Hi there.
Chess is not just about material, I often joke streaming on my opponent's playing like an accountant.
You know, if I want to do accountancy, I do accountancy and, you know, being count the material
in the possession.
And for me as Kings Cross, you might have a clue that I like games where the opponent's king is crushed.
And, you know, here's an example game.
Edward Laska against George Allen Thomas in 1912.
This is a highly celebrated game.
Lots of people have put this in their collection, their favorite collections at chess games, which
is a free site.
You can visit and see some of these glorious games.
So here we have this opening, which is interesting.
Why exchanges of early the bishop, which is usually worth more than nitrites.
But White's idea is to put pressure on the line squares.
Sometimes when you give up the bishop for a night, you're putting pressure on the other color.
That's a good kind of general reason why.
You know, if we've really said bishops are worth three and a half, why give them up for a night?
There's a very, very good reason here.
Black is actually a little bit softer on the light squares.
So White plays this bishop, the free move Bishop be seven.
In fact, with the absence of that defensive noise, White can now play this kind of cheeky move.
Koeneke five.
There's no knights on six to take it.
So these other considerations on the chessboard, one of the main ones that I'm a fan of is King Safety.
You can often bring your opponents down through King safety.
It's not all about a war of attrition.
Some people have no clue whatsoever about chess and they talk about strategy and this junk on YouTube
as though gold is about a game of chess from a strategy point of view, they just simply have zero clue
about chess.
If they think chess is a war of material and attrition and just accumulating pawns or something, they
have no clue about the game.
And an example is this game which shows the great dynamic beauty of chess here.
Guess what white plays.
King safety is the major factor here.
It's not about material and in fact, Wyplosz Queen, 87 CHAC and as you get better at calculating,
you might even be able to play these amazing queen sacrifices at some point.
This draws the king out to play.
So King takes his place.
Then we have notates sex and it's a double check.
So in a double check, the king is forced to move if the king steps backwards here to 88 and 96, says
checkmate.
So we have a situation where whites just given up nine units and we have to look at the other elements
in the position.
So for my personal evolution of chess in 1999, I want the Lloyds Bank junior tournament under 18 sponsored
by Lloyds Bank, and I really just wanted my best resources around the opponent's king.
Later, I created hypotheses to test in games about what called element management, because I thought,
well, I'm just trying to manage, you know, the king's safety element.
What about the other elements?
I wanted to improve and refine my game.
And, you know, nowadays I just think, well, I just want to find the downsides of the opponent's
position.
And so if you hear that phrase about downsides, that's my current, you know, evolutionary, you know,
thinking.
And I do, too.
You know very well generally in my chest, though.
But here we are bringing bringing out the downsides of the opponent's position.
But in particular, we're emphasizing the king's safety elements.
We've made a commitment.
We made a queen sacrifice for King's safety.
Now, this is actually what's called a calculated queen sacrifice.
There's actually zero risk in this one, believe it or not, because it's actually calculated.
Well, we have knights four check nine eight G4, not the other one.
And there's very limited replies for the opponent.
The opponent can only go to G5 and now we have this ability to draw the king into position eight for
check king at four, and now we can draw the king even further Jeoffrey.
So if that were literally bringing out the downsides of the opponent by bringing the king down the board.
So anyway, OK, so pardon me.
Sometimes I find my own jokes a bit too funny.
So Bishop to check, we're bringing the king down the boards.
This is a totally forced situation.
You might think Black is just a bystander here.
All the pieces are spectator pieces, as I like to call them, rook to check King G1.
And now why has a choice of how to checkmates the opponent here?
Can you see two moves which checkmate the opponent's.
OK, the move in the game was actually if you if you want five cents for the video, the move in the
game was actually just Kingdome to discovering this check, which is actually made.
It's checkmate.
Why it's won the game.
Yeah, this is the magic of chess.
It's not about bean counting.
I hate to tell you about material and the material system when really, you know, it really does depend
on the position.
Chess is not a kind of cold calculation game.
For me, chess is about bringing down the opponent through their downsides.
That's my current level of thinking.
And so if I find downsizer opponents position everything else.
Will support that idea of underlining those downsides, and this is a great game.
There's also castling Queen Side is also invoking a cheque to the king, and that's actually.
So we've seen this game, a queen sacrifice, which is actually 100 percent correct.
100 percent correct.
So how is that?
Because chess, it really often depends on the position, sometimes the most amazing, outrageous moves
fit the position.
So it's not all about being a bean counter.
Now, if you're an accountant, I apologize.
I'm sure there are many, many aspects of accounting that are very, very exciting.
And you can get great insight into how companies work and how they could improve and save money and
make more money.
So I'm just kind of joking about accounting.
But I don't like in my chest just to be counting pawns or pieces.
I like to be finding downsides.
And if I need to invest material to underline those downsides, I will.
So sometimes it really you know, this is a dramatic example, a very, very famous game where the queen
sacrifice is totally justified.
So this dynamic appreciation of the game is why also I've given you plenty of examples in this course
later for all the tactical weapons of destruction, because I know it's a beginner's course, but I
want you to be a tactical monster within weeks or months of this particular course.
Because being a tactical monster is your undo button, it doesn't matter if you get a bad position sometimes
at the opening you can undo the damage and just swindell the opponent's later.
You know, we should have lost your win.
And even later, if you got a bad game in the end game, you might find tactics there.
So I want you to be a tactical monster.
I know there's various little departments, little subjects, though they're all equal.
But as you say, especially in the winning tips section, the undo button, the big undo button of chess
is you being a tactical monster.
And to be a tactical monster, you're materialistic.
Appreciation of chess needs to be subservient to bring the downsides and the downfall of opponents.
And if you need to sacrifice the queen to do that, then you need to sacrifice the queen.
And the better you are at calculating variations, the more evidence you have concretely for such amazing
decisions.
So try it when you see possessions, like I say, sometimes by accident.
Guess the best move.
I really want you to try and work out the best move.
And really, you know, I want you to walk out to the largest possible extent in your head.
Like Beth Holman, the more you can stretch your visualization and calculation skills, keeping track
of where the pieces are like Beth Holman, you're looking at the ceiling, the more dynamic and aggressive
and a tactical monster you'll be to try and, you know, try the exercises later in this course with
extreme seriousness.
Don't try and just guess the very next move, but see all the follow ups in your head or the best possible
defenses, how they get refuted sometimes.
So this one.
Yeah, Cuéntame a seven.
And you know, if you can visualize this whole thing in your head, that's a good start.
That would be a good start to practicing your visualization.
So if you take this position and see if you can actually visualize from here the entire queen sacrifice
combination without moving the pieces, try and visualize it in your head as accurately as possible.
That's good exercise sometimes.
OK, but OK, it might be too hard.
But anyway, the essential point is we are element managers.
Yeah.
That there is a big part of my, you know, thinking around the 90s.
But now I think about we're bringing the downsides of the opponent's position.
We want to bring the opponent down through that downsides.
That's the fundamental thing for me, driving tactics generally.
OK, which of those cars over and over again later to reinforce with examples by here, yet the queen
sacrifice perfectly sound chess is not just about bean counting.
OK, thanks very much.