh1+ Kg2 Rh2+ and we start to get the king to the center. I don’t have my rooks now so I relied on my other pieces and thought about where would the king go? But the opposing king couldn’t go anywhere and you should always think about that in your attack against the opposing king. Put the king emoji down is you read until this far and thx for coming here, ok next. Alot of the time there is going to be a tactic with the king in the center and since this was 3/2 I didn’t have much time to calculate so I did cca/checks captures attacks on anything that I could attack and calculated it and alot of the time you don’t have many moves to choose from so I found 20. Bf4+!! And if pawn takes then Rh3+! And then they have to sacrifice material to get out and if 21. Kxf4 Qxe2 and if Rxh1 then I get a queen and my opponent gets a rook and if Rxe2 then Rxa1 as shown in the game.
The rest is just a matter of attacking weaknesses and making sure that they don’t escape and disallowing my weaknesses to be targeted, but I wasn’t doing that much in the game. 27. b6 attacks the knight which disallows it to attack my pawns there, but I was not paying much attention and 29. Ne5 was played and I immediately saw my pawn couldn’t be guarded do always try to disallow your opponent’s pieces to attack your to get get close to your if it doesn’t make another weakness. 33. Ra3 and my opponent resigned and thx for coming far til this point.

11. How to do positional play

This was a rated rapid game played today September 27 2025. The opening here is called the Colle-Zukertort and you should study it if you’re a beginner and it will work up to 1900 and it’s explained in this blog I made.
https://www.chess.com/blog/Jozonthe195/chess-tips-annotated-games-and-openings-unfinished
and it has many other things included in it. The setup my opponent did was not known to me during the game so I went with the aggressive setup because of the weakness from the f pawn push and because I wanted to. Keep in mind that if you see a new setup your opponent did against your opening that you don’t know that means you should study it with analysis and how to analyze is in the blog too.
10. Ne5 is the start of the attacking of the aggressive line and the end of the setting up the pieces part and 12. f4 was part of the plan of the opening with bringing out the queen and rook lifting as part of the plans ahead.
13. h6 just does nothing because think of it like this, if I don’t stop this move, what will happen? If something bad then stop it and if something that doesn’t do much then don’t stop it. If I went Ng5 if black didn’t stop Ng5 then h6 would just counter and black gained a tempo.
14. Nd4 places the knight in a good spot while stopping any future discovered attacks from the b7 bishop, but I should have done b4 to stop c5 first now that I think about it, but that’s what tunnel vision does to you.
14. Ke7 is a suprisingly good looking move which defends the pawns so that the other pieces can do other things and this is very instructive, but the king gets exposed on the f file which can be opened by g4, but even though I saw g4 I went Kh1 to go to the h file instead of the future open g file, but I shouldn’t have been scared because if I got checked then I’ll just move to h1 and watched out for pins and forks.
15. c5 and I regret not doing b4 to stop c5 and now my knight is pushed back to a bad square with no forward moves available.
16. Qe7 which is trying to develop the rooks and I mention this because since many people are stuck in the middlegame developing the queen and rooks is a good choice to do.
17. b4 is a blunder of a full pawn, but my opponent didn’t see it so the position got locked with c4 an explosive move
all pawn moves weaken control of 2 squares and strongly control 2 other squares so 17. c4 controlled d3 and b3, but weakened b4 and d4 and I took advantage of the weakened d4 square with my knight.
20. c3 locks this position so that means knights should be better than a bishop in this case so after 20. Na4 I didn’t retreat the bishop because the position was locked or in other words closed.
22. Bd1 tries to trade my opponent’s good knight for my bad bishop which is a good trade for me and it also doubles their pawns which is a win win, but my opponent retreated with 22. Nb6.
23. a4 tries to open up the file wit.h my rook there and if my opponent traded would create an isolated pawn on the a file, but it was defended too well in the later part of the game.
28. Ra1 and here I thought of Ba3, but I didn’t see much in it and my a4 rook would be trapped so I thought to not do it and added pressure to the pawn.
28. g5 is played because my queen was far from the defense of my king so it made sense for my opponent to go on the attack so I tried to keep the kingside as closed as possible so I defended.
32. Qd7 shows us that we should always(unless we have a better attack) go away from possible tactics in chess so that we don’t fall into them in the future.
33. Qh1 is an accidental brilliant move and my opponent either didn’t take intentionally or didn’t see it.
And then my opponent resigned in the end. Hoped you learned something. Ok bye!
openings explained.

