Mastering Chess: A Guide to Winning with Levy Rozman

Curious to know more about Levy Rozman and his impressive achievements in the world of chess?

Learn about his unique playing style and the key tips he has for winning in the game.

From his aggressive opening choices to his dynamic endgame strategy, Levy Rozman has valuable insights to share.

In this article, we will explore who Levy Rozman is, his notable accomplishments, his playing style, tips for success in chess, common mistakes to avoid, and how to train like a chess grandmaster.

Let’s dive in and enhance our chess skills together!

Who Is Levy Rozman?

Levy Rozman (b. August 26, 1993) is a professional chess player with a peak FIDE rating of 2424 as of August 2021. After one of the first chess coaches he played against became a big fan of his, they started to get involved in each other’s lives. This mentor was self-taught in the game of chess, so Rozman ended up progressing incredibly quickly. He already became a FIDE Master at 13 years old.

Rozman was born in Kazakhstan to a Andrey Rozman, a professional academia and performing arts painter, and Lyudmila Rozman, a linguistics professor. His family moved to the United States when he was about five years old. Before focusing on professionally playing and teaching chess, Levy Rozman, known as GothamChess on Twitch and YouTube, was passionate about playing the Trumpet. After learning from his peers about the low career prospects and average pay of musicians, he transitioned to his passion for chess. He provides educational content on chess across a variety of digital channels which has seen incredible success. His Twitch channel has over 1,500,000 followers and tens of thousands of views per stream. The New York Times has even interviewed him to learn more about his success.

What Are His Achievements in Chess?

Daniel O’Levy qualifies for the Master title by FIDE, but the process to get the title can take years. Software to analyze Reinfield games, such as Komodo chess software, already includes his games in their databases.

Levy started a YouTube channel on chess (GothamChess) in 2017 but got serious only at the end of 2019 when he was laid off from a job. He spends most of his daily time creating content for his channel that is growing faster day by day. Levy’s personal life counts too, ranging from his love of cats to his brief stint in clown school. Social media has just as much impact as on-track results in determining whether an athlete is deemed to be winning in their specific field, says Zach Leonsis of Monumental Enterprises. Levy is winning off the board as well.

What Is His Playing Style?

Levy Rozman’s playing style cannot be easily categorized as there are multiple different opinions from experts on chess categorization. Some styles experts typically use are attacking, endgame, boring, classical positional, dynamic positional, combinative, universal, and counterattacker. A producer at the official Greg Shahade Chess YouTube channel says Rozman ‘small-r’ romantic. At least one expert has expressed Rozman plays boring chess.

Aggressive Opening Choices

Play aggressive and sharp openings that offer a lot of tactical energy and help develop pieces. Typical piece play in these openings includes a lot of sacrifices to exploit weakened defences in the opponent’s formation. Ruy-Lopez, Italian Game, Sicilian Defense (e.g., Fischer-Sozin, Yugoslav Attack), French Defense (e.g. Classical Rubinstein Variation), Pirc defense, Modern Defense, The Hyper Accelerated Dragon, Budapest Gambit, King’s Gambit, Dutch defense, Stonewall variation, etc. Be on the lookout for the following openings if you want to win in a creative manner. Bishop’s Opening (A20). White opens the center with c4.or b4. (Similar to the reversed Sicilian Paulsen.) Benko Gambit (A57) Black achieves dynamic piece play. White intends on keeping the pawn. Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (D00) White gambits his pawn in order to open lines and free his pieces.

Tactical Play

Tactical play refers to gameplay that focuses on threats and forces, including game-changing opening lines. It not only ensures the safety of your own men but also severely damages your opponent’s defense, creates breakthroughs, captures material, or prevents counterattacks. The three components to mastering tactical play according to Levy Rozman are: recognizing patterns, knowing tactics, and being able to calculate.

A pattern is a repeated domino-like structure in the game that has been seen before and can be used to estimate the best moves for either side, as best analyzed in My System by the fourth world champion for chess theories, Aron Nimzowitsch. Tactics are the intermediate moves in the mid-game that change the structure of the game to gain material or launch an attack. They are abstract and vary greatly according to the position of the board during the game. They are openings, i.e., consistent actions that are taken to launch such intermediate movements.

It is crucial that easy tactics such as the fork, x-ray, skewer, pin, surrounding, etc., be thoroughly understood because without them the middle game can tangle into a complex mess for which no easy solution is present. Lastly, calculation which refers to short-term moves to shape a tactical position, is the best way to ensure victory in chess.

