Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Michael Adams playing against Richard Pert.
So this is in 2016, the British Championship, round four C for Michael Adams.
We have Richard playing E5.
So Adams with the English opening, diversifying his opening repertoire, in fact.
So usually an E4 player.
But this does seem to fit Adams's style.
It's a positional opening, controlling the D five square here, 9693 Bishop C five we have 93.
So this is the English 4/9 formation D six.
If Black Castles, you might think this, this sequence is equal, but you might be tempted is the of
with no it takes E five.
This doesn't work too well here black has Bishop takes F two check nine takes E five different.
It's not that great.
It's about even it's playable for both sides.
But okay so D six we have both sides castling e3a6d4 bishop 80 7h3 and E takes the form so Black is
not wanting to push forward.
That could be a target, a major target very easily.
If E4 that would be a losing liability.
So black trying to keep away from having fixed target.
So E takes the form, e takes the 4h6 bishop e, 397 rook e, one, C six and now Adams plays D five.
This does weaken white on the dark squares potentially, but white has the space advantage here, and
white can afford this space advantage.
Right now the pieces are able to handle the responsibility of the extra space.
And in fact, at the moment it seems why it's kind of dominant on the e fo 9g6.
Queen C two, Quincy seven Knight RD two Rook a e, 8a4.
And simplification does tend to help in general the player with less space in general.
So this is a policy of simplification.
de4 So not trading rocks.
Knight tanks now.
Rook Sorry, now Bishop tanks.
We have Knight F eight getting away from the glare of the Bishop and Queen.
The King H two Queen C eight looking at H free and now g four is prompted.
This is a really interesting point in the game where black can actually potentially get an edge on the
dart squares.
If Bishop G two then rook takes e free, isolating white's e pawn a bet.
And this position should be to Black's advantage.
Actually Black has that e five squared to play with soon, so g four is a kind of necessary evil move
and it does further weaken white on the dark squares.
You can see that there's some dark squares in White's camp which are potentially vulnerable.
Queen RD eight, Rook Free.
Queen G five, Bishop F5 five.
Now this is an interesting moment where in fact the bishop has released this rook, which could actually
come into White's possession.
This is an absolutely fascinating moment, a turning point of the game Black actually played.
Bishop takes F5, which technically is a mistake.
Rook E1 might actually cause Adams some problems on the dart squares.
The knight is defending that Bishop Clearly the rook and queen are kind of X-raying g one, which means
h five might be more effective than usual.
So as example, if King G two bishop takes her five hair, queen size, queen E seven protects F seven.
And here, as example, it seems as though black should be pretty comfortable.
Here you can see that the dark squares for white are slightly vulnerable.
So that would have been a great way of playing at rookie one.
And if Bishop takes D seven, nine six again, black should be fine.
Queen G six protects D six.
There doesn't seem to be a problem here.
And also pinning that to the queen.
But yeah, 95 again it looks as though black with h five you can see that the x ray effects are kind
of useful on g one if g5h4.
This is just a fictional scenario where things could go badly wrong for white with F3 being weak as
example like this say taking on h four rook d free.
You know there's pressure points around the place with this could be a really bad scenario for white
but alas, Richard he didn't play rookie one.
And actually this junction of the game is really quite fascinating.
So Bishop takes a five mistake and it's at least equal now.
It's equal either way, either with Rook takes or Queen takes.
This is equal as well, but.
Road taxes.
Right now it's about equal Queen E seven, recovery, Queen E five, checking G two.
And now an inaccuracy and a weakness of the last move.
So weaknesses of the last move are a fascinating thing.
There are fascinating opportunities.
It's not just the tactical opportunity to use a five.
It's a positional opportunity.
It tangles back up.
Now Adams actually doesn't defend C4, which may have been expected.
He counter-attacks on F seven so there's Queen f52 looking at F seven.
Yeah.
If black had played Queen G five instead then any queen if black's going to take that and it should
be about even this position should be about even.
But you know the way it's played now, this Queen at five is a major, major opportunity to turn the
table to amplify White's advantage.
Really?
Rook e seven Clearly, if Queen takes C four, we're just taking on F seven and taking the rook.
So rook E seven We have rook for protecting now.
C for evicting the queen.
