WEBVTT 00:01.650 --> 00:02.400 Hi there. 00:03.180 --> 00:08.040 In this course, we do talk about control a lot. 00:08.640 --> 00:11.160 So I noticed an emphasis on control. 00:11.160 --> 00:18.750 And one of the Lloyd's masters, where I saw a lot of the top players and, you know, 2500, they they 00:18.750 --> 00:21.990 came and they kind of manage the counterplay of opponents. 00:21.990 --> 00:25.950 They kind of crush the counterplay, especially of a lot of British players. 00:25.950 --> 00:27.990 Just didn't have any counterplay to go with. 00:27.990 --> 00:33.270 So even though British players were very strong tactically, they just couldn't get the games, which 00:33.270 --> 00:36.210 could show their tactical skills. 00:36.600 --> 00:40.440 And in general, positional play is largely about control. 00:40.440 --> 00:47.730 When we say about counterplay crushing opponents, we're keeping control of the position and that has 00:47.730 --> 00:49.770 many advantages. 00:50.040 --> 00:56.760 We can take time then to accumulate advantages or take time to let the opponents make mistakes. 00:56.760 --> 01:01.920 So waiting moves just let the opponents self-destruct or make commit or pull moves. 01:02.430 --> 01:06.120 Karpov had this quotation, which is very, very famous. 01:06.120 --> 01:10.290 He basically said, Let us say the game may be continued in two ways. 01:10.290 --> 01:17.180 One of them is a beautiful tactical blow that gives rise to variations that don't yield to precise calculation. 01:17.190 --> 01:23.160 The other is a clear is clear positional pressure that leads to an end game with a microscopic chances 01:23.160 --> 01:24.030 of victory. 01:24.150 --> 01:26.790 I will choose the latter without thinking twice. 01:27.840 --> 01:35.970 So in one respect, this implies, you know, maybe the game is going to be boring, but quite often 01:35.970 --> 01:37.620 the games are nothing but boring. 01:37.620 --> 01:46.680 It's the notion of keeping control is behind this quotation, in my view, because we don't want to 01:46.680 --> 01:51.270 have this maze of variations where we could miscalculate and things get out of control. 01:51.300 --> 01:56.250 Keeping control is vital and we can make tradeoffs for control. 01:56.250 --> 02:01.110 We don't need to find the absolute best moves in positions, and that might be very impractical. 02:01.110 --> 02:05.520 We might spend a lot of time finding best modes and being time trouble later. 02:05.520 --> 02:11.850 So good moves, economical moves is the hallmark of many classic positional players. 02:11.850 --> 02:18.900 Capablanca was often playing games very, very quickly and he could also play huge, simultaneous, 02:18.900 --> 02:27.060 very, very effectively because his style was clear and the positions didn't require sometimes huge 02:27.060 --> 02:28.440 amounts of calculations. 02:28.440 --> 02:32.790 He kept things pretty simple and simplified where he had an advantage. 02:32.790 --> 02:40.620 So keeping things simple and clear and keeping control, trying to nurture even tiny advantages is a 02:40.620 --> 02:43.110 hallmark of the great positional players. 02:43.110 --> 02:49.590 And and another hallmark is often they are able to play moves quite quickly without huge amounts of 02:49.590 --> 02:50.340 calculations. 02:50.340 --> 02:57.210 They're not like the more dynamic, aggressive players like Kasparov or players that are investing large 02:57.210 --> 02:59.670 amounts of time because they're doing huge amounts of calculation. 02:59.670 --> 03:08.220 We're talking about, in a way, a simple view of chess that we if we can keep control, we can gradually 03:08.220 --> 03:10.770 accumulate small advantages. 03:10.980 --> 03:17.940 And it's very economical, it's very practical in many ways to do this, especially if we're playing 03:18.510 --> 03:19.800 faster time limits online. 03:19.800 --> 03:24.630 Do we really want these mazes of variations which we can't possibly calculate in time? 03:24.630 --> 03:31.380 So keeping things more simple with control is a great philosophy and an integral part, in my view, 03:31.380 --> 03:33.570 of incrementing advantages. 03:34.710 --> 03:42.040 Sometimes we we might need to play waiting moves while keeping control, hopefully waiting for new downsides 03:42.060 --> 03:46.410 the opponent to be created that opponents beat themselves. 03:46.500 --> 03:52.920 Then you have a great scope for winning rather than only winning based on your brilliant attacks. 03:52.920 --> 03:54.480 What if there isn't a brilliant attack? 03:54.480 --> 04:00.030 So this idea of keeping control sometimes waiting for mistakes, it's a great hat to put on a great 04:00.030 --> 04:03.270 playing style hat to be aware of. 04:03.990 --> 04:06.060 And managing counsel is about control. 