From Worse to Victory! Art of the Comeback!! | Caro-Kann: Fantasy | GM Naroditsky’s Theory Speed Run

I don't think we need an emergency option I think we can take the plunge and go for it and play Knight takes E5 and the better calculator is going to win this game there's this is going to get really exciting maybe it's losing for white I don't know but at this point I think just out of principle we need to take the plunge I think we might need to give up a piece and hope for the best wow I got thoroughly out calculated here I think what we need to do is cut our losses [Music] okay nikito 3001 I do want to play E4 in this game even though we've been kind of toggling between the jababa London uh and 1e4 but let's Resort back to our main repertoire especially because we're facing the Karo Khan yet again and anybody who's watched the speedrun for any length of time should know what move I wholeheartedly recommend against the karokan this I think is the best weapon for Club players for beginner turn intermediate players by far and that is of course the fantasy it is the Kryptonite of the majority of Karo Khan players for two main reasons it's less well-known than Knight C3 E5 and E takes D5 the kind of Mainline Trifecta so it's less studied and two it leads to extremely tactical positions so black can't get away with just making Karo Khan moves and improvising okay so Pawn takes E4 and E5 is what everybody seems to be playing against us this is the main line and if you've watched the previous speedrun game there was one a couple of games ago where we sacrificed Our Queen it was an amazing game and this exact line was featured in that game so you should know that the move is not Pawn takes E5 not because of the queen trade although that's also fine for black but of course because of Queen H4 check and then the queen picks up the pawn on e4 instead we prioritize development we bring our Knight out to F3 black plays Bishop G4 which is the best move the old line is e takes D4 which almost loses I've analyzed that pretty extensively throughout the speedrun games and on Bishop G4 I've kind of advocated for two different lines the line that I myself play with white is this move C3 solidifying the center and then bringing the light squirt Bishop out to E2 but the move that I recommend to players in the sort of 1800 to 2000 Range is the more ambitious more popular move which is Bishop to C4 which really forces black to demonstrate very extensive theoretical knowledge in order to attain a good position and leads to countless tactical traps now I don't know Bishop C4 as well as C3 but again for the purposes of the speeder and I'm willing to put myself on the line and improvise if necessary let's bring the bishop out to C4 now we've already had a game where Bishop takes F7 check was overlooked by our opponent of course this guy clearly knows what he's doing Knight to D7 is correct and I've already explained previously why Bishop takes F7 doesn't work here so you know if you're watching on YouTube and you don't uh remember the previous Fantasy games it might be worth pausing and you know doing a quick run through of the previous Fantasy games to acquaint yourself with the basic Theory because I'm not going to repeat you know the same basic observations we're just gonna go straight into the correct line of play which is of course to Castle kingside and this is one of the biggest appeals of the fantasy you get this semi-openf file on which you can engineer A Massive Attack if black is not careful Bishop takes F7 of course is once again reinforced as a threat black plays Knight Knight F6 and now it's time for us to solidify our Center because once black gets a couple of pieces out Pawn takes Pawn is now a rather uh nasty Prospect right our Center is part of the reason part of the appeal of the fantasy so we need to take the sting out of the move he takes D4 note that pawn takes E5 is not effective not because of Knight takes C5 that loses a piece but rather because black and first take the Knight on F3 then recapture on E5 and again our Center sort of evaporates so once again we need to play this move C3 and you might say well what about the Knight on B1 well don't worry about the Knight because the Knight can be brought out via D2 later on in the game this Knight is not essential to our general development into the health of our position as things stand but before bringing the night out to D2 of course it's always a good idea to bring your Bishop out first this is pretty standard fare you don't want to block the development of one piece by bringing out another piece so it's important for us to find suitable employment for our Bishop and there's really only one reasonable Square all of this has happened in previous speedrun games we've followed this main line to to the T being gone more than one occasion and around this point I think is where most players in the 2000 chess.com range are out of theory but I've been pretty surprised by the knowledge displayed by a couple of our opponents H6 okay and of course we drop our Bishop back to H4 we're trying to provoke the move G5 which our opponent plays so now of course we drop our Bishop back to G 3 and again you should remember that Knight takes E4 is never a major problem because Bishop takes F7 check always exists in response this might be what we faced last time but I don't really remember Bishop G3 Queen E7 okay so clearly our opponent knows absolutely everything here so we're on our own let's think about this for a second I think we might have faced this exact sequence before I'm definitely out of theory I will admit we're on our own here and it might very well be that we face this exact sequence and I just don't remember but please forgive me it is pretty late and my memory for openings is a lot worse than people realize so clearly first of all clearly this guy did extremely serious war against the fantasy now as I see it the point of Queen E7 is pretty clear black is solidifying his control over the E5 pawn and preparing to Castle Queen side which is going to lead to an opposite side castling situation where both sides are going to use their pawns to attack the opposing side's King so black has this clear plan of h5h4 we on the other hand have our own methods of approaching Black's King we can play A4 A5 but we can also deploy Our Queen to B3 or even to A4 and try to harass and massage some of these weak pawns on the queen side but all of that is beyond the scope of this position first of all we need to complete our development we need to play Knight bd2 and we need to wait for black to put his cards on the table okay Castle's Queen side now My worry is that if we start storming with our pawns if we play a move like A4 we apply what I call the best case scenario test where we say okay let's say our opponent allows us to do exactly what we want to do how good is that going to be well even if we get our Pawn all the way up to A6 that's not as big of a deal as it may appear because black can just push the beep on forward like B5 we've wasted three Tempe and all we've done is induce you know an unexploitable weakness on C6 which cannot be approached so I think A4 is ineffective I think we need to try to attack with our pieces well what pieces can we recruit for the purpose of pressuring Black's Queen side there's also a weakness on F7 by the way which you shouldn't forget about well to me the queen is the only piece that can be immediately recruited we can play