12. How to attack+other aggressive plans

Thx to @Hinata-Shoyo12 for letting me include this game. @Hinata-Shoyo12 played black.
The opening is not known to me and it could just be following opening principles with no opening prep so I will skip to move 8. Bh3.
8. Bh3 is one of the many aggressive plans against the kingside fianchetto and castle that a chess player can do because it removes the defender of the opposing king. If you think Why is it beneficial to us if we remove one of our attackers? It’s because the squares of the bishops that were traded get weakened which gives us the opportunity to attack does squares.
10. h5 shows that black wants to attack by opening up the file and bringing the rook in because in all pawn storms the purpose is to open the file to get the rook in the attack not use the pawns to attack because the pawns can’t do much, but if they do defend and no files are opened that will be talked about later. Black also could do a rook lift which is a middlegame plan which brings the rook to the open file without removing the pawn like for example after 10. h5 black could do(in the future) is Rh6 and either Rg6 or Rh6 to bring the rook into play
11. e4 shows great understanding of the position because actually, first let’s see if you were white before playing 11. e4 what would you do? Defend or counter attack/attack? If you said attack you have the right way of thinking because defending would just allow your opponent to finish their plans and get their immortal game and we don’t want that. 11. e4 tries to open up the files in the center because the opposing king is in the center and even if you both castled opening up the center is a good way to play the middlegame to open up lines and squares for your pieces. if you said defend then don’t worry, we all learn everyday and now you know which is good.
12. g4 does not allow the opening of the open file and if white did open it then we will have a powerful attacking piece and black will probably win. How to win if you got the open file? You should try to remove escape squares of the king especially from one side to another because then your efforts to attack is gone, but if you block the king’s escape, congrats! You have a chance of an immortal game! Another thing to do is to bring all your pieces into the battle and the tactics will follow.
12. h3+ and as seen before in this text I will explain what to do when your opponent does not open the file. 12. h3+ blocks the king and removes a square which is good. After this you need to open up the position, but since black’s king is in the center they castled seeing the future danger if they opened the position or waited too long, it’s better to be safe than to defend against danger. 14. Qc1 rerouting the queen to a better spot. 14. Kb8 is a move that you should always consider when queenside castling(Kb1 if you had white) because it goes away from any checks on the diagonal so on your free time do Kb8/Kb1! 15. Ng3 and 15. g6 to stop the potential counterplay(better be safe than successfully defend) and black’s attack seems stopped, but black opened up the position with 16. dxe4! A nice move! If fxd4 then Qxg4 and if exd4 then let’s see the action! Opening up the position allowed black’s pieces to join the attack(note that during a pawn storm it’s better the position be locked, but in the attack open it up to get all your pieces in as long as there is no counter play for your opponent. Moves 18-14 and the attack was too much and white resigned. Opening up the position and bringing more pieces into the attack and the pawn storm shows all the attacking plans we discussed today.
thx to @Hinata-Shoyo12 for allowing me to share this beautiful game. Ok bye.

