Nunn vs. Seirawan, 1983 | Caro-Kann - GM Yasser Seirawan

[Music] and this game I'm about to show you is a game that was played in 1983 inuh what are you doing in Lugano Switzerland okay just a second let me make sure I can do this yeah cool okay and my opponent is the renowned author uh chess grandm uh John nun have you heard of John nun he's written numerous books and he's a remarkable remarkable person in the clarity of his thought like if you read his his Works he's directly on target like 100% of the time he's directly on Target and he speaks succinctly to the points that he's trying to make and this game that I played was what you might call a Donnie Brook I mean it was just wild like everything's going WR on a really really crazy game and uh you know I was confused by all the things and all the combinations and all the possibilities that was going on in the game and after the game we have what we call in chess a postmortem you know after death you know like we sit down with each other we discuss well maybe I should have done this and maybe I should have done that and blah blah blah so I was explaining to him that well you know here there's a very attractive young lady that walked by and I got distracted I wasn't analyzing properly and he was like nodding his head in thoughtful understanding and then when I finished he said I don't know what you're talking about so I said well you know you get distracted you start thinking about dinner or what you're going to have for lunch or this or that and other thoughts come through your head during the game and he said what I said John just a second John John John John you know you're at the board you're concentrating you're trying to analyze but for some reason your mind's just not working and you know other thoughts distract you and he goes really like I go yeah yeah yeah this happens to everybody it happens to you and he goes no well this is like one of those Doo moments like wow when this guy is focused he's so focused a little history about John nun he graduated from the University of Oxford uh the youngest graduate uh doctor in mathematics since like Cardinal woolsley 1674 or something like that and he is absolutely a mathematical genius just off the charts uh something very very special about him and his discipline and concentration at the board was just amazing whereas I was all over the map now before I get started how many of you play E4 excellent and how many of you play carakan one or two three there you go well I as I was mentioning I was black and this game was played in Lugano in 1983 just a beautiful beautiful um the Italian Canton of Switzerland just a beautiful location and uh it was a major major uh Swiss tournament in those years and an extremely topheavy tournament with really powerful Grand Masters and John M was one of the favorites I'm facing him with black and in a Swiss tournament uh having the white pieces is considered a real advantage and I played Dar caroan he played D4 and in Swiss tournaments uh really you got to play for the win and uh today against the carakan E5 what is called the advanced carakan is considered one of the most promising lines uh for white and it's what modern uh players do to gain the advantage well in a sense it's almost a little bit like the French defense I haven't yet committed my Pawn to E6 uh which means that I should first take advantage of this opportunity to bring my to develop my Bishop outside of my Pawn chain and that's what I did I play Bishop F5 and in those days oops that's not what I wanted yes sir yes sir is that a standard move of the bishop to F5 precisely so it is in fact the standard move what's I what's the modern assessment of the Fisher line against this which is Pawn takes pawn pawn takes pawn bishop D3 yes uh that's is um just to go back what Rex is asking is in this position uh Bobby Fischer as white very often played captures on D5 captures on D5 and Bishop D3 this is considered a very very solid uh alter alternative uh for black for white pardon me as it's kind of like a Queen's Gambit declined uh with colors reverse and white has an extra Tempo so the idea is that after Knight C6 C3 we get a kind of what is called a Carl's blad structure of a Queen's Gambit decline for white uh it's a funny story uh Bobby liked this line so much that he played it in the uh candidates tournament in bled and there was a couple of Soviets uh Petrosian Carz tall so forth and so on and and and when the Soviets all realized that that Bobby was playing this variation and they didn't think it was challenging uh enough for white there was like a a lineup of Soviet players that wanted to play the Black side of this position against Bobby um it's considered slight smidgen of an