Hi there.
In this lecture, we see an amazing game.
Aaron Nimzowitsch against George Sui in 1911.
Coles bouncer wants around 15.
We see E four from the switch E six French defence D for D five and now the advanced variation c5c free
9690 for free and our Queen B sex bishop de fray.
So this is possible once not losing a pawn.
Black players Bishop D seven If black tries to win a pawn, that's the standard trap we take on D four
and we play Bishop B five check and we're winning the Queen.
So we're taking on D seven.
That's more accurate than anything else.
Then take the Queen.
So we have Bishop D seven.
So Black renews the Fratton D four and now Nimzowitsch is best move is D take C five.
According to modern engines.
That's what he plays and it seems to give black a development tempo developing with a reCAPTCHA.
But nevertheless this is actually advantageous for why it seems from modern evidence this position is
actually advantageous for white.
We see castling.
Another move is Queen E to.
And for example a five we can play night BD to.
Or we could cancel here.
And anytime f six we can actually have a penalty for black F six with C for try and strike on the light
squares.
So this position we're striking on the light squares with advantage and we can even play Bishop ea free
to parry the bishop on C five.
And this position is fairly nice for white overall.
So anyway, black.
Cancelled.
Sorry won't castled and we see f6 now.
So this is an inaccuracy in this position.
It allows White to get a dominating blockade on what is to be a backward pawn on a semi and file a five
instead does stop B for why should not waste time here?
Why it should not play a?
For there have be modern game examples where black is then playing F six with a vengeance.
It needs to be critically aware of f six as a positional threat and play queen E to here.
So for example, if f six now we can place C four striking out the light squares.
So say d4e takes F six, nine takes six.
Bishop F four.
We have a small advantage out of the opening here and say 9g7.
Then we have a kind of square to over protect a central square.
And we can also challenge that bishop here with might be free.
So note because our pawn is on a two, not on a four.
This is important to challenge that Bishop and we don't have to snap off the bishop immediately.
We can play h four to try and drive this knight away.
If six then we can take on C five.
Queen takes Bishop E, three queen, seven E takes.
And it doesn't really matter now about black having pawns in the center.
We've got a bishop here.
We've got an advantage overall in this position.
This is quite an interesting position to have with a small too large positional advantage, you can
argue.
So yes, but in this game, a five that would be an interesting test to stop before we see six.
And this allows actually b four, which is nice to drive away the bishop.
And also with options of B5, we have Bishop F4 White has a very strong blockade on the E five square
blockading that e six pawn.
So nine takes e51 strategic risk with pieces blockading.
You've always got to be alert of liberating e fives from the opponent.
It's not as if we've got a pawn.
Well, it's good that we're locking E six, but we've got to be aware that we can't let Black liberate
the position.
Now in here Black played Knight takes E five, bishop takes e596 Bishop f6 to try and challenge E five
doesn't work here with the king in the center we have Queen H five check if G six bishop takes G six
check H thanks.
And actually the point would be not queen takes as bishop takes.
We have Queen takes g six check Bishop takes F six check Knight takes queen G seven check.
And then we're winning F six with advantage.
So nine, five six was tried.
We have 92.
So this is an important move.
If Queen C two black could castle and we can't afford to be greedy if we play Bishop takes F six.
This is essentially an anti positional move just to win a pawn because it's liberating black central
pawns.
So say we win a pawn and we're having to waste time now going back because otherwise Black's got that
bishop as a target and black liberates.
Then Black's got more than adequate compensation here on the file and the mobile sensor and the bishop
overall, Black's doing really, really well.
This is an example that we don't want.
Blacks just totally liberated the possession with a huge advantage.
So Queen C2 would be a terrible idea to try and do a material penalty in this situation.
No, it's better to keep a lock and key over the backward pawn on the semi-open file here.
So 92 addresses positional issues was able to we see black castling knight free so keeping a firm lock
in key over e5 Bishop de six is played here.
