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Opposition and Outflanking are two concepts that separate many players in the end game. It can be the difference in winning twice as many king and pawn endgames, while drawing games that would otherwise be lost.
This video will walk through the most important concepts and then look at a real example on how this plays out in a chess endgame.
Hey everyone this is kevin from Thechesswebsite.com and today we’re Going to be going over one of the most Important concepts in all of chess and That is opposition and outflanking if You understand these concepts your In-game tactics strategy and overall win Rates will go up significantly so i’m Going to go over what these are How it actually applies and then i’m Going to show you some examples from Actual games so you can see how you can Apply this to your own matches This video is brought to you by Brilliant more from them later in the Video So first thing we have to look at is What is opposition now One side is said to have opposition if They’re on the same file or row as their Opponent’s king in this case both kings Are on the same file and white said to Have opposition if when they move There’s an odd number of squares between The two kings in this example there’s Five squares between the two kings so White Has the opposition in this example all That means is the black king is never Going to be able to get past This white king Even if they tried to outflank which We’ll get to later in this video Now if we come back one move instead of
King to a2 If white played king to b2 Now black Would have the opposition because they Can play King 2 b 8 And now we can see that black moved and Now there’s an odd number of squares Between the two kings so just that one Subtle move From white can change who has the Opposition So let’s come back and break this down a Little bit more let’s say that the white King Wanted to make its way to one of these Three squares that’s the game you could Play this by yourself against yourself You could play with a buddy but your Goal is to try to get the king To one of these three squares if you do You successfully win the challenge black Is trying to keep you from this so this All comes down to Can you find the opposition for your Side So we look from white’s standpoint let’s Say that they try to choose the fastest Path and they say well i’m just going to Make a b line here we’re going to go King to b2 and we’re going to just keep Going down this Diagonal right here but we already
Talked about and said black now has The opposition they can go king b8 Well let’s say white continues and they Play king c3 here Well from black’s perspective really They should play king to c7 the reason They should play king to c7 is once you Have the opposition your opponent can Never take it back if you play correctly But black needs to make sure that when They move their king there’s an odd Number of squares between the kings And let’s see why that’s important let’s Say That white continues if they Move along the side and they play king To d3 Well black can just play king d7 Maintain They’re still on the same file maintain Three squares an odd number between the Two Now if white doesn’t play laterally here With king to d3 what if they come up to D4 Well now Black can play king d6 remember every Time they move they want to maintain an Odd number of scores they could also Come back to d8 more of a trolling move From their opponent it would do the Exact same thing but this is more Forceful because now there’s only one Square in between which is an odd number
And now how does white continue remember White’s trying to get up to one of these Three squares up here the f8 g8 or h8 Square but they can’t come to e5 so they Can’t come to the Diagonal that they want to they can’t Come to d5 or c5 so they’re going to be Forced to come to either one of these Squares e4 or c4 potentially but if they Code to either one of these you can see Black is just going to come e6 or if They go to C4 then they can go to c6 and yes white Could also just come back so if they Come e3 well now black can even push him Down even further and play king e5 Remember they have to when they move Stay on the same file And maintain an odd number of squares in Between because black has now the Opposition white can never regain that If black plays correctly and because of That that means that white is never able To get past the black king and is never Going to be able to get to one of these Three squares and win this competition Okay so let’s come back to our Competition and see how white if they Play correctly how they can win and then We’ll take a look at how you can apply This to your own chess games to make Sure that you use opposition outflanking To win more in the endgame so white’s Trying to get to the f8 g8 or h8 squares
So the first thing when white moves is They have to make sure they have the Opposition we already looked at king 2b2 Is not going to win because now black Has the opposition with king to b8 there Are five squares between them white Really needs to play the move king a 2. That’s that first example we looked at There’s an odd number of squares between Them so white has the opposition Now let’s say that black plays king b8 Now we have to be careful white does not Want to play King to b3 here Because black can play King b7 And they would have the opposition There’s three squares between them so That would be a mistake so if black Plays king to b8 Because hey they’re thinking i’m just Going to move my way over here Uh that’s not going to work out for them White needs to play king b2 Now we’ll continue down the board here If they play c8 we play king c2 And continue all the way down at the Board now if they play king g8 we’re Going to play king g2 but here’s the Difference if they play king h8 we’re Gonna come to king F3 Black is not able although we came up One square black is not able to play