advantage for white we go back okay and we get the advanced and Bishop F5 Knight C3 okay so everything standard I played E7 E6 okay so in a sense what I want to do with black is I I mean white obviously has a very nice wedge of Pawns in the center and I want to play the move C6 C5 Knight uh C6 and put pressure against the D4 and E5 pawns from White's point of view and we can see it now most especially with the next white move is white wants to take advantage of this bishop on F5 and he played the move G4 attacking my Bishop my Bishop went to G6 and let me just make sure that I have the right uh move order here yes okay so he now played Knight G to E2 and what white is what white is intending is to take advantage of this bishop he wants to play Knight F4 and H4 and H5 trapping the bishop he white would especially like to play Knight F4 and capturing this bishop when H takes G6 as an available so he wants to play H4 provoke a move like H6 Knight F4 and take that Bishop okay after Knight G2 I played C5 so following up with my intention of course which is the blow up white in the center white played H4 I played H6 now let me make sure it's Bishop E3 okay okay I played H6 he played Bishop E3 I played Knight C6 he played Queen D2 I played Queen B6 he played H5 I played Bishop H7 and he castled okay so in a sense the battle lines are being drawn and wherever you look in the position white is really ready to pounce on Black's game so if it was White's turn to play White's intention is to play F2 to F4 F4 to F5 with two purposes the first of which is once White's Pawn gets to F5 this diagonal of this bishop is closed secondly uh once this Pawn gets to F5 this Knight could come up behind it Knight F4 and pressure the E6 and the D5 pawns now furthermore white is really hoping that I would capture on D4 because then if you look at from the if you look at the position from the point of view of development it's very clear that white has a significant lead in development first of all he's threatening Knight takes E6 with a discovery against the queen on uh B6 if I play the move Bishop C5 to stop the discovery against the queen there is Knight A4 winning a piece my queen is a Target and once again F4 is coming up and blacks in deep deep trouble so oops Castle so in this position it's sort of like man I can't blow up the center if I try to develop my knight for example Knight E7 well in the first place white could capture this Pawn with a Tempo followed up with F4 wh just got a great position I can't capture I can't move if I Castle all kinds of bad things are happening and finally I also have to pay attention to this move Knight A4 for attacking my queen on B6 and my Pawn on C5 so by All rights white is doing just great and I played the move C4 okay so yes sir by your analysis your move was the best precisely I I mean I literally I had no other option yeah yeah INF exactly everything else was inferior no matter where I met him on whatever part of the board I was going to be in trouble so I played C4 surpr that surprising oh yes oh yes long time after made that definitely exactly that kind of thing actually it was closer to 20 and here you know uh this was a novelty at the time uh in fact Black's whole strategy up until uh this game had been played black hole strategy was considered simply bad for the second player that is to say Black's results in this position had been awful and the move C4 uh was quite a surprise for my opponent so let me just go ahead so okay what could we make of this position uh on the first hand it it appears that white has Superior development Superior space a safe King on the other hand there's a niggling there's a niggling something I mean there is a possibility that Knight B4 which in combination with the bishop on H7 will capture this Pawn on uh C2 and so the so John had no no compunctions no problems playing the move F4 which looks really great right I mean because it's it's definitely clear that White's intention is to play F5 closing that Bishop followed up with Knight to F4 heck there might even be a a peace sacrifice against that pawn on D5 there could be a bishop G2 kind of thing so it really looks like blacks in deep trouble right is there any disagreement about this I mean I hate to talk down my own game but the reality is all my pieces are still undeveloped okay and I played the move Queen A5 can somebody tell me why I played the move Queen A5 okay there is a pin that's true um I mean it's not something that's very severe in the sense that if I brought the bishop here well he may try to block it with A3 but there was another reason prevent the A4 by him okay that's a good point you know also to stop his knight from potentially moving to A4 and C5 Julian on the