WEBVTT 00:01.070 --> 00:02.000 Hi there. 00:02.030 --> 00:06.590 In this introduction lecture, I want to talk to you about central control and attacking chess. 00:07.340 --> 00:09.510 So the center of the board is very important. 00:09.540 --> 00:16.580 We usually think about the four key central squares because, for example, if a nine mathematically 00:16.580 --> 00:20.210 is on a corner, it can only influence two squares. 00:20.630 --> 00:24.470 It can only influence, for example, these two squares here. 00:24.740 --> 00:28.970 Well, if a knight is in the center, then it can occupy. 00:29.000 --> 00:31.850 It can control rather a lot of squares. 00:32.300 --> 00:36.650 We don't need to literally occupy the four central squares with pawns. 00:36.650 --> 00:37.790 We can just influence them. 00:37.790 --> 00:40.590 You can see that this bishop is influencing that square. 00:40.610 --> 00:43.370 This one, that square, this rook, that square. 00:43.370 --> 00:45.740 And we've been influencing D6 as well. 00:46.940 --> 00:51.200 And there's also the notion of the extended center. 00:51.980 --> 00:56.450 So mathematically, it's great if our pieces in general are in the center and we don't need to literally 00:56.450 --> 00:57.650 occupy the center, we're pawns. 00:57.650 --> 01:03.560 And also there's a kind of extended center concept where we can extend the center a bit like this. 01:05.300 --> 01:08.420 So, for example, these central squares. 01:08.750 --> 01:16.340 So, for example, a night if we have a night here, it's still in a kind of it's in the extended center 01:16.340 --> 01:17.120 square. 01:18.140 --> 01:22.640 A night on F4 would be hitting quite a few squares. 01:22.640 --> 01:29.360 If you imagine mathematically, the mathematics of a night on F4 would still have quite a few squares. 01:29.810 --> 01:31.250 It's not that restricted. 01:31.250 --> 01:33.350 It's still a pretty active piece. 01:33.350 --> 01:40.220 And also quite often the night on F4 or F5 is is good for king attacks because it can often help the 01:40.220 --> 01:40.460 queen. 01:40.460 --> 01:47.270 So you can see that's not a bad square for for example with a knights or that square with the knight 01:47.780 --> 01:51.980 the bishops, when they're pointing to the center, when they're like this. 01:51.980 --> 01:53.660 I mean, that's a very good scope here. 01:53.660 --> 01:57.680 This this diagonal for that bishop and this diagonal for that bishop. 01:57.800 --> 02:01.730 So you can see the central control here in this position. 02:01.730 --> 02:09.230 So this is from a famous game, Karpov Kasparov, one of my favorite Garry Kasparov games, and I'll 02:09.230 --> 02:14.360 show you that soon, but let's just have some points about the center to make as well. 02:14.390 --> 02:15.410 A few more points. 02:15.410 --> 02:18.410 Basically, you can see that central pieces. 02:19.820 --> 02:25.640 They are more flexible to react in general, and it could be to the opponent's plans or to help your 02:25.640 --> 02:26.870 own king attack. 02:28.070 --> 02:29.310 So is it taking place? 02:29.330 --> 02:31.190 We do value flexibility. 02:31.190 --> 02:33.530 We should value the accumulation of advantages. 02:33.530 --> 02:35.330 We should value the center. 02:35.360 --> 02:38.660 The center is like in a real battle. 02:38.660 --> 02:40.310 It's like the hill having the high ground. 02:40.310 --> 02:41.600 You can see a lot more. 02:41.630 --> 02:42.950 You can see what's coming. 02:43.220 --> 02:44.910 So it's good to have the high ground. 02:44.930 --> 02:48.830 There's even an expression that, you know, having them, the moral high ground, there's expressions 02:48.830 --> 02:57.980 based on the notion of the center in other kind of domains like battle in general. 02:58.310 --> 03:05.150 So we need to respect the central influence and we need to respect accumulation of advantages. 03:05.150 --> 03:11.810 And both mathematically, you know, if you look at games with post mortem analysis, you'll see your 03:11.810 --> 03:15.380 accumulation of advantages or not from certain grants. 