WEBVTT 00:00.790 --> 00:01.720 Hi there. 00:01.750 --> 00:07.270 In this lecture, we see Arnold Anson against John Dufresne in 1852 Berlin. 00:08.320 --> 00:15.880 So basically, after Anderson's death in 1879, Wilhelm Steinitz published an article in a magazine 00:15.880 --> 00:19.990 called The Field, in which he annotated answers to most famous games. 00:20.020 --> 00:24.070 So one of those games was the immortal game, and the other was the Evergreen game. 00:24.460 --> 00:32.560 So he described Steinitz described basically an evergreen, is that in the Laurel crown of the departed 00:32.560 --> 00:33.580 chess hero. 00:33.880 --> 00:37.170 So, yes, it keeps on giving interest. 00:37.180 --> 00:38.910 Basically, it's like evergreen. 00:38.920 --> 00:45.700 So the narrative is like foliage, which remains green and functional for more than one growing season. 00:45.700 --> 00:47.950 So it retains freshness or interest. 00:48.340 --> 00:50.680 It's universal and continually relevant. 00:50.680 --> 00:56.110 So yeah, this game has actually been analyzed by many, many people, including Kasparov, for over 00:56.110 --> 00:56.920 a hundred years. 00:56.920 --> 01:01.690 You know, various analysts have looked at this very beautiful game. 01:01.690 --> 01:02.710 So let's have a look at it. 01:02.950 --> 01:08.500 Also, for our purposes demonstrates how to exploit a king in the center. 01:08.560 --> 01:16.210 So we have E4 from Adolf Anson do freeze plays 85, 93, 96, Bishop C for Bishop C5. 01:16.210 --> 01:20.620 And now the Evans Gambit, which was all the rage, a bit like The King's Gambit. 01:20.620 --> 01:27.250 Those two are iconic openings, in my view, of the romantic era representing gambits which give very 01:27.250 --> 01:33.490 special perks, if especially if players were black, don't play too well against it. 01:33.490 --> 01:42.670 So we have C three bishop going to a5 so d4 e takes and now white castles we have D three and now Queen 01:42.670 --> 01:43.390 B frame. 01:43.390 --> 01:47.770 So at the moment black has all pawns. 01:47.770 --> 01:51.040 White has sacrificed to pawns. 01:52.290 --> 01:56.350 But there's pressure on F7 that's defended with Queen F6. 01:56.370 --> 02:02.580 We have E5 and now Queen G6 Rookie one. 02:02.970 --> 02:06.150 We have 97 and now Bishop A3 three. 02:06.150 --> 02:09.360 So this is one of the features actually of the Evans game. 02:09.360 --> 02:14.280 But sometimes you can actually put the bishop and A4 in and try and stop the opponent from castling. 02:14.280 --> 02:20.360 But here, because of this arrangement, it seems black is in the possession castle but Black played 02:20.370 --> 02:29.010 B5 Black should have really castled In fact, if rookie Frey trying to get one of the pawns back, let's 02:29.010 --> 02:30.360 say D5. 02:30.480 --> 02:32.550 This is one of the best moves it takes. 02:32.730 --> 02:33.750 C Tanks. 02:33.750 --> 02:34.410 Bishop Tanks. 02:34.410 --> 02:44.880 D4 Queen H5 Yeah, just allowing that pawn to go This position, which is now equal on pawns, is actually 02:44.880 --> 02:48.210 slightly better for black technically after Bishop E6. 02:48.300 --> 02:50.160 So this was the way to go. 02:50.190 --> 02:52.170 It seems to castle here. 02:53.800 --> 02:54.190 Yeah. 02:54.220 --> 02:58.150 Just give back some of the material because there is a bit of a bind in this position. 02:59.710 --> 02:59.980 Yeah. 02:59.980 --> 03:05.320 So if one's going to get back a --, you know, this has to be played to energize the position to 03:05.320 --> 03:06.970 liberate this bishop, etc.. 03:07.090 --> 03:10.400 But anyway, B5 was played to try and put the bishop on B7. 