WEBVTT 00:01.280 --> 00:02.180 Hi there. 00:02.570 --> 00:06.740 This is an early Anatoly Karpov game against John Moules. 00:06.740 --> 00:11.990 This is in 1968, the sixth Nemea Final, a group round two. 00:11.990 --> 00:13.430 So evil from Karpov. 00:13.460 --> 00:15.230 John Moles plays E5. 00:15.410 --> 00:16.520 We have 93. 00:16.550 --> 00:17.480 96. 00:17.480 --> 00:18.770 Bishop B five. 00:18.770 --> 00:19.520 A six. 00:20.690 --> 00:21.710 Bishop A four. 00:21.710 --> 00:22.700 Knights have six. 00:23.120 --> 00:24.010 Queen E2. 00:24.020 --> 00:25.940 So this is a very interesting move. 00:26.180 --> 00:35.240 We have Bishop e7c free, B five, Bishop B three, d6a4, Bishop B seven. 00:36.500 --> 00:42.830 So here we have white castling, ignoring that B five pawn. 00:43.640 --> 00:47.600 There's going to be a lot of counterplay if White took on B5. 00:47.630 --> 00:49.220 Let's just carry the game. 00:49.220 --> 00:50.750 On to a critical moment though. 00:50.780 --> 00:56.000 White Castle's D Free H six Rookie one. 00:56.240 --> 01:00.950 We have no H seven, so Black is trying to generate counterplay with the f pawn. 01:00.950 --> 01:02.780 Push the pawn. 01:02.810 --> 01:06.860 Of course needs to be unpin first we have D four and L knight g five. 01:06.860 --> 01:11.150 So trying to take away the defender of a free bishop takes g5h. 01:11.180 --> 01:12.500 Takes D five. 01:12.500 --> 01:16.310 Closing the center 97 Rook d one. 01:17.090 --> 01:22.850 So this gives e one to the knights if it's going to be chased. 01:23.930 --> 01:25.740 And in fact, g four happens. 01:25.760 --> 01:26.810 The knight goes to e one. 01:26.810 --> 01:32.740 We have Bishop C eight and now eight times B five, nine times B five. 01:32.750 --> 01:39.920 So black has the backward pawn, but with the center closed, it seems more likely for f five to happen. 01:39.920 --> 01:43.580 We have Bishop C for Bishop D seven. 01:43.820 --> 01:45.170 So one is for each thing. 01:45.170 --> 01:51.350 Now Bishop takes B five because of rook times eight after so B five is guarded. 01:51.590 --> 01:57.650 9c2 Quincy eight dd 2g6 might be four. 01:57.650 --> 02:00.170 So it looks like logical targeting of a six. 02:00.170 --> 02:02.630 We have Bishop G five, Rook five. 02:02.630 --> 02:10.790 So building logically it looks like anyway on the A file Queen B seven might be free, so that safeguards 02:10.790 --> 02:11.600 the rook a little bit. 02:11.600 --> 02:14.330 More pieces are protected over there. 02:14.330 --> 02:20.030 King G seven We have the rooks doubling and now five. 02:20.450 --> 02:22.580 This is actually a mistake. 02:22.580 --> 02:24.080 A bit too optimistic. 02:24.410 --> 02:26.810 It seems as though Black could have played. 02:26.810 --> 02:32.600 Knightly four This is a tactical move hitting the queen, trying to undermine the knight on B four. 02:32.630 --> 02:37.370 If, for example, C takes the four, Queen takes B four, D takes. 02:37.370 --> 02:44.960 So here Black actually does best not to take on E5 because of C five, but actually to keep some pressure 02:44.960 --> 02:49.120 on the B file with the B eight. 02:49.130 --> 02:55.160 So as an example, if E takes D six, C takes, whereas Black's compensation you might ask of the rook 02:55.160 --> 02:56.210 takes a six. 02:56.600 --> 03:00.770 So black has two free four against one, two, three, four, five, six. 03:00.770 --> 03:01.790 So two pawns down. 03:01.790 --> 03:04.310 But have a look at this possession for a moment. 03:04.310 --> 03:10.580 Bishop f6 White's kind of pinned down and Black's going to put pressure on C four. 03:11.150 --> 03:16.700 So this means that for example, a five there's going to be a concession and black's only one pawn down. 03:16.970 --> 03:22.520 So yes, it does seem as though overall this is pretty dynamic, this whole situation. 