Hi there.
In this lecture, I'm going to try and answer the question for you, what is a structural hole?
How could it be used for advantage?
So the example game I'm going to show you is Isaac Bobes Lafsky against Jorgy visiting.
As it happens, Belzowski is the person who a hole in the Sicilian defense is named after the five hole,
which we're about to see in this game, in fact.
So he researched it from both sides as this game is evidence of.
And he actually played actual serious games with that research.
So this is in the US championship in 1956.
In those times you saw Shamsher was like the world championship basically is like the strongest events
going in the USSR.
So we see E for five, my Afri desex.
So Basinski plays D for C takes nine.
We go into a Sicilian dragon.
This is the Dragon version.
So so far it looks pretty standard.
Now hen night takes place between a five and we seeking byone one and black blackmail commits to E five.
This is a little bit controversial structurally after E3 we see that as a backward pawn.
There's a hole in front of the back with the five and it's often this hole in front of a backward pawn,
which is very, very nice to use if you can.
There are great things to do in this position of the ESX.
You might think how long can squasher?
Why can't we take this pawn?
This is not one of the great things to do.
Sometimes we don't want to take such pawn, so we want to question why is the opponent giving us such
pawn?
It is kind of poison pawn here.
If we look at Queen 66, it wasn't played chacal checks.
Can you see what black can play in this position if you check with Chiang's?
OK, Bishop takes a to check of the night Sensata.
You'll notice even though there is a weakness of the last move, there's.
Are potentially there is a liability here and that is punishable, Brooke, after this, Daewon is only
held by the queen and Black does have the killer common squared, the eight, which is reinforced to
enable the eight, and that just wins material.
So, for example, he would win the queen.
If the queen goes back, then we just winning the rook.
Thanks very much.
That's that's great position for black.
So Avery has planes not taking that form.
So black is left here with a lafsky whole unknowables that playing whites.
But this D5 hole is often called the Lafsky Hole.
It's a great example of a central square hole and a central square hole in particular.
If you have a centralized piece on DFI that can sometimes make the game much, much easier to play.
So much so that I refer to this game quite often.
For many years I thought this was a model strategic game.
I since found out, you know, it's actually got an interesting tactical flaw in this game.
But nevertheless, from a positional perspective, I found it absolutely amazing, the positional concept
we see 1985 being played.
So that hits the queen, but doesn't want the exchange equations.
That plays Queen a four.
Black's options are not very nice here, if queen thanks to you, too, then to look tasty, too, that
-- is still vulnerable and why it threatens to play C for fixing that --.
So later White can just build up like a rock.
Bones, this is Morosi BOYENS.
When you have a -- cell phone for a black face, the five technically white does not.
C7 takes out this special and then takes on A7 with a big advantage.
So for example, like this is a big advantage for whites.
So Queen takes two doesn't really leads anywhere that black wants.
So we have this avoidance queen a for it's here.
There's actually a tactical flaw in this game.
There is a weakness of the last move and these are difficult to pick out sometimes.
But C7 is a weakness of the last, which in fact won't miss a tactic which I will show you like White
to see forward, which is a British positional concept, in my view still.
But there is a tactic lurking here, 97, which not just heads the rook.
It means the queen is actually kind of checkmated after which of the five this ridiculous tactic and
an otherwise very positionally instructive game.
That means that black is like losing material.
Then if black has to give up a whole rook, that's not going to be very good.
But aside from that tactical flaw, this game is very instructive to see for this reflects an interesting
positional pawn sacrifice for whites to get complete control over the five.
If White can create an outpost on this hole, the strategic hole, central strategic hole, the outpost
piece is unassailable frontally because of Black's desex pawn.
It's difficult to attack a perfect piece on D5.
But what is going on here after Seaforth?
So Black takes on C4 and in effect we have what I would call a strategic exchange.
The Lights where Bishop was a guardian of the five and of the Knights.
Sifry hitting the Queen.
We have Bishop see for Queen Saints.
And now to make the fight even more comfortable, Bishop G5 to amplify the D5 control.
Sometimes when you give up a bishop of a certain color, you're amplifying your control and your pressure
on all the squares.
So giving up the light square bishop here voluntarily without even waiting.
Now we can see the points is revealed of why it's positional pawn sacrifice.
So for for a long time for this game, it's like super magical example of a strategic crash.
And in fact, I think it has had a profound influence on my choice of things to try and get these situations
where there is such a strategic exchange.
And often you end up with a nicely perched knight, which is difficult to get rid of.
But here, this is a beautifully centralized knight and it makes the position much easier for white
play.
We can actually now with minimal hassle, you know, this bishops locked in.
So there's no frontal pressure.
No.
You know, if black has to try and get rid of that night, it would take some time.