03:15.380 --> 03:19.760 For example, if you play only chess, you'll see that these are the accumulation of advantages, is 03:19.760 --> 03:24.350 very is very measurable with modern science. 03:24.350 --> 03:29.570 So you see how advantages were changed, shifted from one to the other, but also central control has 03:29.570 --> 03:36.230 a maths to it and that's it's just vividly demonstrated with a night on on the corner example, because 03:36.250 --> 03:40.460 nights are particular pieces which really do benefit from being in the center. 03:40.460 --> 03:44.540 If a bishop's on the corner, it's still got a few squares. 03:44.540 --> 03:47.630 You know, if a bishop hit, you can imagine a few squares that's going across. 03:47.870 --> 03:50.150 But the knights in particular like to be centralized. 03:50.150 --> 03:50.930 That's why. 03:51.050 --> 03:54.290 Yeah, this example I like to show you soon. 03:54.290 --> 04:02.840 So basically central influence is the key thing, not literal occupation, necessarily central influence. 04:03.410 --> 04:09.590 And think about not just the classic four central squares, but the extended center as well, so we 04:09.590 --> 04:13.870 can extend the center in this direction, in this direction like this. 04:13.910 --> 04:18.050 So you get an extended center where pieces generally might be quite good. 04:20.630 --> 04:26.630 And basically we're not we don't really want to be off balance. 04:26.630 --> 04:29.000 We want to have that notion of stability. 04:29.390 --> 04:37.010 So like attacking moves in karate, we need stability balance and the center helps our pieces have balanced, 04:37.040 --> 04:39.200 not too committed. 04:39.320 --> 04:42.290 So they can't react to changing circumstances on the board. 04:42.290 --> 04:44.360 So it's a notion of flexibility. 04:44.450 --> 04:48.020 So here is an interesting high level game example. 04:48.020 --> 04:49.730 Let me show you this without further ado. 04:49.760 --> 04:51.800 Karpov makes mistake Queen D two. 04:51.830 --> 04:54.980 You can see already there's a problem line on a free. 04:54.980 --> 04:57.470 It's not really in the center. 04:57.890 --> 05:06.440 Karpov could have played Knight C for here instead of Queen D two and for example Knight de phrase The 05:06.440 --> 05:14.750 impressive Knight's from Black D6 Bishop takes D6 93 and it would have been worth Karpov doing that 05:14.810 --> 05:19.790 because you can see that the knight in the center is very, very useful there. 05:19.790 --> 05:24.590 It's participating in things and it's helping attack. 05:24.590 --> 05:27.380 He swears it's hitting the bishop at the moment. 05:27.860 --> 05:33.800 So this kind of possession, why would even have arguably a small edge? 05:34.370 --> 05:39.350 So Karpov perhaps uncharacteristically plays this Queen D2, which is a mistake. 05:39.440 --> 05:45.920 It allows now B5 you can see that Knight's not very central and things get worse. 05:45.920 --> 05:51.080 I mean, kind of dramatically worse for these Knight's and knight's all creatures which really enjoy 05:51.080 --> 05:53.600 central control in particular. 05:53.600 --> 05:56.900 So Rook 81 we have Knight the friend and people describe this knight. 05:56.900 --> 05:58.490 Raymond King described this as an octopus. 05:58.490 --> 06:06.650 Knight You can see in that central square, it's not the classic central square, but it's in the extended 06:06.650 --> 06:06.950 sense. 06:06.950 --> 06:09.020 And you can see it still has a powerful influence. 06:09.020 --> 06:11.900 It's looking at F2 in conjunction with this bishop. 06:11.900 --> 06:16.670 It still has a very, very powerful influence on the possession. 06:17.210 --> 06:22.190 And so it's part of the extended sense of notion, if we remember the extended center. 06:22.190 --> 06:26.720 So we've got the sense and we've got the extended center, it's one of the extended center squares. 