button on the button so undeveloped behind in space King still in the center I'm going on the attack just as Julian says my intention is to release the B Pawn I want to go B5 B4 attack his Knight and when the Knight moves I don't care where I want to come down here and capture the pawn on A2 okay so now the battle is joined he plays F5 and I play B5 okay whoa what is going on well in the first place obviously my intention is to play B4 and it would probably be a very big mistake for him to play A2 A3 in the first place he's kind of tempting me with Bishop takes A3 sacrificing a bishop for two pawns but in the second case after A3 B4 anyway a takes B4 I can get in a queen A1 check let me just put that on the board pardon me I'll put this on the board so in case he plays A3 I could come down and I would be pretty threatening like for example after a move like Knight takes because my threat in the position is Knight A2 check and mate okay he could defend that threat but literally I've made good inroads against his King for example we can just continue the line once more Knight C3 Rook B8 and we can see that my threat is to play Knight A2 check Knight takes A2 Queen takes B2 mate so I'm getting there very fast so we're not going to play A3 for white so oops we're not going to play A3 for white my opponent so around this part you know like okay I was like really getting excited about my attack I thought that I were going to go B4 and capture his Knight and I may win a piece but I I'm so far behind he's got some some compensation for sure my opponent shocked me with a very strong move Knight takes D5 whoa whoa whoa that was a a real uh a real shock um well in the first place he took a pawn I don't like that when my opponent take pawns uh in the second place potentially uh he is opening up this diagonal for his Bishop if I were to take this Knight I would get killed I could see I could get killed here takes for example takes Knight takes Bishop here let's say he defends I defend pardon me Rook here Knight here it's very clear White's going to get a second pawn and this bishop well that's an kind of INB right okay so uh that Bishop would be in TB so this is a position that I really really want to avoid let's go back for a second let's imagine that uh black plays Queen takes D2 check uh Rook takes D2 Pawn takes uh D5 let's imagine Bishop to G2 let's imagine Rook to d8 now here Knight C3 could very well run into Bishop B4 unlike the previous variation now the Knight is pinned so white can take a different approach he can play Knight here and again this was a position I really didn't want to have anything to do with because I just thought you know okay uh White's got a a good chance of winning a second pawn and I just didn't see how this bishop was ever going to get back into the game so I didn't want to trade Queens exactly so my next uh the next question I had is what about my playing Queen oops excuse me what about my playing Queen takes A2 okay so here I had a real uh uh think about the position I thought that he would play Knight on D5 attacks my queen I would give him a check he would go back with a knight now what I saw in my mind's eye and what I was very fearful about was that this bishop would come to G2 which would be on this really nice D diagonal this Knight was going to come to C3 pressure this pawn and the one I was most fearful for was that there might be an opportunity for him to play D5 and my king is stuck in the center of the board so I was very happy in this position to play a different move where's my mouse there it is play B5 B4 when all the Alternatives aren't working you got to come up with something a little bit more inventive so I played B5 B4 what about D5 pardon me D5 ah well that well that was that kind of a queen swap variation where I was afraid he would win a second Pawn so now I was like kind of happy because in my mind's eye if this Knight Retreats I will play uh C C4 C3 and queen takes A2 and his King his King is getting blown up so so now at this point you know like the pressure really keeps going up ratcheting up he's sacrificing I'm refusing his sacrifices uh he can't bring his Knight back because of the move I said C3 and queen takes A2 he played Knight C7 check Knight C7 check now I of course captured his Knight and now he played Knight F4 why okay I beg your pardon uh this is an excellent uh as as we saw he played Knight C7 check uh this is an excellent opport opportunity to ask what else should white play I'm also keeping in mind I'm threatening to play Queen takes A2 and check and mate so he really needs to be able to defend that threat with a knight on B1 so what else could white play other than Knight C7 and the point is to get your queen out