WEBVTT 00:00.920 --> 00:01.630 Hi there. 00:01.640 --> 00:05.870 In this lecture, we see Michael Adams playing against Anthony Costin in 1997. 00:05.870 --> 00:07.430 So constant the Grandmaster. 00:08.120 --> 00:17.480 So E four from Adams we see E five 9396, Bishop B five, the Roy Lopez, a six, bishop a4f6 Adams 00:17.480 --> 00:27.890 Castles, Bishop E seven rookie 1b5 Bishop B Free Black Consuls H Free Bishop B seven is played now. 00:29.390 --> 00:35.600 So here we have the free d6 a free. 00:35.630 --> 00:37.330 So this is quite interesting. 00:38.030 --> 00:49.310 This is the moment where Plank cannot play 95 because of nine times E, five and E four is solid enough. 00:49.310 --> 00:51.110 So when D six happens. 00:51.320 --> 00:53.060 95 is now a threat. 00:53.060 --> 00:55.130 So it's kind of addressed by Adams a free. 00:55.130 --> 01:01.310 So he wants to keep this bishop and it seems very, very logical play now after Queen D seven, this 01:01.310 --> 01:04.030 doesn't look like a classic Roy Lopez move. 01:04.040 --> 01:10.520 It's more of a very modern treatment, which Nigel Short has kind of emphasized nicely free. 01:10.610 --> 01:13.790 It's got a good control over the D five square. 01:13.910 --> 01:19.770 It's a good positional move in this situation you don't especially with a free the plan of C friend 01:19.770 --> 01:29.090 D four is not so relevant here so this is trying to control a key line square rook eight and now 95 01:29.930 --> 01:33.770 we have a five and in fact the bishop is taken out. 01:33.800 --> 01:40.490 Now he takes e seven queen takes e, seven, bishop a two, and now C five. 01:40.820 --> 01:42.560 We have Knight H four. 01:43.640 --> 01:47.330 And you might think that's a bit of a strange decision that Bishop was locked in anyway. 01:47.780 --> 01:52.850 Yes, but it's the solidity of the black position on the dark squares which has been reduced. 01:52.850 --> 01:56.640 That kind of bad bishop was adding solidity. 01:56.660 --> 02:09.530 Now here we have the move 9c6c free Bishop C ain't Bishop G five, King H eight and now Bishop D five. 02:09.530 --> 02:14.930 Exploiting that pin paste the use Bishop D 598 and now Knight F five. 02:15.740 --> 02:21.320 Can this piece be tolerated more cost than actually tolerates it with Queen C seven If he plays, Bishop 02:21.320 --> 02:22.070 takes a five. 02:22.070 --> 02:24.110 This is quite pleasant for white. 02:24.380 --> 02:30.080 If H six here white can actually take out F6 to try and dominate the line squares more. 02:30.410 --> 02:33.920 And for example, Queen H five is a nice edge for white. 02:33.950 --> 02:35.500 Nice advantage here for white. 02:35.510 --> 02:39.200 So Queen C seven was played tolerating the knight on F five for a moment. 02:39.320 --> 02:41.930 But now there's another major problem. 02:41.930 --> 02:44.150 Of course, white can double the pawns. 02:44.270 --> 02:47.960 Now factor in the G four attack. 02:48.980 --> 02:53.540 But will White have enough positional authority for that not to mean anything? 02:53.540 --> 02:54.260 This g five attack? 02:54.260 --> 02:56.990 If we double the pawns here, it's an instructive moment. 02:56.990 --> 02:59.270 Would you double the pawns on f six? 02:59.270 --> 03:01.700 If you want to think about this position for a bit. 03:02.060 --> 03:03.530 So White's play. 03:05.240 --> 03:06.920 And what would be the plan after? 03:06.920 --> 03:11.570 If we think about the plan after, if we're going to double the pawns so we might be exposed to some 03:11.570 --> 03:12.650 sort of attack. 03:12.800 --> 03:15.230 But how effective is that attack going to be? 03:15.740 --> 03:20.450 OC So here Adams actually does take on F six structural damage. 03:20.450 --> 03:22.820 It is a preference you'll see in a lot of games. 03:22.820 --> 03:28.070 Adams is inflicting structural damage and soaking up the counterplay. 03:28.070 --> 03:35.010 So here there's a potential you know attacking counter playing queen a free reinforces at five G and 03:35.010 --> 03:35.930 now G free. 03:37.340 --> 03:42.590 So this gives some interesting options to play G Free Knight e sex king H two. 03:44.870 --> 03:50.240 So here we have a tempo gain of 9g5 Queen E three, rook G six. 03:51.020 --> 03:53.750 And is Black's attack that significant? 03:53.750 --> 04:01.280 White now plays a move to open up the queenside a four These rooks are kind of abandoning the queenside 04:01.700 --> 04:02.180 we see. 04:02.180 --> 04:05.770 B takes a four rook takes a four rook egg. 04:06.050 --> 04:10.130 But perhaps Planck was banking on the queenside being not that relevant. 