03:10.420 --> 03:14.310 So the idea is to have bishops like this kind of pointing down the kingside. 03:14.320 --> 03:16.030 But this does take time. 03:16.150 --> 03:18.640 We see that pawn being taken. 03:18.820 --> 03:24.160 Rook B ain't queen a4 Bishop B sex might be D2 and Albert should be seven. 03:24.160 --> 03:26.050 So that's the idea to have these aggressive bishops. 03:26.050 --> 03:34.150 It does make quite a bit of sense sometimes, but let's say 94 Queen F five Bishop takes D3. 03:34.960 --> 03:40.780 So here one is French thing might six check all 96 check to win the Queen. 03:40.780 --> 03:43.540 So the queen moves and now it move. 03:43.540 --> 03:44.370 17. 03:44.380 --> 03:46.660 There is a bit of a controversial move, actually. 03:46.660 --> 03:52.360 Objectively, it does seem natural to try and open up to the king here in the center. 03:53.410 --> 03:55.450 Should we do this, though? 03:55.900 --> 04:00.030 So there are various ways which try to open up the EFL. 04:00.040 --> 04:01.720 What do you think is the best move 04:04.030 --> 04:05.050 objectively? 04:06.070 --> 04:07.810 So this is a 17. 04:09.040 --> 04:14.320 So this is yeah, it is an iconic immortal game, but sometimes. 04:17.070 --> 04:20.760 It's the final combinations which make the game hugely celebrated. 04:20.790 --> 04:25.680 The actual means of getting there sometimes can be a bit dodgy, so we've got to be able to discern 04:25.680 --> 04:26.450 what was it. 04:26.460 --> 04:28.080 Was there an element of risk getting there? 04:28.080 --> 04:31.260 We don't want to have too much risks in our own games. 04:31.260 --> 04:34.970 Ideally, we want to be able to scale up our play to stronger and stronger opponents. 04:34.980 --> 04:35.790 That's what I'm asking. 04:35.790 --> 04:39.450 What do you think is the best move here for 100 points? 04:42.300 --> 04:42.550 Okay. 04:42.590 --> 04:45.110 The best move is not anything spectacular. 04:45.110 --> 04:46.880 But Knight Jeffrey just harassed this queen. 04:46.880 --> 04:49.480 What is this queen doing on H five? 04:49.490 --> 04:51.410 It's a subject of tempo again. 04:51.830 --> 04:53.930 And look at our queen here. 04:53.960 --> 04:55.640 We've got these squares covered. 04:55.640 --> 04:56.870 So there's no Queen G four. 04:56.870 --> 04:57.740 We're going to take that. 04:57.740 --> 04:59.150 So when is the queen go? 04:59.900 --> 05:07.460 If the queen can't go to G for, let's say H six, we can actually plan this position. 05:09.540 --> 05:10.650 Brooke, 81. 05:12.030 --> 05:14.130 And be very happy here, actually. 05:14.880 --> 05:22.190 If Black Castles, we can further harass the queen with Bishop C1 and there's huge trouble here. 05:22.200 --> 05:23.380 Where is the queen going now? 05:23.400 --> 05:30.490 There's only basically one square, it seems, Queen 86, which again, now this runs into a full 95. 05:30.510 --> 05:33.060 There's no defender on H seven. 05:34.050 --> 05:37.040 So in fact, what is the mission? 05:37.050 --> 05:41.720 Is it to exploit the King Center or is there like another attacking gradient? 05:41.730 --> 05:48.570 You let the King Castle, if there's no real defensive knight on F6, it makes the soft spots softer. 05:48.570 --> 05:50.460 And here they're very soft. 05:50.730 --> 05:52.440 We'd be winning h seven. 05:52.440 --> 05:58.050 So technically this is a fantastic way to go just to actually let the opponent cancel. 