Hi there.
In this lecture we see Gazza Kamsky playing against Anatoly Karpov in 1993, the Dortmund tournament,
Round one E4 from Kamsky.
We have a correction.
D4 d5 d2 d tanks e4 e4 930 79g59gf6 bishop d fre e6912f3.
And now we see Bishop D Singh's queen e286934.
Knight takes E four, Queen takes F4 and now Knight F six, Queen H four.
Now here Black has to tread carefully with King safety.
So Karpov plays actually an iconic move in this position for 500 points.
What would you play here and why?
So blacks play.
Okay.
Couple, please.
King E seven.
It's one of two moves.
Rook G is also possible.
So, for example, 90 2g5 is possible for Bishop F eight.
And this position Queen takes DD four.
This should be equal, but so change is also plausible.
If white castles, there'll be g five here.
And this position is very interesting.
Black could be in severe trouble here if one has to sack a knight, basically because if Queen takes
H six, Bishop F eight.
And the Queen's embarrassed.
So g four here.
Queen's embarrassed.
So if one is the second knight.
This is also, you know, it's going to be great for black.
It's similar to what Karpov played, which is more stunning in the way it looked.
King seven So not castling, but King E seven.
So what is the problem with castling?
Well, White has a very strong attacking move here.
So this wouldn't be good.
KING Safety management or KING Safety battle.
Battle of relative.
KING Safety.
Because what does white play?
Ten points.
Yeah.
Bishop takes H six.
I enjoy playing this kind of move.
In bullet chess, it usually wins for me, especially at the time controls.
But here it's actually completely sound as well.
White has the possibility of building up more and more pressure if Queen a five.
Check this position with Queen H five White's going to just take on F six and this is going to be better
for white.
And if black doesn't oblige with a count of p sac, let's say Bishop e seven.
Let's see the true horror night G five.
Let's say Queen takes D four white castles, e five, rook ae1.
And there's still an attack potential with the rock potentially coming in.
How does black handle this?
Let's say Bishop E six.
Bishop H seven.
Check nine times e six.
This is just one example.
Bishop F five check.
And the rook left.
Yeah.
The king has been totally compromised here.
If Rook have seven, this is going to lead to a crushing position.
It's just absolutely crushing.
If E takes, then Queen G six check and we've got a lawnmower mate pattern.
So a lot of horrible things could have happened if Karpov had castled.
So it's important not to routinely castle in chess as well as not to routinely auto recapture.
We have to play the best move in a particular position.
And it might be unusual looking.
This is one of the two very best moves.
So King E seven and now, in fact this is awkward for white.
The queen is a tempo gainer.
G five is fraternite if white just routinely Castle said G five And what is going on here?
There's Queen H three.
There's G four.
That looks pretty unpleasant to lose material.
And if Bishop takes G5 tanks, this isn't very sound.
Black's got a ready made attack here.
Let's say with tempo Rook H five, Bishop dd seven, and it's all over.
This position is all over.
Queen for 95, Queen G3.
And Black's got a gigantic attack.
Like mating attack.
So, yeah, that's tricky.
If white castles and if Bishop are for.
Now here, this is interesting.
If G five bishop takes D six check and nine takes g five is possible.
So actually we'd play Bishop before check here and G five.
And this is going to be advantageous for black, basically.
Yeah, that's winning material.
So anyway, 95 is a good move that was played by Kamsky to avoid problems and make it a kind of positional
pawn sacrifice, attacking pawn sacrifice for White to his credit.
So Karpov plays, Bishop, takes E five, D takes a now queen, a five check.
Now here C four is played more in the spirit of things would have been Bishop D two.
So this position with Queen takes E five.
Check.
Bishop E three, B six.
Why can castle queenside with good attacking prospects?
There's enough compensation, it seems.
For the pawn.
If Bishop be seven this position, there should be enough compensation for the --.
So, for example, Rook 88.
Here it should be about even black.
Dare not take on G too.
We can see an issue with Quincy's seven check but should be five.
And that's.
That's horrible.
So anyway, see free though inaccuracy Queen Saint's e five check.
Bishop e3b6 White Castles Queen signed G five, Queen A four.
So it looks a little bit similar.
Why it should have compensation here for the pawn.
The king is technically in the center.
We have C five rook H one Bishop D seven Queen eight free Rook HD eight G Free Quincy seven.
Bishop D four Bishop E eight King B one.
There's a slightly better move here.
Bishop C two it seems, may be slightly better this position with C four and then Bishop E five should
be about even this should be about even.
But King D one was played.
We have wrote d5f44 88 Bishop C two rook 52d6 Bishop takes F six check.
So for the moment, getting the king, it seems a little bit out, but White's pieces are not able to
exploit the King that easily.
On six H tanks we have rook takes these six rook takes these 6c4.
The king tucks away back on E seven queen E free f six.
Now there is a problem for black in this position.
Black's not really out of the woods here because White actually has a very dangerous past pawn asset
now to h four to his credit.
So G takes g takes.
This is a very dangerous outside pass pawn.
In this scenario we have Queen D seven, Queen H six, E five and it has to be mentioned.
Komp of himself talks about his determination in willpower to try and defend difficult positions.
And this is one of those difficult positions.
Yeah.
This outside passport H five we have Queen G four, Queen H seven check, King d8h6.
The pawn is very dangerous.
Very, very dangerous.
Rook D two And that is one concern.
That is one other downside about King in the center not being able to stop past pawns.
But we've looked into, okay, this is interesting.
We see Queen a five.
