DUBOV VS. KARJAKIN: BEST CHESS GAME OF 2020?

i think we might have just witnessed the greatest  game of this entire year and frankly you can   probably make an argument the greatest game in the  last decade it's daniel dubov and sergey karjakin   and they're playing in moscow the russian super  final actually being held over the board classical   chess with some drama in the event mikhail and  tip of one of the grand masters participating   tested positive for coronavirus for example but  so far everybody else has been healthy and happy   okay we're gonna go through this game daniel is  known as a prep god he's also known to wear a   balanciaga sweater i don't think he was rocking it  for this game but i haven't checked the live video   uh not much else to say he's worked with magnus  carlson in preparation for the world championship   match he brings a flare and an excitement  and sergey karjakin is a very solid defensive   player very good theoretically played  for the world championship in 2016. so   the game begins with e4 e5 and dubois  plays knight f3 knight c6 bishop c4   bishop c5 here uh many of us know about the evans  gambit which i i'm sure duboff has played before   uh duboff plays for c3 which normally after the  move knight f6 results in d3 we've seen this many   times over the past few weeks in the recap videos  that i've been making a lot of these djoko pianos   with c3 d3 in a slow game but duboff plays d4  which is something i recommend for beginners   to take the full center normally after takes you  get takes bishop b4 some sort of sacrifice of   the central pawn and then white just gets very  rapid development but here duboff plays a move   that has been played in less than point three  percent of games point three less than 50 any   no meaningful games between grand masters he plays  the move b4 which doesn't look like a crazy move   it attacks the bishop and then when the bishop  goes back uh he again doesn't attack the knight   or take the central pawn he gets this pawn out  of the way with the move e5 now normally in this   position the move d5 just in general in these  structures is the thing that happens and then   what black does is they give away the knight they  take here and this is actually not very concerning   uh because first of all there's just a check  so your king is always kind of going to be okay   you're going to castle it this way and your rook  just goes to g8 you know if i desperately try to   hang on to this pawn you'll play queen f6 you'll  just like this is not something that's known to   be scary uh for black and i'm very curious  actually why carjacking didn't ultimately go   for this maybe there is something he didn't like  he moved his knight out of the center right that   very well in and of itself uh could have taken  the game in a totally different direction i'll   tell you right now that after bishop d5 look  at this bishop d5 sacrificing another pawn   in this position it seems very natural to castle  uh but dubov plays the move bishop g5 attacking   the queen bishop g5 is a novelty it has never been  played before i mean this whole thing is a novelty   frankly because again it's never been seen at  grand master level maybe there are some computer   games but i didn't find any knight e7 is the  only move to get out of danger and now castles so   what's the count in this position white has plenty  of what's called compensation okay compensation   uh in chess is when you are down some  material but uh you can counterbalance   your deficiency of physical pieces with peace  activity or vulnerability of the enemy king   or more space and duboff has all three of those  things he's got way more active pieces meaning he   controls the square in his opponent's positions  the squares in his opponent's position his   opponent's king is stuck here none of these pieces  are going to move for at least the next four or   five moves so karjakin's got a lot to deal with  here he plays h6 bishop h4 and then he castles   here you're free to do deeper analysis on this  with lilo or another you know very strong computer   but here the the big decision was whether he would  play the move g5 or not now first of all duboff   can actually take on g5 and allowing this just  looks terrifying at the same time karjakin can   throw in the capture now on d5 since you've kind  of blocked your own bishop here and this would be   this would be bad but still i mean again it's very  hard to breathe here with black so you have to be   very very careful but in the game karjakin castled  right he didn't play g5 he spent a lot of time   he didn't play g5 and dubo just calmly develops  another piece right brings the rook to the center   controlling the file we get queen e8 again as i  said it's going to be really difficult to sidestep   with the pieces so carjacking place  queen eight to get out of the pin   enabling the movement of his knight you  know if he plays the natural move like d6   trying to get his bishop out it just loses just  loses because when you take duboff's last move   rook to e1 now hits the knight so you're just  losing the knight and your position falls apart   if you play something like c6 to attack the bishop  it's just a bit of a short-sighted move because   i now move out of the center and you actually  haven't done anything for your position literally   nothing if anything you've just helped me  potentially set up like a long attack on your king   i mean c6 it just doesn't improve your position  enough in the in the long run in the short term   it looks good but in the long run it just isn't so  queen e8 and now dubois voluntarily retreats his   bishop so we see that c6 wouldn't have done too  much so kayaking plays on the queen side he plays   the move a5 which looks good which looks good but  it's a bit slow um and uh daniel here uncorks i   don't know if this was preparation but this is an  app this is the first move of this is the first   gangster chess example of the game i mean he  played this game like he was a you know yuri   boyka to make a reference you know he he plays  bishop to f6 which which is just a savage move   obviously you cannot take the bishop because  you open up the rook and uh this is death you've   removed the guard of your king and now i'm  gonna take and trap your rook it's just over   but we see like the other points so first  of all you know the bishop planting on f6   doesn't allow black to move comfortably uh for  all future purposes you will use this as like   the trojan horse the trojan bishop knight g6 and  now we actually see that this knight has no guard   say what this is guarding it no it's not because  it's pinned to the king so daniel plays queen d3   and now this is a problem because if if  sergey plays king h7 or let's say king to h8   so that you cannot play queen takes knight  um first of all i can just pick up the pawn   but i can even play moves like for example knight  h4 and if we trade off the pieces the more pieces   we trade off i'm now gonna start bringing my rook  in the future you know i'm gonna start getting   over there uh with uh with my rook potentially  to attack you i'm gonna get closer with my queen   