WEBVTT 00:01.350 --> 00:02.220 Hi there. 00:02.460 --> 00:08.130 In this introduction lecture, I'd like to answer the question What if you can't really accumulate any 00:08.130 --> 00:09.120 advantages? 00:09.120 --> 00:15.630 So there are no tactics, no clear way of attacking, and even no way of subtly improving the position? 00:15.630 --> 00:16.620 What do you do? 00:17.160 --> 00:24.960 Well, advice, which seems very, very sensible, is first, don't accumulate any downsides. 00:25.440 --> 00:35.010 There's a quotation which has been misleading chess players throughout the years as though a bad plan 00:35.010 --> 00:36.870 is better than no plan at all. 00:37.170 --> 00:40.380 In this course, we would argue the opposite. 00:40.530 --> 00:45.750 A bad plan is often worse or far worse than no plan at all. 00:45.750 --> 00:49.560 And that is that has been echoed by I am William Hoxton. 00:50.550 --> 00:56.430 And that's in contrast to Frank Marshall's advice that we desperately need some sort of plan. 00:56.430 --> 00:58.540 Like a plan is better than no plan at all. 00:58.620 --> 01:06.300 So Hartstein indicated the nearest you can come to the full formulation of a plan is to ask where you'd 01:06.300 --> 01:08.940 like to see your pieces in five or six months time. 01:09.630 --> 01:17.610 And Hartstein indicates many games are lost through pursuing bad plans as there are won by pursuing 01:17.610 --> 01:18.600 good ones. 01:19.800 --> 01:26.670 So we might try and improve our worst piece subtly or eliminate the opponent's best piece. 01:27.060 --> 01:31.140 But ideally, we want to avoid commercial pawn moves. 01:31.140 --> 01:33.530 Pawns do not go backwards. 01:33.540 --> 01:37.500 Pieces can go backwards and forwards all day, but pawns don't go backwards. 01:37.680 --> 01:44.130 So if you can play a waiting game and encourage pull moves from the opponent, that'd be great to encourage 01:44.130 --> 01:45.210 a waiting game. 01:45.510 --> 01:48.360 Sometimes that's given the term maneuvering. 01:48.780 --> 01:55.590 Sometimes we might might have to use maneuvering until the opponent is slightly disorganized. 01:55.950 --> 01:59.250 So here is a game from Emanuel Lasker. 01:59.820 --> 02:01.980 So the second official world chess champion. 02:01.980 --> 02:04.830 And what do we mean by disorganized? 02:05.340 --> 02:13.560 Well, on the chessboard, it might mean, for example, that the priorities of the pieces have been 02:13.770 --> 02:17.430 messed up, that pieces shouldn't be where they are. 02:19.260 --> 02:21.930 So here Black's in a defensive posture. 02:21.930 --> 02:24.450 Why it does have this target on E4. 02:25.410 --> 02:31.470 And Lasker talks about this waiting until the opponent's disorganized. 02:31.470 --> 02:34.080 So waiting moves can be crucially important. 02:34.560 --> 02:41.430 And this has been echoed by modern international monitors as international monitors like Ali Mortazavi, 02:42.540 --> 02:47.040 who noted, you know, it's important to sometimes do nothing Well, and it could be several waiting 02:47.040 --> 02:53.820 moves in a row which might slightly improve the possession or not, sometimes just letting the opponent 02:53.820 --> 02:57.660 make mistakes rather than try and blast them off the board immediately. 02:58.170 --> 03:03.390 So you're letting your opponent beat themselves up as opposed to try and actively wipe them off the 03:03.390 --> 03:08.700 board because they might have adequate defensive resources if you try, for an example, for an attack. 03:09.870 --> 03:16.530 So you're kind of waiting for downsides to creep in more or for the existing ones to be more exploitable. 03:16.860 --> 03:19.470 So here is a concrete example from Alaska game. 03:19.470 --> 03:21.690 So Alaska against George Solway. 03:22.590 --> 03:26.280 So here, let's see this game from this position. 03:26.700 --> 03:29.660 White played Queen F2 here. 03:29.910 --> 03:36.840 There's no easy way to proceed the attack if and four which looks as though 96 is really juicy. 03:37.140 --> 03:42.930 On this occasion in this position it's 86 and black's putting up some resistance. 03:43.710 --> 03:51.300 So that parries the threat of G6 which is mate there but 96 underpins the 87 pawn. 03:51.390 --> 03:53.910 And how is White making progress? 03:56.400 --> 03:59.250 Okay, so it's interesting. 03:59.250 --> 04:05.760 Maybe we would be justified with a pull move here, maybe and claim an advantage. 04:05.760 --> 04:09.000 But let's we're actually preferred maneuvering. 