Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov against the answer Yusupov.
In 1986, Pagano tournament, round two.
So E four from Karpov.
We have E five from east of 9396 Bishop C4.
So the Italian game Killer piano Junkyard piano.
Pardon me C3 we have knights have 6d3d6.
Both sides Castle Rookie 1a6, Bishop B three Bishop a7h3h6 Knight BD two and now Knight H five.
So Black is trying to use the F four square.
It's often difficult to repel such a knight will carp or find a way.
We see knight f one queen f six.
So it seems out of the opening Black has what looks to be a comfortable position with a nice aggressive
set up.
We have Bishop e three so this challenge is one of Black's better pieces, so trading here would be
nice for white.
We have Knight, a four, bishop takes a seven.
So that is one operation of trying to reduce the opponent's activity through exchanging off the opponent's
better pieces and improving our worst piece by simplification by taking off there.
That's in White's favor potentially.
So here the issue is this Knight is kind of strong and active.
Now, if we play G Fray black just takes on h free track.
And after King G two, for example, Knight G five Black Chess banner.
So we have King H two instead, which actually vacates G one.
So this is actually kind of a tactical move in a way vacating square vacation tactic, you could say,
to vacate for Knight G one, which would support G three.
This is a really interesting kind of standard positional maneuver nowadays to get rid of such a knight
on F4.
So very, very instructive 97.
But first here after 97, 93 is played, there's no rush to play 91 just yet.
Rook eight A for a preventive move here to preventing B five So prevention, prevention, prevention.
Bishop E six so black is now offering exchange won't oblige is that if Bishop C two this is a viable
alternative it seems this position we can actually play it in the center.
And for example Knight G one here, this position isn't so terrible.
Why?
It should have a small edge in this scenario.
But Bishop takes e six and at first sight it seems, isn't this really dangerous, this file pressure,
this F file pressure?
Well, let's see.
Knight G one We have Rook 88 and now the eviction notice is given in safe circumstance to that knight.
So pushing the activity, reducing the activity of Black's position.
Rook f one defending F two.
We have D five and now Queen E two, we have 96.
And now here this is another great move which shows Karpov isn't afraid to do retreating moves if they
help overall to reduce the activity of the opponent's pieces and the opponent's active tactical threats
and possibilities.
So we have a great preventative move again if we want to do an active operation.
For me, it's becoming very it's very apparent now, becoming very apparent that we need to know the
potential threats for our potentially active operations.
Now, if we had an active operation like H four here, if we go with H four immediately, can you see
what black could do here, which is kind of resourceful?
You know, that can kind of undermine tactically the pawn chain 94 with with tempo.
So if we took here, E takes F four and you can see that actually F3 is painful and that's just going
to have a big advantage there.
And if we don't take, you know, if we play Queen C to Queen G6 and Black's got a lot of pressure here
with a strong attack.
So G takes looks out of the question nearly because, you know, being mated like with a lawnmower might
attack and the other rook could come in.
It's not really what we want.
So here for free, let's say a free knight, 85, 94.
It's only about even.
So, given all of this, this potential for Knight and for it's extinguished with Knight G two in advance
of h four making h four much more solid as a proposition.
So rook have seven without all these threats and combinations.
So h four now.
So potentially we're going to be driving this knight back.
So Rook have eight and we have Rook had 197.
The Knight volunteers itself, but H five anyway.
G six And you can see actually we've got a grip on one square controlling to a Capablanca rule of restraints
and black kind of compromises potentially with G six creating an isolated pawn if white took.
But white didn't even take our knight h free.
And here queen free Queen takes her free rook takes a free and now a better pawn structure by far with
this isolated pawn on h six.
So and the knight now holds comfortably f two as well as the rook.
There's no problem on this file.
The dynamics of this file aren't that impressive.
Knight e three putting pressure on D five now.
So we have D for knight C two.
Rook free to have seven.
And now?
Yeah, sometimes we need to.
It seems, you know, do the opponent a favor, but we've actually got something else in mind.
Other problems to set later.
So it's almost as if we're doing the opponent a favor and doubling their pawns here.
But now there's a more exploitable weakness.
That's the thing.
If you can get even more exploitable weaknesses so that C files strong.
But first, there's an issue of square vacation for 95 suppressing that activity for we have C five
here now and a 51. fixing to very nice.
Now you might have question hold on what about if black had played a five let's say rook c1b6 rook six
Black does have a resource 95 based on the file pin.
We can just ignore that here with Rook takes E six and this position, we're still going to end up being
better.
There's pawns to pick off and overall we're going to be with a big advantage here.
Two connected pass pawns basically on the King's side, as well as an extra pawn.
So we have c5a5b, six 8/8 b6b7 rook C one rook 2b6 Rook takes C five.
Not minding rook takes B to checkers.
There's rook have to supported by the knight.
So you can see White's pieces are actually at the end of the day, that expression at the end of the
day why is actually just better here, better pawn structure and more active pieces.
So we have rook a eight rook, a five nice blockade, and the career prospects of this knight is actually
better than this knight in many respects.
