Hi there.
In this lecture, we see an amazing game of Mikhail Tal.
So this is Jurgen.
It's against how in 1957, USSR Championship, round 18 D4 from Gurgaon.
We have nine f6 six from Tal c4 c5.
So it's how was making use of the modern Benoni with great success up until 1960, which actually matches
the peak popularity of the modern Benoni.
Nowadays it's not so popular, it's thought to be a little bit unstable.
The pawn structure we see E 693 and in particular Black accepts basically a backward pawn on D six So
there's quite routine ways of trying to exploit this pawn, which puts many players off actually playing
this opening.
Nowadays, more solid things like the Slav defense are often preferable at the grandmaster level.
But okay, in this game, let's have three.
We see G, six, E, four, Bishop G seven, Bishop E to both sides.
Castle Rookie eight Black does have perks.
In this opening, the semi-open foul pressure the poor majority on the queenside free two to the E5
square.
There are perks for black.
It's not all about just this square weakness, this pawn which is potentially vulnerable and thematic
plans for tapping into D6 include often nightly two to C4 and Bishop f4.
So it looks as though the thing is there is a cost associated with a Knight movement because Black has
a key E5 square.
Sometimes the knight is neglecting a soft spot and until is amazing with king soft spots.
So basically if this pawn is acting as bait for positional maneuvering, it could come at slight costs
to king safety.
In this kind of scenario.
So we see 92 and actually instead of trying to use the queenside poor majority with a six, so say A6
white could clamp down with A4 that's the problem and say Knight 87.
White should step carefully here.
There is pressure on E4 so H3 B six Queen C2.
It looks as though White should be getting an advantage keeping C4 in mind when it's appropriate to
do that to hit D6.
But White at this moment would have a slight advantage.
But that whole plan is not used instead of A6.
And this is actually rather interesting.
Basically, yeah, it's it's in a way potentially about this diagonal of the bishop.
It can come to A6 later.
It could play a role in a kingside attack.
So this is a really interesting alternative.
Rookie one is played if A4 here Black could indulge Knight b4 as well.
This situation, although technically with Bishop B5 trying to take the fun out of the five square,
this situation should be in White's favor.
But anyway rook e one was played and we see 97 A4 and now we can see B6.
So there is potentially if this bishop wasn't on this diagonal, potentially this bishop on C might
actually find a use on this diagonal if A6 was played here, it would deprive that possibility.
And White's best, it seems, is for example, h free this situation.
This is possible.
And in fact here in this scenario, White does have a small edge, but maybe it's not huge if White
tried a5 There are resources for black here.
Bishop D7 Just because B6 is marked doesn't mean there's a problem here.
This Bishop B5 to make use of.
And you can see that actually this problematic bishop sometimes in this structure, if it's taken out
of the equation, if it takes it a night out, this position could result in equality.
It's fascinating stuff to investigate.
But anyway, B6 was played and Black is ready for any A5 now because B5 or taking can be considered.
There's pressure on E4 which is also interesting.
So yeah, this, this situation is a little bit different.
Okay, so we have Queen C two and now how actually leverage is the bishop still on C?
He plays Knight G4 and White actually responds here with a mistake is looking at soft spots White actually
tries to kick the knight with H three better and maybe this is a little bit paradoxical, but to give
up the point square bishop on this occasion and then knight C for let's actually this backward pawn
be probed without lurking soft spot issues.
That's what really white wants to do to somehow hit this backward pawn without having the king in danger
here if the bishop goes back.
Bishop F4, This is a dream scenario all of a sudden against the backward pawn, which explains why,
you know, baloney.
Sometimes it's a little bit suspect nowadays.
So this situation like starting to get in a passive position because there's no other pawns to support
the bank pawn.
So the pieces are starting to fill the strain.
So, yes, that's that's the stability aspect of this.
It's a little bit less stable than than other openings quite often because of the d6 pawn.
But Bishop takes yeah, that would be a fine move to play with this plan if Bishop.
F.A. Yeah, again, you know, this, this we get this scenario but.
If bishops see saints again, we get the story.
You know, we're getting tortured on these things, basically.
But in this game, we see age free.
And now the magic of Black's position is revealed, actually.
Guess what Mikhail tell plays here.
So it's not really about this point.
It's about the neglect, slight neglect of this maneuver.
The Knights not on their free.
So they're actually it's interesting is why it's king that safe here What does black playing this position
you think so on balance revealed 200 points at least.
Yeah.
Takes six F2.
