WEBVTT 00:00.890 --> 00:01.700 Hi there. 00:01.730 --> 00:07.940 In this lecture, we see Alexander Alekhine playing against Lajos at the loss in 1927. 00:08.270 --> 00:15.440 Because come instalments round nine we see no to free from alekhine d5 c4 e6. 00:17.090 --> 00:20.690 De So transposing into a Queen's Gambit declined. 00:20.840 --> 00:31.100 We have Bishop G, 5h6, Bishop six F Sex Queen Safe Sex Knight C Free C Sex Queen B Free 97. 00:32.180 --> 00:37.520 And now E4 so black does have the bishop pair outside out of the opening. 00:38.000 --> 00:41.180 But this bishop is not particularly great at the moment. 00:41.270 --> 00:49.760 We have D takes E4, Knight takes E for Queen F for Bishop D3, Bishop E seven, both sides Castle Rook 00:49.760 --> 00:52.640 f1 Rook D Ain't Rook 81. 00:52.640 --> 00:53.750 Queen C seven. 00:54.650 --> 00:57.580 And now Alekhine plays Knight G free. 00:57.590 --> 01:01.520 He likes having his knights like this ready to attack. 01:01.550 --> 01:05.000 It seems objectively, I mean, it's an online preference here. 01:05.010 --> 01:11.270 Basically, it's put on G3 in the World Championship match between Capablanca and Alekhine. 01:12.380 --> 01:16.670 You know, the knight was coming to G3 quite a lot, but actually on this occasion instead of Knight 01:16.670 --> 01:20.390 G3, Bishop B1 actually has something going for it here. 01:20.750 --> 01:24.260 Let's just briefly explore this if if I see five. 01:25.630 --> 01:32.140 And there's an interesting point to be made here, about 95 hitting a soft spot. 01:32.500 --> 01:38.110 So even though this looks to be, you know, why why is White doing this event for a moment? 01:38.110 --> 01:41.980 Be takes there's queen a free looking of seven. 01:43.030 --> 01:46.060 So that's possible F seven here. 01:46.090 --> 01:51.850 It's kind of interesting if Bishop de six there's an interesting tactic in this position. 01:53.010 --> 01:55.050 Can you see what that is for? 01:55.050 --> 01:55.860 Five points. 01:57.170 --> 01:57.710 Good night. 01:57.710 --> 01:57.950 Take. 01:58.940 --> 02:01.640 It's possible Bishop takes age to check. 02:01.640 --> 02:04.310 The king could move any time. 02:04.310 --> 02:05.380 Queen takes six. 02:05.390 --> 02:08.510 There's no sex winning the queen with queen. 02:08.510 --> 02:09.160 Sexy sex. 02:09.170 --> 02:14.080 So let's imagine this position with queen for here. 02:14.120 --> 02:14.640 After three. 02:14.660 --> 02:17.210 Take see five Queen 66. 02:17.210 --> 02:18.710 King takes H two. 02:19.610 --> 02:21.800 This is in one's favour. 02:21.800 --> 02:25.100 So yeah, it does seem Bishop B one has something going for it. 02:27.480 --> 02:28.260 But okay. 02:28.290 --> 02:29.600 Night G3 is played. 02:29.610 --> 02:31.080 We have no cell phones. 02:32.250 --> 02:33.690 There is an argument. 02:34.570 --> 02:37.180 Potentially to be made blank was kind of passive. 02:37.200 --> 02:42.990 There is an argument for blacks to try and play more actively with C5. 02:43.380 --> 02:46.050 In this case though, D5 might have six. 02:46.980 --> 02:51.810 Yeah, it does seem there's an argument he had to try and get some grip on the squares and this position, 02:51.810 --> 02:52.690 for example. 02:52.710 --> 02:57.390 It should be even so, black is actually going in a passive manner. 02:57.450 --> 02:59.640 It seems with what is played, which is not a. 02:59.880 --> 03:04.080 This is start of a kind of bit too passive play. 03:04.110 --> 03:13.470 And now Queen C free means that actually one is well equipped now for C5 with D5 so A5 is played black 03:13.470 --> 03:23.340 is in a passive state here if C5 d5 and this position is is okay if black does this to sake the exchange 03:23.340 --> 03:25.560 because otherwise it is a dominating position. 