Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Michael Adams against International Master Richard Palace in 2011, British
championship, round 9e4 from Adams.
We have Palliser playing assassin in Defence, Knight f3d6d For now, it may seem this is a tactical
opening and it's not going to be a positional game, but it's the choices being made continually which
make it positional here.
Bishop e two This is also a favourite move.
Anatoly Karpov So this is not going to be one of those games of opposite side castling.
We have E five might be free, you might think, Well, the knight's not particularly well placed on
be free.
That's true for the moment.
It doesn't block the f pawn though, and there are possibilities for the knight coming back later into
the game or even coming to the kingside.
So it's not completely terrible on B Freydis now.
Bishop e seven both sides.
Castle Rookie one And here of the Bishop E six we do actually see a perk of the knight not using the
free square of the knight and only use the free square.
We wouldn't be able to play bishop free.
So we're looking against DFI, we're trying to stop one of the opponent's key strategic pawn breaks,
which would liberate their pieces, improve their pieces, were preventing the opponent actually improving
their pieces.
Through this set up we have Queen C seven and you might think, what about the energetic B five instead
of Queen C seven?
Well, here we can play a four and already we can use the D five score of 95.
So this position we can reinforce DFI with C four and let's say black tanks and we take we're actually
slightly better here.
Overall in this position.
There's a target on a five.
We can look into the queenside, peer into the queenside with Bishop E free later.
So okay Queen C seven we have a four preventing B five.
Roxy 8h3.
This is okay.
It's not a particularly weakening move because black's not in a position, especially with this locked
in Bishop on e seven behind that D six pawn.
Black's not in a position to exploit these weaknesses.
On this occasion he seems quite sensible and stopping using the g four square like bd seven Bishop e3h6
and now we have the knight.
Improving itself is one of those pieces we can improve.
It hasn't got much scope on B three, so D two So there are a couple of ideas.
One is preventative for black using the C four square and another potentially knight can come to G free.
We have Queen C six if B six as an example, Knight F one and then 2g3 is an even possession about even.
But White maintains a positional bind here, even though it's even what has a bit of a bind and let's
say B five eight tanks Bishop C4 yeah it's about even if black plays like this and if Bishop de eight
again, it's going to be about even like this point has a little bit of a bind going on restriction
of the opponent's counterplay with the bind.
So anyway, Queen c6a5.
So that does seem to grip the dark squares.
We have bb5 and now, yeah, this incurs structural damage to play this eight.
So there is an isolated pawn to target as well as the D six pawn we have.
Knight takes B six and our parking right in front of the bankruptcy rook five point C for that rook
is not moving from knight take C4.
So the use of that knight, at least it's exchanged off one of black's better pieces once black's more
active knight.
So taking the sting out of black's position a bit and now Queen a one.
This seems really solid play against structural targets and potentially D six can also be a target from
a free.
Believe it or not, this seems very, very positional given it's a Sicilian defense we have Bishop de
and that abandons d6a little bit.
We have rook a4a5.
Bishop b five is interesting for this position should be about even but black plays a five.
We have rook d one starting to look at the weaknesses and you might think, well this is really token
looking at these weaknesses.
Isn't that why would we want to look at these weaknesses?
We're not going to win them because they're adequately protected.
That's true.
But sometimes there's a possibility of a positional exchange sacrifice where you might want to sacrifice
a rook for a bishop and get take out with the pawns with long term compensation.
So let's see what happens.
There's something quite vivid that happens here.
Rook aviate queen, a free so already.
With contacts with D six already there's a massive concession error from black A mistake Bishop B five
and the follow up is also very much a mistake.
So this pressure being felt on the structure seems to provoke a collapse of Richard.
So literally it provokes collapse in this position here if Bishop.
E seven route takes a five, the a five form will drop off.
If bishops c seven wrote to Bishop 861.
It has a small edge here, but it's not the end of the world yet.
Bishop e six.
Bishop e two This is should be an even position.
If black uses that be fold counterplay if we play Queen 66 Queen thanks be to Black's counterplay looks
a bit scary.
Rook b one There is actually 98 here to save the day for black.
Otherwise that's just losing an exchange on B eight.
If black takes rook takes B eight.
Losing an exchange.
But the thing is, there's 98 here.
And if queen takes be a queen to be a rook, to be a rook, to be a this is even so, there was a way
of black playing it, it seems, with Bishop Essex, which isn't entirely terrible, but black goes
wrong, badly wrong with Bishop B five, D six is taken and now Bishop takes A for a queen sack for
not too much for two pieces.
A queen sack for two pieces, basically.
You know the.
The two Rooks.
The two rooks, but it's in context of the pawn.
So it looks on paper.
Two Rooks.
Five plus five.
Ten Queen's usually worth nine on paper.
It's a good idea, but if Queen Bee seven instead, this might actually be an improvement.