There is also this diagonal to play with right now because that has locked in the bishop for a moment
and this diagonal is sensitive.
King takes F2, makes things worse.
Why it should have just played Knight F3 and the knight is looking stranded so black would have to resort
to something like Bishop take C free, which in principle isn't a good idea because it weakens key squares,
but it does rescue the knights.
That's the thing going for it.
Knight G Free black would be under potential attack.
This is a key variation where what is going on here?
This is very, very dangerous if F6 Bishop takes G6, but it seems as though Black might have resources
to survive here.
So this position is about equal.
It's crazy stuff.
But yeah, it seems as though Knight, if he was about to move, King takes F2, bringing the King out
to play.
We have now Queen H for check.
And this is super dangerous.
KING If one is played, if king.
G one.
Then we're just taking that rook.
Thanks.
March check.
And this is vicious.
We're threatening, mate, on G one all of a sudden as well.
So, yeah, this is.
This is g free.
Doesn't look at all helpful because the bishop did four check and h three being loose.
So King F one is played Bishop D for threats then Checkmate D one defending F two.
But guess what?
All plays now and this shows it's not it's not really about D6 anymore.
The subject has massively changed.
It was about the technicalities of king safety that weren't incurred.
And the attack now is in full flow.
So I wonder if you can spot this next movie for 200 points.
Okay.
Queen sites age three.
Yes.
Magic if G takes.
There's a Bowden chap mate Patton.
So one bishop is covering the escape squares here and the bishop is mating beautiful bird and make there
if that occurs.
But White wants to stay in the game and doesn't take the Queen.
So bishop free.
But now the bishop has left this key.
It's kind of weakness of the last move.
This diagram is available to this Bishop.
We have tho first Queen H to.
And this keeps lots of friends now going in this position.
We have 93.
And piling on the pressure on the e-file.
Wonderful move.
And five.
So keeping this in hand, this Bishop eight six resource just piling up the pressure while the bishop
is still on scene.
Eight knights DC four and now F takes E4, Bishop takes E4 and finally now Bishop a sex.
So there's a big frat here of Rook Takes E for the Queen is overloaded here.
So with the idea of taking on C4 after or rookie as well, the night supports even a recharge square
of replacing other work.
So this is a fascinating position.
We went under huge pressure Bishop F3 is played.
Let's see concretely if say rookie rook B one rook takes e4 queen takes e4 we can play rook e here.
Amplifying the pressure even more.
Queen F3 Bishop takes C4 check and you can see that there's a problem here.
The rook now controls king escape squares.
So that makes Queen H one or Queen G one mating.
If B free, then we just take on a one.
If Bishop D2, then rook takes E4.
Let's see here, Rookie eight again.
Queen D3 We can actually, yeah.
There's so much pressure we can actually play.
Knight takes D5 here.
So any time the night takes, there's Queen one on one meeting and F King E two night at Four Forks.
King Queen.
It's just a vicious position.
Indeed, this is a truly vicious position to be in.
Okay, so.
We have Bishop F3 and now Rookie five Rook Avery and now the pressure just pulls up so the pieces are
working like an absolutely dream team.
Every piece is gunning for the king or tying stuff down.
We have Bishop D2 and the Knight, which is playing what seems to be well, not not such an aggressive
role as the others actually shows.
It is actually helping the whole team now with this next move.
If I give you 5 seconds pause video, what would you play here?
Yeah, 1965.
It's dismantling once we have Bishop 65 and now Route 65.
So the knight still pens because of Queen's.
You want Queen H1 one knight can't move.
So we have King E two.
Just to put a few things on the board here, if Knight takes the five, Queen's U one is champ mate.
If be free Queen A for Chuck King you one rook have a is really strong.
Actually, yeah.
This is a bit of a shift in attention and you might think, what on earth is this about?
So the thing is that Knight's pinned to the king, so there's no rook f one.
We just take an F one.
And the other thing is, if, say, Queen D1 to try and stop using H five, I'll show you that at the
moment.
The Queen F two check.
Yeah.
At minimum we can just play this and get the Queen, but otherwise it's going to be amazing if Queen
D one isn't played.
So Rook two we've played check and we we get a checkmate like this.
So it's a truly vicious position here.
So once, twice King E two.
But now Bishop takes e free, rook tanks, e free.
And what would you play here for?
100 points.
So the game ended on this next move.
The game ending move is.
Bishop, S.C. For Check Creating a weakness of the last move.
Basically, D2 is loose.
So one had to resign because if Queen tank C for queen tanks G Czech King B one.