04:10.130 --> 04:11.870 The is holding a six right. 04:13.070 --> 04:14.750 We see rook ea1. 04:14.750 --> 04:15.860 What's going on here? 04:18.040 --> 04:25.510 Okay, So 96, we have four, Rog, five Queen, F3, and this is looking at F6 now. 04:26.470 --> 04:28.540 So the black rooks look a bit awkward. 04:28.720 --> 04:33.940 The queen is tied down now a bit to f6 nine and five, Queen eight. 04:34.300 --> 04:38.020 Now, in this position, White is making further progress. 04:39.180 --> 04:40.240 In a special way. 04:40.260 --> 04:41.780 What do you think that way is? 04:41.790 --> 04:48.120 So the G file attack doesn't seem that great at the moment, but White wants to make progress. 04:48.120 --> 04:51.120 So how would you do that for 100 points? 04:51.120 --> 04:52.110 What would you play here? 04:54.950 --> 04:55.370 Yes. 04:55.370 --> 05:00.140 Sometimes we have to consider a positional exchange sacrifice, sacrificing a rook for a bishop or knight 05:00.140 --> 05:01.400 to make progress. 05:01.430 --> 05:03.950 Otherwise, how can we exploit the D6 target? 05:05.030 --> 05:08.710 So yes, Rook takes a six, so it's one pawn for the exchange. 05:08.720 --> 05:13.190 We need to look at the overall trend going up when we do a positional exchange sacrifice. 05:13.190 --> 05:15.690 It's a really important part of the positional toolkit. 05:15.710 --> 05:21.870 Sometimes you just simply cannot improve the position further without such a positional exchange sacrifice. 05:21.890 --> 05:24.700 If we look here, how would we actually improve the position further? 05:24.710 --> 05:32.210 Our pieces are really quite optimal, but we just need to have exploitable targets. 05:32.210 --> 05:35.960 So it opens up the way for DD six to be an exploitable target now. 05:35.960 --> 05:39.440 So one point of exchange and it's not even taken 1937. 05:39.440 --> 05:47.270 So if it's taken Rook takes a six and let's say Rook g6, we're going to take on DD six and this is 05:47.270 --> 05:48.020 going to be very nice. 05:48.020 --> 05:52.010 Queen E free, he takes her five. 05:52.310 --> 05:56.180 This kind of stuff is possible. 05:56.180 --> 05:58.070 The tactics work from white hair. 05:58.190 --> 06:02.720 The King's exposes more If Rook takes DD six, Queen takes e five check picking up the rook. 06:03.710 --> 06:05.420 So the tactics are working here. 06:05.420 --> 06:09.890 There isn't such a danger and it's getting more and more pawns for the exchange. 06:10.010 --> 06:13.670 So this position is just great for white if we look at this again. 06:14.690 --> 06:23.810 So Queen Sex g seven is a move there, which is good but sorry earlier on. 06:25.120 --> 06:31.420 Rook five The G six if Knight C seven instead Hare Knight takes D six. 06:34.270 --> 06:35.500 And this is a lot of fun. 06:35.710 --> 06:39.300 This position, Mike takes a six queen, takes f6 check. 06:39.310 --> 06:41.950 The tactics are working for white after nine takes have seven. 06:41.950 --> 06:44.310 Jack Black would have to give up the queen. 06:44.320 --> 06:47.350 So yeah, this is a really interesting situation. 06:47.980 --> 06:55.150 So, yes, after 97, immediately White plays, Mike takes DD six and ignites some of the same ideas 06:55.150 --> 06:55.600 there. 06:55.780 --> 06:57.730 So Mike takes D five is played. 06:57.730 --> 07:03.370 So if Mike takes a six again, this air queen takes first check and then taking out F seven forces, 07:03.370 --> 07:04.360 the winner of the queen. 07:05.140 --> 07:09.040 And if rook F-8 queen takes E five this is still great for white. 07:09.400 --> 07:16.720 Check here is picking up a whole rook vicious so the tactics really work for white as well which is 07:16.720 --> 07:21.700 important so so okay so in this position Knight 66. 07:21.700 --> 07:23.380 Knight 65. 07:25.180 --> 07:26.920 Avoiding that kind of disaster. 07:26.920 --> 07:32.290 But now Knight takes C eight and yes, White is winning material. 07:32.290 --> 07:35.020 Queen takes C eight, E takes D five. 07:37.360 --> 07:41.080 So black has been shattered with that positional exchange sacrifice. 07:41.290 --> 07:42.970 One, two, three, four, five. 07:42.970 --> 07:43.270 Against. 07:43.270 --> 07:45.500 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. 07:45.520 --> 07:47.290 It looks like a very bad position. 07:47.390 --> 07:53.050 Rook five that shields and gets a tempo queeny to tempos. 