Akobian at the 2014 Olympiad | Mastering the Middlegame - GM Varuzhan Akobian

we're gonna work on the middle game today and I prepared to show you one of my games you haven't seen before it's from 2014 chess olympiad where I played for the US team in Norway and in this game we were facing a very strong team from Germany and you know one of the crucial matches towards the end of the Olympiad so I'm playing with white pieces my opponent is a strong 26:40 Grandmaster Daniel Friedman from Germany and I played d4 he played Knight f6 c4 e6 you will see we're going to focus on middle game today middle game an endgame combined because you will see how I played in a middle game you'll be in charge of finding the most and known as well in endgame Knight f3 d5 Bishop e7 so here we have which opening we have after Bishop e7 he is an Enzo Indian player so that's why I start with Knight f3 here if I played nice e3 he will play Bishop before so 9 f 3 D 5 and now 93 Bishop e7 what is the name of this opening any ideas what opening block is playing you should notice Queens gambit the client that's the correct answer qgd remember that now White has a couple of options here can play Bishop f5 or can play Bishop g5 so two options here possible so I opted to play Bishop to g5 okay now it plays h6 questioning my bishop I have Bishop f4 I've played before as well so I play both moves here equal the bishop h4 or Bishop four so here he played h6 questioning me now what is the main move here correct now he cancelled yes absolutely correct III just trying to get my development re ghost Knight e4 he's activating his Knight this is a very fashionable line it's called a scale variation and the block is trying to exchange couple of pieces and just equalize so Knight e4 now what are you going to do here yes no no Bishop is hanging on h4 so remember he wants to take on h4 so you have to do something to prevent that what do you have to play here he wants to take your Bishop we have couple of options here what are you supposed to do correct very good Bishop takes c7 Queen takes is 7 Queen c2 is one of the options what else what else we can try to do here you can play Queen c2 here or you can play the following move you could but then he takes on c3 and there's some weaknesses better something better you can do here you want to bring which piece into the game here he already mentioned the bishop there is another piece you want to bring it to the game in the back which piece is not developed for you of course look see one of course rook c1 you want to bring the rook into the game because you want to open up that C file okay so you open it up okay c6 now what to do after c6 yes Bishop d3 is a possibility what else do you see here what about this move have you seen this idea before this is a very interesting fashionable move first time played in the game Aronian versus Hari Krishna in 2011 World Team Championship Aronian actually started with the move h4 but that allows some other possibilities so but dear I wanted to start with the G Force now he goes Knight to d7 developing the night now what you're going to do here is h4 when you pull g4 you're going to push h4 you're trying to gain space playing very aggressive style Queen's Gambit the client is a very solid opening so you want to play aggressively if you want to get advantage against it now he chose to take on c3 how are we going to capture here more hands should be raised at the moment because you know the move what's the logical way to do it of course with the rook that's why you brought the rook in right if you weren't going to take back with the rook then you were not going to play the move rook c1 so remember logical play and hear my opponent played c5 trying to break the center very interesting decision other moves are playable as well to take on c4 and maybe play e5 immediately there's also consideration what he took he played c5 he is immediately trying to break the center now if everything comes off exchange you place b6 B should be seven I will be left with just weaknesses so I have to play very precisely here if I want to have any kind of advantage here will be three as possible what else Queen b3 you can take so what else can you do don't rush you don't want this diagonal to be open okay because if that's diagonal it's open then you can have some problems because you have a lot of weaknesses that's when my goal was to try to make sure this diagonal remains closed what are you going to do to keep this long diagonal closed in a sense so this Bishop doesn't come - in the back take where C takes d5 you were referring to correct he takes back now now what's the logical move here you always have to make logical moves yes not yet g5 first because I want to open up the position here I want to take and expose this King if he takes I want to take with the H pawn and then I have the H file so I kind of knew he is going to play the move H five years I knew he was going to do that because anything else his position is going to be very exposed and now who's more visit Bishop g2 perfect now he played the move b6 my question to you is if he plays c4 what are you going to do because this looks like a very logical move then you play b5 what is the move here do you see that subtle move here that is going to allow you to win upon two hands that's good more hand should be though who sees that subtle move here that I had in mind now four hands good know you want to win upon win upon thing that that those are moves doesn't know but it's a subtle move you do something and then suddenly to phones are hanging here yes he's got it he's got it attack attack that's what you're referring to right see that no b5 Bishop d5 he's not going to give it up on so he has to play Knight b6 and then you take he goes Bishop f5 and now you have a good move what is the good move here it's actually very important you find the following move it's very very important that you do that because he has threats he wants to pay clean before create problems yes a tree but also he wants to play night a for to attack a3s night a for us well here's to turrets now Queen before and night a for and you have to do