Danya's General Advice & Tips-Quotes from GM Daniel Naroditsky's Speedrun Videos

This is the second installment of my series covering instructive Danya quotes from his speedrun videos. I believe Danya's speedrun quotes are an untapped resource for the chess community! To that end, I have compiled a master document of transcribed text from 375 speedrun videos covering about 185 hours of instructive content. In this post, we are covering Danya's general advice and tips within the below eight categories:

1. Calculation
2. Art of Checkmate and Attack
3. Tactics
4. Positional Chess
5. Winning Won Positions
6. Saving lost positions and swindling
7. Openings
8. Endgames

In future posts we may do a deeper dive into Danya quotes related to these categories. All credit to the legend himself. Here are the quotes:

Section 1 - Calculation

The Sam Shanklin question

Ask yourself the Sam Shanklin question [what if I do it anyway?] People assume immediately that this pawn needs to be protected ... this is the power of not making these false assumptions. It's crucial do not let your brain tell you what's what before you have examined it from a concrete perspective.

@ 20:00 mark, Beginner To Master | Chess Speedrun | French Defense

Consider move orders

If you have two moves that you want to play, one move followed by another move, you always have to ask yourself what happens if I play the second move first?

@ 16:00 mark, Grandmaster Naroditsky | Chess Speedrun | 1520

Weakness of the last move, re-check if a move works

Just because a move doesn't work in one position doesn't mean you need to bury that move entirely. Tons of blunders happen because of this at every level.

@2:58 mark, Beginner To Master | Chess Speedrun | 1500 |

Checks, captures, threats

Checks, captures, threats ... if you want to apply that advice properly remember that no capture should be excluded from that. You shouldn't only look at fancy captures you should look at regular captures as well they can be the most effective moves. And remember that just because you solve a bunch of tactics doesn't mean that in every position the solution will be something fancy, sometimes the simplest possible approach is the most effective.

What to think about on your opponent's turn

So notice how, on our opponent's turn, I'm talking about more general ideas. This is the sort of classic Russian School of Chess recommendation. I think Alexander Kotov ... advocated for this approach where you use your turn to calculate concrete variations, and when your opponent is taking a while to think, you're essentially developing conceptual wisdom about the position. You're shuffling through typical ideas, you're making mental notes to yourself, like this is what I need to be careful about, this is what I need to look for. And in that way... you're using every second effectively because on your opponent's turn, there's a lot of uncertainty and your opponent has a lot of options. So unless you are fully anticipating a certain response, it actually makes sense to abide by that advice, unless you feel like there's a lot to calculate and you really need to use every second to calculate a certain variation or you're in time pressure. In that case, it's all calculation.

Identifying threats

When you're identifying the threat ... [the advice is] not to rush this process. It's not always as easy to identify the threat as it appears. In addition there might be more than one threat.

Simple chess

If the tempting move results in a mess remember that you can just accept the small victories in the position and save time by making a quiet move.

Where there's a lot of options start with the simplest move. That may be the capture that may be the forcing move. There's this famous tip to look at checks captures and threats and that's true in a tactical position when you're trying to find checkmate. But in these positions where there's clearly no mate you're just trying to find the best move the simplest move can be a lot of different things it can be the capture it can be the check... Start with the simplest move because that can save you a lot of effort... If this move works then it's very clear that that's the one you should go for.

When your opponent does something weird your defaults should be to play in accordance with basic chess principles and you're not going to go too wrong. If you do that [and] don't panic when your opponent does something weird, just try to follow basic principles.

Section 2 - Art of Checkmate and Attack

Mating nets

Do not to rush to give the first check that you see... When you're hunting the king you've got to be very careful that you don't let the king escape and you've got to ... build the map how could the king hypothetically escape? What is the pathway? And then you could tailor your sequence to prevent the king from reaching that pathway.

Bring more pieces to the party

If your sense that the attack is about to fizzle out you don't always need to go desperado mode and give all these random checks you can just bring a piece into the attack.

Risks of hand-to-hand combat with king

[When] attacking ... be very careful about moves that are made in close quarters with your opponent's king because the situation could arise where you give a check ... and all of a sudden your [pieces are tied down to defend each other] so attacking from a distance is often better than just putting a rook and your bishop and your knight right next to your opponent's king because those pieces could actually start ... getting loose.

Section 3 - Tactics

Defending a piece tactically

If you're defending a piece indirectly and that piece is technically hanging make sure on every move that you either remove the piece from that square or if you leave it there make sure that your opponent isn't ... creating the threat of taking it.