It would have to be some sort of exchange sacrifice here.
For the moment, though, we have Queene to fight.
And now Queen, if one wants to pursue a king silence, stop opening up lands.
King Rook, A.S.A. Jeoffrey.
The Queen covers that veto queen G5.
Another move for TotEx support this move.
We have queen sex if Queen takes Jeoffrey.
Can you see tactically what way it plays if I give you five seconds to pause Viniar.
I hope you can support it.
He just trapped the queen, worth noting these little tiny things.
So Queen 86, we see G4 and now in desperation, you know, G5 looks very, very scary and we see G5
and now it gets that open somehow.
HFA all these semillon falls are absolutely great fun to have.
Rukeyser's five, Kwangju six.
And now a stunning little move celebrating this amazing night on day five, which kind of looks after
why in many, many different variations and versions of this game.
And here's one wacky version in the main line, G5 seemingly leaving the rock just hanging.
The point is the Rook's immune plays HSF quintets 85.
Then there's a sex check so we can see the light is looking after things for white now, making the
position much easier to play.
And Black has very little, you know, counterplay hair and sex.
Now here, in fact, there's a tactic in this position which is used.
Can you see what white plays here, which is rather crushing?
The light again has an influence over many variations.
Now, that central night unassailable on that bulb's lafsky home, we have rotates since six.
Basically every bishop takes.
Then there will be a weakness of the last move.
Neglecting A7.
Yeah, we're neglecting a seven and then, you know, winning the Queen of the United States, G.S..
So, yeah, trying to lure the the bishop away from E!
So we have Queen 65.
But here the game ended after Rook age five.
So gaining another key tempo black had enough.
If Queen size age five didn't have sex, Jack went into the queen.
And if the queen goes back seat to G sex, then actually a move like Queen H3 is devastating.
So for example, Roxxy five, it's too, too little, too late.
Jack and I just each one has a devastating Tatsuru idea at this point.
If, for example, be five, then Ruchi eight.
Jack Yeah.
Chacal Chiang's Queen Chameides.
Yeah.
So it's like it's a crushing position at this point.
So yeah.
After Rook age five, you can see that it's all going downhill for blacks.
King safety.
The positional point though, the main positional point of this kind of lecture is the idea that sometimes
you can really maximize the outpost on a strategic hole so here won't use a pawn sacrifice to exchange
off the lights quite a bit, perhaps otherwise.
That is a horrible point on the five in any case which is going to retrieve the boy.
So Black didn't want to keep this boyens.
So White has really expertly used the outpost square in front of the back of a pawn, that hole in Black's
pawn structure where because it's not covered by any other pawn, the adjacent pawns have gone.
You know, there's no kicking a piece out of that hole.
So it makes a very, very fine of how square.
So the considerations here, frontal attack is reduced because there's a back report on D6 here kicking
from a pawn adjacent pawn in an adjacent hole is out of the question.
They've both left the scene.
Strategic Bishop Exchange means that there's no bishop takes five.
So got that beautiful, you know, kind of strategic Krush position for, you know, as I say, for
many years, I actually use the nation's strategic rationale, trying to think, how do I get such positions
generally where there's so little counterplay for the opponents.
When a lot of 2500 plus Russians came to Lloyds Bank monsters, they were into strategic Russian crossing
the British players to make you sure they didn't have any counterplay.
This is one such game where there's a profound kind of force.
Yes, it's like Star Wars, the power of the force, the power, the forces in the pawn structure,
the harmony between pieces and pawns.
This position, the harmony is in White's favor.
It's got it's like the power of the force this over material.
It's more important to have quality hair of pieces and it just makes White's position it's attack just
irresistible.
Why?
It's just such a free rein for opening up the lines at leisure with zero counterplay from the opponents
in this situation, it really is a very, very powerful for me strategic cross examine.
So Bishop takes there'll be 97 and, yeah, this this whole situation is just devastating after page
five.
So, yeah, oppositional positional demonstration celebrating a strategic hole on D5.
The so-called Lafsky Hole is one example of a hole.
But generally, since the world, the first official world chess champion, Willem Steinitz here was
aware of strategic holes and accumulating small advantages based on structure.
Because Russia is a little bit of a persistance kind of virtual storage device, if you think about
it on the chessboard, that because they are irreversible and slow moving, it's like, yeah, it's
very, very difficult to change the picture.
It's like irreversible damage has been done to Black's position and it facilitates tactical operations,
such as going after the opponent's king of that with minimal counterplay.
So I hope this is a very interesting example of a strategic hole and some of the dangers also of a backward
pawn as well.
Two, for the price of one, the backward pawn does support an outpost in front of the a pawn, making
it difficult to get rid of the entrenched piece at the outpost piece.
OK, so I hope you got some points from this game.
That's so much.