Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov playing against Tigran Petrosian.
So the two absolute icons of positional chess, two world champions.
Basically, Petrosian is inspiration for Anatoly Karpov.
He said that in interviews that his style is basically like Petrosian.
But playing for a win in one of the Gibraltar interviews of Anatoly Karpov.
So these players both basically they usually avoid dynamic pawn structures.
They embrace positions very strongly.
If opponents have dynamic pawn structures where opponents of say, got double pawns or isolated pawns,
they love sucking the counterplay out of such positions.
And then the opponents really just end up crumbling that they lose because of the weaknesses.
So in this game, will one of the players here create weaknesses?
Let's see E4 from Karpov C6 d4 D5 We have 92, so very solid Korakuen, which Kopf plays himself the
comic Con we see 37 Bishop c49gf69g5 e6 Queen E to aim, I think hold on like B six Isn't this grabbing
light squared?
Bishop What if Queen takes the E4 is coming Bishop before is played.
So the reason here is why can't Black take on D4?
Can you see why for five points Black didn't do this?
Yeah, we have a tempo gainer.
Knight One, two, three.
And actually here we can play 95 and it's very difficult for black to defend F seven.
If Queen B five, we're going to take on B five and take on F seven.
Thanks very much.
And black structure is a bit of a wreck here.
We've got a huge advantage here.
So a five is played, a three, a four bishop, a2h6.
The light goes back C five, C free Bishop D seven.
If C takes the four, we don't have to have an isolated Queen's one we can take with a knight.
And this position is about even.
But Bishop de seven was played.
We have now 95 C techs, C techs.
So there is an isolated Queen's pawn situation.
So is it Karpov playing with great risk, with a dynamic pawn structure?
The isolated Queen's pawn does afford these hooks on C five and E five.
There's activity on the adjacent files.
Sometimes there's threats of sacrificing the knight.
So is Karpov taking the role of an attacking player, sacrificing pawn structure?
Here, let's have a look.
Knight gm3 Black Castles, White Castles, Bishop E eight.
So that reinforces the f seven pawn Bishop RD to Knight BD two five Rook fc one.
Queen B six.
Bishop C four.
Bishop See six rook e one and now Knight see seven.
So as if to play Bishop dd five to get a nice comfortable blockade on the RD five square.
Karpov now takes on C six and it's actually black, which compromises his pawn structure a little bit
with B, Take C six.
So this is a bit of a sacrifice of pawn structure.
So the basic premise is positional players usually love it when the opponent tries to play dynamically
with their pawn structures because their play is designed to shut down counterplay.
And the animal metaphors, the kind of snakes that strangle the opponents or the spiders that kind of
paralyze and then then eat the victims later, You know, these animal metaphors like boa constrictor
and spider, they're about letting your opponent have a bit of counterplay, but they fundamentally
damage structure.
If we can take the counterplay compensation out of the equation, we're left with bad pawns.
But hear both sides, you could say, have bad pawns.
So it's an interesting situation, it turns out here.
Queen take C-6 is technically more accurate.
Engines prefer this.
It keeps the structure more intact for black.
And if we take this situation, G 3.5 white has a like square bishop black counterpart.
But this blockade is pretty solid looking.
This should be about even they usually just draw that.
They're good friends, I believe.
I mean, Trojans, compas, hero, basically.
But there's a risk incurred would be take C six.
Sure black has in the short term some play on the B file and it looks as though well the blockade is
going to be great.
Where is white going to win?
How is white going to win this?
But yeah, definitely Queen C six is objectively more accurate.
We see B, C six, Bishop four, CD five and now Bishop E five.
Look 58, Rook 81 and now Bishop D six.
We have Rook D two.
Bishop 6e5.
So this is an interesting moment.
I mean, black's still got this potentially theoretical, you know, this weakness, this potential
backward pawn on a semi foul.
You know, this is like one way road.
There's this weakness which makes it more exploitable than usual.
