WEBVTT 00:00.780 --> 00:01.520 Hi there. 00:01.530 --> 00:07.330 In this lecture, we're going to have a look at an amazing game I witnessed at one of the Lloyd's back 00:07.350 --> 00:07.800 Masters. 00:07.800 --> 00:09.810 This is back in 1988. 00:09.990 --> 00:16.800 So Ken Larsen was playing against Michael Adams in round four, So e four. 00:16.830 --> 00:19.110 So Adams I'd seen was a bit annoyed. 00:19.110 --> 00:25.620 He had lost an earlier round game and was was actually a bit, you know, wondering about to leave the 00:25.620 --> 00:27.090 tournament to go back to Cornwall. 00:27.090 --> 00:29.970 But then he started winning and winning and winning. 00:30.010 --> 00:32.790 He ended up winning and this is one of those games. 00:32.790 --> 00:36.120 So E four he plays c6d free. 00:36.120 --> 00:39.090 D 590 2g6. 00:39.090 --> 00:40.040 We have G three. 00:40.050 --> 00:41.070 Bishop G seven. 00:41.280 --> 00:42.870 Bishop G two, E five. 00:42.870 --> 00:52.440 So he takes the center wheel, occupies the centre 9gf3 97 both sides Castle Rookie one and now 97. 00:52.440 --> 00:59.010 So this reinforces the e five point Knights f1h6 and now G four. 00:59.040 --> 01:00.450 This is very ambitious from white. 01:00.450 --> 01:02.760 It does weaken the f four square. 01:03.570 --> 01:04.800 So what can we do? 01:04.800 --> 01:06.900 Position me here regarding that square. 01:06.900 --> 01:11.970 Well, Queen see seven x rays that square to start off with adding support. 01:11.970 --> 01:17.490 If a knight ends up if one of these knights ends up on F four, one day it will be supported. 01:17.490 --> 01:23.520 We have Knight G three, D takes E, four, D takes E, four and 95. 01:23.520 --> 01:28.050 So this gives the idea that E six to f four might be handy. 01:28.050 --> 01:29.550 Supported by the Queen. 01:29.820 --> 01:36.690 We have Bishop E 390 6c4 an L 94 and there is a concern perhaps, well, why it should be concerned 01:36.690 --> 01:37.230 about this thing. 01:37.230 --> 01:39.720 Catto Bishop That is part of King's safety. 01:39.720 --> 01:44.940 Here we have the move H three What else? 01:45.240 --> 01:48.450 Because there is an unveiled attack against G four here. 01:49.200 --> 01:51.720 If Bishop takes f four, this is not helping. 01:51.840 --> 01:52.950 G m will drop. 01:52.950 --> 02:01.860 So h three supports g four and then we have Bishop E six, which is not just a centralized move. 02:01.860 --> 02:07.710 There's there's great interest in this move potentially pointing in the direction of the king under 02:07.710 --> 02:10.530 the right circumstances once f five is played. 02:10.680 --> 02:20.190 So Queen C two we have B six, B free King H eight, Rook 81 and now Knights G two is played. 02:20.190 --> 02:24.240 King takes G two and now Adams plays the aggressive five. 02:24.240 --> 02:29.130 Now maybe the position isn't totally secure before going on to the attack. 02:29.400 --> 02:30.060 Good. 02:30.060 --> 02:36.450 Attacking chess is building up the position, accumulating advantages prior to the attack. 02:36.450 --> 02:44.250 And here it does seem there is one opportunity available for Y after E takes F five, G takes a five. 02:44.250 --> 02:48.300 This does weaken the D five square, which means there's actually an access route to the king. 02:48.300 --> 02:51.300 Potentially we have now G takes F five. 02:51.300 --> 02:52.860 This is a mistake, it seems. 02:52.860 --> 02:58.530 Why it should have played Knight H five trying to return the favor, get rid of potentially black's 02:58.530 --> 02:59.100 bishop. 02:59.130 --> 03:02.490 It does involve a pawn sac here F takes g four. 03:02.490 --> 03:08.520 This is very dynamic continuation and maybe two pawn sacks, but you can see that there's a slight downside, 03:09.090 --> 03:13.620 a slight backfire potentially of the black position as a positional player. 03:13.620 --> 03:18.930 You want to play in such a way that when you attack there's absolutely no potential for backfire. 