This is a little bit of a let off cop off is in actually a very difficult situation here.
Queen E four, it seems, leaves white with a big advantage.
So for example, Queen St's Bishop takes Rock H to H seven.
And here King See one KING If I be free.
So this is just an example where we're going to get in a move like Rook G six and here, like Bishop
takes her five is dangerous.
So the reason is, well, it's tricky.
You know, if King F seven doesn't move like Rook G eight, what does Black actually do here?
Yeah, it's very tricky.
Rook tanks 87.
We're going to play rook tanks f six check and then win material.
Let's put this on the board.
For example.
We're just going to take here and then as white, we're going to, we're going to take white side there.
And if F5 Bishop takes to get this rookie, this shows that actually White's position was superior at
this point because of the past pawn potential.
So but Queen if I have a bit of a let off Queen's come off but even so, it's still dangerous.
Bishop D7 Big mistake here by against Kamsky Big, big mistake.
The Bishop's challenged and sometimes we try and react to the opponent's France, but sometimes we can
make threats of our own.
Instead we have to say no to auto kind of responding to France like we say no.
Sometimes to auto recapturing, we have to examine all our options and this is one of those major opportunities
missed.
Instead of auto responding to a threat, can you see what White can play here?
We have to say no.
Sometimes this nowness, the longer the time control, the more you can investigate your options.
So, you know, generally if you're playing bullet or three minute chess, it's harder to say no, but
longer time controls.
Look at the options more say no to the most obvious because we don't have to auto respond.
Guess what White had in this position, which is really strong.
Yeah.
Why, Mr. King?
See one?
The thing is, if this totally backfires, this Bishop on D seven, we can actually pin it as one with
big advantage.
Yeah, and if D four, then Bishop e four.
And this part spawns super dangerous, that locks the rook in place.
So that H seven is major threat.
So this position rook differentiate King Z free that has to do something about the passport.
H seven is coming and if black has to sacrifice the exchange, there's also rook H for here.
For h seven it's absolutely willing for Y.
So there's a bit of luck here in this game.
To be objectively fair to both players, there was a bit of luck.
So Bishop G.
Six is actually a mistake.
And now the territorial get behind the opponents pass pawns is activated.
See?
But Tara said, you know, you either get behind the opponent's pawns of your own past pawn in end games.
Generally this really helps.
And now that past pawns under surveillance, at least if not under lock and key, as nimzowitsch would
say, pass pawns of criminals to be kept under lock and key act.
Violence is not enough if you read my system.
But here.
Yeah, there's active surveillance on the passport.
Bishop D Free Bishop E six.
So Nimzowitsch is my system is is a great book about possession.
It's got a lot of positional ideas, prophylaxis, very deep positional ideas, which was an influence
on Tigran Petrosian and Petrosian was an influence on Karpov.
So Nimzowitsch has a lot to be responsible for in terms of influence.
So anyway, Bishop e6 here was played f might even be slightly more accurate.
So for example, Rook takes E5 checking of this position.
Black's got this past pawn extra pass pawn should be with advantage but Bishop e six rookie 1f5 now
wrote g seven check King of six Rook takes a seven.
But now the thing is, Karpov has two connected pass pawns.
So Bishop e2 these look very, very strong.
Now this looks to be a total disaster for white three Bishop D one Bishop F five.
King C one.
That past pawn is eliminated.
Could have been a different story.
That's the thing about chess.
The beautiful thing.
You know, there are there are options.
There are junction points of games where we do something automatically like an auto recapture, an auto
response to a threat, and we can look back with regret.
There were better versions of events.
These events didn't need to happen like this, but this is just a nightmare for white.
So Rook takes a two with the two pass pawns is easily winning now.
Kamsky resigned if King b1 rook h to rook B seven bishop and five.
You know it's going to make progress with the past pawn soon.
It's hopeless.
So yeah, an interesting game.
But the key moments.
Okay.
The game has some flaws in it.
It has some instructive moments later, but I wanted to draw attention to this dangerous situation.
If we do play the car icon in this old style formation, sometimes we just can't.
Castle You think you can rely on castling for king safety?
Now we have to objectively not Auto Castle as well.
There's a lot of auto moves in chess, auto castling, auto recapturing, auto responding.
We've got to look at our options at each point.
And yeah, this is a very, very important option.
King E seven here.
So it's the king safety battle.
You know, some some of these battles will win the war.
And often.
KING Safety is linked to winning the war.
You know, pawn structure wars.
Sometimes they win the war in their own right, peace, activity, wars.
Sometimes they indirectly win the war.
I mean, checkmate ends the game.
So all of these element management battles, you could call them, you know, KING Safety management
or the king safety battle between both players.
So this is interesting that Karpov puts up a strong battle on this front, the King safety aspects with
this iconic King E seven move.
And it also generates key threats that Queen is subject to tempo gain, brilliant move in the circumstance
as well as Rook G.
That's also a great move as well.
But King E seventh great move.
Something to bear in mind not to be on autopilot for auto castling.
King Safety is our ultimate responsibility.
We can't delegate our own king safety to the act of auto castling and say, well, castling implies
king safety.
Not always, not not when there's a bishop pointing E6 which can sacrifice itself and some opportunities
points if black had castled ock or just.
Yeah, it will be very, very difficult.
Just immediately Bishop takes h six so.
Okay, So just bear in mind.
KING Safety is our responsibility.
Everything in chess is our responsibility.
We shouldn't delegate to auto moves.
Autopilot moves.
We need to take control.
Okay.
So much.