something to defend against those threats what is the move fish very difficult move to find because we don't think that we should play moves like that you know but sometimes that's the best way to do it to defend the threats you want to pause at the moment to defend against the threats so let's see yes no night xt5 losing the piece you know you cannot afford to lose your bishop there your bishop is playing a very important rules anybody else was to try Queen d1 he's got it there excellent move Queen d1 now you're stopping Knight a for now he goes Queen two before attacking you now what is the move that you have in mind that subtle move here very strong yes now he plays 94 attacking you what are you going to do huh you not afraid here you're not afraid to lose your rook thank you take the central pawn don't be afraid okay he takes you take now he goes back you also have this you can even take this one if you want to or you have a very good position here because you have a lot of central pawns okay this is good too well it's very concrete so this is very concrete position in general you don't want to do that but you know in chess we have exceptions so this is an exception here so we not wait too much about that so so this is what he saw I know that he was worried and this is again a very experienced Grandmaster Rampling I'm not just playing some new young GM this is a very experienced and masters who has played a lot of strong players before so he played the move be six now what to do now he wants to play Bishop d7 and he actually wants to play Bishop ace six years and that would be kind of annoying because it would prevent me from castling so what's the idea here because if it puts the bishop on b7 put the pawn on g6 it's very comfortable so this is the moment where I have to try to play it correctly let's see yes correct decision correct decision because now defy phone is hanging so if it takes back with a pawn we take only fat but of course he's going to take that with a knight and a question is are you ready to take that pawn look super dangerous I would say because if you take that pawn it's super dangerous he's going to go Bishop b7 now what are you going to do you're in trouble he's going to put the rookie you are in big big trouble here okay so that's why you don't want to do that now what can you do here dink-dink logical here it's not about castling here it's about putting the piece in the middle of the board centralizing it remember centralizing and blocking that isolated pawn that millpond in the middle is the iso Lonnie okay so what is the correct move here what is the correct move here yes correct decision yes blockading it and attacking the pawn on h5 as well okay blockading the past in attacking now I'm also attacking this pawn at the same time see when opponent has isolated pawn you need to remember to block it that's a rule number one everybody make a note make a note so you remember if opponent has a weak isolated pawn first thing to do is to block it to make sure he cannot push it now it was 94 attacking my rook again it's a sharp position it's not so clear if I have anything here so now yes what's the decision needs to be made here absolutely correct Bishop takes the knight is too strong in the middle of the board we just take with the bishop we simply eliminated now if he takes back with the pawn he is losing the pawn on h5 he is in trouble so he has to take back with the Queen and now he's attacking a rook your rook is under attack now now you need to make a good positional move to control some with a lot slight squares because he is controlling that so what's that good positional move I'm referring to here more hands we have two very active participants more hands though and this is a very typical move for this kind of positions when you have a control of the dark squares you also want to obtain the control of the light squares okay so what do you think here what do you think yes go ahead f3 another correct decision another very strong positional decision here and attacking the Queen the queen is centralized by playing f3 gyro removing the piece from that centralized position this should be a very natural move for you some of you didn't raise your hand wasn't this just an obvious move here to play but the Queen look at the Queen it's in my position is attacking my rook is attacking the h1 do you want that piece there or you want to push that piece away both Bishop g4 you get really badly pin there Knight remember when you have a black head like this you never want to move it you never want to move the black head piece like this remember in any circumstances you don't want to move that piece f3 is natural move you should remember this move and play it always in a similar positions 25 now he wants to go clean g3 check what you're going to do are you going to allow him to do that now this is a very important moment here because I have some ideas to hear what can I do here he wants to go : g3 check obviously you cannot allow that to happen let's see if you can play this correct move here yes hag king f2 is a playable move yeah it's a playable move simply controlling the g3 Square and getting ready to play getting ready to play which move now because you want to exchange the Queens after board here if you exchange the quiz after board somehow you will have a superior endgame so how are you going to achieve that superior endgame here yes excellent move yes attacking the Queen how did you find that move very strong very strong thinking yes now you're attacking the Queen he has to go here and I pick with a bat this move unfortunately turn out to be an inaccuracy it's a very natural mobile turn out to be in accuracy here actually I had to play a different move had to enter into his position first and then play Queen f3 that will make a big difference of course when you analyze afterwards with a computer it simply shows you the best move but during the game I didn't know it what should I have done first here absolutely rook belongs where we know that rooks belong where everybody on a seventh rank but during the game it was difficult to understand this subtlety that I need