03:26.490 --> 03:32.520 It's going to be a smaller H4 for white now and that's a very interesting exchange sacrifice. 03:32.520 --> 03:35.280 But otherwise why it would be better here if that's ignored. 03:36.360 --> 03:38.760 And the knight, It's kind of nice on G3 here. 03:39.120 --> 03:40.190 So okay. 03:40.200 --> 03:45.560 Anyway, A5 is played so a free A4 and now 95. 03:45.570 --> 03:52.830 So this is looking at the F7 soft spot here in the main line of the game and the Queen is going offside 03:52.830 --> 03:54.900 here with Queen A5 Queen's C1. 03:55.560 --> 04:02.190 So yeah, y is pointing things at the King and these guys are kind of passive at the moment and away 04:02.190 --> 04:03.120 from the king. 04:03.120 --> 04:04.420 This is a bad sign. 04:04.440 --> 04:13.890 Bishop D7, C5 and this soft communications about B5, we have Bishop E4 targeting C6 that echoes the 04:13.890 --> 04:15.600 tactical variation we saw earlier. 04:15.900 --> 04:18.810 So it's not just F seven and Target C6. 04:18.810 --> 04:24.060 Now we have Queen C seven, Queen C free Bishop E ain't. 04:24.870 --> 04:26.460 And now 92. 04:27.590 --> 04:28.530 Rock six. 04:29.190 --> 04:30.240 So this is interesting. 04:30.240 --> 04:33.510 This night's rerouting is very, very interesting. 04:33.510 --> 04:34.410 Where is this night going? 04:34.410 --> 04:38.940 Night C 197, night 67. 04:38.940 --> 04:40.350 Is that a bit of relief for black? 04:40.350 --> 04:44.050 That simplification this night is coming to a key square. 04:44.070 --> 04:45.900 E5 What a route. 04:47.050 --> 04:47.950 So this doesn't move. 04:47.950 --> 04:49.450 2593. 04:50.050 --> 04:51.510 It's coming to a key square. 04:51.520 --> 04:56.800 If I were looking at both C six and F seven, let's just replay that again because these night routes 04:56.800 --> 04:59.800 by Alekhine, for me, they've always been pretty instructive. 05:00.040 --> 05:08.350 So this night's on g free and you know, C five cuts off and then the night is now rerouting to kind 05:08.350 --> 05:12.010 of take the place of its fellow night essentially on E5. 05:12.220 --> 05:18.490 So that essentially has reduced Black's King safety by one key defender. 05:20.020 --> 05:25.450 And why isn't a dominating position where both F7 and C6 run the scrutiny. 05:26.230 --> 05:28.690 So yes, that is more ideal than G three. 05:28.690 --> 05:33.730 That's quite a journey to get from there to there by this route. 05:33.940 --> 05:43.270 Okay, so anyway, Bishop F eight and then we have H for Rook eight eight Bishop B one and yeah, black's 05:43.270 --> 05:44.890 in a real bind here. 05:45.130 --> 05:48.010 This is really dented Black's counterplay. 05:48.010 --> 05:53.500 So the only variations with Black playing C5, I believe worth worth mentioning. 05:53.500 --> 05:58.960 If you look at this contrast now where black is really is devoid of counterplay. 05:58.960 --> 06:00.310 We have H5. 06:00.310 --> 06:07.150 This really is a horrible move to have to play, but it's in a bad you know, black's in a bad way. 06:07.240 --> 06:15.910 If rook aca one can simply play this battery move to frighten checkmate and if G6 then h five. 06:15.910 --> 06:17.440 And what is black doing here? 06:17.480 --> 06:23.590 Black's got the bishop pair, but it's the king is being disintegrated, you know King safety has been 06:23.590 --> 06:25.150 absolutely disintegrated here. 06:25.150 --> 06:27.670 This position Rook takes E6. 06:28.240 --> 06:30.580 This is just desperate stuff. 06:30.580 --> 06:32.620 These tactics all favor white. 