Torture the pin

You don't necessarily need to rush with taking the [pinned] bishop since [it can]not escape the pin... We can actually delay [taking the bishop] and make an improving move.

Trapping the Queen

Start by identifying evacuation routes... [The] first question you should ask yourself is if I make a waiting move can my opponent evacuate their Queen? ... Step two is to actually trap the queen... You also have to make sure that you are not giving away too many pieces for the queen.

Evaluating if a pin dangerous

To evaluat[e] whether a pin is dangerous [ask] is there a pawn that protects the pinned piece? It's a lot more dangerous when there is no pawn defending the pinned piece [and more pressure can be applied]. When there is a pawn protecting the pin piece you shouldn't be too scared of it particularly [if you have an unpinning move]

Discoveries

When you're considering a discovery make sure that he cannot take the piece that delivers the discovery and simultaneously defend the pawn of the square that you're trying to target. That is one of the most common sources of mistakes.

When you're trying to disarm a discovery attack the tail of the discovery... Try to attack the piece that's actually giving the check. That way you can avoid the brunt of the discovery.

Counting

When you're trying to figure out whether you can play a move don't only count the defenders and attackers it also depends on what specifically is attacking a pawn. Here there are actually more attackers on the pawn than there are defenders but we can't capture with the queen because we give up the queen.

The two worst defenders of a piece

The two worst defenders of a piece are the king and the queen. When the king or the queen [are the] defending piece, that piece is generally very very vulnerable. Why? That's counterintuitive in the queen sense because you might think the queen is the best defender but it's the worst defender because the moment a queen is attacked it has to move. [In contrast,] the moment a knight is attacked by another knight sometimes you [can] reinforce that knight but when a queen is attacked it essentially has to move and abandon whatever piece it's defending.

The same exact thing goes for the king. The king by the laws of chess has to move when it is attacked. That is check and so it comes above everything else. The king is a very selfish piece so it must abandon whatever piece it's protecting.

Moves that create multiple threats

I love moves that create more than one threat ... There's almost an insurance policy that comes with these moves because if one of the ideas is parried then you'll always have some of the other ideas ... so if you're not sure [and] you're trying to choose between a sequence of moves, the move that carries the most ideas can often be the most dangerous one.

Setting traps

Once in a while if you see a very juicy trap that you feel like is easy to miss and and it doesn't clearly ruin your position, if your opponent sees through it, it's fine to do it once in a while. This concept that you should never set tricks [and that] tricks are always bad, who are we kidding here I don't subscribe to that thought.

Section 4 - Positional Chess

Trade off opponent's most active piece

When your opponent lags behind the development trading off his only developed piece often serves to essentially cause the position to collapse.

Keeping pieces defended

When you're evaluating the placement of a piece most people only consider one thing and that is the placement of a piece relative to the board the knight is in the center so it's as good as it can be. What are the other two qualities that you have to factor in? The first is defendedness. So we have type-one undefended pieces and type-two undefended pieces.

Weakening pawn move around your king

Be very careful about pushing pawns in front of your king. Not only f3 but moves like g3 or h3 all create weaknesses around your king. That needs to be treated with the highest degree of caution.

Assigning a task to a higher or lower value piece

People want to do stuff with the highest value piece. You want to do stuff with the queen because it sounds like the queen is going to be more reliable at accomplishing a task but that's not how stuff works on the ground sometimes.

The typical advice is that you shouldn't tie down your heavy pieces to a menial task. [In a particular position defending with the rook] would be a very bad use of our resources. I might say well isn't the king the most valuable piece? Well it is but it's also the piece that's not really participating in the game yet.

Kick out advanced pieces on your territory?

When there's a piece ... in your territory [people think] you automatically need to get rid of [the piece]. Sometimes that's true ... but there are sometimes ... you can actually use a piece that's in your territory to your advantage. It doesn't automatically make it good just because it's sitting on [an advanced square]

Kinetic and potential energy of pieces

A piece may not be doing anything on one particular move or in one particular position but you should not ... abandon that piece entirely. You should think about where that piece can ultimately end up and how strong it can be. Sometimes the pieces that seem to do absolutely nothing end up being the pieces that win you the game when they open up that essentially is the concept of potential energy.

Which rook to move?

When you're deciding which rook to put on a square you need to take a look at the other rook [and] ask yourself if the other rook is going to have a good square. Or if one of the rooks is going to be hogging all of the prime real estate.

Section 5 - Winning Won Positions

What to do when up material

A lot of people are very confused by [the question] do you trade when you are up material ... and if so how much do you trade [and] when do you trade? Now here's what I'm going to say and nobody's going to like this answer: it depends. You cannot say with any degree of certainty whether you trade when you're up material. I would say it's 50/50.

