Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov playing against the answer Yusupov.
In 1988, the 55th US championship round nine.
So C four from Karpov e69c3d5.
So it transposes from an English opening into a Queen's Gambit declined.
So we have 93 here from Karpov, nine of six from Yusupov.
C takes D five.
So the exchange variation.
Bishop G five.
C six.
Queen C two.
And now G six.
So this does support Bishop F five and Karpov actually played E four here, if you please.
E Free blacks should have an even possession of the Bishop of five.
Let's say Bishop D three and the bishops get exchanged off.
This should be even.
But Karpov plays E four and we have now nine takes E four, which is a bit of a surprise surprise move.
Maybe a prepared novelty.
D takes E four looks more standard and in fact seems to be the best way for black to go here.
For example, Bishop C for Bishop F five, Queen takes E seven check.
Black does have the bishop here.
It is about even when it has a nice queen's pawn as well.
This is really what black should have played, but black plays.
Knight takes E four, which is a novelty move and we have Karpov now playing Bishop STS E seven and
here King takes E seven is basically forced if Queen size E seven.
Can you see what white plays for?
Ten points.
You know, 1965 doesn't matter about this COVID checks.
We're taking the queen.
And if she takes we're playing Queen st Saint-jacques.
So, yes, this is very unpleasant, to say the least.
So so the king takes we have nine, takes e4d takes E for Queen takes e four.
Check Bishop e six.
If King if eight, bishops e four.
And this should be about even perhaps black should have considered that.
But Bishop e six bishops C four and now black starts to go really badly wrong Queen a five check.
So this is an inaccuracy.
Rook eight would have been better.
So, for example, Bishop takes e six, there's CF eight.
And one of the key points here, the Queen's holding the H four square.
So, for example, if White Castle's rook takes e six, this is about even and if Queen H four, then
no problem.
The Queen's are going to come off and that's that's going to be great here.
But in the game of Queen a five check, black is creating a kind of weakness of the last move not controlling
H four and Karpov just plays king F one.
This is a very different scenario and a difficult story indeed.
Statistically, if we look, there's pawns on nine squares, there's a like square bishop and there's
no dark square bishop.
So the dark squares are kind of vulnerable in Black's camp.
Bear that in mind, positionally, because we might want to amplify the dark square weaknesses.
And yes, we haven't got dark square Bishop but the Queen can sometimes act as a dance queen.
Bishop Black plays queen at five if Rook eight.
Here, look at the difference of variations.
Bishop takes e six If King for White has Queen H for hare without penalty because that black queen is
not looking at H four, we're looking at age seven.
So here we can actually play.
In fact, Knight G five is is good even stronger than taking on h7g5 and here for example, nine, 687
check 956 check.
Why it's really doing well here.
This position is very dangerous for black and after h five here it's it's actually a winning advantage.
So Queen five was tried and then we have Queen E free.
And now 97.
Yeah.
I didn't really have much of a choice here.
If Queen takes five, that actually, um, pinned the bishop and black and insert bishop, take C for
check and be winning.
So, Queenie.
Frank.
So keeping the bishop pinned on E 697 rook e 188 So here is a critical moment.
Black statistically has dark square weaknesses, but we don't have a dark square.
Bishop Can we really amplify these weaknesses in Black's camp?
So for 500 points, what is a move that you would play here?
So it's it's a great move.
It's another iconic hop off move.
Okay.
The movie is defined.
It opens up the dark squares for white.
So the dark squares in Black's position are really open up if Bishop takes instead.
F takes H four.
This is plausible to play like this as well.
Actually, White's position is pretty good here as well.
This is another way of playing things.
Why?
It should have an edge here.
You know, as long as one doesn't go crazy with something like quinine, free check and taking and taking
too many liberties, this this position is okay.
But if if Queen takes a seven, then queen bee five shouting, the queen could get trapped.
That would be silly.
But yeah, white can play it much more sensibly with H four here and still have a commanding position
of free.
But anyway, D five is really interesting move.
We have C takes D five, bishop B five and now a six.
So this is a very interesting position.
This weakens even more statistically, it weakens even more dark squares in Black's camp.
Queen C two is an interesting try 94 for taking on B two Queen G five check king for nine takes.
E six is winning material and Black doesn't have enough compensation here.
It seems as though White should be better here with the bishop against lots of pawns, but white should
be better.
So a six was played though.
We have queen a free check, King D eight.
If king of six, we see an amazing situation tactically crowning White's positional dance square strategy
for the positional pawn sacrifice.
Can you see what that is?
What is why at play here?
Might simply amplifies the dark squares even more.
Sometimes trading off a light square bishop for a night will do that.