06:33.310 --> 06:36.490 This position rotates H six rook seven. 06:36.830 --> 06:42.490 It's a demolition job essentially if h five isn't played so h five is played. 06:44.400 --> 06:46.680 To try and stop white playing H5 in these variations. 06:46.680 --> 06:51.950 But we have now, I think, by not committing to Queen too. 06:51.990 --> 06:56.970 Given that G6 looks palatable here without any age, fine from whites, sure. 06:57.000 --> 07:03.390 But Queen Humphrey looks at age five now and the queen's in a better place here, actually. 07:04.500 --> 07:07.130 So this is a nice attacking theme. 07:07.140 --> 07:11.280 If we can get roads to the opponent's king via the G4. 07:11.310 --> 07:12.240 So guess what? 07:12.240 --> 07:14.820 White Plains and this possession for ten points. 07:15.240 --> 07:16.800 What do you want to play here? 07:18.520 --> 07:22.960 So yes, Black is vividly kind of without play, but with the bishop. 07:24.370 --> 07:29.530 So, yeah, sometimes the bishop is not is to be traded off against king safety. 07:30.940 --> 07:35.300 So, you know, commitment of offering the dance. 07:35.500 --> 07:38.680 Bishop it seems, well, we're ripping things open now. 07:38.680 --> 07:40.490 G For ripping things open. 07:40.510 --> 07:42.360 H Tanks, Queen sex. 07:42.370 --> 07:43.700 Now the Queen's in a great spot. 07:43.720 --> 07:44.170 Hair on. 07:44.170 --> 07:45.990 G for pinning that G pawn. 07:46.000 --> 07:53.830 And what it really needs to be looking for generally is just to use the g file with a king move ch1 07:53.830 --> 07:57.070 away from the glare of the queen, ideally in my view, and then rook g one. 07:58.030 --> 08:00.550 So we have a very dangerous state of affairs here. 08:00.580 --> 08:05.330 Bishop G7, we have Bishop A2. 08:05.350 --> 08:07.480 Now this is very interesting. 08:07.480 --> 08:10.660 Now it's tying Black's counterplay down any time. 08:11.320 --> 08:13.180 You know there's pressure points now. 08:13.510 --> 08:14.010 Anytime. 08:14.110 --> 08:14.350 Five. 08:14.350 --> 08:15.400 That's unthinkable now. 08:15.520 --> 08:20.940 Five At the moment we have b4 and the bishop remains on Daigo, doesn't want to be squished to be free. 08:20.950 --> 08:22.440 So keep the options open. 08:22.450 --> 08:23.110 Be tanks. 08:23.110 --> 08:23.890 Be tanks. 08:24.220 --> 08:25.000 Queen 85. 08:25.000 --> 08:26.530 The Queen's really in Siberia. 08:26.740 --> 08:27.640 Offside. 08:28.300 --> 08:29.200 But now. 08:29.200 --> 08:31.560 Yeah, there's a funny inaccuracy here. 08:31.570 --> 08:35.320 It seems this is an open gold penalty situation in a way. 08:38.240 --> 08:44.150 But maybe Alekhine kind of respects his opponent's kind of pressure and instinctively instinctively 08:44.150 --> 08:45.080 plays queeny for. 08:45.080 --> 08:51.830 But in fact, in this position we can strike while the iron is hot, while the queen is on G4 and the 08:51.830 --> 08:52.160 Queen. 08:52.160 --> 08:53.660 This queen is away from the king. 08:54.440 --> 08:56.630 It seems very, very dangerous here. 08:56.960 --> 09:04.310 If Black tries to be, you know, let's say G takes Queen F for not not bothering taking that pawn. 09:04.430 --> 09:09.410 We don't want to run into any tactics any time saying, oh, that that pawn is not going to be moved 09:09.410 --> 09:10.500 anyway because E6. 09:10.550 --> 09:15.500 But this move is just basically saying King H one and Rook G one or King H two. 09:15.500 --> 09:20.740 Even this position of King H two holds actually here the free square. 