13. How to attack with the KID/King’s Indian Defense

This is a game where I played the KID and started a big attack. This game will show me winning a piece early on, but that doesn’t stop you from making an attack if you didn’t win a piece so don’t worry about that. I recommend this opening for many players and many people mix up the pirc and the KID, but they are different. I won’t show all the plans, but i’ll try my best to. This time since I am trying to explain the opening I will start in the beginning with 5. d6
5. d6 and this is the setup you want to reach every game with the KID and this is not the whole things, but it’s the one you should reach most(99%) of the time which is good to remember in learning the KID and playing against it so you know the setup and what to do against it if you play 1. d4.
All openings have downsides and the London’s downside is that it’s very predictable so I took advantage of that downside so now I know what to play and what I need to react to and what things I should look for. 7. Qb3 is one of the plans from the London and I expected this so I knew what to do against it and that is to look for my f7 pawn and b7 pawn because they are weakeness that can be easily attacked so I looked at h7 to stop the knight from joining the attack on f7.
8. e5, doing the main plan of the KID which is to strike the center and you might think on why is my bishop on c8? It’s because it a way to play this position having a good defender of the b7 pawn if needed and can be used for a future attack and it won’t block the way of anything.
Qe7 tries to open up the file to attack the opposing king and you should try to do this unless the queen has somewhere better to go, but here supporting the pawn push and trying to attack seems good to me and this is how you should think in all games and all moves. The way to think if it is still confusing is to see the most logical move, see what it does, and see if it’s a good choice and if it is a good choice like developing a queen to a harmless position or placing the knight to a good square then play it, but if you are very active like having long lines for your pieces then always look for tactics.
10. Bc4 and here my pieces always have to defend f7 or else it’s a free pawn or a fork so here to remove the danger and let my pieces go free I played 10. c6 to try to stop the attack and remember this is using the logic thing from earlier where I try to stop an annoying threat and that’s it, it’s not that hard.
11. d5 proceeds to stop the annoying attack on my f7 pawn and gets a tempo which is most likely good, and remember we don’t need a perfect move, just a move that brings a good, improves, and playable position which is always nice to have unless you have a big attack, and if you have a big attack then go attack and you’ll win. 11. d5 also allows for e4 in the future which(in my head when I played 11. d5) I thought that I could make a pawn chain which points to the kingside with e4 which is a good thing because it removes one of the king’s defenders after the kick and gives me more space from the future e4 pawn!
12. e4 and this was not what I was expecting that I would get a fork and this sort of ruins the attack for me because I’m gonna win anyways and I wanted an actual attack with no material advantage for each side, but it’s it.
14. Kh8 is a plan in the KID to get out of future open diagonal(because in the KID you should play with the f pawn to attack and to get a better attack overall.
15. c4 is exactly what everyone should do in the KID attack for everyone playing the white pieces because you get counter play from the queenside so that you won’t get completely demolished from the kingside.
15. Nb6, defends and attacks the pawn. Once again we aim for the best move that we can find with our logic because here I attack and defend at the same time which is most likely good(except if you are attacked or something) and will help you play good solid moves.
16. Nc4 is a move that needs calculation because if you calculate Bd3 then white might be able to win a pawn, but stockfish says to sac the pawn, but that’s really complicated, but my other retreating move Nd7 blocks the bishop and the knight becomes inactive so I had to go with 16. Nc4.
All moves you should ask yourself What is my opponent’s plan? My opponent’s plan after 17. Rfe1 was to push e4, but since I asked that question I saw the plan and stopped it which is also following the logic thing form earlier. Like Math, the last topics you learned is connected to the future topics like here in this situation where I used past topics to solve new ones.
17. Ne4 stopping e4 and I calculated if my opponent traded then my queen gets active so I did that, but there was a line where I could have captured with the pawn instead, but it was too advanced and I didn’t want to think much so I went with the normal approach of capturing with the queen.
19. Rad1 is just my opponent saying “I don’t know what to do so I will just move my rook here and make it look productive” because the rook isn’t actually doing anything, it’s just like it’s watering an already dead plant which is useless, but I can’t blame my opponent because they had nothing else here other than to get attacked.
19. Re7 is very instructive because I saw that the c8 bishop is the only defender of the pawn on b7 so I decided to move the rook to defend the pawn and get the bishop free. If you saw the rook is also stuck then you would be right, but technically it’s not because it applies great pressure to the e file which made attacking opportunities later in the game.
20. Qc3 is just my opponent being clueless on what to do, but it does have the plan of using the b and a pawns to create counter play, but my attack is alot stronger.
20. h6 shows more logic because there is a tactic with Bxh3 gxh3 and Qxf3 which is winning a pawn, but I saw Ng5 forking the queen and Bishop and since during the game I was too lazy to calculate anything I just stopped the Ng5 tactic. I checked with the computer, but allowing Ng5 and taking on h3 was best, but I was too lazy as said before and it’s still winning and that’s why the logic thing is nice to have in mind.
21. b3 is starting to create some problems for me because they might have counter play, but my opponent is too slow with that and I still have my extra piece, keep that in mind from move 12. e4 so I wasn’t really worried much about the queenside counter play and just wanted to attack.
22. Rc1 isn’t doing anything because it’s staring at a brick wall so doesn’t do much. I would have tried to prepare a3 and b4 to create counter play or do something and get my queen closer to my king so that I can be defended well and get counter play and not be totally out of the game.
22. Bxh3 shows the tactic in action with the prevented Ng5 and I win a pawn here and weaken the king. Remember that if you’re pieces are active there may be a tactic so check cca/checks, captures, and attacks, if you have an active position because most likely, there is a tactic.
24. Bg3 tries to hold together everything in defense, but it will all be in vain after what’s going to happen.
24. Nb5 attacks the queen and puts pressure on the d4 pawn which can be used together with the pin aswell.
25. Rae8, and if you think the rooks aren’t doing much other than putting pressure on the e file then you would be wrong because of 26. Nxd4!! Brilliant move! It takes advantage, not of the “pin” because the e1 rook is actually protected(I thought it wasn’t protected enough when I was thinking during the game), but it’s because after exd4? Bxd4! Applying pressure on to the f2 pawn which also proves why the bishop can be a powerful piece in attacking the kingside! And after Rxe7 Rxe7 nothing can stop Re2 applying the final piece, into the attack. Amazing! But this was only the analysis of the position and there’s much more because my opponent didn’t take. Of course knowing that there would be tactics if you have an active position, I got them and my opponent resigned, thx for coming up to this point even if it was extremely long because not many people would have the power to read til’ this far so congrats.

