Basic Openings for Black | Sicilian Dragon & King’s Indian | Chess with David Pakman

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In this live chess coaching session, I teach a simple black opening repertoire to David Pakman. David is a political commentator (host of the @David Pakman Show) and has recently been invited to the second edition of Chess.com’s PogChamps (a chess tournament for popular streamers and online personalities). To prepare for the event, I showed him the basics of the Sicilian Dragon (against 1.e4) and the King’s Indian Defense (against 1.d4).
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Eric Rosen
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313 Comments

  1. I thought the “Dragon” name derives from the eponymous star constellation (draco, Latin for dragon).

  2. David Pakman. Given the conditions of his homeland, ie Argentina and its failed socialism, I would have thought once he and his family choose to come and benefit from the US he would have abandoned the failed socialist/liberal ideologies of Argentina.

  3. Hey man! Love your videos. They are super helpful. I see you tutoring people from time to time like in this video and was wondering how to go about maybe getting a lesson from you?

  4. Thanks! Great vid! I also love the hyper accelerated dragon: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6, or Black wins the pawn after 5..e5 Qa5+

  5. Hi Eric! I'm back watching this video after watching it the first time around 4 months ago! Ever since, I started just playing Sicilian Dragon with black. Just that. I'm up from 600-ish rating to late 800s and sometimes venturing into 900s. Thanks for this. Watching now, I realise that half what you said didn't stick the first time, but the more I played it, the right moves presented themselves. It was interesting watching this now, and I've picked up few more tips! I'll come and watch it again when I hit 1000!

    Edit: hit 1,000 (2 months later) ✌️

  6. 33:00 “opposition research.” Eric is making fun of him. Hahaha

  7. Is that… David Pakman? Oh shit, it sure is. Well I'll be damned!

  8. Is there a name for the Pirc "trap" where white pressures the knight before developing their own and black trades queens while taking castling rights, and then black forks the king and the rook? If he likes that modern setup I bet a decent amount of pogchamps would walk into that one. Plus even if white defends it properly it just ends up in a normal and playable pirc game.

  9. 29:20 Originally, the reason it is called a Dragon is because from the black perspective, the position of the pawns resembles the star constellation of Dragon.

  10. I thought it was the dragon because of Black's pawn structure g6 and d6, which is the dragon constellation shape

  11. The absolute randomest colab I could have imagined

  12. who else got brain shortcut seeing and hearing David?

  13. David looks so wholesome and ready to learn

  14. Good chess players: only play Sicilian after 2000
    Me at 500 elo: hahahaha dragon go bruh

  15. Wow now I have some decent opening with black against 1d4 and 1e4…with white I have settled with playing the catalan. Very helpful video.

  16. The way he often says "okay" with a kind of clipped ending is not his natural speech pattern. He's forcing himself to try to sound like a rather famous podcaster.

  17. It’s also called the dragon because it resembles the draco constellation

  18. I need my hand held, drawn in crayon and words a 3 year old will understand. My style of mentoring.

  19. I often get hit with Bg5 attacking the knight, Any tips?

  20. Trump won and you know it David, btw Trump would destroy you in chess.

  21. Eric please make a similar opening content for white also.. This is awesome !

  22. I'm only 650 and I'm dying for playing scillion Defence

  23. Very useful video. I have been playing the Sicilian opening since I hear Levy say it wasn't for under 2000 with the though of sweet at 1200 my opponent won't know what they are doing either. I think this video will now give my more direction with my second move. Up to now it has been a random. That d6 move will really help.
    And to top it off when you say Alexa stop it! You turned off my Alexa as well.

  24. whats the best way to defend the knight when the dark squared bishop attacks on g6?

  25. Bruh I though yay was talking about pawg champs

  26. Hi Eric,
    Am I right that this was a more than an hour long video? What happened to the other half when David played against other opponents?
    Thanks 🙂

  27. Is memorizing/studying opening pointless if your rank is less than 1000?

  28. I like how this guy asks for a review. So helpful, and oftentimes, it results in exploring the alternatives white can play.

  29. I didn't know who David Pakman was before watching this. What a horrible little man

  30. Eric’s explanation is so smooth and understandable compared to Levy’s rushed and yelled explaining then discourages you in the end by saying this is mostly for 1500 – 2000s

  31. This is BY FAR one of the best videos I’ve seen on chess in general. The most infuriating thing we see in chess “tutorial” videos is the complete and total lack of context. The GothamChess channel is the absolute and total worst for this- unless you discuss why a defence should be used in relation to white’s openings there’s no point making a video about it. Simply listing the moves to establish something like King’s Indian WITHOUT talking about why you do it is, frankly, a waste of everyone’s time. Context is absolutely vital in chess- listing the moves of an opening or defence in isolation is of no use to a learner whatsoever.

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