WEBVTT 00:01.040 --> 00:01.860 Hi there. 00:01.880 --> 00:07.970 In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov against Boris Spassky in 1979, the Montreal tournament round 00:07.970 --> 00:08.620 four. 00:08.630 --> 00:12.920 So we see D4 from Karpov nine five, six, C4 E six. 00:13.220 --> 00:17.330 So we have a Queen's Gambit declined here after 93. 00:17.330 --> 00:19.550 D five, nine C Free E seven. 00:19.910 --> 00:23.990 Bishop F four Black castles E three. 00:24.020 --> 00:25.040 C five. 00:25.340 --> 00:26.570 D Take C five. 00:26.570 --> 00:34.070 So why is wanting to saddle black with a nice eight Queen's pawn 96 Quincy two, Queen a five And we 00:34.070 --> 00:42.680 have a free now Bishop Take C five Rook D one Bishop e 792 So this is a very interesting move. 00:42.680 --> 00:47.180 It looks for the moment it weakens d4, but Black really can't tap into that. 00:47.180 --> 00:49.130 Bishop D seven is played. 00:49.130 --> 00:53.720 There is the idea of knight be free if D for hitting the Queen. 00:53.870 --> 00:55.310 So that's not possible. 00:55.310 --> 01:03.110 Bishop D seven is played Bishop e2 Rook fc eight and again D four. 01:03.140 --> 01:04.850 There's just simply might be free. 01:04.850 --> 01:08.060 The Queen would have to move and just take on default with the pawn. 01:08.180 --> 01:09.560 That's simple enough. 01:09.590 --> 01:10.520 That's great for white. 01:10.520 --> 01:17.000 So Rook FC eight We have White Castling, Queen eight and now we have this emergence of an isolated 01:17.000 --> 01:17.810 Queen's pawn. 01:17.810 --> 01:22.130 It's not the end of the world in itself a lot of the time. 01:22.640 --> 01:25.250 And so. 01:26.210 --> 01:27.170 A structural defect. 01:27.170 --> 01:29.310 How does Karpov exploit this? 01:29.330 --> 01:37.430 Well, in general, before we get into the game, let me propose something to you philosophically. 01:37.880 --> 01:46.430 A lot of things are often said about Karpov's games, how he gets rid of counterplay and basically counterplay 01:46.430 --> 01:50.750 is another term we could use for the downsides of our own position. 01:50.750 --> 01:56.630 So if we want to exploit the downsides of the opponent's position, we want to do that without downsides. 01:56.630 --> 02:00.560 In our position, basically without counterplay means without downsides in our position. 02:00.560 --> 02:02.180 So bear that in mind. 02:03.530 --> 02:07.670 We like a free first trying to fix the target, fix this default square. 02:07.670 --> 02:11.000 So the points going back doesn't matter that it's when they're earlier. 02:11.000 --> 02:14.420 We want to seal the D4 square, the blockade square six. 02:14.420 --> 02:15.610 We have 95. 02:15.620 --> 02:20.630 So this is an interesting decision, wanting to exchange off one pair of knights. 02:21.760 --> 02:25.660 And this would loosen blacks control a bit of default. 02:25.690 --> 02:28.690 We have Bishop E six and now note take C six. 02:28.690 --> 02:32.830 So at this moment it looks as though hold on, why not be take six? 02:32.830 --> 02:34.660 Well, then there's another weakness. 02:34.660 --> 02:35.950 Crater the C five squared. 02:35.950 --> 02:39.880 So this is like backward pawns. 02:39.880 --> 02:44.140 Basically, White has blockading ideas potentially against C five. 02:44.140 --> 02:45.910 So anyway, Spassky didn't want that. 02:45.910 --> 02:47.140 He wanted to keep the estate. 02:47.140 --> 02:52.540 Queen's pawn Rook st C six We have Bishop three, Queen B six, and now Bishop E five. 02:52.540 --> 03:00.580 So this seems logical to establish more control over D4 nine E4 Queen E2 and this is tactically justified. 03:00.580 --> 03:02.200 So we have Knight take C free. 03:02.200 --> 03:03.550 Bishop take C free. 03:03.550 --> 03:07.470 So isn't this Bishop slightly loose on C free? 03:07.480 --> 03:08.680 Not particularly. 