STOP PLAYING These 4 Chess Openings

Bong cloud has one variation super easy to learn and surprises the opponent. Has to be the top 3 openings

My favorite opening is when I haven't botched my queen is the first 5 moves. I call it the "Nonblotchqueen" opening.

It’s bold of you to assume I knew I was playing these openings.

This video encouraged me to learn the Ruy Lopez and the Najdorf. Thanks for a wonderful opening repertoire.

Accepting the Queen's Gambit still remains to be my most traumatic experience in chess. I remember innocently grabbing that pawn and immediately regretting playing chess.

1:20 Ruy Lopez 7:00 English 10:52 Najdorf 15:25 QGA 19:24 Grunfeld

I've always felt bad for thinking learning the ruy lopez would be a waste of time so this video made me feel good

As a humble ~800 player, my experience with the Ruy Lopez may be inconsistent on losses and victories but I can say it has been consistent with fun. A tutorial I watched on the matter described it as an opening where tactics and calculation are at the forefront and, possibly it might be placebo, but it definitely feels like playing the Spanish made me aware of applying those skills in my gameplay

Just wanna point out something interesting: 12:28 the Alapin variation of the Sicilian Defence with c3 and d4 is the EXACT reverse of the main line variation of the English Opening with c6-d5. Both of them are bad for the one playing against them. Please, LISTEN to this man and take some of his advice to heart.

Objectively, the Bongcloud opening must be the most horrendous of options. However, at the same time, it is Hikaru's trademark. Bongcloud is beyond good and evil.

1:20 Ruy Lòpez / Spanish Opening 7:00 English Opening 10:52 Najdorf Sicilian Defense 15:25 Queen’s Gambit Accepted 19:24 Grünfield Defense

I remember reading a beginner's chess book and the first opening it introduced was the Ruy Lopez and I never understood why the bishop had to attack the knight only to backtrack after the pawns kick it away again so I'm surprised this is the first opening I shouldn't learn

5 seconds in and I already know the sicilian is gonna be one of them.

you should make a series of this, for different rating tiers

Here I'm gonna share my golden experience. So I studied French, and there's almost 15 systems such as Advance, Winawer, Classical, Open | Closed | Modern Tarrasch, and there's also ton of sidelines such as King's Indian System where white playing d3 instead of d4. Also in Grunfeld which is my favorite against d4, just so insanely complex and there's also more than 10 systems in this opening. I also studied KID, Budapest, Caro Kann, QGD, Slav, Sicilian, and I'm totally agree with Levi that some openings just doesn't belong to amateur play. Budapest, Ponziani, Englund, Scandinavian probably the easiest opening to play than any other else. However we shouldn't memorize chess openings because it isn't effective. I studied tons of openings but I always found my enemies playing weird chess, and shockingly I don't know what to do. Then I realize it is far more effective to study pawn structure such as Caro Formation, Slav, Maroczy, Benoni, Stonewall, etc than study opening. Believe me, opening always share many pattern between each other. You can play KID as white against Caro Kann, French, Sicilian if you know the system with e4, d3, g3-Bg2, Nc3-Ne2, Nf3-Nh4/Ne1 then goes for f4. I think the big idea arises because of the pawn structure. In the Dutch Defense, one of black common maneuver is to play Qe8 then Qg6/Qh5 but that also because of the pawn structure makes it possible. If we play a French and somehow black play f5-e6-d5, we can also do our maneuver in the Dutch with Qe8-Qg6 or we can also do the Budapest rook's maneuver a5-Ra6-Rg6/Rh6 in other opening. So I believe memorizing chess opening isn't important, it's all about the pawn structure and couple of ideas we can absorb in many different openings.

Hey Levy! Loving these videos! I have an idea. Most of us have difficulty punishing "bad" moves when it comes to the opening. Can you perhaps make a video about explaining certain principles on how to spot these miss-steps? :)

QGA player here. I kept running into literally the exact problems you listed in that section of the video. Recently I tried the Benko Gambit in one game to see how well it would do; had a completely dominant position after like 12 moves. Excellent video as always. Keep it up!

I have been playing the Grünfeld for sometime now and honestly, against 1300 lower its not that bad if you do a little study. Won very good games with c5.

I like the Semi-Slav but too many people play the Exchange Slav. The solution is to play the Winawer Countergambit and really bring them out of their comfort zone

I started chess playing the Ruy Lopez and after the invariable Morphy Defense my bishop always ended up on the same diagonal as the Vienna Game - so I said screw it and started learning the Vienna and never play the RL anymore.