Rook takes DA would be a key exchange sacrifice to win two pawns for the exchange.
So this will be a funny position where let's say Bishop C six, so attacking B two but be free.
Y is slightly better here, but this is really radical giving up to Rook.
So Bishop takes a four rook take C six, Bishop take C six.
So why is it radical here?
It's only a pawn for white rhinos.
Well, let's look.
Bishop C5.
The bishop is using squares in the absence of that DD six.
And look at the dark squares.
Look at the E five pawn.
And this full capability of B eight with E five.
So if I was kind of indirectly under pressure we have Bishop C seven trying to show that.
But now Bishop E seven So Fritz thinks structural damage.
We have 97, but now this goes into some painful tactical issues.
Bishop G4 pending in the ninth.
We have Bishop be saying if King H 895 is interesting.
So for example here might take C seven rook takes Bishop DD six and one's getting more material.
So yes, at the moment token you blacks on paper got enough material for the Queen.
But Bishop de six now and things are getting a bit awkward to say the least.
So if it's going to be two pawns being lost, that's unfortunate.
And it is two pawns after Bishop takes e five because of that pin.
Yeah.
And it could be one anyway.
Okay, If one wants to play, Bishop takes 37, Bishop takes 85.
But here.
Yeah, just Bishop takes E five.
Here is two pawns.
Now, for the two rooks, we have Bishop C five.
So just to put it on the board, nine times E five.
Bishop C there's no backfire here.
So Bishop C five, Queen A two.
We have rookie eight, so two pawns and a queen against two rooks.
Bishop G free.
And now we have 95.
Yeah.
This starts to look like a very tricky position indeed.
There are potential vulnerabilities.
So if Rook, a seven queen C4 is a big France and then Bishop H five looking at seven and blacks overstretched,
blacks can lose even more material.
So how is f seven shouldered?
We've got resources here for the night moves.
We can take on F seven and then win another pawn free pawns.
And you might be wondering, what about?
Is there anything else?
Not really.
So sorry, Rook.
A seven is not particularly helpful.
So 95 was played, dropping a third pawn.
Ouch.
Bishop D for Bishop takes e five.
Now Bishop takes five.
Queen C five.
So attacking the bishop on C six that moves.
And now Knight B five.
So three pawns and a queen for two rooks.
Bishop takes B five, Queen takes five.
And again, looking at this route, there's no time for black to take a single pullback.
Rook e seven.
So if rook takes to take on e a so E seven.
C free and white now is able to consolidate the pawns.
Queen E two shearling b2 rook B six and now Queen RD to taking that center file.
Bishop C seven, Queen C to G six, Bishop E to B six.
Bishop D three.
Bishop B six.
And the King moves on to the other side of the road, so to speak, from the bishop onto the line squares.
Rook have six free rook eight, seven.
And I'm making progress.
Bishop C for the bishop is nicely supported on D five on a big central knight square rook a one changqing
e to Bishop C seven and the king can come to d free Ruby six Bishop dd five.
So the king is pretty safe on D Free on the Knight Square Hare Bishop f4 Queen F two hitting the Bishop
hitting the rook.
The route moves g free hitting the bishop Bishop dd 6f4 and the white pawns are making progress.
Rook 6 to 8 five and now Queen B six and black resigns here.
It looks absolutely overwhelming with all these pawns.
And let's say Rook, if Black had continued with Rocky sex, Queen d h check Bishop f a King C to one.
It's just making easy progress here.
That central Bishop is an absolute monster piece.
Black's Rooks have absolutely nothing to do.
So yes, there's pawn after pawn after pawn.
The story of this game after Black gave up the Queen for two rooks, which on paper was okay.
But in practice, if you're going to start losing pawn pawn off the pawn, then it's not good.
So very interesting how contact with the two weaknesses in Black's position causes this drama on the
chessboard immediately, this immediate drama of an imbalance of material.
So two rooks for a queen on paper.
But yeah, White's bishops and these diagonals seem quite vicious here.
Black still has these weaknesses, I guess we could say.
Well, because D six was holding up E five Yeah.
It's a newly created weakness.
By targeting weaknesses, you get new weaknesses when you undermine structures, pawn chain structures.
So e five being a tactical weakness led this trends to be winning more pawns in this position.
So the Queen was actually rather good here in conjunction with these minor pieces to win yet another
pawn.
So yeah, very, very interesting game here with the bishops being quite good and Black's bishops kind
of being restricted here.
The bishops slightly better than the opponent's bishops makes a difference to try and win yet another
pawn.
So that's the beginning of the end.
Even more so here.
Yeah, just it's a game of winning pawns.
This one queen against her rooks.
Fascinating game.
I hope you enjoyed this.
So starting with looking at the weaknesses leads to all the drama in this game.
Okay, so much.