Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Alexander Alekhine playing against Lajos at the loss in 1927.
Because come instalments round nine we see no to free from alekhine d5 c4 e6.
De So transposing into a Queen's Gambit declined.
We have Bishop G, 5h6, Bishop six F Sex Queen Safe Sex Knight C Free C Sex Queen B Free 97.
And now E4 so black does have the bishop pair outside out of the opening.
But this bishop is not particularly great at the moment.
We have D takes E4, Knight takes E for Queen F for Bishop D3, Bishop E seven, both sides Castle Rook
f1 Rook D Ain't Rook 81.
Queen C seven.
And now Alekhine plays Knight G free.
He likes having his knights like this ready to attack.
It seems objectively, I mean, it's an online preference here.
Basically, it's put on G3 in the World Championship match between Capablanca and Alekhine.
You know, the knight was coming to G3 quite a lot, but actually on this occasion instead of Knight
G3, Bishop B1 actually has something going for it here.
Let's just briefly explore this if if I see five.
And there's an interesting point to be made here, about 95 hitting a soft spot.
So even though this looks to be, you know, why why is White doing this event for a moment?
Be takes there's queen a free looking of seven.
So that's possible F seven here.
It's kind of interesting if Bishop de six there's an interesting tactic in this position.
Can you see what that is for?
Five points.
Good night.
Take.
It's possible Bishop takes age to check.
The king could move any time.
Queen takes six.
There's no sex winning the queen with queen.
Sexy sex.
So let's imagine this position with queen for here.
After three.
Take see five Queen 66.
King takes H two.
This is in one's favour.
So yeah, it does seem Bishop B one has something going for it.
But okay.
Night G3 is played.
We have no cell phones.
There is an argument.
Potentially to be made blank was kind of passive.
There is an argument for blacks to try and play more actively with C5.
In this case though, D5 might have six.
Yeah, it does seem there's an argument he had to try and get some grip on the squares and this position,
for example.
It should be even so, black is actually going in a passive manner.
It seems with what is played, which is not a.
This is start of a kind of bit too passive play.
And now Queen C free means that actually one is well equipped now for C5 with D5 so A5 is played black
is in a passive state here if C5 d5 and this position is is okay if black does this to sake the exchange
because otherwise it is a dominating position.
It's going to be a smaller H4 for white now and that's a very interesting exchange sacrifice.
But otherwise why it would be better here if that's ignored.
And the knight, It's kind of nice on G3 here.
So okay.
Anyway, A5 is played so a free A4 and now 95.
So this is looking at the F7 soft spot here in the main line of the game and the Queen is going offside
here with Queen A5 Queen's C1.
So yeah, y is pointing things at the King and these guys are kind of passive at the moment and away
from the king.
This is a bad sign.
Bishop D7, C5 and this soft communications about B5, we have Bishop E4 targeting C6 that echoes the
tactical variation we saw earlier.
So it's not just F seven and Target C6.
Now we have Queen C seven, Queen C free Bishop E ain't.
And now 92.
Rock six.
So this is interesting.
This night's rerouting is very, very interesting.
Where is this night going?
Night C 197, night 67.
Is that a bit of relief for black?
That simplification this night is coming to a key square.
E5 What a route.
So this doesn't move.
2593.
It's coming to a key square.
If I were looking at both C six and F seven, let's just replay that again because these night routes
by Alekhine, for me, they've always been pretty instructive.
So this night's on g free and you know, C five cuts off and then the night is now rerouting to kind
of take the place of its fellow night essentially on E5.
So that essentially has reduced Black's King safety by one key defender.
And why isn't a dominating position where both F7 and C6 run the scrutiny.
So yes, that is more ideal than G three.
That's quite a journey to get from there to there by this route.
Okay, so anyway, Bishop F eight and then we have H for Rook eight eight Bishop B one and yeah, black's
in a real bind here.
This is really dented Black's counterplay.
So the only variations with Black playing C5, I believe worth worth mentioning.
If you look at this contrast now where black is really is devoid of counterplay.
We have H5.
This really is a horrible move to have to play, but it's in a bad you know, black's in a bad way.
If rook aca one can simply play this battery move to frighten checkmate and if G6 then h five.
And what is black doing here?
Black's got the bishop pair, but it's the king is being disintegrated, you know King safety has been
absolutely disintegrated here.
