WEBVTT 00:01.380 --> 00:02.160 Hi there. 00:02.190 --> 00:05.550 In this lecture, we see Alex and the client playing against Aspen. 00:08.220 --> 00:13.170 This is 1930 1:00 simultaneous display E four from Alekhine. 00:13.170 --> 00:15.190 We have a French defense night. 00:15.210 --> 00:16.410 See for an interesting move. 00:16.410 --> 00:21.750 Order here with night c3d5d4, nine, ten, five, six. 00:21.750 --> 00:24.060 So we're transposing into a more mainline here. 00:24.120 --> 00:25.320 Bishop e seven. 00:25.590 --> 00:31.170 Now, nowadays there's a very strong gambit which is actually called the Alekhine Shattered Gambit, 00:31.170 --> 00:35.040 which even engine suggests is absolutely fine. 00:35.250 --> 00:38.430 So Alekhine here took on f6, but that's quite committal. 00:38.430 --> 00:40.530 E5 is actually really interesting. 00:41.040 --> 00:42.690 I'll give you a little bit of a tool here. 00:42.690 --> 00:48.480 If 94 we can take on E seven, take on E for Queen E two. 00:48.600 --> 00:51.660 So we're ready to meet Queen B for check with C4. 00:51.660 --> 00:53.340 And we got a big advantage here. 00:53.340 --> 01:00.000 We in queenside, we're going to put pressure on E4 know that's kind of gambit at fine. 01:00.000 --> 01:01.650 We're just much better there. 01:01.680 --> 01:05.370 So that's a bit of a cheeky line with Knight E4. 01:06.810 --> 01:11.730 We'll use you as knights going back to D seven and we can play H four, which is the Alekhine Shattered 01:11.730 --> 01:12.450 Gambit. 01:12.450 --> 01:17.840 And I have lots and lots of wins with this even in over the board chess as well online. 01:17.850 --> 01:19.710 So h takes hare Queen takes. 01:19.710 --> 01:26.220 We play knight H three Now if queen H four which is a bit of a cheeky rare move, we can actually play 01:26.220 --> 01:32.430 Knight B5 and if Queen goes back then we get Queen G4 with an advantage. 01:32.430 --> 01:42.990 Here we're looking at H seven and this is problematic for Black in various ways, so. 01:44.250 --> 01:44.910 Och yeah. 01:44.910 --> 01:49.260 I mean there's certain, you know, tactical zaps and things. 01:49.280 --> 01:56.280 There's nine times e six here if black's not careful, you know, this looks absolutely like devastating 01:56.280 --> 01:56.820 stuff. 01:56.820 --> 02:01.950 1986 and here there's lots of fun to be had. 02:02.910 --> 02:07.290 And if Queen is seven, 1967, there's a lot of fun to be had there. 02:07.290 --> 02:09.160 So let's let's say eight. 02:09.180 --> 02:11.280 We just get our pull back, if nothing else. 02:11.670 --> 02:15.030 And that's in that very weird Queen H Well, but more usual. 02:15.030 --> 02:20.070 Queen EE seven And then we go Queen G for hitting G seven, King F eight, Queen G four. 02:20.070 --> 02:21.990 And we get a very nice attacking position. 02:21.990 --> 02:29.280 For example, like this is very, very interesting, this kind of scenario with 96, there's no fractures 02:29.280 --> 02:34.560 of that pin and you get a taste, you know, if black's going to play a p sack because otherwise we're 02:34.560 --> 02:36.060 getting into F seven. 02:36.060 --> 02:37.800 It's already desperate for black. 02:37.800 --> 02:40.320 But this piece is not that convincing. 02:41.490 --> 02:49.170 And we're going to be, you know, potentially, you know, just just well up here in this position. 02:49.440 --> 02:56.250 So that's if nine takes five, otherwise 9/10 F seven, you can see it's quite ferocious gambit. 02:56.490 --> 03:01.320 And I point this out because actually it is kind of theoretically important nowadays. 03:01.560 --> 03:05.550 This is well established and engine approved. 