And this gets really uncomfortable now for Black Rook.
E four we have 96 and now Quincy eight.
Check.
This is actually taking out well, it's changing off rooks and taking out B seven.
What a complete transformation of the position.
White's dance squares are not vulnerable.
Here we have Queen E one.
In fact, something extremely awkward is happening.
If 96 this might have been one of banks.
Blacks better tries to give f7b2.
So we would get this kind of situation where yeah, it's it's interesting but White's isn't doing that
badly in the knight and game you know this game is going to be to White's advantage overall there's
work to do here but it's overall in White's advantage of that outside pass pawn.
Okay Black's got passable as well but overall it's better for white if we look at this again if a five
king E free is better for white as well.
But anyway, Queen E one is played.
So this makes things worse now because Queen rd seven and looking at D six, Black's pieces are getting
tied down, overloaded, looking after weak pawns.
And the problem is there's this pin now kind of strategic pin.
You know, nimzowitsch put pins not just in the tactical area of the game, but also strategic.
And here with this kind of pin.
Otherwise, it looks kind of awkward.
Well, it's looking at F seven as well.
So at the moment, Queen f6, but that pin is going to recur now, my F4.
So kicking the queen back into the pin line.
And now, Jeffrey.
And here we see blacks in.
Somewhat trouble because there aren't ideas of 9 to 5 sometimes if queen have sex.
So we can see if Queen have sex.
This might not repeat at all with 9h5.
And how is black looking after they end the --?
You know, Queen E five, Queen six of seven.
So black is making a big concession now F six.
And this is just getting to be a horrible position, a five.
We have Queen E one.
So that really doesn't want an exchange of queens.
Black has too many weaknesses here after a five especially.
And that's an even further past pawn.
So the exchange queens is not welcomed if the night moves.
So Queen E one we have be free.
And White's advantage now is is huge F for sorry h for Queen in 1h5.
So getting rid of blacks useful moves on both sides of the board.
The parenthesis is starting.
Queen E five.
Queen F seven.
Okay.
So the pin has been relieved somewhat a little bit, but a new pin has emerged against G7 and.
What is actually black doing here?
Blunk plays F5.
If Queenie won, then funny enough in this position.
Queen F ain't.
And what is that doing?
So black has to hold on to the night.
The night can't move because the night at five and say Queen E five, Queen F seven.
There's method in man that's white can make progress here going back to this pin and now King H three.
So hold on in sake Queen D 725 And here, here it comes.
White can now play F or one can arrange F four.
And this is really problematic because now Black is losing D six and the game basically.
So yeah, there are horrible scenarios where blacks kind of reduced to nothingness.
So f five is played here instead of Queen E one.
Yes, it's a really diabolical situation.
So after nine takes F five, we have Queen E four checking G free.
Queen E five check.
And now King H.
Ray Knight takes F5 and this is just winning for white.
Queen takes her five Czech queen, takes her five G, takes King G8.
But there's a key move you have to play here to make sure this is winning.
So what is that move for?
200 points.
Move 50.
What would you play here?
To transition into a winning king and pawn end game.
Yeah.
We have to sack the pawn to give us the five square.
Make way for the king.
This is absolutely winning.
So now G tanks Black resigned.
But if G tanks King G for king for the space is really useful here because actually we're running black
out of moves now after free zugzwang because the earlier moves closing off all the pawn moves shutting
down Black's moves is very useful here to encourage zugzwang situation.
So King E seven, King G six winning easily, etc..
King G seven.
King E six.
So yes, we've run black into a zugzwang here.
Yeah.
So it was actually an interesting game.
There was a moment where the dance square weaknesses of Michael Adams could have been potentially exploited
a lot better with the advisory move.
Rook e one but it was a missed opportunity.
So a good fight from Richard.
Very good fight from Richard.
Indeed, in this game.
So yeah, he survived a lot longer.
Some some grandmaster opponents in previous editions of the British championship.
So very, very good fight, very interesting game and showing you know, Adams is also diversifying
himself in terms of openings so being more of a varied target for opening preparation.
So in the modern age, increasing opening repertoire preparation.
So playing the English opening.
Broadening his repertoire.
Okay, So I hope you enjoyed this one.
Thanks so much.