Sultan Khan: The Best Unknown Chess Player Who Ever Lived

what if i told you that potentially one of the  greatest chess players in history was virtually   unknown and no it's not your 11 year old relative  who uses pocket stockfish this is a video about   sultan khan who between the years of 1929 and  1933 took on some of the world's best players   and defeated them sultan khan was born in 1903  in modern day pakistan he learned indian chess   which is different than the chess we know at the  age of 9 and by the age of 21 he was the best   player in the region at that point a wealthy chess  patron named colonel nawab sur umar hayat khan who   we will call suru umar for short took him under  his wing and helped him travel to london to take   on the world's best players in 1928 sultan khan  won the indian national championship in 1929 he   traveled to london for the first time and did  not have a good result he finished second to   last place but the two people above him william  winter and frederick yates helped him train and   a few months later he won the british national  championship in may of 1930 sultan khan returned   back to london and took on jose raul capoblanca  alexander alakine akiba rubenstein salaflore   and many of the other greats let's take a look  at three amazing games that he played and then   after that we will talk about the epilogue of the  story before we jump into it i just want to say   sultan khan could not read or write he could  not read chess text all the training that he did   was was with his rivals that's what makes  this story absolutely fascinating so we're   going to kick things off with this game that  sultan khan played against hermanus carlovich   madison and this is a chess master doesn't  have too rich of a history but still a great   game and sultan khan liked to play a lot of this  d4 knight f3 stuff with black he liked the karo   khan he actually against the queen's pawn liked a  lot of setups with the bishop on b7 now but here   he plays e3 he develops his bishop and his knight  and now he doesn't even you know he doesn't follow   kind of the the basic opening protocol of short  castle uh and just getting the pieces developed   he just goes immediately to town with this move  knight to e5 now if you dominate the two central   squares at any given position you're going to  have success and so by occupying that square   and that square it allows him to exert pressure  on his opponent by playing this move f4 now this   is called the stonewall structure now sultan khan  probably didn't go into this game going i'm gonna   play the stonewall structure rather he just  liked having positional binds on his opponents   castles and now he plays queen to f3 he doesn't  wait to castle instead he again wins control over   the center square and transfers his queen to  kind of create a target on that square right   that's exactly what he does now madison gets  out of the way with his knight and plays this   move f5 kind of closing it down closing down  this bishop and he says all right man you're   not going to be able to attack me but knight  to f3 another piece is gonna go join the party   knight to g5 would be devastating on the next move  attacking both h7 and e6 so for that reason black   goes back to at least safeguard the h7 square  we get bishop to d2 just developing that piece   bishop to a6 great move by by madison he  understands that you know he needs to trade off   some of white's powerful attacking pieces and this  bishop could be useful in the future uh but well   rook to g1 and sultan khan makes his intentions  very clear he has no plans of castling on this   side and he wants to play g4 the benefit here for  white's position is the fact that the center is so   locked a closed center will benefit a player if  you want to launch an attack we get bishop takes   now he takes with the c pawn why would he take  with the c pawn well two reasons now this knight   will never be able to go to e4 so again he's  winning the fight for the two central squares   he also can play rook c1 so he will have an open  file for his rook right queen eight and king to e2   no plans to castle he puts his king behind the  wall of pawns and his king's completely safe   and also he played a modified bond  cloud which obviously is always good   knight d7 and now queen h4 we are ready at some  moment to play this move g4 could have arguably   played played it in this position but queen h4 c5  and bishop c3 we see him completely closing down   the center he's not taking destabilizing his  knight on e5 he's keeping everything nice and   compact black plays takes he takes with the bishop  knight out to c5 and finally we have the move g4   and now it's about to uh be a flurry so we get  bishop takes knight he takes back with the knight   he doesn't want to take back with the bishop and  lose this pawn so he takes takes takes takes takes   and there's a big attack coming on the g7 square  now you could say well maybe black didn't have   to make all those trades like for example in this  position maybe black could have just played like   rook c8 and gf5 ef5 and said all right you  know maybe there's nothing here but there is   there's always going to be something in fact  it's a very dangerous position for black   defending here is super tricky like you have  to take and then make sure that g7 is guarded   which is just not very