03:05.550 --> 03:08.340 Basically, it's one of the few engine approved gambits. 03:08.340 --> 03:14.730 But in this game we see Alexander Alekhine playing Bishop E7 and we get this Bishop takes F6, which 03:14.730 --> 03:16.530 is quite committal indeed. 03:16.650 --> 03:20.700 So Bishop takes f6, have three black consoles. 03:21.900 --> 03:22.950 This is a bit dangerous. 03:22.950 --> 03:31.170 C5 is more for about king safety of Bishop B5 five, Bishop D7 This position there isn't much for White 03:31.170 --> 03:32.700 to write home about here. 03:32.730 --> 03:43.740 This position for example black has that dot square bishop as compensation and for anything which white 03:43.740 --> 03:45.330 might offer off offers. 03:45.330 --> 03:48.810 White like I say, queens pawn the bishop is enough compensation here. 03:48.840 --> 03:52.950 This is about even so that is one safe way of playing it with C5. 03:52.950 --> 03:59.100 But Black Castled and we have the E5 pawn chain, which is often very dangerous for the so called great 03:59.100 --> 04:01.980 gift sacrifice because there no defender on H7. 04:02.070 --> 04:10.590 So the H7 software is more soft than usual and in fact Alekhine plays H for he's preparing a Greek gift. 04:10.590 --> 04:15.840 And this is the sort of thing I play in fast time controls to help me win tournaments. 04:15.840 --> 04:20.550 If Bishop defray C5, we can play like this. 04:20.550 --> 04:29.040 But be warned, Black has the key move h six here which stops any idea of Bishop takes h seven and Black's 04:29.040 --> 04:33.750 should have a small edge here in theory, but in practice we still do have attacking potential. 04:33.780 --> 04:37.620 Maybe we can even get a rock out later or castle queenside. 04:37.620 --> 04:41.070 But h4 was played immediately and Black played a big mistake. 04:41.070 --> 04:41.330 Really? 04:41.340 --> 04:43.140 Already a big mistake. 04:43.860 --> 04:53.070 If h6 here we can play Queen D two and sure, Black does have actually an edge if we try and crush black 04:53.430 --> 04:59.190 with G four, c5g5 black can try and seal things up with H five. 04:59.280 --> 05:02.670 And if we get this situation, black's should be fine. 05:02.700 --> 05:05.100 That should be better here with the bishop power. 05:05.130 --> 05:11.400 Which is why I think this variation is a bit controversial, giving black square bishop if there's no 05:11.940 --> 05:17.400 dangerous attack, which opens up things, this could be controversial now. 05:18.710 --> 05:19.670 I should point out. 05:19.670 --> 05:20.040 Yeah. 05:20.090 --> 05:25.270 If Queen D to this again, black has a small edge. 05:25.280 --> 05:28.040 So Rookie eight though, is playing Bishop D free. 05:28.280 --> 05:29.910 And now this is already problematic. 05:29.930 --> 05:35.210 C5 is played, which is actually a huge mistake, really asking for the great gift sacrifice. 05:35.210 --> 05:40.880 So the great gift is when you sacrifice a bishop on H seven and then often knight G five check is followed 05:40.880 --> 05:41.940 by Queen H five. 05:41.960 --> 05:46.370 It's a great attacking mechanism which I've won literally hundreds of games with. 05:47.690 --> 05:50.760 Now before we get into C5. 05:50.780 --> 05:55.730 If f five, the funny thing is we can play Knight G5 here. 05:56.000 --> 05:59.660 This is funny stuff because Bishop takes aged takes, Queen takes. 05:59.930 --> 06:03.020 We have Rook H five with a strong attack here. 06:03.020 --> 06:07.190 Rook takes H seven because there's an unprotected piece on eight. 