04:06.060 --> 04:09.090 Blockading like Nimzowitsch is about extreme control. 04:09.090 --> 04:12.540 If you think about blockading a pawn, then that pawn can't move. 04:12.540 --> 04:14.730 It's in a form of extreme control. 04:14.730 --> 04:21.270 But the whole of what Nimzowitsch calls prophylaxis, which you could just call prevention and not just 04:21.270 --> 04:27.870 preventing moves, but preventing the opponent's half of all or half of their pieces not moving or a 04:27.870 --> 04:29.460 lot of the pieces not being able to move. 04:29.460 --> 04:31.050 That's all about control. 04:31.950 --> 04:36.330 And if we look at the engine graphs of positional player games, they're not turbulent. 04:36.330 --> 04:42.450 They're often just just this, you know, mountain climb, gradual but crushing mountain climb one way 04:42.450 --> 04:43.260 games. 04:43.980 --> 04:52.650 So do not rush is also a kind of trait quite often calmness calmness under pressure and sometimes positional 04:52.650 --> 04:57.390 players are soaking up when the opponents try and attack them or play dynamically. 04:57.390 --> 04:58.800 They're soaking up the counterplay. 04:58.800 --> 04:59.820 So being able to. 05:00.060 --> 05:05.460 And resourcefully and later counter-attack great skills like Petrosian especially. 05:05.850 --> 05:12.810 So we see in this example, I've got an example for you, an absolute classic Karpov game, which you 05:12.810 --> 05:13.990 may have seen before. 05:14.010 --> 05:21.720 So in this position it's a closed position which actually makes the control aspects of this game even 05:21.720 --> 05:26.100 more emphatic in my view, because Black's pieces didn't really have much to do. 05:26.100 --> 05:33.840 And Karpov avoids simplification first with this iconic move Bishop a seven, so actually prevents simplification. 05:33.850 --> 05:39.300 He doesn't want that just yet and it gives the top of the option maybe of moving that bishop later if 05:39.300 --> 05:43.190 he wants an a foul exchange or to get into the file. 05:43.200 --> 05:50.250 We have 98 bishops E to 90 C seven and now the rooks behind the A seven bishop Queen E seven. 05:50.250 --> 05:56.600 We have Bishop B one, Bishop E and now 9298. 05:56.610 --> 05:58.620 So black's not able to move too much. 05:58.620 --> 06:01.920 This pawn structure is restraining on Black's counterplay. 06:01.920 --> 06:08.880 We have Knight H two, Bishop G seven and now playing F4, knowing that it's not really an exploitable 06:08.880 --> 06:09.300 weakness. 06:09.300 --> 06:16.350 The e five square black plays E takes the knight's not well placed to exploit the E five square here, 06:16.350 --> 06:18.860 so this is a risk worth taking. 06:18.870 --> 06:20.070 We have F six. 06:20.070 --> 06:24.990 So just to show if E takes a four line, takes a four, we have f six. 06:25.530 --> 06:28.350 This game is examined in detail in the course, by the way. 06:28.350 --> 06:30.510 So this is just a lighter version. 06:30.510 --> 06:32.520 I just want to emphasize the control aspects. 06:32.520 --> 06:35.670 So here, for example, White's going to get a good advantage like this. 06:35.670 --> 06:38.190 Just maneuvering, looking at C six and E six. 06:38.310 --> 06:42.890 It's a very pleasant position indeed, and B five could be under pressure. 06:42.900 --> 06:48.810 So anyway, we have F6 being played, so more weaknesses to work on based on the light squares. 06:48.840 --> 06:50.460 F five we have G five. 06:50.460 --> 06:53.070 So these are potential light square weaknesses. 06:53.070 --> 06:59.400 If only we could play a strategic bishop exchange to weaken and amplify these weaknesses further. 06:59.400 --> 07:07.200 So Karpov aims to incrementally try and have this little goal, this positional goal of exchanging off 07:07.200 --> 07:08.760 the loin square bishops. 07:08.760 --> 07:10.350 So this is a beautiful plan. 07:10.350 --> 07:14.070 It would leave black with this kind of imprisoned bishop. 07:14.070 --> 07:17.370 You can see it's a kind of prison in its own pawn structure. 07:17.520 --> 07:23.400 So this is really great control of the position here where one is carrying out small improvements and 07:23.400 --> 07:25.980 Black's just the spectator here at the moment. 07:25.980 --> 07:27.870 Very passive game from black. 07:27.870 --> 07:28.890 So Queen de one. 07:28.890 --> 07:34.380 So this strategic bishop exchange is an option for whites, but we have this rook free waiting for a 07:34.380 --> 07:36.390 moment's patience. 07:36.750 --> 07:40.920 We have Knight G four and this is afforded tactically to be able to play this. 07:40.920 --> 07:43.830 We have King Fe if Bishop. 07:44.190 --> 07:45.420 So this is practicing now. 07:45.420 --> 07:47.850 Bishop takes H five, the bishop takes H five immediately. 