WEBVTT 00:01.210 --> 00:02.050 Hi there. 00:02.080 --> 00:08.890 In this introduction lecture, I want to show how Alexander Alekhine is often a know man. 00:08.920 --> 00:12.940 You might have seen a film by Jim Carrey called Man is very Funny. 00:12.940 --> 00:14.950 If you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out, in my view. 00:14.950 --> 00:15.910 Very, very funny. 00:15.910 --> 00:22.150 But on the chessboard, you really want to be a no man to the opponent or woman saying no to the opponent's 00:22.150 --> 00:23.020 kind of threats. 00:23.020 --> 00:27.820 You know, you should be really interested in the opponent's downsides of their position. 00:27.820 --> 00:32.980 Like here, you can see there's communication difficulties in Black's position because of the central 00:32.980 --> 00:33.790 pawn wedge. 00:34.000 --> 00:36.970 This is Alekhine against Fletcher in 1928. 00:37.000 --> 00:39.340 Why a significant advantages here? 00:39.640 --> 00:43.990 Black does seem to have a threat of bishop A6 which might need to be parried. 00:44.890 --> 00:50.860 And it looks like I'm fortunate actually for this diagonal Alekhine has something in mind here, just 00:50.860 --> 00:52.540 based on the opponent's downsides. 00:52.540 --> 00:55.150 Alekhine is a great no man, he says. 00:55.150 --> 00:58.420 No, he says, knows the opponent's France. 00:58.780 --> 01:04.390 So here he actually plays Knight H4 and he has something spectacular in mind after Bishop. 01:04.390 --> 01:13.390 A6 So maybe US lesser mortals than Alekhine would kind of move the Queen somewhere and accept the loss 01:13.390 --> 01:14.350 of the exchange. 01:15.610 --> 01:19.840 But Alekhine is a great no man saying no all the time. 01:20.110 --> 01:22.750 And guess what he plays here. 01:22.750 --> 01:26.380 He's more interested in the opponent's downsides than the threats of the opponent. 01:26.380 --> 01:33.010 He doesn't like to be pushed around and his previous play, you know, these pieces do mean something. 01:33.010 --> 01:35.350 These weaknesses do actually mean something. 01:36.430 --> 01:46.540 And when we construct great attacking positions, we often generating opportunities to say no to the 01:46.540 --> 01:49.300 opponent's threats, that we're not going to be simply pushed around. 01:49.870 --> 01:57.700 And that's the same if you checked my Art of Checkmate course, quite often covering key escape squares 01:57.700 --> 02:02.800 of the opponent's king, or, you know, the other downsides as well, like unprotected pieces, it 02:02.800 --> 02:03.610 means something. 02:03.610 --> 02:04.630 It really does mean something. 02:04.630 --> 02:10.600 But it's up to you to use those kind of advantages to not be pushed around. 02:10.600 --> 02:11.530 So here, guess what? 02:11.530 --> 02:14.140 Alekhine plays for 200 points. 02:14.140 --> 02:18.610 So he's a no person to the opponent in general. 02:18.760 --> 02:22.570 He gets great attacking positions and can afford to say no. 02:23.080 --> 02:25.240 And here is a case in point. 02:25.240 --> 02:29.410 So where do we want to move on, Queen or do we want to move our queen? 02:29.410 --> 02:30.670 Is there something else? 02:32.230 --> 02:38.620 Okay, so I'm going to show you if we move on Queen, they are going to take on F1 and okay, we've 02:38.620 --> 02:40.120 got some compensation here. 02:40.120 --> 02:44.440 But it's even this position is even the bishop and she comes to h free and it's technically even. 02:44.710 --> 02:46.810 No, he plays actually something quite spectacular. 02:46.840 --> 02:48.610 He plays Queen takes E4. 02:49.180 --> 02:52.060 So this is a very, very nice sacrifice. 02:52.060 --> 02:53.740 Now the opponent took on E4. 02:53.740 --> 02:57.280 Before we get into that, there's an interesting possibility here. 02:57.400 --> 02:58.450 Just ignoring it. 02:58.450 --> 02:59.740 Bishop takes F1. 