Hi there.
In this lecture, we see what has been nicknamed cop offs immortal.
So karpov's immortal game and it really is absolutely amazing.
So this is Anatoly Karpov against Veselin Topalov.
This is in the 1994 Linares tournament, round four.
So Karpov had one of his most amazing Tillmans ever in this last edition.
So we see and just, just also to emphasize that Kasparov indicated that the winner of such a tournament
should be kind of names or nicknames of the tournament World Champion.
So we see D4 from Karpov, we see Knight F6 from Western Top Love C four, C five Knight F three.
C takes the Fall Knight takes the fall.
We have E six.
And now White wants to control the D five square more So great.
So this starts to look as though it could have come from an English opening.
We see Knight C six, Bishop G two.
Bishop C five.
The knight goes to be free.
Bishop E seven.
Knight C Free and black is content, it seems in this game to set up a hedgehog pawn structure.
So I think names like a hedgehog because it's like a prickly pawn structure on the spine.
So we have Bishop F4.
It is a seemingly very good looking position for white already.
If we look at this, there's pressure points all over the place and this semi-open default makes that
D6 more of a potential exploitable weakness.
So 9 to 5 to kick this bishop away.
But Karpov now reacts with a free this does open up and attacking ends the knight.
If bishop is free, perhaps black could consider knight F six.
And what is white going to do?
White can play rook C one is a small edge still, but if he commits to having double pawns, you might
think, wow, positional player is accepting double pawns and he's losing the bishop.
Hare, What's going on here?
But let's look concretely at this position.
Concretely, White has semi-open, default and file pressure.
These other pieces are pretty good.
Where they are, there are opportunities.
Even this guy does support the C five square or C five or 95 sometimes.
So even that guy, which you might consider is like the worst piece in White's position isn't that bad.
So Black's bishop isn't that active and can't really be here because Black's really under pressure.
In the center we see Bishop DD seven, Queen DD two, and now Queen B eight is played if C eight, Rook
51, let's say a five as an example.
Rook b1h6.
Here we can just really enjoy this position.
So for example, Knightly two rookie eights would be a mistake already.
This would be a mistake because White can actually improving this worst piece to attack.
D six.
What does Black do in this kind of position?
You can see that the painful dangers of the same file in this variation where yeah, he gets really
tricky.
If Black has to resort here to something dynamic like D five, this might be the way to open up the
bishop pair and it could be the best way for Black to minimize the damage.
But even so, whites getting control here with an advantage.
There's issues to solve, but it's still better for white.
But in the game Queen by eight we have Rook for one.
And the problem with Rook for one is actually White's threatening to dissolve the double pawns and weaken
potentially Black's king if a pawn pawns taken away from the king's shield that's less king safety.
Or if Bishop takes over, then 95, that's a tastier square D five.
So G six is played.
Let's put it on the board.
If G6 wasn't play because this weakens the dark squares.
But you could say, Well, hold on, King's Crusher Black has the dance going Bishop So it's not a big
deal, right?
That's true.
Then see though if a six just to put this other idea on the board F five so you might wonder what's
what's the big deal here.
Why not.
He takes can you see what white would play here if I give you 5 seconds to pause video So for ten points.
Yeah.
Bishop takes C six.
Yeah, we're just winning the Bishop.
Yeah.
It's nice to have this thing counted, Bishop Because sometimes it can really damage dark square control
by giving itself up.
Just bear that in mind.
So.
G six, H four And now I think trying to get some play maybe with B five we have H five, B five is
played.
If G takes h51, it has to play carefully here.
The better move to play is just f five again, just just use this five because Black's lost the prevention
of F5.
So again, we're in this circumstance where we take on C six and so on E seven.
That's the best way.
So what is black do?
Yeah.
The pawns are going to be dissolved.
Black's king is a bit of a wreck.
So, yes, if H for hair, Queen H six and we're threatening f six.
So this would be untenable.
This is totally untenable for black.
Completely busted position.
So be careful, though, Bishop free.
There is a resource.
That wouldn't be the point really because of H four.
And that's an even position actually.
Now the big point is this five.
So b five is played.
We have H takes g, H takes G, This slightly weakens plants kingside you could argue, well, White's
kingside is weakened as well.
But the thing Catto bishop already here there isn't over here 9c5 Now this great move exploiting the
pin on the D six pawn and you might think hold on, hold on.
Okay.
