Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Alexander Alekhine against Aron Nimzowitsch.
So Nimzowitsch, one of the hyper modernists well known.
He wrote my system.
I'm a big fan of both players here.
This is the 1931 tournament, round six.
We see E4 from Alekhine e6 from Nimzowitsch d4 Dh5 ninth C3 Bishop before now the standard move nowadays
is understood to be e5, but this move Knight G2 gets very interesting situations of having a bishop
without a counterpart and the cost of a temporary pawn sack.
Very, very interesting.
In online databases.
Casual online databases.
This scores well for most people, generally not so much in the month date basis for one day chess.
Let's have a look.
Details.
E4 a afraid so Why is getting from the opening an extreme imbalance this dance quite bishop without
a counterpart so there are potentially more exploitable dot squares in Black's camp.
Bear that in mind We see the move F5.
And here I find this theoretically fascinating in this position that in most games it seems as though
some moves have been trying to F3 or Bishop F4.
We see Alekhine choosing F3 more modern engines actually are very emphatic about this position with
this bishop.
They actually suggest, and this is quite technical opening knowledge now Queen H five check this isn't
seen in most games, but it is a very, very strong move.
Surprisingly, surprisingly and shockingly so.
It encourages more darts square weaknesses for a start.
So we're kind of amplifying this Bishop.
But where does the queen go to here?
Isn't there another pawn under fire?
Don't we just have to come back, Scurry back to protect the pawn?
What would you play here for?
100 points.
We've done a few things, actually.
We've actually also not just weakened squares, we've created access routes, roads to the H8 Rook.
It's a subtle point here in a theoretical sense, but there's not sometimes much of a divide between
what comes up and the theoretical issue.
Here it seems the key move is free.
I mean, we could play Queenie, too, but Black is not obliged to take the pawn.
Black could play 96.
Putting pressure on the -- and this position, there's still actually dynamic compensation here for
why even this situation?
Even this.
But, you know, we're attacking plans.
We don't want the queens coming off.
You know, this.
This isn't so brutal.
It's an even position.
But with Queen H, the brutality of it, let me just show you this is absolutely remarkable to me.
First of all, let's say black doesn't take this -- night of sex.
We have a queen quite aggressively placed ready for Queen Geoffrey.
But Queen Geoffrey has the snag of 95.
But what if we get ready for that?
So, black castles, Bishop, Cause then Queenside might be the two Bishop e two getting ready for Queen
G three.
What do we have then?
We have an attack on C seven and we have a pin's g pawn and say this possession.
This is in our favor.
What does black do?
See six.
We've got a really good attack here with H four.
We've got the bishop hair and this bishop piercing into many dark squares, dark squares that have been
increasingly weakened from that Queen H five check and the Queen sitting very nicely here, ready for
H five.
This position is just in White's favor.
It's a great attacking position.
So, yes, this is very, very interesting territory indeed.
The queen bouncing to h free.
If queen takes the four, we have 95 if queen bisects, queen C fray.
And look at this.
All of a sudden the theoretical issue about the rook is a practical issue.
Black's losing material.
1967 Jack Bishop G.
Five.
Jack Knight takes eight.
Brutal.
If we look at this again, when is the queen go Queen G7.
Bishop four Dance square.
Bishop out the counterpart.
And on E5 we've got things like Queen C free.
The Queen could bounce the c g freehand though.
And this position Bishop takes C seven is great.
We can put our bishop on E five.
Wonderful stuff.
So what we have here, I mean Queen E5, Bishop d2, we're going to play Bishop C free here.
OC Queen E5 stopped Bishop F Right, but Queen takes B2.
We got Bishop C free protecting, hitting the opponents rule in the Queen.
What does Black Knight F six Bishop C free.
We're just winning F six.
So in other words, this is a secret garden.
We've discovered a secret garden here too.
Actually, this move, which hasn't been played in most practice, is actually a super powerful move
from various different angles.
Just dropping back to H free if we drop back to D one.
Yeah.
You know, black can put pressure on default.
It's not as fun.
We want to offer D4 as a gambit.
We want to amplify this.
Bishop, That pawn is on a dark square, like with weakening the opponent and dark squares.
If we can get rid of some of our self blockades on dark squares, we're seeing the full force of dark
square pressure all around the place by offering a D for the variation is absolutely beautiful here.
Staggering.
This.
This is a great, very interesting opening to experiment with basically.
But anyway, altcoins treatments because we were on the fame of Dance Square Bishop Black counterpart,
I thought that was interesting, relevant to the theme.
So but anyway, back to the game.
Afraid so.
It's actually an inaccuracy.
F-3 compared to Queen H five.
Check.
We have E tanks, F3 Queen tanks, F3 Queen takes D4, Queen G3.
But Alekhine is still using the dot square targets here like C seven and G seven.
So it's still kind of interesting.
F6 Queen tanks, G seven, Queen 85.
Check Bishop E to Rook G eight.
Queen h6 Rook g6.
Queen H for Bishop D seven.
And now here Bishop G5 was played.
It seems Bishop at four might be a little bit more accurate.
This position is kind of pleasant, if not six.
We're going to take on C seven.
It's kind of pleasant for this position.
But anyway, Bishop G5 was played.
Bishop C6.
So here if things which had played nicely six and just castled Queenside White's only got a small edge
here.
The way this has been played is a bit greedy and greed of the opponent is basically your swapping material,
your own material for reducing King's safety.
This stops the king potentially castling queenside now.
So greed exercise.
Bishop takes G2 Rook 81.
This is not going to end well for black Bishop.
E4 Bishop h5 is played.
We have now nine sites h5 Rook d h AX of Black's lost casting rights Queen takes h five and Nimzowitsch
realises this position is diabolical.
He actually resigns here.
Move 19.
If h six Bishop takes h6 and now we actually have the threats of Knight takes E4.
Thanks to this relative pin if b6.
Yeah, we're just taking on E4.
What is black doing here?
If Queen have sex, we can play Rook.
I fight and win the Queen.
If King e7, we can just play Bishop G5 check which protects D as well as being in check.
King f7.
We're just going to take on E4 and then Rook have one check.
And here is is mate.
Unless Black wants to give up the Queen totally winning.
So what we have here is actually a very, very cute game, which we can actually improve on, where
we can actually improve on the opening here.
So it's actually a pretty shocking opening idea.
And checking the online databases, not the last ones, the casual ones.
There's more than than 70% win rate with this idea of Queen h52 to H three and five is a greedy, clinging
on move.
But this position has been winning lots of games in the world of online chess, and it's actually more
accurate on this occasion.
The most games you think most games they spend more time thinking.
But actually, yeah, online players have hit the right plan maybe through modern postmortem analysis
to find these resources.
But this is a fantastic position where it seems the amplification of the darts quite bishop is evidence.
This this amplification of this without a counterpart is actually evident in both weakening darts squares
with the opponent and letting D4 drop.
There are vicious squares like C three which act as pivot squares or double the tax squares.
So yes, if in the variations we've seen with the queen coming to see free, fantastic stuff, this
variation is absolutely fascinating.
This would be a great attacking position to start off with.
So anyway, in the game, that was also interesting.
Nimzowitsch was very, very greedy in this game and was brutally punished.
So yeah, he didn't even take the opportunity just to console her with 96 to try and console Queenside.
Oh well anyway, it makes for an entertaining game.
I hope you've enjoyed this game.
I'll take you back to that final position.
So Queen takes h five.
It's it's truly horrendous here with black facing horrible threats which is it can't be really parry
you know Knight takes will rip open the file if nothing else so okay hope you enjoyed that.
Thanks very much.