Dynamic Endgame Strategy

A dynamic endgame strategy involves accepting a slightly worse endgame position because it offers good drawing chances and relying on good middlegame and endgame strategy moves to regain the initiative. Levy Rozman on his YouTube channel GothamChess has three main rules for middle and endgames which are summarized as follows:

1. In endgames, the side that is attacking with the only pieces that matter is usually the one that will prevail.
2. Endgames with doubled rooks are almost always better, providing they are connected.
3. If you are substantially better, like up a lot of material, you should beg, barter, and threaten to trade off into a winning endgame.

Examples of this concept working in practice include the well-known rook oddity, the Berlin Defense Game which was used by Mikhail Botvinnik to neutralize his opponents when they are attacking, and Josh Waitzkin’s 1994 Paris match with William Morrison.

What Are His Tips for Winning in Chess?

Levy Rozman’s tips for winning in chess are study basics for new players, assist your kids to find interest in chess, work with a coach, exercise and be creative, rate yourself according to grandmasters, and always adopt a positive attitude towards learning chess. Below is a detailed explanation of his points on how to win in chess.

1. Study basics for new players: Levy advises new players to spend a little bit of time to master the basics by finishing games early.
2. Assist your kids to find interest in chess: According to Levy’s Survive the Opening to Enter the Best Endgame. Hey Guys, the increasing rate of concurrence between web technologies and social sites has made distracting an otherwise focused teenager easier than ever. It is important to note that what is happening in his other games does not matter as long as your child is focused and enjoying the game of chess. Levy encourages parents to spend some free time coaching their children in the right directions in chess. This encouragement will eventually help your children develop great chess skills and win better in chess.
3. Work with a coach: According to chess.com/uploads, the advantages of working with a chess coach are invaluable. They already possess all the information that one can cram through persistent self-study and research in a short amount of time and can modify it specifically to suit your needs. Instead of suggesting courses and ideas that may be less vital to the actual game of chess for your abilities, they can also promptly point out weak points that require further practice and refinement so that you can further develop your game.
4. Exercise and be Creative: Lev’s Lesson 1 – Dealing With The Pain. After losing a game, a harsh defeat tends to plunge you into the depths of mischief and pull you away from playing to win even more. Rozman points out that to adopt an alternate view and engage in art, physical fitness, or anything that you find interesting and which is not related to chess can help. I find myself being kidnapped by the impulse of binging movies or reading books, be it a comedy genre or full of action and fiction.
5. Rate yourself according to grandmasters: Levy suggests that after playing two or three games if you feel exhausted, your focus is off, and you start realizing you are performing well below the standards of activity, it is advisable to take some time off from chess. Take a few days or even weeks if this imagination makes you feel refreshed, and just enjoy other mental activities. When you come back to pay attention to the competition, you may discover that it sometimes helps you.
6. Always adopt a positive attitude towards learning chess: Levy states that with some training, every individual can become a better chess player – just like a better artist or a better musician. Realize that improving in chess can be a slow process even though it is possible. Adopt a positive outlook and enjoy challenging yourself with intricate chess strategies! So stay safe, have fun, and good luck!

Master the Fundamentals

Levy explains to win at chess you first need to learn the rules and the basic strategies. The main objective of a player when having the first move is to take control of the center of the board with pawns. From there, a beginner can learn how to develop pieces (starting with knights and bishops) and master the basic checkmate patterns. Rossman emphasizes the importance of learning a relatively simple opening system so as to fossus on the middlegame and endgame skills.

This involves opening heros and famous games, as well as calculate sequences and be familiar with common checkmating patterns. One common pattern, the two bishops, is illustrated below in an example from the game Yantur (1985). White is against a solid black structure but begins wielding his bishops, sacrificing the queen and rook in quick order to start a final mating sequence.

Study Chess Openings

Winning in chess requires Not all beginners’ chess games need to be opened with extravagant combinations. You can win with rule-based thinking (leaping in the dark) designed to create tactical possibilities. You can quickly develop into the middle game to gain long-term space advantage, development advantages, and the initiative. You can even develop towards endgame where the game will be simplified, and tactical chances will naturally arise. A key principle throughout most of Levy’s teachings is the benefits of central control.

Improve Your Calculation Skills

If you want to win in chess like Levy Rozman, the third piece of advice is to improve your calculation skills. If you’ve played over a hundred games and practiced tactics then truly nothing is more important than calculation skills. The ability to calculate variations is irreplaceable. Finally if you see every single thing on the chess board, you will out-calculate your opponent.