them move Queen to A4 which is actually quite interesting we can try to induce black into playing King B8 and then drop our Queen back to B3 in the appeal of forcing King B8 is that the queen on B3 would then be x-raying the b-pawn which could add some spice to the position you should also note that after Queen A4 B5 which May Scare some people off is not a problem because we have Queen to A6 check at a minimum in order to get the queen out of the tempo and then we can move our Bishop so I like Queen B3 I like Queen A4 I think Queen A4 is less likely to be considered by our opponent so let's try to throw him off of uh his theory with Queen to A4 now if he knows this move then I take my hat off absolutely but very often what you see when players are incredibly well prepared and armed to the teeth that can actually backfire because sometimes when the analysis cuts off abruptly and you're suddenly posed with a decision of your own it you know that situation is very dangerous the move right after you exit your prep is extremely notorious for being you know the site of a lot of immediate mistakes and probably you can kind of relate to that you know and remember a game where you were super well prepared and super excited then your opponent plays a movie didn't consider you're mad at yourself for not considering it because it's actually pretty reasonable and you know as a result you panic and make a mistake so Knight to B6 here is not an issue that is why we put the Knight on D2 the bishop is buttressed by the Knight so Knight B6 we play Queen takes A7 simply that's a blunder Knight takes Bishop Knight takes Knight and if our Knight gets to C4 that there will be hell to pay for black because the B6 Square could be used as an attacking post for the night so I'm anticipating King to B8 but it's a good sign that our opponent is actually thinking and the other way to defend of course is A6 but A6 would be absolute music to my ears in fact if you watched my Blitz Games or my speed run for any length of time you should know what move I'm itching to make in the event of A6 that of course is Bishop to A6 which is not even really a sacrifice if you think about it because how many pawns are you getting for the piece well you're getting one then you're gonna grab the pawn on C6 with check because remember the B Pawn is going to have to take the bishop and if you want you could even take a third Pawn on A6 which probably we don't want probably what we would do there is bring the Knight into the attack with Knight to C4 A6 would be amazing for us see what our opponent comes up with he's now invested two minutes into this position I suppose Bishop D6 can drop back to B8 but already there are some bowdoin's mate type ideas okay King B8 let's drop the queen back to B3 that's kind of what we decided so let's not uh tarry any further and just drop the queen back because already here already here B5 had become a slightly bigger problem although I guess we still would have had Queen B3 but the queen on A4 has overstayed its welcome the only point of this move is to get the skin to drag it onto B8 now there might be some cognitive dissonance because you might have heard me share this advice that when you Castle queenside often tucking the king away on B8 is a good thing right it's safer on B8 or B1 than it is on C8 or C1 but this is an exception to the rule because we've got this queen and because we've got this x-ray we're basically trying to gain Tempe and here A4 A5 A6 is a little bit more effective because the king is kind of in the crosshairs of the queen hopefully that kind of makes sense now I'm not really doing too much calculation I'm just trying to cause some practical problems for our opponent to pose some dilemmas and that's what leads to mistakes now also Bishop A6 of course is a very serious idea here now Bishop A6 May strike you as just a an empty one move threat but it's not because if we can force black to play B6 well that's a very serious weakening of the queen side and this is technically the queen side even though Black's King is located there but geographically it's still still the queen side so once the bishop vacates the C4 Square the Knight can also jump into C4 and once that happens the pressure on the E5 Pawn grows very powerful so let's not short-sightedly you know section the board off and assume that we're just operating on these three files we're also operating in the center now we've got three attackers on the E5 Pawn and we're attacking the F7 Pawn which absolutely we might want to take in the absence of a better move I think we've succeeded in imposing practical problems to Black yeah and that's the thing if we are able to play Bishop A6 and black covers with the Knight then D takes E5 as things stand currently with simply win the game because it would Fork the bishop in the Knight I suppose black would have Bishop C5 check but even after King H1 that Bishop will x-ray the king another good reason to drag Black's King to B8 the fact that the bishop on G3 x-rays the black king doesn't seem important now but if the bishop ever leaves D6 it absolutely will become important quick shout out to people watching on YouTube thank you for all of the kind words and all of the subscriptions Knight to H5 yeah that's what I was a little bit worried about but then I actually think upon closer inspection this might be a mistake uh to get people's hopes up so what is the purpose of Knight H5 well the purpose is very clear black is trying to eliminate the dark squared Bishop in order to relieve the pressure on the E5 Pawn so obviously Bishop takes F7 is possible but what strikes it move strikes me is very awkward and not a good use of our time because after the trade on G3 black and start running that H Pawn down the board and those doubled g-pawns will serve as what's called hooks right and a hook in attacking terminologies when you advance upon and you kind of use an opponent's Pawn as gunpowder to to blast open the king side and that Bishop on F7 is going to have to be evacuated if we are to operate on the queen side so we're gonna have to waste another Tempo on Bishop C4 and the openf file might actually favor Black if we ever need to make a Mad Dash for the center of the board I don't like Bishop F7 I think we should stick to our guns here what does it mean to stick to our guns well we need to generate threats against Black's King well we already know the best way to do that I think the best way to do that is well let me think about this I think it probably is Bishop A6 although upon closer examination Bishop A6 Knight B6 oh and there we've got Knight takes C5 I think this might be working out for us I think we should go Bishop A6 this creates a host of problems for black if we can get black to play B6 we've already discussed that that favors white and we can follow up with Knight to C4 creating serious problems for Black's King now from C4 the Knight could potentially even jump into A5 again reaping the benefits of this x-ray is one of the themes of our attack if black plays Knight to B6 then we need to be very careful if black plays Knight to B6 then we need to be careful we need to start calculating concretely now what do we do in response to Knight to B6 well after Knight B6 the bishop hangs so we need to play with Tempo so Knight takes E5 comes to mind how do I see this move well once the Knight moves away from D7 you should realize that black relinquishes their control over E5 so Knight to B6 