97, 90 G four With tempo, these weak pawns give tempo gainers 90 C six attacking the rook, rook C
597 and now actually rook C seven Even better than Knight takes H six in many ways.
So we have King of eight Knight E5 and Black really is getting paralyzed here a five.
So it looks as though Hold on, hold on.
Isn't this pawn dangerous?
G four Let's see a4f5.
Yeah, it's king safety, which is becoming a huge issue here.
It's too slow to try and get a queen.
E tanks is played as example if a free let's have a look at an example here we can play f6a2 and we
can even let them queen because we're going to be chat mating knight G six check and rook G seven Ouch.
So chat mating opportunities are key in endgames and the games are not so dry as you might think.
So E tanks played G tanks.
And given that F6 is still a major issue black sacrifices the knight e takes and now rook a five is
played.
So still there's an idea of F six and 9g6 with mating ideas.
So rook five But now a beautiful tactic in this position for five points.
What would you play?
Oak Brook.
See five.
So relying on this check and the night is in time to catch this pawn.
A free king, Jeffrey King dissects the night goes back.
King E five, King G for H five check.
And now what would you play in this position?
The fine points.
Yeah.
King G five.
Yeah.
We have to have faith in our own passport here.
hf6 are pawns kind of closer than the opponents.
King E six and F King G six.
Keeping idea of our form without any blockade or any issue.
So h3f7.
So we can herd our pawn our pawns coming first, which is good news.
So here now, a nice move which spells out Black's demise.
What would you play here?
Yeah.
95 check.
Now, if the king goes on a night square, we're going to play a move like Quinn, a hack to pick up
the queen.
So the king plays 2e5, but now nudging the King Rook.
Sorry, Queen B h.
So nudging the king on a on a fatal like square.
And here Black resigned.
So a very nice game overall.
But the focal point for me of this game one showing you at is that this is classic handling of what
seems to be a very dangerous tactical active night.
So it's interesting how this night is pushed back in a systematic way and we want to try and appreciate
and understands the opponents forcing moves, sacrifices and just extinguish them in advance.
So when we talk about prevention, it's not just any immediate position, but we have to factor in,
okay, what active operations do we want to play and what kind of risk factors do they incur and take
that out beforehand.
So even more remarkable than 91, which is the equipment of a lot of positional players to evict tonight
for is this other retreat coming up.
But even so first patients patients and then 92.
So this is really amazing stuff in advance, factoring in what could be issues for active operations
in the future.
And it kind of strengthens in the most relevant way our position when we're talking about talk about
strengthening of our position, it's not in an academic way, it's with we're concrete view of the concrete
tactics and possibilities like four.
So this is a strengthening position move of the position, but very relevant to very relevant critical
issues, what could be absolutely critical issues.
And then we can play our active operations.
So it's a bit like in the opening phase of chess, we want to castle and develop pieces before doing
active operations because otherwise they backfire.
So this strengthening kind of reduces any potential for backfire.
And it's a middle game operation though.
So there's still the whole principle applies.
Prevention in advance is is easier than cure later so preventing any symptoms in advance so retreating
the night and then getting a kind of Carpathian grip on things.
So black kind of is starting to be on the back foot.
The transition here of taking out the opponents double pawns for more exploitable weaknesses also key
and classic.
Yeah, that the weakness is not really a weakness if it's not exploitable.
So these double pawns here by conflict playing like this, he's actually giving a more concrete target,
much more exploited on the C file.
So it's based on the details where the pieces are.
Can we actually exploit weaknesses otherwise?
Are they actually really weaknesses?
That's a bit of philosophy there.
A weakness is only weakness really if it's actually exploitable in our given position with our given
pieces.
So here, yeah, it's a very nice transition to a position where more active and we're creating actually
mating possibilities here, even though Black's got that in theory, dangerous outside spawn, it's
the concrete mating possibilities of the black king, which puts the whole black plan in check, so
to speak.
So, yeah, wonderful stuff.
I hope you really enjoy this game as much as me.
So, yeah, let's go to the end position of the game and care throughout with this passport.
Absolute care for our so cleaning first will do will do the job.
Okay.
I hope you really enjoyed this.
It's a masterclass in handling an activity war, trying to exchange off our worst pieces for the opponent's
pieces.
But also if there is a dangerous piece to be very careful about how we evict that piece to reduce its
attacking potential and activity and see how our active operations might also backfire and in advance
of them preparing them better to take out any key threats.
So beautiful lessons in prevention, prophylaxis, keeping control, the activity war generally, our
activity of our pieces, the opponent's pieces, and also the structural war.
And also how cunning is this when we even unravel the opponents pawns to get more exportable?
Wait and says that is a very, very powerful positional chess film?
How we can transform our advantages or the opponent's disadvantages into ones which we have easier access
to.
So we're trading off double pawns for something we have easier access to like backward pawn and C file.
So a lot of instructive lessons.
But one of the key ones is about handling aggressive pieces of the opponent in a very careful, controlled
manner.
Okay, so much.