of there right exactly and KN C7 was to to get my queen out of there and while I'm being distracted he's going to make his own threats do have a threat yet hisat under well he's about you about to see some Knight C7 check Queen takes Knight F4 well and now we can see what white has in mind although he sacrificed a peace uh it's very clear that if he could play Bishop takes C4 that Bishop would act as a great defender in the king also this Pawn on E6 is really coming under Fire like you know here I am I'm a piece up but I don't know what's going on any questions I young man made yes please okay and just going to a a very very fair question indeed so imagine King B1 to stop me from going to A2 well in those previous positions we had been looking at we had actually traded Queens right and there had been uh a possibility for him of playing Knight C3 and winning a second Pawn with Queens on the board this idea of Knight F4 Bishop um G2 is not working because for first of all I've got an extra Defender and secondly the moment this Knight moves I get to play C3 and my queen on A5 protects x-rays the defense of the C3 Square so having the extra having the Queens on the board really benefits me he doesn't get any compensation from the sacrifice piece uh Rex rather than taking on C7 with the queen what if he just played as king what if I yeah what if I played my Black Blade to D7 precisely okay so Knight C7 check the question that Rex has and it's a darn good question that Rex you took the words right out of my mouth uh black says please please please please take my Rook because then when you take my Rook then Queen takes A2 it's kapow the problem is he doesn't take the Rook the problem is he plays the move D5 like and my king is sitting on an open highway I mean like in the middle of the road and there is no protection so like if we played one or two more moves we can really see this in like Living Color after takes takes the threat of course is to go Queen to D7 uh check and mate on the next turn that's hurt that's going to hurt hurt big time oh not at all okay so Queen takes C7 Knight F4 and now again if he whites a piece down for a pawn okay I should be so happy right I mean but look at what's happening if he manages to play Bishop takes C4 and win a second Pawn that Bishop on C4 will be a fantastic Defender I mean the bishop could drop back and protect the king but even worse it position The Bishop's going to be a horrible a monster on this diagonal so I didn't want him taking my Pawn so I pushed it C3 now he didn't want to to take the pawn and expose his King because after takes takes Queen takes I'll play Bishop B4 and his King position is really getting wide open so he played Queen G2 and have you done this in your games it's like you invite your opponent to put a pawn in front of the king and then the enemy uses your own Pawn as a a Defender well that was the idea here Queen uh G2 Pawn takes check King B1 the idea is he doesn't want to take this Pawn he wants this Pawn to I mean is it a black pawn or a white Pawn right I mean yeah it so but King takes could potentially expose the king uh to a queen C3 check in the near future so Queen take here here now okay uh um I played Knight on G8 to E7 you got it de yes Julian well yes okay that's a very good question the problem for me is that if I capture this Pawn on F5 let's ask the class if you were white how would you want to follow up White's position keeping in mind you played Queen G2 for a reason right to put pressure on this well what you Jan is saying is that capturing does open up the file but then after Bishop takes that Bishop comes back into the game white has a way of winning a piece back in this position indeed Bishop B5 with a threat of capturing the Knight on C6 and whether you play Knight E7 or Rook C8 D5 is a consequence of that oh boy and it's of like no oh no time out that's not what I'm agreeing to so let's see what happened Knight G E7 uh he played Bishop C4 now again the idea of this move is kind of multi-purpose first of all you know like the king does like Defenders I mean let's face it uh the bishop could come back here to protect but even more he's targeting this Pawn on E6 so could anybody uh please guess what I played Knight takes F5 okay I could be give back the piece G takes Bishop takes F5 then maybe bishop B5 and D5 uh Ju Just to be clear what Julian has uh oops Escape uh what Julian has he suggested that perhaps I should be generous and return the peace and we get some position like this where kapow uh once again my underachieving development is going to is going to hurt uh the position's blowing up and my king is still in the center and as Michael pointed out that Queen on G2 means that you're not going