Knight takes E5 at that point black can't take the bishop because the Knight dives into C6 with a fork on the king and the queen so after Knight B6 Knight takes E5 if black plays Bishop takes E5 we recapture with the bishop and we're chilling because that's also a check and it hits the rook in the corner that's out of the question the more concerning line is Knight takes E5 Knight takes G3 Knight takes G3 first because there if we simply recapture on G3 which actually might be the best move I don't know well we'll cross that bridge if we get there black will then be able to play Bishop take C5 and perhaps it's hard for you to visualize this line but the bottom line is when all of the Smoke Clears that Bishop on A6 is going to be hanging right if the Knight on E5 is eliminated and the bishop on G3 is eliminated all that we would have left is this Knight on D2 and we wouldn't have that Knight on E5 that that defends indirectly against B takes A6 if that makes sense again don't worry about visualizing this I'll show all of this after after the game as well and our opponent of course goes for Knight B6 really no other choice for black I think let's think about this for a moment okay I think we should take the plunge now there is an alternative to playing Knight takes Pawn and the alternative to playing Knight takes Pawn is of course to take the pawn with the bishop if we take the pawn of the bishop my issue is that black and play ba we take the Rook black takes on h8 and black has two minor pieces for a rook which normally in these sharp middle games favor the side of the minor pieces because minor Pieces Just are are more effective attackers when there are closed files so that would be an emergency option I don't think we need an emergency option I think we can take the plunge and go for it and play Knight takes E5 and the better calculator is going to win this game there's this is going to get really exciting maybe it's losing for white I don't know but at this point I think just out of principle we need to take the plunge we need to take the plunge here there are some okay Bishop E6 well that's kind of a cop-out move and there was one crazy tactic that worried me this was not it although now I see that I blundered or at least I underestimated this I think I guess I seriously underestimated this move wait let's think about this let me focus in silence for a moment because there's a lot to think about here and we're in danger somehow I I saw this move but I didn't realize it was actually a big problem but now I see that it is man last few Speed Run games have been difficult I think we might need to give up a piece and hope for the best wow I got thoroughly out calculated here I think what we need to do is cut our losses and the reason we need to cut our losses is because I forgot that I thought we could just move our Queen back to be completely honest I thought we could move our Queen back and black still can't take the bishop but again I forgot the black and first take this other Bishop then take the Knight and then take the bishop on A6 in that order now Bishop C4 comes to mind but the problem there is that black still takes the bishop then black takes the Knight on E5 and suddenly the Knight on D2 hangs as The Rook is x-raying the Knight The Rook is x-raying the Knight so what we need to do is give up a piece but extract the maximum material out of it we're gonna lose one of these pieces so how do we gracefully give a piece up in order to extract the maximum concessions from black well the only way to do this in the interest of time is actually Knight takes C6 check without this resource I think we're dead on the spot with this resource I think we have pretty decent practical chances I don't know what our opponent is thinking about here because BC is absolutely forced but maybe this has come as a surprise to him okay so after BC we play Bishop takes D6 check and I will admit I messed up we're probably objectively not lost I would not say that white is lost here white is worse but practically we have very serious compensation in what form well first of all we have two pawns so it's not like we're down a full piece for nothing and of course we have long-term chances against Black's King which you know will basically need to play perfectly the rest of this game to avoid losing it I got out calcul out prepared and then out calculated completely so Kudos but let's see how our opponent plays the technical phase of the game all right so we need to move our Queen back we can move it back to D1 to hit the Knight but the Knight wants to go to F4 anyway I think it's a better use of our Queen to stick it on C2 because it's just a little bit more out of the way and it leaves the Rooks more coordinated so I like this more than Queen D1 even though that move occurs with Tempo and one hack for trying to climb out of these difficult positions is you want to give your opponent as much rope as possible you want to give black as many decisions as possible for two reasons of course the time situation right seven and a half minutes isn't a lot of time and second of all the more decisions your opponent has to make the more nervous they're gonna get so these more open-ended moves can actually be a very powerful defensive tool rather than just automatically going for the forcing lines now we need to press on the guess we have to find a way to expose Black's king and the only vehicle toward exposing Black's King is to get rid of the B6 Knight and the only way to do that is to run this a pawn down the board so we'll start with the move A4 and we'll hope for the best yeah we'll start with a 4a5 unfortunately we can never play Queen B3 Queen B7 because of this darn Bishop on E6 but tactically we could potentially shut the bishop out with a well-timed D5 so keep that in mind keep in mind that D5 and I would play King A8 here with black but you know all of this is not trivial at all for a 2000 player so we're just gonna keep peppering black with decisions and dilemmas and hopefully eventually he cracks although it might take a long while yeah it's actually not trivial at all here because in a weird kind of way our King is pretty safe for the time being it's gonna take a while for black to coordinate his pieces enough to get to our King you should also note that if black ever plays G4 that would be a major blunder because of E5 slicing off the connection between the queen and the Knight so G4 G3 is hard to engineer as well and without that Arc King is perfectly safe for the time being yeah whitesnite has you know C5 as an outpost of course we would have to go through Bishop takes B3 and weigh the pros and cons of that trade and on that topic when you're down a piece let's say for two puns you absolutely should not rule out trades just in general trades can actually be good when done strategically of course a queen trade would be a pretty pretty disastrous here for white but you know a minor piece trade could be okay okay I think that we need to spice things up a little bit more on the queen side now if we rush with A5 if we rush with A5 the problem is that after black drops the Knight back to D7 black will have this very nasty threat of C5 which can be a little bit hard to visualize but what that does is opens up an attack on the bishop on A6 and forces it away whereas we want to keep that Bishop on A6 as long as possible so I think what we should try to do is delay the move A5 until we're ready to play it and instead I think