Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov against Boris Spassky in 1979, the Montreal tournament round
four.
So we see D4 from Karpov nine five, six, C4 E six.
So we have a Queen's Gambit declined here after 93.
D five, nine C Free E seven.
Bishop F four Black castles E three.
C five.
D Take C five.
So why is wanting to saddle black with a nice eight Queen's pawn 96 Quincy two, Queen a five And we
have a free now Bishop Take C five Rook D one Bishop e 792 So this is a very interesting move.
It looks for the moment it weakens d4, but Black really can't tap into that.
Bishop D seven is played.
There is the idea of knight be free if D for hitting the Queen.
So that's not possible.
Bishop D seven is played Bishop e2 Rook fc eight and again D four.
There's just simply might be free.
The Queen would have to move and just take on default with the pawn.
That's simple enough.
That's great for white.
So Rook FC eight We have White Castling, Queen eight and now we have this emergence of an isolated
Queen's pawn.
It's not the end of the world in itself a lot of the time.
And so.
A structural defect.
How does Karpov exploit this?
Well, in general, before we get into the game, let me propose something to you philosophically.
A lot of things are often said about Karpov's games, how he gets rid of counterplay and basically counterplay
is another term we could use for the downsides of our own position.
So if we want to exploit the downsides of the opponent's position, we want to do that without downsides.
In our position, basically without counterplay means without downsides in our position.
So bear that in mind.
We like a free first trying to fix the target, fix this default square.
So the points going back doesn't matter that it's when they're earlier.
We want to seal the D4 square, the blockade square six.
We have 95.
So this is an interesting decision, wanting to exchange off one pair of knights.
And this would loosen blacks control a bit of default.
We have Bishop E six and now note take C six.
So at this moment it looks as though hold on, why not be take six?
Well, then there's another weakness.
Crater the C five squared.
So this is like backward pawns.
Basically, White has blockading ideas potentially against C five.
So anyway, Spassky didn't want that.
He wanted to keep the estate.
Queen's pawn Rook st C six We have Bishop three, Queen B six, and now Bishop E five.
So this seems logical to establish more control over D4 nine E4 Queen E2 and this is tactically justified.
So we have Knight take C free.
Bishop take C free.
So isn't this Bishop slightly loose on C free?
Not particularly.
Rook D eight is played.
If Bishop takes a free we have Bishop take G seven.
This would give a great position.
Yeah.
This attempt to undermine the bishop.
We play.
Bishop takes G seven, not Bishop D four, because then Bishop C five and they've just stolen one of
our pawns basically.
So yes, we play Bishop takes G seven and if this position we've weakened the opponent's king.
So we've got two downsides to play with.
And this should be favorable for white.
After e for this opening up, the position is going to favor white.
There are already ideas here of Queenie five check now and Bishop Taxi six And this is just all favoring
white essentially this kind of position.
So that's really out of the question.
Black doesn't want to weaken his king on top of the queen's pawn.
So Rook they ain't.
We have rook free.
So preparing to just build the pressure on D five.
But is it the end of the world for black?
So even in Anakin's gun construction, is this the end of the world for the isolated Queen's pawn?
Queen B five, Queen RD one, B six.
So at the moment Black has adequate defense of D five.
We have G three.
Now, this is where the notion of downsides of the opponent's possession without downsides is important.
Maybe a lesser player would sometimes completely blow this position just with the excitement of the
D five structural weakness.
Oh dear, the d five structural weakness at the end of the game.
Not quite, because how do we actually tread around this to try and win it without actually compromising
our own position?
If we play a move like E4, guess what Black has here?
Yeah, Black would actually play Bishop G5, so we can't actually play like this.
If we don't want to lose the exchange or lose both routes, if it was a faster time control, if it
was a bit of a reckless move, that's that's not a good idea.
And even if, by the way, there wasn't Bishop G5, even in the case of details.
E four So what adequately defends here because freeze hanging at the end of this and what is what is
the problem here for Black's position?
There's no problem.
So g three is played.
We have bishop F eight.
So the bishop at least is not threatening Bishop G five sometimes.
So.
Bishop G two So this is some patience here, Bishop.
E seven Bishops, Black Queen H five.
Okay.
The Queen company is unprotected.
It's now unprotected.
H three So what is White's plan?
Here we have King h2a5f4.
So it looks as though hold on, F five might be interesting.
And with the Queen on H five, there's no G six eggs of Queen size eight six.
Right.
So F six is played.
We have the Queen going back.
So the Queen Gunn Construction, the queen at the base of the two rooks.
So that's names of the Alexander and very cute but is it winning?
We have Queen Bee five.
So Queen Bee five and now move G four.
Now here, Spassky seems to go really wrong.
Why is weakening a bit the dark squares.
The king is on a potentially dangerous diagonal.
There is an inherent downside here of the King being slightly exposed on dark squares.
But g five makes things significantly worse.
This wasn't needed.
Strictly needed.
If Bishop f seven let's let's imagine Bishop Bishop F seven.
How would we approach this?
This isn't that easy, actually.
How on earth would we approach this isolated Queen's pawn situation?
We seem to have an ideal configuration, right?
But the thing is, if we play a move like E4, then the bishop points are F4 again.
Yeah.
This bishop on this side of the board is not really influencing these dart squares.
And our king lives over here.
So this is not really helping our king in many variations.
If E5 here, then so what big So what?
Black can either play Bishop C5 to tactically hold D5.