06:07.280 --> 06:09.170 If Queen G have one. 06:09.170 --> 06:11.210 If they take Queen H five chat Queen six. 06:11.210 --> 06:11.900 E eight. 06:11.930 --> 06:13.040 Queen C eight. 06:13.850 --> 06:18.200 Now, if we look at this again, if Queen G six, we've still got a strong attack here. 06:18.500 --> 06:19.660 We're going to play Queen D two. 06:19.680 --> 06:21.020 Doesn't matter about the D pawn. 06:21.020 --> 06:25.760 We're going to Castle Queenside and we get a very strong attack here. 06:25.790 --> 06:27.140 This is a desperate move. 06:27.140 --> 06:28.250 Knight at three. 06:28.850 --> 06:35.660 That's just a very strong attack being built up in this position with lots of interesting ideas, if 06:35.660 --> 06:36.170 not afraid. 06:36.170 --> 06:41.120 Just to look at this, though, if Clarke wants to sacrifice a piece for this kind of tactic, it's 06:41.120 --> 06:42.770 still going to be in its favor. 06:42.800 --> 06:44.420 This endgame a piece up. 06:44.420 --> 06:45.710 It's going to be in White's favor. 06:45.890 --> 06:48.740 But anyway, it's a strong attack that. 06:50.140 --> 06:53.540 So f59g5 is pretty nice, you might think. 06:53.560 --> 06:54.080 Hold on. 06:54.100 --> 07:00.580 What about H six here of the Bishop d3h6 does, actually. 07:00.580 --> 07:01.780 What would you play? 07:01.810 --> 07:06.100 This is checking your attacking skills in this position. 07:07.550 --> 07:12.050 It's actually rather different to before we can play G4 07:15.080 --> 07:17.900 if G6 Queen DD two. 07:17.930 --> 07:25.370 So looking at six, if King G 792, we can get a very strong attack from this position. 07:26.180 --> 07:31.580 So it looks as though, well, Black's got the bishop here, but look at the attacking potential here 07:32.360 --> 07:33.730 in this position. 07:33.740 --> 07:40.910 You know, one has a nice advantage overall and some very interesting ideas and potential. 07:41.760 --> 07:44.060 Okay, So anyway, C five was played, though. 07:44.060 --> 07:47.250 This is really asking for big, big trouble. 07:47.270 --> 07:49.280 So, yes, the Greek gift sacrifice. 07:49.280 --> 07:55.850 When you see a position like this, you should be calculating the Greek gift sacrifice, which is bringing 07:55.850 --> 07:57.200 the king out to play. 07:57.230 --> 08:02.840 Now, I've separated out the section on bringing out the king from the great gift, because the great 08:02.840 --> 08:06.980 gift is responsible for a number of brilliant wins. 08:06.980 --> 08:10.250 Indeed, and deserves, in my view, its own section. 08:10.250 --> 08:16.280 So Bishop takes h seven, check is played, King takes H seven and Knight G five check. 08:16.610 --> 08:18.620 So this works quite well here. 08:19.730 --> 08:25.790 Bishop takes G5 is played so points to note if King G eight, Queen H five. 08:25.970 --> 08:27.560 And what does black do? 08:28.010 --> 08:30.730 Blacks in big, big trouble here. 08:30.740 --> 08:34.500 So there's a threat of Queen H seven and Queen H eight. 08:34.520 --> 08:36.910 If White's if I had their turn now. 08:36.920 --> 08:39.710 So let's say Bishop takes H takes King F eight. 08:41.240 --> 08:44.840 We do have G6 here and this position. 08:45.140 --> 08:46.460 The attack just rages on. 08:46.490 --> 08:48.260 Even though the king's not checkmated. 08:48.260 --> 08:50.900 We can open up d file pressure now. 08:51.050 --> 08:57.740 And for example this situation we can try and smash the light squares up so f four with the idea of 08:57.740 --> 09:01.760 f five and it starts to get very, very dicey for black. 09:01.790 --> 09:03.070 The king gets exposed. 