we should continue kind of activating and spicing things up on the queen Side by grabbing more space with B4 this also prevents black from playing C5 and again I'm trying to give black as much rope as possible a lot of people here would be tempted to play G4 that's an understandable move you know let's start attacking I think the better move would be H5 but again an advanced decision that has to be made by black and he's really starting to run low on time and I know that you know using our opponent's clock isn't really in this in the spirit of the speedrun but at this level I'm trying to give you a realistic portrayal of exactly how I'm I would play how I would treat this and no matter what time control you play most people watching this aren't going to be playing a Time control over 15 plus 10. so hopefully that advice about milking your opponent's clock is an entirely cheap I wouldn't say this is bad for black but in a weird way it's very very hard to play it's hard for black to find a way to make progress you just almost don't feel the extra piece I think if I had to assess the engine evaluation here I would guess something like minus one or minus 1.5 which is a lot black is clearly better but I wouldn't say it's more than minus two you know it's it's practically very difficult and our opponent is spending over a minute a move which is really really good for us now it's not so easy for a white to make progress on the queen side either obviously after we play A5 and we knock the Knight away let's say back to D7 well what are we gonna do after that well of course there's a possibility of us going B5 but let's put all that aside because Bishop C it is a big decision Bishop C it is a big decision and we have a very interesting tactical idea here that has to be properly fleshed out so let me try to calculate it oh it's really cool we have a very cool move here and again this move if calculated correctly is sexy if not well then it's a very bad move because we can simply Play Bishop takes C8 and then A5 but he but we can also play A5 right away and after Bishop takes Bishop a takes B6 Bishop takes F1 Rook takes a seven check and then the queen joins into the attack via A4 setting up mating patterns along the lines of Rook A8 and queen A7 I think that works out I think that we should start with A5 again forcing our opponent to calculate to honor this and calculate Bishop A6 now the Practical player might just trust white and say okay I trust you I'm gonna go Knight D7 quickly but most again you know that takes a lot of experience it's also easy to just fall into the rabbit hole and start calculating and then you look up and you have one minute okay so so notice really what I'm trying to do here posing problems on every single move and imperceptibly Black's clock is starting to dwindle the additional benefit of this move is that had we immediately taken on C8 black would have had the extra possibility of Knight takes C8 whereas now the Knight doesn't have C8 and has to drop back to D7 then we can play Bishop takes C8 or we could even play Knight to C4 with tempo and we're starting to really accumulate those pieces on the queen side so notice what's happening to Black's clock another minute is being spent not to get too obsessed with Black's clock but it's kind of fun to watch a tick down because you start feeling that you start feeling the nerves from your opponent and that's always a good feeling and I also see a really really cool tactic which hopefully will have a chance to implement okay less than three minutes now for our opponent and he doesn't budge Knight D7 okay now I think that we should play Knight to C4 and again we can delay Bishop takes C8 buy a move because we know that we're gonna play Knight to C4 anyway right that's a move that should be completely obvious to you because it brings the Knight into attacking position but there's also a hidden tactic that I think we might get a chance to implement if our opponent reacts incorrectly so let's tease black with another dilemma one after the other after the other every move is another dilemma that we're forcing black into and hopefully if he takes another minute you know then he's gonna be under two minutes now here we're forcing black to decide where he wants to put his Queen so let's see what our opponent decides no but I have to give tremendous credit to our opponent for just tremendous play so far but we've obviously made huge strides ever since giving the piece away and he finds Queen C7 okay I was really hoping for Queen to E6 no such luck now we have no choice you don't want to overdo this so sometimes if your move is forced then your move is forced we have no choice we have to play Bishop takes C8 maybe B5 merited a little bit more consideration there but I don't think so all right now we cannot rest on our Laurels we have to keep the foot on the gas pedal so to speak we have to keep making progress and posing black with newer and newer problems in order to keep the momentum of the game going because we are down in peace now we should remember that that does not mean tunnel visioning the queen side this is what I've been saying at the start you have to look at all sides of the board and if you look at the king side you might say well wait a second I'm looking at this F7 Pawn I'm looking at this Knight and I'm looking at my rook and I'm saying why can't I simply play G3 Force the Knight out of f4 and take another freaking Pawn on F7 and once that pawn is captured the E4 Pawn becomes a passer which basically means that all end games are going to be good for white as well so G3 why would this be a counter-intuitive move for some people well it weakens the king a little bit but with the reduced material on the board and the lack of a light squared Bishop we're really not paying the price for this move that we otherwise would have and the pawn and F7 is is just juicy AF also once we take F7 we develop massive tactical potential along the seventh rank one thing that you should absolutely see if you're tactically sharp is the presence of Knight to B6 check which could be okay obviously King G2 and now Rook takes F7 we can make these two moves very quickly and wait a second there might be a game-winning tactic here and this is beautiful this is beautiful so how do I see this well there's a couple of elements here well there's the pan along the seventh rank and then there is the X-ray along the a file and these two things combined should lead you to the move Knight to B6 check now it's not hard to calculate this if Knight takes B6 then we take on C7 and you might say well what about Rook F2 check there well Rook F2 check you can always play Queen takes F2 and give the queen up for a rook and a piece after Knight B6 check a b a b is a discovered check that wins the queen on C7 and the game and on that note we can simply Drive the Knight into B6 yeah really really pretty because this uses multiple tactical features to make it work if our Rook had not been on F7 then black would be able to keep the a file closed with Knight takes B6 right A B Queen takes B6 big deal so now we use both of our Rooks in order to indirectly support the Knight there's a beautiful follow-up I'm I don't think this is gonna happen but black can also play the move Queen takes B6 and try to basically give the queen up for a maximum amount of material of course Queen takes B6 we can play Rook takes f8 check first all right very important intermediate move so that the