WEBVTT 00:01.050 --> 00:01.950 Hi there. 00:02.580 --> 00:07.490 In this lecture, I want to talk about certain Alexander Alekhine quotations. 00:07.500 --> 00:13.350 So Alexander Alekhine is actually the first kind of layer of example games in this course. 00:14.790 --> 00:20.910 He seems to be an inspiration for Garry Kasparov, who has talked about looking at a lot of alekhine 00:20.910 --> 00:23.490 games in his youth and drawing inspiration. 00:23.910 --> 00:28.590 So we really want some of that to spice up our own attacking chess. 00:28.860 --> 00:36.090 So Alekhine believed combinations are kind of they are a kind of soul of chess, like pawns in the soul 00:36.090 --> 00:36.570 of chess. 00:36.600 --> 00:38.340 That's a quote from Philidor. 00:38.520 --> 00:46.650 It's like an essential priority to try and get into your chess combinations. 00:46.770 --> 00:51.690 And it seems like Alekhine's style of play was born out of the combination. 00:51.690 --> 00:54.110 It's like that was his main attraction. 00:54.120 --> 01:00.360 Everything else became a necessary evil to kind of get the beautiful combination in the end. 01:00.540 --> 01:08.970 But as he says in another quotation, he had to work long and hard to eradicate the dangerous delusion 01:09.330 --> 01:15.240 that in a bad position, I could always only, always conjure up some unexpected combination to escalate 01:15.240 --> 01:16.590 me from difficulties. 01:16.590 --> 01:24.120 So I learned the hard way that he had to respect the accumulation of advantages modeled by Steinitz. 01:24.120 --> 01:28.830 Chess is a kind of fundamentally a scientific game. 01:28.830 --> 01:35.540 There is a balance of advantage and you do need certain advantages to make combination very complementary 01:35.550 --> 01:37.680 play successful attacks successful. 01:37.770 --> 01:44.250 It needs to be based usually on ingredients that you have and the opponent doesn't have. 01:44.250 --> 01:48.930 So you might have a disadvantage in material, but you might have more pieces around the opponent's 01:48.930 --> 01:49.530 king. 01:49.860 --> 01:53.280 So basically that's not really a bad position. 01:53.280 --> 01:59.940 Then you've got to look at what you've got, which is kind of advantageous that could be qualified to 01:59.940 --> 02:02.160 make the combination successful. 02:03.030 --> 02:10.140 But anyway, he also kind of said about positional sacrifices that they're more difficult and more praiseworthy 02:10.140 --> 02:16.860 because they can't be based on an exact evidence and exact what he calls calculation of tactical possibilities. 02:17.790 --> 02:22.980 He talks about the retreat of a minor piece to the back row where it cuts the lines of communication 02:22.980 --> 02:27.480 between the rooks is is permissible only in exceptional cases. 02:28.050 --> 02:29.820 It talks about time pressure. 02:30.000 --> 02:38.610 A short time is because it can't be made as an excuse in like a lawbreaker was drunk at the time he 02:38.610 --> 02:39.240 committed the crime. 02:39.240 --> 02:45.390 So it's going to be quite often attacks are going to make the opponents consume large amounts of time. 02:45.390 --> 02:51.450 There is a desirable benefit if the opponent is short of time and it's more likely for them, given 02:51.450 --> 02:54.030 their human, to make mistakes when they have less time. 02:54.240 --> 02:58.110 So chess, first of all, teaches you to be objective. 02:58.470 --> 03:06.360 So that does for me relate to this idea that he had this great passion for combinations, but he had 03:06.360 --> 03:13.890 to be objective, you know, how to actually objectively get good positions and the combinations objectively 03:13.890 --> 03:14.850 should work. 03:14.970 --> 03:20.160 So objectivity, like a scientific perspective to attacking chess. 03:20.460 --> 03:25.200 He kind of liked to play on both sides of the board as one of his favorite strategies. 03:25.650 --> 03:29.520 So we see some example games where he has done that successfully. 03:30.090 --> 03:34.980 He talks about this is like Mikhail Tal has got a reputation for playing for complexity. 03:34.980 --> 03:36.030 He talks about this. 03:36.030 --> 03:42.390 Playing for complications is an extreme measure that the player should only adopt when he cannot find 03:42.390 --> 03:43.950 a clear and logical plan. 03:45.270 --> 03:47.390 He will say, Sorry about that. 03:47.400 --> 03:48.000 He's here. 03:48.360 --> 03:48.870 So. 03:48.870 --> 03:53.070 So yes, this is a branch could be seen as Mikhail. 