WEBVTT 00:01.170 --> 00:02.010 Hi there. 00:02.040 --> 00:08.400 In this lecture, we're going to talk about why prevention is a key part quite often of accumulating 00:08.400 --> 00:09.450 advantages. 00:09.960 --> 00:16.230 So prevention is unfortunately known in NIMS, which is my system as prophylaxis. 00:16.350 --> 00:21.750 Now, prophylaxis sometimes is given. 00:22.880 --> 00:26.180 A kind of low brow definition. 00:26.180 --> 00:27.200 Indeed. 00:28.550 --> 00:34.310 At one level, prevention can be of a single move. 00:34.730 --> 00:45.050 So, for example, in the Sicilian Najdorf, we could say that the night off is really quite cute with 00:45.050 --> 00:47.240 this high class weighting of a six. 00:48.080 --> 00:51.160 It does help prevent White's use of B five. 00:51.170 --> 00:55.670 We've used the move in what seems to be a sharp opening, but it's standard theory. 00:55.850 --> 01:00.200 Six It does prevent y sometimes with Bishop B five check, which could be useful. 01:00.440 --> 01:03.800 That's just a very, very simple use of prevention. 01:03.800 --> 01:11.840 Prevention can be used with much more impact for the opponent's entire possession or a whole part of 01:11.840 --> 01:13.080 the opponent's possession. 01:13.100 --> 01:19.910 It can be used to restrain the opponent's counterplay, chances to create any play or tactics. 01:20.090 --> 01:26.210 And I'll show you an example which we will revisit later on in the course maths and Nimzowitsch. 01:26.210 --> 01:28.910 But before we do, let's talk about this prevention idea. 01:30.050 --> 01:39.020 So prevention is often better than cure is the advice which has been indicated by a philosopher Desiderius 01:39.320 --> 01:43.790 Erasmus and around 1500 he indicated this idea. 01:44.420 --> 01:49.010 And in chess terms it's very cruel, especially to tactical players. 01:49.010 --> 01:54.500 If we don't give them any counterplay or chances they won't be able to show their great tactical abilities 01:54.500 --> 01:56.540 if all their pieces are shut in. 01:56.540 --> 02:01.790 And we're gradually improving our advantages and we just crush them positionally. 02:03.230 --> 02:10.610 So prevention of counterplay is often, as Nimzowitsch argues, it's often achieved for restraining 02:10.610 --> 02:11.780 the pawn structure. 02:12.160 --> 02:13.970 And you might ask, Well, why is that? 02:13.970 --> 02:16.730 Why is that important to restrain your opponent's pawn structure? 02:16.760 --> 02:20.300 Well, it has an implication for limiting pieces quite often. 02:21.530 --> 02:26.900 And if there's no peace activity or little peace activity, it means there's no tactics. 02:27.680 --> 02:34.220 And also, you know, from the outset, from opening theory, the positional players can be really annoying 02:34.250 --> 02:35.600 to tactical players. 02:35.930 --> 02:41.600 So, for example, if you want to have the fun of the in defense and you want to take up the Sicilian 02:41.690 --> 02:47.930 fashioning carve and you're hoping for firm positions like this, you know, I've experienced positional 02:47.930 --> 02:55.670 players, killjoy friends of mine like Paul Georgiou, who recognize I'm good tactically and he'll just 02:55.670 --> 03:02.630 play what's known as the anti bishop Bb5, which has gained huge popularity, popularity over the years. 03:02.750 --> 03:08.420 It's a cruel way where it's just saying, I'm going to play it like Roy Lapaz with C4 in D for having 03:08.420 --> 03:10.250 none of this counterplay business. 03:10.280 --> 03:12.890 We're going to play our positional game instead. 03:13.100 --> 03:19.950 So prevention is a form of cruelty to tactical players who want to have fun on the chessboard. 03:19.970 --> 03:23.240 It's killing their fun in advance. 03:23.240 --> 03:28.970 We're not going to give them those chances to have devastating attacks against our king. 03:30.970 --> 03:32.500 If we're the positional player. 03:32.980 --> 03:41.320 So, yes, prevention of counterplay is a key thing and it's often achieved with pawn structures kind 03:41.320 --> 03:45.490 of blocking in pieces, especially bishops in closed positions. 03:45.490 --> 03:51.160 Bishops have the peril of being able to be locked in sometimes rather badly. 03:51.160 --> 03:53.200 And we see that in neural network games. 03:54.340 --> 04:01.690 So Leader was able to be much more analytical engines sometimes through just positional play, just 04:01.690 --> 04:03.850 crushing the pieces. 04:03.850 --> 04:06.760 So all the calculations in the world, they didn't mean anything. 04:07.540 --> 04:14.500 And yeah, if we can accumulate advantages without controversy, i.e. preventing the opponent's counterplay, 04:14.500 --> 04:17.380 it would mean that we simplify our chess thinking. 