03:22.670 --> 03:28.190 But yes, very difficult to kind of for humans to play this kind of two pawns down temporarily. 03:28.190 --> 03:30.710 But yeah, one point is coming back here. 03:30.710 --> 03:33.200 Black's got all the pieces on full power. 03:34.870 --> 03:37.120 If it takes 36. 03:41.750 --> 03:43.250 If after Pardon me. 03:43.850 --> 03:50.210 If after D takes E five, D takes E five white just gets a very strong position with 95 here. 03:50.660 --> 03:53.490 So yes that's, that's no problem for white at all. 03:53.510 --> 03:55.580 So anyway, let's get back to the game. 03:55.580 --> 03:57.750 So why is f5a mistake? 03:57.770 --> 04:01.070 Well, often it takes a six. 04:01.610 --> 04:06.350 Black's idea is to do something with the F Queen B six offering a PC. 04:06.380 --> 04:08.480 So very dynamic play from black. 04:08.480 --> 04:12.320 So a temporary piece sack F takes E four. 04:12.410 --> 04:13.130 And now. 04:13.130 --> 04:15.080 Yeah, this is very interesting. 04:15.590 --> 04:22.850 From the kind of control perspective and philosophy Y actually played C four, which accepts the idea 04:22.850 --> 04:25.280 that Black will play Rook takes F two. 04:25.310 --> 04:27.020 It looks like a really dangerous idea. 04:27.020 --> 04:33.140 It turns out here there might be a much better way to handle this with AC five. 04:33.260 --> 04:35.540 So interrupting the Queen from F two. 04:35.540 --> 04:37.940 And this really does keep control of the position. 04:37.940 --> 04:40.070 For example, here White's winning. 04:41.300 --> 04:42.530 So what does Black do? 04:42.950 --> 04:49.220 Rook takes aa5 is forced D takes Bishop C for white would have big control over the position here. 04:49.220 --> 04:51.010 For example E free OC. 04:51.050 --> 04:57.860 We can try and get some counterplay for black, but what ends up with a definite small edge the way 04:57.860 --> 04:58.990 Karpov played it? 04:59.210 --> 05:05.870 C four It does invite Rook takes F two and it's there is a bit of a backfire here, believe it or not. 05:06.590 --> 05:13.730 So clearly if Queen takes F to bishop, free and white can resign here losing Queen, it's not enough 05:13.730 --> 05:17.420 compensation, but complex idea does seem very clever. 05:17.450 --> 05:19.550 C five however. 05:21.540 --> 05:23.100 Let's see what happened, Rook. 05:23.130 --> 05:25.890 Takes E two, C takes B six. 05:26.790 --> 05:29.040 Bishop E free check King th one. 05:29.040 --> 05:30.780 And now Bishop takes B five. 05:31.140 --> 05:34.160 This position is rather dangerous for white. 05:34.170 --> 05:38.220 For the record, Karpov's move is basically forced in the circumstance. 05:38.220 --> 05:42.840 B seven If rook takes B five black and winning two different ways at least. 05:43.290 --> 05:45.720 One is can you see at least one? 05:47.000 --> 05:47.400 Yeah. 05:47.420 --> 05:49.850 Rook takes a six, and there sure is counterplay. 05:49.880 --> 05:51.260 White's back row is weak. 05:51.800 --> 05:54.500 If we take the rookie, one is checkmate. 05:55.160 --> 05:57.640 And the other way is even stronger. 05:57.640 --> 05:58.400 It's slightly stronger. 05:58.400 --> 05:59.390 G free. 05:59.630 --> 06:06.740 So with the idea that if B seven rook h eight is just mating, H.M.S. rook takes h three check g takes 06:06.740 --> 06:07.760 and rook h two. 06:07.790 --> 06:14.030 So credit Karpov that actually B seven is the way to avoid total disasters. 06:14.930 --> 06:15.680 So game on. 06:15.740 --> 06:19.580 After B seven, we have B seven and eight. 06:21.100 --> 06:27.130 So here black is actually if black gets one or two moves in, then G freeze dangerous. 06:30.980 --> 06:33.920 And let me just put the basic idea on the board. 