05:58.050 --> 06:05.490 So like 97 is hitting the queen and we're just chewing up the opponent's kingside and absolutely non 06:05.490 --> 06:07.080 controversially winning here. 06:07.230 --> 06:10.350 That is objectively the way to go. 06:12.240 --> 06:19.650 But we do get a game of extreme beauty coming up with the move of the game, which does actually lose 06:19.650 --> 06:21.600 technically the advantage for White. 06:22.440 --> 06:24.000 So nice to have six check. 06:25.870 --> 06:32.680 And I'll show you why that is the case, because it does seem to have a compelling logic to it. 06:32.830 --> 06:35.530 Gee, tanks it takes. 06:37.090 --> 06:38.110 And now. 06:39.000 --> 06:39.390 Yeah. 06:39.390 --> 06:48.240 It seems Plant wants to try and make use of the Queen, the Bishop and this road to the king and plays. 06:48.240 --> 06:49.680 Actually, Rook, she ain't. 06:51.450 --> 06:57.030 So it is getting a little bit scary for for white we have now Rook 81. 06:59.640 --> 07:00.120 Adherence. 07:00.120 --> 07:02.310 Blackstone term to make it a big mistake. 07:02.340 --> 07:04.660 Rook 81 is interesting Bishop E4. 07:04.680 --> 07:13.950 Just to show this position queen free how dangerous it is because there is a pin pawn on F2. 07:14.130 --> 07:16.170 So how do we defend this fact? 07:16.210 --> 07:17.630 Geoffrey There's rook takes. 07:17.640 --> 07:21.960 Geoffrey And actually, we have to be careful not to be baited here. 07:22.530 --> 07:28.200 King F1 Queensland's F2 is made so key H one bishop takes F2. 07:29.310 --> 07:36.120 There is Bishop takes E seven Queen and three take nine H to this position which emerges is only a small 07:36.120 --> 07:37.050 edge for white. 07:39.390 --> 07:40.010 Yeah. 07:40.020 --> 07:42.030 So that's that's not too glamorous. 07:42.030 --> 07:45.840 So you might think, okay, so what's wrong with Rook 81? 07:47.520 --> 07:53.730 Well, it works a treat, but maybe shouldn't off black makes a huge mistake now, which is very, very 07:53.730 --> 07:55.980 tempting just to win that night on F3. 07:56.340 --> 07:57.540 It is tempting. 07:57.660 --> 07:59.730 So why is it One is why I ignored that. 07:59.730 --> 08:00.240 France. 08:00.240 --> 08:09.660 Before we get into that though, there is a move for Black, just for the record now, which is much 08:09.660 --> 08:11.490 better than Queen takes F3. 08:13.960 --> 08:15.710 And I'm just going to show you it. 08:15.730 --> 08:23.050 Just for the record, Bishop, before it shuts down some of the dangers with these these soft spots, 08:23.050 --> 08:24.880 the king's in the center, so there's actually a D. 08:24.880 --> 08:25.870 Seven soft spot. 08:25.990 --> 08:31.150 So we could say, well, it shields the D seven soft spot, which is important in various respects. 08:31.270 --> 08:38.230 If Knight takes the four route, takes to check this position, Knight takes D four check. 08:39.790 --> 08:41.380 It gets kind of hairy. 08:41.380 --> 08:44.050 So check Queen snakes, E four. 08:44.230 --> 08:49.660 It leads to a position where black is actually slightly better than in that variation. 08:49.930 --> 08:55.030 If White's not careful, black can be slightly better if sea tanks, queen tanks. 08:55.030 --> 08:55.840 This looks scary. 08:55.840 --> 09:04.360 Bishop e4 Rook takes G to check King H one Rook takes H to check King takes H two. 09:04.390 --> 09:10.090 This position leads to a false draw, basically. 09:10.090 --> 09:10.750 Yeah. 09:11.320 --> 09:16.060 White doesn't want to allow alone. 09:16.870 --> 09:19.870 Well, let's just go with this check. 09:20.020 --> 09:22.270 Bishop G to check if Bishop takes F5. 