04:09.000 --> 04:14.820 So Queen F2, we have rook f eight and now Queen two. 04:15.840 --> 04:21.480 So the queen is slightly more flexible and central and encourages the opponents queen to play four queen 04:21.480 --> 04:26.070 by eight to try and maybe simplify with queen before we have one. 04:26.490 --> 04:35.790 We have Royal Kathy eight and now Rook g48 rook DD one and now Queen before Queen F two. 04:35.790 --> 04:36.660 And here it comes. 04:36.660 --> 04:38.190 This is a committal kind of move. 04:38.190 --> 04:38.940 Queen C free. 04:38.940 --> 04:42.420 It's difficult for the Queen to get back in a defensive posture. 04:42.420 --> 04:48.150 So there is an element of disorganization in terms of the promises of possession to defend the king. 04:48.330 --> 04:51.780 This doesn't seem to be aligned to those priorities. 04:52.410 --> 04:54.020 The queen is trying to be a nuisance. 04:54.030 --> 04:58.140 Now we have Queen H four, which subtly actually threatens e five hair. 04:58.140 --> 05:01.350 Believe it or not, we have 9h6. 05:03.020 --> 05:10.580 If just to demonstrate if a5e5 why this is dangerous, there's things like nine times F six and that 05:10.580 --> 05:11.480 would frighten. 05:12.650 --> 05:16.790 Potentially some some very dangerous ideas. 05:16.820 --> 05:18.770 So, for example, if. 05:20.080 --> 05:23.370 G takes F six, Queen tanks F six, and that's mating. 05:23.380 --> 05:30.520 As example, if Bishop eats, yeah, one should still have an advantage. 05:30.520 --> 05:32.280 But there's some way to go here. 05:32.290 --> 05:34.390 So this position white should have an advantage. 05:34.390 --> 05:35.010 So nice. 05:35.020 --> 05:35.920 H six. 05:36.070 --> 05:38.350 We have a recount for nine of seven. 05:39.130 --> 05:41.430 King H two and now rook ge eight. 05:41.440 --> 05:48.010 This is the start of more disorganisation away from the priorities of King defense. 05:49.150 --> 05:50.230 We have Queen G. 05:50.230 --> 05:56.380 Geoffrey wrote, She ain't so defending the maid and now rook H four And it looks as though this is 05:56.380 --> 05:58.660 a more dangerous case now with the Queen on C three. 05:58.660 --> 06:05.950 This looks as though it's more dangerous for this idea and we have now commit to move G five. 06:05.950 --> 06:09.730 So in Alaska's era, often players were self destructing. 06:10.180 --> 06:17.020 Maybe because of Frank Marshall's quotation, You know, a bad plan is better than no plan at all, 06:17.050 --> 06:18.550 especially commit or pull moves. 06:18.580 --> 06:20.110 Irreversible pawn moves. 06:20.350 --> 06:25.180 We can see that F six is now having to be protected by the Queen. 06:25.780 --> 06:29.290 So this is a major liability, this f six pawn. 06:29.470 --> 06:31.270 This is a very commendable decision. 06:31.990 --> 06:33.550 We have F takes g. 06:33.580 --> 06:34.930 This didn't even need to be played. 06:34.930 --> 06:36.970 Rook g four just looking at f six. 06:36.970 --> 06:44.620 And for example here, Queen E one just get the queen off is the defender of F six is remarkably effective 06:44.620 --> 06:45.940 in this position. 06:46.300 --> 06:49.150 If we win F six now, we're ready to win F six. 06:49.150 --> 06:51.700 This is just a remarkably effective position. 06:52.840 --> 06:56.170 So here, for example, we're going to play nine takes F six. 06:59.520 --> 07:00.900 So it's interesting. 07:01.170 --> 07:03.300 There's there's interesting points here. 07:03.990 --> 07:08.520 And Black doesn't want to necessarily attack the rook to lose D6 and f6. 07:08.520 --> 07:10.620 So it's an interesting position. 07:10.620 --> 07:14.250 But anyway, f Tex G was preferred by Alaska. 07:14.250 --> 07:18.110 We have Rook takes G6, Queen F two and yet another commercial pawn move. 07:18.120 --> 07:20.880 So these weaknesses creeping in are hard to estimate. 07:20.880 --> 07:24.480 Actually, we have four for the United States. 07:24.480 --> 07:31.860 G six check, we have rook F six and 92 hitting the queen, Queen B to rook DD to Queen A one and now 07:31.860 --> 07:32.540 Knight G3. 07:32.550 --> 07:35.790 So black's under great pressure here. 07:37.960 --> 07:40.090 And we have King G eight. 07:40.660 --> 07:44.770 If F takes E four, then nine takes E four is nice. 07:45.220 --> 07:49.230 So this position rook takes nine times 90, takes 36. 07:49.240 --> 07:52.390 That would be a terrible position for blank. 07:52.900 --> 07:57.640 So King G eight, we have E takes F five, Bishop takes F five. 07:57.910 --> 08:02.740 And now a tactic here to try and exploit this position. 08:03.340 --> 08:04.510 94. 08:06.110 --> 08:07.780 So wanting to win a five. 08:07.790 --> 08:09.800 So F five is one and one. 08:09.800 --> 08:11.060 It's advantage is clearer. 08:11.060 --> 08:16.700 It's a much more exploitable position for exploiting Black's weaknesses. 