The Rule of the Square

[Music] so this is - I'm back and this time I'm gonna tell you a little bit of a secret there's a rule in chess called the square it's about I don't know what it's about that's the point because I don't know the rule of the square somebody tried to teach it to me when I was little and I didn't really get it but I feel like I've gotten away with it in most of my games and I can sort of intuitively feel what it's about and later you can check it out on the Magnus trainer you can learn about the square and you can know what I never learned so what I will instant show you is one of my specialties it appears at least something I've done twice it's turning around a very bad Queen ending and winning winning it with with with a pawn that cannot be caught by the king because apparently the king is not in the square so what I did here is this was an online game again stocks on the grid shook from 2017 what I did is I I think I've been worse for most of the games as I usually am against Erick and here I gave a check again I'm getting mated with Queen d7 Queen f7 whatever very soon if I don't give checks so I have to give checks I think we were both pretty short of time here again for those who know Alexander group they know that he's constantly short of time so it wouldn't be wouldn't be a surprise and here he made a fateful decision he played twin to g3 and what happened is I I could see that the checks were soon going to run out forego Queen - II - he has Queen - s3 and yeah there there are no more checks so at this point I thought I have to take and then I think later so I took I exchanged the Queen's and I cleared a five and what is important now to know is that the king is not in the square of the pond if only I knew what that means but in my experience it means that the king cannot stop the pond but if you do know the role of the square you don't have to calculate it every single time like I've been doing for 20 years it should also be noted that in the case of first of all there are many choices for what's here you can go King h4 and I have to keep continue checking and beg for a perpetual which I probably will will get King F for never a good idea to place the king and the Queen on the same diagonal loses the Queen h2 taking the Queen on the next move and there was also Queen King - f5 which is also not a very good choice because of King sorry the point of 706 Queen goes to f3 Queen to f4 take it take it and I find and now in now the king is in this square so we can try to catch the pawn but it's not going to be able to catch too pawns that are running on the opposite sides of the board simultaneously what I can say though is that in this position instead of going for instead of going for King before trying to catch the pawn he could go King to d6 instead I go a3 since King d8 trying to stop King coming from to c7 doesn't work East 17 e8 King e6 a 3d six and checkmate with d7 next so I would have to go a 3 inside King c7 a to d6 a 1 Queen d7 King e7 d8 Queen King tang-see 627 check king e5 once again the diagonal king queen not a good idea quintics g7 jack taking the Queen next and winning the game which goes to show that even though the concept of the square is an important one there are no absolutes and thus in this case if I would give a check on f3 King Queen goes to f4 I would have to take upon d3 and well gave another check and hope it will be hope it will be enough remember this was a internet blitz game we are only a few seconds post though I choose to believe that I would have been fine but who knows anyway I was luckier he went Queen g3 I took it King takes g3 I went day five king is not in time and it's neither in time to Queen his dangerous passports nor is it in this way you can learn more about this on on Magnus trainer and play - calm you can also learn more about another nice swindle I pulled off against Anand and a blitz game where I also took advantage of his King not being in the square in lost queen endings so more good stuff maybe I'm eventually gonna learn about the square myself in that case I should check it out [Laughter] [Music]

Channel: Magnus Carlsen

Views: 1,817,918

Keywords: chess, Magnus Carlsen, Magnus Trainer

Id: eI9ZjwL6Tk0

Length: 7min 35sec (455 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 12 2020