09:22.270 --> 09:27.760 Actually didn't show that non e five check D five Queen takes F five. 09:27.790 --> 09:33.130 This will be resulting in a perpetual draw draw potential. 09:33.130 --> 09:34.210 So let's say Bishop G. 09:34.210 --> 09:39.730 To check in this position, Black has to play and is a very logical looking move. 09:39.730 --> 09:44.110 93 so this actually threatens Queen. 09:44.110 --> 09:45.430 Thanks G2 mate. 09:46.060 --> 09:47.590 What does White want to do here? 09:48.550 --> 09:56.950 This has to be played by E three because if King D ain't once getting an advantage here of the d59 CD 09:56.980 --> 10:01.480 four Bishop e seven check King K why it has the advantage. 10:01.480 --> 10:04.180 It looks a bit scary but yeah, white is better there. 10:04.180 --> 10:13.490 But with 93 black is guaranteeing actually a draw it seems because if rook tanks e free queen tanks 10:13.510 --> 10:22.000 e3d5 black has Queen H six check and can do a perpetual check scenario. 10:22.450 --> 10:31.060 And the reason why Y has to kind of keep up this perpetual check is if King have one, what would black 10:31.060 --> 10:31.900 play here? 10:31.930 --> 10:35.410 Shane Black does have resources as well, just in time. 10:35.410 --> 10:38.350 So for ten points, what would you play here with Black? 10:40.950 --> 10:41.670 Okay. 10:42.570 --> 10:42.970 Yeah. 10:42.990 --> 10:44.940 A five to support Bishop six. 10:45.330 --> 10:46.530 What does White want to do? 10:46.560 --> 10:47.790 White would have to give up. 10:48.060 --> 10:48.430 Give. 10:48.480 --> 10:49.770 Get the queens off. 10:50.160 --> 10:51.620 And that's just better for black. 10:51.630 --> 10:56.610 The thing is, if three takes bishop, a six is painful. 10:56.850 --> 10:58.440 This is just a brutal. 10:58.740 --> 11:06.570 So, yes, this whole variation here isn't so great if Bishop Defour is played. 11:06.570 --> 11:08.900 So let's continue the analysis there. 11:14.380 --> 11:15.130 If. 11:16.920 --> 11:24.990 King If one then thinks G2 is interesting for 95. 11:25.530 --> 11:30.510 Bishop takes E4, Czech Queen takes her free check, and this position warrants getting mated. 11:30.510 --> 11:30.930 So. 11:30.960 --> 11:36.060 KING F1 is actually very, very scary if we look at that. 11:36.060 --> 11:37.290 Rook takes G2. 11:37.740 --> 11:38.100 Yeah. 11:38.100 --> 11:39.120 What do we do here? 11:40.500 --> 11:43.680 It's just this is pretty diabolical. 11:43.710 --> 11:47.700 If Rook takes the E4, Queen takes her free check. 11:47.820 --> 11:49.230 Queen, G2 check. 11:49.230 --> 11:52.920 And White's again, you know, in big trouble in that variation. 11:53.130 --> 11:53.780 So yes. 11:53.790 --> 11:54.840 Bishop d4. 11:54.870 --> 11:55.650 Just to recap. 11:55.860 --> 11:57.300 Bishop d4. 11:59.220 --> 12:00.630 Is scary stuff. 12:00.960 --> 12:01.950 It really is. 12:02.700 --> 12:05.760 And it should have been played, it seems. 12:09.860 --> 12:13.100 So anyway, it wasn't Queen saying they're free. 12:13.100 --> 12:14.900 And what is going on here? 12:14.930 --> 12:19.520 Well, there are certain soft spots, you could say around the king, anywhere where the king is kind 12:19.520 --> 12:21.080 of around protecting. 12:21.470 --> 12:24.020 They are very dangerous soft spots. 12:24.020 --> 12:30.980 And in fact, why exploits the situation of the king in a sense now in a really amazing manner. 12:31.160 --> 12:35.120 So what do you think is the first move here for 100 points? 12:36.280 --> 12:39.460 So it looks as though we're threatened, but we've really got to do something quick. 