Analyze Your Games

Levy Rozman advises analyzing past games because it gets Neuroplasticity for the brain working, as one goes over games, they remember the patterns of the game where mistakes were made and they will actively recall that pattern before the mistake happens in future games. A key habit to get into is reviewing your old games, Levy recommends friends, online engines, or simply a database management software like ChessBase. We will go over how to use them later as it pertains to your level in chess.

What Are Some Common Mistakes to Avoid in Chess?

Some common mistakes to avoid in chess all according to Levy Rozman are as follows.

1. Playing too quickly or too slowly (Levy Rozman).
2. Pointlessly sacrificing material unnecessarily. Material is valuable and can only be exchanged for certain gains (Levy Rozman).
3. Ignoring your opponent’s moves and positions. Be aware of your opponent’s threats and what they are looking to do (Levy Rozman).

Ignoring Development

One of Levy Rozman’s early chess mistakes that held back his progress and continues to trip up new players was not prioritizing development. Instead, development is one of the most basic aspects of chess strategy which encourages you to follow the established opening principles. Developing is one of the least mispriced chess activities. Ignoring development and making a series of unimportant moves such as moving one of your knights out twice, neglecting castling, moving the same bishop in and out, or moving most of your pawns in the opening is detrimental to your position and is frequently associated with low-value center pawn tension battle moves like h3, a3, g3, and h6 that have little visionary merit.

Underestimating Your Opponent’s Threats

It would be hard for Levy Rozman to have included this in your Chess Fundamentals course, but it is another weeky he had with GM John Lovaas, during which GM Lovaas recommends silently reciting the following mantra for every move: Check for checks, captures, and threats. These are the things taught in chess for beginners courses, but it pays to silently recite the aforementioned.

Underestimating Your Opponent’s Threats will more often than not cost you a game. As Rozman emphasizes, if Alexander Morozevich does not know the move, than most likely you do not either. He is a top GM (and was a former world #1 player), and you can learn a lot from analyzing how he plays. Do not underestimate his threats. When you answer Check for checks, captures, and threats and see his aggressive move, understand it. Let yourself analyze why it is a threat and subtly answer with a threat of your own. Use the potential danger to increase your risk-tolerant asset allocation strategically. This is the best way to improve your overall game.

Neglecting the Importance of King Safety

In the Pawn Endgame course of Levy Rozman, he acknowledges that even though you have two connected passed pawns, it is possible to throw away the advantage by not worrying about your king’s safety. Particularly in endgame chess, neglecting proper king safety can lose you the game very quickly. One potential example is if you do not protect against enemy pieces putting the king in check and lose control of what would otherwise have been a winning situation.

King safety means not exposing the king to potential checks, and protecting it against moves that might expose it to checks. One important insight Rozman gives in step 3 of the Critical Thinking Framework is to always be on the lookout for opportunities to keep the king safe in positions that are transitional, particularly in the late-middle game when dealing with pawn structure problems.

Playing Too Passively

In some cases being passive is Levy Rozman’s chess blunder number 4. The main way this manifests itself is when you fail to meet with counterplay your opponent’s in the center of the board. You should not be afraid to rock your pawns to open lanes in your organization. Additionally, attacking your opponent is a form of counterplay which can alleviate pressure from defensive positions. Keep in mind that passivity can put you in the three-check scenario. If you only move your pawns and pieces along your d1-h5 line, and never move even one piece and one pawn to the other side of the board, this may put you in danger of being three-checked.

How to Train Like Levy Rozman?

To train like Levy Rozman for chess dominance, follow a discipline similar to that in the Pro Chess League roster, streamline activities around physical exercise, chess tactics, and playing online chess. The 50-move rule book for the Pro Chess League noted unintentional procrastination during study hours that they wouldn’t want to occur again on a national team.

Rozman suggests breaking chess skills down into categories as being necessary for the kind of discipline needed to move to the next competitive zone. This requires a deep connection beyond the time and space of the board according to Rozman.

Study Grandmaster Games

Studying grandmaster games is key to winning in chess according to Levy Rozman. Observing past grandmaster games helps to improve one’s pattern recognition, tactical knowledge, visualizing the consequences of different moves, and obtaining new (if outdated) ideas.

Study different grandmasters and different styles of games to get a broad perspective. Watching only the better-known or more modern grandmasters will give you a certain perspective but you may miss other styles and repertoire ideas. This strategy can keep up with the average age of top chess players which has risen consistently over the past couple of decades. Watching grandmaster games should be an active form of study. Follow the game, try to anticipate the moves, create little puzzles for yourself. Ask yourself not just what move would I play, but what move did I think was played, is it surprising did the knight go to the king’s side etc. Studying grandmaster commentary is also beneficial for similar reasons as it will give you more insights into their thinking process, their styles, and different approaches to the game.