09:03.100 --> 09:09.680 In fact, the queen can make its way to C five in some lines now with E, six, Queen St, C five check 09:09.680 --> 09:11.100 and the attack rages on. 09:11.120 --> 09:13.760 This is just a fictional example in this position. 09:13.760 --> 09:14.720 This is just fictional. 09:14.720 --> 09:21.920 Rook takes D4 is strong here and you can see that sometimes the great gift can have long term king safety 09:21.920 --> 09:22.820 implications. 09:22.820 --> 09:26.630 If Queen takes D4, we have Knight B5 check and then take the Queen. 09:27.320 --> 09:31.700 If Queen f6, we have 95 check, 96 check. 09:31.910 --> 09:35.210 And this is just a really strong attacking position to start from. 09:35.480 --> 09:38.240 Yeah, it's easier for black to slip up from here. 09:38.780 --> 09:47.720 So yeah, there are some phenomenal implications here if we look at so that was bishop takes. 09:49.280 --> 09:51.620 So that was on King G eight. 09:52.520 --> 09:57.830 If we look at King G six, let's examine this in detail, this great gift mechanism. 09:57.920 --> 09:59.690 What be fantastic here. 09:59.690 --> 10:00.290 You think so? 10:00.290 --> 10:01.580 This looks as though. 10:03.500 --> 10:06.830 You know, there's some potential to slip up, actually. 10:07.010 --> 10:12.620 But there is a really incisive move here, which is worth considering. 10:12.620 --> 10:13.610 In actual games. 10:13.610 --> 10:18.350 You might not necessarily want to play h five Chess because King takes five, but there is actually 10:18.350 --> 10:18.950 for 100 points. 10:18.950 --> 10:19.850 What was he playing? 10:21.630 --> 10:23.490 You can actually encourage F-5. 10:23.490 --> 10:26.370 It looks like a terrible idea to encourage you in a way at defense. 10:26.370 --> 10:32.040 But when slicing through with tanks, King takes and now we're using F3 and we've got that killer common 10:32.040 --> 10:39.450 square because it's on G5 f7, which means King G6 Queen have seven check And here what is the science 10:39.450 --> 10:42.360 of in this position mating skills activated. 10:42.360 --> 10:43.320 What would you play? 10:45.090 --> 10:46.050 400 points. 10:47.200 --> 10:47.640 Yep. 10:47.780 --> 10:49.000 G4 Where? 10:49.030 --> 10:49.840 France, then. 10:50.360 --> 10:52.540 Queen H Five maids. 10:53.290 --> 10:54.730 It's unfortunate here. 10:54.940 --> 11:00.790 So Bishop takes five and G six opens up for Queen H seven. 11:01.060 --> 11:02.490 So that's unfortunate. 11:02.500 --> 11:03.260 So yes. 11:03.280 --> 11:04.990 King G six doesn't work out well. 11:04.990 --> 11:06.250 And in this position, you might ask. 11:06.250 --> 11:06.940 Well, hold on. 11:06.940 --> 11:10.580 King H six, this Queen H seven might catch five. 11:10.600 --> 11:13.780 There's the cute G for check, Queen F three. 11:13.900 --> 11:16.720 And you can see how dangerous this Greek gift is now. 11:16.840 --> 11:21.370 So this is quite a bit of evidence that actually this is a really dangerous position. 11:21.370 --> 11:23.410 So black tried Bishop takes G5. 11:23.410 --> 11:28.390 We have H g g5, Czech King G eight, Queen H five. 11:28.420 --> 11:37.990 So the immediately now is Queen h h King of eight White castles, Queenside King E seven and now g six. 11:37.990 --> 11:47.410 The attack rages on here a6 if f takes g six, Queen takes g six wrote g8y can play d taxify with a 11:47.410 --> 11:48.130 strong attack. 11:48.130 --> 11:55.270 So this position Rook h three Queen d seven Rook f3 French thing Rook have seven What is black? 11:55.270 --> 12:03.910 Do rook have sevens coming along and now Queen G five as example Knight 65 smashes through making use 12:03.910 --> 12:04.840 of that pin. 12:05.140 --> 12:08.320 If Queen Sikes of seven Knight takes e seven. 