Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Michael Adams playing against Adam Ashton in the 2019 British Championship
round three.
So we have E four for Michael Adams.
E 5.3 9c6, Bishop b5a6 for Adams plays Bishop A four.
We have nine of six D free.
So this is a very solid move.
And why is now potentially threatening to win the E five pawn if one had played bishops hc6 here the
common known trap is Queen D four Well, kind of trapping that black is getting a small edge with the
Bishop White shouldn't really do this.
Black is going to castle queenside with a small edge.
So so D three does actually threaten though.
Bishop takes C six now so Black reacts to that four at B five bishop be free.
We have Bishop E, 7a4 and now be four is played.
Knight BD two and we see this is not going to be the c3d4 plan of the royal players.
Instead, White's still going to try and play 4d4 later though, and maybe try and expose the weaknesses
on the queenside later.
So we see d69.
C four.
Black castles.
White castles.
Rook.
B eight.
Rook.
E one.
H six.
Bishop.
E Free.
And this looks as though white might be preparing.
DD four.
And in fact, rookie eight we do have D four here, so not being concerned.
About nine takes E4.
There's pressure points on E five hair.
Black actually plays E takes the form.
We have nine takes D four.
So hitting that C six, nine, eight, nine takes the E4, Bishop takes the E4 and this protects the
E4 pawn.
We have Bishop B seven and now the e pawn is dissolved.
But at what cost?
There is a potential danger on this diagonal.
The bishop is looking straight at G two.
We have D takes E five, Knight takes E five, Bishop D five, and you might think, Well, that's okay
then.
If Black wants to get rid of the attacking bishop, we have 9c4 shielding the B three bishop.
So maintaining that piece in the position, it's a good piece, it's worth maintaining.
So sometimes positional play is not just improving your existing pieces, but safeguarding the good
ones.
So we have Bishop, a friend in fact that bishop is quite good in the sense of that Queen de five his
friend here, Adams, prevents the impact of Queen de five with free.
If he doesn't, this could be an instructive mistake.
A five does queenly five.
And in fact, if we play, for example, 93, there's Queen G five here, and that's an aggressive position
for the queen.
We don't want to be subjected to this kind of pressure and pin pressure have to get out of the pin 95.
It starts to be better for black slightly.
So every hair thwarts that plan.
We have 95 if Queen de five instead, then there's actually 95.
The Queen is never going to get a chance to get to G five.
It's blocked from G five and the dangerous bishop is revealed on seven and that's crushing 90 6f7.
So 95 is tried.
Queen D two, Bishop G five, Queen two.
The Queen tucks on F two safeguarding the Bishop on D four.
So none of White's pieces are unprotected right now.
We have a pair of rooks coming off Bishop h4g3, Bishop F six, and now Bishop E five is played.
This vacates the D four square bishop takes e 5.6 e five Queen D six.
And now the Queen can park on D four rookie eight.
So here if C five Queen D three is sufficient this position we can play F four and here if F six not
minding a pair of rooks coming off.
And if we play a five we've got a grip on the light squares.
We've got an overall positional advantage still.
So rookie eight is played.
We have King F to rook the 89d free.
So pressurizing B for this, this retreat shows the whole point of the queen parking on default.
These queenside pawns are being scrutinized so there's options just to simplify.
So we have a five sometimes in the expression weaknesses create other weaknesses.
You know, they kind of multiply.
And here both of these pawns are potential vulnerabilities.
And as especially if we can simplify 9e5, we have Queen F six, Queen C five, Queen five.
And now actually a slight inaccuracy from Adams, even though it's very lucrative and there is still
a small edge, this might not be the most accurate way to go, but it definitely seems a human approach
here.
In this position, Amoy is actually threatening some fantastic tactics.
Let me just show you a token move.
Like h five, we could play bishops hd5 and we could play Queen takes d five, hair and B the exchange
up off the check would be the exchange up.
So Black does actually have to react to 96, however.