04:17.380 --> 04:21.980 We don't have to calculate loads of variations to see are we losing material or we'd be to there. 04:22.060 --> 04:26.290 We just wanted to increase an advantage and we're getting mated instead now. 04:26.680 --> 04:29.350 So we want to limit the counterplay. 04:29.350 --> 04:35.440 It's definitely a very important consideration to accumulate advantages, essentially without hassle, 04:35.440 --> 04:37.000 without controversy. 04:37.540 --> 04:41.560 We would like to use prevention throughout the accumulation of advantages process. 04:41.560 --> 04:47.050 We might need to change parts of our opening repertoire, not to give counterplay from the outset to 04:47.050 --> 04:52.630 any opponents to grab Petrosian, a world chess champion, hardly lost any games, and he had a lot 04:52.630 --> 04:56.800 of prevention of the opponent's plans even before they had conceived them. 04:57.100 --> 04:59.350 So he really didn't like losing. 04:59.350 --> 05:07.330 So he's known as a master of prophylaxis and exchange sacrifices, defensive exchange sacrifices, quite 05:07.330 --> 05:10.570 often just to shut down the opponent's counterplay. 05:11.920 --> 05:16.990 And so, yes, playing positional players, if you're a tactical player without any positional player, 05:17.320 --> 05:21.070 positional strength, you could be in severe trouble. 05:21.070 --> 05:26.230 You just basically shut down your your chances are shut down, your counterplay shut down. 05:26.230 --> 05:31.120 You can't really demonstrate tactical ability if all your pieces are completely useless. 05:32.200 --> 05:35.470 So, yes, it's interesting. 05:35.470 --> 05:41.380 Also, Leyla Chess, I experienced playing the early leader of chess and the positions just became kind 05:41.380 --> 05:42.460 of depressing. 05:42.610 --> 05:44.860 So Leila wasn't even calculating that much. 05:44.860 --> 05:47.470 Just from experience knew how to play. 05:47.470 --> 05:57.670 Positioning evolved a great positional sense 2500 GM even playing at 2 seconds per move and having all 05:57.670 --> 06:01.840 your tactical ideas and counterplay destroyed makes the position kind of depressing. 06:01.840 --> 06:03.370 There's nothing to look forward to. 06:03.370 --> 06:08.770 So this is the art of positional play, especially against tactical players with nothing else. 06:08.770 --> 06:13.300 To them, it's going to be a delight to destroy those kind of players. 06:13.630 --> 06:17.800 So lack of counterplay can often lead to self destruct and downsides. 06:17.800 --> 06:18.730 Just created. 06:18.880 --> 06:22.840 Adams has mopped up a lot of players who tried to attack him later out of desperation. 06:22.840 --> 06:26.740 They're just crying often more weaknesses and which are easy to exploit. 06:26.740 --> 06:27.790 More downsides. 06:27.790 --> 06:34.720 Now here, here's the master of prophylaxis, the original inspiration, it seems, for Tigran Petrosian, 06:34.720 --> 06:36.760 who inspired Karpov. 06:36.760 --> 06:39.400 We're looking at an Aaron Nimzowitsch example here. 06:39.790 --> 06:44.020 So Hermans Matheson against them as we'll see this against Nimzowitsch. 06:44.020 --> 06:45.790 We'll see this later in the course as well. 06:45.790 --> 06:53.110 So D4 nine six and Nimzowitsch invented the NIMS are Indian and part of this is damaging the pawn structure 06:53.260 --> 06:57.220 and kind of locking down the opponent's pawn structure, which in turn limits the pieces. 06:57.220 --> 07:05.410 So here nimzowitsch just took straight away on C free and he aims to limit the C one bishop and what 07:05.410 --> 07:08.020 really didn't get too much counterplay in this game. 07:08.020 --> 07:13.780 So here C five you see the double pawns, they're fixed and the bishop hasn't got too many attacking 07:13.780 --> 07:14.470 prospects. 07:14.470 --> 07:17.020 So it doesn't matter if the opponent is a tactical genius. 07:17.020 --> 07:20.680 Now it's difficult to make use of this bishop. 07:20.860 --> 07:28.300 So here G three, we have B six, and this other bishop is parried both sides Castle Knight, H four 07:28.300 --> 07:34.450 And now Nimzowitsch is happy to take off that bishop and then get the Queen to a better place tying 07:34.450 --> 07:35.650 white down to C4. 07:35.650 --> 07:43.060 So why it's really not got too much counterplay 96 now threatening a five and white may have felt well 07:43.060 --> 07:48.040 the pawns are being doubled but this leads to a case of more exploitable weaknesses. 07:48.040 --> 07:54.550 This is an example of increasing advantages through what seems to be a paradoxical decision to double 07:54.550 --> 07:55.330 the opponent's pawns. 