03:08.680 --> 03:09.910 Rook D eight is played. 03:09.910 --> 03:14.860 If Bishop takes a free we have Bishop take G seven. 03:15.490 --> 03:17.530 This would give a great position. 03:17.530 --> 03:17.980 Yeah. 03:17.980 --> 03:20.020 This attempt to undermine the bishop. 03:20.290 --> 03:21.130 We play. 03:21.130 --> 03:25.600 Bishop takes G seven, not Bishop D four, because then Bishop C five and they've just stolen one of 03:25.600 --> 03:26.980 our pawns basically. 03:26.980 --> 03:33.280 So yes, we play Bishop takes G seven and if this position we've weakened the opponent's king. 03:33.280 --> 03:35.830 So we've got two downsides to play with. 03:35.830 --> 03:37.560 And this should be favorable for white. 03:37.600 --> 03:41.380 After e for this opening up, the position is going to favor white. 03:41.500 --> 03:48.370 There are already ideas here of Queenie five check now and Bishop Taxi six And this is just all favoring 03:48.370 --> 03:51.100 white essentially this kind of position. 03:52.720 --> 03:55.060 So that's really out of the question. 03:55.060 --> 03:58.150 Black doesn't want to weaken his king on top of the queen's pawn. 03:58.150 --> 03:59.350 So Rook they ain't. 03:59.350 --> 04:00.520 We have rook free. 04:00.520 --> 04:03.490 So preparing to just build the pressure on D five. 04:03.490 --> 04:05.770 But is it the end of the world for black? 04:05.770 --> 04:10.660 So even in Anakin's gun construction, is this the end of the world for the isolated Queen's pawn? 04:10.780 --> 04:13.570 Queen B five, Queen RD one, B six. 04:13.570 --> 04:16.840 So at the moment Black has adequate defense of D five. 04:16.840 --> 04:18.010 We have G three. 04:19.180 --> 04:25.570 Now, this is where the notion of downsides of the opponent's possession without downsides is important. 04:25.600 --> 04:32.050 Maybe a lesser player would sometimes completely blow this position just with the excitement of the 04:32.050 --> 04:33.430 D five structural weakness. 04:33.430 --> 04:36.160 Oh dear, the d five structural weakness at the end of the game. 04:36.160 --> 04:42.850 Not quite, because how do we actually tread around this to try and win it without actually compromising 04:42.850 --> 04:44.230 our own position? 04:44.230 --> 04:47.530 If we play a move like E4, guess what Black has here? 04:50.740 --> 04:54.730 Yeah, Black would actually play Bishop G5, so we can't actually play like this. 04:56.150 --> 05:02.390 If we don't want to lose the exchange or lose both routes, if it was a faster time control, if it 05:02.390 --> 05:05.750 was a bit of a reckless move, that's that's not a good idea. 05:06.650 --> 05:10.830 And even if, by the way, there wasn't Bishop G5, even in the case of details. 05:10.910 --> 05:19.730 E four So what adequately defends here because freeze hanging at the end of this and what is what is 05:19.730 --> 05:21.080 the problem here for Black's position? 05:21.080 --> 05:21.950 There's no problem. 05:21.950 --> 05:23.900 So g three is played. 05:25.640 --> 05:27.230 We have bishop F eight. 05:28.550 --> 05:31.040 So the bishop at least is not threatening Bishop G five sometimes. 05:31.040 --> 05:31.220 So. 05:31.220 --> 05:34.680 Bishop G two So this is some patience here, Bishop. 05:34.700 --> 05:37.130 E seven Bishops, Black Queen H five. 05:37.620 --> 05:38.270 Okay. 05:38.300 --> 05:41.180 The Queen company is unprotected. 05:41.180 --> 05:42.340 It's now unprotected. 05:42.800 --> 05:44.630 H three So what is White's plan? 05:44.630 --> 05:47.810 Here we have King h2a5f4. 05:47.810 --> 05:50.300 So it looks as though hold on, F five might be interesting. 05:50.510 --> 05:54.110 And with the Queen on H five, there's no G six eggs of Queen size eight six. 05:54.110 --> 05:54.350 Right. 