Hi there.
In this lecture, we see the immortal Zugzwang game.
This is Friedrich Simek against Aron Nimzowitsch in 1923, the Copenhagen tournament round six for from
Samish native six, C four with ce6 ninth, F three.
So we're in Queens, Indian territory.
B six.
We have G free.
Bishop B seven.
Bishop G two.
Bishop e79.
C free.
Both sides Castle and now D five.
We have Knight, E five and now C six.
So this may be a slight inaccuracy and BD seven is interesting as well.
Four.
C six.
Now, for example, this possession black could take on E five and simplify.
So this would be a way to limit White's potential advantage.
Okay, But see, sex is played.
We have C takes D five, which doesn't exploits the slight move order issue.
It seems as though in this position White could have played e four but opening theory wasn't so evolved.
So d d take c four here, take c four.
Why?
It should be better here.
This position would be free.
Why?
It has quite a nice sensor and if B 492 this is still going to be quite interesting.
Even if D four drops, there's a lot of compensation here for white, so this would have been a very
active continuation and there aren't that many active continuations in this game for white.
So this is something to be celebrated here before we get into the game.
More so C tanks, D five, C takes D five.
We have a four and now a six.
So this is an interesting 4b5 and try and use the outpost square on the on the file.
The C four square could be a useful outpost for a night.
So we have C, one, B five now Queen B, free.
This is a slight inaccuracy.
Might be one would have been a good move the night to improve itself.
It's not really doing much at sea free.
This would have been a kind of Carpathian move the knight retreat and here for example, why it should
still have a small edge.
So queen bee free 9c69 take C six.
This was another opportunity just just to be even with E free.
Just just play the solid E free.
This position should be about even.
Old, 1935, 1935.
This position one has a small edge here.
Okay.
So if we look at this, if we took on CSX, this position, it's going to have a small edge.
So that's interesting as well.
Nine takes the five looking at C six.
But anyway, note take C six now Bishop, take C six and H three.
This is quite passive play.
Four might.
The unprotected piece on C six could have been used with 94.
So hitting C six here D details.
This is just even.
And if we continue a little bit.
Queen takes the form white gets play hair.
And could even claim potentially a small edge with careful play.
Up to 9/10 rotators a small edge for weight.
So anyway, h three we have Queen D seven and now the have the bishops protected but also be force of
France and maybe bishop a four after you can see that actually that queen on be free is rather silly.
We have king H two.
And although b4 is super tempting, Nimzowitsch here has a very interesting, interesting alternative
attacking plan.
So King H2 kind of walks into a little bit of danger actually, if a free a five, this is an interesting
way of playing things.
And then this shows that black is already in the driving seat.
This this has a there's a target on B to back home and that could be pressurized later and fixed.
So yes, black is in the driving seat in this variation.
Even if a free had been played, this is starting to be quite comfortable for black as an example,
with a torture point, the be2 pawn on that same file.
But King H two was played and we have now even stronger than before night H five trying to potentially
attack the King on this diagonal with moves like Bishop D six and F five and F four potentially if B
four.
I mean, this is interesting as well, and we could just flick in night.
H five here as well.
We don't need to chase the queen or anything.
This, this will be interesting.
Well, we could chase the Queen now if there's no E square and here if you know a five, it's just very
comfortable for black.
So 95, though, and we have a very interesting plan F five.
His plate for hair is also possible for a five hair.
It's just a nice advantage and we can retract the light.
But it's not as fun as the game continuation.
What happens in the game is super fun.
With F five, we have Queen RD one, so it's looking to try and exploit the unprotected piece.
Might be one looks very passive, but this way of playing it might be much safer.
So the one we have before the light goes back and it should be five.
So here there's a penalty for playing E for two the night.
Black will play.
Bishop takes South one, so the rook moves.
But now this is fantastic imagination.
And perhaps looking around at the quality of pieces.
Can you see this next move?
So it looks as though White has this frat of E four.
But can we turn a frat and its execution into a kind of position where we're tying the opponent in knots?