Resources for studying include:

1. Chesstempo viewing grandmaster games with annotations and navigating them makes them more effective (Most features are available only for premium members)
2. You can watch games on Lichess live game PGN’s with grandmasters. The interface may not be as fancy as Chesstempo but you can play and enjoy with just a free account
3. Bobby Fischer’s best games book is one of the best ways to learn. Written by Fischer himself, it provides insights into the thought process of one of the greatest players of all time. It isn’t expensive and is an invaluable read for medium to higher skill level players

Solve Chess Puzzles

Powerful ways to improve at chess, especially with a time constraint, include tactical puzzles. A tactical puzzle is any kind of position where you need to come up with a brilliant tactical solution (often a series of moves), making the number one absolute thing that HOLDs you back in your chess improvement multi-move easy calculations. Chess master Levy Rozman runs the popular chess YouTube channel Gothamchess with 750 thousand subscribers. In his video The Absolute #1 Thing Holding You Back in Chess he explains that learning tactics will improve every part of your chess game. Tactics are just crucial to winning games. And when you are winning games, you are building good muscle memory. If you have a particular pattern of thinking, the more you are thinking in your head the more you will reinforce this pattern. So, you must find the tesla of your clear pattern and figure that out. When you are reprogramming your thought process, everything you do must be (new) and try to make sure you are best reprogramming your pattern.

Practice with Stronger Opponents

Another key to improving your chess game that Levy Rozman regularly addressed on his YouTube channel was the importance of practicing with opponents who have a higher chess skill level than you. Playing with stronger players forces you to bring your best game every time and it will increase your technical knowledge and adaptability in different situations. Rozman further states that it increases a player’s chances of recognizing patterns of choices available in the middlegame.

Attend Tournaments and Simultaneous Exhibitions

Attending tournaments and simultaneous exhibitions helps win at chess since these are opportunities to focus on different skills under pressure and learn from challenging games. This provides the potential to receive feedback from higher-rated players in player-to-player interactions. Further, the competitive aspect of chess tournaments broadens players’ understanding of chess strategy, knowledge, and tactics.

Simultaneous exhibitions attract the most attention when playing high-level opponents at the same time. Some of the most famous include former World Champions Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine who participated in numerous US and global exhibitions in the early 20th century. Rozman recommends watching the show ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ which depicts US Grandmaster Bobby Fischers simultaneous performance against dozens of opponents.

Levy Rozman is a regular participant in these tournament settings. When he does not have his audience attend his highly rated Twitch account he can often be seen participating in amateur tournaments around the world, including in Georgia, Florida, California, and New York to broaden his chess skills and winning potential.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Win in Chess Levy Rozman?

Who is Levy Rozman and why should I learn from him when it comes to winning in chess?
Levy Rozman is a professional chess player and coach who has achieved the title of Grandmaster. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the game, making him a great resource for learning how to win in chess.

How can I improve my strategic thinking in chess to increase my chances of winning?

What is the most important aspect of winning in chess according to Levy Rozman?
Levy Rozman believes that having strong strategic thinking is crucial in winning chess games. This involves being able to plan ahead and anticipate your opponent’s moves.

What are some common mistakes that amateur players make that prevent them from winning in chess?

Is there a specific opening or strategy that Levy Rozman recommends for winning in chess?
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, Levy Rozman suggests studying and practicing with a variety of openings to become well-rounded and adaptable in your game.

Can I still win in chess even if my opponent is much more experienced or skilled than me?

Are there any tips or tricks that Levy Rozman recommends for winning in chess quickly?
Levy Rozman advises against relying solely on quick wins, as they often come with risks. Instead, focus on creating a strong and solid position on the board to increase your chances of winning in the long run.

How important is patience in winning in chess and how can I improve this skill?

Is it necessary to memorize specific chess openings and strategies in order to win, or can I rely on my own intuition and creativity?
While having a strong foundation of openings and strategies can be helpful, Levy Rozman believes that it is equally important to trust your own instincts and be creative in your game.

What are some common mistakes that players make when they are close to winning in chess and how can I avoid them?

How can I continue to improve and win in chess even after mastering the basics and common strategies?
Levy Rozman stresses the importance of continuously studying and practicing, as well as seeking out stronger opponents to challenge and learn from.