05:54.350 --> 05:55.970 So F six is played. 05:56.180 --> 05:57.410 We have the Queen going back. 05:57.410 --> 06:01.370 So the Queen Gunn Construction, the queen at the base of the two rooks. 06:01.370 --> 06:04.670 So that's names of the Alexander and very cute but is it winning? 06:04.970 --> 06:06.590 We have Queen Bee five. 06:08.060 --> 06:11.810 So Queen Bee five and now move G four. 06:11.840 --> 06:16.370 Now here, Spassky seems to go really wrong. 06:16.910 --> 06:19.280 Why is weakening a bit the dark squares. 06:19.280 --> 06:23.450 The king is on a potentially dangerous diagonal. 06:23.450 --> 06:29.030 There is an inherent downside here of the King being slightly exposed on dark squares. 06:29.030 --> 06:31.700 But g five makes things significantly worse. 06:31.700 --> 06:32.960 This wasn't needed. 06:32.960 --> 06:34.160 Strictly needed. 06:35.660 --> 06:40.190 If Bishop f seven let's let's imagine Bishop Bishop F seven. 06:40.610 --> 06:42.380 How would we approach this? 06:42.470 --> 06:45.290 This isn't that easy, actually. 06:46.290 --> 06:49.500 How on earth would we approach this isolated Queen's pawn situation? 06:49.500 --> 06:52.010 We seem to have an ideal configuration, right? 06:52.950 --> 06:58.680 But the thing is, if we play a move like E4, then the bishop points are F4 again. 06:58.710 --> 06:59.160 Yeah. 06:59.160 --> 07:02.640 This bishop on this side of the board is not really influencing these dart squares. 07:02.640 --> 07:03.960 And our king lives over here. 07:03.960 --> 07:07.560 So this is not really helping our king in many variations. 07:07.710 --> 07:11.040 If E5 here, then so what big So what? 07:11.070 --> 07:14.490 Black can either play Bishop C5 to tactically hold D5. 07:14.490 --> 07:18.150 We can't take on D5 because of Bishop G one check. 07:18.360 --> 07:18.840 So. 07:18.840 --> 07:19.290 So what? 07:19.290 --> 07:25.260 Or even without being any flashiness, the bishop could have just gone to B.A. and there's a big. 07:25.260 --> 07:25.740 So what? 07:25.770 --> 07:29.550 Here, our pressure's gone without the E4 having any effect. 07:29.940 --> 07:31.200 Black lives another day. 07:31.200 --> 07:32.250 It's just an even position. 07:32.250 --> 07:36.960 So this is fascinating that G5 makes things significantly worse. 07:40.810 --> 07:45.850 So yes, On Bishop F seven, was there a way to to to auto win this? 07:46.780 --> 07:50.620 It's very, very difficult if we try to move like King H one. 07:50.620 --> 07:55.180 Let's get the king off here to try and take the downsides of position out. 07:55.180 --> 07:56.740 So strengthening move, right. 07:57.520 --> 08:02.080 But this is with a more solid structure than the game pawn that has not left G seven. 08:03.180 --> 08:04.210 So what happens here? 08:04.230 --> 08:08.640 Let's say a four is E four actually winning by force? 08:08.640 --> 08:10.080 This is a big question here. 08:10.080 --> 08:16.740 If the pawns had remained intact on the kingside, if Spassky hadn't gone crazy with G5, is this position 08:16.740 --> 08:18.600 fatal or not? 08:19.770 --> 08:21.150 What about Bishop DD six? 08:22.680 --> 08:28.260 Just looking at F4 again, there is there is something inherent about this position when the bishop 08:28.260 --> 08:33.240 will see free and the dark squares over here that this can be picked on. 08:33.810 --> 08:41.190 If White now plays F5, guess what black has and our dream of this this game being simple as ruined 08:41.530 --> 08:42.270 F4. 08:43.840 --> 08:44.800 It's just backfired. 08:44.870 --> 08:46.900 It was just backfired against us. 08:47.440 --> 08:51.360 If we move the rook, they're going to play D takes E four and hit things. 