12:08.320 --> 12:09.970 Check this position. 12:09.970 --> 12:12.280 We're getting all material back with interest. 12:12.490 --> 12:17.590 So there are some really interesting attacking lines based on this great gift. 12:17.710 --> 12:19.840 It really is phenomenal here. 12:19.870 --> 12:30.010 So okay, so instead of F takes in the game, we have a six, G takes F seven Rook f8 and now dc5d7 12:30.760 --> 12:37.420 if C six here Queen G six Rook takes F seven, there's actually Queen G five check. 12:38.110 --> 12:39.190 And here. 12:39.960 --> 12:43.650 We can absolutely be brutal with rook tanks D5. 12:44.190 --> 12:46.140 I don't expect you to remember any of this. 12:46.170 --> 12:50.460 It's just getting the force behind you, the intuition behind you. 12:50.490 --> 12:56.880 So E6 check in this position leads to very, very interesting stuff. 12:56.910 --> 13:02.070 If King takes rookie one check queen G4 check, queen G3 check. 13:02.370 --> 13:04.030 And we're crashing through. 13:04.050 --> 13:05.580 It's a very dangerous diagonal. 13:05.580 --> 13:08.440 We don't let the king necessarily go to be eight. 13:08.460 --> 13:11.490 So in the game, 97 was tried. 13:12.300 --> 13:15.300 We have rook takes D5 here phenomenal stuff. 13:16.620 --> 13:20.110 Black doesn't really want to play. 13:20.130 --> 13:21.060 He takes D5. 13:21.060 --> 13:22.150 It looks shaky. 13:22.170 --> 13:23.970 He plays actually Queen A5. 13:24.000 --> 13:26.540 Just for the record, let's be concrete balance sense. 13:26.550 --> 13:33.690 If he takes the E5, we have nine tanks D five check here King E6 and now we can play Knight for check 13:33.870 --> 13:38.220 and we can get this situation with Queen A5 with multiple mate. 13:38.340 --> 13:39.750 That's 95 mates. 13:39.750 --> 13:41.940 96 mates, 26 mates. 13:41.940 --> 13:43.200 What does Black do here? 13:43.230 --> 13:46.770 Queen C 795 Check then and we can play. 13:46.770 --> 13:48.900 Actually, don't worry about taking the material. 13:48.900 --> 13:51.770 We can try and end the war with Queen G five check. 13:52.230 --> 13:57.870 And then here it takes f6 Queen 65 F Thanks G seven check. 13:58.050 --> 14:03.660 And here we can cover escape squares again, trying to create mating impacts. 14:04.320 --> 14:07.940 It's absolutely crushing, but this is just an example. 14:07.950 --> 14:12.540 Queen e5 Rook takes f7 Queen six Jack We're going for the champ, mate. 14:12.540 --> 14:13.920 We can get it quite soon. 14:14.370 --> 14:15.600 It's brutal stuff. 14:15.600 --> 14:19.020 So I hope you're convinced that it takes D5. 14:19.050 --> 14:21.140 Yeah, we're playing Knight takes D5 check. 14:21.150 --> 14:24.350 The key thing is a Knight A4 for this key position here. 14:24.360 --> 14:26.250 It's absolutely devastating stuff. 14:26.400 --> 14:31.380 So anyway, Black kind of trusted that or maybe saw that and played Queen A five. 14:31.380 --> 14:36.570 Now we have Queen G five, check King F seven and now Rook H seven. 14:36.570 --> 14:39.510 So a lot of attacking potential being revealed. 14:39.720 --> 14:42.840 Rook G eight and now Rook d4. 14:43.380 --> 14:51.140 We have Queen site C five and this is a really beautiful finish now coming up so we have Rook takes 14:51.150 --> 14:53.910 D seven which disables the protection of F6. 14:53.910 --> 15:03.120 Basically that's a pinned pawn on G seven Bishop 67 So 94 essentially it's an absolutely winning situation 15:03.120 --> 15:03.870 here. 15:04.590 --> 15:11.090 If we're threatening things like Queen F6, if nothing else, as well as 96 and if Queen E seven, well, 15:11.100 --> 15:15.750 let's put that on the board, we would have 96 check here. 15:15.750 --> 15:18.480 And this is running black out of options for the fence. 