09:20.750 --> 09:24.380 So that's actually more accurate here than King H one. 09:24.380 --> 09:31.700 But we're going to play Rook G one and then, you know this position, even if the Queen's being a nuisance 09:31.700 --> 09:34.700 here, this is. 09:35.620 --> 09:37.400 Horrendous, the bishop being pinned. 09:37.420 --> 09:38.950 There's Bishop de Freeh coming up. 09:38.950 --> 09:43.900 King, H.A. And here we could eliminate the defender to avoid any nonsense. 09:43.900 --> 09:44.520 And it was. 09:44.560 --> 09:47.140 Bishop takes E5 just to eliminate the defender. 09:47.140 --> 09:56.650 Bishop de Free and Black's Queen is essentially trapped here because Queen f6 there's there's Rook G 09:56.650 --> 09:58.980 one check and then we're going to take the queen off. 09:58.990 --> 10:03.430 So if Black has to give up the queen, basically, then that's not good news. 10:04.150 --> 10:11.260 So anyway, yeah, and it seems it does seem as though Queen E4 with modern engines, it seems as though 10:11.260 --> 10:12.760 H five was more accurate. 10:13.120 --> 10:15.250 So that's a funny aspect of this game. 10:17.240 --> 10:19.280 But he is human after all. 10:19.400 --> 10:23.450 Okay, so maybe that's not giving him too much of a hard time. 10:23.600 --> 10:25.310 Now, here I mentioned. 10:25.310 --> 10:26.280 Gee, thanks. 10:26.300 --> 10:29.330 If I mean, what other options are there? 10:29.780 --> 10:31.330 Well, let's go to Queen F3. 10:31.340 --> 10:32.090 This option here. 10:32.120 --> 10:33.620 Bishop takes E5 Hare. 10:33.650 --> 10:35.150 There's Rook takes E5. 10:35.150 --> 10:37.310 So that takes the rook off the firing line. 10:37.550 --> 10:38.810 And what does Black do? 10:38.810 --> 10:39.170 This. 10:39.200 --> 10:40.160 We're just going to take. 10:40.160 --> 10:42.890 And we're going to get to work on checkmate in the King soon. 10:44.240 --> 10:48.680 If Rook Isaiah just put this on on in view, in full view. 10:48.710 --> 10:52.220 King H one, rook G one. 10:52.220 --> 10:53.920 And we're just going to smash through any time. 10:53.930 --> 10:57.440 F5 We're going to take on E6 and this is just diabolical. 10:58.400 --> 10:59.390 Seven check. 11:00.760 --> 11:03.950 And here, for example, Bishop takes queen, takes G7 in, mate. 11:03.970 --> 11:09.790 So, yes, it does seem as though H five is thematic within our theme of ripping open G files. 11:10.180 --> 11:16.440 Nevertheless, the position is still interesting for whites, for blacks to slip up a bit more. 11:16.450 --> 11:18.730 Maybe Queen C something we have Queen F for. 11:20.020 --> 11:26.410 Here again, just returning to G for objectively the best move of Queenie seven White could still get 11:26.410 --> 11:34.900 attacking pressure, but there's a nuisance difference here that the black queen actually is slightly 11:34.900 --> 11:35.880 more of a nuisance. 11:35.980 --> 11:37.600 Actually can stick around. 11:38.300 --> 11:40.240 A bit, but still with careful play. 11:40.520 --> 11:41.540 G6 check. 11:41.550 --> 11:48.740 It's still ending up with white with a huge position now with things like rook H1 so nuisance or not 11:49.070 --> 11:52.190 whites still with a huge attack in this variation. 11:52.520 --> 11:54.590 Six check will win the Queen. 11:56.450 --> 11:58.610 Otherwise Queen 65 is happening. 11:58.730 --> 11:59.120 So. 11:59.120 --> 12:03.950 Okay so anyway so Queen A4 though was played not Queen G4. 12:03.980 --> 12:08.540 We have Rook Abba and this really is a bad slip up. 12:08.810 --> 12:14.900 The Black Queen should have tried to offer defensive resource with Queenie seven trying to be a nuisance. 12:14.900 --> 12:22.970 So as example Queen Geoffrey, Queen of Thanks Rook e4 Queen five you can see that the H five square 12:24.050 --> 12:27.320 could be useful for black defensively this situation. 