Shadowing Practice: Capablanca's Brilliant Move Was A Blunder⁉️ - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
171 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Capablanca played a beautiful combination, which was also a blunder.
2
And in this game, you'll get to know his three main rules for the middle game.
3
Capablanca's playing white here, and initially we have standard opening development.
4
Black protects the pawn, and here Capablanca played knight to c3.
5
Sure, he could have captured here on a5 or pushed the pawn forward.
6
These were also good alternatives, but I don't know,
7
maybe I got a little bit too much into his head with this to take as a mistake thing, right?
8
So he played knight to c3.
9
I'm just just kidding, Kabablanca of course,
10
lived many years ago, but the rule to take is a mistake still is legit and it does make sense,
11
so let me show you what I mean.
12
Because you see that both players refuse to take here, even though they both could.
13
What is the reason?
14
The reason is, when you take without a significant reason,
15
oftentimes you only help your opponent to advance his piece forward and you get nothing for yourself.
16
Such as in this case, when black finally captured on d4, notice what happens.
17
Black got nothing, it's just a trade, while why it advances his knight.
18
So that's what the rule states.
19
You take when it gives you a certain advantage, but otherwise if it gives you nothing and only helps your opponent,
20
then he has to take as a mistake.
21
Now black captures here on d4, and now you see that Capablanca throughout all these moves refuses basically to take himself, such as here.
22
He could have captured right here, but he knows that he has to take as a mistake that would only help black to develop his queen,
23
and therefore Capablanca maintains the pressure right here, just trades on d4.
24
Now black takes on b5, Nairi captures and black castles.
25
The position is more or less equal, of course, and now we have the first interesting idea and advice from Cavablanca.
26
He says that
27
White's first move advantage is the initiative, right?
28
So the idea that
29
White starts the game also means that you can start your attack sooner than your opponent and seize the initiative,
30
and he says that you should absolutely do that, and he goes
31
Queen to c3.
32
It's a small threat, of course, this pawn can easily be protected,
33
but nevertheless now white becomes the one who's putting pressure and black is the one who has to respond and defend.
34
Now knight to d4 from here Kamalanka aims to bring his knight to another active square
35
and just playing pawn to g6 would weaken the king.
36
Black also does not want to do that so black played knight to d7 instead.
37
Also a pretty nice maneuver by black trying to bring the bishop forward
38
and the knight could probably jump forward onto e5 in the future but nevertheless last, knight to f5, Caballon keeps creating those small threats,
39
but simultaneously also advancing his knight forward to a good square,
40
threatening checkmate, like goes bishop f6 to protect his pawn and to counter the white queen, queen to g3, swinging the queen to the king's side,
41
where potentially it can help in the long -term attack.
42
But right now, the biggest problem by black is this handing pawn on d6.
43
Again, Caballon maintains this initiative by creating small threats all along the way.
44
Knight to e5 by black, bringing the knight to a good square, and protecting the pawn with a queen, therefore I cannot take it.
45
Now, this is another very interesting moment and another advice that Capablanca gives us.
46
He says that in the middle game, the main thing is the coordination of pieces.
47
In other words, you need to bring all of your pieces towards this central area or as close as you can, right?
48
And for many players, it would be really tempting to play the move of bishop h6, which Capablanca did not play,
49
trying to checkmate black right away.
50
So I go here, then I take, you know, and force the checkmate.
51
But of course your opponent will also do something.
52
And the problem with that is, if you don't have all your pieces into play,
53
usually your opponent will be able to refute your attack and you will just waste time.
54
So here after knight to g6, black would shut down this file, the bishop would have to retreat somewhere back, and the attack fails.
55
So instead of that, Capablanca chooses this other approach.
56
He says that you need to make your pieces work as a connected unit, where they stand close to each other and support each other.
57
And he goes bishop of four, you know, bringing his pieces closer towards this central area and also kind of putting pressure onto his opponent,
58
even though right now there are no threats in the moment.
59
Queen to c someone by black.
60
And how would he play here as white?
61
Which brings us to the second rule, which think is also one of the most important rules of all.
62
It is do not leave Ronaldo on the bench.
63
He may get upset and even walk away, right?
64
Cristiano Ronaldo did not deserve that.
65
He is leaving national team camp in Portugal.
66
The idea is while playing chess we get focused on our opponent's king and we try to put together a checkmate.
67
We're focused on that area and because of
68
that on beginner to intermediate level
69
so many players totally forget about this one dude on a1
70
and it's a really powerful piece it's your tower it's a rook right you should never forget about it
71
and you should always bring it into play and
72
because of this recent incident with ronaldo i don't know
73
if we should call it the ronaldo rule for real
74
but i love it because it's memorable
75
and again one of the most common mistake of years all right not bringing this rook into play
76
so always do that and Kavalanka goes rook to d1.