06:33.920 --> 06:42.320 If he Jeffrey and let's say eight queening black would have a tactic when you see for five points. 06:42.770 --> 06:48.890 Yeah black would have rook takes h free check and this is mate Rook H two So up off. 06:50.040 --> 06:53.280 Does the right thing to get rid of the attacking piece. 06:53.280 --> 06:55.560 And it looks as though why it's in total control. 06:55.680 --> 06:59.460 So Bishop C4 Rook five to a free. 07:00.570 --> 07:05.940 But actually it turns out here, this is the tail end of the combination and looks as though, well, 07:06.150 --> 07:10.800 once just a rook up and past the annotate is just for black. 07:10.800 --> 07:14.220 Didn't really get counterplay and white had control all the way through. 07:14.310 --> 07:17.250 It turns out here, this is not entirely the case. 07:17.250 --> 07:18.240 With modern engines. 07:18.240 --> 07:23.420 We can actually assess this position more objectively. 07:23.430 --> 07:25.070 Black Rook takes B2. 07:25.080 --> 07:26.640 This is a big mistake. 07:27.150 --> 07:30.030 More objectively on Bishop takes D5. 07:30.030 --> 07:32.700 Look how many pawns Black has in the center. 07:33.540 --> 07:39.810 So black is a rook down, but the knights stumbling around and. 07:41.110 --> 07:44.170 For example, Knights A-6 Rook takes Be2. 07:44.200 --> 07:45.040 What happens here? 07:45.040 --> 07:47.500 Black's going to have to give a piece back. 07:48.640 --> 07:53.470 It's starting to look very, very dangerous here. 07:53.710 --> 08:01.000 And if this is one of the better moves, because if Knight see one bishop be six, what is happening 08:01.000 --> 08:02.350 to these knights? 08:02.590 --> 08:06.640 And meanwhile, black's got e free e two ideas. 08:06.640 --> 08:10.090 So say rook g free rook have to this position. 08:10.960 --> 08:12.100 Rook f one check. 08:12.100 --> 08:13.860 Black's can end up potentially winning material. 08:13.870 --> 08:16.180 Bishop D four check and taking on a one. 08:16.180 --> 08:17.860 It's a very dangerous position. 08:17.860 --> 08:21.980 If White's best is to give back material, the assessment really changes here. 08:22.000 --> 08:26.590 Black's got a lot of pawns and in fact, black is actually clearly better. 08:26.890 --> 08:30.820 So this is the funny thing about human positional chess. 08:30.820 --> 08:38.350 From the perspective of control, it's slightly illusionary that White has complete control in this 08:38.350 --> 08:39.340 particular position. 08:39.340 --> 08:41.710 Why has extra material for sure. 08:41.710 --> 08:46.300 But that's not a guarantee of positional control and authority. 08:46.960 --> 08:51.820 But past Annotators just thought it was a completely controlled game. 08:51.820 --> 08:52.420 Not quite. 08:52.420 --> 08:54.640 So Rook takes beta is actually a mistake. 08:54.910 --> 09:00.880 Like a five and black actually compounds things with Rook takes bait here and this makes things super 09:00.880 --> 09:01.780 easy for Karpov. 09:01.780 --> 09:05.320 Now, if Black had played Bishop free, this is technically equal. 09:05.320 --> 09:14.320 So for example, like AC six, Bishop DD 297 Roxie two There's big problems that White faces it after 09:14.320 --> 09:18.790 E three for example this possession as example. 09:19.450 --> 09:24.280 If White's giving back material, Black's still got that e pawn black would have an advantage. 09:24.280 --> 09:27.160 So with best play, this looks to be an even position. 09:27.160 --> 09:31.540 But yeah, it's a messy, materially imbalanced balanced scenario. 09:31.690 --> 09:32.560 But in the game. 09:32.560 --> 09:38.140 Yeah, things were made easy after rook takes eight white just mopped up Knight take C four and why 09:38.140 --> 09:42.520 is a rook up and black really hasn't got poor mobility or dangerous threats. 