02:59.980 --> 03:01.270 What would you play here? 03:01.300 --> 03:04.720 Would you assume that you have to move the Queen or take on our five? 03:04.810 --> 03:08.860 What would you assume here in this position? 03:11.500 --> 03:16.510 So in this position, we can also say kind of no to moving the queen. 03:16.510 --> 03:18.700 We can actually just play King takes F1 03:21.580 --> 03:24.580 and keep all our pressure on our five. 03:25.270 --> 03:28.660 I'll show you why the combination is shown in the main line of the game. 03:28.660 --> 03:29.890 I'll show you why in a moment. 03:29.920 --> 03:31.690 Why F text is not working. 03:32.950 --> 03:40.950 So we've actually taken two minor pieces here for a rook, which is great news. 03:40.960 --> 03:49.420 And after 97 we can simply play Queen C for to protect A2 and we're material up with a winning position. 03:50.380 --> 03:54.460 So, okay, let's return to the main line of the game then. 03:54.460 --> 03:59.260 So what does happen after F takes E4, which was played in the main line of the game? 03:59.830 --> 04:03.670 So, so Queen takes E for F takes E4. 04:03.700 --> 04:05.080 So what happens here? 04:05.680 --> 04:10.870 And the point is Bishop takes E4 check and you can see it's the weaknesses around the king. 04:10.870 --> 04:12.340 Which are the downside here? 04:13.300 --> 04:20.770 Well, especially F7 and G6, we have G6 check King H7 and now Knight takes F8 and it's a double check. 04:22.240 --> 04:23.620 So the king has to move. 04:23.620 --> 04:31.020 And by taking out F8 once this is basically just a force mate now because of Knight G6, check King 04:31.360 --> 04:34.540 seven we can use that F seven square without any rook takes F seven. 04:34.540 --> 04:36.640 So we play 95 check here. 04:37.330 --> 04:39.880 King H and now Knight F7 is checkmate. 04:40.780 --> 04:43.240 So, yeah, a sweet combination in the end. 04:44.200 --> 04:50.260 But the key point I wanted to make about this, like in the real world, it's good to have teamwork 04:50.260 --> 04:51.520 with colleagues. 04:51.520 --> 04:53.290 That's good, for example. 04:53.290 --> 04:55.660 And there's teamwork on the chessboard with your pieces. 04:55.870 --> 05:01.300 But also you don't want to be distracted in general by people asking you to do stuff in the real world. 05:01.300 --> 05:03.060 And that's kind of leverage than chess. 05:03.070 --> 05:06.940 Your opponent is asking you to move stuff, to recapture stuff. 05:06.940 --> 05:12.880 So sometimes instead of a recapture or a pairing a French, you've got to look at their downsides. 05:12.880 --> 05:16.720 They might have an unprotected piece, they might have weaknesses around their king. 05:16.720 --> 05:19.810 So instead of being pushed around, look at those other opportunities. 05:19.810 --> 05:24.730 You've kind of earned those opportunities from previous play quite often. 05:24.850 --> 05:27.150 So here, this is just a brilliant demonstration. 05:27.160 --> 05:31.330 Alekhine is a bit of a no person, I should say person. 05:32.140 --> 05:36.850 So yeah, it's the opposite of Jim Carrey saying yes to everyone. 05:36.850 --> 05:42.630 His alekhine's actually saying no to a lot of opponents when they flatten things in his possession. 05:42.640 --> 05:44.260 He's looking for the attack. 05:44.290 --> 05:46.150 He's looking for the mating combinations. 05:46.150 --> 05:47.500 He's a no person. 05:47.500 --> 05:49.570 So I hope you got the point here. 05:50.650 --> 05:58.510 That's quite often we are actually creating from attacking opportunities that we're trying to create. 05:58.540 --> 06:02.680 We're creating the ability to say no to the opponents. 06:02.680 --> 06:07.960 So that could be I'm not just going to simply reCAPTCHA, I'm not just going to simply parry your threats 06:07.960 --> 06:13.120 under a do something more exciting, more in my benefit. 06:13.330 --> 06:15.730 So it's based on the opponent's downsides. 06:15.730 --> 06:17.440 You're looking at your opponents downsides. 06:17.440 --> 06:22.900 Your moves become more downside centric rather than being pushed around by the opponents. 