15:18.480 --> 15:20.470 And then Queen F4, what is black doing here? 15:20.470 --> 15:21.990 And the Knights controlling E eight. 15:21.990 --> 15:23.460 So you can see that it's quite vicious. 15:23.460 --> 15:29.430 So Black tries Queen b4, which at least threatens a naughty checkmate in one but alekhine wins with 15:29.430 --> 15:30.420 checks here. 15:30.570 --> 15:33.720 So can you see what he plays to start off with? 15:35.360 --> 15:36.080 Okay. 15:36.850 --> 15:39.480 96 chunk say forces the to fight. 15:39.490 --> 15:40.150 You might wonder. 15:40.210 --> 15:41.080 Blimey. 15:42.290 --> 15:43.180 Thanks for listening, Queenie. 15:43.370 --> 15:44.600 What is the idea here? 15:44.660 --> 15:47.040 Can you say there's a force chap back here which ends the game? 15:47.060 --> 15:47.980 You've got to be nice. 15:47.990 --> 15:48.710 You've got to be good. 15:48.710 --> 15:50.060 Rather, chap. 15:50.060 --> 15:50.510 Mating. 15:50.720 --> 15:52.160 Mating ends the game. 15:52.160 --> 15:54.800 We've got to be masters of chap mate combinations. 15:55.340 --> 15:55.610 So. 15:55.610 --> 15:55.850 Yes. 15:55.850 --> 15:58.130 Check out my art Checkmate course if you haven't, this is. 15:58.580 --> 16:03.440 We're building on that to see how these attacking positions are actually generated in the first place. 16:03.440 --> 16:08.510 But here there's a false chap mate sequence, so check all checks, even the outrageous ones. 16:08.510 --> 16:11.240 So hopefully you find the fourth chap make your hair. 16:13.360 --> 16:13.980 Okay. 16:14.020 --> 16:15.390 About travel queen. 16:16.100 --> 16:19.670 Have sex, believe it or not, Opens up seven, Frank. 16:19.690 --> 16:20.410 Or it ends the game. 16:20.410 --> 16:23.020 Plante resigned, but it takes Rook have seven. 16:23.140 --> 16:24.010 Wow. 16:24.190 --> 16:25.350 Juicy stuff. 16:25.360 --> 16:29.170 I do find these games really up my street. 16:29.170 --> 16:29.650 I must. 16:29.650 --> 16:36.250 I must admit Alekhine compared to Capablanca, I must admit the contrast is evident that Alekhine really 16:36.250 --> 16:43.330 is an attacker with a capital A So the great gift? 16:43.330 --> 16:43.680 Yeah. 16:43.690 --> 16:44.110 Here. 16:44.130 --> 16:45.340 It's just wonderful. 16:45.340 --> 16:46.510 And this was even in the clock. 16:46.510 --> 16:47.260 Simul. 16:47.290 --> 16:49.960 He played this stuff in a clock simul. 16:50.800 --> 16:56.380 And it shows many of the elements of modern stockfish variations. 16:56.380 --> 16:58.810 Many of the elements of smashing through the defile. 16:59.050 --> 17:02.650 Just making sure the king is faced with cold winds, so to speak. 17:02.650 --> 17:07.480 As Bronstein might say, the king is faced with cold winds, especially after Rook takes the five. 17:07.480 --> 17:13.810 Black clearly is getting kind of frightened and trusting that this is it's too dangerous to take the 17:13.810 --> 17:13.990 rook. 17:13.990 --> 17:18.670 But, you know, white's smashing through anyway with the rooks being super aggressive. 17:18.670 --> 17:23.140 Look at the Rooks, how they contrast the blacks rooks, incredible stuff. 17:23.140 --> 17:26.710 And then taking out, you know, threatening to switch over here. 17:26.740 --> 17:37.810 It's four, but actually Rook takes D7 now 94 Big tempo gainer 496 What a wonderful, absolutely sweet 17:37.960 --> 17:39.580 cute finish. 17:39.580 --> 17:42.700 I hope you've enjoyed this as much as me and so much.