07:47.850 --> 07:53.100 This is not working for black because of Knight takes F six check because it's check. 07:53.100 --> 07:54.900 We're going to be winning the Queen after. 07:54.900 --> 07:57.120 So King Fe threatens the bishop. 07:57.240 --> 08:02.400 But now Knight E three, King G and now Bishop's come off. 08:02.400 --> 08:06.660 And now another small plan infiltration on the light squares. 08:06.660 --> 08:12.360 So this is kind of poetry in motion on both sides of the board that black really has been devoid of 08:12.360 --> 08:12.820 counterplay. 08:12.840 --> 08:19.320 So really one way game positional players love their one way games with minimal counterplay. 08:19.320 --> 08:25.170 And now White has achieved another improvement in the position a juicy knight coming to F5 and that 08:25.170 --> 08:28.320 dangerous pawn on G six but no one else. 08:28.370 --> 08:30.420 It was a very, very difficult position. 08:30.420 --> 08:33.240 So here black's on the way out now. 08:33.240 --> 08:39.660 95 Black actually resigned here and we see many games of Karpov where, you know, the opponents aren't 08:39.660 --> 08:40.560 even material down. 08:40.560 --> 08:42.120 They just resign positionally. 08:42.120 --> 08:46.650 They've been positionally, you know, stuffed like a turkey hare for Christmas. 08:46.650 --> 08:52.020 Yeah, It's just, you know, there's nothing really black to do to try and defend. 08:52.020 --> 08:59.460 White has various infiltration options and various ways of dismantling the position now. 08:59.790 --> 09:00.630 So. 09:01.710 --> 09:02.290 Okay. 09:02.400 --> 09:04.650 You know, for example, night takes a nine of six after. 09:04.650 --> 09:09.300 If Black tried to defend the bishop, it's just a horrendous position to be in or just moving the bishop 09:09.300 --> 09:10.850 back to infiltrate on the file. 09:10.860 --> 09:12.700 So Black just resigned. 09:12.720 --> 09:18.660 This is an epic example of Anatoly Karpov with an iconic move, you know, Bishop 87. 09:19.200 --> 09:25.740 And it shows that, yeah, if we can destroy the opponent's counterplay and gradually improve our position 09:25.740 --> 09:31.260 and improve our position, sometimes even if the opponent isn't material down, they could be resigning 09:31.260 --> 09:36.900 just out of being so sad about their position not being able to move many pieces. 09:36.900 --> 09:43.440 So positional play has this kind of almost zigzagging goal on many occasions of the classic games. 09:43.860 --> 09:46.440 Nimzowitsch did it back in the day. 09:46.470 --> 09:51.660 He sometimes restrained all the opponent's pieces until, you know, literally they just couldn't have 09:51.660 --> 09:53.610 any decent moves left. 09:53.610 --> 09:59.850 So positional players, you could say it's like a slow form of strangulation or sadism, but whatever, 09:59.850 --> 10:05.100 it's it's a very important hat in chess to be aware of positional play, making small improvements. 10:05.100 --> 10:11.550 But control we see in this course, I like to call them patterns because that's less prescriptive than 10:11.550 --> 10:15.690 saying kind of laws or principles or methods or small wins. 10:16.290 --> 10:22.890 We have to bear in mind we're applying patterns to our games and they might be appropriate or might 10:22.890 --> 10:23.130 not. 10:23.130 --> 10:28.800 So by calling them patterns rather than principles, I hope you're more flexible in their use, saying 10:28.800 --> 10:32.970 that up and down sides and seeing if they're more appropriate for your position that you get in your 10:32.970 --> 10:33.630 games. 10:33.630 --> 10:39.000 But yeah, there's a lot of control patterns, there's a lot of structure patterns about pawn structure 10:39.000 --> 10:43.890 because it's where pawns that we can more easily accumulate advantages because they're the slowest moving 10:43.890 --> 10:45.240 aspect of the position. 10:45.240 --> 10:46.980 And there's other patterns we'll see. 10:46.980 --> 10:55.830 So basically at the end of this course, you should be able to be motivated to play positional games 10:55.830 --> 11:02.010 where you're kind of restraining opponent's counterplay and slowly kind of removing their good moves 11:02.010 --> 11:08.370 and you might get wins just based on huge positions more and more as you increase your positional mastery. 11:08.370 --> 11:17.070 So I would say, yeah, control is one of the most important patterns given in this course you know 11:17.160 --> 11:17.640 about. 11:17.640 --> 11:25.320 It's related to counterplay removal, it's related to increasing advantages gradually. 11:25.320 --> 11:31.440 So I hope you enjoy this style of play or enjoy witnessing the positional games with this flavor in 11:31.440 --> 11:32.310 this course. 11:32.510 --> 11:34.800 Okay, So much.