03:53.070 --> 03:55.650 Tal is also another fantastic attacking player. 03:55.680 --> 04:02.430 But because you could argue because Alekhine is more rooted in correct chess, he might actually be 04:02.430 --> 04:04.350 more easy to emulate. 04:06.210 --> 04:13.920 For for attacking chess principles, concepts, ingredients then make hotel because complexity of table 04:13.920 --> 04:15.450 games is often so mind blowing. 04:15.450 --> 04:22.140 It's very difficult to even analyze, make hotel games to see all the resources for both sides. 04:22.320 --> 04:29.910 So there isn't a kind of extreme desire to create complexity like my hotel later on. 04:31.110 --> 04:39.900 So basically for me, here's is a good first layer layer as in attacking layers of players to study 04:39.900 --> 04:49.680 and to really get to grips with his game examples, to see what's going on objectively and to follow 04:50.010 --> 04:57.720 his his kind of reasoning here, basically, you know, to make sure to be objective in analysis as 04:57.720 --> 05:00.960 well, not just be driven by the result of the game, like who won. 05:00.960 --> 05:04.470 We need to objectively know the chances for both sides. 05:04.470 --> 05:11.340 So, you know, next time we can play a little bit more accurately and our game scales up and up to 05:11.340 --> 05:12.840 stronger and stronger opponents. 05:13.020 --> 05:16.110 Objectivity is the way forward, in my view, for that. 05:16.680 --> 05:24.260 He believes that true, that true beauty of chess is more than enough to satisfy all possible demands. 05:24.270 --> 05:31.080 So yeah, he talks about this also in relation to spending many hours each day in a lifetime is not 05:31.080 --> 05:32.370 enough for chess, etc.. 05:32.370 --> 05:32.790 So. 05:32.910 --> 05:40.440 So chess is a beautiful game and he treats the combination as like one of the major things he strives 05:40.440 --> 05:40.650 for. 05:40.650 --> 05:46.410 And that's that's his reputation that his whole game is, is born out of compensatory play. 05:46.410 --> 05:51.750 And actually, statistically, if you look at your puzzle books, you know, generally from classic 05:51.750 --> 05:57.960 games, Alekhine will feature highly because he had so many brilliant winning combinations. 05:58.320 --> 05:59.250 So there is that. 05:59.250 --> 06:04.740 But we need to see the routes he took to get those positions in the first place. 06:05.340 --> 06:09.450 How do we get those attacking positions in the first place for those combinations? 06:09.450 --> 06:17.250 And this should make your jigsaw of skills, you know, checkmate your tactical skills like pinning 06:17.250 --> 06:18.240 deflections and all that. 06:18.240 --> 06:20.670 The forcing moves, all the tools of tactics. 06:20.670 --> 06:26.100 That is an essential what how do we actually get those positions so we can demonstrate our tactical 06:26.100 --> 06:26.790 ability. 06:26.790 --> 06:29.010 So that's the interest of this course. 06:29.010 --> 06:33.810 And I hope you found these quotations kind of inspirational. 06:33.840 --> 06:37.740 So we're talking about the love of combinations. 06:37.740 --> 06:44.520 And for me, you know, quite often if I'm looking at, say, blank games, quite often they're a bit 06:44.520 --> 06:46.020 drier for me. 06:46.020 --> 06:48.870 They're not as juicy as Alekhine games. 06:48.870 --> 06:55.770 Even though Capablanca may have lost far fewer games than Alekhine, Alekhine actually had an absolutely 06:55.770 --> 06:57.360 brilliant tournament track record. 06:57.360 --> 07:04.110 He actually had more tournament victories overall in his career and he had, you know, he's absolutely 07:04.110 --> 07:08.010 brilliant attacking game, so he's kind of juicier and more exciting. 07:08.010 --> 07:13.800 And so the reason for that is, you know, if you like combinations and tactics, you know, alekhine's 07:14.280 --> 07:19.920 more of a role model for more positional player such as Capablanca. 07:19.920 --> 07:22.830 But we can learn from all the world champions. 