Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Michael Adams playing against Anthony Costin in 1997.
So constant the Grandmaster.
So E four from Adams we see E five 9396, Bishop B five, the Roy Lopez, a six, bishop a4f6 Adams
Castles, Bishop E seven rookie 1b5 Bishop B Free Black Consuls H Free Bishop B seven is played now.
So here we have the free d6 a free.
So this is quite interesting.
This is the moment where Plank cannot play 95 because of nine times E, five and E four is solid enough.
So when D six happens.
95 is now a threat.
So it's kind of addressed by Adams a free.
So he wants to keep this bishop and it seems very, very logical play now after Queen D seven, this
doesn't look like a classic Roy Lopez move.
It's more of a very modern treatment, which Nigel Short has kind of emphasized nicely free.
It's got a good control over the D five square.
It's a good positional move in this situation you don't especially with a free the plan of C friend
D four is not so relevant here so this is trying to control a key line square rook eight and now 95
we have a five and in fact the bishop is taken out.
Now he takes e seven queen takes e, seven, bishop a two, and now C five.
We have Knight H four.
And you might think that's a bit of a strange decision that Bishop was locked in anyway.
Yes, but it's the solidity of the black position on the dark squares which has been reduced.
That kind of bad bishop was adding solidity.
Now here we have the move 9c6c free Bishop C ain't Bishop G five, King H eight and now Bishop D five.
Exploiting that pin paste the use Bishop D 598 and now Knight F five.
Can this piece be tolerated more cost than actually tolerates it with Queen C seven If he plays, Bishop
takes a five.
This is quite pleasant for white.
If H six here white can actually take out F6 to try and dominate the line squares more.
And for example, Queen H five is a nice edge for white.
Nice advantage here for white.
So Queen C seven was played tolerating the knight on F five for a moment.
But now there's another major problem.
Of course, white can double the pawns.
Now factor in the G four attack.
But will White have enough positional authority for that not to mean anything?
This g five attack?
If we double the pawns here, it's an instructive moment.
Would you double the pawns on f six?
If you want to think about this position for a bit.
So White's play.
And what would be the plan after?
If we think about the plan after, if we're going to double the pawns so we might be exposed to some
sort of attack.
But how effective is that attack going to be?
OC So here Adams actually does take on F six structural damage.
It is a preference you'll see in a lot of games.
Adams is inflicting structural damage and soaking up the counterplay.
So here there's a potential you know attacking counter playing queen a free reinforces at five G and
now G free.
So this gives some interesting options to play G Free Knight e sex king H two.
So here we have a tempo gain of 9g5 Queen E three, rook G six.
And is Black's attack that significant?
White now plays a move to open up the queenside a four These rooks are kind of abandoning the queenside
we see.
B takes a four rook takes a four rook egg.
But perhaps Planck was banking on the queenside being not that relevant.
The is holding a six right.
We see rook ea1.
What's going on here?
Okay, So 96, we have four, Rog, five Queen, F3, and this is looking at F6 now.
So the black rooks look a bit awkward.
The queen is tied down now a bit to f6 nine and five, Queen eight.
Now, in this position, White is making further progress.
In a special way.
What do you think that way is?
So the G file attack doesn't seem that great at the moment, but White wants to make progress.
So how would you do that for 100 points?
What would you play here?
Yes.
Sometimes we have to consider a positional exchange sacrifice, sacrificing a rook for a bishop or knight
to make progress.
Otherwise, how can we exploit the D6 target?
So yes, Rook takes a six, so it's one pawn for the exchange.
We need to look at the overall trend going up when we do a positional exchange sacrifice.
It's a really important part of the positional toolkit.
Sometimes you just simply cannot improve the position further without such a positional exchange sacrifice.
If we look here, how would we actually improve the position further?
Our pieces are really quite optimal, but we just need to have exploitable targets.
So it opens up the way for DD six to be an exploitable target now.
So one point of exchange and it's not even taken 1937.
So if it's taken Rook takes a six and let's say Rook g6, we're going to take on DD six and this is
going to be very nice.
Queen E free, he takes her five.
This kind of stuff is possible.