How do we do that?
Turn that to our advantage if evil is going to be played.
Okay.
The thing is, Rooks, we've talked about Rooks in this course, liking open files to be able to get
on to the ranks, especially the seven Frank.
There's a lot of juicy targets.
So Nimzowitsch comes up with for 500 points.
This idea of getting a rook to the seventh and it could end up pinning things and tying white down.
He plays Bishop dd six.
So we have basically a positional knight sacrifice.
In fact, after E four, guess what nimzowitsch is idea is the thing is if he goes back now with like
he doesn't want to create dance square weaknesses.
And if he goes back.
Then there's E five.
So he's kind of forced to play a brilliant part for brilliant continuation.
Really.
And he does F takes E for it's a positional sacrifice.
So we're getting this very juicy rook on the seventh rank, and you can see that white's it's already
kind of tied up, but this bishop's now pinned and the queen hasn't got that many squares.
This bishop cuts through the position.
This knight hasn't got many squares, the rook hasn't got many squares.
We're controlling f one as well.
So it's a position where we've got a lot of compensation here.
For the ninth.
So it's a fascinating position.
So it's also, you know, it's two pawns as well.
So we've got two pawns plus a gigantic pin and pressure on the seventh Frank.
We have Queen G five.
If King H one, then Black could just reinforce the AMP file.
And that really has authority on position.
Bishop E to hit the Queen.
And E five would create some difficulties here for white.
So, for example, here h six and we're going to soon trap the Queen with Bishop F six.
The Queen is not very well placed on H four.
And that echoes the game match.
The Queen goes to the G five in the game.
We have Rook, af8 and our King H one.
And now Rook eight.
Five.
Queen E three.
Bishop de Frey, which carries the threats of winning the Queen now with Rook e two.
So this is passive move is played and now Nimzowitsch just plays a quiet move.
H six.
And so Mitchell looks at his position and just feels it's completely lost.
So he's a piece up.
But Black has real authority here in the position.
It just move 25.
This is amazing like knight positional positional knight sacrifice just to tie white down.
It's not quite a zugzwang yet, but white really doesn't have any useful moves.
So white resign if Bishop f won.
Let's have a look at this.
Bishop f one We're just going to take on F one because we've got enough controlling f one.
If g four we can play rook five to F three and this position is quite nasty.
Bishop takes her free.
There's rooks to this rook on the seventh is really a bit of magic going on with so many targets.
That is a rook dream quite often to be on the seventh rank as Nimzowitsch has highlighted in an important
part of positional play.
A goal.
It's a very important goal to get rooks on, especially the seventh Frank.
There are other ranks, but statistically there's a lot of things to target, especially here.
If H4 we can play this.
So Rook five to F three of Bishop takes, Rook takes.
Where is the Queen going?
Queen's We're going to win the Queen with advantage.
If a free we can actually just play a five.
So it's not technically a zugzwang yet because there was a free but after eight takes 8/8 be free Queen
F seven.
Now what on earth does White do without compromising the position?
So this looks more technically like a zugzwang if g for we're just going to play this rook five to F
and again the queen stranded in the center and Bishop takes We have to mate.
So yeah, a fascinating game, a fascinating concept of a positional p sacrifice.
So if we can try and use this in our own games, where do our pieces ideally want to be?
Rooks ideally wants me on the seventh rank.
We can entertain the opponents France here.
So Bishop DD says entertaining a threat, turning it to our advantage.
So it's a night for two pawns, but also this aspect of just running the opponent out of useful moves.
It's almost as if it's not just we're not just looking at the downsides of the opponent's position we're
trying to see coming to destroy their ability to even move their move interface, so to speak.
And if we get the impression our rook is on the seven frank pinning things, we should be able to look
out for that really tiny opponent in knots.
So this is an absolutely beautiful game and it's called the Immortal Zugzwang game.
I hope you really enjoyed this idea.
So embracing the opponents against a loose pace, turning into a massive positional advantage.
So wonderful stuff.
And so much.