So that takes away e five control.
And this is fatal for black after Queen C free check.
Black is cool here.
Would have to give up a rook and it's just a total disaster.
More material or mater will follow.
So King D eight we have Queen A five check King E seven.
If B six won't can simply just take on a six hair.
This position D four is strong in hair queen.
Fall That's a strong position for white.
So King is seven queen before checking off six
so.
Here if King 894 is good here, any move other than Queen F six if well, if going to the fifth rank,
there's no takes E six check and we're going to be winning the queen.
Unless the queen wants to give herself up.
We're just winning the queen like that.
So, yeah, very dangerous scenarios.
And if Queen F six her, this position is comfortable for whites, for example, here taking out B seven.
Black's structure is damaged.
So King F thinks we have Queen D for King E seven.
So the queen has taken some time to get to D four.
So that's a really interesting situation.
Those checks just to get to D four if we look.
So this is a move 22 with Bishop D free.
So the Queen is on D four.
If we were going to see where we came from, we came from a position here where the Queen was on e free.
Yeah.
So these checks ending up just putting the queen on D four, but the queen is nice and central.
So Bishop D three we have Queen H five.
If Queen F thinks her queen be full check and disposition Queen takes B seven.
There is a little trick here for black, which needs to be factored in.
Funny enough.
Can you see what that is for?
Ten points?
What's Black's little tactical trick?
Yeah.
Queen sakes are free so that if G tanks gets mated, Bishop is free.
Check.
Rook takes E one and one gets mated.
However, why?
It doesn't play ball.
There won't place queen a check.
And then here Queen takes eight and this is better for white.
So anyway, Queen H five was played.
Queen of six was objectively maybe slightly better than Queen H five.
This is very bad for the Queen's position.
Now we have H four which sets up support for G five.
So setting up support on the dark squares which are weakened around Black's position generally we have
King d89, G five.
Look, I ain't.
So here we have Bishop E2 harassing the Queen Queen aged six and now Bishop offering.
So Rook e seven and now Queen Bee four.
So this stops the king for moving kings.
Holding that rook.
We have knights f six And here Queen RD six checks.
So bouncing around blacks position, Queen F four.
So this sets up lots of ideas like night takes and Queen tanks or Queen tanks and Black's only move,
basically.
Knight G eight.
So just to show B five, Knight takes E six check and taking on H six or Queen G seven.
There's actually here another tactical idea can you see for ten points.
Yeah.
Rook takes six would be crushing for the family fork.
So.
Okay.
We have had one of the only moves in G eight stay on the board for a bit longer.
But now Karpov really amplifies the pressure.
Bishop G.
For we have King C eight.
If Bishop takes G for Queen Bey is checkmate.
So King C eight, Bishop takes e6f tanks and now Rook C one checks.
This forcibly wins material so one can either play queen takes a fight or like in the game, Knight
takes e six check and just win the exchange.
So after this it's basically a one possession and play continues.
Rook H free 90 7h5 can do seven comp sets up the form pawn or in the form pawn is good in end games
check here and now we have King E six.
Otherwise there's an almighty pin with rook f seven of King G five.
So we have King six rookie one check King six Rook have six King c7g4 96 rook e8d4.
And the position's pretty hopeless here.
Black actually resigned.
There is an easy winning method for white against this seemingly quite scary pawn.
We've got to be careful about past pawns here.
One of the key moves would be Rook G eight.
So our form pawn supports rook g seven.
So say D free we can play rook g seven and not fair d2 at all because anytime D2 happens, there's a
weakness of the last move.
The pawn is actually allowed.
King E two We just take on D seven first check, then King E two, and that's it for black.
Another way of playing it.
We can first head the king towards D one, but still a key mechanism here is Rook G eight.
That's just a beautiful mechanism to simplify, which is worth knowing with the form pawn.
In fact, in my view, formulas are pretty useful.
Endgames, those form pawns, those hooks are very, very useful.
And Black's had it there.
So yes, the end of the game after default.
So one of the key aspects of this game is the notion of the positional sacrifice.
It's almost as if we can look statistically at Black's position at the moment.
The positional pawn sacrifice was played and see around and say, Black hasn't got the dart square bishop,
so it's something we can amplify What they haven't got.
What they have got statistically is kind of relative weaknesses for dark squares.
When the adjacent light squares, they're not supporting the dark squares and the positional pawn sacrifice
with the king and center is really instructive on my view.
So a very iconic move, this positional pawn sacrifice playing for the position.
It shows the great difficulties black head in wriggling out here.
So yeah, a really fantastic game from Karpov kind of strategy and tactics blended together.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as me and so much.