More accurate in a scientific manner is rookie to queen King e one only move for advantage.
And if we get this position we could take out a five.
So this should be another way of playing it.
If we'd played instead of King one, King G one.
Just to show the dangers of Black's position, Black does actually have access to this central file
and play 94 to celebrate that fact.
So here, very, very dangerous.
So if G takes check and black can at least get a perpetual check because our C five queen is not protected
so black can get a perpetual check like that.
So anyway, 96 though, it's kind of simple and strong.
Bishop St C six, Queen St C six and now Rook dissects a huge mistake already.
Immediately.
It's slightly difficult for black to play this position.
Black hands play it seems key H seven.
This would be the best trying.
So rookie eight for example, White should be in the driving seat with a small edge if Queen B five
instead.
Queen H three.
This position shows again that black has resources.
We've got to factor in the black resources because here there's Rook D two.
That's nasty.
This would be nasty.
So we don't want to let the opponents have counterplay.
So we would have to tread carefully with rookie eight.
So sometimes simplification is an absolute essential because these pieces we're trying to simplify could
be really quite dangerous for our King.
So okay, we have Rook D six though, so that's a huge mistake.
If Queen H three instead immediately rookie eight queen size check and we could just take on D five
here.
The Queen's by herself.
So.
Okay, so what happens now?
Why is this a huge mistake?
Can you see what white plays here, which is just simple and strong, gets rid of Black's counterplay.
A Capablanca mechanism.
Simplify it when you have a small edge, cash out, small edge, cash out.
Be confident in the endgames.
You know, Queenie, just cash out.
Get the queen's off queen E4.
So we have Queen sex E4.
If Queen G6, we're just going to take on D five.
Thanks very much.
If King G six.
This is interesting.
h4h5.
We can take the Queen's off and still get an advantage.
Our rooks pretty active.
Our pawns are pretty solid compared to Black's pawns.
So here we're actually going to win some material and and get time to stop C4.
Yeah, that would be potentially unpleasant.
C4.
We put brakes on that.
We're with the advantage here.
So Queen takes E4 is played after Rook takes E4.
There's actually a very strong frappe, believe or not even the simplified position Rook C4.
We can start targeting all of these pawns.
Almost like simultaneously we have rook D7 if Knight f6 rookie five looks at a five, what's holding
up a five?
This is the thing.
These weaknesses are starting to be amplified in the endgames.
There's nothing holding them up whilst white pawns.
They're holding each other, they're still supporting.
So it's a stronger structure.
This position, even if we lose H two, we've actually now got a fast outside pawn, which is much faster
than Black's potential creation of a past pawn.
So this gives away a huge advantage, this position.
We can even hold a three and get ready for just queening the outside pawn.
So Rook D seven is played.
We have rook C4 King G6 and now targeting that poor little pawn, a five pawn.
Yeah, that poor little pawn is the weakness in Black's position, which is completely and utterly exploitable.
When we're thinking about weaknesses, we should question the are they exploitable?
And here what is holding up that pawn?
Nothing.
And the bishop's like holding C two.
There's no role counterplay for black here.
So black actually resigned in this position.
If Knight of six Rook takes a five, what is black doing?
The check is pointless.
If c6a6, we're going to make progress with the outside passport.
So Black called it a day here.
Rest for the next day.
Okay.
Very interesting positional game.
We see how weaknesses are naturally amplified as we get closer to end games.
So those weaknesses installed in the middle game, which seemed like a good idea at the time to stop
classic Roy, the pair's plans are actually potentially they're the downsides of black position in their
own right.
So.
Okay, very interesting position game.
I hope you enjoyed this again.
Counterplay was kept under control.
We didn't see all the flashy, amazing resources of black.
We don't see that in Adams games in British championships.
He doesn't lose in British championships.
He controls the counterplay very well.
Or if he loses, it's very, very rare.
Okay.
I hope you enjoyed this so much.