07:22.830 --> 07:26.820 It's good to get influences from all the world champions because in the game you might need to use, 07:26.820 --> 07:30.960 you know, a range of styles depending on the situation that you're confronted with. 07:31.080 --> 07:37.590 So okay, but I hope you found this interesting, this set of quotations, and I hope you really enjoy 07:37.600 --> 07:39.960 the Alekhine game examples in the course. 07:39.960 --> 07:44.430 By the way, this this is an example of an alekhine combination. 07:44.640 --> 07:46.290 So he got this great position. 07:46.290 --> 07:48.120 You know, he maneuvered a nine to C4. 07:48.150 --> 07:53.520 This was an influential game I was reading from one of my my chess books once, but it's a classic from 07:53.520 --> 07:57.150 World Championship Match round 21 in 1927. 07:57.150 --> 08:02.220 Capablanca Alekhine World Championship Match Alekhine plays a combination from here. 08:02.310 --> 08:05.790 Can you see what's black plays which just ends the game? 08:06.330 --> 08:08.190 If I give you five sentence pause video. 08:11.310 --> 08:11.520 Yeah. 08:11.520 --> 08:21.450 So nine sites E three it actually hits the opponents queen and once had it here basically. 08:22.050 --> 08:31.980 Yeah this is absolutely a winning position if for example rook takes the fall we have Queen 64. 08:34.050 --> 08:39.360 So this is even stronger technically than taking the queen, and we can end up just being an exchange 08:39.360 --> 08:40.140 up here. 08:41.410 --> 08:43.210 That's an absolutely winning position. 08:43.540 --> 08:44.590 Or we could. 08:45.560 --> 08:49.220 Actually on Route 64 we could play. 08:51.730 --> 08:53.350 Queen Banks be free. 08:56.370 --> 08:58.980 I mean, it's all kind of it's still a winning position. 08:59.390 --> 09:02.280 If takes if he was played, we'd just taken the queen. 09:04.050 --> 09:07.530 So, yes, there isn't too much really to explore here, actually. 09:07.740 --> 09:09.450 So, yeah, it's just a winning position. 09:09.450 --> 09:17.100 If if Queen tanks, D5 rotates, and now F takes that Bishop takes a free check and women winning the 09:17.100 --> 09:18.120 rap on D one. 09:18.270 --> 09:20.670 But this game is analyzed in detail in the course. 09:20.670 --> 09:25.590 But really we're interested in how how did Alekhine get to this position? 09:25.770 --> 09:30.870 So the ingredient here, you know, he did establish a nice night earlier in the game and you'll see 09:30.870 --> 09:32.220 this analyzed in detail. 09:32.280 --> 09:37.890 It's one to briefly show you that in this match, you know, he had to play really objectively against 09:37.890 --> 09:41.520 Capablanca and get an advantage in the position. 09:41.520 --> 09:45.690 He did manage to get a positional advantage that see full square. 09:47.280 --> 09:49.520 You'll see that in the detail of the analysis. 09:49.530 --> 09:51.210 This was even a slight inaccuracy. 09:51.210 --> 09:53.370 Actually, 94 might have even been better. 09:53.490 --> 09:59.190 But yeah, he gets this dominating position with Knight on C4 and that leads to the combination. 09:59.190 --> 10:06.750 So, you know, the attacking ingredients is like super accurate play to exploit a positional hole in 10:06.750 --> 10:07.890 the opponent's position. 10:07.890 --> 10:14.400 And it leads to, you know, this position is just very, very strong for black white it's pretty passive 10:14.400 --> 10:16.110 here and been driven back. 10:16.170 --> 10:23.310 A forcing move here is very, very powerful and dominating authority on the default his position he 10:23.310 --> 10:30.030 basically outplayed Capablanca that is an ingredient needed his positioning outplayed the opponent. 10:30.030 --> 10:37.440 And here, you know opponents being pushed back and the target being created on D4 for this elimination 10:37.440 --> 10:40.320 tactic combination matrix E three. 10:40.320 --> 10:42.990 But yeah, it's very, very precise play on the lead up. 10:43.020 --> 10:44.190 It's not speculative. 10:44.190 --> 10:46.470 There isn't a desire to create great complexity. 10:46.470 --> 10:55.350 It's kind of logical sound principles of positional play, backing up successful attacking combinations. 10:55.860 --> 11:04.320 So yes, so I'm a big fan of Alexander Alekhine and it paves the way for understanding of later generations 11:04.320 --> 11:06.900 of attacking players such as Garry Kasparov. 11:07.380 --> 11:09.750 Okay, so I hope you enjoyed this example. 11:10.580 --> 11:11.360 Pretty much.