Hi there.
In this lecture, we see David Janowski against Capablanca in 1916, the Rice Memorial tournament around
free.
We have D4 from Janowski.
Capablanca plays nine 690 3d5c4c6 so the Slav defense nine C free.
And then we see Bishop F five.
Here, if Bishop G for one has 95 and this position, yeah, that tempo gain from white can be useful.
This position has e four so it's quite dangerous for black to allow this.
For example here Queen B free 9c6 queen takes F seven Check is a total disaster.
Yeah, it can be very, very dangerous to play Bishop G four in a nutshell.
So Bishop F five is played.
We have Queen B free, and here Capablanca actually plays Queen B six.
So you might think this isn't a positional move.
Surely the positional player aims to cause structural damage in the opponent's position here double
pawns are being offered.
Furthermore, it's not even that it's even worse than double pawns.
They're isolated.
So Queen takes B six, which is actually technically a mistake, but it seems very lucrative.
But C five might actually be better and allow it should allow double pawns because there's a dynamic
on the file which fully compensates the structural issue.
Yeah, chess is about trade offs.
And here, for example, why it's going to have a small edge.
We're very clear cut plans of B4 b five later and also another positional plan of the knight potentially
coming to a five.
There's a lot of plans in this position which London system players are aware of.
This is often very, very good to get the compensation here, but in this case Queen size B six is played
and it looks even more lucrative after C takes.
It looks as though the weaknesses are being amplified because now these double pawns are isolated.
There's no pawns adjacent to them which can defend, say, B six.
But Capablanca has a great idea here of the 1986 Bishop D two, which defends against Knight before
we have an amazing concept to repair the structural damage.
So yes, this is really quite deep.
This move is Bishop DD seven and we see that this bishop later can support a, B five and 90 C four
plan to try and encourage this pawn being swapped.
What moved to the C file?
So we see this in action.
Bishop E to.
We have E Sex White Castles, Bishop RD, Sex Rock 51 King E seven King stays in the sense of Bishop
C free.
So yes, the positional player with the double pawns.
But the plan to un double with rook fc eight Rook eight rather a free and now 95.
So the threat here concretely is immediately knight be free to fork the rooks.
So we have Knight rd two and now five locks against ee4.
So that's prophylaxis against E four, G four and here it comes now B five.
So black is on the way to installing a knight on C four.
Now you might wonder what about Bishop takes a five.
Well, here black can play rook take C one check Rook take one.
Rook takes a five.
And if we look at the resulting position here, there's not much for Black's fear because B four is
happening anyway to resolve the double pawns.
So this would be fine.
Structurally black would have the bishop here as the small positional advantage.
And if 95 black can even consider bishop take C five because here after the rook takes he five rook
a two, and here the king can go to D six and black might have a small edge here.
So that was a way of playing it for white, but it is giving black a small edge and free is played.
We have 9c4 and in fact, Black's really increasing positional advantages here in two ways.
Getting the bishop pair off to Bishop take C four.
So we have a bishop without counterpart and we're doubling the pawns.
So all of a sudden what a transformation.
This looks like a super solid position that a positional player would really respect their own pawn
structure.
So we have E four and now King F seven.
So not trying to let this bishop escape its prisoner behind its own pawn.
Okay.
And G5 was also interesting here.
If E-5, the bishop would go back.
And here, for example, G takes her four, G takes her four rook G back.
And Bishop f4 Black has a small edge there, but King F seven is played.
We have E5.
This is actually a positional mistake because it means that the structure is more undefinable later
as we're going to see with G five.
So Bishop E seven the intention is f four, but there's an undermine operation available with G five
to try and shake this structure.
So yes, E five was a mistake it seems, with this follow up idea.
So now we have B five, so it's like play on potentially on both sides of the board.
King F2 rook f4 king E free rook C eight.
So there's a fret now of B for we have rook ab1h6.
Yeah.
I mean that threat is is just to see the tactical implication here of B four.
What does White do?
White's losing material.
Yeah.
Because Brook takes say one so the rooks are doubling with great purpose there so rook AB 1h6 so this
undermining operation is possible now we see Knight and 3g5 91 Rook G eight So we have King F3, G takes
our four, G takes our form and the rock on the A file comes back 9g2 Rook G four We have rook G one
Rook ag8.
