Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Stefano Satie against Anatoly Karpov in 1977, Palmer's tournament round 13.
We have an English opening C4 and Karpov reacts with the symmetrical variation.
See 59239569c free but now breaks the symmetry with D five.
C takes d59 times D five.
We have g fre g six.
Bishop G two.
Bishop g seven.
An alkene A four, c six and here g five is played.
This is quite the adventure in the opening, putting pressure on D five immediately.
So why is one doing this?
Well, one of the ideas is to gain the tempo to look at C five.
It's a very interesting situation if White Castle's 97 is possible.
And in fact here, let's say Knight G five, Bishop D seven is possible with a view of actually just
castling.
Well, to safeguard F seven and offer C five, here is one interesting positional sacrifice of a pawn.
So black gets quite a bit of development here and pressure.
So for example, here the queen goes back b5ae5.
Black has quite a formidable grip on the possession.
And for example, if wrote B 194 there is quite significant pressure building up on the white position
and the Queen seems awkward in the game.
9g5 was played.
We have E, six, g, e four, so C five is on the fire.
We have Karpov playing Knight B six after Queen B five.
This is already a very interesting situation.
Karpov plays C five.
So here.
If black had castles instead.
This is also kind of interesting.
For 94, there is compensation here in this position.
For example, Rooke might just to repair soon another forcing move B six without losing the rook and
black ends up with a lot of pressure here.
There's good compensation and Black's getting some material back as well.
This would be a very interesting position indeed for Black and if Queen St see 594 there's compensation
here to be had after five 9692 and here we can see actually after Bishop de fall, this is quite painful.
Queen 66 winning material.
So so C4 though is an interesting move.
We have 94 being played.
If Queen C five Black can play a tempo gain at Bishop of eight if needed, that seems to safeguard things
fairly well.
So a four.
And now guess what Karpov plays, which you might find really fascinating.
So Black's play.
OC cup of this councils.
He's making this into a possession or pawn sacrifice.
So nine times.
Be six eight.
And also structurally of course, accepting some damage.
So Queen C for E five, there is a large amount of compensation here and tempo gainers as well.
Concretely to play with, we have Quincy two.
If one cancels Bishop Essex and let's say Quincy 294 why it's been pushed on to the first rank and in
fact bishop be free.
Ouch making use of the pins pawn.
And here you know we're winning with Terrell.
But what does white do?
Queen E one as bishop takes a two hair which is nice fresh thing.
Things like knight be free.
So Queen D one that's a queen D one.
Queen C seven is very accurate with the idea of bishop be free and that's hitting the rook.
So we'd be actually winning material by force here.
It's just great for black.
So that shows some of the dangers.
So we have Queen C 294, Queen B one and our f59, C three, E four.
You might think shouldn't white make priority.
Hence Castle de France plate.
So you might think that's strange.
But if.
Cos then guess what?
Black plays here, which ramps up the pressure.
And there is bb5 to try and nudge the knight and win ito.
If e free Knight a free check.
This is very interesting to get a pawn on on for free.
It's very dangerous for wait's king safety.
And for example, here with that loose knight we can play F4 and actually target soon will either make
the queen or if Queen de free, we can play Queen D7 seven looking at B5 and also to try and mate with
this.
And the thing is, if E takes sure that answers Queen H free with Queen sex free.
But we have rook F5 hitting B5 And how does Black actually defends the B5 Knight here?
This is embarrassing if check where's Knight going?
If A4 we just started off using the pins pawn on the file.
Fascinating stuff.
So yes, B5 overall just seemed really interesting.
If rookie one b4 Knight rd one we have b free and this looks kind of positioning crushing if A3 let's
say a free because white doesn't want to allow rook tanks in 92.
Yeah, this is really horrendous stuff.
But yeah, rook tanks and 92 for king, Queen and rook.
But let's say a free this looks terrible for white after 92, and then we can do all sorts of things.
We don't even have to take the rook.
We can just torture white here and just ramp up the pressure, and it's just brilliant.
So we could even just go for the attack.
We don't even need to take on a one.
And so we need to add Bishop C4 here.
For example, we can win lots of material elsewhere and just keep everything stranded for white.
So anyway, so d free.
That helps explain maybe why the king was left in the center.