06:27.710 --> 06:31.370 So yes, it's a very, very interesting square to have an eye on. 06:31.370 --> 06:36.710 D3 We have AB one, so this knight is not looking too good. 06:37.910 --> 06:41.030 H six You can see very detailed analysis of the game in the course. 06:41.030 --> 06:44.930 So this is just to get an example from a central perspective. 06:44.930 --> 06:51.110 So B4 Knight A4 you can see this knight is also a knight on the rim is dim as they say. 06:51.110 --> 06:53.750 There's an expression in chess for that knight on the rim is dim. 06:53.960 --> 06:56.780 Generally speaking, sometimes it's useful to put a knight on the roof. 06:56.810 --> 06:58.130 It really depends on the position. 06:58.130 --> 07:00.590 Of course, in chess things depend on the position. 07:00.590 --> 07:08.630 But Bishop D6, we have Bishop Geoffrey Rooks, the eight and you can see the knight in the center is 07:08.630 --> 07:10.160 controlling key squares. 07:10.160 --> 07:14.210 It's stopping the use of the rooks on either C1 or E1. 07:14.390 --> 07:16.730 It's doing a good job there on D3. 07:16.940 --> 07:18.860 So imagine, you know, one of the greatest. 07:19.120 --> 07:23.140 Attacking players of all time actually kind of prepared this position. 07:23.140 --> 07:31.420 And he's basically maximizing the notion of central influence, not central occupation, but central 07:31.420 --> 07:36.040 influence and seeing the big contrast of the knights here. 07:36.150 --> 07:39.310 You know, blacks knights are more towards the center. 07:39.490 --> 07:41.490 So G5 is played here. 07:41.500 --> 07:48.310 This is a great positional move, which means things like King G seven and G4 might be threatening to 07:48.310 --> 07:51.310 dislodge the Bishop away from that central control. 07:51.520 --> 07:57.580 Bishop takes these six Queen takes these 6g3, giving them Bishop G2 to run to in the case of King G 07:57.580 --> 08:03.910 seven and G4 Knight D seven you can see this lovely expression in bets for chess. 08:04.210 --> 08:09.310 There was a lovely expression which I remembered ever since, like mass centralization. 08:09.520 --> 08:17.330 And it's good to be interested in such things mass centralization or contrasting centralization levels. 08:17.350 --> 08:19.980 It's good to be interested as an attacking player. 08:19.990 --> 08:25.630 If you have positions like this as a prelude to your attacks, that's absolutely wonderful because you've 08:25.630 --> 08:31.300 respected positional play, you've respected the accumulation of advantages, you've respected central 08:31.300 --> 08:35.200 influence, and it's the numbers back there up to two there. 08:35.200 --> 08:40.630 If the knight in the corner, just remember the simple examples help reinforce the concept of central 08:40.630 --> 08:41.110 influence. 08:41.110 --> 08:42.970 The numbers are huge here for that Knight. 08:42.970 --> 08:44.350 It's on full pelt. 08:44.350 --> 08:47.050 It's, you know, eight squares, basically. 08:47.350 --> 08:48.130 So. 08:49.120 --> 08:54.610 So Oxford's knight still for those squares. 08:54.610 --> 08:56.380 So that's a really great knight. 08:58.090 --> 08:58.920 Let's count the squares. 08:58.930 --> 09:06.130 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 09:06.130 --> 09:09.600 So, you know, we're talking two versus eight, four Central nights. 09:09.610 --> 09:11.440 And look at the opponent's lines here. 09:11.440 --> 09:14.530 So a three is played a five, eight, six, eight. 09:14.680 --> 09:16.780 So this night's kind of stranded on B1. 09:16.780 --> 09:17.410 So is this one. 09:17.410 --> 09:18.430 They're both stranded. 09:18.520 --> 09:21.130 Queen two What a ridiculous looking move. 09:21.610 --> 09:25.240 So a variation shows the power of the centralization. 