This gets rid of a somewhat bad piece, but isn't that D six pawn?
Wasn't it a target?
So this seems in some respect counterintuitive to get rid of the target on the semi d file.
What happens also on Bishop E here?
Funny enough, one of the strongest moves with modern engines picked up is actually nine takes e six
just to undermine Black's pawn chain.
And White's rooks are in a position here to have these juicy targets on E seven and eight so white hair
would be threatening again.
Our friend Bishop take C six for rook takes e seven.
So let's say rook a seven to support Bishop E 795 is strong and then just doubling the rooks C takes
eight takes rookie six White has a big advantage King H to Queen C to looking at G six this position
F5 there's a raging attack here building up this situation.
For example, Rook takes G six, nine and four is absolutely raging attack so it is really very, very
interesting stuff.
On Bishop eight.
This knight takes e six concepts.
Let's look at that again.
Just out of interest, if Bishop murphy, let's say Bishop fight here.
Bishop D five check and hear the E files great and say Bishop D seven, C takes eight, takes 94.
Black's attack.
Sorry, Black Black's king is under attack.
If the H file is used, we have g four for rook free.
And you can see this is like nearly terminal now because we're controlling a lot of the escape squares
and we're coming in with rook h free.
So you see, this is diabolical black.
So yes, the knight is taken and Queen takes these seven.
Now this robs black of the bishop pair pressure on C six immediately.
And yeah, the light squares are kind of compromised in Black's position.
The light squared Bishop was adding solidity.
We have Rook eight and now.
It's an interesting position.
Why is not tempted here for Bishop?
Take.
See?
Six black has to tread very carefully here.
What would be the movie you think black would play?
Just that interest.
Yeah.
Black has to play Rook a seven if Rook see seven.
Can you see what White would play in this case for five points or ten points?
Yeah.
White could get so much material Now with Queen.
Take seven.
Queen Taxi, seven.
Bishop takes a That's a lot material for the queen.
This is actually a winning position for white so we can't really say that comparable top love was intending
that is a very strong player presumably he was intending rook a seven here this is a cipher eviction
of the queen to take out C sex Why it should end up with a small edge though in these variations in
this variation, what ends up with a small edge or also here if eight takes nine times b five and a
four whites ending up with a small edge in these variations.
But anyway, so Bishop takes C six.
There is an answer for it and it's rook a seven.
So in the game though, something very different was actually played in this position.
Fundamentally, there is a downside on the light squares.
They have been weakened and it's an iconic move.
I wonder if you can guess it here.
What is this iconic move?
Rook takes IH six.
Absolutely amazing.
Now if F takes e six, you can see that actually white can play this check and then it's two pawns for
the exchange.
The upward trend of the position should be going up and up two points with exchange and compromise.
KING So here, you know why it's definitely got a big advantage overall if Rook C seven, Queen D five.
And again, it's going to end up when White's in exchange sacrifice in exchange for two pawns.
So sacrificing a rook for a minor piece like Bishop is sacrificing the exchange, and it's for two pawns.
So black inserts here, Rook a seven.
But we still have.
We still have now the exchange tacked on.
But first.
Now Rook takes G six check.
Wow.
It's winning a pawn here, at least getting the two points for the exchange situation.
So, first of all, what if it's rejected with King for eight?
What if Black doesn't take the rook?
Can you see what white plays here?
We still have a virtual bishop pair.
We've got a light squared Bishop and the Queen can act as a dart square bishop for mating the opponents
king with Queen H free.
So let me show you how f takes.
Queen h h covering dark squares.
And we know the complimentary light square attack.
And that's checkmate.
And if King H seven instead.
Queen H three.
Check.
This is a very strong attack.
Bishop e four If King F six, Queen H six is checkmate.
If F five, Queen six, F five, check Queen G six, check Bishop D five.
And actually amazing that is woven here.
This actually now threatens controlling threatens Queen eight May if Bishop e five This is desperate
Queen H six check Queen E six.
And here for example, Queen check.
And and black's like collapsing, for example, like that.
So it's quite vicious.
If it's not accepted, the rook is accepted.
We have Queen E six check.
So we're back to this exchange sacrifice scenario for two pawns.
So three, four, five, six and four pawns for black.
Okay, so interesting.
We have rook d eight If Queen bee six.
There's a weakness of the last move.
It's we can see eight.
We just take on c eight there.