12:28.070 --> 12:30.530 It looks like it should be completely busted. 12:30.530 --> 12:31.130 Right? 12:31.370 --> 12:36.530 But actually say this scenario, you know black is actually good on the dark squares there is a dark 12:36.530 --> 12:39.500 square Bishop This position white hasn't got dark square. 12:39.500 --> 12:44.150 Bishop So it's kind of annoying to be given this resistance. 12:44.150 --> 12:48.470 And if de force poked her, you know, this ties white down a bit. 12:48.470 --> 12:53.630 This is an extreme nuisance scenario which could have happened on Queen E seven. 12:54.740 --> 12:55.070 Yeah. 12:55.070 --> 13:00.290 So these scenarios where it doesn't seem that easy, it's interesting. 13:00.290 --> 13:01.340 But rook obey. 13:01.340 --> 13:04.430 And now the attack is coming. 13:04.460 --> 13:06.350 h5g Sex is now king H one. 13:06.350 --> 13:08.930 It looks much simple, much more simple now. 13:08.960 --> 13:17.060 Rook B seven Rook G one Pinning that key defensive resource that Bishop on G seven we have Queenie seven 13:17.060 --> 13:21.110 And now, yeah, sometimes forget weakness of the last move. 13:21.110 --> 13:23.090 What about weakness of taking out a key defender? 13:23.090 --> 13:26.180 You get a lot of key squares, so I hope. 13:26.180 --> 13:27.280 What would you play here? 13:27.290 --> 13:29.240 I hope you find this for five points. 13:30.140 --> 13:34.580 Not too many points because it looks so logical to me. 13:35.510 --> 13:37.790 Anyway, so Rook takes G seven check. 13:37.800 --> 13:38.350 Yep. 13:38.360 --> 13:39.770 Rogue one check. 13:40.220 --> 13:41.210 King H seven. 13:42.140 --> 13:43.070 And now. 13:43.580 --> 13:43.940 Yeah. 13:43.940 --> 13:46.190 If King if eight, there's Queen H six. 13:46.190 --> 13:46.730 Check. 13:49.090 --> 13:50.200 And so. 13:50.200 --> 13:54.520 KING Eight, seven and nine played nine takes of seven, which looks absolutely convincing. 13:54.520 --> 13:56.740 And Black was convinced and resigned. 13:58.000 --> 13:58.960 It looks fair enough. 13:59.170 --> 14:00.670 Queen S.F. seven, for example. 14:00.700 --> 14:07.570 Bishop the free Frisk and then Queen H six, Queen 87, Queen Fey exploiting that disconnect to the 14:07.900 --> 14:09.730 square and then just just mating. 14:10.000 --> 14:11.770 So it looks completely convincing. 14:11.770 --> 14:19.510 But there is this resource Queen G six And here actually, it's not leading into a false checkmate because 14:19.510 --> 14:27.520 here Queen f6 Rogue eight White should really just take on E six and not indulge any other scenarios 14:27.520 --> 14:33.430 this possession and there's still some work to do once got these two connected pass pawns and there's 14:33.430 --> 14:44.440 still some work to do okay but the the engine of nature analysis of this game reveals that actually 14:44.440 --> 14:51.190 there was a remarkably quiet alternative attacking move in this G file situation. 14:51.400 --> 14:56.290 So the knight is on adult square here and the king is on H seven. 14:56.470 --> 15:00.610 And we really want to kind of move the king away from H six. 15:00.610 --> 15:04.150 There is actually a really remarkable subtle attacking move here. 15:04.150 --> 15:05.860 Can you get it for 500 points? 15:05.860 --> 15:07.780 It really is a bit of a weird one. 15:08.260 --> 15:16.630 This is just for being being nerdy about this position, being very, very super nerdy about this position 15:16.870 --> 15:19.210 because anakin's move one, it convinced the opponent. 15:19.210 --> 15:21.640 You just need to convince the opponent sometimes to resign. 