06:22.990 --> 06:27.820 Okay, I hope that's fairly clear in this game. 06:27.820 --> 06:29.560 Example from one of my own games. 06:29.560 --> 06:35.350 This is the Mega A-Team battle in 2022, the 44th edition. 06:35.710 --> 06:39.010 My opponents are very strong player. 06:40.180 --> 06:45.700 Over 2700 kind of tries to extinguish my attacking opportunities. 06:45.730 --> 06:51.070 They play actually Queeny for now, the immediate instinct and reaction is to move the Queen. 06:51.070 --> 06:53.050 They're threatening our queen, Right? 06:53.740 --> 06:57.250 But I managed to actually take time here to observe something. 06:57.250 --> 06:59.020 The opponent does have downsides. 06:59.020 --> 07:01.690 There's a default downside of the opponent's position. 07:01.840 --> 07:03.070 The king has no air. 07:03.070 --> 07:03.700 Right? 07:04.750 --> 07:09.550 So I played an unexpected move the opponent wasn't expecting here. 07:12.220 --> 07:18.250 And I was even, you know, way before this, a few moves before that's looking at, you know, this 07:18.250 --> 07:23.980 sector of the board for game ending downsides, not just on the queenside side but looking around the 07:23.980 --> 07:25.900 area of the king for combination play. 07:25.930 --> 07:28.840 Anyway, I was happy to find a great move here. 07:29.350 --> 07:32.860 Can you see what I played in this position for 100 points. 07:32.860 --> 07:34.960 So instead of parrying the opponent's France. 07:36.920 --> 07:40.610 I took it to be about the opponents downsides, the weak background. 07:41.300 --> 07:42.770 So I was a no person. 07:42.770 --> 07:47.850 It's good to be a no person if that if becoming a no person makes you more downside centric. 07:47.870 --> 07:51.890 You're looking at the opponents downsides of their position and it could be know weakened. 07:51.890 --> 07:53.210 KING It could be weak. 07:53.420 --> 07:58.130 King Squares, It could be an unprotected piece, but they're making a threat to are you going to be 07:58.130 --> 07:59.800 pushed around all the time? 07:59.810 --> 08:01.460 I wasn't on this occasion. 08:01.460 --> 08:02.930 I played bishop for. 08:04.780 --> 08:08.140 And this is beautiful because the two rooks are now working against the eights. 08:08.290 --> 08:09.790 He has to lose his queen. 08:11.020 --> 08:14.110 He actually tried to confuse the matter with 92. 08:14.830 --> 08:20.650 So, yeah, if he thinks I'm just exploiting the downside, you want to be more downside centric and 08:20.650 --> 08:21.610 that's how you win games. 08:21.610 --> 08:23.470 You exploit downsides quite often. 08:23.590 --> 08:29.680 So he's trying to confuse matters with Knight D2, and I simply just took on D2 renewing the idea. 08:29.680 --> 08:31.680 I want to just exploit his downsides. 08:31.690 --> 08:38.080 I did take time out for this capture and here of the Queen takes her free rook, takes e8 check. 08:38.080 --> 08:39.400 I'm mating the next move. 08:39.400 --> 08:41.080 So yeah, I'm very strong. 08:41.800 --> 08:46.810 I am opponents you know above 2700 taken down through that downsides. 08:46.900 --> 08:53.770 So sometimes being a no person the opposite of Jim Carrey in the yes man movie being a no person to 08:53.770 --> 08:59.140 the opponents threats and sometimes it's you know recapture you've got other opportunities to explore, 08:59.740 --> 09:02.170 especially if you set up attacking positions. 09:02.170 --> 09:05.170 You're going out of your way to set up attacking positions. 09:05.170 --> 09:07.570 It's like reaping the rewards. 09:07.570 --> 09:10.300 You shouldn't be pushed around all the time. 09:10.300 --> 09:13.360 Maybe sometimes, but sometimes there are bigger fish to fry. 09:13.390 --> 09:15.970 There are bigger opportunities on the chessboard. 09:15.970 --> 09:22.330 So I hope that's also making things clear about this intro lecture about being a no person on the chessboard. 09:22.330 --> 09:23.110 Okay.