This position Rook takes E6.
This is just desperate stuff.
These tactics all favor white.
This position rotates H six rook seven.
It's a demolition job essentially if h five isn't played so h five is played.
To try and stop white playing H5 in these variations.
But we have now, I think, by not committing to Queen too.
Given that G6 looks palatable here without any age, fine from whites, sure.
But Queen Humphrey looks at age five now and the queen's in a better place here, actually.
So this is a nice attacking theme.
If we can get roads to the opponent's king via the G4.
So guess what?
White Plains and this possession for ten points.
What do you want to play here?
So yes, Black is vividly kind of without play, but with the bishop.
So, yeah, sometimes the bishop is not is to be traded off against king safety.
So, you know, commitment of offering the dance.
Bishop it seems, well, we're ripping things open now.
G For ripping things open.
H Tanks, Queen sex.
Now the Queen's in a great spot.
Hair on.
G for pinning that G pawn.
And what it really needs to be looking for generally is just to use the g file with a king move ch1
away from the glare of the queen, ideally in my view, and then rook g one.
So we have a very dangerous state of affairs here.
Bishop G7, we have Bishop A2.
Now this is very interesting.
Now it's tying Black's counterplay down any time.
You know there's pressure points now.
Anytime.
Five.
That's unthinkable now.
Five At the moment we have b4 and the bishop remains on Daigo, doesn't want to be squished to be free.
So keep the options open.
Be tanks.
Queen 85.
The Queen's really in Siberia.
Offside.
But now.
Yeah, there's a funny inaccuracy here.
It seems this is an open gold penalty situation in a way.
But maybe Alekhine kind of respects his opponent's kind of pressure and instinctively instinctively
plays queeny for.
But in fact, in this position we can strike while the iron is hot, while the queen is on G4 and the
Queen.
This queen is away from the king.
It seems very, very dangerous here.
If Black tries to be, you know, let's say G takes Queen F for not not bothering taking that pawn.
We don't want to run into any tactics any time saying, oh, that that pawn is not going to be moved
anyway because E6.
But this move is just basically saying King H one and Rook G one or King H two.
Even this position of King H two holds actually here the free square.
So that's actually more accurate here than King H one.
But we're going to play Rook G one and then, you know this position, even if the Queen's being a nuisance
here, this is.
Horrendous, the bishop being pinned.
There's Bishop de Freeh coming up.
King, H.A. And here we could eliminate the defender to avoid any nonsense.
And it was.
Bishop takes E5 just to eliminate the defender.
Bishop de Free and Black's Queen is essentially trapped here because Queen f6 there's there's Rook G
one check and then we're going to take the queen off.
So if Black has to give up the queen, basically, then that's not good news.
So anyway, yeah, and it seems it does seem as though Queen E4 with modern engines, it seems as though
H five was more accurate.
So that's a funny aspect of this game.
But he is human after all.
Okay, so maybe that's not giving him too much of a hard time.
Now, here I mentioned.
Gee, thanks.
If I mean, what other options are there?
Well, let's go to Queen F3.
This option here.
Bishop takes E5 Hare.
There's Rook takes E5.
So that takes the rook off the firing line.
And what does Black do?
This.
We're just going to take.
And we're going to get to work on checkmate in the King soon.
If Rook Isaiah just put this on on in view, in full view.
King H one, rook G one.
And we're just going to smash through any time.
F5 We're going to take on E6 and this is just diabolical.
Seven check.
And here, for example, Bishop takes queen, takes G7 in, mate.
So, yes, it does seem as though H five is thematic within our theme of ripping open G files.
Nevertheless, the position is still interesting for whites, for blacks to slip up a bit more.
Maybe Queen C something we have Queen F for.
Here again, just returning to G for objectively the best move of Queenie seven White could still get
attacking pressure, but there's a nuisance difference here that the black queen actually is slightly
more of a nuisance.
Actually can stick around.
A bit, but still with careful play.
G6 check.
It's still ending up with white with a huge position now with things like rook H1 so nuisance or not
whites still with a huge attack in this variation.
Six check will win the Queen.
Otherwise Queen 65 is happening.
So.
Okay so anyway so Queen A4 though was played not Queen G4.
We have Rook Abba and this really is a bad slip up.
The Black Queen should have tried to offer defensive resource with Queenie seven trying to be a nuisance.