08:51.400 --> 08:52.750 If we play Rook takes D five. 08:52.750 --> 08:54.730 We don't really want to do an exchange sack. 08:54.760 --> 08:56.410 This is just pointless. 08:56.800 --> 09:00.370 So, yeah, it is actually a fascinating position. 09:01.210 --> 09:08.620 And if we don't play E four, if we play F five, let's say rookie eight, really asking for E four 09:08.620 --> 09:10.480 here because there's like 3 to 1. 09:10.480 --> 09:11.230 No. 09:11.590 --> 09:12.610 Guess what? 09:14.050 --> 09:15.460 This is an easy either. 09:15.460 --> 09:16.720 Bishop C five. 09:18.100 --> 09:21.970 And if it takes we really creating new downsides of opposition. 09:21.970 --> 09:23.950 This bishop is not really helping. 09:25.390 --> 09:31.630 It struggles to help e one here with a move like D six does rookie one check. 09:31.750 --> 09:34.450 So we'd have to play Rook C two on the defensive. 09:34.450 --> 09:37.690 We've won a pawn, but look at Black's position. 09:39.460 --> 09:41.940 So Rook C two would defend E one. 09:41.950 --> 09:43.540 You know, chess is not easy. 09:43.540 --> 09:46.150 So King H seven Bishop a free rook. 09:46.150 --> 09:46.480 E four. 09:46.480 --> 09:48.130 And this is just an even position. 09:48.130 --> 09:50.260 Black has enough compensation here. 09:51.100 --> 09:53.020 So it's absolutely fascinating. 09:53.020 --> 10:03.460 This game may seem very instructive, but really this is a key, key mistake which does compromise Black's 10:03.460 --> 10:03.940 position. 10:03.940 --> 10:10.180 To the point of that we can actually exploit things without being exploited ourselves after this. 10:10.180 --> 10:13.230 So after this move, severe weakening move now, King H. 10:13.240 --> 10:17.830 One is a great strengthening move and things are very different. 10:18.250 --> 10:24.460 Black is without that ability to have that counterplay, to have that counter on our our downsides of 10:24.460 --> 10:25.210 the position. 10:27.790 --> 10:36.280 So here though, yeah, I mean it was a careful move if White had played F5. 10:37.110 --> 10:38.750 So Carnforth must have looked at this. 10:38.760 --> 10:43.350 The thing is here Bishop F seven, E four. 10:43.350 --> 10:50.340 Even in this configuration ridiculously with G five, there's Bishop D six check and then this position. 10:50.340 --> 10:51.500 What are we playing here? 10:51.510 --> 10:55.740 E text There's Bishop F four and all of a sudden D five is picked up. 10:55.740 --> 10:59.610 Now, now that the rooks are interrupted, it's not so, so easy again. 10:59.910 --> 11:02.370 So Karpov is careful with King H one. 11:02.370 --> 11:04.880 Even against this compromise structure. 11:04.890 --> 11:06.810 Queen C six is played. 11:08.430 --> 11:11.910 If G takes F four, E takes F for this position. 11:11.910 --> 11:13.240 Bishop d4 Rooks. 11:13.260 --> 11:18.600 The eight white should be with an advantage with ag5 break. 11:18.610 --> 11:18.900 Yeah. 11:19.200 --> 11:21.810 The king can actually be attacked here potentially. 11:21.810 --> 11:26.640 So this position getting ready to use the G file is going to be quite significant for white. 11:27.270 --> 11:30.180 So here we're trying to lure the queen away from C eight. 11:30.210 --> 11:31.410 That's with check. 11:31.410 --> 11:36.450 So the queen has to stick around or B five and White's getting a big attack with Queen E five. 11:36.630 --> 11:37.080 So. 11:37.080 --> 11:39.840 Okay, so that that wouldn't be a good idea. 11:39.840 --> 11:45.390 So Queen C six is played and now five, Bishop F seven and now it looks so easy. 11:45.390 --> 11:47.700 This button E four button looks so easy. 11:47.700 --> 11:50.670 But Karpov's prepared it well with that King H one. 11:50.820 --> 11:56.130 It seems as though black's not in a position to go into F4 or something or disrupt the rooks. 11:56.130 --> 11:57.630 This is without interruption. 