and i'm gonna remove a guard of your position  so karjakin strikes out with the move d5   now here there's a rule of chess rather than  taking like this we can take onpassant and the   rook is attacking the queen bishop e6 and it looks  like we've made it out except here daniel dubov   drops another haymaker and doesn't take the  bishop but rather sacrifices the queen on g6   okay and this is the thumbnail so the queen  is given away for two pieces not even a rook   he hasn't won a rook yet maybe he won't ever  win a rook so he's just got a bishop and a   knight right and an attack on a queen and  a discovered check that's about to happen   so carjacking can't play the move queen c6 because  then i go check here and then i go check and then   here and then i go check for example on c7 and  we end up in this position still this is a game   though i have to tell you uh it's still a game uh  for some reason karjakin decides i'm gonna hang on   to the queen i mean for some reason it's a queen  god damn it king h8 and rookie four and queen f5   okay so here the machine just cannot figure out  who is better right like duboff goes back to e7 to   try to go after this pawn um karjakin plays rook  g8 now has to give away one of his rooks in order   to protect the king the count of material here  is that karjakin is up one point he is a queen   uh and uh he's up he's just as a queen for a rook  and a knight so that's nine eight however again   when you're playing against the queen and you  have a rook and a bishop or a rook and a knight   it's about the coordination and activity of  your pieces and you have to not have a lot of   weaknesses also pawns will decide the game that's  like another thing like if one guy has a pass pawn   that could ultimately decide the game so d takes  c7 i said right so queen c2 and here he's got two   weaknesses to deal with and dubois invests in his  pawn i like to say this a lot he defends this pawn   giving away the pawn on f2 would check which not  a lot of us would do because that looks a little   scary it's a pawn it's check but he realizes  my king is completely safe in the corner and uh   let me just give it a little bit of breathing  room here now king h7 and now let me play the   move rookie one i gotta get this bad boy in the  game he hasn't moved for 29 moves he's slacking   right we get a3 i said it's about the pawns so he  might take on a2 and cause some problems king h2   okay king h2 is a waiting move gets the king  off the back rank and it's actually the best   move according to the computer the point being  that in the future you know you wanna you wanna   get down here with the rooks that's where you  wanna you wanna do your your fighting so we get   g5 out of karjakin who gives this king some  space knight to d4 which attacks the queen   and if this trade occurs then you've lost the  main attacker basically black doesn't have a   bishop on b6 anymore i'm gonna play rook d7 rookie  seven my king is completely safe uh i gotta worry   about some check like this but i will monitor for  that and i'm going to win the game and so for that   reason karjakin does not trade instead he moves  his queen to c4 which attacks this this and this   we get knight f5 sacrificing another pawn for the  greater good and rook c1 we now have three pieces   monitoring this pawn that pawn that pawn is the  key okay this pawn is getting the police escort to   the other side of the board king to g6 rook takes  g7 check so now we have to trade the rooks right   and i've removed your defender of the of the back  rank but instead karjakin takes the knight takes   and then sacrifices the bishop for the pawn so  we've got two rooks and a bishop now the key here   is not to lose this pawn because that will make  your life a lot harder or it's to win this pawn   if you can win the a3 pawn two rooks in a bishop  coordinate beautifully queen b2 we see rook c5 and   uh karjakin could have went back here but then he  would have been laddered right he would have just   gotten cut and then all over the course of time he  would have been checkmated so instead he ran his   king to the center but then there's rook d8 and on  this mysterious move uh sergey koryakin resigned   the game you say why why why didn't he just take  on a2 i didn't take on a2 because it's made in   two the queen stops guarding the diagonal and uh  rookie five check nice in the middle of the board   king has only one legal move here and here you  have mate uh rook cafe is made in two because the   queen sacrifices you also have just a very nice  ladder checkmate in the center of the board the   king cannot take the rook because of the bishop  the king cannot move forward because all of the   squares are occupied and that's that um it's not  clear in this game where sergey karjakin made   a mistake that's how you know it's a crazy game  it's an extremely high level game uh all the way   back into the beginning of the game like the fact  that b4 got played here and has never been played   in any meaningful games now this could be daniel  duboff paving new theory so once he's done getting   his balenciaga sponsorship and getting a new uh  you know sweater uh specifically designed for him   or some sweatpants uh he's gonna pioneer whatever  this is gonna be called we could call this the   duba variation this very well could be like the  new thing the only big question of this variation   is what would have happened if the move d5 had  landed on the board which is frequently what   occurs in these positions somebody will go analyze  this that is how chess works and that is how new   theory is paved but oh my goodness i mean just to  recap that was absolutely stunning bishop to f6   it shows you how to take your opening advantage  where you have more active pieces you have more   space you control the enemy territory better and  restrict their movement and take all of that to   the next level oftentimes we get good positions  from openings and then we don't convert them right   that's the danger of learning openings as you  get great positions you might still screw it up   i'm talking about myself maybe i'm also talking  about some of you but and then just finding ideas   like this i mean queen g6 chef's kiss not much  else to say uh daniel dubois finished his campaign   in the russian super final with six and a half out  of 11 not quite enough for first place i'll put   a link uh in the description uh for you to browse  around the tournament you see some of the results   i think nepo ended up winning it yon nipomnichi  uh but dupov will be part participating in uh   the magnus carlson like the tour that we know is  going on the champions tour and that one starts on   december 26th so stay tuned for more recaps i  had to do this video because i would i mean what   a game right let me know if you have any other  candidates for best game of 2020 as i might make   a video on december 31st but i just have to  share this with all of you hope you enjoyed

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 398,576

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Id: YkAp-AXPKz8

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2020