09:25.240 --> 09:31.810 If it's easier to react to circumstances for a weakening move, it's easier to react to weakening moves 09:31.810 --> 09:35.440 if we have pieces which could exploit that. 09:35.440 --> 09:45.130 So Queen D four check here, for example, and here G four and why it's really getting run out of moves 09:45.130 --> 09:45.580 here. 09:45.580 --> 09:47.320 So for example D six, 09:50.470 --> 09:53.800 F six and where is won't going now might be two. 09:54.270 --> 09:59.080 It becomes a hopeless position kind of zugzwang here in this variation. 09:59.080 --> 10:05.320 If Queen a2 nine e4 and you can see that without going out of the way, just centralizing, they have 10:05.320 --> 10:07.930 influence on F2, which has influence on the king. 10:07.960 --> 10:14.170 Just naturally they naturally attack the opponent's king because of their amazing central control. 10:15.160 --> 10:18.490 And F2 check is fractions here. 10:19.260 --> 10:20.430 It's win material. 10:21.450 --> 10:25.890 So if one has to do something desperate like this, then compromises to the king. 10:26.280 --> 10:32.460 And, you know, black is absolutely crushing it here because there's this big threat now of bishop. 10:33.780 --> 10:35.730 So, again, through the sense of just through the opponents. 10:35.760 --> 10:39.090 KING So if de seven, that's pretty desperate, this is going to happen. 10:39.090 --> 10:44.760 You can see how it's a total melt down of the opponent's king through the central influence contrast 10:44.760 --> 10:45.600 in that variation. 10:45.600 --> 10:47.440 So Queen A2 was played in the game. 10:47.460 --> 10:56.420 Bishop G6 d6 G4 And then we have Queen D two, King G seven protecting H6, and now F4 is played here. 10:56.430 --> 10:57.950 There's not much to do here. 10:57.960 --> 11:05.310 So in this main line of the game, if King H one Rook KDA, for example, this position is going to 11:05.310 --> 11:06.780 be very, very strong. 11:06.810 --> 11:12.810 You can see the Knights in particular, such a big contrast here and we can start getting our close 11:12.820 --> 11:19.290 in the opponent's king So Knight going to E1, for example, taking out G2 again will be weakening the 11:19.290 --> 11:20.190 light squares. 11:20.190 --> 11:26.430 The absence of the King Catto bishop, in effect, is going to be it's absolutely devastating this position. 11:26.850 --> 11:28.380 What is White doing? 11:30.840 --> 11:34.140 So, yeah, I mean, there are so many crushing variations. 11:34.140 --> 11:43.290 So every in the game Queen takes d6, f takes G4, Queen d4, Czech King H one and now yes in centralising 11:43.290 --> 11:45.510 this knight to that key F4 square. 11:46.440 --> 11:52.740 So in terms of pawns occupying it wouldn't be that significant as a knight because a knight on E4 is 11:52.740 --> 11:54.900 quite a monster in this particular position. 11:54.900 --> 11:57.930 Quite a lot of squares in sports, especially F2. 11:58.110 --> 11:58.820 So annoying. 11:58.890 --> 12:02.160 Going to E4 is pretty nice in general. 12:02.160 --> 12:03.670 So 94 here. 12:03.690 --> 12:06.000 So big frats are emerging. 12:06.000 --> 12:12.960 We have Queen takes to E3 Knight have to check Rook takes after him and Kasparov wins the queen and 12:12.960 --> 12:17.160 he spectacularly now aims at the back row weaknesses. 12:17.160 --> 12:23.760 So Queenie Free rook takes D3 he plays actually rook c one here trying to exploit the back row weaknesses 12:23.760 --> 12:26.770 now offering the Queen Knight B2 is played. 12:26.790 --> 12:30.090 If rook takes F3, then rook takes the one check. 12:30.120 --> 12:33.450 This position is great for black. 12:33.450 --> 12:36.540 Black's getting lots of material there back. 12:36.540 --> 12:42.300 So Knight B2 is tried and we have Queen F2 with the great idea of Rook E one. 12:42.300 --> 12:45.390 So white's completely tied up 90 to rook tanks. 12:45.390 --> 12:55.110 D one check knight 61 rookie, one check and White has to resign her if if one for example Rook st someone 12:55.110 --> 12:57.930 bishop takes queen size of one is checkmate. 12:57.930 --> 13:06.870 So this game example shows to me quite vividly this notion of mass centralization, especially Knight's 13:06.870 --> 13:10.260 really enjoy the sense of the long range pieces do have squares. 