12:39.700 --> 12:42.400 The first move is rook tanks e seven shank. 12:43.580 --> 12:51.250 Now, if this is not taken, let's just entertain King The eight, there's rook tanks D seven check 12:51.250 --> 12:51.880 here. 12:52.360 --> 12:53.140 KING Tanks. 12:53.140 --> 12:55.150 And now we have this double check. 12:56.230 --> 12:57.430 So the king has to move. 12:57.460 --> 12:59.790 Bishop D7 King. 13:00.070 --> 13:01.180 Bishop, take C six. 13:01.180 --> 13:01.810 Check. 13:02.380 --> 13:03.400 Queen 61. 13:03.400 --> 13:04.700 Queen 61. 13:04.720 --> 13:05.080 King. 13:05.650 --> 13:07.120 Queen D seven is Chapman. 13:07.330 --> 13:08.380 So that's. 13:09.390 --> 13:10.740 A refusal to take the rook. 13:10.740 --> 13:11.040 Yeah. 13:11.040 --> 13:20.310 So Rook takes D7 and here, if King sits there, does that mean actually a brilliant move in this position? 13:26.770 --> 13:28.930 Which has rocked the eat shack. 13:35.410 --> 13:37.840 So this is this is a really funny situation. 13:37.840 --> 13:39.370 Rock the Shack, actually. 13:39.550 --> 13:41.500 So if rock takes, we can rule that out. 13:41.500 --> 13:43.270 We just we're just going to take the Queen. 13:47.710 --> 13:48.460 Okay. 13:50.630 --> 13:55.970 And if King takes, we play Bishop E for check and then take the queen. 13:56.360 --> 13:57.030 Okay. 13:57.530 --> 14:00.720 We're just better here in this resulting situation. 14:00.740 --> 14:02.330 The Queen is better than the two rooks. 14:02.480 --> 14:04.040 The other possibility. 14:07.600 --> 14:07.900 Knight. 14:07.930 --> 14:08.620 Thanks. 14:11.120 --> 14:14.960 So what do we want to play here? 14:19.290 --> 14:25.020 So there is a beautiful move in this position, a truly beautiful move, which leaves us. 14:25.140 --> 14:28.110 It's like leveraging the power of double checks, actually. 14:28.590 --> 14:30.240 Can you see what that move is? 14:33.360 --> 14:36.240 Absolutely beautiful move to leverage the power of double checks. 14:36.300 --> 14:38.310 Queen didn't even check was a black play. 14:39.810 --> 14:40.830 King takes. 14:44.200 --> 14:45.820 And then we're leveraging. 14:47.880 --> 14:49.410 A double check scenario. 14:49.680 --> 14:54.000 We can play bishop at five, check as example, and it's double check. 14:54.000 --> 14:55.170 So the king has to move. 14:55.200 --> 14:57.870 Queen can't take diplomatic immunity. 14:58.500 --> 14:59.880 Where does the king go? 14:59.880 --> 15:01.890 So say, to see sex. 15:03.210 --> 15:08.640 And then we have Bishop D7 and that is actually checkmate. 15:08.910 --> 15:11.430 So yeah, what a beautiful variation there. 15:12.090 --> 15:13.830 So that's absolutely wonderful stuff. 15:13.830 --> 15:18.630 If, if the king moves essentially we have Rook takes these seven check. 15:21.460 --> 15:22.540 Amazing stuff. 15:25.170 --> 15:25.500 And if. 15:25.500 --> 15:26.610 King eight. 15:28.440 --> 15:28.800 Yeah. 15:28.830 --> 15:33.690 As mentioned, Rook, the Czech Bishop E4 is winning the Queen. 15:35.750 --> 15:38.490 Okay, so anyway, it is taken. 15:39.060 --> 15:43.470 But again, there's this amazing leverage of something very, very special. 15:43.470 --> 15:44.820 So what would you play in this position? 15:44.820 --> 15:47.760 Check all checks, even the outrageous ones. 15:48.210 --> 15:49.710 So I won't play here. 15:53.230 --> 15:53.630 Okay. 15:53.720 --> 15:55.550 It is actually a beautiful queen. 15:55.820 --> 16:02.990 Queen, 67 hair, Czech king tanks, and now Bishop F five. 16:04.440 --> 16:05.340 Double check. 16:06.040 --> 16:07.740 KING And now, Bishop. 