C five instead seems more accurate.
Just dissolve the weakness and dissolve whites weakness in the process.
So no side has got a weak pawn structure in a way, and this should be only a small edge for white.
This situation is only a small entry point.
So for whatever reason this dissolving move wasn't played.
Petrosian preferred bishop takes E five and Karpov now is improving his pawn structure.
We have D takes E five.
You can see that the white pawn structure is more solid than the black pawn structure.
This is the best way to take.
So there's a variety of reasons here.
One is the best way, as well as getting rid of the isolated Queen's pawn.
Sometimes maybe the fourth rank could be useful as well for targeting pawns later on.
A For that for Frank, there is a victim here potentially, and we've given it more accessibility to
that potential weak pawn victim know if we played Knight 25 there's no real point here for white black
solid enough.
There isn't enough.
I say Queen's pawn perk here or even C six is not a big deal.
So.
And in Queen Tang's E five, let's say Rook five.
This position is also not such a big deal, you know.
Rook seven It's about even that.
I say Queen's pawn is a big target, So d text gets rid of that target.
We have 97 G free, 9f8.
So it looks as though black's never really going to get mated with an idea of Bishop D three in Queen
E four it's safe guiding h seven We have rook d one now Rook d seven.
It seems here 97 might be another way of playing it.
And this should only be a small edge for Waynes.
But we've rook d seven let's say Queen E four we have rook B seven, rook C two and now rook aba rook
rd 297.
King G two.
Queen H two Queen A five and H four.
We have Rook D seven and our bishop E to rook d five rook d4.
And now you can see that the four frank actually hold on and sic a four.
Yeah, that takes was good, wasn't it?
This for Frank statistically gives a lot of new resources.
An extension of a square vacation move When we vacate square, we've got new resources.
It's like statistically we've opened up the four frank, so we've got new resource possibilities across
that.
For Frank we've opened up pieces.
So Rook takes a four is on the cards.
So Petrosian took that off.
Queen takes DD four.
So is this such a big deal?
C Six we have 95 which just offers C six up on a plate immediately.
So why on earth would take and Petrosian just sacrificed the pawn here.
So this is a big question about this game.
Why give up C six?
It's not as if b two is going to take in the Queen protects b two.
If we look at this, if we look at nine, five is an alternative.
Hitting the queen.
So Queen E four, C five.
We still have this kind of pool which is vulnerable.
And in fact, let's have a look here at H five and let's say.
Black plays energetically with G five.
Here H takes 9/10.
Bishop D Free ends up with a small armchair and this looks a bit frightening to create more structural
weaknesses.
But it's only a small edge if we look at alternatives.
So instead of G five, let's say Black just was waiting for white to do something with the C five pawn.
Remember, a four is also it's under strain the black position.
The problem is Black's position is under strain with these weaknesses.
Let's say Bishop de Fray, which kind of virtually pins the nine because there's possibilities of G
for, let's say, Bishop DD three and let's say now Queen C six, nine, E seven.
And we don't want to take on C five because taking A taking on B two.
But let's say this position Y improves the pieces, improves the pieces and let's say G six.
Now let's say we have this position.
Is there enough compensation for Black's dynamic structure?
So Black has the more dynamic structure than white because of these weaknesses.
A retreat move is kind of deadly here.
91.
The nights coming to d free where it does the trick of defending and attacking.
So say King G 793 blacks on the start point of being completely dismantled.
So, so much for the dynamic structure.
If C four we're taking on c four with the night protecting B two.
If C eight, we're just going to take on C five.
And then we've got all sorts of possibilities as well.
Like 1966, this is just better for white.
That's check.
And then we've got all sorts of possibilities.
So 95, we start to understand why this pawn sacrifice was played.
Maybe frozen felt a sense of doom with that pawn.
Anyway, so sacrificed it here.
And this looks nifty for this diagonal for a moment rook C4 hammering this pawn again on a four.