08:16.700 --> 08:23.600 So King for Queen takes default, not minding a transition here to an end game. 08:23.720 --> 08:32.390 So here 95 Rook H five with the idea of undermining the knight with C five so rook f7c5 undermining 08:32.390 --> 08:33.230 E five knight. 08:35.120 --> 08:40.010 So D take C rook takes E five, C takes rook takes D four. 08:40.010 --> 08:43.580 So Lasker went on to win this rook and pawn ending. 08:43.580 --> 08:51.470 So here rook a five rook to a3c5 rooks eight. 08:52.100 --> 08:54.740 Rugby to rugby five. 08:54.920 --> 09:01.160 And now this active move, which doesn't work here because White has rook b seven check after King G 09:01.160 --> 09:07.560 six Rook C six Jack and the Kings King is not moving from their rook. 09:07.730 --> 09:09.620 Six is starting to get too dangerous. 09:10.340 --> 09:24.200 Rook c5k6a46 Rook C Free A6 rook g3 check King H six and now rook jig seven here Black resigns. 09:24.680 --> 09:33.080 So anyway, the key point which is demonstrated in this game is that sometimes we do need to maneuver. 09:33.080 --> 09:38.930 Maneuver is another way of saying like high class waiting moves, waiting for more downsides, or the 09:38.930 --> 09:44.540 opponents be slightly disorganized or the piece is not in the optimal positions if they have defensive 09:44.540 --> 09:45.110 duties. 09:45.110 --> 09:52.790 This Queen excursion adventure into White's position was allowed because we encouraged the opponent 09:52.790 --> 09:53.570 to do something. 09:53.570 --> 10:01.280 We did some maneuvering, which is kind of disguising high class waiting moves which animate, as Ami 10:01.280 --> 10:06.260 believes, the stronger players can play several such moves in a row without compromising their position, 10:06.260 --> 10:08.030 just waiting for the opponents to crack. 10:08.240 --> 10:14.660 So sometimes, especially in modern chess, people are getting better in various ways. 10:14.660 --> 10:23.510 Sometimes you've got to sometimes wait for them to self destruct outside, especially on the longer 10:23.510 --> 10:26.870 time, which was the increment time controls the obvious mistakes. 10:27.110 --> 10:29.390 You know, they're kind of being rolled out. 10:30.120 --> 10:32.610 With things like increments sometimes. 10:32.760 --> 10:37.890 So sometimes the waiting game letting the opponents self-destruct is a key thing. 10:37.890 --> 10:39.240 And we see, you know, maneuvering. 10:39.240 --> 10:44.730 We can think of maneuvering as a high class waiting game in a way. 10:44.730 --> 10:46.680 So it's waiting for committal moves. 10:46.680 --> 10:54.180 If we've got more committal moves, we can see how this makes the position easier to exploit the weaknesses 10:54.180 --> 11:02.160 once this g five this is this is really the start of overcommitment and that's had an alternative way 11:02.340 --> 11:03.480 to play this. 11:03.480 --> 11:08.100 He could have just played even just rook g four here. 11:08.640 --> 11:15.330 So yes, nine, eight, six wouldn't be sufficient because things start dropping off off the hook tanks 11:15.330 --> 11:17.400 rd six and F six to follow. 11:17.400 --> 11:24.360 So this would be a very good position to try and further improve the advantages with F six dropping 11:24.360 --> 11:25.920 off the commercial pawn moves 11:28.230 --> 11:31.500 basically lead to problems. 11:31.500 --> 11:34.620 So Laskas way in a way is much more straightforward. 11:34.620 --> 11:41.040 Just take on G six and try and look at these weaknesses and wait for Black to open up the position even 11:41.040 --> 11:43.230 more for King safety issues. 11:43.230 --> 11:49.530 So we can see that sometimes maneuvering is the positional name given if there's absolutely nothing 11:49.530 --> 11:55.260 to do, if you can't clearly improve a worse piece or make one of the opponent's pieces slightly worse, 11:56.910 --> 11:59.790 there's no subtle way of improving the position at all. 11:59.790 --> 12:02.460 We can look to maneuvering. 12:02.460 --> 12:09.090 That's the secret word we're using for high class weighting modes, letting the opponent self destruct, 12:10.320 --> 12:13.830 especially if they become impatient or panicky. 12:14.070 --> 12:18.960 So commercial moves, we can look forward to those and exploiting those new downsides. 12:20.040 --> 12:21.750 So I hope that's interesting. 12:21.750 --> 12:23.940 We're talking about this scenario. 12:24.270 --> 12:26.880 What if you can't accumulate advantages? 12:26.880 --> 12:32.310 In a nutshell, a waiting game is quite often a great recipe. 12:33.570 --> 12:35.730 So just don't do any plan. 12:35.730 --> 12:42.540 Sometimes that's better than a plan, especially if that plan involves committal weaknesses like pull 12:42.540 --> 12:43.080 moves. 12:43.110 --> 12:43.920 Okay. 12:44.820 --> 12:45.600 And so much.