16:07.920 --> 16:08.850 Seven check. 16:11.310 --> 16:12.530 KING fights. 16:13.710 --> 16:20.880 If King dates her, then we can take we've either the pawn or the bishop, and that's checkmate. 16:21.540 --> 16:21.890 So. 16:21.900 --> 16:24.300 KING And then Bishop takes E7. 16:24.730 --> 16:25.410 Checkmate. 16:25.440 --> 16:26.730 Beautiful stuff. 16:26.730 --> 16:27.840 KING Hunting. 16:29.400 --> 16:31.140 Beautiful combination at the end. 16:31.230 --> 16:35.400 But the focus of our course, we've got to get there safely for these combinations. 16:35.400 --> 16:39.270 So we've got to be aware of the objective reality of this game. 16:39.270 --> 16:45.030 As beautiful as it is from an instructive point of view, my six check. 16:45.030 --> 16:50.400 Is it better to let the King console and exploit the soft spots because there's no defense of Knight 16:50.400 --> 16:50.970 on F6? 16:50.970 --> 16:52.130 That's the big question. 16:52.140 --> 16:58.680 It turns out engines believe that in this position, you know, Knight Geoffrey was actually the way 16:58.680 --> 16:59.400 to go. 16:59.400 --> 17:02.790 So we're getting a situation that they can't play there. 17:03.090 --> 17:04.110 So let them. 17:04.110 --> 17:12.960 CASTLE because we're getting this amazing situation where H seven is terribly weak. 17:12.960 --> 17:13.440 Yeah. 17:13.950 --> 17:22.500 So och but anyway, you can see that the beautifully, you know, the wonderful combination in the end 17:22.530 --> 17:29.370 makes this game really evergreen and the, the interesting inaccuracies and mistakes. 17:29.370 --> 17:34.140 They actually adds to the analysis. 17:34.140 --> 17:39.430 You know, if you, if you want to see the wonderful variations and resources of both sides, they add 17:39.450 --> 17:40.830 interest, they add color. 17:40.830 --> 17:44.910 Mikhail Tal said, you know, game without mistakes is like a game without color. 17:44.910 --> 17:47.850 It's not as colorful as game with some inaccuracies and mistakes. 17:47.850 --> 17:52.980 So, yeah, it's it's just a wonderful game, wonderful combination. 17:52.980 --> 18:00.840 But from our point of view, I think consider sometimes letting the opponent Castle as a major option 18:00.840 --> 18:03.600 to see if you've got key soft spot targets. 18:03.750 --> 18:05.910 But yeah, this worked out like a treat. 18:05.940 --> 18:13.230 It is fundamentally a scary proposition to me personally to allow this G4 and these these bishops looking 18:13.230 --> 18:20.040 down at the king, it does look kind of scary what is played and you know, objectively that amazing 18:20.040 --> 18:26.340 resource that black hands behind the scenes does actually spell out some of these factors in Black's 18:26.340 --> 18:26.940 favor. 18:27.150 --> 18:36.600 But yeah to find that amazing bishop D4 resource you know it's a compute move though so you know so 18:36.600 --> 18:43.710 yeah this sort of queen sex Geoffrey which is so lucrative you can see why this is absolutely lucrative 18:43.740 --> 18:51.390 Queen takes a free but yeah this move bishop forward is a strange one in a way. 18:51.630 --> 18:51.960 Yeah. 18:51.990 --> 18:57.660 Once you are starting to be aware of the x ray dangers on King's soft spots, it makes a little bit 18:57.660 --> 18:59.820 of sense from a human point of view. 19:00.000 --> 19:01.260 But yeah, it's. 19:01.890 --> 19:03.660 It's easy to understand why. 19:03.900 --> 19:06.300 Why this wasn't an expected response. 19:06.450 --> 19:07.290 Okay. 19:07.500 --> 19:10.290 I hope you enjoyed this game so much.