If rook fe we're going to take on B five and that's three pawns for the exchange.
So Ock rook the eight is tried.
We have c takes it is free pawns for the exchange.
Bishop f6 and now 94 so better then Queen takes F six check and Knight takes F six, Bishop D four.
So if rook for another pawn would drop with nine, take C five and this is just horrible for black.
And there's also a 97 kind of family come coming there.
So Bishop dd four B takes a six.
So how many pawns does White got now?
Three, four, five, six.
It's like four pawns for the exchange right now Queen B six is played.
If rook takes a six, there's a weakness of the last move.
E seven control is lost.
We can tap into that Queen E seven check and 9g5 threatening to shortly make the King rook seven Queen
E four This situation is pretty diabolical for black, for example.
96 Jack.
It's going to be winning material or horrible for the black king.
So say this, this is just bad news.
So Queen B six and now rook D one.
So offering black a pawn with queen takes a six, which doesn't weaken E seven.
But guess what?
Now to improve White's position and prospects further to break into the dark squares, we need to take
away the dark square guardian, which is the dark square Bishop So yes, you may have guessed for ten
points.
It's rook takes D for another exchange sac So double exchange sac game against who is known as now the
master of exchange positional exchange that Topalov himself is great at positional exchange sacrifices,
but he's the victim here.
So if Knight takes C five, let's say we tried without an exchange.
SAC Queen B six Rook takes DD for this position is also it's going to be very pleasant for white anyway.
We're going to have to play off the Queen by six.
Rook takes DD four here.
That will be the best move basically.
So Rook takes the four.
Now Rook takes the four.
Queen F six.
Jack King G eight.
If King h7g5.
Check King H six.
There's Queen H eight.
And that is mating.
So King G eight we have Queen text G six, check king of feint.
If rook g seven.
We have great coordination to checkmate here with the knight in queen.
So king of fine Queen eight, check King G seven.
And it's all with tempo, Queenie five check.
King G and Karpov keeps it with tempo with 9f6 check.
He's not messing around.
And he's coordinating even more now because there's Bishop check or with the express train tempo gaining
if King g79 37 discovered check interface with the rook and then Queen G five check six check.
And it's going to be mating unless Black wants to give up the queen here, which is pointless.
So King for eight we have now taking yet another pawn, Queen D six.
We know we've checked Queen D six If King G seven, just Queen takes DD four, Queen six and then Queen
takes a seven.
Thanks very much.
So Queen rd Sex Queen takes a seven queen to f six And there's so many pawns now.
Five pawns for the exchange.
So the bishop even controls RD one.
So So we have B three, B two and our King G two.
And this ends the game.
Topalov actually resigns here.
There's nothing much for him to do.
Here is an example.
Continuation.
Say check Bishop, a free queen.
Six White can just play like this to play the checks and just get rid of the.
Queens.
If nothing else, this is an entirely hopeless position.
One can afford to give up a two because there's all of these past pawns over here.
So you can see that progress is going to be made eventually.
It's an absolute easy win from this position.
So yeah, a fantastic game showing great control of the position.
And I have to say this kind of English opening against the hedgehog, it's it's just a lot of pressure.
The way Karpov played it not just gets the same of default, he gets the same E file and doesn't mind
what we talk about.
Stereotypically for aims of positional play, the stereotypical goals, a positional play like the Bishop
or better structure, Karpov is accepting double pawns.
He's accepting the opponent's got bishop here, He's investigating further.
And even the worst, apparently worst pace in the position plays an important role here to weaken black
on the light squares.
So this is also a kind of dismantling on the light squares, about 95.
It's a dismantling on the Light square campaign, which is evident here.
So this great kind of pawn chain undermining move is going to get two pawns for the exchange.
So Black played it in a way which was trying to minimize the damage.
But there's still Rook Takes G6.
Beautiful stuff.
It's really beautiful stuff.
So two points for the exchange and it starts to be really downhill for black lacking in counterplay.
And White's playing another exchange sack later.
It's absolutely brilliant stuff to gain access to a particular colors, color complexes, you know,
sets of colors of a certain square with the double exchange sac.
It does make this a really, truly beautiful, immortal game of Anatoly Karpov.
So one of the most collected games on sites like chess games.
It's really in so many people's collections for good reason.
So, yes, wonderful stuff.
I hope.
Really.
You've enjoyed this game as much as me and found many instructive points in it has so much.