If Bishop b59g5 is interesting, this is actually quite dangerous for E, six and H seven.
If Bishop takes the free Queen, the free this position, we can win a pawn with advantage.
And let's say.
G six.
We can play Bishop D for Queen A six.
We can take on B five to lure the Queen away from E six and win that e six pawn.
So it's kind of dangerous, but should be fine for 9g5.
Very dangerous.
You know, possession.
Okay.
So yeah, if, by the way, in that line, you know, why is Francis saying Bishop takes six hair for
Queen H seven?
So it's a difficult position here.
Okay, so we have Bishop D six, Queen E two.
If we even for one moment get away from a physical blockade of the E six backward pawn black could energize
the position of Queen C seven and it's too little too late to try and put pressure on E five.
Lock and key approach.
The actual physical blockade is going to be better than a virtual, you know, trying to virtually control
because g four here, as example as pointed out by Nimzowitsch is energizing the black position.
So e five blacks got the e, five n and blacks on the way for a great position here.
Black's pieces are absolutely great here.
It's at least equal.
So we can't let Black liberate the position.
So this would be a bad idea.
Bishop Deform even for one moment.
So Queen Queenie to keeping the lock and key over the e six backward pawn rook AC eight We have Bishop
D for just for one moment and now replacing the firm restrain maximum restrain by blockade on E five
we have Bishop eight, Rook 81 and then Bishop takes e five.
If 94.
This would have been a good bid for counterplay, which perhaps should have been tried.
So if White Windsor pawn like this black has that light square bishop without a counterpart and it looks
unfortunate the rook on f one.
So if one has to play C four the advantage here is minimal for white.
That's the way black should have played it.
94.
Yeah.
So there is a kind of awkward configuration here to tap into with this bishop coming to be fine sometimes.
So that is fascinating.
This 94 and it's looking at C three.
So yeah, that would have been a great move.
But Bishop takes five, gives a pretty much a one way game after this one.
It has a firm locking key over Black's backward pawn moves away from it for one moment that's tolerated
here in this position.
And now Queen C two.
So this is looking to win material sometimes where Bishop takes up, thinks it's justified here Rook
have seven rookie free and in fact in attacking rook left this is very dangerous for black's king B
six rook G free.
So this is crowning in a way the positional play after King H eight.
This is going downhill quickly if not E for rookie free this position.
Yeah.
White can just take on E for this.
This winning pawn is overall better for white.
If rook c for eight we can play rookie one and this position is very comfortable.
And just to show you one could build up pressure like this on H seven with the black center restrained.
We've got a freedom to attack here and even use E five as a kind of pivot square.
So here can you see a tactic for white, which is nice to crown the positional efforts for ten points?
What would you play here?
You know, Bishop takes seven, so nine takes.
We can take on H seven of our queen.
King takes.
Lawnmower mate, pattern chap, mate.
So if rook e for E five we can put back our restraints, order on the e six pawn blockade it after 94
rook e one is possible we can sack the exchange here because king safety is an issue.
And for example, here we can see that we've got a lot of compensation.
Even we're coming in with Queen four, potentially four.
It's too dangerous.
A black would have to give back the exchange.
And we've still got a vicious attack here in this position.
So this is just better for wine.
So it's fascinating stuff.
We have King eight.
So guess what is played here by Nimzowitsch, which is showing what a fantastic tactician he is to crown
his positional efforts.
So for 20 tactical points, what would you play here?
So this is a move 24.
Bishop takes H seven.
Nice E five is played.
If nine takes H seven.
The point is Queen G six with the simultaneous front of on the rook, but also four rook H three.
And the rook can't move here because the queen takes g seven So say this then rook h free and black's
getting mated and say E five.
Then we're just taking on F seven because we've got a mate for it.
There's no time for black to munch more material.
So say Queen F six to address Queen St G seven.
We're hitting the D seven bishop here and E five.
This is unfortunate for black, so this ends up being better for white.
You know, great stuff.