77
Now the rook is also active, and together with the knight, it puts pressure into this pawn on d6,
78
and it also kind of forces black to follow the Ronaldo rule as well, and to activate the rook.
79
Now, what do you do then?
80
So the first phase of the plan was to bring all your pieces into play, and to also bring them closer towards the central area,
81
so that they either stand there, or somewhere close, or at least put pressure in that direction.
82
Because also Cabablanca says that you really do need to control the center before you can hope
83
that your king side attack will work out.
84
And that's one of the really classical rules of chess strategy.
85
All right, still what do you do then?
86
Now here's a really nice description of Capablanca played by one of his common opponents, Torta Kovar.
87
He said, Capablanca often aimed for a simple solid position and then struck with a small tactical combination.
88
And I think it's a really nice description because phase one you just activate all your pieces, you bring them towards the center.
89
And step two, this is where you start looking for those force and moves, checks, captures, and threats.
90
You might have heard the rule, but in itself it's not very insightful because you can't just be forcing yourself to check all the forces,
91
those checks, captures, threats at every turn of the game.
92
That'll be just time consuming and usually useless, right?
93
But once your position is active, then it makes sense.
94
So after that, you focus your attention and pulse half the board, and you start asking yourself, can I go here, can I go here,
95
can I take here, can I take here, and you start checking all these opportunities, and you try to hope for something that works,
96
and Kavalanca played rook takes d6, which deserves, you know, an exclamation mark and a question mark at the same time,
97
because yes, he found a really nice combination, but it's also a blunder, so his idea was that if black captures,
98
which he did, then white falls with bishop takes e5, and that, yes, puts a lot of pressure onto black, attacks the rook, attacks the bishop,
99
and also it pins the rook down to the queen, and if Blake takes, which did not happen in the game,
100
but it's just the main line of the combo, queen recaptures, and now that's another double attack.
101
You're a threatening checkmate, queen takes g7, you're also threatening rook, and black is defenseless.
102
What's also annoying for black is that the queen is also pinned down to the queen.
103
Like, black cannot just play something like this to protect his king, because that would hand the queen on c7, meaning that in this position,
104
black would probably have to give up the rook and of course lose the game.
105
So this is what Capablanca was hoping for.
106
Unfortunately for him, there was a decisive fatal flaw into his combination.
107
I mean, try to find it yourself, by the way.
108
Probably Sun Tzu said something like, never trust your opponent, and this is a good moment for that, right?
109
Black probably got a little too much respect for Capablanca
110
and thought that his combo was winning and did not look really strong for counter opportunities, but that opportunity existed.
111
The move that Capablanca blundered is queen to a5, which is a cool double attack to white's double attack, right?
112
As, yeah, easy to miss that, but the idea is it attacks this rook on e1, not just the rook that would come with a checkmate,
113
and if the rook moves, you know, somewhere, then you just lose this bishop on e5, and, you know, you just lose material,
114
and it's time to resign.
115
Now, luckily for Capablanca, He didn't have to resign because in this case, there was a lucky save bishop to c3,
116
so that at least you save that bishop and you don't lose it, while simultaneously blocking this diagonal and not losing your rook.
117
So it kind of avoids losing these pieces or at least one of them.
118
Now after the trade, the position becomes balanced.
119
You recapture and yeah, even though you threaten checkmate, but it's black to play.
120
And so black has to counter that one, but he's got rook to g6 now looks like black is winning
121
because he won the exchange and white's pawn structure is weak
122
but there is knight to e7 check all right so
123
that would be the thing and after king to h8 white trades black captures
124
and once the dust settles we can see
125
that the position is approximately equal white is up a pawn
126
but all these ones are hanging and weak and it's about equal
127
so kamalanka had a lucky way to save the day
128
but with all the honesty i think that he just missed the move queen to a5,
129
which very easily could have been an absolutely winning move by black,
130
and it was just a lucky thing for white that he could have escaped after that.
131
In the actual game though, black found another move which is also very interesting, it's the move rook to d1,
132
and the idea here is that white cannot take the queen because of rook takes e1 checkmate.
133
That is clearly bad for white.
134
Now certainly white can, and he did, capture the rook on d1, but now black recaptures on e5
135
and now black is only down one pawn therefore he kind of got away from
136
that really dangerous position where it seemed like he's just losing the game
137
and now he's attacking the queen so therefore he thought
138
that the game would go on but good for Cabablanca
139
that he also escaped that blunder that counter attack
140
that his opponent missed but as Cabablanca himself said the good player is always lucky
141
Here we go.
