Great video! I really liked the lines where white got in Rd8+ but then you just played Kb7 with the idea of Nc6, and the rook has to retreat. Shows just how resilient black's position is in the Berlin defense.

Brilliant analysis, thanks very much.

Thank you very much! Awesome analysis.
By any chance,...do you still have the PGN of this game and could post it ?

Very nice and instructive video!
Thanks for sharing

Thanks At last I can face Berlin with more confidence. I was mostly avoiding it with some sidelines like Bd3 where white blocks his d pawn as does black with his knight.
You've also flipped the board thanks

Dennis, Thanks for the insights into the Petroff. Would you consider a lesson on an annoying line that I often confront at club level, 5 Re1. Dismissed by most books as not offering White any advantage, but it also offers Black no advantage, well at least not according to what I have found. What do you consider as the best play for Black?

First, to all who enjoyed it, you're welcome and thanks for the kind comments!

gentlewhisper: I'll leave that to someone else. I figure if my future opponents want to prep for me, they should have to spend a little time watching the video.

armis: You've drawn the wrong conclusion! You're not supposed to feel more confident against the Berlin, but less! Gee whiz.

philwillb: True, Black doesn't get an advantage against 5.Re1, but there's nothing wrong with the instant equality you get after 5...Nd6 6.Nxe5 Nxe5 7.Rxe5+ Be7. There are some tries for White involving Bd3, but nothing serious if you're well-prepared. (And here I'll do a little advertising: I recently covered this in a ChessBase show, which you can dig up if you have access to their playchess.com server - look for the Steinitz-Zukertort game. You can find directions for viewing archived CB videos on my blog, here: http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1114234449.shtml)

For everyone: I mentioned a game where Anand used the Berlin to perfection to easily defeat a computer. Thanks to "Chess Teaching", who left a comment on my blog, who pointed out that it was Fritz-Anand, 1998, and the game can be found and replayed at http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1294906. It's a 94-move game(!), but after watching the video above you'll see that he enjoyed every advantage as soon as move 25. Everything after that was pure sadism (or would have been, if Fritz had any emotional life).

Thanks again for a very instructive and watchable lecture!

ditto

Another great video, thanks!

I can't tell you how many times I've had a game where my position felt good, perhaps even "better", and then all of a sudden it's like I hit a dead end. Even more than a lesson on the Berlin, this helped give me a glimpse of perhaps why that happens.
Interesting how you mention that almost happening to both sides in this game. You felt you were fine, and then mentioned a little red in the face moment.
Anyway, great lesson, and an eye opener to the Berlin.

Malfurion, ketchuplover (a Prarie Home fan?), themofro and Oginschile:

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

Oginschile:

You raise a great issue. Many players, myself included, sometimes-to-often hit that wall where the initiative or positional progress we were making comes to a sudden, unexpected stop. There's probably no way to be immune to that, but a useful thing to do is to look for trends. Is there something common to many of the cases where you hit the dead end? Maybe you've forced the issue too quickly, or conversely engaged in too many preparatory or prophylactic moves before springing into action. Maybe you foreclosed some of your advantages in pursuit of just one of them, or - like me in this game - tried too long to keep all your advantages rather than focusing (at the right moment) on just one of them. Or perhaps you were too wedded to a certain type of advantage when you should have cashed it in for another sort of advantage. (E.g. keeping the bishop pair when one might have been traded off in exchange for a superior pawn structure.)

If you do find a common problem, then you can start trying to fix it. Three ways to try: (1) Look for specific literature on that issue. (2) Find a "hero" who is great at handling the sort of situation where you tend to go awry, and get inside his mind. How does he solve these problems? (3) Set up training exercises that make you solve these problems, and play them out against a peer, a coach or the computer. Practice makes...less imperfect!

Hi Dennis,

Obviously I'm way behind in my watching, but that was just a wonderful video! I'd always had the impression that the Berlin led to this dull, dry queenless middle game that Kramnik used to bore Kasparov to death with back in 2000. You made it very comprehensible for the first time (compared with various things I've read about it). I just love it when someone explains something in a way that I can just "get" it.

Thanks so much!

L8erz...
=wild=

Thanks, Wildman, that's a really nice comment! The Berlin is a really fascinating opening. There is a logic to it, but because it's not easily accessible it has a bad reputation among many amateurs. You can use that to your advantage! But even if you don't, I'm gratified to have helped you "get" it.