07:55.330 --> 08:03.100 The thing is, a mighty knight is achieved on C four, and there are targets now after a six to be celebrated 08:03.100 --> 08:04.660 like the backward a pawn. 08:05.110 --> 08:06.940 So B takes rook, takes a six. 08:06.940 --> 08:11.740 Black's able to build up, amplify the pressure on the A file and we see that throughout this. 08:11.740 --> 08:12.940 The counterplay is very limited. 08:12.940 --> 08:14.920 The knight holds D six here now. 08:14.920 --> 08:18.310 Well, it did before as well as the rook and white's. 08:18.460 --> 08:24.970 It doesn't matter if White's a tactical genius, this may as well have been in modern times the leader 08:25.180 --> 08:29.440 neural network playing against the human who just the tactic. 08:29.840 --> 08:30.650 Just disappeared. 08:30.650 --> 08:31.310 92. 08:31.340 --> 08:34.310 We have 95 tying white down further. 08:34.310 --> 08:34.670 Why? 08:34.790 --> 08:39.740 Pieces are becoming absolutely terrible, just looking after weaknesses, basically. 08:39.740 --> 08:44.360 So this is an example of zero counterplay game after E four. 08:44.390 --> 08:48.730 This is a total self destruct move, but there wasn't much else going on here. 08:48.740 --> 08:55.910 Material loss is going to happen, but with this 95 and White now resigned so just 23 moves and knock 08:55.910 --> 08:56.390 out. 08:56.840 --> 09:00.890 So make no mistake, sometimes positional games can end very, very quickly. 09:00.890 --> 09:04.340 Adams has proven that time and time again in the British championship games. 09:04.340 --> 09:05.720 We'll see in this course. 09:05.930 --> 09:14.150 So positional players shutting down counterplay and here if rook d196c free further material lost 99 09:14.270 --> 09:21.740 free check picking up the rook happens it's just a disastrous position rookie one nine and three check. 09:23.330 --> 09:27.620 Yeah it's just a total disaster you know a twos going basically. 09:28.130 --> 09:34.850 So yes this position you can understand why White's has resigned. 09:34.850 --> 09:37.820 There's going to be a lot more material being lost soon. 09:38.330 --> 09:45.380 So anyway, it's a simple example of restraints against pawn structure, hemming in pieces and also 09:45.560 --> 09:48.890 pieces having to look after weaknesses isn't a good sign. 09:49.310 --> 09:55.610 If the opponent's pieces are destroyed through having to nany pawns or being blocked in by pawns, it's 09:55.610 --> 09:56.720 not a good sign. 09:56.720 --> 10:03.230 So this is a really instructive, celebrated game which really impressed me. 10:03.410 --> 10:13.400 So nimzowitsch by his example games and his teachings in my system has influenced future generations 10:13.400 --> 10:14.780 of grandmasters. 10:14.780 --> 10:20.540 But the notion of restraints and prophylaxis and over protection, we're going to examine all of those. 10:20.720 --> 10:27.320 But in order to in more simple terms, prevention can be of specific modes, but it can be shutting 10:27.320 --> 10:33.620 down parts of the opponent's position or whole possession prevention in a wider sense, more significant 10:33.620 --> 10:39.110 sense, more global sense rather than specific like piece or particular move. 10:39.110 --> 10:42.590 Prevention is such a powerful concept in its own right. 10:44.270 --> 10:47.270 In many, many contexts, prevention is better than cure. 10:47.300 --> 10:51.230 Of course, in the medical sense, that's the most like life critical. 10:51.290 --> 10:54.920 If you prevent issues, it's better in the first place. 10:55.400 --> 11:00.290 So prevention is really important, like having flu jabs or whatever. 11:00.290 --> 11:02.240 That is a bit of controversy there for some people. 11:02.270 --> 11:09.080 But in general, you understand that the concept of prevention is important in many different domains. 11:09.080 --> 11:15.140 It's often very, very useful to prevent things rather than have to tackle the symptoms after. 11:16.310 --> 11:18.350 That can be a lot more expensive. 11:18.590 --> 11:21.470 So that applies to all sorts of things in life. 11:21.470 --> 11:30.500 So prevention as a philosophy, we can see that incorporated in our accumulation of advantages model. 11:30.500 --> 11:38.630 It's yeah, like the grace to make the mechanical workings go much more effectively if we don't have 11:38.630 --> 11:43.670 the hassle of having to deal with the symptoms of the opponent's counterplay, if we can prevent the 11:43.670 --> 11:46.070 opponent's counterplay from the outset. 11:46.190 --> 11:50.570 So I hope that's kind of clear that we're going to see look out for this. 11:50.650 --> 11:57.860 The idea of prevention in the games of Karpov and Adams and other great positional players in this course. 11:57.860 --> 12:02.690 It's something which is such a powerful philosophy to embrace. 12:03.380 --> 12:04.160 Och. 12:05.200 --> 12:05.950 And so much.