We have Queen B seven and rook C two, protecting B two.
Like changing the mind Doesn't matter.
We can change our mind in chess.
We don't have to be biased by our previous moves.
So Knight B six, But now Compas plays Bishop B five.
So this like square bishop without the counterpart is making itself felt.
There are options like taking a pawn, for example, on a four we have 9g6 if 95 bishops C six here
is nice and then taking on a four protects the rook so you can see how black's getting dismantled.
If we look at this again with Queen a six we can take.
The pawn with the queen, in fact, here with a small edge.
Or we can even just take on D five.
And this shouldn't be a problem.
This is also very nice for white to pawns up.
So yeah, more than the small edge.
So 9g6 was tried and now Queen D sinks.
So not indulging any counterplay.
This is the key thing.
This pin is to be respected against the night with possibilities of nine takes e52.
The Queen wants the guard on E five doesn't want to take on a four just yet.
So Queen de six is played.
And this introduces the possibility of a rook on the seven, which introduces juicy targets.
We have Queen eight and this is a case of exploiting a file to get onto the ranks now.
So the first well and the last move here, move 42 The answer to life, universe and everything.
If you read Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy so I Move 42 is a decisive move.
Can you see what that is?
It's Bishop C six.
It just improves the position even more.
First, I'm pinning the knight and Petrosian resigned if Queen A seven point is here.
Bishop e four.
And that's with tempo because it's threatening.
Bishop takes and queen takes off takes So so the knight goes back but now with tempo again rook c seven
and there's not even a rook B seven.
The bishop dominates that diagonal.
The queen is taken out and there's winning moves here.
There's plenty of winning moves now.
So in this position, a simple one is takes of seven.
Looking at the bait rook.
Or we could play Queen E seven.
So we're going to make soon.
But as night BD seven and we get material, we just win material.
This is just winning for white.
So, yes, it's an interesting game between two absolute geniuses of positional play.
And the inspiration, you could say, of Anatoly Karpov taking Petrosian and Petrosian himself influenced
by Nimzowitsch.
So we've got to study Nimzowitsch in this course.
We've got to look at the roots.
And Nimzowitsch was a firm believer in prophylaxis, so preventative measures.
So prevention has its killer application in absorbing all the perks of a dynamic pawn structure.
If someone doubles pawns or has an isolated pawn or a backward pawn, they're doing so for short term
compensation.
But if we use prevention a repeat until prevents prevent, prevent until the opponent's counterplay
is non-existent, what are they left with?
The left were weaknesses.
And we also have the option.
We don't even need to win those weaknesses.
We don't need to win those pawns.
We can go for a king attack.
We have options.
We don't always have to win material.
We can go for the king.
Checkmate and king ends end of the war.
Not just the battle to win a pawn.
It ends the war.
So this shift to the seventh Frank is very instructive as well.
So, yes, this domination, eventual domination of the board, getting to that seven Frank, is absolutely
decisive.
So there are various positional themes here.
And yeah, this is a very special game.
Petrosian rarely loses and it's a very special game between these two friends who have very similar
boa constrictor styles.
They're both called boa constrictors in their time, and Adams is another boa constrictor.
Basically, you could all call them all spiders or boa constrictors.
It's the same result.
They paralyze eventually their opponents.
They love it when opponents try and sacrifice pawn structure for dynamic short term compensation.
The preventative measures, the repeat until preventative measures, until opponents are crumbling,
gives the positional players options not just to win weak pawns but invade, get to juicy seventh frank
possibilities.
Go for the King.
Either take the pawns once the compensation has gone from a dynamic structure or go for the king.
So yeah, if we can't win a fall, let's go for the king.
Beautiful stuff.
So, yes, a very, very special encounter between the two, both of them my heroes of positional chess,
along with Adams and Nimzowitsch, my four heroes of positional chess.
I'm mentioning in this game annotation.
Och, I hope you enjoyed it very much.