to move your Bishop because you'll lose the pawn and my King's The free and also with the H yep okay so uh I need some help here guys suggestions pardon me G5 okay G5 uh that runs into what Michael just said I'm attacking with the H Pond there's an aant and bang if I have to take then Knight takes E6 so it's Splat and you know it's all was focusing on the kingside attack all the way absolutely all the way on that very area on G7 yeah Knight yeah Knight C3 G4 H4 H5 he's been in a I mean he's he's he's got his uh you know his foot to the foot to the gas pedal here he's not stopping for nothing well my King's under attack don't you think it's a good idea to get castle out of it my King's under attack let's get out of Dodge okay so his turn so you all agree that uh he should capture this Pawn on E6 right and I move my king a little bit further and now he captured this Pawn on F7 wow is this wild or what I mean you know like my God you know my the roof is caving in uh if it's his turn he's ready for 96 uh he's got these pass Pawns in the center of the board and he's coming and my God and I won't say it but uh you know in time TR it's not time trouble yet but the clock's ticking right I mean you can really feel the the the tension building okay like wild Bishop is hanging on C go the bishop yeah that's in fact that was exactly my move Knight to A5 like I'm not worried about Knight to E6 because that Bishop is hanging you PR C6 too doing A5 first6 night couple and then free the night up and re attack that whole rank you follow up with the C6 and follow with the queen yeah but wait if he plays to E6 with the Knight he has a Tempo okay Knight to E6 attacks the queen and the rook and oh I forgot I'm the worst coach in the world I've tell this to all the kids who come in the door like I'm a bad coach uh when when white captured this pawn and captured this Pawn not only did he get a pawn to the seventh and he won two pawns but what happened for Black's benefit how did Black benefit from the loss of these two pawns B that's my lurking ICBM right there I mean you know it's in a silo but maybe it is working and at the end of the the rainbow there is a king so if he goes 96 let's see how this would work out my intention if I remember was to play Queen takes and if he takes my Rook now fortunately well it's not that important he is not threatening Queen B7 mate because I do have it covered my intention was to go Knight here threatening Knight check here so that in case of Bishop here Queen takes C2 check and mate whoa so that was why he couldn't jump with his Knight to E6 instead oh here was another uh key moment uh my opponent played Bishop to D3 okay could somebody tell me how I would have responded had he played Bishop to B3 Julian got an idea okay in fact you are absolutely correct my young buck a takes B and now yeah Rex is right on it boy talk about Johnny on the spot Queen A5 now remember what I was saying about this Pawn as kind of being offering white some King some shelter obviously in this particular case I'm forcing its capture so after King takes how does black continue correct and what was I saying about my Bishop oh take the pawn take the pawn with check it's pinned and guess what is falling this guy's falling as well so it's a complete collapse for white so that was why John didn't play Bishop B3 he played Bishop to D3 Bishop to D3 so he wants to neutralize my yes sir such a brilliant he playing so poorly well I don't know if he was playing poorly at the time coll well yeah but don't forget he still got these connected pawns and uh when he went into this variation keep in mind that at the time of the theory that move C5 C4 was unknown and the black players just dismissed this line as simply bad for black so he was going he was going into a line which he thought according to into the theory books of the time was greatly in his advantage and suddenly he's being thrown back by this very strange looking attack I'm attacking without any devel development okay after Bishop D3 what did I play what are my choices what are my choic if I play Bishop takes D3 well there's a lot of ways he could recapture I think the simplest one is with the rook and I still got to face the music of Knight E6 um I need a good move I need a good move yes yes thank you very much Knight C4 so in the first place this not only attacks his Bishop on E3 but it sets up the possibility of Knight A3 check King takes B2 Queen C3 check and I'm getting dangerously close to uh his King so after Knight C4 he was compelled uh to capture on C4 Bishop takes C4 Queen takes C4 and now he saw that there are lots of issues he's facing including a move like C8 putting pressure on C2 he played the move Rook H2 to defend oops to