The tactics work from white hair.
The King's exposes more If Rook takes DD six, Queen takes e five check picking up the rook.
So the tactics are working here.
There isn't such a danger and it's getting more and more pawns for the exchange.
So this position is just great for white if we look at this again.
So Queen Sex g seven is a move there, which is good but sorry earlier on.
Rook five The G six if Knight C seven instead Hare Knight takes D six.
And this is a lot of fun.
This position, Mike takes a six queen, takes f6 check.
The tactics are working for white after nine takes have seven.
Jack Black would have to give up the queen.
So yeah, this is a really interesting situation.
So, yes, after 97, immediately White plays, Mike takes DD six and ignites some of the same ideas
there.
So Mike takes D five is played.
So if Mike takes a six again, this air queen takes first check and then taking out F seven forces,
the winner of the queen.
And if rook F-8 queen takes E five this is still great for white.
Check here is picking up a whole rook vicious so the tactics really work for white as well which is
important so so okay so in this position Knight 66.
Knight 65.
Avoiding that kind of disaster.
But now Knight takes C eight and yes, White is winning material.
Queen takes C eight, E takes D five.
So black has been shattered with that positional exchange sacrifice.
One, two, three, four, five.
Against.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
It looks like a very bad position.
Rook five that shields and gets a tempo queeny to tempos.
Can't really tempo moves can't really save black hair.
See for Queenie feint and now rook ain't we have Queen H six If Queen takes a rook takes eight, Rook
takes eight.
King G two.
The situation is not very good for black because the Rooks are just overwhelmed here.
For example, De SAC said the rooks are getting overwhelmed.
There's too much to do here.
So Queen H six was tried, but now D six.
And this is the end of the game here.
In fact, Black doesn't even try the final attacking attempt.
Rook H five It's really a token attack.
White can play.
Rook takes gains.
Jack King takes Rook H at King G seven.
And just simply here, there's a great cool defensive move to play.
Can you see what that is?
To avoid any attacking hassle?
What has this authority in this position?
And you can just play for 100 points.
What would you play here against Rook takes H free.
With different ways to play about King G to his tunes.
Worries about doing If Rug Takes H three.
We have Queen G for Jack, picking up the rook in various ways, or if the queen Queen has to kind of
go in front and then we just pick up the rook.
But what else?
Queen G thinks we're just going to play D seven and then queening.
So yeah, this game I thought was very, very nice and controlled and showed a kind of more original
modern treatments of the royal of has in this particular variation.
So if we look again there isn't the classic c3d4 plan but rather a like square control plan instead.
Here actually, Adams is avoiding the wrath of the Marshall Gambit.
If C frame D five, he's not playing against Marshall game, so it's kind of anti Marshall stuff of
H three but yeah, Bishop b7d free.
So this now kind of positioning for Athens 9a5 to grab this bishop so that's addressed with a free but
with an accompanying like square grip strategy and yes this idea of doubling the pawns, the opportunity
to double the pawns here soon is taken up with white getting such a huge authority on the possession.
Really, the attack was made to look like absolutely a token attack and White needed to use a positional
exchange sacrifice to make the queenside operations much more effective and dangerous for black.
So it reaches an optimal point for the pieces here where White's pieces are really well placed and it
just needs something to break down the doors of Black's possession.
And that's something is this positional exchange sacrifice.
So we really need to take the positional exchange sacrifice, especially when our pieces are optimal
to take our position further.
We really need it in our toolkit.
And this is something I observed from one of my my tournaments, my very long game tournaments with
big increment side controls that I wasn't like entertaining a positional exchange sacrifice.
Sometimes it's the only way to increase the advantage in the position.
And here I think this is a really iconic example actually, in my view, it really is devastating this
positional exchange sacrifice to tap into Black's weaknesses.
And no, earlier, you know, the absence of that bad bishop, the solidity of D.
Six is being challenged.
That's one of the things being underlined here.
The lack of solidity of the D six pawn and also the f six pawn they become.
Easier targets with the absence of the e seven bishop earlier.
So great positional decisions all coming together in this game.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as me and so much.