09:42.640 --> 09:49.390 The counterplay has been taken out of the black position and yeah, Black's really got nothing to do 09:49.390 --> 09:49.660 now. 09:49.660 --> 09:52.330 King G two Rook B five Rook C one. 09:52.330 --> 09:54.280 And this is the end of the game. 09:54.280 --> 09:55.570 Here it is. 09:55.570 --> 09:56.920 A rook up for white. 09:57.190 --> 10:03.550 But yeah, say Bishop C five Rooks Free White can continue with an exchange sack and really get rid 10:03.550 --> 10:07.330 of Black's pieces and totally zero the counterplay. 10:07.330 --> 10:14.320 But yeah, it's a fascinating game from the perspective of past Annotators pre engineer actually believing 10:14.320 --> 10:19.150 that Karpov had the counterplay completely under control. 10:19.270 --> 10:24.250 Now we aspire to be positional and to crush the opponent's counterplay. 10:24.460 --> 10:30.130 And sometimes, yes, there's this kind of thing where we're allowing attacks, but as long as we have 10:30.130 --> 10:31.930 control, then it should be okay. 10:31.930 --> 10:37.360 But sometimes, as we see in this game, it actually requires high precision moves. 10:37.360 --> 10:43.480 So in this case, C4 is actually technically mistake, but to see all of that, to see even a rook up 10:43.480 --> 10:45.880 that black's actually got a lot of compensation. 10:45.880 --> 10:48.130 Yeah, it shows that we're really tourists. 10:48.130 --> 10:54.070 Humans are really tourists in the game of chess, but at least we can have the ambition of positional 10:54.070 --> 10:54.610 controls. 10:54.610 --> 10:55.660 Control the position. 10:55.660 --> 10:57.580 We can have the ambition, sure. 10:57.670 --> 11:01.210 But sometimes the implementation isn't as brilliant as we thought. 11:01.210 --> 11:04.090 So C4 is actually at the tail end of this. 11:04.090 --> 11:09.910 Black has very good counterplay prospects, but black just ruins the continuations after. 11:10.090 --> 11:16.690 So yes, it seems as though the way to really destroy the counterplay after taking that pawn, taking 11:16.690 --> 11:19.660 the material on the queen side is this interruption move. 11:20.140 --> 11:26.410 So this interference move, this would really shut down all the counterplay and yeah, the better move 11:26.410 --> 11:30.520 would be for black to take on a five this position. 11:30.520 --> 11:31.540 So it's funny. 11:31.540 --> 11:31.750 Yeah. 11:31.750 --> 11:36.280 This looks like it's visually safe not to invite all of that stuff. 11:36.280 --> 11:38.710 Well, it has the pawn chain intact here. 11:38.710 --> 11:39.880 Black's pawns are weak. 11:39.880 --> 11:41.770 White should have a small edge. 11:41.770 --> 11:44.860 Non controversially, but yes. 11:44.860 --> 11:50.500 Och, but the thing is this is only Karpov 1968. 11:50.530 --> 11:56.620 He's definitely got ambitions to shut down the opponent's counterplay and play without risk. 11:56.770 --> 12:02.200 So his style is kind of a bit like Petrosian where Petrosian really didn't like losing and didn't like 12:02.200 --> 12:03.070 taking risks. 12:03.070 --> 12:10.090 So the positional player, ideally they really don't take any risk and they ideally aim for control 12:10.090 --> 12:10.870 of position. 12:10.870 --> 12:17.260 But in reality, yeah, chess is a very complex game to assess counterplay is a very difficult task, 12:17.860 --> 12:20.650 but I thought I should show you this early game. 12:20.680 --> 12:27.370 It does show that trademark of Karpov trying to destroy counterplay and even seemingly welcoming some 12:27.370 --> 12:33.730 dangerous tactics here, but they are actually dangerous in effect, if we check with modern technology. 12:33.760 --> 12:35.860 Okay, Thanks very much.