natural like  normally you're thinking to take back right   and in the game that's exactly what happened i  mean there was a massive trade but because the   threat of rook takes g7 is so strong black played  the move g6 and just rook g1 and black resigned   black just straight up resigned the game  a very you know a highly imaginative game   is what i wanted to kind of show you first you  say why would black resign i don't understand well   what are you gonna do for example if queen f7  right i'm gonna go queen h6 you can't stop this   my threat is rook takes pawn takes mate  and you can't even take with the queen   because then i'm gonna take take mate there's  nothing black can do i mean you can play like e5   that i'm gonna take you haven't slowed down  my attack in the slider so where was black's   mistake well black made some mistake probably  around here uh allowing this attack for white   to kind of blossom and develop uh most likely  black had to play a move like bishop c5 and   and realize that the bishop was really the  dangerous piece locked behind white's pieces   and then if white kind of chugged on forward  with g4 black would have taken and for example   if white tries to play knight like let's say pawn  takes d4 here trying to keep it all together you   realize the knight is not the piece required in  the attack it's actually the bishop so even if   now black decided to do this this and even take  this is very different because black guards and   you just you just don't really get the same thing  i mean i'm gonna trade queens with you for example   black had to realize that sultan khan's bishop  was lurking behind everything and played the   move bishop bishop to c5 but this is the you know  early 20th century chess i mean early 20th early   early 19th century late 19th century chess it's  craziness i mean it's like you know these guys   are playing like like absolute lunatics trying to  crush each other but there's still a lot of you   know really nice positional games uh but speaking  of lunatics actually we're gonna take a look at   another game with mir sultan khan this was against  frank marshall frank marshall one of the greatest   american players of all time uh not bobby fisher  level but the story about this game and this is   the benefit of sticking around in a gotham chess  video is that you never know what i'll drop well   first of all i want to tell you you're amazing as  always uh apparently in this game played at like a   super elite tournament a lot of top players around  tartakower wrote about it in his memoir of this   event um or his recap of this event uh and he said  that frank marshall was drinking pineapple juice   except it wasn't pineapple juice he was super  drunk he was banging out all his moves and yelling   at sultan khan during this game so just imagine  that at an elite level tournament you know magnus   cross just you know takes a swig i i bet you like  that anyway sultan khan plays d4 and brings his   queen up so clearly the man is not an openings  book but still was able to compete with these top   guys knight back to c6 queen to e3 and he just  tries to develop his pieces casually and castle   queenside now frank marshall was a confrontational  guy so he played the move d5 he's trying to punish   white's setup and white setup isn't very good  this is probably the best way to punish it   now all of a sudden it is black who has a  lead in development which is non-standard   sultan khan plays knight to e2 it's the only  way to optimize his development bishop to g4   and now knight to f4 attacking the queen queen  goes back to d7 nelson complex f3 says why did   you bring your bishop out here i don't understand  we're like what are you doing here what is this   well frank marshall here plays the brilliant move  long castles just go ahead and take my bishop if   you do take my bishop i'm going to hit you with  bishop to h4 check then i'm going to hit you with   king to d1 because this is coming right this is  coming right you got to go king d1 i'm gonna go   here and then if you go queen to d3 trying to  get a queen trade i'm gonna take with check   and then if you block i'm gonna sacrifice because  i don't wanna lose my queen and then if you take   like this i'm gonna play queen takes f4 and  then if you fork me i'm gonna detonate kaboom   kaboom check and you're gonna lose both rooks  and if you say did he really see all that   yes frank marshall was a genius attacker yes when  frank marshall played long castle of course he   saw that six move combination this guy is one of  the most creative attacking players of the 20th   century i'm not i'm not joking i mean i didn't  ask the guy um i didn't like you know text him   in the afterlife like hey man what's up you know  dude like but yes of course and the thing is this   was very sobering defense no pun intended given  that frank marshall was apparently drinking during   this game very sobering defense that frank  marshall just wanted to absolutely detonate   you know a brilliancy and add it to his game  collection but mir sultan khan says all right   let me call your bluff pawn takes bishop now  that my king is out of the way i don't have   to worry about bishop to h4 check anymore so black  plays bishop to b4 and here there is only one move   that that holds for white only one move and he  finds it queen back to f2 because you need to   guard your