14. A GM game with same side attack, how to put pressure, playing all sides, and more concepts.

15. My game against an NM: Positional concepts.

17. How to convert a space advantage, piece activity, and attack into a win.

Colle-Zuketrort
Ruy Lopez/Spanish opening

1. Colle-Zukertort

Table of contents:

0. To see if you will like the opening

The Theory
Aggressive style
Positional style

[0] don’t skip this part. It is important to see if you like it: Colle-Zukertort opening

This opening is my favorite d4 opening for a reason. It is a system opening which means that the move order is flexible and can be played almost no matter the moves from your opponent, and it combines the attack, part of the pawn structure, and the simplicity of the London system(but it is not so simple that it will be hated by chess players), the solidity and part of the pawn structure of the stonewall, but it is not so simple that it will be hated by chess players. Chessbrah has a speedrun on this opening so check it or ask me.

[1] The theory: Colle-Zukertort:

This system follows: d4, Nc3, e3, Bd3, b3, Bb2, Nd2, and short castle, and it is usually in flexible move orders. If Black fianchettoes kingside, play Be2 instead of Bd3 and c4, Nc3 and the fianchettoed bishop on b2. if Black plays Bf5 or Bg4 you should play c4 then Qb3 to put pressure on the b3-g8 diagonal and attack the b7 pawn. You can also play h3 against Bg4 as a side line. If Black plays Nc6 or creates a bishop and queen battery on the e7-a3 diagonal respond with a3 to keep your d3 bishop safe. If they play c5, play b3 to prevent c4. The system leads to either an aggressive middlegame, which is sharp and a tiny bit risky, or a positional c4 plan, which is simpler and solid. Most of the time at high level, your opponent will gain a lot of queenside space, so if you choose the attacking route, move quickly or else that amount of the loss of space will be the result of your downfall.