Rook doesn't hang but I also see an incredible idea now I don't know if we should play this because this is not in the spirit of the speedrun to play only for beauty the business move is Rook takes f8 check and then a takes B6 and we're completely winning but there is also a really really pretty line that goes a b Rook takes F7 Rook takes A7 King to B8 and then that position there's a game-winning tactic that's really gorgeous but again I don't want to do this because our goal is to play objectively I will show you after the game but what is the purpose of the speed run it's the play accurate chess and accurate chess dictates that you should simply take on f8 and take on B6 as much as I would love to do it okay so obviously here we play Queen F2 and the simplest is just Rook takes A7 check a little intermediate move and we win absolutely everything you can choose which Knight to take uh Rook takes D7 of course black will play Knight takes E4 so I think the simplest is King takes F2 and then swing The Rook over to the other side of the board and start chomping off uh all of Black's pawns on the king side it's all over so our attack has succeeded what a game that was fun and there's a good theoretical component here because I've struggled in this fantasy line on several occasions now maybe Queen A4 Queen B3 is the top move I because I remembered this idea of Queen A4 I remembered it from our earlier Fantasy game I just didn't remember the exact context okay so let's analyze thankfully we didn't get disconnected so again in earlier Fantasy games I gave you the sort of overview of other lines here because we're at a higher level we're going to focus directly on the line that our opponent played so Bishop C4 again C3 is an alternative uh to remember so the one thing I will say is that Knight F6 is a very common mistake here Bishop takes F7 and Knight takes C5 uh wins the game because the Knight comes back and takes division so Knight D7 castles Knight F6 and C3 solidifying the center yeah Bishop D6 Bishop G5 uh still Mainline and now H6 is actually not that common Bishop H4 G5 yeah this is what we faced I think this is exactly what we faced in an earlier Fantasy game and I don't remember exactly how that game went but I'm I'm seeing this game sitchever against svane and for some reason I remember citing that game earlier so maybe this is some recommendation in a chessable course or in some article that's going around because now two people have played this exact thing yeah so I remembered correctly I remember that Queen A4 was an engine idea here Queen A4 Queen B3 and for some reason you know maybe it wasn't exactly here but that's what influenced my decision so Queen A4 is not a good move though I did confuse something it's not a great move although black has to be ultra precise so I actually don't think Queen A4 is a bad idea according to the engine in this position white is not better here so clearly this is some recommendation I don't know who came up with this oh it's in the lemie course it's apparently it's in the Irwin lemie chessable course on the Karo Khan that would make perfect sense so apparently Queen C2 is the top engine move which is a modest move with the aim of solidifying the E4 Pawn but if you have to play that then it's pretty meh also interesting is the immediate Queen B3 according to the computer and now if black plays Bishop takes F3 which is the top engine move Rook takes F3 is the line e takes D4 C takes D4 looks scary for black but apparently this works out quite nicely for black Rook takes F3 e takes D4 C takes D4 Bishop G3 HG and black actually gets away with the move Knight takes E4 as crazy as it seems because after Rook takes F7 black takes on D2 and hits the queen and the liquidation leads to an equal end game I mean I if I was judging this visually I would take white but the engine actually prefers Black by a tiny margin after Rook HD it so it's a draw this is an equal end game it can be played by both sides so that's an interesting line now after Queen B3 if black does not know Bishop takes F3 which to me is far from intuitive I to me like Knight H5 would be the intuitive move but Knight H5 loses two Knight takes E5 oh my gosh oh this is beautiful and if black plays Knight takes G3 okay this is incredible on so many levels so what is White's best move here now obviously it's not HG because then black just takes on E5 the intuitive move is Rook takes F7 but Rook takes F7 loses to a beautiful counter tactic can anybody find it black to play the fun begins why not Rook takes F7 so what you should notice here is that the Knight on G3 restricts the king the king does not have these two Escape squares so in your mind you should be generating a tactical pattern where if this bishop lands on this diagonal it's basically Checkmate the move is Queen takes D5 and this actually was a thing in the game as well de Bishop C5 is not made it's not made because white can drop the Rook back to F2 but it's quite clear at this point the blacks attack is completely insurmountable black is gonna get a ton of material for the queen you can Stave off checkmate with h takes G3 and just moving the king away but black picks up the Knight and now black has a rook and two miners for the queen as well as a raging attack it's winning for black according to the engine incredible idea an incredible preparation nikito uh good job learning the course the move here is Knight takes C6 out of nowhere and this is a different mating pattern this one white mates Black's King but the bishop pay six and and uh Queen B7 hopefully you were able to see this move Knight C6 ends the game but in the other way now notice that here Knight E2 check doesn't do anything because black white can just play Bishop Dixie too and after Queen E8 the simplest is just to recapture the Knight simplest is to recapture the Knight there are some more tactics here but basically white wins so I don't know if Lami considers Queen B3 but I think Queen B3 might be the most testing move now I think some people would probably play Rook H to f8 here which is actually not a bad move this is the engine's second suggestion and here according to the engine white should simply bring the Rook over to E1 and really solidify that E4 Pawn and after Knight H5 Bishop drops back the Knight dives into F4 the position is complicated it's equal and playable for both sides apparently the best thing to do here is to tuck the king away to relative safety on H1 black starts attacking with H5 and white starts attacking with a four and we get just you know fascinating Karo Khan fantasy play uh also interesting is to play D5 here for white D5 Open up The Bishop's diagonal and attack on A7 of course black can play C5 and keep things closed but that gives white another major asset in the form of a protected passer albeit a blockaded one I'll be at a blockaded one but still this would be a great position to analyze according to the engine Bishop to B5 here followed by Knight to C4 I like White's position here I would play this so I think for the next time we face this queen B3 would be a very very testing line Bishop takes F3 here is you have to know that move because it's not intuitive to me at all now we decided to start with Queen A4 which uh in retrospect is probably wrong and after King to B8 then we drop the queen back to B3 and apparently here Bishop takes F3 again is the best move now let's compare and contrast we had this exact position with the King on