Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Jim Plaskett against Michael Adams.
So this is in 1989, the Plymouth British Championship.
So Jim or James Plaskett is a good friend of mine.
I consider him a good friend.
He plays with the Kings Crusher team on Lee Chess regularly, so we enjoying the Kings Crusher team.
You can play alongside him and Keef uncle to British grandmasters quite often.
So nights free anyway.
From James Plaskett.
We have six from Adams RD, four E, six G free.
So we have B six now.
Bishop G two.
Bishop B seven White councils.
C five, c4c takes RD four Queen takes the four bishop e seven black set up in here is a hedgehog.
So the idea of the hedgehog can actually be quite dangerous if black breaks out later from the kind
of prickly skeleton of the pawn structure which resembles a hog.
So a six hare we have E four knight BD seven Queen E free, Queen c7b Free Black Castles, Bishop B
two Rook AC 894.
We have Rook for eight AC one Bishop f8h Free Queen B I's.
So yes, Black's Black's position is very, very solid here.
And what looks to have a strong C bind on D five square.
And if you consider that the breaks on the position would be B five and D five, but maybe later if
the knight's not on f6 later F five.
So those free breaks to bear in mind we see rookie 1g6, rook cd1 and then Bishop G seven.
So Adams hasn't really been doing much, but he's provoking weaknesses now by not doing much.
And this is a skill in itself because if you can provoke irreversible pawn moves so we have four things
can go wrong quite often for the player that's grabbing space, but these are irreversible pawn moves
instead of four knight C two not doing much, not creating weaknesses.
At least this way of playing it looks kind of steady and logical against D six.
If black players move like D five white can actually consider here e five and this kind of situation
is going to be in White's favor.
So yeah, White actually plays as though for an attack with F4 and now E five, F takes nine, takes
E five.
So it looks like like a theoretical weakness on D six has been created.
So why is this?
Well, it's isolated.
This pawn, there's e-file counterplay, potentially.
If DX takes E five of the place nine C to be five this situation.
Is interesting as well.
Black could actually be slightly better hair.
It looks very interesting.
After King h2h5 blacks got a small edge, but note takes E five was played.
We have rook f one and now the curious waiting move bishops C six well, also offering the bishop on
a plate, but it looks as though the intent is B five as well.
Now it creates further weaknesses here with a four pawns.
Don't go backwards.
B4 is being weakened now even more.
Just bear that in mind if nine take six, Rook take six.
This position Rook eight.
Let's take this as an example.
Rookie six Bishop If eight Yeah, this position one should actually end up being slightly better.
There is ad6 to probe here, so maybe that is a viable option in 1966.
But we see a form and now the bishop drops back.
So kind of job done, Rook two and now 57.
This is a really nifty maneuver to get to see five Rook df1 95.
And here Black's position is really, really solid.
D six isn't really an exploitable weakness, but it's looked at kind of with this move through x ray
at D six, but it's not that exploitable.
And in fact, this is a big mistake.
Why it should have played bishop a one.
So for example, Rook C seven wrote d one black could try awaiting move and let's say rook D seven So
this protects D six.
There's a point here in this position.
If you had this position, what would you play with Black?
It's interesting.
We've got the rook, X-raying the Queen, and it looks as though all our strategic breaks are impossible,
right?
In fact, we can start off here with B five, because if eight size eight X and let's say here Knight
C takes B5, then there's a weakness of the last move, which means actually in relation to this pawn
break F five is interesting for black.
There's a lot of pressure being put on E for here.
So as example E takes, there's nine G for winning the exchange.
With 93 point F seven.
There's a lot of pressure on E for here.
And actually here there's an option of playing night takes be for as well as example and yeah if D takes
B five there's nothing takes be free.
So yeah there's there's an interesting opportunity in theory for playing for B five believe it or not
that's where bishop a one and that would be a solid, relatively solid move.
This move suffers tactically D one.
Can you see why?
It's rather amazing, actually.
So what does Adams play here?
A magnificent move which kind of destroys the white position, basically.
Great tactical positional move.
It's like takes be free.
So it's completely taking out the protection of the pieces.
964.
And now we can see that the night in the night is full king, queen and bishop.
And the thing is, if the queen moved to say E two, we will take on B two to take on C free.
So Queen Frey has tried and we have night takes B two.
So we're going to take on C free of rook takes B to Queen takes F seven check is played.
And this is pretty harmless, actually.
So rock takes B two and now, yeah, Black could just take on C free here with advantage.
So this possession is looking at B four and G free.
Look at this.
Rook takes G free or even bishop.
Take C free.
This is an advantage for black.
But rook C seven was played queen of two and now rook takes C free.
And yeah, White's position is a bit of a wreck here.
Let's count pawns.
Four pawns against five pawns.
But black has these magnificent bishops and that isolated pawn in the center.
So much for the proxy binds.
It's like being torn through.
And Black's pieces are absolutely active Here.
Look at the rooks.
So, Rook fight, Queen one trying to hold on to G free Bishop D for check.
And this gives a common square now to play with rookie free with tempo hitting the bishop hitting rather
the rook with the bishop as well as the queen.
We have now Queen G one trying to at least get the bishop or rather the rook.
If bishop takes queen tanks e free.
But here there's a crushing tactical blow played in this position.
Crushing blow?
What is that, do you think?
For ten points.
Yeah.
Root de fray.
Ouch.
So hitting the queen, hitting the rook.
There's no queen EF one because the rook takes F one.
It's.
It's brutal.
I mean, Bishop takes B to queen takes.
Isn't so bad for white.
White can live on that for another day.
But yeah, this is just winning material route D free.
So now Queen one bishop takes be2.
Yeah.
Rook up.
White resigns here.
This made a big impression on me.
This game, this hedgehog game for weakness, provocation at the time.
It does seem as though, you know, sometimes just waiting, doing nothing really well, as I am, Ali
Mortazavi would say, if you do nothing really well and the opponent can sometimes just self destruct,
you can wait for the opponent to self destruct through pawn moves which look lucrative at the time,
but they can cause regret.
Yeah, these poor moves are a bit like yes, something you'd regret later because they're irreversible
decisions of the chess board.
But it was absolutely amazing how Adams is playing this game, this waiting game, creating these weaknesses,
provoking literally a42 week and be free here.
And then the bishop just retract so you know job done And just by moving them like 2c5 we start to see
how White's position can crumble.
This is essentially, you know, tactical undermining of a pawn chain here.
This pawn chain here, this part of the pawn chain is in fact, if we looked at white structure, it's
the only part of the pawn chains undermine basically to undermine this structure over here.
We can't really undermine the structure over there.
There's not really much of a structure to undermine by getting a knight.
C five seems absolutely logical for this tactical undermining.
So destroying C four means that this knight folks very juicy.
Yeah.
And if Queen E too, you know, we're just taking on B two and then taking on C fritz.
It's brutal stuff.
This undermines, it leads to the pieces being exposed.
So Ock F seven was taken by.
It's just such a gigantic position here now for black Yeah.
So a really, a really intriguing game.
I thought this was one of the more mysterious games of Michael Adams.
Absolutely mysterious game.
How he just demolished Plaskett from St Paul moves.
But yeah, sometimes if we do nothing, well, we're provoking weaknesses in the opponent's camp.
If we look structurally, what are the pawn chains to undermine?
Maybe that can kind of influence our night moves.
So go for a tactical undermine.
There's a lot of lessons in my view from this one game.
It's a remarkable demonstration of the power of the hedgehog as well.
Okay.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks so much.