defend the pawn on C2 I played Knight D5 Knight takes D5 Rook takes D5 E6 those pawns are getting those pawns are getting closer and closer I felt like uh what is that Space Invaders you know you know the guy's coming closer he's also ready to go Bishop F4 check I don't know my king is in is in a little bit of a a trouble but hey I've got I've got this guy this guy is my you know secret weapon that Bishop on H7 that was really feeling good about that still Bishop's handy now too yes the queen come down exactly right okay so Rook A5 going after that pawn on A2 unfortunately runs into a small smidgen of a problem I check with the bishop the king moves and then and I got to sign score sheets hate that hate that okay so what did I do it's a toughy it's a toughy oh wait a minute I think I see uh Bishop D6 is a very very reasonable move because attacks The Rook my problem with Bishop D6 is he's going to go Queen E2 and if I trade Queens I'm worried that these two pawns are going to cause an accident with me on the wrong side of the accident I gotta be fast I gotta be fast yes yes Queen where is sorry Queen takes Pawn which which Pawn this well he will take and over and then he will take this Pawn with his King darn it see B3 with a pawn b33 B3 with a pawn because the problem is is I really want to get that pawn off the board in fact that pawn is really helping white tremendously so I played B3 so he captured my Pawn I mean this is such a tricky game I have to okay a no beautiful move nice move on the button Queen A6 I mean isn't this a very strange game like my pieces I mean you know I haven't developed my pieces and yet I've been on attack and so is he I mean we've been who's doing what to whom he doesn't have time to capture my Rook thanks to the threat of Queen A1 check and mate and in fact this threat of Queen A1 mate is so powerful he is obligated to capture the Pawn King takes B2 okay what's the material count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 two 3 four pawns for the bishop oh I I I apologize I did it wrong he didn't play uh after Queen A6 he first gave me a check with his Bishop I apologize I move my king and then he captured this Pawn so just the inclusion of that Bishop check okay now let's go get him how did I do it A3 Queen A3 check of course now he can't move back with his King uh King B1 keeping in mind my Bishop Queen takes B3 is with a check so I played uh pardon me he played the only move King C3 okay first I have to confess uh just to gain a little time I first played Queen check King here Queen Sheck I repeated the position just to gain a little time on the clock uh King here and what was the suggestion Bop Bishop B4 check okay King C4 what now don't don't don't forget one thing one thing you got to keep in mind please don't allow Queen ah Jack a mate that would be like oh uh Queen A5 if I take the Rook Julian it's okay but it is my Rook by the way you just sacrificed isn't it funny I was looking at this position I was looking this position and man I couldn't make things work uh for me um one trick that uh Bop Queen comes over I mean I was looking at Queen A5 Queen takes D5 man I just thought that uh you know there had to be something I mean his King's right up there right up in front of the board right pardon me8 prep the finale well everything takes the Rook he takes the Rook he takes the Rook no the D the okay the problem with the other Rook to d8 what was the problem uh yeah there was a problem there was a problem I think it was a pawn push okay this is a tricky move I apologize in advance I tell you what I did I play Bishop E7 threatening yes Julian I'm sorry at what moment Queen A6 check the yeah this is a nice one it's really nice if I go Queen A6 check and the idea is if he takes the Rook to go Queen here and take okay takeen he can play King takes King takes Rook to B5 check he comes back with the king I mean he's like a slippery devil you know like a quarterback scrambling you know so King takes here this is what I was fearful from and again I just didn't see the checkmate man there Kings out there free floating but nope so what I did is I played Bishop E7 now I'm threatening Maiden uh Maiden three I think or something like that my threat is to go Queen check King takes Rook d8 check and if King C6 Queen here made okay so Queen B4 check is my threat he came back with the King and remember a moment ago my Bishop was on f8 so I I won that Tempo my Bishop is now on E7 but I so what do I do now why didn't he take why why did the queen not take the Rook exactly why didn't the queen take the Rook okay you only get one answer and it is oh Queen B4 made Queen B4 made and the answer is uh Bishop E7 he went King C3 and now okay so I improved my