C8 what difference does the king being on B8 make well we go down the exact same line bang bang bang bang ah wait a second aha uh-huh Rook date Knight takes C4 Rook takes F7 Knight D2 rookie seven Knight P3 Knight D2 rookie seven Knight B3 Bishop takes B3 and the key difference is that here in contrast the King on B8 is simply a safer piece white does not have this additional check on E6 which is a great asset if the king is on C8 so black is attacking D4 black is slightly better here because white is having a hard time defending the D4 Pawn if white goes Rook T1 blackened smoke The Rook out of E7 with rook hd8 and black is better white is just saddled with these weaknesses so apparently the presence of the King on B8 versus C8 just benefits black in this exact version of events but to me Knight H5 is a very human move because this is the main idea of Black's Queen side setup and this loses let's see and I oh and I missed Knight takes C5 Knight takes C5 is winning for some reason I didn't consider Knight takes E5 this is tunnel vision this is a great example of tunnel vision occurring at you know the GM level because what happened is I Associated this idea with Bishop A6 right I kind of associated with Bishop A6 and so I didn't take other ideas seriously and I didn't realize that after Knight takes C5 we're threatening Knight takes C6 check so conceptually I had the right thought but I didn't consider this at all now what about Knight takes C5 well here we play Bishop take C5 Bishop takes C5 Rook takes F7 the game is over black loses his Queen is the queen can't move what black gets checkmated so of course in this position black has to play this miserable move and go upon down but not only is it a pawn down white is also the attack rages on with E5 and then Knight E4 and Rook ae1 it's completely winning unacceptable unacceptable Miss and I just rushed it Bishop A6 well we took over a minute but I had made up my mind a lot earlier so a good example of not kind of limiting your thinking by telling yourself I'm making this move in order to make this other move right you have to be more open-minded than that and I think this is an instructive example now Bishop takes E5 of course you play Rook takes F7 immediately here and you win the game um not Bishop takes C5 check because if Knight takes E5 and now you've lost your opportunity to take on F7 because the Knight defends the pawn so move order is important here you have to choose the right moment to take on F7 hopefully that makes sense so Knight H5 should have been a decisive mistake the correct move for black here was Bishop takes F3 probably also King to A8 is a very reasonable move this is a more prophylactic approach that kind of keeps the the spice of the game alive and this would resemble the position that we were analyzing just earlier uh with the King still on C8 yeah no uh rookie mistake I played Bishop A6 and now the tables turn completely after Knight to B6 I'm pretty sure the black is already let's see no maybe not better I'll check with the engine real quick Bishop basics Knight to B6 no white is still better but I made another mistake white is still better but I made another mistake tunnel vision I was so enamored with this idea of oh let's induce Knight B6 and play 95 that I just didn't see the forest for the trees and of course I miss Bishop E6 which is the only move that gives black an advantage the correct move is indeed Bishop takes C5 and I misevaluated this as well white is better here ba oh my gosh but here okay here you have to find a crazy computer move Bishop aha Rook h8 is about equal which is what I would assume but here white has a ridiculous engine move that just okay it makes some sense but not when there is a hanging Rook let's see who can find this move you just have to attack like you just have to attack the king now you might say it's C4 well it's not C4 but it's the right Square it's the wrong piece the reason it's not C4 is because of again Bishop E6 pinning the pawn and the queen has no squares along the B file such that you know or period so why does a hard time getting C5 the correct move is actually Knight to C4 and you might say well isn't Bishop E6 even stronger because it pins the bishop well of course there are tactics as usual there's Knight takes D6 after Bishop takes B3 the Knight steps back with the discovery black can give the queen away for a piece but now the Knight Dives in and now white can win more material with Knight C6 and Knight takes did obviously with three pawns and a rook for the two Miners and the Queens off the board white is much better and then you could follow up with the prophylactic G3 to restrict the mobility of Black's Knight so very very cool stuff here now after Knight C4 black is in trouble because Knight takes B6 Knight takes D6 all of it is a threat if you play Bishop takes E5 well that loses to Knight takes C5 it's about plus over minus apparently black has to find this move and here you trade everything on D6 and again using the pawn as a hook in order to open the f file and generate a very nice post for the night white is better white is a big initiative here so in fact Bishop A6 was not so bad if it was uh precipitated by the right sequence of course I was just blindly going for this line and uh this came as a major major cold shower this game is a major major cold shower but as I just checked it does not win the game black is only slightly better after we give away our piece only slightly better believe it or not so this is the attacking potential of our pieces even after we give up a piece we're still slightly better what was I expecting here well of course I was expecting this particular line although now it occurs to me that black can still play Queen takes C5 and this just leads to Wild complications you cannot play d e because after Bishop C5 Rook F2 again there's Rook takes D2 similar to what we looked at earlier but there is the move Knight to C4 adding another attacker to the queen now the queen is attacked from two different sources black can't take on C4 because of checkmate and the situation just becomes total tactical pandemonium Rook takes B7 of course is also a massive threat black has to play this move King F2 and apparently black has to find Queen F4 check giving away the queen black now has a rook and two miners for the queen but white still has a pretty strong attack on the queen side engine gives a slight Edge for white just insane and the reason you have to play Queen F4 check is if you just move the queen anywhere first of all the queen doesn't have a lot of squares I guess this is one of the only squares here there is forced Checkmate let's see who can find it white to play and mate the fastest you have a beautiful move Queen takes B6 which does result in Checkmate but it's not the fastest this is not the fastest thank you yada yada man what's the what's the move here this is easy you should pause on YouTube and figure this out good little mate practice Yeah Rook takes A7 simply removing the defender and then Queen B6 Queen B7 checkmate so yeah so after King F2 the threat is Rook takes B7 and Rook takes a seven that's actually why you put the Knight on C4 also to attack the queen so you have to forcibly remove the Rook from F7 alternatively you can also play Queen E7 same type of concept to force the Rook off the board and get a bunch of material for the queen so as crazy as this line is you should understand the sort of logic behind White's