Bishop E one.
And now Be4 is played.
So, yes, this is really interesting.
It opens up the Lions Square bishop to come into the position.
Yeah, it's making great use of that.
Bishop of that counterpart, Bishop II was possible as well.
There's another way of playing this.
For example, like this, the bishop can come to this side of the board as well with a huge advantage.
This would be crushing.
So that's actually this is in a way, it's more accurate than the games continuations.
Go for the king here.
Just winning material.
Absolutely winning there.
That's really, really dangerous.
And you might wonder, well, what about king of two here then?
B4 here with H5.
This is also great for black in its own way.
So for example, like this black can make progress soon.
For example, we've rook be free rooks doubling on the B file and the rooks can make inroads potentially.
So for example, like this, this is just another illustration where black's going to be better past
pawn is being created there.
So okay.
Before though, this seems super lucrative in its own right to get the bishop into the position of white,
we have eight takes before bishop a four.
So potentially coming into the position now we have rook one.
Bishop see to Bishop Jeffrey.
And this actually makes things a lot worse.
It's actually a relatively big mistake if rook a seven bishop e for take this way of playing things.
White does have a resource here with Bishop H four and it actually leads to an even position.
Believe it or not, this this will be even after all that.
Yeah.
So actually it does seem Rook seven had to be tried here to pin the bishop and for this bishop to make
use of h four sometimes.
But with Bishop G.
Frayne we have Bishop e48 now K to H five rook a seven.
This is too late.
This is far too late now.
The Bishop H four is not going to be available.
We have Bishop takes G two, Rook takes G two, and now H four.
Bishop takes H four now.
But with big penalty, Rook takes G to check king of free and now Rook takes H two White doesn't have
enough compensation here, so Bishop takes E seven.
If rook takes e seven, check King of eight This position rook gh8.
Black's going to get a big advantage here.
Like this, for example.
Yeah.
What is black doing here?
What is white doing here?
Black's going to be meeting with Rook hedge free.
So what is white doing here?
Rather so anyway, Bishop takes e seven was played rook free Check King Have two Rook be free Bishop
G five Check this cover check.
Okay, so there isn't enough here.
King G six rookie seven Rook takes B to check king free and now Rook eight So threatening to make the
king soon we have rook takes e six check King H seven.
And here White resigned.
Now, there was a last trick here.
If the king went to H five, there's real H six.
Checkmate.
So the positional player does need to be aware tactically what's going on.
And here in the final possession if white plays rookie seven, check King G six.
Uh, and white carries on here.
Just King G seven.
Check.
King eight, seven.
Yeah.
And then off the check here.
Rook G two will threaten Rook G for checkmate as an example.
Well, mating, rather mating soon.
So rookie's seven.
Shaq king takes.
This is just hopeless for white.
White's running out of checks essentially and will be mated.
So, yeah, if we look at this final position, it is pretty hopeless.
A check on E seven.
We're just going to play King F eight and then we're looking forward to Champ mating the opponent's
king.
So yes, a crushing game positionally.
And it seems very paradoxical in one sense when you first look at this game and this is a very highly
celebrated positional masterpiece, it seems paradoxical that a positional player would allow such apparent
damage to their pawn structure.
But if there's a plan on top of this to repair the damage with interest and there was, then it justifies
it.
So, yes, there's great queenside play here from black to repair the structure.
So this position white perhaps should have bailed out here with a simple bishop takes a five not allowing
this position because two positional advantages now creep in the repairing of the structure and the
bishop.
And we see that this light squared bishop can be devastating later.
In particular, it's without a counterpart.
So great positional play after incurring structural damage, volunteering structural damage in one's
own position, who would have fought the positional player?
A position player like Capablanca would do this.
But yeah, it makes the game even more beautiful.
This kind of paradox okay for how to handle structure and how double pawns aren't necessarily bad.
You've got to think, are they exploitable and are they repairable?
Are they transformable?
We're going to think about weaknesses in dynamic ways as a positional player, not just that double
pawns are just bad and you can't ever have them.
Okay.
And so much.