position I got my Bishop from here to here I got the extra move for what it's worth I don't know what it's worth but here again I had to rethink of how am I uh going to get his King this was a toughy I tell you and by the way I was really worried that if I didn't get his King uh those pawns were going to eventually uh cost me the game should I take a repetition no a check Bravo Michael Queen A5 check King has to go to B2 no choice okay now what queen A3 check he goes back to C3 that's just a repetition so we can rule out Queen A3 Bishop A3 yeah Bishop A3 check now we got it going uh now he cannot go King to A2 because that would allow me Bishop B4 check and Bishop C3 with unstoppable made on A1 he had to drop back with his King King B1 and and now correct amundo threatening mate Queen C3 Bishop C1 he has to defend and I did what queen Tak okay Queen takes I don't you know if the weirdest thing I think I didn't do that didn't do it I didn't do that I mean it's begging it's begging now I queen takes C B3 check I think he would he has to move his King B C2 and then don't forget his Queen and Rook defend C2 so Queen takes C2 I think Queen takes B3 check had to be a great move had to be winning move my flag I mean I still had a minute or so but I saw what I thought was simple so I did something else beside Queen takes B3 what else is there correct Mundo Bishop takes C1 now he can't take with the Rook because Queen takes B3 King A1 Rook on D5 to A5 with a check he's got to stop Queen takes U Queen B2 mate so he took my Bishop now what did I do A1 check right on Queen A1 check King D2 uh what do I do Julia okay how many of you like Rook takes D4 check wait Rex wasn't ready to raise his hand now keep in mind I had a vis visceral fear that I was going to allow a queen h8 check uh at some moment so I wanted to keep that Rook on D5 for as long as I possibly coulden Queen D Queen takes D4 check and here my opponent stopped the clock if I if he goes King A1 that is a Checkmate so he would have to choose either E2 or E1 and then I capture The Rook with check and my attack would continue was that a wild game or what right I mean you know you just don't know what's going on sometimes and these grandm games and really this was a confusing postmortem because if we just go back uh to more or less the opening walk when did the girl walk well I mean you know it was one of those things that uh we get a position like this out of the opening JN has played all of the uh a approved moves you know when he played this move Knight takes D5 going in into these sacrificial variations he had calculated outcomes that were very favorable for him and after all from uh the point of view of development and King safety and all of the rest you really think that White's on top at this point and after B4 check takes here here it really it has the feeling that you know white has great compensation for his peace just simply brilliant and in a couple more moves there's going to be this avalanch of Pawns that are going to win back material and the King actually looked safe but it didn't so one of the things that John was asking me is like the old proverbial where did I go wrong where did I go wrong chess is a mystery I'm not sure well I thank you all for coming this evening put this in a computer and asked the same question I did I did and the computer today's modern day computer if you look at this position after uh yeah this this this this um they they they they like White's position they like White's position they like White's position and then it goes down like it just it goes off a cliff so here I'll tell you you where John went wrong and it was right here right here in this position right here in this position remember when he played that move H5 let's take it back for a moment let's imagine that Jon had played castles instead now let's imagine I try to get into the same variations as the game which was C4 and now we can imagine F4 and let's say I played the move Queen A5 and now here's all the difference in the world the pawn comes to F5 with a gain of time when he played that move H5 kicking me back uh he was putting me actually onto a safer Square yeah now if I capture on F5 now the difference is clear to behold that after Knight F4 well this guy is falling maybe this guy will fall next I have to be a little bit Larry that he's going to take the bishop one moment and that one little move that one little move H5 made it all [Music] [Applause] possible

Channel: Saint Louis Chess Club

Views: 153,927

Keywords: chess, Grandmaster (chess), strategy, games, critical thinking, classroom, learning, planning, game theory

Id: cP8GV5wQMZA

Length: 56min 24sec (3384 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 10 2013