15:21.640 --> 15:24.310 But there is actually a super nerdy clinical move. 15:26.420 --> 15:29.420 Which analysts have pointed out 93. 15:29.930 --> 15:32.750 So the point is to nudge the king away from H six. 15:32.750 --> 15:41.330 So as an example, if F five point G five check, we're nudging the king away from H six and so we get 15:41.330 --> 15:42.880 here 9f7 check. 15:42.890 --> 15:44.420 And this works beautifully. 15:44.450 --> 15:47.840 Queen six We get that mechanism of chat mating on G eight. 15:48.260 --> 15:50.720 So that's just one example. 15:51.320 --> 15:54.340 If f sex, you might think, oh, Bishop D free check. 15:54.900 --> 15:58.910 Then if f five, we're back to this mechanism of pushing the king away. 15:59.120 --> 16:03.350 If the king wants to go to eight, she then went back to F seven. 16:03.350 --> 16:07.910 Checking that mechanism here is mating or queen. 16:07.910 --> 16:08.690 Thanks F seven. 16:08.690 --> 16:11.300 We're back to that mechanism mating on G eight. 16:11.660 --> 16:17.960 But if the king does go into the G file, there's no text e6j This doesn't look good. 16:17.960 --> 16:21.940 There's no queen takes F five check Queen sex wrote G seven is checkmate. 16:21.980 --> 16:24.680 But let's just being super, super critical. 16:24.860 --> 16:27.200 We play chess against human beings. 16:27.200 --> 16:28.010 It's enough. 16:28.010 --> 16:31.760 If they think it's absolutely lost and they resigned, then you've won the game. 16:31.760 --> 16:36.350 We're not playing against supercomputers, but you know, even with best player, it's a winning position. 16:36.350 --> 16:41.780 So the interesting points, the opening does give Black the dark square bishop. 16:43.130 --> 16:48.890 So it's bishop versus potentially king safety, because sometimes when we give up the dark square, 16:48.890 --> 16:56.690 Bishop, we amplify our square pressure because there's one less defender on the light squares now. 16:56.690 --> 17:01.340 And it's interesting, the light squares kind of this, this position shows that actually the light 17:01.340 --> 17:06.440 squares are kind of really interesting to play with, with Bishop B1 and C five plans. 17:06.440 --> 17:09.410 As we saw, Black never really played C5. 17:09.410 --> 17:13.220 So we get this idea that this is an interesting model game. 17:13.220 --> 17:20.960 If Black wants to play in a seemingly solid fashion defensive that they're reducing their draw prospects, 17:20.960 --> 17:27.290 they're not increasing their draw prospects by not playing actively, and they're just waiting for Alekhine 17:27.290 --> 17:27.650 here. 17:27.650 --> 17:32.900 He's just quietly improving the G Free Knights. 17:32.900 --> 17:38.300 It's like, yeah, improving this G Free Knight and this H4 is very, very interesting with the options 17:38.300 --> 17:44.120 of H five in a suspended like tension, when is H five going to be effective. 17:44.240 --> 17:51.410 And yeah, here it's like the tension is getting too much black, giving basically a pawn lever to open 17:51.410 --> 17:52.970 up the G fold. 17:53.000 --> 17:56.210 This is now a pawn lever for G4 at some point. 17:56.210 --> 18:01.160 So queen a free g for at some point pretty soon very quickly. 18:01.220 --> 18:08.090 And it's just it's just an amazing instructive attacking example because of the fact that Black played 18:08.090 --> 18:13.730 so passively and didn't try and open up the position of C5 at some point earlier. 18:13.910 --> 18:16.160 So yes, big trouble from here. 18:16.400 --> 18:16.700 Okay. 18:16.700 --> 18:18.080 So I hope you enjoyed this. 18:18.230 --> 18:20.690 Got some points from it so much.