Hi there.
I have an absolutely iconic game example to show you, so we're here at a Capablanca game camp Blanka
was well known as being a fantastic and game player, one of the greatest and game players of all time.
And here we have a fantastic female rook on the seven Frank being illustrated.
It's also a female then Nimes, which is my system.
He talks about Rukun some frank.
If we get a rook on the seventh, Frank, we're often restricting the opponent's king, which is good
because the king can be very, very aggressive in games, is good to contain the opponents.
King Statistically, there are pawns to be taken as well on seven.
Frank, they're here in this situation.
It's white play and it looks as though Black is preparing to potentially attack this pawn.
Not quite now, says Bishop B5.
But just bear this in mind that this Seefried pawn is a backward pawn, essentially backward pawns.
They've lost the support of fellow pawn, so they have to usually be protected by pieces.
So because of that dependency that they have, they are kind of weakened pawns in need of support.
But here, Capablanca kind of doesn't play passively.
He wants to play aggressively in games.
You want your rooks to be aggressive.
You want to emphasize your past pawns.
If you have to shed some pawns on the way to to get an aggressive pass pawn, to get an aggressive king
where things should take center stage, you know, certain passports.
Your king and your Brooks, they should take center stage in an active, aggressive, dynamic role,
not a passive role.
So a terrible thing at some point would be to play rock, see one and just be miserable about this.
No, Capablanca plays Brooke H1.
So he's preparing an entrance to this seven frank relatives to assets that our seven franc.
Now, if the opponent parries that with Rook seven as Bishop 66, so the opponent played CAFE, which
does mean actually that Route six is now on the cards without Bishop B five.
Capablanca doesn't mind.
He plays Rook, age seven.
He doesn't mind what he says.
Now he tries to create a passport.
We have a pool majority on this side of the board, so two against one.
So with a pool majority, you can convert this into a passport quite often.
But there's a trade off to win time.
To do this, you know, Sifry has to be sacrificed.
We see G4.
And in fact, the other snag, though, of taking on Sifry here is that it will drop G sex.
So Black actually plays C for for the moment we see G5.
So this is a potential passport because of the potential for playing.
For example, five, we see my free Jack Caffrey and I might have five which shields the G six pawn,
which means actually isn't rotating.
Sifry really on the cards.
Yes Capablanca is factored this in and plays now an ingenious move Bishop takes our five black takes
with the G pawn and this is now technically a dangerous pass pawn.
If Black had taken instead on C then King G4 and the King is ready to recapture then will be to collected
passports.
So this is a lesser evil move, so-called lesser evil move.
At least worst it seems.
But what is Blanca's actual points here?
There's an absolutely brilliant move in this position which really highlights dramatically the center
stage role that a king can take.
How can we get the white king to be super aggressive here and play a shepherding and generally aggressive
role here?
The opponents king is restricted on that back row thanks to the power of the rook on the southern flank,
which is a very, very important and game principle in general.
But there's a brilliant move here, which also adds a major supporting cast, because otherwise, if,
for example, what, we can't move forward because Iraq takes six anyway, but also Blank is threatening
to push our king back with rock, take free check and maybe return back and stop that --.
So we want our king to play truly a center stage here.
How can we do that?
If I give you five seconds, pause video, how would you think you can make the king here play a central
role?
A central leading actor in Casablanca.
By the way, did appear in black and white film as well.
He's he's he's actually an actor as well as being the possible champion.
So anyway, you can see his film on YouTube.
So he's here.
What do you think he played?
OK, King Jeffrey, yeah, the king actually does have now a roots of this check to come into potentially
the black position and it will cause all sorts of havoc.
It will be attacking --'s it will be sometimes threatening checkmates because it will take away escape
squares.
It will be acting like a slow moving queen, essentially.
So not just being able to win material, but assist in Checkmates.
We see reluctancy free checking each for an hour.
McAffrey Capablanca is not afraid to shed one or two pawns to achieve these center stage ambitions if
the rook had gone to be free instead.
For example, Desex Rook Tastee for King Chiefdom, you see the king becoming very aggressive.
Technically, that's two connected passports and this would be overwhelming for black.
We'd like to get our rook behind the opponents passport.
This is called the trash rule generally has been coin's the trash roll and it makes it very, very difficult
for that pawn to make progress.
Now, when you have the right behind passport and if the opponent is a defensive role, there's no hope.
Yeah, we just make advances to our position now for that.
Maybe this is just a variation as an example.
But in the game we see real caffery.
So not going for the deep home, however desex offering a full.
It's not all about quantity, it's sometimes about quality.
So here, even though White has free pawns to blacks, five pawns.
Look at the position of the kings.
When you assess in-game possessions, the kind of periodic table of elements king activity factors heavily
as a new factor, passports factors heavily.
It's not just the raw material counts.
So we have a very aggressive king compared to the opponents.
King Ruki for we have King of six now threatening check made the king moves and white plays check and
our rook takes C7.
So starting to get some --'s back and also threatening checkmate again.
You know, off the rookie aides we see rookie ain't.
So just to put that on the board, if Rook takes the four rooks, you can see how the aggressive king
is worth its weight in gold, you know, being used to help checkmate the opponent king.
So rookie, a very passive rook king takes a five.
So why is now equal on pawns but now king of six frothing again renewing Rocsi ain't checkmate.
Check King five.
And now these pawns are away from the king.
So we don't mind in fact potentially losing the G-7 pongs.
The King can assist in either taking out these pawns or this pawn queening.
We see King G8 if rook G7.
This situation is hopeless for black.
Even if we have to lose the deep warm like this, we'd get a transition to winning position.
How the opponent would be free to coin that.
So we see King G8 rotates a route, John King takes the five.
So why is material up now to pawns up recouping all the points?
You can see the damage done.
When things take center stage, they can cause major concessions.
So C1 King desex Roxy to D5 Siwan Rook C7 Rook one king C6 rotates a four one as this very winning passport
had desex and the game ended, Tanigawa resigned her if the for the seven as an example, we can take
time out to take this pawn and hear the king is going to come and heard this past pawn with the reaching
out and completely winning position.
So this was a very, very iconic and game example and shows actually, if you look at Paul Morphine's
games, they're great for how to play the opening.
And Antarctic's if you look up Casablanca's games, you'll see beauties like this.
The clarity of logic, the dynamic aspects of the games and games don't have to be a dry, dull affair.
You can be trading off sacrificing pawns to get your king aggressive, get your rook's aggressive,
get your passport going.
It's not the quantity of pawns you have.
It's that quality.
If you have passports frightening, it's.
You're going to create major concessions for the opponent.
You could end up getting all the sacrifice pawns back and more.
So this is a brilliant example, in my view, an iconic example, which had a profound impact on how
aggressively and dynamically my considerations were for endgames, especially the work on the 7th is
a concept reinforced by our Nîmes, which in my system, it's a very, very powerful concept to be able
to restrict the opponents.
King in general, there have been numerous, you know, most games decided by Rook on the 7th.
So very, very key principle there.
And this game shows some of the philosophies of and games and what should take center stage.
And if you need to trade off a bit material to achieve those central stage actors like your rooks,
your passport, your king, then so be it.
I hope you found that instructive.
Thanks very much.