And basically, yeah, if not f6, we're just going to take on F seven.
So E five was tried.
We have Bishop G six rookie, seven rookie, one Queen D sings, Bishop e3d4 Bishop G, five Rook take
free Rook takes c3d takes Queen, take C three.
So a pawn up.
And also black has an isolated a pawn.
Black's really in a bad way.
We have a frame strengthening the possession for a moment.
Bishop H for Bishop Bishop F five and now Queen D for this doesn't help.
Queen takes D four, E takes Rook takes E, seven King, take Z seven, Bishop D free blockading that
pawn.
That's the best way to stop a pawn.
We have King D six.
It doesn't matter if King E six won't.
Still just going to take on F six and then start to use these pawns.
It's a free to one pull majority with Black's past pawn disabled.
So it's even more emphatic we're playing with a free to one pawn majority on the King side.
So King D six we have Bishop takes F six, G takes King off one, Bishop c6h4 and similar circumstances
are free to one pawn majority.
A nice blockade on d free black resigned if the game continued.
Let's see, we could just make advances like this and just make inroads.
And there's really nothing to fear here in these scenarios.
It's just going to be a crushing position.
We're going to take out four as an example, and King takes this H seven, so these pawns can't be taken
that easily.
So, yeah, a very interesting game.
So conceptually very interesting.
The idea that we don't have to literally occupy the center.
And so one of the points of this advance operation in this game is the concept of substitution of a
center for control with pieces.
Now control of key squares or liberating pawn moves is ideally done with a blockade, as Nimzowitsch
said, of pawns.
Pawns.
Active surveillance is not enough.
You know they need to be in here.
We we need to quite often imprison the pawn with a blockade, whether that's with a pawn or a piece,
it's important that it's firmly blockaded.
So we see that notion being very, very important to blockade is the ultimate form of restraints on
the chessboard because it's illegal.
You know, basically you can't pawn can't go forwards when it's blockaded.
So using legality of the the rules of chess when we blockade the backward e six pawn.
But yeah, black's best bet, it seems would have been a five and white shouldn't play a four but rather
queen.
So.
So here there's at least a positional penalty for f6, which seems in conjunction with a five that a
little bit slow.
So in this situation we can switch gears for a point square strategy, strike on the light squares and
in time a move like F six is played.
It's important to think about the light squares because it is a light square loosening move.
If we think about it, it's loosened e six light square.
So it's want to strike on the light squares, which is a kind of new downside here that F6 represents.
So this position, you know we we've got active surveillance over E five, but this is enough in this
particular case.
We've also got other benefits in this case.
But in the game, yeah F six immediately allows this nice B four and this is such a nice grip represented
against the backward pawn here and we can see how the positional superiority translated rather rapidly
it seems to a direct kingside attack.
So yes, this move with tempo against the Queen substituting the E five locking key over the e six pawn.
I was talking about past pawns, but he could have equally set it against backward pawns that lock and
key prevention is better than active surveillance.
So yes, it's very interesting how dramatically.
Yeah, the guard is dropped on the physical blockade for one moment, but it does mean that the E five
square is available for operations and here the attack is in full swing now off the rook g free.
So, yeah, this is an acceptable scenario for the backward pawn being harmless for E five.
That's an acceptable scenario.
And the quick attack after so great stuff.
A lot interesting positional principles challenging the earlier notions that you know you always have
to occupy the center.
But on the other hand, in some of the games of Steinitz or even earlier Staunton, you know, with
the Staunton piece design, sometimes they did reflect some high.
Modern ideas.
Sometimes perhaps the hype of moderns did repackage old ideas as if they were brand new.
But the idea of releasing literal occupation of the Center for Control of the Center has been evidenced
in earlier games.
But yeah, this is an interesting game example though nevertheless for such the such an idea control
of the center through piece pieces and blockading and trying to prevent counterplay generation.
It's very very important principles ideas frames notions to bear in mind in our games OC has so much.