bishop and you need to guard backrank  and you need to guard your knights the only move   frank marshall plays bishop c5 hoping for takes  this is why you always look for checks kabam takes kabam and you are mated you  are mated ladies and gentlemen   so that's what he was hoping for now we're talking  about you know we're talking about mir sultan khan   here queen to f3 holds everything there's no  mate because the queen is covering the back rank   so rook to e3 yes you still can't take because if  you take check and it's may i'm gonna mate you on   the back rank so don't take queen to d5 once again  in this position one of the only ways in fact i   think it's the only way to win the game he looks  and finds all of the tactics all of the open lines   and he plays queen to d5 and the reason this move  is so good is that if black takes take take you   still cannot take the rook but you play bishop c4  now two rooks are hanging and that is a problem   because your rook is guarded that's the major  point did he see that of course that's why he   played it again i didn't ask him all right uh text  messages to the afterlife are very expensive but   you know yes of course of course he saw that  which is why frank marshall played queen e7   now the queen is under attack and this is guarded  and that's guarded and here we have queen to f5   check king to b8 and the interposing move knight  back to d3 and all of a sudden we have problems   when you are up material and under attack you want  to nip that attack in the bud right you want to   train as many pieces of that attack as possible  queens rogues bishops and now we are guaranteed   simplification this is hanging and too much stuff  is hanging great little maneuver there takes   takes black doesn't have enough knight to d4 queen  h7 still frank marshall was kind of trying to   swing in here with the pieces but i think at this  point the pineapple juice was simply too potent   queen came back to e4 to simplify nice little move  here repelling the enemy knight from ever getting   forward and uh in this position after queen e6  frank marshall played a move and resigned now   that's pretty boss oh that's how you know you've  really defeated someone where they've actually   played a move and on your turn they have decided  they've had enough not after you make a move   but on your turn thinking they're like you know  what this is this is stupid why am i doing this   so you might say well why would you show this  game well the thing is a lot of people would   have succumbed to frank jim you know frank  marshall and at the same time this is the   second professional year that sultan khan  is playing so first of all he shows genius   attacking play now he shows very creative and  and kind of sobering defensive play and now   if you stuck around like 16 15 minutes into this  video you will be rewarded because here is a game   of sultan khan versus jose capoblanca this is  from 1930 hastings and um a couple of years   prior capoblanca was the world champion in fact  he dethroned lasker who had the world championship   longer than any other player in history so  capoblanca knew how to put pieces on squares he   was considered one of the most technical players  of all time if not the most given who he was   playing against and he lost to you know he lost  his world championship crown to uh aliyukin who   also was one of the greatest of the 20th  century so knight to f3 knight to f6   and the players get out to just a very  standard looking queens indian defense   um now here sultan khan plays a move that at the  time wasn't super popular a3 why bishop to b4 you   know your opponent wants to go there so don't let  him do it d5 takes takes simple development and   you know you see kind of this time sultan khani  he's not going for some stonewall right he's he's   trying to play kind of more principle chess kappa  blanco plays knight to e4 it's a very strong move   planting the knight there supported by the bishop  and the pawn and asking white what you want to do   here bishop by four it's kind of a weird move  i mean why would you well here's why knight d7   now queen c2 and essentially you're saying i  don't want to simplify i want to take advantage   of the fact that you've kind of planted that night  there it's going to be a target and behind that   is a nice juicy targeting of your king this  move forces kappa blanca to play the move f5   which actually you know on a surface this looks  really nice it looks like all these pawns are   clamping down the center but it's not quite the  same it's not quite the same strategically here   white has some advantage and immediately goes for  that pawn on c7 black plays bishop d6 and offers   a trait of pieces now what do you take with do you  take with the bishop of the knight so kultan khan   decides to trade knight for bishop and capoblanca  known as again one of the better technical players   positional players gives away the bishop pair  gives himself doubled isolated pawns in the center   but he does get something for it and it's a  very dynamic game right he's got this kind of   open file white center is really blocked not  allowed not a lot of movement here so we get h4   sultan khan baby i mean we see this all the  time modern day these super gm's playing h4   his man just busts out the move h4 he's not a  big fan of castling he doesn't need the castle   he