So as example Queen Geoffrey, Queen of Thanks Rook e4 Queen five you can see that the H five square
could be useful for black defensively this situation.
It looks like it should be completely busted.
Right?
But actually say this scenario, you know black is actually good on the dark squares there is a dark
square Bishop This position white hasn't got dark square.
Bishop So it's kind of annoying to be given this resistance.
And if de force poked her, you know, this ties white down a bit.
This is an extreme nuisance scenario which could have happened on Queen E seven.
Yeah.
So these scenarios where it doesn't seem that easy, it's interesting.
But rook obey.
And now the attack is coming.
h5g Sex is now king H one.
It looks much simple, much more simple now.
Rook B seven Rook G one Pinning that key defensive resource that Bishop on G seven we have Queenie seven
And now, yeah, sometimes forget weakness of the last move.
What about weakness of taking out a key defender?
You get a lot of key squares, so I hope.
What would you play here?
I hope you find this for five points.
Not too many points because it looks so logical to me.
Anyway, so Rook takes G seven check.
Yep.
Rogue one check.
King H seven.
And now.
Yeah.
If King if eight, there's Queen H six.
Check.
And so.
KING Eight, seven and nine played nine takes of seven, which looks absolutely convincing.
And Black was convinced and resigned.
It looks fair enough.
Queen S.F. seven, for example.
Bishop the free Frisk and then Queen H six, Queen 87, Queen Fey exploiting that disconnect to the
square and then just just mating.
So it looks completely convincing.
But there is this resource Queen G six And here actually, it's not leading into a false checkmate because
here Queen f6 Rogue eight White should really just take on E six and not indulge any other scenarios
this possession and there's still some work to do once got these two connected pass pawns and there's
still some work to do okay but the the engine of nature analysis of this game reveals that actually
there was a remarkably quiet alternative attacking move in this G file situation.
So the knight is on adult square here and the king is on H seven.
And we really want to kind of move the king away from H six.
There is actually a really remarkable subtle attacking move here.
Can you get it for 500 points?
It really is a bit of a weird one.
This is just for being being nerdy about this position, being very, very super nerdy about this position
because anakin's move one, it convinced the opponent.
You just need to convince the opponent sometimes to resign.
But there is actually a super nerdy clinical move.
Which analysts have pointed out 93.
So the point is to nudge the king away from H six.
So as an example, if F five point G five check, we're nudging the king away from H six and so we get
here 9f7 check.
And this works beautifully.
Queen six We get that mechanism of chat mating on G eight.
So that's just one example.
If f sex, you might think, oh, Bishop D free check.
Then if f five, we're back to this mechanism of pushing the king away.
If the king wants to go to eight, she then went back to F seven.
Checking that mechanism here is mating or queen.
Thanks F seven.
We're back to that mechanism mating on G eight.
But if the king does go into the G file, there's no text e6j This doesn't look good.
There's no queen takes F five check Queen sex wrote G seven is checkmate.
But let's just being super, super critical.
We play chess against human beings.
It's enough.
If they think it's absolutely lost and they resigned, then you've won the game.
We're not playing against supercomputers, but you know, even with best player, it's a winning position.
So the interesting points, the opening does give Black the dark square bishop.
So it's bishop versus potentially king safety, because sometimes when we give up the dark square,
Bishop, we amplify our square pressure because there's one less defender on the light squares now.
And it's interesting, the light squares kind of this, this position shows that actually the light
squares are kind of really interesting to play with, with Bishop B1 and C five plans.
As we saw, Black never really played C5.
So we get this idea that this is an interesting model game.
If Black wants to play in a seemingly solid fashion defensive that they're reducing their draw prospects,
they're not increasing their draw prospects by not playing actively, and they're just waiting for Alekhine
here.
He's just quietly improving the G Free Knights.
It's like, yeah, improving this G Free Knight and this H4 is very, very interesting with the options
of H five in a suspended like tension, when is H five going to be effective.
And yeah, here it's like the tension is getting too much black, giving basically a pawn lever to open
up the G fold.
This is now a pawn lever for G4 at some point.
So queen a free g for at some point pretty soon very quickly.
And it's just it's just an amazing instructive attacking example because of the fact that Black played
so passively and didn't try and open up the position of C5 at some point earlier.
So yes, big trouble from here.
Okay.
So I hope you enjoyed this.
Got some points from it so much.