13:10.260 --> 13:14.130 Even if they're put in a corner, they're not totally like useless. 13:14.130 --> 13:16.590 And that's also, you know, a thing. 13:16.590 --> 13:23.340 Catto Bishop is a classic tool from the hyper modern era, hyped up know Catto bishops are not bad just 13:23.340 --> 13:28.350 on G7, so they're kind of away from the central classic centre. 13:28.350 --> 13:34.380 But I think Catto Bishop, for example, on G seven or B seven or G2, you know, they still have influence 13:35.190 --> 13:35.880 around the centre. 13:35.880 --> 13:40.560 It's knights in particular which are the creatures which really benefit from the centre in this game 13:40.560 --> 13:45.120 for me is like a vivid demonstration of relative Knight's placements. 13:45.150 --> 13:51.510 Knight influence around key central squares or the extended centre and how that can really impact King 13:51.510 --> 13:54.780 safely, just naturally, very naturally as a perk. 13:55.050 --> 14:04.110 And if we build our attacking game on naturally good positional play, we have great flexibility for 14:04.110 --> 14:07.500 attacking all other stuff, defending it against the opponent's attacks. 14:07.710 --> 14:13.590 Just generally flexibility is to be valued, so the maths of it is important to consider for various 14:13.590 --> 14:14.130 pieces. 14:14.130 --> 14:21.510 You know, central the central influence implications just, just work out the maths of knights, bishops 14:21.510 --> 14:22.620 and other pieces. 14:22.650 --> 14:27.030 You know, Rook in the sense has flexibility, but rooks often like to have juicy targets. 14:27.030 --> 14:28.740 So it really depends on the position. 14:28.780 --> 14:35.400 This is a guiding principle of central influence, but some players consider, oh, it's central occupation. 14:35.400 --> 14:41.850 No, the hyper moderns also had that major thing that you could sometimes swap out your pawn sensor 14:41.850 --> 14:43.020 for piece control. 14:43.020 --> 14:46.680 They successfully demonstrated the ideas. 14:46.680 --> 14:53.880 So Nimzowitsch, for example, in my system had variations in the French defense where he played the 14:53.880 --> 14:57.900 advance variation and he had example games where he wasn't. 14:59.310 --> 15:05.220 They're interested in, in maintaining the center with pawns. 15:05.250 --> 15:11.160 You know, sometimes he'd, for example, swap out data, C-5 and experiment experiment with these ideas 15:11.160 --> 15:13.500 and then taking control of these squares later. 15:13.500 --> 15:16.860 So literal occupation in the center with pawns. 15:16.860 --> 15:24.690 You can see that mathematically, the pawns show they control like some squares, but it's piece pressure 15:24.690 --> 15:27.870 in particular, which is, which is great to have. 15:27.870 --> 15:34.140 So, you know, these variations are kind of given an open mind where you don't literally have to maintain 15:34.140 --> 15:36.510 the pawn chain as an example in the French defense. 15:36.510 --> 15:43.920 So I hope you get the idea that we're respecting positional chess principles in this course. 15:43.920 --> 15:45.960 And you'll see in the attacking game examples. 15:45.960 --> 15:52.830 Quite often the master attacker has got certain advantages to play with, has got great central control. 15:52.860 --> 16:00.900 Does also consider the extended attacking center quite often nights on five or F4 help attacks, especially 16:00.900 --> 16:02.330 with the Queen's help. 16:02.340 --> 16:05.130 So yes, we need to respect the center. 16:05.160 --> 16:07.770 That's our attacking friends quite often. 16:07.770 --> 16:14.820 So the general principle there is central influence, basically, not central occupation. 16:14.820 --> 16:16.080 Central influence. 16:16.620 --> 16:17.490 Okay. 16:18.180 --> 16:19.100 Have you enjoyed this? 16:19.110 --> 16:22.230 Got a few points reinforced has so much.