My FAVORITE Chess Openings by Rating

➡️ Get My Chess Courses:
➡️ Start Playing Chess FOR FREE:
I get many questions about chess openings for beginners, intermediate, and advanced level players. In this video I share what openings I think work best across the rating ladder. London, Stonewall, Sicilian, Caro Kann, and many others are featured.

0:00 Intro
0:35 FOR BEGINNERS (LIKE 1100)
7:16 FOR INTERMEDIATE (LIKE 1800)
13:29 FOR ADVANCED (LIKE 1800+)

➡️ Enjoy my videos? Donate Here :

Check out my new Cookies and Cream Cold Brew from Madrinas! Don’t forget to use code “GOTHAM” at checkout to save 20% off your order:

⭐️ Follow Me If You Are Amazing:
➡️ TWITCH:
➡️ TIKTOK:
➡️ CAMEO:
➡️ TWITTER:
➡️ INSTAGRAM:
➡️ GOTHAM DISCORD:

➡️ THUMBNAILS BY:

800 Comments

  1. at school i loved playing the kings Indian in tournaments thought i alone felt so safe with it🤣
    thank you gotham

  2. i played the kings indian setup from 1200 up to 1400 but i have realized that its getting harder to develop the queen side pieces and i started to lose games cuz i don't know what to do

  3. I just checked my stats bad lmao I have 45% win with white and 45% win with black and 10% draws 🤣

  4. Levy: "Over my years, I've probably taught openings to close to a thousand people"

    No Levy, you have taught at least 2.5 Million people from this video

  5. I'm at 750 rn (pretty wild down here btw.) and I actually would encourage everybody at this Elo to play e5.

    Yes, that is how they will try to mate-in-4 /Scholarsmate you but that is in reality a good thing.

    Because learning how to defend scholars mate and early fried liver is actually super simple
    and in 90% of game where someone tried to scholars mate me I won their Queen and a Rook in the first like 10 moves
    AND Most opponents will just resign after that.

    So: Try it out and have fun💪

  6. these r literal hacks, I'm a 500 elo player, using the london system and kings indian and im literally winning 9/10 games, tysm

  7. Do you not acknowledge players under 1100? Because my rating is around 800 and I feel like a huge majority of players are around 5-800 rating.

  8. Thanks Levy, I was a 500 elo in blitz (1100 in rapid) and I just learned the advanced opening with very deep analysis. I play one game everyday and then analyse it. I have been winning every match for the past week. My opening is always of best moves so I already get the advantage. Nice tactic to crush my opponents LOL

  9. How can you play the dutch 100% of the time? You have to be white 50% of the time…

  10. one opening that I've been mastering is the kings fianchetto (hope its correct) and I've been winning all my games, its super easy and super flexible

  11. Tried the Dutch for the very first time. Opponent resigned after being suffocated.

  12. You know your cool when you play the: Hyper Accelerated Sicilian Dragon Defence

  13. Is the "Fools Opening" good for beginners? 🤔

  14. First chess opening i learned was scandavion defence from you because magnus played it 😄

  15. I love to destroy Caro-Kann players with the Tal variation (including the pawn sacrifice on e6), check it out, I have won much higher rated players than me with it (I'm 1400-ish).

  16. bro said beginners are like 1100 when my elo is 200 😭😭😭

  17. How does the London follow the basic principles when I thought the basic principles were always knights before bishops?

    I am desperate to learn more openings, and more chess in general but the more I learn the more I seem to be getting flustered and worried about doing the wrong thing 😫

  18. I showed one of these videos to a friend and now she thinks I only play chess because I fancy GothamChess 🤦‍♀️

    On the positive side tho I've now got her playing chess and every time I go to hers I take my board and chess set now 😁😁😁

  19. Is your name gotham chess because you look like a young penguin? Love the videos by the way… really helping

  20. problem is the opponent doesnt play the "best moves" and the whole plan falls apart quickly then what?

  21. You barely look 1000 days old and you've taught chess to a thousand people?

  22. Timestamps:

    [+] – His most recommended opening at the level.