03:18.930 --> 03:23.190 But this would require extreme creativity to sacrifice two pawns. 03:23.190 --> 03:26.250 Rook f seven is an even position if black. 03:26.640 --> 03:33.000 You know, this position is actually technically, even if G takes H free check, we can see actually 03:33.240 --> 03:35.100 that black could be in trouble. 03:35.100 --> 03:42.780 So this continuation, the king's got a lot of error around it and White has a promising attack position 03:42.780 --> 03:46.620 for example like this would show a backfire would prove actually a backfire. 03:47.610 --> 03:55.410 Now, this is very, very interesting because one of Adams's books talks about this notion, basically 03:55.410 --> 04:00.030 a kind of nimzowitsch notion that you should strengthen your position, stabilize it really stable before 04:00.030 --> 04:02.300 doing attacks, because otherwise you will get backfire. 04:02.310 --> 04:10.170 So in a sense, it's not ideal this game, but black, you know, didn't estimate a double pawn sac, 04:10.200 --> 04:16.080 understandably you know so we have here G takes our five knight takes f5c4. 04:16.980 --> 04:19.710 If Knight takes F five, Bishop takes F five. 04:19.710 --> 04:21.270 This position, there's Bishop E four. 04:21.270 --> 04:22.020 Ouch. 04:22.230 --> 04:25.470 And you can see the absence of the Cato Bishop is very, very painful. 04:25.470 --> 04:27.840 So this position, Black's got a big advantage. 04:27.840 --> 04:31.260 So C four is played Queen F seven. 04:32.010 --> 04:39.960 And this gives the idea actually that there is support on D five and we have Knight G one really wants 04:39.960 --> 04:48.090 to use this D five square and actually plays B five now trying to undermine the control of d5c takes 04:48.090 --> 04:55.650 is played if which is not not great rook C one There's 94 though Bishop takes he takes black is actually 04:55.650 --> 04:59.550 better in this position so for example here. 05:00.020 --> 05:03.710 Like a plan like this and has a lot of positional advantages. 05:04.670 --> 05:08.360 So this really makes blacks task easier of the bishop. 05:08.360 --> 05:09.380 DD five check. 05:10.100 --> 05:16.190 We have King H two and guess what Adams plays here, which is absolutely crushing, which ends the game. 05:16.310 --> 05:20.450 And this is the start of Adams coming back in this major tournament. 05:20.450 --> 05:26.130 So blacks are playing here for ten points, yet Knight takes E three. 05:26.150 --> 05:29.090 I just think magical play it's crushing. 05:29.420 --> 05:33.380 If F tanks E three Queen F to check is actually just mating. 05:34.520 --> 05:37.250 If rook takes E for again, we're just mating. 05:37.610 --> 05:42.020 So great things started from using the F4 square. 05:42.200 --> 05:44.960 So for me, Adams is a positional hero. 05:45.260 --> 05:50.750 And if we look at the elegance of this game and it was like a cute, you know, attack after, but the 05:50.830 --> 05:55.040 four square was kind of marked out early on with Queen C seven in effect. 05:55.970 --> 06:02.000 And nice maneuver is pretty standard quite often in Kings engine style positions to get a knight either 06:02.000 --> 06:05.150 to default or F and sometimes you can go this route as well. 06:05.150 --> 06:10.700 So this looks like a nice standard positional maneuver to have the knight central like this but eyeing 06:10.700 --> 06:11.450 F four. 06:11.450 --> 06:16.760 So it's a great use of using a weakness to leverage to weaken the opponent's king. 06:16.760 --> 06:21.020 And the central square battle for D five is really interesting. 06:21.020 --> 06:26.870 It's like a lot of undermining via F five and b five later to try and get that d5 square working for 06:26.870 --> 06:27.170 black. 06:27.170 --> 06:30.680 So really an incredible game in my view. 06:30.680 --> 06:36.590 At the time I was just, I was just amazed by the simplicity and the effectiveness of this game. 06:36.590 --> 06:39.740 So I hope you enjoyed it as well and so much.