makes the rules why h4 well to be honest g5  is gonna happen like if white castles there's   some positions black might pop off with  g5 not not not in this specific position   but there are many situations you know and and  by the way not the specific position because   you would take this knight and then if this you  would take on f5 so there's tactical reasons   but he also just realized that this is gonna  be his only real way to fight for advantage   because he's not winning the central battle he's  not really winning the queen side battle either so   he redirects the play and the focus to another  side of the board capablanca plays rookie we get   queen b3 targeting the pawn and the king queen to  e7 and 92 drops the knight back volunteers a trade   and even sacrifices the right to castle but  capoblanca didn't like this actually he wanted   to reinforce so we get knight takes now f takes  bishop back to e2 so what the heck is going on very unclear who has a better position  you could argue white is better   because white has the two bishops white has  a bit more obvious of a target you know like   two obvious targets i don't know very tough  to say rook to c6 a g g o g oh geez and g5   i mean only sultan khan can play like this against  capoblanca right there is a degree of respect that   comes with knowing the other top players but he  doesn't even do this to take the pawn with check   he does this to play bishop to g4 and activate  his bishop in a very creative way because he   knows he's not going to activate it over here even  if you attack the rook the rook moves right so   rook c1 check was played here king to d2 rook to  c2 and now we have the position on the thumbnail   sultan khan sacrifices his queen for the two rooks  now two rooks are better than a queen if and only   if the enemy queen is completely restricted okay  rooks need to coordinate to be good separated   their garbage especially against the queen who  will hunt them down find them beat them you know   to an inch within their life and then take all  their money so the rooks need to be together right   so queen to c7 the king goes back to d2 queen c4  bishop e2 queen b3 rook b1 so now the queen has   been thwarted the queen's not oop queen's not  going to do any damage here so we get rook c1   and rook c3 and now b4 why b4 this is the best  coordination of a position and if you play b5   that queen's trapped if you play b5 the queen is  trapped though the queen gets out rook c1 a6 and   now rook g1 so sultan khan baits his opponent into  playing a pawn move and then says i'm going this   way now you've weakened your pawns enough that now  maybe i can take them in the future and i still   have this target so queen back to a4 rook back to  c1 they repeat now he says no repetition for me h5   let's just make progress simple easy improving  moves not every move has to do something drastic   rook 1 c2 queen h3 king c1 let me hide my king on  b2 slowly improving my position my king is better   there i don't want it in the center of the board  anymore queen 2 h3 rook to what is he doing oh   he wants to guard the back rank he wants to guard  the second rank and now he's gonna start expanding   on this side of the board queen h4 king a3 slowly  squeezing one of the greatest players of that   generation to death queen back to h3 bishop to g3  queen f5 now we have some targets that capablanca   can go after with bishop h4 g6 and now a super  important moment do you take or do you push   he decides to push isolating that pawn for the  future end game maybe that pawn will be useful   queen goes back to d7 b5 a5 so we've now isolated  two of black's major targets we go bishop g3 we   remind black that that is also a target queen  f5 bishop f4 a little bit of shuffling and now   he brings his king all the way back to the back  rank queen continues to shuffle king continues to   shuffle and finally after a little bit more  shuffling he goes i've had enough rook g1   bishop back to c8 and now the rook to c6 you  say why would he do that why would he allow   the rook to come there there's nothing  else you could do because now bishop to g4   you say well why couldn't he have done it  like for example here like for example in   this position why couldn't he have played rookie  one he could have he could have but he was shy   you know sometimes you need you hesitate a little  bit so he hesitated now he plays threatens bishop   g4 makes campablanca move the bishop back  infiltrates with the rook remember remember   a long time ago that a pawn moved up one square  do you guys remember that when that apon moved up   one and now sultan khan made it move up a second  time yeah that was to isolate the weaknesses   and now at some point in a few moves we will  have the first breaking point in the position   which is when white has infiltrated successfully  they shuffle a little bit he guards everything   maybe he was just savoring the moment queen  takes king to d2 the king comes back to guard   and now everything falls apart queen h5 rook  takes b6 king moves to e7 rook b7 the pawn pushes   bishop moves in everything is patrolled queen  h3 and the final move of the game rook to b8   and in this game capoblanca didn't even get close  to harming sultan khan this was not a complex game   this was a witch snake constricts it was a snake  wrapping itself around its prey and suffocating it   this