07:53.080 --> 07:55.840 Can't really tempo moves can't really save black hair. 07:56.350 --> 08:07.600 See for Queenie feint and now rook ain't we have Queen H six If Queen takes a rook takes eight, Rook 08:07.600 --> 08:08.160 takes eight. 08:08.170 --> 08:09.280 King G two. 08:09.310 --> 08:16.160 The situation is not very good for black because the Rooks are just overwhelmed here. 08:16.180 --> 08:18.840 For example, De SAC said the rooks are getting overwhelmed. 08:18.850 --> 08:21.580 There's too much to do here. 08:23.860 --> 08:26.710 So Queen H six was tried, but now D six. 08:26.710 --> 08:28.330 And this is the end of the game here. 08:28.330 --> 08:32.410 In fact, Black doesn't even try the final attacking attempt. 08:32.560 --> 08:35.470 Rook H five It's really a token attack. 08:36.040 --> 08:36.790 White can play. 08:36.790 --> 08:37.900 Rook takes gains. 08:37.930 --> 08:41.380 Jack King takes Rook H at King G seven. 08:41.650 --> 08:46.280 And just simply here, there's a great cool defensive move to play. 08:46.300 --> 08:47.620 Can you see what that is? 08:48.310 --> 08:50.530 To avoid any attacking hassle? 08:51.940 --> 08:54.130 What has this authority in this position? 08:54.130 --> 08:56.020 And you can just play for 100 points. 08:56.020 --> 08:58.870 What would you play here against Rook takes H free. 09:01.550 --> 09:04.100 With different ways to play about King G to his tunes. 09:04.610 --> 09:06.430 Worries about doing If Rug Takes H three. 09:06.440 --> 09:14.840 We have Queen G for Jack, picking up the rook in various ways, or if the queen Queen has to kind of 09:14.840 --> 09:17.180 go in front and then we just pick up the rook. 09:18.110 --> 09:20.360 But what else? 09:20.570 --> 09:25.160 Queen G thinks we're just going to play D seven and then queening. 09:25.280 --> 09:31.460 So yeah, this game I thought was very, very nice and controlled and showed a kind of more original 09:31.460 --> 09:35.120 modern treatments of the royal of has in this particular variation. 09:35.120 --> 09:42.710 So if we look again there isn't the classic c3d4 plan but rather a like square control plan instead. 09:43.790 --> 09:49.760 Here actually, Adams is avoiding the wrath of the Marshall Gambit. 09:49.760 --> 09:55.330 If C frame D five, he's not playing against Marshall game, so it's kind of anti Marshall stuff of 09:55.340 --> 09:58.940 H three but yeah, Bishop b7d free. 09:59.180 --> 10:05.870 So this now kind of positioning for Athens 9a5 to grab this bishop so that's addressed with a free but 10:05.870 --> 10:14.180 with an accompanying like square grip strategy and yes this idea of doubling the pawns, the opportunity 10:14.180 --> 10:20.930 to double the pawns here soon is taken up with white getting such a huge authority on the possession. 10:20.930 --> 10:28.670 Really, the attack was made to look like absolutely a token attack and White needed to use a positional 10:28.670 --> 10:35.150 exchange sacrifice to make the queenside operations much more effective and dangerous for black. 10:35.150 --> 10:42.710 So it reaches an optimal point for the pieces here where White's pieces are really well placed and it 10:42.710 --> 10:46.760 just needs something to break down the doors of Black's possession. 10:46.760 --> 10:49.370 And that's something is this positional exchange sacrifice. 10:49.370 --> 10:54.110 So we really need to take the positional exchange sacrifice, especially when our pieces are optimal 10:54.530 --> 10:56.090 to take our position further. 10:56.090 --> 10:58.040 We really need it in our toolkit. 10:58.940 --> 11:04.040 And this is something I observed from one of my my tournaments, my very long game tournaments with 11:04.040 --> 11:09.620 big increment side controls that I wasn't like entertaining a positional exchange sacrifice. 11:09.620 --> 11:12.950 Sometimes it's the only way to increase the advantage in the position. 11:12.950 --> 11:19.370 And here I think this is a really iconic example actually, in my view, it really is devastating this 11:19.370 --> 11:22.100 positional exchange sacrifice to tap into Black's weaknesses. 11:22.100 --> 11:25.850 And no, earlier, you know, the absence of that bad bishop, the solidity of D. 11:25.850 --> 11:27.800 Six is being challenged. 11:27.800 --> 11:29.930 That's one of the things being underlined here. 11:29.930 --> 11:36.380 The lack of solidity of the D six pawn and also the f six pawn they become. 11:37.400 --> 11:41.240 Easier targets with the absence of the e seven bishop earlier. 11:41.240 --> 11:45.200 So great positional decisions all coming together in this game. 11:45.200 --> 11:48.260 I hope you enjoyed it as much as me and so much.