11:57.630 --> 11:59.610 The alekhine's gone without interruption. 12:00.000 --> 12:03.870 It just seems completely non controversial now that this has been played. 12:04.320 --> 12:08.220 So no counterplay means no downsides for our position. 12:08.340 --> 12:12.180 So King G seven if default, this is pointless. 12:12.180 --> 12:17.940 We're just going to take this pawn and there's nothing after four black bishops c five, we're going 12:17.940 --> 12:20.940 to play e text E5, we're going to stomp down on this E file. 12:20.940 --> 12:23.310 There's no fun on the E-File Rookie, too. 12:23.730 --> 12:24.630 Big advantage. 12:24.630 --> 12:31.170 So King G seven, E takes the five, Quincy seven, Rook E two. 12:31.770 --> 12:36.090 And now, in fact, the tactics favor white here. 12:36.090 --> 12:38.910 Can you guess what Karpov plays in this position? 12:38.910 --> 12:42.810 So tactics flow from superior positions, as Bobby Fischer has said. 12:42.810 --> 12:44.010 So what would you play here for? 12:44.010 --> 12:44.850 Ten points. 12:48.310 --> 12:52.420 Yeah, we can actually play rook tanks e seven here, so we get this nice fork. 12:52.780 --> 12:55.540 Now, this is a disaster for black Queen D seven. 12:55.540 --> 12:56.830 Guess what we play here? 12:59.350 --> 13:01.570 Yeah, we can play D tanks E seven. 13:05.560 --> 13:07.750 And the point is on Queen 63. 13:07.780 --> 13:08.770 What would be the point? 13:11.820 --> 13:15.240 Yeah, we just clean our -- and we protect our queen here. 13:16.380 --> 13:18.930 So that's actually defending D one winning. 13:19.260 --> 13:20.580 So that's out of the question. 13:20.580 --> 13:23.310 Queen C for was trying, but this is also a disaster. 13:24.300 --> 13:28.170 It's trying to maintain that D free kind of pin. 13:28.290 --> 13:30.960 But this is sidestepped by be free. 13:30.960 --> 13:33.990 And here Boris Spassky resigns. 13:35.430 --> 13:38.470 So if Queen C five just takes E seven. 13:38.490 --> 13:39.420 Thanks very much. 13:39.420 --> 13:42.120 And we're a piece up, so an interesting game. 13:42.120 --> 13:46.140 It really highlights actually behind the scenes. 13:46.230 --> 13:49.230 We see that on a different day. 13:50.460 --> 13:55.140 The implementation might not have been so clever for why, even though it looked beautiful like Alekhine's 13:55.140 --> 13:55.770 gone. 13:55.860 --> 13:58.440 This isn't a fairy tale game. 13:58.440 --> 14:02.430 It's a fairy tale game, instructive game. 14:02.430 --> 14:05.640 Only when Black actually makes the possession significantly worse. 14:05.640 --> 14:12.150 And White is also extremely cautious here to not rush in with F5. 14:12.150 --> 14:17.820 So this is a very instructive moment for me that actually the reality, the harsh reality, we've got 14:17.820 --> 14:21.300 to be extremely careful about our implementations. 14:21.300 --> 14:27.090 We shouldn't be overexcited by an isolated Queen's pawn if we don't factor in the downsides of our own 14:27.090 --> 14:31.950 possession and just think we're just we shouldn't be like thinking it's going to be easy. 14:31.950 --> 14:38.550 But this approach by Karpov shuts down all potential counterplay, i.e. all potential downsides of our 14:38.550 --> 14:39.030 plan. 14:39.030 --> 14:45.930 He's shutting it down before going in for this E4 kind of button press E4 and it works very, very well 14:45.930 --> 14:46.320 here. 14:46.320 --> 14:50.490 So yes, be a bit cautious playing against isolated Queen's pawns. 14:50.610 --> 14:53.820 Okay, That's the big lesson for this game. 14:53.820 --> 14:58.620 But the way it's been played, yes, this is beautifully shut down counterplay with some help from the 14:58.620 --> 15:05.220 opponents on this occasion with that move G5 earlier OCK has so much.