[2] Aggressive Style: Colle-Zukertort:

After development, play Ne5 to open your queen’s path supported by the d4 pawn and b2 bishop and play f4 after to ready a rook lift and I will leave you here because the position get too complicated to explain. I will explain this part. If Black plays Nxe5, recapture with either pawn to remove the f6 knight, making way for Qh5. If they ever move the f6 knight that’s your clue to attack (if you're ready with the pieces). One way is to open the long diagonal for the b2 bishop by trading your e4 pawn and e5 knight to activate the b2 bishop and another way is to do it is to do a rook lift or to bring the queen out. If Ne5 isn't safe, you can either rely on the c4/positional plan or even sacrifice the pawn(I will leave you alone for this line)for activity.

[3] Positional Style: Colle-Zukertort:

Now let’s shift to the positional style by focusing on pawn structure instead of pieces. After development and the c4 Nf3 Bb2 and Be2 line, after c4 make sure to remember Rc1 to take control of the c file. If your opponent trades the c and d pawns, you’ll likely end up with c4 and d4 pawns, which can become passed pawns with either d5 or c5 which is a strong endgame asset. Even early in the game, the endgame matters. You can also play a4, a5 to try to trade off the isolated pawn and the c pawn is now passed. If your opponent doesn’t trade on the sauares c4–b5, you can slowly shift into an aggressive setup. But if they do trade, you can simplify and aim for a favorable endgame with passed pawns on the b and c files. make sure you understand the plans before playing the opening. If you want to play a more flexible line then play c3 to defend the d4 pawn then decide if you want to play e4 or c4 and remember to put rooks on the file you will open. If you go for e4 be careful of your d4 pawn getting loose, so I don’t recommend e4 immediately before c3. Once again please ask any questions if you have and check the speedrun of chessbrah about this opening.

Table of contexts:

Why the Ruy Lopez/Spanish Opening is recommended by me and not so complicated as you think
Main line/Morphy defense
Stinitz variation
Berlin variation
Classical variation
Cozio defense
Bird variation
Schliemann defense
Marshall attack

1. Why the Ruy Lopez/Spanish Opening is recommended by me and not so complicated as you think:

The Spanish is not so easy to learn, but with understanding of the middlegame plans and piece placement plans you will get to understand it and this helps you remember the moves. At a low level people will not know what to do against the Spanish so I recommend it for that reason too. Please note that in each variation I will be starting after the moves e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 and Bb5 to not waste time.

2. Main line/Morphy defense: the main line is a6 Ba4 and Nf6 just doing normal development and if Na5 then e5 hangs. The light-squared bishop is our best minor piece so we should keep it in mind throughout the text. If Bc5 then we can get a tempo when we prepare d4 so Be7 is main. After that Re1 defending the pawn and then b5 because we threaten Bxa6 and Nxe5 with no fork because the e4 pawn is defended. After b5 Bb3 and black will either castle or do d6. If castles then we go c3 making an escape square for our nice bishop and then stop Bg4(if they play d6 last move) with h3 because the pin is annoying. Next we do d4, but if black goes Na5 we go Bc2 and our plan is to go move our pieces to the kingside and attack there. Our dark-squared bishop is fine not moved, but our knight needs to go to g3 with Nd2 Nf1 and Ng3. If you want to activate the a1 rook then a4 works. Now instead of castles we have d6. Our bishop is important so we do c3 and note Bg4 is an annoying pin. This time we do d3 because our knight is pinned and can’t help in the pawn push. Our plan now is to do that same knight manuever to kick the bishop away and a4 still works. There is another variation called the Morphy, caro variation. After 3. a6 Ba4 b5 and Bb3 we have plans of counter-attacking their overextended queenside or you could follow that c3 d4 idea sometimes leading to main line variations.

3. Stinitz defense variation: It starts with d6 and d4 immediately. If a6(mistake) then Bxc6 and dxe5. And if dxe5 then Qxd8. Instead of a6 and instead Bd7 then just develop the pieces and no need for c3 because we already pushed the d pawn. Instead of Bd7 we have exd4 Nxd4 Nxd4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 Qxd4 and it’s equal.