We can't take on D5 because of Bishop G one check.
So.
So what?
Or even without being any flashiness, the bishop could have just gone to B.A. and there's a big.
So what?
Here, our pressure's gone without the E4 having any effect.
Black lives another day.
It's just an even position.
So this is fascinating that G5 makes things significantly worse.
So yes, On Bishop F seven, was there a way to to to auto win this?
It's very, very difficult if we try to move like King H one.
Let's get the king off here to try and take the downsides of position out.
So strengthening move, right.
But this is with a more solid structure than the game pawn that has not left G seven.
So what happens here?
Let's say a four is E four actually winning by force?
This is a big question here.
If the pawns had remained intact on the kingside, if Spassky hadn't gone crazy with G5, is this position
fatal or not?
What about Bishop DD six?
Just looking at F4 again, there is there is something inherent about this position when the bishop
will see free and the dark squares over here that this can be picked on.
If White now plays F5, guess what black has and our dream of this this game being simple as ruined
F4.
It's just backfired.
It was just backfired against us.
If we move the rook, they're going to play D takes E four and hit things.
If we play Rook takes D five.
We don't really want to do an exchange sack.
This is just pointless.
So, yeah, it is actually a fascinating position.
And if we don't play E four, if we play F five, let's say rookie eight, really asking for E four
here because there's like 3 to 1.
No.
Guess what?
This is an easy either.
Bishop C five.
And if it takes we really creating new downsides of opposition.
This bishop is not really helping.
It struggles to help e one here with a move like D six does rookie one check.
So we'd have to play Rook C two on the defensive.
We've won a pawn, but look at Black's position.
So Rook C two would defend E one.
You know, chess is not easy.
So King H seven Bishop a free rook.
E four.
And this is just an even position.
Black has enough compensation here.
So it's absolutely fascinating.
This game may seem very instructive, but really this is a key, key mistake which does compromise Black's
position.
To the point of that we can actually exploit things without being exploited ourselves after this.
So after this move, severe weakening move now, King H.
One is a great strengthening move and things are very different.
Black is without that ability to have that counterplay, to have that counter on our our downsides of
the position.
So here though, yeah, I mean it was a careful move if White had played F5.
So Carnforth must have looked at this.
The thing is here Bishop F seven, E four.
Even in this configuration ridiculously with G five, there's Bishop D six check and then this position.
What are we playing here?
E text There's Bishop F four and all of a sudden D five is picked up.
Now, now that the rooks are interrupted, it's not so, so easy again.
So Karpov is careful with King H one.
Even against this compromise structure.
Queen C six is played.
If G takes F four, E takes F for this position.
Bishop d4 Rooks.
The eight white should be with an advantage with ag5 break.
Yeah.
The king can actually be attacked here potentially.
So this position getting ready to use the G file is going to be quite significant for white.
So here we're trying to lure the queen away from C eight.
That's with check.
So the queen has to stick around or B five and White's getting a big attack with Queen E five.
So.
Okay, so that that wouldn't be a good idea.
So Queen C six is played and now five, Bishop F seven and now it looks so easy.
This button E four button looks so easy.
But Karpov's prepared it well with that King H one.
It seems as though black's not in a position to go into F4 or something or disrupt the rooks.
This is without interruption.
The alekhine's gone without interruption.
It just seems completely non controversial now that this has been played.
So no counterplay means no downsides for our position.
So King G seven if default, this is pointless.
We're just going to take this pawn and there's nothing after four black bishops c five, we're going
to play e text E5, we're going to stomp down on this E file.
There's no fun on the E-File Rookie, too.
Big advantage.
So King G seven, E takes the five, Quincy seven, Rook E two.
And now, in fact, the tactics favor white here.
Can you guess what Karpov plays in this position?
So tactics flow from superior positions, as Bobby Fischer has said.
So what would you play here for?
Ten points.
Yeah, we can actually play rook tanks e seven here, so we get this nice fork.
Now, this is a disaster for black Queen D seven.
Guess what we play here?
Yeah, we can play D tanks E seven.
And the point is on Queen 63.
What would be the point?
Yeah, we just clean our -- and we protect our queen here.
So that's actually defending D one winning.
So that's out of the question.
Queen C for was trying, but this is also a disaster.
It's trying to maintain that D free kind of pin.
But this is sidestepped by be free.
And here Boris Spassky resigns.
So if Queen C five just takes E seven.
Thanks very much.
And we're a piece up, so an interesting game.
It really highlights actually behind the scenes.
We see that on a different day.
The implementation might not have been so clever for why, even though it looked beautiful like Alekhine's
gone.
This isn't a fairy tale game.
It's a fairy tale game, instructive game.
Only when Black actually makes the possession significantly worse.
And White is also extremely cautious here to not rush in with F5.
So this is a very instructive moment for me that actually the reality, the harsh reality, we've got
to be extremely careful about our implementations.
We shouldn't be overexcited by an isolated Queen's pawn if we don't factor in the downsides of our own
possession and just think we're just we shouldn't be like thinking it's going to be easy.
But this approach by Karpov shuts down all potential counterplay, i.e. all potential downsides of our
plan.
He's shutting it down before going in for this E4 kind of button press E4 and it works very, very well
here.
So yes, be a bit cautious playing against isolated Queen's pawns.
Okay, That's the big lesson for this game.
But the way it's been played, yes, this is beautifully shut down counterplay with some help from the
opponents on this occasion with that move G5 earlier OCK has so much.