We have B5 now Bishop e free if one cancels B4 again and then we're going to take on E2 with Shaq.
And this is just great for Black after E takes DD free.
So Bishop e free try b4 91 rookie eight D takes e for F, take C4 and now Bishop takes D4 in stride.
If White Castles Knight takes E to check.
And here Queen de five reinforcing E four for a moment.
And our Bishop g for this is just a very strong position for Bishop free.
And here, for example, we're dominating the position when it's really kind of looking how's back held
in a terrible binds if Knight C free.
Yeah we can even play like this and we don't even have to play bishop.
Take C free.
We can just continue with Rook, take C free.
And then we've just got a massive position here with a great pass pawn there guided by the bishop.
So Bishop takes the fall was tried Queen takes D for a free if White Castle's here Bishop G for rookie
one And actually we have Bishop H six which creates sometimes the possibility of Bishop D2 being useful.
Yeah, this is quite amazing.
If a free queen D2 is also useful 90 free, we can take on EA free and this position is just great.
But what else?
If h free?
We can use Bishop D2 here and in this position Bishop takes e2.
Yeah.
If e free queen d2 this position AC eight and we've got a dominant position after Bishop E2 and then
be free.
What is white doing here?
We're just winning material.
So okay, a free was tried.
The king still in the center.
Bishop G.
For Quincy two.
If one cancels here, we're just going to take on E2.
Thanks very much, Queen DD two.
And this is pretty embarrassing.
Let's say check on me, Queen nine to check King on 93.
We can just play Bishop DD free here.
And we're looking to win sometimes B two, so this is just great for us.
So Queen C two.
Now this is a star move of the game.
What would you play in this position for 100 points?
This is a really cool looking move.
Okay.
Yeah.
KING The sense that we can play queenly, free one a tempo gainer.
So yes, the pain of being a pawn up, but pieces are so bad.
King and center.
So Wayne Wayne's fed up with being pushed around.
Why it has to react.
He takes DD free.
He takes the free check.
KING And now the Kings checked here and brought up the boards.
ROOK The ancient kings see four rook take to check.
KING Thanks b4.
So why is two pawns up but off the rook?
KD two There's big problems.
The knight is pressurized here so that shoot it with their free.
The thing is, if I see free weakness of the last move, we're going to take on B two and here win material
or checkmate soon.
For example, like this, we're going to checkmate soon.
Cute.
So C three is totally out of the question.
So how else to defend?
The night on day one.
And, you know, this is quite vicious.
Rock takes pizza if night moves, among other things.
So everyone's tried.
We have Bishop, I think Jack King, a five.
And then Bishop D seven and this ends the game Y actually resigned here.
Two pawns up.
Yeah.
If F for let's say F for rook D six has the cute idea of rook six Checkmate.
The bishop's holding B four.
If bishop takes B seven to against Rook six.
We should just play rugby ain't.
And if the bishop moves, then B five check.
And we've got a low make pattern.
So yes, Q ends the game if, let's say H four, we can simply pay Bishop C five.
If this is not addressed, we're going to play Rook eight mating.
And yeah, what is what is happening here?
Yeah, the king is just getting mated in various ways, basically.
So yes.
It's pretty vicious if Rook see one to stop.
Bishop c5 Rook dd six again for Rook six.
If Rooks five.
Rook eight is cute.
So here Rook takes the eight.
We can now play.
Rook six.
Checkmate.
So, yes, a very, very cute game.
Positional pawn sacrifice in the English opening symmetrical variation.
So it seems as though there was a tempting downside out of the opening that black C pawn this liberating
D5.
Surely it had a cost, maybe ten.
I was thinking that this C five pawn would be a useful target.
But yeah, Karpov is not afraid to play dynamically here and just sacrifice that pawn and pawn structure
in spectacular style here.
So this is really quite vicious positional pawn sacrifice, creating a huge, impressive initiative
and huge tactics to back that up.
Tempo, gainers, sacrifices, the works.
So it shows the tactical side of Karpov, but making use of a key positional sacrifice to really get
a massive initiative going where Karpov is calling the shots, making the threats.
And Black's white White, rather, is just having to defend all the time throughout this game.
So a really amazing game of Karpov.
I hope you enjoyed this game as much as me as you much.