142
And the idea is, yeah, he had a very strong position, right?
143
Very nice harmony of his pieces.
144
And so it makes sense, yeah, that in many of these lines, the combinations would work in his favor.
145
Now, how would you play here?
146
Now, a lot of players probably notice, OK, the queen is hanging, let me just move it.
147
But we know that once your position is already strong, meaning your pieces are already active.
148
This is the time when you start looking for checks, captures and threats onto his opponent's side of the board.
149
And he played nine to h6 instead.
150
Nice counter.
151
Now the knight can not be taken because the king starts to blush and it's an illegal move.
152
Instead the king moves to the corner and now what do you do?
153
This queen is Henny.
154
The knight is Henny.
155
What do you do?
156
You sacrifice your queen.
157
Queen takes e5.
158
Another forces move by the way, a capture in this case.
159
So you see that you know it is possible to find attacking moves in your own games
160
if you follow this way of thinking.
161
But it's still not easy.
162
What if black captures?
163
Do you see the continuation?
164
Yeah, it's absolutely stunning knight takes f7.
165
White sacrifices almost his final piece to deliver this fork and black cannot just move the king away or else,
166
you know, that will lose the queen and black would be down material losing the game.
167
But if the knight is accepted,
168
rook takes, then we've got this come move rook to d8 and black loses the game due to this back rank checkmate.
169
Just a quick reminder, my birthday offers are still available for a few more days with very special pricing on my courses and bundles.
170
I'll leave the link below if you'd like to take a look and get your chest to the next level.
171
And if you'd like to know Carlson's rules to win, you may like to watch this video next.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B22
96 sentences
He Beat A Super Grandmaster In 9 Moves!!
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
339 sentences
Making Composition Mistakes? Here Is How To Fix Them
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
240 sentences
Robert Pires - The Right-Footed Magician Arsenal Abandoned
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
40 sentences
Is having good memory illegal! #thementalist #edit #tvshow
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C11
412 sentences
30 Chess Tips: How To Defend (Beginner to Advanced)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
126 sentences
How I use AI as a senior software engineer and 5 principles of AI explained in 10 minutes
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
108 sentences
Every FIFA Card Type Explained in 4 Minutes
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2131 sentences
what chess does to your brain
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C11
41 sentences
Top 20 Smartest Plays in Game of Thrones
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
50 sentences
"In the end he panicked!" | Nodirbek Abdusattorov 🇺🇿 takes down World Champion D Gukesh
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
148 sentences
Building a REAL pawn that transforms into a queen (automatically)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
107 sentences
They Caught Him Cheating. So He Responded by Making History.
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Capablanca's Brilliant Move Was A Blunder⁉️”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: queen, rook, knight, Capablanca, piece. This video has 171 sentences and 2342 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:38. The speaker talks fast, about 201 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| knight noun | /ˈnaɪ̯t/ | An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages. |
| capture verb | /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/ | To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem. |
| pawn noun | /ˈpɔːn/ | The most numerous chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess, each side starts with eight; moves are only forward, and attacks are only… |
| bishop noun | /ˈbɪʃəp/ | An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church… |
| opponent noun | /əˈpəʊ.nənt/ | One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something. |
| threaten verb | /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/ | To make a threat against someone; to use threats. |
| initiative noun | /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/ | A beginning; a first move. |
| refuse verb | /ɹɪˈfjuːz/ | To decline (a request or demand). |
| sacrifice noun | /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/ | Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later, also the offering of an object to a deity. |
| pin noun | /pɪn/ | A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening. |
| nevertheless adverb | /ˌnɛvɚðəˈlɛs/ | In spite of what preceded; yet. |
| simultaneously adverb | /ˌsaɪmlˈteɪnɪəsli/ | Occurring at the same time. |
| resign verb | /ɹɪˈzaɪn/ | To give up; to relinquish ownership of. |
| chess noun | /t͡ʃɛs/ | A board game for two players, each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the… |
| combo noun | /ˈkɒmbəʊ/ | A small musical group. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| put together verb | To assemble, construct, build, or formulate. | |
| shut down verb | To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily. | |
| walk away verb | To withdraw from a problematic situation. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- All right, still what do you do then?
- What do you do?
- Do you see the continuation?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be protected · is also pinned · can not be taken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | combination, which was · one who has · move which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 16 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you'd, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, nevertheless /ˌnɛvɚðəˈlɛs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, bishop /ˈbɪʃəp/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, coordination /kəʊˌɔːdɪˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, nevertheless /ˌnɛvɚðəˈlɛs/, simultaneously /ˌsaɪmlˈteɪnɪəsli/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like knight, capture, pawn.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.