Queen 62 is Chapman.
Yeah, this is absolutely a bruising move, but hold on.
There are the questions about this position, why it doesn't have to take the bishop.
Right.
So this is absolutely fascinating in its own right.
King D one, what are we play here and why is it so crushing this position?
Is it because we're just several pawns up actually the wrong king safety issues to tap into it?
It's not just about future end games.
We can finish soon in this position by playing.
Rogue tanks e free.
What actually does y at play here?
If Queen.
It take C4.
Okay, so that looks like a nasty pin here, but there's rook takes E one shank.
King tanks and here queen.
One check.
So it's all running with check to pick up the bishop and protect the rook.
So that's a total disaster.
Queen, take four.
So what we left with rook takes forever.
But this is fascinating now.
Queen G one check.
Brooke e one And now there is a key move and whites are pretty helpless after this next move.
What do you think that would be, this position?
We've got basically a bishop without a counterpart and it's sometimes makes the attacks much stronger
when it's obviously a couple of bishops like this, when the king's kind of unsafe, there's a move
which amplifies things dramatically.
Okay, so in Brownsville here, Queen F two, we're looking at D two.
So we're actually looking at Bishop Beefy to get the queen away from D2 for inmates on D2.
So say Queen C for queen takes D2 is mate, but say here, King C one.
There's still a beautiful finish in this position available.
Believe it or not, it is very, very interesting that blank has an absolute cross your hair.
It's not even just about the extra horns, but black has for 100 points.
What would you play?
There's a kind of opera style.
Might finish with Bishop be free.
So basically here, if Queen St's be free, we're running with Shaq, we're winning D2 with Shaq.
Thanks very much.
And we can take the rook, but also if Queen C for the opera Stalemate rebels.
What would you play here?
Check all checks and it shows how dangerous opposite kind of bishops are.
Yeah.
Queen.
Thanks e one check.
Bishop Thanks.
D One is checkmate.
So, yeah, all of this stuff hidden behind the scenes of White's resignation after Bishop takes C4
check.
Yeah.
It is basically a hopeless situation in various ways.
Whatever way it's sliced or cut here, y ends up massively worse off.
It's a completely lost position with best play from black.
So a fascinating game.
It shows there are kind of subtle upsides of what seems to be a depressing, potentially depressing
pawn structure.
So the Benoni, you know, for club players, the Bononi, if white is a bit too complacent, too generic
with these plans and not factoring in the subtle changes and weaknesses incurred to their king, you
know, they could be blasted off the board.
But how was the ones prove how strong the Benoni was?
One of the big reasons actually, which has emerged for restricting at least the modern baloney move
orders in particular.
I'm going to just point out to you something about this.
There is a very dangerous system which doesn't block in the f pawn.
It's called the flick knife operation, which Garry Kasparov introduced against John Nunn.
So this this variation with a quick A4 and Bishop B5 check is very, very dangerous.
But that's another kind of theoretical subjects.
So John Nunn had written a book on the baloney and was blasted off the board in one of the Olympiads
by Garry Kasparov, playing with the way he says that's an instructive attacking game in its own right.
But in this classical approach to Bononi, yeah, it's it isn't so absolutely critical for black as
that situation in that relation.
So 96 we see it has some very interesting dynamic perks going on and tells in his element when he's
looking at soft spots around the king.
He's a major attacking player.
One of the reasons I've weighted more Alexander Alekhine compared to Tal is that often times games are
very, very complex.
He uses complexity quite often as a weapon.
Whilst Capablanca might use simplification as a weapon with Alekhine, basically there's better in my
view, attacking clarity quite often without tons of complications which don't just confuse opponents,
but also generally ask when we try and look at our games.
But the short and sweet tell games like this one are more approachable.
There are some which are just astronomical in nature.
It's like mazes, a maze of variations which I don't think would be instructive as the major undercoat
of this course to look at key Alexander Alekhine games, which have greater clarity.
Basically, we want clarity, we want contrast.
We want to understand the key ideas without too much confusion with millions of variations.
So this is a short and sweet one.
We see certain key attacking themes being demonstrated basically.
But yeah, White had who, you know, a key mistake here was H3 inviting all of this stuff.
It's fascinating to consider.
It's like this plan was half in construction for D6.
But yeah.
KING Safety implications have been for one moment being neglected.
And black doesn't just have the five squares, the D4 square axis as well.
There's basically resources to attack the king here, which are delightful, delightfully demonstrated
in this game.
So I hope you enjoyed this one.
That's very much.