Chess Opening: English Four Knights' 4.g3 Nd4!? 5.Nxe5

[saguarojet]

nice research



[dragonheadofthewest]

cant tell you how often i lost with the e3 line

[marstuber96]

oh cool



[bekosus123]

great video

[ongyj]

Just became an English opening player myself recently, didn't realise this old gem of yours. GREAT

[bacon8787]

This was a complete eye opener. Wow. I take my hat off to you, sir. Please keep this up - I learn from you like you are pollen feeding the bee nest. Don't let the honey get too sticky!

[idlenessss]

I wouldnt expect anyone to take this pawn because usually when people play the english, I find its because they are afraid of lines where black is active..they are trying to accent their strengths which is long manouvering play rather than tactical calculation. Unfortuntely, im not sure how much it helps black positionally to trade these knights...its structurally similar to an alapin im familiar with, colors reversed but in that structure, black's kingside knight is rather awkwardly placed.

[StrokaviMozak]

5:54 Why not take pawn at E3 and attack the queen ? He cant protect rook with his queen. Wins a pawn..

[GreenCastleBlock]

You have a good point there, I had thought that 12..Nxe3 allowed 13.Qa4+, and that on 12..Nd4+ the doubled pawns would impede White's development. But I wasn't sure, so I ran it through Rybka..

Turns out 12..Nxe3+ 13.Qa4 c6 14.d3 Nxf1 is slightly better for Black (-0.10), and 12..Nd4+ 13.exd4 Qxb1 14.Qb3! is better for White (+0.66)!

But 12..Qh5+ is stronger than both knight moves (-0.45).

[F2L4Life]

I would like to say that I enjoy your videos. I am primarily a white player and by watching your videos of black's various defenses I am able to strengthen my play.

[vladanbabic]

Hi I think you haven't seen that when white moves knight from e5 black can mate him with knight f3 because white pawn is pined from the queen. Bishop f5 is no good move.

Thank you if I'm not right let me know

[GreenCastleBlock]

Kf2

[carpenterboy31]

thanks for posting this...question? is it better to learn white before playing as black...and should I learn the square num and letters...it gets confusing sometimes..

[GreenCastleBlock]

Only when you study openings does color matter. You should learn chess first.

Yes, you should learn algebraic notation. It's not hard and you can't read chess or follow people talking about chess without it. Hope this helps.

[hawkeye999]

Nice video! But I think it is pretty obvious that Nxe5 is risky.

[borgdrone88]

nice ty

[TheJokerReturns]

Excellent analysis.

[xie924]

Interesting Gambit for black. Excellent video and explaination!

[MAfr3ak]

at 5:42 why Qg6 not Nxa1

[MAfr3ak]

my mistake i didnt see the knight omg im stupid lol

[aaronmcc23]

Very interesting analysis Matt. I hope you do more of these kind of videos in the future as I am just simply too lazy to study a chess book haha. I would especially enjoy seeing your repetoire against the king's gambit and more videos on the English! But your videos are very much appreciated!

[DW8814]

Nice Video. I have started studying some of the books you list in your vids. So far they are helping with my game.

[Dessan01]

Extra interesting this time Matt! Is there any chance you would consider doing a small series on the English -- maybe exploring some of the ideas in Tony Kosten's 'Dynamic English'? -- I love that book, but I find some of the concepts quite confusing (I must admit I'm quite a lazy player and can rarely give chess books the time they need to sink in) But I have found his basic idea of playing an early g3 rather than Nc3 has given me some good games.

[GreenCastleBlock]

I like that book too, it's excellent, but the move order 2.g3 has its detractors as well. Plus it's become such a popular method of playing the English it has zero shock value.

Some of my other videos (Pullin-Auger, Pullin-Mitkov, and a couple of the blitz vids) show me playing the "Kosten English".

[jj32768]

Excellent video.

[incomprensible01]

that was great thanks

[MediumKuriboh]

nice analysis and good video

[jrobichess]

Great vid Castle!

[stormc1nd3r]

Gr8 one,5 stars,thanks for making this,I was just wondering the other day if I should switch from 1.d4 to 1.c4 as white.

[iceheart920]

I think this is one of your more impressive videos. The number of lines that favor black is just absolutely incredible. Great video, 5 stars.

[pgbollig]

great video, you are one of the best chess video commenters on the internet.

[RyanDaVanon]

Great video. I saw this analysis in another English book explaining why white doesn't take the pawn.

[GreenCastleBlock]

Thanks. Hope I didn't reinvent the wheel.

[RyanDaVanon]

Doesn't matter if you did or not. If you didn't know the analysis before making the video, you were still right on your own. Which is impressive.

[badmephisto]

good vid, there is a lot of recursion in there though :) I'd like to see some game analysis vids from you. Do you have any interesting games that you played, or some other good game you saw someone else play, that you think illustrates some important concepts? looking forward for more!

[5y89sdfih]

Thanks for the video, always enjoy watching.

[IEatNubs6]

kool

[theuppercut]

never knew that 4 knights was this good...