King f7 and get opposition okay so That’s not gonna work for black maybe They play king g7 here remember white Had the opposition from the beginning They can still maintain it so now we can Play king g3 still maintaining an odd Number of squares between the two kings Exactly what white needs to do And now how does black continue okay Well maybe king 2 f7 Now we can come to king to h4 and it Doesn’t matter which side they go we’re Now starting to outflank our opponent Now they may come back to G6 But now we can play king g4 One we’ve kept them from ever getting Past us But now we’re using the opposition to Force our opponent to move and then We’re able to out flank our opponent and Get to our uh outcome of f8 g8 or h8 so How did black continue from here maybe They play king to h6 well now We can outflank them and start moving on The file we can go king f5 Let me come back to g7 we’re going to Come g5 to maintain the odd number of Squares in between our kings it doesn’t Really matter where they go from here They could come to f7 or h7 If they come to h7 we’re not going to Come to h8 but we can come up here to f8 Remember we’re just trying to come to
Any of these three squares So if black plays king f7 we can just Play king h6 they could come to g8 But that’s fine we come g6 we have the Opposition still there’s one square in Between and now it does not matter where Black goes We are going to be able to outflank them And go around them so they play king to F8 we can come up to king h7 and then Next move king h8 and if they play king H8 well that’s fine too we can come king To f7 and we will reach our our Destination here with king to F8 So that’s an overview of the concept Quick word from our sponsor brilliant And then we’ll come back and look at This in practice you can see how it Actually plays out in your own games Brilliant is the place to learn stem Hands on so it doesn’t matter if you Prefer science technology engineering or Mathematics if you want to learn Interactively brilliant is the place Doesn’t matter if you’re like me and you Grew up doing math competitions this was A research i wish i had growing up Because it’s a really nice way to learn Math and then apply that and see if you Truly understand you could be someone That’s getting into computer science and You want to learn how to code even at The building blocks to make sure that
You have a good foundation or you could Just like puzzles you’re watching these Chess videos and you want to see can i Actually do some of the logic puzzles Hopefully you can after watching the Chess videos but brilliant is the place To go and also if you use my link in the Description below brilliant.org slash The chesh website they are giving the First 200 people 20 off an annual Premium subscription so definitely check That out i think you guys will really Enjoy this website and now back to chess Let’s take what we’ve learned and apply It to a real world example king versus King and pawn is Pretty common in chess and in this case It’s white’s move and white plays Correctly they should win now the only Way for them to win is to promote this Pawn here on e8 to a rook and a queen And then go on to checkmate their Opponent have another video if you’re Curious how to checkmate with a king and A king a king and a queen or a king and A rook but right now we’re just gonna go Over how they can ensure that they can Push forward now hopefully you remember Everything we talked about from an Opposition standpoint But you have to start thinking about the Additional pieces that you have in play Because if you look at this and say okay Well it’s white’s move and white needs
To play king to d5 To get the opposition This is true that is a true statement They do have opposition on the black King but any time they move their pawn They’re going to lose the opposition So instead what white needs to do is Think about the fact that their pawn is Going to move And how can they play accordingly well The first thing they can do is play king 2e5 Now that is going to give black the Opposition here With King e7 because there’s one square an Odd number in between them but now white Has Pawn e4 That forces the black king to move and Now white is going to get the opposition Back let’s say we have king d7 Okay well you can see now we can Outflank black yes we can play uh king D5 here and if uh they were to come back To e5 we’re essentially just waiting for Them to come to To d7 And once they come to d7 it allows us Now to play King f6 we’re now starting to outflank Our opponent and there’s no way for them To stop it now if they play King e6 or excuse me king e8
Okay well now we need to go back to the Opposition as we talked about before We’re not really out flanking them Anymore we need to come back to center With king e6 we have opposition because We’ve moved and there’s one square Between The two kings on the same file And now where do they go let’s say they Play king d8 well now we can out flank Our opponents with king f7 here And there’s no way for them to stop the Pawn pushing forward So they play King d7 they can’t come to any of these E squares on e8 seven or six and so we Can start to push up our pawn here and Then eventually we’re gonna promote our Pawn and they’re not going to be able to Stop so king 2 or pawn to E8 and promote to a queen so it’s always Important to understand what opposition Is ultimately trying to outflank our Opponent but you also have to take into Consideration the additional material You have in this case a pawn that we’re Going to be moving as well so you take The original concept and you start to Build on it and then you become a deadly Weapon that you will not lose games and You also will find yourself in Opportunities where your opponent should Win but they don’t quite understand you Do
And you can end up drawing a lot of the Games that you would have lost before so Hopefully you guys enjoyed this video on Opposition and outflanking i think it’s Just an incredible tool that you should Have For Your chess in games Thank you again to our sponsor brilliant Reminder if you want 20 off an annual Premium subscription you can click on The link below brilliant.org The chess website thanks again for Watching i’ll see you guys in the next Video