rook is going to move out of the way maybe to  to go to this pond maybe to sacrifice itself and   the b-pawn will promote i've never seen a game  quite like this and i wanted to end the video   with it because it's obviously a statement game  i mean capoblanco was world champion just years   prior he was one of the elite players throughout  this time and this is just one of many victories   and close matches that sultan khan had during  his career of about four years kind of insane   when you think about the circumstances  the fact that he was unable to read or   write he was unable to read texts uh you know in  magazines and study games and things like that   he didn't have an opening repertoire many of his  games as you see no opening repertoire at all   and potentially the craziest kind of  epilogue to all of this is that after this   in 1933 he returned back to india in 1935 he  played one match locally against the player   where he won every game and drew once  and then nobody heard from him again   some years later in 1944 um sir umar passed away  and sultan khan was actually quoted uh as saying   later on in his life that he would never teach  his children chess maybe just as a hobby but he   would never teach them chess and he wanted them  to do something more productive with their lives   uh it was reported that sultan khan was quite  miserable traveling abroad which obviously makes   sense given you know it was the 1930s he was  frequently ill when he traveled suffering from   all sorts of illnesses frequently showing up to  boards with his neck wrapped and bandages but   what did it what what a what is story i mean  learning modern well the chess we all know at 21   after winning you know the indian chess  championships uh and then a four-year career where   he would show up in london wreak havoc beat people  and go home unbelievable he was he's written about   by so many different people feel free to you  know dive into a a deeper read with some of the   articles and some of the quoted texts of some  of the greatest players of that generation and   i just wanted to make this video because it's a  very fascinating story so on that note as always   thank you for watching uh if you are returning  welcome back if you're brand new welcome   got a lot of playlists openings middle games  end games puzzle solving for you to uh check out   i've got courses link is in the description and  uh there's something i haven't covered do leave   a comment i do read them and i'll cover that  in the future i'll see you in the next video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 943,481

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna, sultan khan, sultan khan chess, sultan khan agadmator, famous chess games, capablanca, capablanca chess, jose capablanca, jose capablanca agadmator, sultan khan chess games, mir sultan khan, mir sultan khan chess, chess history, sultan khan capablanca, historical chess games, famous chess matches, famous chess games explained, best chess games, best chess players, sultan, khan

Id: 8Jhv4F8NGe8

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/arjunmehta26]

Sorry i wrote he was the greatest because he is the greates chess player of all time. Mir Sultan Khan. He has won indian chess and won indian chess championships, went to England didn't know western chess, learnt it from his rivals and caused sensation by beating the greatest chess players of all time only in four professional chess years , but still was unable to get enough recognition. He was born in lehnda punjab before independence in a village called mitha tiwana, i think district's name is khushab. He is also know as the first asian chess grandmaster. I came to know about him when i started learning chess from gothamchess videos. Those who know chess will come to why he is called the greatest chess player. There are other chess youtube channel who featured his games. I don't know about lehnda punjab but in chadhda punjab, i never heard of him. He has desfeated one of the best chess player of 20th centure, more specifically before the indian independence. He has defeated the one of the best ches player and world champian during that time called jose raul capablanca. He used to call him genius. He has also defeated alexander alekhine and a lot of other greatest chess players. Fide, a governing body of chess has entitled a lot of old players or players of his time with the title of grandmaster, but he was not. The indian chess players contacted with fide through chessbase india(it is like indian version of fide and conducts high level chess games), but i haven't seen any results yet. Because of the time in which he used to play(before independence) was the main reason he didn't get enough recognition in my opinion. But he was the greatest of all time. Chess players will tell non-chess redditors that why he is important and why his life story is fantastic and motivational and why he is unique. Sometimes ro me his story seens similar to srinivasa ramanujan. Like S. Ramanujan hadn't had formal education, but was able to make revolutionary inventions in math. Similarly he didn't know chess theory but was able to defeat world champions and greates of all. He only knew punjabi. There's a book written by daniel kind on him. There are a lot of other articles written by others who has played with him or was writing the recaps of those chess events.