play why not to start with Rook takes B7 and then to play Knight C4 well the reason is that with the Rook no longer on F7 after an id2 check and by the way obviously you can't go King H1 because you get mated so you have to take the plunge here black has Queen F4 check and The Rook isn't guarding that square and this gives black a Tempo the black can use to draw the bishop back to C7 and guard the Knight thereby taking the sting out of this particular mating sequence yeah Bishop C7 is another difficult move but if you know the threat you have a chance of finding it of course Knight C4 there's still Rook A7 and queen B7 maze just incredible lines so yeah so all of this aside Bishop B6 circumvents all of these issues of course if white plays Bishop back to C4 which I think a lot of people were lobbying for the problem is Knight G3 HG and Bishop E5 very very easy to forget about this the Knight is x-rayed by The Rook because it's just not a tactical feature that seems pertinent and yet it is and as I was saying earlier if Queen C2 then the problem isn't the X-ray because here the Knight on D2 is protected it's the fact that well the bishop on A6 is just hanging but why wasn't it hanging earlier well it's because of Knight takes C6 check and why does black need to take on G3 first well because if black takes on E5 first White of course can recapture with the bishop so everything should make sense here it's just about putting the puzzle pieces together you eliminate the bishop you eliminate the Knight and then the other Bishop can be captured so for that reason we have to make a graceful we have to hit the eject button right that's what I would compare this to you know that you're losing a piece here what is the best way of generating the maximum amount of material for that piece this is an area where a lot of players struggle when they encounter a situation like this they completely Panic right and just like give away a piece or give away sometimes two pieces so the point is you know that you're losing the bishop in most lines so instead of losing the bishop we actually give up the Knight now we know that the bishop is going to be left intact and we gain a second pawn and we generate long-term chances against Black's King so we have to trade and we drop the queen back to situ and we kind of reset now I think Knight F4 is a great move we start attacking with A4 and here I think our opponent missed a major opportunity to solve the problems on the queen side I think King A8 As Natural as it is once before is played we have now deprived black of the opportunity to play C5 which is a move that I had mentioned earlier I think black should have played C5 here I think black should have played C5 here and after white plays D5 there is a hard to spot idea now I've mentioned many times that when you are up material one of the most common technique involves sacrificing some of that material back in order to change the character of your advantage this is a great example of that you play Knight bd5 now you might say well wait a second this is Checkmate it's not because black can just dropped back to B6 and block check after e takes D5 the point is not that you take the bishop because then white takes Black's Bishop it's the simple Bishop takes D5 now what's going on here well the bishop on A6 is hanging as is the G2 pawn and if that pawn is captured all hell will break loose on the king's side so for example if white drops the bishop back after Bishop takes G2 clearly the situation for white is dire and if white lifts The Rook up then probably even Knight H3 check is is winning the game because Knight takes F2 and the Knight on D2 eggs but it's not the best according to the engine the best according to the engine is Queen C6 setting up Knight H3 checkmate so remember that and keep it in the back of your head I think C5 would have given black a nearly decisive Advantage according to the computer where I can keep the tension with Knight to F3 it's about -1.5 black plays CD uh and a CD and if black plays G4 apparently Knight E1 and white is somehow all right because in this position the Knight on F4 has lost the support of the pawn and white has like A5 coming so this is still very very sharp no question about it but uh black is on the road it's solving a lot of problems and I back to D7 is a good move to force this bishop off of A6 so hopefully this makes sense it's not that after King Aid before black isn't better I think black is still better but the situation is starting to deteriorate here so Bishop C8 we play A5 and of course the Tactical justification which had to be very carefully calculated is this line Rook A7 check King B8 and now a very instructive moment you might be attracted to this tactical pattern and you might say ah well after Queen A4 check white is winning and white is winning not with Checkmate on C7 but actually with B7 and B8 queen or bishop and white makes the second Queen and is winning the problem though is that black is not obliged to take the Rook remember this because you just have to always keep it in your mind that yeah your opponent can decline your sacrifices so instead of trying to go for the beauty prize the simple Queen A4 ends the game and in such situations it's always a good idea to take a look at your own King in order to tease out whether you have the time to make a quiet move like Queen to A4 and here the answer is yes how do I know that well it's clear if you look at White's King the black has no way to whip up any meaningful attack against our King you have to check this move but you can just play King takes F1 and then you can play King take C2 and clearly White's King escapes the checks even King F2 is winning here and you can sidestep Flex minor pieces and go to E1 and there is just no stopping Rook A8 and queen A7 and it's just made whatever black does I mean Bishop B5 is just checkmate now Fleck tries to run away with King to C8 well then you actually play King takes F1 to open up the path for Queen A6 Queen V7 very nice move by the way right you want to go Queen A6 what's stopping you it's the bishop get rid of the bishop incredible the usage of White's King and contributing to the attacking to the attack so that was what I was hoping for our opponent very alertly drops the Knight back but once we get the knight in once we get the knight in and actually I also wanted to show what happens after Queen to E6 which in retrospect might have been Black's best move does anybody know what my idea was here for white this is a little bit speculative but in in practice this is very hard to refute and it's the similar thing that we did in the game it's just a little bit more involved in this case it's what what tactical move just blast open the file Knight B6 yeah you sacrifice the Knight in order in order to do wide in order to open the a file we already know how dangerous this is we're down two nights but it doesn't matter now we're threatening all sorts of discoveries so Black's hand is essentially forced but after Rook takes A6 according to the engine what I missed is that after King to B8 black is surviving and the position remains complicated most humans I think would take on A6 and the chief difference is that now there is this rookie a check move here this is even cleaner because you simply go around and Checkmate the King on C7 remember the differences here the queen is on E6 there it was on D6 now King B7 we bring the Rook back to A7 what was the purpose of White's