Hi there.
In this lecture, we see a very interesting game between Alexander Alekhine with the White Pacers against
Frederick Sims in 1923, an exhibition game E4 from Alekhine.
We have a Sicilian defense, 19 F3, 1936, and now a very unusual bishop E two from Alekhine.
So what is the idea behind this move?
We see e6 alekhine consoles d6 d4 c takes d4 Knight takes three four, 956 and now a very interesting
concept indeed, Bishop F3.
It looks as though the bishop's a target here, and we have 95 saying, you know, what are you doing
with this, Bishop Jeffrey?
And we have now just see for setting up a bureaucracy bone structure Now in terms of piece and pawn
harmony, a light square bishop in this bureaucracy structure is sometimes not very nice.
It's kind of locked in.
So there's a few questions here to ask.
If Knight takes C4, we can rule this out.
There's Queen, a full check picking up the knight.
If B six.
This is interesting.
If black doesn't snatch on Geoffrey, let's say knight, C free Bishop B seven.
The bishop could actually elect to go back here.
And Black has committed to to these pieces and there's actually an F4 threat here.
So imagine this scenario and let's say Knight takes E4, the king still in the center, and that means
actually Knight takes E4, Bishop takes E4.
There is actually a very powerful move, C5, to exploit the king of the center here and the lose piece
on E4.
This would be a downside now of the black position punished with actually C5 if D takes Queen A for
check.
So here if D seven Knight 66 unveils an attack against the bishop and hits the queen and this is a great
position for white.
So yes, this is fun stuff.
Indeed.
If King is seven, then White is going to have tremendous compensation here with the king in the center.
So, yeah, it's all like fun stuff If if the knights didn't take the bishop, basically.
If Bishop seven let's look at this way of playing it.
Knight C three It could transpose back into a standard proxy bind position with White having an advantage.
But yeah, Black took up the option of taking the bishop queen.
Thanks.
I'm free.
And we have a situation of attacking harmony, you know, ready for a really beautiful concept that
a move on the queenside essentially could influence the kingside later, with a bishop glaring down
the diagonal, we have Bishop E, seven Knight, C free black castles and now B3.
So this is a proxy point with a difference.
The Queen is already in an attacking place, it seems.
We see 97 Black is addicted to attacking things on our free in this game.
Bishop b2 but now OC 95 is not used.
We have Bishop f6, Rook 8186 and now Queen G3.
You can see that there's a convergence potentially on the G seven square, Queen C seven King H one,
Rook D eight and now F4 is played.
Funnily enough, there is actually another interesting move in this position.
Very interesting tactical move.
Can you spot what that is?
So with the Queen on G3 in G7, there is a very interesting attacking style move for the King, which
is Knight F five.
It looks at D six as well.
Looking at G7.
If it takes then 95 and you can see that hold on.
The Queen's attacked, the knights attacked black has only one move to stay in the game F four and off
The queen takes her for this position You might think, well, is this worth a piece sack?
Actually, it is this.
This is a strong attack for white in this position.
For example, Rook d5 Queen the rook g5 shank king of and the attack rages on here.
This is well worth it this piece and again C5 here in this position actually dangerously opens up lines
and say C takes these six rook tanks D6 rookie five check Bishop e6 rook thanks e6 check f tanks e six
Queen G seven is checkmate and if rook takes e6 Queen G five check this position.
White's winning the Queen.
So anyway, five in a nutshell does seem like a very interesting move in g7d6 is a very interesting
piece sac.
So anyway though F4 is played, we have B6, which actually makes things a lot worse as we're about
to see F5 now.
Sometimes you think of moves as having up and down sides, Oh, it's giving up the E5 square, but you've
got to prove your upside space in the in the follow up in the continuation.
And there's absolutely a phenomenal follow up here for weakening for that so-called downside or cost
of, of playing F5.
There's a phenomenal follow up.
So Bishop E5 is played.
But what else if E5?
Then there's Knight D5 again, That's a really nasty hit on the Queen.
And here actually there would be a very strong tactical move.
Can you spot it for ten points?
Let's try and rip open things.
Especially this rook, which is a bit kind of restricted.
We can play 96 here in this situation.
If F takes it's ripping open activity for the rook.
So here Knight takes f6.
Jack, this is just diabolical.
Knight takes 87 and there's a hook on F7 to exploit.
So 9687 rook F seven is absolutely crushing for Queen takes D7 mate.
So yes, E5 really doesn't help Black's cause off the 95 and this situation if Rook e eight her knight
takes six check and then Queen 67 is mate.
So anyway Bishop E5 is tried so for 1000 points and if you can work it out you get if you work it out,
you get one faster boys, what would you play in this position?
So the downside downside of our F5 move is trying to be exploited with Bishop E5.
What do we have to say in the follow up here?
Do we move on, Queen?
Or do we do something else?
What makes this game phenomenal here?
Is that f takes a sexist blade, sacrificing the queen
Just well.
Bishop takes G Frank if f six.
Let's have a look at this from Rook.
Takes F six as possible.
Bishop takes Geoffrey Rook takes F seven as possible.
And this position is phenomenal with a four hitting the queen F3 hitting the Queen again and we can
cash out with Rook tax g seven here.
And this is just winning for one.
This position is just winning for white, say 1968.
H takes even though white is the exchange down.
There's just so many pawns for Benny's change down.
It's a huge number of pawns.
It's just better for Waynes.
So this is a very interesting scenario where it is just better for white If King takes down as things
like 96 check.
So this is just better for white if f takes e6 instead of taking the queen noit E6 is possible.
Bishop takes G4 in 1967.
This situation with h takes rook saying c seven there's 95.
It's a very powerful situation for white for example, like this with the default being in trouble for
black, huge advantage for Wayne.
So the Queen sacrifice is accepted.
We have eight x, f seven check and now King H eight.
If King F eight, then there's 96 check and white can win the Queen.
And in this position white's just much better.
So that's out of the question.
So King H eight.
So in fact.
Yeah.
We're coming to the end of the game here with 95 Black actually resigned in Pretty.
So he resigned here.
So why this does require some explanation.
If Queen a seven.
Let's look at Queen 87.
There's 96.
That weakening of C six plays a role here.
Funny enough, because now Queen B seven night takes day, knocks out a key defender of the square with
tempo against the queen.
So 4f8 crashing through for a back row mate.
If Queen B 796 and one is black do here.
If h thinks the front is actually bishop tanks g seven mate here.
It's kind of serious.
So eight six to give the king H seven but now Knight 68, Queen 87 and here knight F six, check Knight
takes f6, Bishop takes f6.
And how is Black actually stopping far cleaning here?
It seems very difficult if black gives up the Queen and we just clearly Ben-Hur if Queen B 896 and this
is just running with Tempo 1968, and if black's going to give up the Queen, it's hopeless.
So, yes, a crushing end, just 95.
It's a very interesting game from so many angles.
The offering of the E to Bishop on her free from Roxie bone structure, which created great attacking
piece harmony for the pieces.
The square bishop was something just given up to get a fantastically coordinated position.
What a phenomenal concept from a weird rare move just offering the bishop and just setting up the rock
C binds saying goodbye to the Bishop, which would have been a non harmonic kind of piece with pieces
and pawns in harmony.
You want them in harmony.
There's a really beautiful harmony and there's a really beautiful story here of the downside of playing
for F4 F5.
It's about king safety.
So yes, it's in the follow ups.
We can prove that actually it's well worth it that F5 is played here.
What a fascinating game.
I hope you found this as fascinating as me.
Thanks very much.