to activate my book first attacking the bishop and if it goes Bishop g4 what do we have here in mind you have to play this move because otherwise this whole concept is not going to work my rook is under attack that's why I didn't play this move I was worried about this but I have a very strong move here to neutralize his position you want to exchange the Queens remember but row your rook is under attack as well your rook is under attack as well and that makes it a difficult yes and he's got it this is what I missed I missed the smooth had I not missed this I would have won this game much easier because now it's complete domination Queens will have to come off the board my knight is there my rookies on a seventh rank big trouble I mean imagine if he doesn't want to trade question so make a move like this and after this I control the C file as well I missed that subtlety so I played this right away still securing an advantage but it was not easy to win against this experience grandmasters so he took I took Brooke fc8 he's the exchanging pair of the book so my next one was pretty clear Oh gate c1 takes takes and if he exchanges the if he exchanges the rooks it's going to be a problem for him because my king is too active but he's not doing that he is playing here now I want you to pause here for a moment and evaluate this position now I want you to pause for two minutes and evaluate this position and I would like each of you to say something about this position the pure prospective it's clear that white is better I think but why and how much that's what we want to find out the problem is for me that I can get in but then he just simply comes here and gets my look out of the way that's the problem what do you think this position how much of course if I'm my roopa zone I played Roxy seven early there will be much better advantage but now okay raise your hand if you're ready to to say how much advantage here yes okay but you think how big is our advantage here 96 is it's an interesting move but now it's white to move here rook rook c7 kingi 8 so let's see what can you say more about this position first of all let's figure out how big is this advantage how big is this advantage so the question is is the big advantage or a slight advantage sheesh yeah I think it's more like a slight advantage definitely very pleasant and nice position but it's slight okay because I don't have a clear way of breaking through here so here I started with b3 move just to control some more squares and here I want to expand on a queen set to potentially create some weaknesses when I was King D 6 now he's ready to play you know like maybe even prepared slowly Drock c8 you know a six rook c8 so I figure I have to play this I give him a check if he goes back I can get in with my rock so he took it I took it even though it looks like I shouldn't exchange but here my knight is not so much better than his bishop it looks better by optically not optically it looks better but in fact it's not so much better okay so you need to understand that so now that's why when check and now we have a control of the C file and there is a weak pawn here as well and by the way at this moment Team USA was losing by one so it was important to score a victory to at least tie up the match unfortunately gata Kamsky lost with black again toward Mya so we were down by one here and there was a draw on a fourth port and likely a drawn a first board so if I had not won this again we would lose the match to Germany so I had to push until the very end eh to try to secure at least tie this match up now he goes King be seven just retreating with the king now now what are we going to do here yes before I went Brooke c1 because I wanted to have the option to go to k1 as well so that's why to tie him up completely so he goes e6 he didn't want to be tied up so if they'd a six and now what is the correct move yes pin it to win it then again we see this idea pin it to win it now he goes here and now now we stretch the position now and there is a big weakness on b6 now what are we going to do here before he will play a four he will pushed it now they will be six pawn is the weakness now you want to do what put pressure on it noe for you don't want to play d5 is his witness you want to go back rook d1 look at the technique here attack he goes here back it's actually not so good because he goes here and now lose this guy could be trouble big trouble for us and then he will have two pounds on one create the outside passed pawn he might push for a victory here he might push for the victory I'm not sure if you succeeded but he might even try to push it okay so that's why we don't want to allow this first we have to improve our roof right now so that's what I'm doing I'm attacking him stretching him because if he goes here I have a for winning a pot so he has to go here and I go back now I wanna go to c6 now he goes here now look at this idea I want to bring the King to d4 now okay he goes back Luke c6 now I attacked the pawn now he realized the problem if he defends passively he's just going to slowly lose my king is coming so he bails out I kick he attacks my pawn I go behind it takes I take I still have to convert this position it looks very promising but still it's a rock endgame and we know this is a very could be very draw still you have to show a good technique to win this position he goes King g6 if you go here I will give you a check and I pick up your F 7 g7 you lose immediately so that's why you don't want to do that now what is the plan here now which piece needs to be improved is rook my rook 105 is it the best squad for my rook it should be where it ideally should be behind the past pawn but we cannot do that because his rook is - so we want to improve it and put it where absolutely rook a6 check here he goes King f5 Luque seven attacking it and now if he goes back I will just go King B seven and here he decided to throw the last ditch she know this move to just create a mess but luckily this was move for yet so this was the last time control move for him he just tossed it in hoping that something will come out out of it but now I had my time I had my