last two moves well where did The Rook come from it came from A6 and it ends up on A7 why did we need to remove it from A6 well we know what peace wants to occupy the A6 Square it is White's Queen so Queen A4 is winning the game because again we're already familiar with all the mating patterns here Knight takes B6 Queen A6 there's no stopping Checkmate you don't even need the pawn anymore because you have too many Avenues in too many mating patterns Knight E2 check remember always just sidestep don't pay attention to moves like this as long as you make sure that your king is safe you're fine so this was my idea our opponent understandably refrained from it and after G3 already white is better no question about it white is already better now I think Knight H3 and G4 is correct because black saves the tempo but after Rook takes F7 of course our opponent makes the decisive mistake and allows Knight B6 check what did Black have to do in this position after which the position remains very complicated it as sad as it is to make a move like this you have to drop the queen away because you have to take the sting out of the move Knight B6 check which by the way is still a very serious idea but here black has to play Knight B6 a b and queen B6 in order to meet Rook A7 of course with Queen A7 and then you get this type of position which is probably a draw by Perpetual check probably a draw by Perpetual check so I don't know Queen A2 check and queen F7 I mean white has Perpetual but not more than that so here we probably would not have gone Knight B6 we would have gone maybe even a knight to D6 and black would probably move the rook and we would play you know maybe B5 maybe a slower move like Rook a to F1 just doubling Rooks on the f file and asserting our dominance now over the king side clearly white no longer has a material deficit right we have three pawns for the minor piece which by definition is enough and not just any pawns we have a huge Pawn Phalanx in the center so clearly we've already overtaken the initiative so in terms of where our opponent actually went wrong I think the first serious mistake was not to play C5 and then the second was probably um was probably Bishop C8 actually because it yielded the C4 Square for our Knight and that's what did Black in what should black have done here maybe drop the Knight back to D7 maybe start attacking with H5 I would have played H5 I would have played H5 with black because even though white gets A5 in it's actually not such a big deal Knight back to D7 we probably would have played E5 and maybe gone 94 but clearly black is still I think in the driver's seat here in White's attack is not all that clear in this in this type of position maybe C4 but apparently here Bishop B4 Queen E4 and 98 what a move defending C6 and the bishop is trapped and if white plays B5 Bang I mean look at just the abundance of tactics in these positions can't take because of the fork Knight D7 to B8 is the only move here actually that makes this line work and it sets up the threat of Rook takes D4 incredible incredible so of course neither of us have seen even a hundredth of that but Bishop C8 is just too passive because it gives us too many squares and obviously fast forwarding Knight B6 check is really pretty but it it works on simple tactics if a b then a b winning the queen or we could even play Rook takes f8 check first believe it or not if Knight B6 then Rook takes Queen and again a lot of newer players I think would be afraid of this move remember that you can always give your queen it's just like any other piece don't treat the queen like it's special it's just like any other piece you can give it away for other pieces you could cash it in and gain a bunch of stuff in return now after Queen B6 we played the business-like move what was the beautiful win well this is the theme that you're already familiar with now it's crucial here to avoid Queen A4 this is what I mentioned earlier you always have to be aware of the safety of your own King this actually gets checkmated it's not just Perpetual check it's Checkmate on G1 so instead you can play Rook to A8 check and after King A8 this works very cleanly all you need is the queen and it's the similar pattern that we saw uh earlier of course black can play King B7 now you play Rook takes h8 and this is winning again Rook F2 just Queen takes F2 black has no other way to encircle the king if flagstro could land on G1 then it would be mate but blackstroke has no way of making it even to the first rank but I didn't even want to bother with that given how many blunders I made this game I just wanted to win just by taking and playing a b uh Knight B6 of course would have been a little bit more resilient but uh we would have played a queen A2 or the Russian Schoolboy mode is just to play Rook F1 and get rid of black stroke and win the game so we have a question uh by vanua wasn't Queen B8 instead of Rook f8 more resilient for black well Queen ba doesn't work because of Rook takes D7 but you're right the correct move here as we discussed would have been to play Queen Z8 and get out of the PIN black can also train King to B8 it so that Knight B6 is not a check the problem here is the Knight doesn't only have B6 it can also drop a visit to E5 and I mean obviously here you could probably just play Knight takes G4 I mean as simple as that just take a bunch of Pawns and this is another piece of advice I have which is that when you've sacrificed a minor piece a lot of people assume that it's either Checkmate or the sacrifice is a failure remember that a minor piece is just worth three points so sometimes the best way to follow up a sacrifice like this is just to win a bunch of funds this is exactly what we did here I think some players would get enamored with the prospect of made and would start considering this type of move right or maybe Queen A4 but no you have to realize that a piece is just three points and the simplest is just to start taking a bunch of puns of course it also helps that this rook participates in the attack but just because you've sacrificed something big or blundered it doesn't mean that you can't Garner the equivalent number of puns later down the line this isn't the sexiest but it's going to get the job done but in terms of the opening I'm going to do a little bit of work in this line but our next test when we face this is going to be Queen to B3 because this basically forces black to find Bishop takes F3 but I I hope that you enjoyed the analysis we finally got through a speedrun game so it's a minor miracle and we got 3200 so this was a fantastic stream I'm super pumped I'm gonna go to bed because tomorrow is bullet brawl thank you everybody have a great start to your weekend and I'll see you guys later bye foreign [Music]

Channel: Daniel Naroditsky

Views: 148,929

Keywords: IM, tactics, puzzle, agadmator, penguinz0, MoistCr1tikal, magnus, carlsen, chess, tetris, chessbrah, hikaru, nakamura, grandmaster, eric hansen, daniel, naroditsky, speed, blitz, funny, rapid, match, chesscom, twitch, checkmate, strategy, calculation, top, best chess channel, Tournament, money, bet, pogchamps, pog, champs, lesson, teaching, super-grandmaster, master, commentary, chess videos, chess instruction, naka, speedrun, speedchess, fide, event, entertainment, begginer, opening, cheat, cheating, scandal, hans, niemann, gothom, blunder

Id: UiNSl_OnvDQ

Length: 63min 10sec (3790 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023