When you're up material you still want to develop.

You shouldn't take too many extra pawns when you're already up a bunch of pieces. That [advice] should also be taken in its proper context. If there are free pawns that you can take without any consequences then absolutely you should take more stuff.

When you are up a lot of material don't go crazy ... giving stuff up just to simplify

When see a strong move, look for a stronger move

When you're about to win material don't grab that material without thinking. Take a moment and ask yourself the question am I sure that I'm maximizing my material gain maybe there is a way to win even more material.

After your opponent blunders, stay alert for opportunities

If your opponent blunders something, particularly material, that next move after you take the material can be very important because ... your opponent [might be] tilting [and] will offer you an opportunity to expand your advantage. Or because he's now lacking that material you have to understand what bearing that has on the position. So maybe he's lost a bishop and that bishop was defending a square which can now be occupied by a knight. So don't simply take the material and then relax. Try to understand how the material gain has impacted the landscape of the position

The moment you believe that your opponent blunders you need to keep your eyes peeled because what often happens is that one blunder follows another. [After] your opponent blunders he gets tilted and and they try to remedy the situation but in doing so blunder further.

Section 6 - Saving lost positions and swindling

When you've blundered, when you're down a piece, you want your opponent to believe that you're basically tilted and blundering more. That's where these tactics come from... You want to lull your opponent into that sense that you're just actually tilting and blundering more pieces and this is how you set traps.

When things are going wrong like this you want to find a way as some chess authors call it to change the course of the game or change the trend of the game. Sometimes the game is moving in the wrong direction and sometimes it might very well be the case that the computer actually recommends [a certain move] that's marginally speaking the best move but it's a lot more uncomfortable for your opponent if you do something like sack the knight because that basically changes the landscape it forces him to adapt and ... you want to make sure that [the] way that you're ... changing the course of the game is actually not terrible.

If you're screwed like this ... you want to try to confuse your opponent and add some spice to the position. You need to try to lull your opponent into this false sense of confidence and he might miss [a key tactic] and then all of a sudden [you are] winning.

When you're on the losing side of a position like this you can no longer afford the kinds of niceties that you can afford when you're better or when the position is equal. You can no longer afford to make prophylactic moves you need to get on with business ... every Tempo is precious when you're losing because every Tempo ... that you're not creating problems for your opponent you're giving your opponent a chance to consolidate.

The Art of Flagging

If you're trying to flag someone the best way to do it is to ... go into this long end game and what you try to do, you don't make any pre-moves you ... try to stay alive as much as possible. You get a couple seconds here a couple seconds there and you want to confuse him [and] make him calculate some moves.

Section 7 - Openings

Stay flexible with openings

When you learn an opening system ... it's very important not to be dogmatic. People get into trouble when they try to play the same system, regardless of what the opponent does. That's a recipe for failure, because you have to be flexible enough to react appropriately when your opponent plays something weird.

Understanding the middlegame plans

If you're using opening books or you're using a chessable course. Yes, you have to learn the moves that are given in the book or in the course, but it's always a good idea to spend a couple minutes analyzing the position on which the author stops... It's always a good idea to really feel like you understand the resulting middle games, and one way to do that is just to kind of open-ended analysis with the engine, just make some moves, get a sense for how you want to develop your pieces, and get a sense for why your position is good.

Section 8 - Endgames

The common phrase that is used here in endgames ... is "do not hurry". That's sort of a russian kind of maxim that's told often to beginners and that means several things. First of all, there's a tendency to play fast in the end game. Second ... there's a tendency to just try to rush your ideas but sometimes you just want to improve your position and that is the most effective way of converting an advantage quite often.

You always hear the advice be patient in the end game. What that really means is you want to make all the necessary improvements first ... before pushing the pawns

Piece activity is crucial [in the endgame]. You want all of your pieces to be active ... and if there's one piece that is not doing anything in the end game that's a pretty bad sign

Advantages that carry over to the endgame

When you have an initiative or ... a development advantage naturally people try to avoid the endgame but there are situations where going into an end game does not necessarily lessen your initiative or the chances that you're going to attack the king. There are situations where endgames are actually just a natural follow-up to how you're playing. The fact that you're trading queens doesn't necessarily mean that you no longer have any attacking potential.

Notes:

See the first post for disclaimers related to the transcription accuracy, grammar, etc. I provided footnotes for the first couple quotes as a reliability reference. Upon request I can consider adding more.

Cheers, Dsoul