thirty minutes now to think and calculate and I calculated all the way through until the victory now let's see if you can do that you have a victory here important matchup here calculate it all the way through come on so this is where things get complicated you have to stay calm and just continue calculating keep that ability to calculate precisely you have to have keep the keep it calm and calculate so what is the correct move here yes excellent decision check now he has couple of options you can't even hear well if he goes here I just take another pile of g7 so it's losing if he goes here I will insert one more check and then I just take only four and g7 it's winning if he goes here now can you find a winning move it's a very cool move here you have to find very cool move if you don't find this move I'm not sure if you winning this game I'm not sure if there's going to be a victory yes and he's got it that's the correct answer Bravo Ruka faith yes now if he takes check you go where and if he goes here push check push check look at that checkmate see how that works and if you go now here what are you gonna do what are you gonna do correct now you want to push he's going to go here what are you going to do check big material advantage okay show victory King is on a back rank and you have two pawns as well all right so that's why he didn't go here if he goes back I already told you you just take this one and I mean too many pawns here okay big material advantage early king of King d2 as well in the twist better two pounds up so that's why he went here now things are getting a little complicated so what are we going to do here to make sure they're not that complicated thank you so yes what's the move I just took this spawn I didn't want him to keep taking me so best way to avoid him from taking you you take him by the way I am three pounds up currently that's a lot that's a lot you know so he takes one down now yes not bg6 yes I know it looks a little bit strange but the point of this move is he can only take this pawn which you didn't do but if it takes this I take it then I can go back to f7 and continue pushing the Jeep on I didn't want to take on g7 because then he would have taken on f4 so this is a very important but now he cuts me off he cuts me off now what are you supposed to do d5 how about f5 with idea f6 I think you would like to do that because then you push it again so he was king f4 f6 he takes it g7 look g3 how about that and the question is if you can find a very subtle move here to ensure the victory who is going to find this move it's a really nice move because your pawns a little bit weak and if he comes and takes your D pawn you're going to be in trouble here which one kingi v kinky v yes yeah well don't don't play that move with you you might spoil the victory here very nice move here who is going to find this technical move here a couple of hands you would like to smooth and once you find it and you understand what am I trying to do with this it's not about defending here Ben he cannot take the D pawn with the rook it's more like trying to promote one of the paths not defending because if you play rook d7 he play a5 you play d5 he goes King if a little bit stuck there it's about I cannot say that word because then you'll find it yes Bravo cut the King off do you see now what happened now the king is cut off and now you know much this one down it's slow but it's effective and that's what matters right effective because his rook cannot move from there Chifa because we're going to Quinn and his King cannot even go to the g5 because we're going to Quinn see how affected that is and his F pollens blocked that's a final neat touch shortly seven right there I actually saw this move earlier that's why I went for this position because I knew that this is going to be a sure victory now he gave me a check King F 1 attacking the rook and he resigned here because he cannot do anything to prevent push push push and Queen and by the way if he goes here now what would be a nice finish here for white rook III check deflecting the king he takes it you take it and then you promote upon into a queen okay very good so after a clicking f1 he resigned because King after he doesn't work and if he stays on this what are we doing how are we going to win this just push the pawn he goes here no threats push the pawn no threats again if it goes here you can even Queen because if it checks you you have this one so I mean there are other things you can do you can go King b1 and win but yes so and if he sits we just push the pond okay very good so that was the idea of this game very important okay so yeah I was very happy to win and yet it saved the match this win so very interesting game but you saw in the middle game especially how tricky the position was how many nuances there was in a middle game that you had to master in order to get that's why the middle game is very important it's one of the toughest you know moments worried in the game where it's not so easy what you need to do but you have to just spend your time and try to find a good plan yeah that was more like a opening idea g4 but after that it was it was not my dear I which as I edges display on my own so I just try to make good moves you know g5 Bishop g2 and make sure I made the right decisions so it was very kind of a risky opening for me but then a very strong positional game where I got a small advantage and then I couldn't maybe get bigger advantage I missed one move if you remember rook c7 then I got again a small advantage but played a really good endgame until the very end to convert it so there were a lot of very interesting stages of sharp opening then positional Milla game then again small edge in endgame and just kind of grind down the Luke endgame to get the win any questions you have about the scam do you understand the ideas so if somebody plays the Queens gambit decline you can very well respond with this move

Channel: Saint Louis Chess Club

Views: 196,332

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Id: LmbFsbFkRUU

Length: 37min 49sec (2269 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 08 2016