    (0:37) = BEGINNERS (<1100) =

    – WHITE: –

    [+] 0:40 – (d4, Bf4) London System

    1:53 – (d4, e3) Stonewall Setup

    [if you want to play e4]
    2:37 – (play Nf3, Bc4) Follow the Opening Principles / Consider the Fried Liver

    – BLACK: –

    (can be played against "anything")
    [+] 4:18 – The Kings-Indian Defense Setup / Pirc Defense

    [Against e4, you can also play]
    5:32 – [d5] The Scandinavian Defense

    6:34 – [c5] The Sicilian Dragon

    (7:14) = INTERMEDIATE (1100+) =

    – WHITE: –

    [+] [Consider starting to play e4 / Use these openings in e4]

    7:23 Gambits (Danish / King’s)

    [+] 8:10 – (if e5, then Nc3) The Vienna/Vienna Gambit

    [+] 8:45 – (Against the Sicillian Defense [c5], then Nc3) The Closed Sicillian
    — OR (9:23) Gambits (Smith-Morra / Wing Gambit)

    [If you want to continue playing the London]
    (9:37) Add in Nc3 to your move order, against [d6] the King’s Indian / Pirc Defense

    {Against e6, the French Defense}
    (10:04) Consider the Two Knights French

    [+] 10:08 – (Against the Caro-Kann Defense [c6], then d4) The Advance Caro-Kann

    – BLACK: –
    [+] 10:28 – (Against e4, c6) The Caro-Kann Defense

    [+] 11:04 – (Against d4/anything else) The Leningrad Dutch Defense

    [If you want to play e4, e5]
    12:23 – Traxler / Sneaky Stuff

    13:12 – Stafford Gambit

    (13:29) = ADVANCED (1800+) =

    – WHITE: –
    13:44 – You can still play e4, try to stray away from/don't allow mainline theory, apply pressure. The Vienna continues to be good.

    [+] 14:11 – The Trompowsky Attack

    14:59 – The Catalan Opening

    15:18 – The English Opening

    – BLACK: –
    16:18 – [If you want to play e4, e5]
    — (Against the Ruy Lopez/Spanish and Italian) Use g6 Systems

    — (Against the Italian) Consider the Bird Variation

    17:10 – [If you want to play the Sicillian]
    — The Nimzowitsch
    — The Two Knights Sicilian

    18:02 – ["Universal" Opening] The e6, b6 Setup

  23. I didn't know Daniel Radcliffe was good at chess

  24. Yo beginner here,in the fried liver attack,after you move the bishop and getting ready to move the knight to g5 and getting ready to fork the queen and the rook,WHAT IF THE QUEEN TAKES THE KNIGHT IN G5?(if she/he doesn't move the knight)

  25. I got scared all of a sudden when i saw the thumbnail…

  26. Londen doesnt work everybody knows how to counter it its to overplayed

  27. So you probably don't check comments from ten million years ago, but against the Sicilian Defense, I play the Snyder Variation, as it is not very well-known, and partly counters the Sicilian Dragon. What would a lower rated player (800-1000) play then?

  28. As white I play Vienna and as black I play French and dutch since dutch covers everything but E4 and I'm like 1075

  29. I just finished watching your "Why the London opening SUCKS" video, so that was a funny way to start.

  30. this is for me

    Beginners
    00:38 White –> London System
    02:00 White –> Stone Wall
    02:37 White –> e4 Nf6
    04:34 Black –> King's Indian Setup
    05:35 Black –> Scandinavian Defense
    06:34 Black –> Sicilian Defense (Dragon Sicilian)

    Intermediate
    08:10 White –> The Vienna Gambit
    08:31 White –> Vienna Copycat Variation
    08:50 White –> Closed Sicilian
    10:31 Black –> Highly recommended: Caro-Kann Defense
    11:06 Black –> Against any but e4, The Dutch
    12:26 Black –> Traxler
    13:11 Black –> Stafford Gambit

    Advanced
    14:10 White –> The Trompowsky Attack
    14:43 White –> Trompowsky Raptor Variation
    15:00 White –> Catalan
    15:20 White –> The English
    16:20 Black –> e4 e5 (Ruy Lopez or Italian) play g6 system
    17:17 Black –> trickier sicilians, not main line (Nimzowitsch, Two-Knights Sicilian)
    18:05 Black –> e6 b6 setups

    thats it!

  31. I will always see you as an chess teacher.

  32. This channel has risen a lot, I don't know if that is the explanation or it is just "bad luck", but I decided to play the Vienna with white and the scandinavian defense with black, when possible. I played 5-6 times after watching this video and in none of them I got the main lines you show here. Anyways, I won them and I made it to 900 ELO.

    Time will tell if all this is just a coincidence or if I play better with these openings even if I am responded with weird combinations.

    It is the first time I plan to learn a combination of moves, besides fried liver and that kind of stuff. I'm curious to see if i'll really improve or not.

  33. I almost win my chess teacher with the london system

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *