WEBVTT 00:01.090 --> 00:01.900 Hi there. 00:02.170 --> 00:04.720 In this lecture, I'd like to talk about structure. 00:04.900 --> 00:07.540 So that is another kind of real world metaphor. 00:07.570 --> 00:13.420 On the chessboard, the pawn structure is kind of the more permanent structure, which sets the tone 00:13.420 --> 00:15.100 of the game quite often. 00:15.130 --> 00:20.680 Now, in the romantic era, pawns were often just sacrificed to just liberate the pieces. 00:20.740 --> 00:22.240 Furious gambits. 00:22.240 --> 00:23.840 It was all about the pieces. 00:23.860 --> 00:30.040 So later, with Steinitz, the official world chess champion, he appreciated that the advantages could 00:30.040 --> 00:33.860 be accumulated in positions, especially in more closed structures. 00:33.880 --> 00:37.330 So the pawns all of a sudden made outposts. 00:37.330 --> 00:37.990 Good. 00:38.320 --> 00:43.690 You could use the pawn structure and acquire assets like the bishop pair and just accumulate your advantages 00:43.690 --> 00:44.610 systematically. 00:44.620 --> 00:50.080 So the pawns acted as a kind of storage device, virtual storage on the chessboard, as opposed to the 00:50.080 --> 00:57.220 romantic era where pawns were quite dispensable just to maximize the attack in terms of piece power. 00:57.910 --> 00:59.890 Okay, so it was Philidor. 01:00.160 --> 01:09.040 So earlier than the romantic era who coined the phrase The equivalent of pawns are the soul of chess 01:09.970 --> 01:11.050 and. 01:12.060 --> 01:14.010 They are very, very important. 01:14.040 --> 01:16.200 Are they the be all and end all? 01:16.710 --> 01:19.560 What relation to attacking chess do they have? 01:19.650 --> 01:23.730 Well, first of all, we don't need to literally occupy the center with pawns. 01:23.730 --> 01:33.390 The hyper modernists like Richard Ratti kind of gave great examples where he beat Capablanca with one 01:33.390 --> 01:42.570 knight, F3, for example, and started through, you know, beating very strong players, persuading 01:42.570 --> 01:47.070 the idea that you don't actually need to literally occupy the center just as long as you can control 01:47.070 --> 01:48.330 the center from afar. 01:48.360 --> 01:53.310 So I think how bishops came into fashion from the hyper modernist, for example. 01:54.690 --> 01:59.430 Pawns can be removed for peace activity that still holds true. 01:59.700 --> 02:06.600 So why are dynamic pawns in particular nice ingredients for attacking chess? 02:07.410 --> 02:14.100 So when I talk about dynamic pawn structures, ones which seem to have tactical liabilities built in 02:14.100 --> 02:20.820 so double pawns, isolated pawn hanging pawns, backward pawns, these are kind of negative, aren't 02:20.820 --> 02:21.000 they? 02:21.000 --> 02:25.250 But there's a major upside they can create often peace activity. 02:25.260 --> 02:27.330 It's the compensation we need to look at. 02:28.560 --> 02:30.390 We mustn't hold grudges. 02:30.660 --> 02:35.100 So especially on the chessboard, something which seems to be terrible. 02:35.100 --> 02:36.480 Look at the up sides. 02:36.510 --> 02:43.800 Don't hold grudges for the dynamic pawn structures there actually are attacking friends and there's 02:43.800 --> 02:46.530 the notion of structure versus piece activity. 02:46.920 --> 02:51.900 So the more dynamic a structure, the more peace activity, and you might end up dissolving completely 02:51.900 --> 02:53.700 the pawns to liberate the pieces. 02:54.480 --> 02:56.860 There's also an irreversibility concept. 02:56.880 --> 02:58.590 Pawns don't go backwards. 02:58.830 --> 03:01.770 So in that sense, they are super important. 03:02.130 --> 03:10.050 Bad pawn moves around the opponent's king could mean irreversible damage weaknesses you can tap into 03:10.080 --> 03:13.710 the common advices don't generally move pawns in front of your king. 03:13.710 --> 03:15.450 You're creating irreversible damage. 03:15.450 --> 03:16.500 They just don't go backwards. 03:16.500 --> 03:18.990 They're the only piece on the board that doesn't go backwards. 03:18.990 --> 03:23.160 The pawns, once they go forward, they can't go backwards like a knight can go backwards and forwards 03:23.160 --> 03:23.880 all day. 03:24.700 --> 03:31.020 Okay, so there are king safety implications both for the defender and the attacker to be aware of In 03:31.020 --> 03:31.770 terms of pawns. 03:31.770 --> 03:34.020 There are constraints on our attacking pieces. 03:34.020 --> 03:36.480 We can control the center with our pieces. 03:36.480 --> 03:40.650 We don't need to occupy with pawns necessarily. 03:40.650 --> 03:46.680 Pawns can liberate the pieces sometimes and other soulful quotations. 03:46.710 --> 03:54.870 If we consider sole aspects of chess to generally have a major ingredient, a major factor for successful 03:54.870 --> 03:55.530 attack. 03:55.560 --> 04:03.730 It's interesting to note historically other notions of what is the soul of chess which play on the doors, 04:04.060 --> 04:05.700 you know, pawns of the soul of chess. 04:05.700 --> 04:12.600 So Fred Rosenfeld, in the Joys of Chess, indicated that beautiful combination play is the soul of 04:12.600 --> 04:13.230 chess. 04:14.460 --> 04:20.190 And if that's the case, well, we've got good bets on all the attacking players in this course, including 04:20.190 --> 04:24.330 Alexander Alekhine and others, for beautiful combinations. 04:24.600 --> 04:30.110 So we're seeing the soul of chess in this course, You could say from that era is the soul of chess. 04:30.120 --> 04:33.450 Well, for me, it's the opponent's errors. 04:33.450 --> 04:36.690 It's the downsides of the opponent's possession, which fill me with excitement. 04:36.720 --> 04:43.050 That's the hell for accumulating, you know, microscopic advantages sometimes, or small advantages. 04:43.050 --> 04:47.640 You're looking at the downsides of the opponent's position in great detail. 04:47.670 --> 04:49.290 Be super nerdy about that. 04:49.290 --> 04:55.350 So apparently pretty Sarah Lemieux said that downside centricity, in my view, tempo is the soul of 04:55.350 --> 04:55.910 chess. 04:55.920 --> 04:59.100 Now, basically, you might think, oh, well, this is what it's about tempo. 04:59.700 --> 05:01.980 And a lot of chess goes on about tempo. 05:01.980 --> 05:04.440 A lot of the times win games, gaining tempo. 05:04.470 --> 05:06.630 Well, if you imagine here's a basic example. 05:06.630 --> 05:09.750 You get two moves in a row, you might have a win. 05:09.750 --> 05:10.890 If you have two moves in a row. 05:10.890 --> 05:14.430 It is dangerous to gain tempo in chess combinations. 05:14.430 --> 05:19.350 You can often gain a tempo against the opponent's queen, for example, and that could give you an absolutely 05:19.350 --> 05:20.100 winning attack. 05:20.100 --> 05:23.070 It might mean another piece in the attacking party. 05:23.070 --> 05:26.130 So tempo is a very important ingredient as well. 05:26.130 --> 05:31.290 So we're saying, look, if you look at these soul quotations, they're actually really important ingredients. 05:31.320 --> 05:34.080 Funny enough for attacking chess. 05:34.530 --> 05:36.780 Now, another one is is more subtle. 05:36.780 --> 05:38.700 A counterattack is the soul of the game. 05:38.700 --> 05:42.620 According to Blackburne and Korchnoi, Viktor Colston was a great counter attacker. 05:43.110 --> 05:45.840 Attack is the best form of defense, many argue. 05:45.870 --> 05:52.170 Now, if you think about this, why would counterattack ever be better than straightforward attack? 05:53.280 --> 05:54.480 Well, for Korchnoi it works. 05:54.480 --> 05:55.950 It really unbalance the positions. 05:55.950 --> 05:58.710 It meant the opponent's resources were committed. 05:58.830 --> 06:00.570 It's like they're a fixed target. 06:00.570 --> 06:03.390 The opponent's position is now a fixed target rather than the moving target. 06:03.390 --> 06:05.340 They moved all these pawns to attack you. 06:05.340 --> 06:07.020 Their pieces are all over there. 06:07.050 --> 06:08.610 They've abandoned their king. 06:08.610 --> 06:10.560 It's like in football, you know. 06:10.920 --> 06:12.090 They got too excited. 06:12.600 --> 06:18.050 The defendants haven't come back and there's a big counterattack and the opposing team scores a goal. 06:18.060 --> 06:23.010 So it's like lack of defense over commitment, overstretching, you know, weaknesses are being created. 06:23.010 --> 06:27.750 So counterattack is even it's often more powerful than than straight forward attack. 06:27.780 --> 06:29.910 You're getting the opponent to first commit themselves. 06:29.940 --> 06:33.660 It worked for Korchnoi and he's he was nearly a world chess champion. 06:34.170 --> 06:39.690 You know, on a day or two, you know, he would have beaten Karpov in their first encounter match. 06:39.870 --> 06:44.610 So, yes, there is that important principle of counterattack and generally provoking weaknesses. 06:44.820 --> 06:49.470 As I mentioned, pawns don't go backwards and I like provoking weaknesses. 06:49.470 --> 06:54.690 I have great success with the Knights tango with both white and white and black, trying to provoke 06:54.690 --> 06:58.050 weaknesses for irreversible pawn moves. 06:58.050 --> 07:01.920 So the notion of counterattack tempted the opponent to commit themselves. 07:01.920 --> 07:04.110 They become more of a fixed target. 07:05.370 --> 07:06.870 As any chess assassin knows. 07:07.020 --> 07:12.750 If the opponent's like more of a fixed target, then it's easier to to know the expectations of where 07:12.750 --> 07:18.180 the resources are if they're overly committed, especially Queen in Siberia, the Queen's come to munch 07:18.180 --> 07:20.220 one of your your pawns on the Queen's side. 07:20.220 --> 07:21.270 They commit their queen. 07:21.270 --> 07:23.130 They've got other pieces on your queenside. 07:23.130 --> 07:23.580 Who cares? 07:23.580 --> 07:25.590 You got a counterattack coming. 07:25.590 --> 07:27.450 So counterattack is a lot of fun. 07:28.230 --> 07:31.020 But this is central to our course attack, too. 07:31.560 --> 07:34.080 To paraphrase the great fables, Maxim is the soul of chess. 07:34.080 --> 07:39.570 So, Chernov, one of my all time favorite authors, Irvin Chernov and Fred Reinhold, said that. 07:39.570 --> 07:43.330 So we get lots of soulful examples in this course. 07:43.350 --> 07:46.350 Basically, on all of these aspects of soul. 07:46.350 --> 07:47.960 We've got lots of examples. 07:47.970 --> 07:55.050 Now I have a special isolated Queen pawn example, so that's what I consider a dynamic pawn structure. 07:55.830 --> 08:02.580 So this is Robert Byrne against Bobby Fischer, and this really shocked the US grandmasters at the time 08:02.580 --> 08:04.050 watching this game. 08:04.050 --> 08:10.170 So this is a 1963 US championship round three and you'll see this game in much greater detail in the 08:10.170 --> 08:10.470 course. 08:10.470 --> 08:13.290 But yeah, I just want to show you that E5 was played. 08:13.290 --> 08:20.490 So Fischer accepted the so called Isolated Queen's Pawn, but you can see the dynamics of play have 08:20.490 --> 08:21.000 been improved. 08:21.000 --> 08:23.970 The Rook now has got a nice semi-open file. 08:23.970 --> 08:27.090 I absolutely love semi-open and they're like one way roads. 08:27.960 --> 08:31.140 So yeah, semi final was very important for the attacking player. 08:31.170 --> 08:35.760 Often you play game it's just to get some fouls which are quite dangerous they're more dangerous for 08:35.760 --> 08:42.090 the opponents so here that essentially dangerous semi-open phone let's see what happens here we have 08:42.090 --> 08:45.390 the wrong rook being used this one week in F2. 08:45.720 --> 08:49.740 It was actually you know actually white should have played the other rook. 08:49.740 --> 08:53.520 So after he's a bit more of a weakness, let's put that in red. 08:53.820 --> 08:55.590 A juicy target weakness. 08:56.310 --> 09:01.380 So, yeah, as I say, if you want to check the detailed analysis, you should see the effects of the 09:01.380 --> 09:02.430 other rook instead. 09:02.430 --> 09:06.030 But here we see Knight D three, Queen C two. 09:06.750 --> 09:08.370 And now guess what? 09:08.370 --> 09:10.380 Fischer plays for 100 points. 09:10.980 --> 09:14.100 And I remember being inspired by this particular Bobby Fischer game. 09:14.100 --> 09:20.070 I won a tournament in Halifax with six out of six once, but one of the key games in the final rounds. 09:20.400 --> 09:22.470 I took inspiration from this game. 09:22.470 --> 09:27.480 There's a really great dismantling operation which undermines the opponent's pawn structure here. 09:27.480 --> 09:28.760 So can you guess what that is? 09:28.780 --> 09:29.670 100 points. 09:33.450 --> 09:35.780 Okay, so it's actually 9/10 F2. 09:35.820 --> 09:39.900 So we have King takes nine G for check, kanji one nine takes E3. 09:39.900 --> 09:42.660 And the grandmasters were thinking, What is Fischer doing? 09:43.350 --> 09:46.080 You know, they assume he's going to take the rook and it's going to be better. 09:46.080 --> 09:48.060 But guess what? 09:48.090 --> 09:53.640 This dynamic structure, one of the points I've made above. 09:54.350 --> 09:56.060 Is that sometimes? 09:57.840 --> 10:00.510 The pawns can be removed for peace activity quite often. 10:00.510 --> 10:07.620 So they can actually, you know, you can make the dynamic structure to some extent disappear. 10:07.650 --> 10:10.820 You're maximizing the liberation of pieces. 10:10.830 --> 10:13.200 I put Max liberate pieces if you check the notes there. 10:13.350 --> 10:18.930 So here bear that in mind, because fish are actually doesn't say the rook he plays. 10:18.930 --> 10:20.250 Knight takes G2. 10:20.280 --> 10:23.880 Now the isolated queen's pawn is a roadblock here. 10:24.290 --> 10:25.050 It gets in the way. 10:25.050 --> 10:27.540 We want this special, but the bishop's without a counterpart. 10:27.570 --> 10:29.760 That's a great ingredient in its own right. 10:29.760 --> 10:32.490 But liberation of pawns, That's a great ingredient. 10:32.490 --> 10:34.050 Open up the peace activity. 10:34.050 --> 10:36.960 And now all of a sudden, we've got gigantic France. 10:37.290 --> 10:40.000 We've got this bishop coming across right across the center. 10:40.020 --> 10:42.150 No, we don't need to occupy the center. 10:42.180 --> 10:43.820 We're controlling the central squares. 10:43.830 --> 10:45.780 We're still respecting the center with this move. 10:46.230 --> 10:47.160 Boy, fishes move. 10:47.160 --> 10:48.600 And it gets a really vicious attack. 10:48.600 --> 10:56.070 Now, Bishop b7 Czech King F1 and spectacularly after Queen D seven White resigns. 10:56.310 --> 11:01.880 Without further ado, without further delay, I move 21 spectacular finish. 11:01.890 --> 11:11.060 Now one of the points here if DB five Queen H three track and here does a crushing blow with tempo. 11:11.280 --> 11:12.960 Tempo is one of the souls of chess. 11:12.960 --> 11:17.130 If you got two moves in, this would be great to get a bishop on E three. 11:17.160 --> 11:17.580 How can we? 11:17.580 --> 11:18.660 We need two moves, right? 11:18.660 --> 11:20.460 But we get a tempo on the Queen. 11:20.460 --> 11:21.990 So tempo is the soul of chess. 11:21.990 --> 11:23.700 That's a magic ingredient here. 11:23.700 --> 11:26.550 Gaining tempo and then Bishop e free. 11:26.550 --> 11:29.520 So we've got the two moves in there and this is just checkmate. 11:29.520 --> 11:30.780 Forget take in the Queen. 11:30.780 --> 11:31.800 That is checkmate. 11:31.800 --> 11:39.390 So you can see a lot of souls that play here in one game structure, dynamic structure in particular, 11:39.390 --> 11:47.700 dissolving pawns, gaining a tempo, exploiting errors, beautiful combination, counterattacking to 11:47.700 --> 11:48.720 some extent. 11:48.750 --> 11:50.820 So it's a beautiful example. 11:50.820 --> 11:53.610 And you might think, well, hold on, what about Queen F two? 11:54.150 --> 11:56.670 We have Queen H three, check, King G one. 11:56.730 --> 11:57.600 And guess what? 11:57.630 --> 11:58.830 Beautiful move we have here. 11:58.830 --> 12:05.550 So tempo as the soul of chess comes to our rescue in this final commentary phase, if needed here. 12:05.550 --> 12:07.440 So what is a brilliant move here? 12:07.800 --> 12:10.650 We've got potentially this killer common square on G2. 12:10.650 --> 12:13.410 If only the Queen wasn't there protecting G2. 12:13.410 --> 12:19.890 So guess what is played in this variation which wins this tempo? 12:19.890 --> 12:22.740 Gaining rookie one check was rather deflection. 12:22.740 --> 12:29.130 It creates a weakness on D4, but with tempo, Black is obliged to do something about that. 12:29.670 --> 12:31.050 Black's only legal move. 12:31.050 --> 12:32.400 Basically Rook takes E1. 12:32.400 --> 12:39.450 So if Queen takes Queen G2 and now Bishop takes D4 and you can see this very, very nasty move and once 12:39.450 --> 12:41.400 had it really once going to get checkmated. 12:41.400 --> 12:42.780 So that's a beautiful operation. 12:42.780 --> 12:47.370 King G1, Queen H Free And there's too much pressure here. 12:47.370 --> 12:48.660 Bishop H Sex. 12:49.140 --> 12:50.430 Oh, we've mentioned that. 12:50.700 --> 12:58.710 D e to Queen H free Czech Queen G2 is Checkmate Knight C two Queen H free Czech queen takes H two is 12:58.710 --> 12:59.880 quite interesting. 13:00.180 --> 13:02.160 So this possession where the king in the center. 13:02.160 --> 13:04.010 That's a great attacking ingredients. 13:04.020 --> 13:05.850 This is too much for white to bear. 13:05.880 --> 13:07.530 This would take out the escape square. 13:07.530 --> 13:11.100 You can see the team taking responsibility here for the escape squares. 13:11.100 --> 13:17.040 One member of the team taking that role, which makes all the checks much more effective in general. 13:17.520 --> 13:17.970 Checkmate. 13:17.970 --> 13:21.960 So here Bishop takes after a Queen G one check. 13:22.350 --> 13:24.510 And here there's a beautiful finish in this variation. 13:24.510 --> 13:25.890 Can you say what that is for? 13:25.890 --> 13:26.850 100 points? 13:27.810 --> 13:30.510 So Rook takes E to check. 13:30.510 --> 13:32.610 King takes the E to Queen E free check. 13:33.270 --> 13:41.550 So what we're saying anyway, what I want to say with this introduction here in a nutshell, is, yeah, 13:41.580 --> 13:44.370 pawn structure, pawns in general. 13:44.370 --> 13:45.840 They're irreversible. 13:45.840 --> 13:46.650 There's that aspect. 13:46.650 --> 13:48.840 They their liberation, there's that aspect. 13:48.840 --> 13:51.060 So they are kind of major soul of chess. 13:51.060 --> 13:57.990 They determine quite often the plans quite, quite a large extents, especially in the more closed positions, 13:58.620 --> 14:01.470 not so much the open game, but the more closed positions. 14:01.470 --> 14:06.070 Quite often there's thematic plans based on certain types of pawn structure. 14:06.090 --> 14:11.250 Check out my My Complete Guide to Pawn Strike The Ultimate Guide to Pawn Structures course. 14:11.250 --> 14:15.180 If you want more detail on on the pros and cons of different pawn structures. 14:15.180 --> 14:21.240 But if we're taking a whole class of attacking ingredients as the term soul. 14:21.270 --> 14:28.320 So that's a powerful words in the English language, meaning the spiritual immortal parts of something 14:28.320 --> 14:36.870 where really saying, Blimey, what is the most important, significant part of chess, the most influential 14:36.870 --> 14:37.590 part. 14:37.710 --> 14:41.790 And we're saying here that these other soul quotations actually back up. 14:43.110 --> 14:44.400 Our course here. 14:44.400 --> 14:46.590 We've got a lot of beautiful combinations. 14:46.740 --> 14:49.320 We want to exploit errors to accumulate advantages. 14:49.320 --> 14:51.180 We want a passion for exploiting errors. 14:51.180 --> 14:53.880 In my view, we want a passion for tempo. 14:53.880 --> 14:54.240 Gaining. 14:54.240 --> 14:57.840 Yeah, get two moves in a row, especially against the weakened king. 14:57.840 --> 14:59.460 That's a knockout blow. 14:59.490 --> 15:01.110 That's a knock out combination. 15:01.110 --> 15:03.480 Counterattack is not the soul of the game. 15:03.480 --> 15:05.190 It's, you know, the opponent's, like, committed. 15:05.190 --> 15:06.360 They're more of a fixed target. 15:06.360 --> 15:06.600 Yeah. 15:06.600 --> 15:10.770 If we're going to be a king assassin, it's nice to know that the opponent's pieces are somewhere or 15:10.770 --> 15:11.820 their pawns are committed. 15:11.820 --> 15:12.510 They can't go back. 15:12.720 --> 15:13.770 We're counter-attacking. 15:13.770 --> 15:15.690 Let them use up some resources first. 15:15.690 --> 15:17.160 You can even win with black. 15:17.160 --> 15:21.990 You know, with openings like the Sicilian defense, the classic counter-attacking opening. 15:21.990 --> 15:24.570 So counterattack is a very, very powerful notion. 15:24.570 --> 15:29.790 And in general, in general, you know, attack is often the best form of defense, as the quotation 15:30.030 --> 15:30.810 goes. 15:31.170 --> 15:39.960 And, you know, Chernov Rosenfeld thinks in general attack, to paraphrase the physical maximum is 15:39.960 --> 15:40.890 the soul of chess. 15:40.890 --> 15:46.350 So we're really directly looking at the soul of chess in this course is an absolutely amazing course. 15:46.350 --> 15:48.480 I've really enjoyed doing this course for you. 15:48.480 --> 15:55.920 And this is just an intro video of having gone through many of the beautiful game examples, and this 15:55.920 --> 16:00.270 is one of the more beautiful presented in the course, in my view, which shows the power of, you know, 16:00.270 --> 16:04.950 the isolated queen pawn dynamic structure, how it can be dissolved to liberate the pieces. 16:05.130 --> 16:10.110 And, you know, Bishop of our counterpart as well, there's quite a few attacking ingredients here 16:10.110 --> 16:15.210 and in the variations and tempo is something I've probably understated. 16:15.210 --> 16:21.480 But yeah, to get combinations working together, that combination or crown of your previous attacking 16:21.480 --> 16:25.140 efforts, often your combinations need to work with tempo gaining. 16:25.140 --> 16:31.350 So okay, I hope you've enjoyed this example and the whole philosophy that we can use soulful ingredients 16:31.350 --> 16:32.820 for our attacking chess. 16:32.820 --> 16:37.350 And it's not just pawns of the soul of chess, but these other ingredients. 16:37.470 --> 16:39.750 Okay, that's very much.