Hi there.
In this lecture, Alexander Alekhine is playing against Gregory Levin Fish in the 1912 St Peter's Tournament.
Let's have a look.
D4 from Alekhine and we have C5.
So this is quite unusual for the time.
It's not a classic.
Queen's Gambit declined.
It's an old Benoni defense.
We have Knight F6 and now Knight C3.
So this is a move free.
It's very interesting to see 93.
It's one of my favorite moves in general rather than sometimes playing C4.
It's good for surprise systems or anti systems.
So here, yes, it's nearly as good from the engine perspective, it's actually nearly as good as C4.
But I think in many ways it's kind of solid from a human point of view.
It's more simple and solid than C4.
C4 tends to weaken dart squares and maybe 11 Fish had wanted to play with a dot square strategy.
So that's kind of been ruled out a little bit here.
Knight C3 d6, e4 G6 and now immediate problems being set with F4.
We have Knight Bd7 A6 is needed at seems here if E5 Knight's after seven this position Queen C7 going
to free black is actually doing quite badly here out of the opening.
Even if d takes to win a pawn.
Bishop G2 White has tremendous compensation here for the pawn and is looking forward to attacking prospects
in this position.
But in the game Knight Bd7 was played.
We have Knight F3 and now A6 here.
This is very different.
The knight is using the parking space of the other.
Knight is less resourceful in a way not being able to use Knight.
57 We have E5 pushing black to do so in D takes.
Knight might have actually been safer, but this looks ridiculous.
Visually, it looks ridiculous and it is significantly better for White's.
For example, after e6 D takes e6 Knight, the f6 y can hold on to the pawn there and fraternite f7.
So what we're black do here?
Knight h6 There's G4.
This is a very interesting move to stop the use of F5 and if Knight G4, Bishop h3 White gets a very
dominating position here with five F tanks and then can play Queen D free looking at G6, you can see
this is an opening disaster in effect, it's a total opening disaster for Black.
White's got a huge advantage here.
So okay.
D Tanks is played F tanks.
This is still looking like a disaster.
Now after e6 knight d e5 if f tanks e6 d tanks might be six y can play actually can afford to play Queen
68 check here because after King takes the eight Bishop F4 and this is very tricky let's look at Bishop
takes E6 here Knight G5 Bishop James Bishop E2 h5 Mike Castle Queenside King eight Rook HD one.
It's very dangerous for black this position for example here H3 and there are numerous, you know great
possibilities if the knight goes back.
There's all sorts of beautiful possibilities here like bishop and free.
Looking at B7, it just looks diabolical for Black.
How is Be7 actually supported?
It's not very easy to defend things in the Kingston Center.
Lots of great possibilities if the forcing Knight f to, you know, rook d to that knight, it's going
to be stranded here soon as another fictional example.
The Knight Stranded.
Yeah, it's all much better for white.
Basically, this is a bit of an unmitigated opening disaster.
So E5 is played Bishop F4 and I think Knight takes F3 and now G takes F3.
The position so strong Queen takes F3 is also good F tanks instead of even taking the Knight White could
do better with D tanks here.
Taking the knight runs into E5, which hits the bishop and hits the Queen.
That's a tactic which still leaves White with a big advantage, actually, but even stronger.
Here is actually just two play details Essex Bishop takes if he ain't h free 9f6.
Queen takes B seven.
This position is very strong because a six is going to be dropping off.
The queen has to try and defend eight.
Y can just take on C and say I got a six and there's more pain to come here.
This is just a very bad position for blank as well.
I pawn down miserable position.
Okay.
So anyway g takes though was played we have six bishops see fall here.
You know another strong move he takes seven Jack King takes an in Queen D to this position of course
in queenside is nice so Bishop C4 though was played f thanks if Bishop G seven if that pawns left it
F seven As you might suspect, King takes D six check E six.
This is nice.
Queen D two if B five, Bishop e2f 95.
Here one can actually play.
This is strong 94 Bishop takes b2 rook d one.
This is just a very strong position for white.
Things are happening here.
So anyway, appetites is played.
We have three tanks now, Queen B six, so hitting B, two and E, but is in a position to really do
this.
Alekhine finds a brilliant concept here in this position.
Queen E two is played offering B2.
Now if Bishop G seven won't do council's queenside protecting B2 and it's a fantastic position with
that pawn on E6 and this h file attack is building up.
So black took the B to pawn.
Is this poisoned?
This pawn?
So guess what Alekhine plays here in this position for 200 points won't play.
Brilliancy move might be fine.
This is a romantic era offering both rooks its romantic era queen sex A1 is played if Bishop G 797 check
and here just rook d fraternize the north, the rook the eight jack and if 98 rook taste e is coming
so hair rook to France then rook takes AEA.
This is just crushing.
For example here.
That's checkmate.
So that means that Black's best is actually Queen D for Czech.
And that's just totally lost.
So, anyway, in the game, Queen takes a one chat King F two offering now the rook.
The knight controls the E4, which is nice stopping that check.
So, yeah.
Queen.
Thanks.
Each one.
We have 97 chat King D eight, Queen D two, Czech Bishop D seven and now E2 67 with the big France
of 96 Champ mate.
Wonderful stuff.
This ends the game.
Black resigned here if Queen A1 96 is champ mate if E5 96 check King E7.
But now the eight queen in check rotates.
Queen takes care of seven nine Takes a fake check from the bishop.
It's brutal stuff.
95.
This is just delaying.
Bishop takes the E5 check and then Queen E is checkmate.
Crushing stuff.
A really crushing game.
And it's interesting.
The use of knights he framed Move free.
It's a pet move of mine, you know, to start games with 193 if you check my 90 free course but yeah
cropping up on mu phrase and anti kind of theory system so C4 would have been what the fish had been
hoping for I believe to try and get a Benoni style position without too much hassle and maybe work on
the dark squares later.
For example this kind of position about 93.
Yeah.
Makes the opponents, opponents in general sometimes improvise.
And this was an incredibly bad opening of the knight bd7 especially black his in severe difficulty.
It's very, very quickly.
It's quite an unusual game from the perspective of an opening disaster.
I hope you enjoyed this one so much.