4. Berlin variation: it starts with black playing Nf6 and we do O-O and ignore our undefended pawn. If they take it then you have 2 choices. Either d4(open variation) or Re1 both lines are hard to talk about in paper so just the chess board. If they don’t take then it will go into the other variations that will be mentioned. d4 is more theoretical so I won’t dive into it. d4 and O-O has the same eval, but choose by which middlegame that suits you best. Bf1 is played to keep the bishop and use it for defense.

5. Classical variation: it starts with Bc5, but this is actually a mistake because we can play d4(after preparing it) and gain a tempo and now you can use the idea of bringing the pieces to attack again. There is a trap here. After Bc5 c3 and d6 is a mistake because the pin is on the knight so it can’t move which means after d4 black does not need to do exd4, but let’s say they do exd4 and then cxd4 and black has 2 options. Bb6(just loses the c6 knight with d5) or Bb4+. Bb4+ then the best move is actually Kf1! Because if we block then Bx(our piece)+ and the knight escapes with a6 and b5. And after Kf1 to avoid checks. best is a6 and Bxc6 bxc6 and Qa4 attacks the b4 bishop and the fork+pawn on c6 which wins. I said best is a6 so what if Bd7. If Bd7 then we attack with Qa4 which adds pressure to the a4-e8 diagonal and attacks the b4 bishop. If a5 to defend then a3 traps the b4 bishop. If any other moves are played then Qa4 should be in your mind. You can’t do Nxe5 and then d4 which is yes, a fork of the knight and the bishop, but Bb4+ ruins the idea, but this idea can come later.

6. Cozio defense: it starts with Nd7 O-O a6 Ba4 and our plan is the c3 one. Nothing really changes no matter how your opponent plays here.

7. Bird variation: It starts with Nd4 and we should take with Nxd4. After exd4, O-O and just develop. Our bishop moves to a4 and b3 if attacked and we can put pressure on that d4 pawn with d3 blocking it and various moves like Nd2 Nf3 or c3 or fianchetto the bishop on b2.

8. Schliemann defense. It starts with f5, and gambit. Here we just go d3 and try to find ways to attack their king. Our plans are the same as the Re1 berlin variation plan.

9. Marshall attack: so we start after 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 is the marshall attack and after exd5 Nxd5 Nxe5 Nxe5 Rxe5 c6 d4 Bd6 we get the free pawn in exchange of giving black good bishops with good diagonals. They will probably do Qh4 at some point in which we have to do g3 to defend. Next is Qh3 and since we have a color weakness on f3 g2 and h3 we have to cover those with a light-squared piece, but since our bishop is too slow to come we just trade it off on d5 and allow a target for our queen on d5 which is a pawn. We go Qf3 to target it and you have to make sure the opposing light-squared bishop does not come help the opposing queen or else you will probably lose. Since that is our problem we should try to trade off the queen with Qg2 next. This kind of defense should be applied to all situations and I will summarize it. Trade off pieces in your territory and defend your weakened squares with pieces to not allow entry.

3. Dutch defense system explained.

This is a good opening because it’s a system and it is a good attacking opening without risking much and you can play this against everything that’s not 1. e4. To start the explanation of the opening it is also explained by the YouTube channel of Remote Chess Accademy. After 1. d4 f5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 and your plan here is to move with Bb7 to control e4 even more, go with Bb4 to trade of the c3 knight to get more control of e4, and O-O with plans of Ne4 and get in with the queen(all of these moves are in order of play) and remember that controlling e4 is our main goal so until we do Ne4 so always pay attention to the opponent’s moves if they control e4. If you’re pinned by Bg5, then Qe8-Qh5/Qg6 and if white does a3 before you play Bb4, then Be7 with the Qe8 plan and if c3 then you play d5 trying to stop it and if there is a bishop or a queen on the a8-h1 diagonal then you should try to get that extra tempo from the bishop/queen and if the knight on f3 moves and white castled kingside then you should look for ways to attack and always remember to check for Qh5 checks from white. Always note that if you play any move that does not stop e4 then you’re immediately losing because you give up the center so f5 has no purpose and the weak king is bad. The board here might not show the moves in the paragraph, but it contains the same plans.

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