Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov against Vasyl and Topalov in 1994.
Does harmonised tournaments run for so different from Karpov?
We have 96 from Topalov, 93 from Karpov.
c5d5 here.
e6c3 1965 Knight takes the five E tanks, Queen takes D five, Bishop e7e, four Black castles, Bishop
E, two D, six white castles, 96 C frame.
So this kind of blunts the diagonal in advance of Bishop f6 perhaps.
And also the knight is further restricted, so it's a preventative move.
Bishop e six We have the Queen parking on H five Hare eight six Rook RD one rookie Bishop f4 so it seems
pleasant enough.
Why is targeting that D six pawn?
That backward pawn seems very nice.
Bishop if 92 as if there might be more torture of D six coming soon with 94 we have G six Queen Parks
on f3d5.
So trying to dissolve that D six pawn.
We have Queen G three, Queen E seven, and now E takes D five.
So with that structural defect dissolved.
It does seem as though the pawn structure is also symmetrical.
It's free against fraying, so it does might actually have an advantage here and over here it's free.
Against free.
So we have Bishop F one, queen F six might be free.
Rook 88, Rook D two And here, Bishop E six and our bishop C seven.
A pair of rooks come off.
Bishop and five we have nine C for rookie 49e3.
So the knight seems quite nice on E three in circumstance.
Bishop C eight Rook D one rookie eight H free Queen G five.
Now here black is king for the exchange of queens.
In fact, Karpov is not tempted to double the pawns.
He actually just plays queen free.
So keeping tension in the position.
And now black plays King G seven.
So Karpov is generally a positional player and I thought, this game's very, very interesting from
here.
The King's more out and about on G seven.
At least in the theoretical sense and sometimes in chess.
The distance between a theoretical downside and a practical one is not as far as you'd think.
We have Bishop F four, Queen E 795, and now Black is persisting to offer the exchange of queens.
So here Karpov plays an amazing move and one which you might find shocking given his style of play emphasis
on positional chess, which some might call dry.
But there's a brilliant move played here and it shows that Karpov is supercharged with his tactical
abilities in general, the same of Capablanca.
They were both brilliant tactical players and if there was a clear, non controversial combination,
they would play it.
So can you see here how the king is a little bit out and about?
So it's kind of asking for it.
So what would you play here for 500 tactical points?
I know this is a positional course, but we need to be alert tacticians to be able to win games as well.
And tactics is often serving our strategic goals and plans in any case.
So what would you play in this position with White?
It's an absolutely brilliant combination of six nine F6.
Yeah.
So the point is one of the points before we go into that, if Queen takes a fall, White does have an
enduring positional advantage here.
Why it doesn't have to double the pawns or anything.
One could play it like this, for example, and just be annoying getting annoying potentially to de
six later and why it should have a small edge.
A small edge but with nine f6.
Yeah.
This is the realms of tactics and king safety.
Now if Queen takes free white inserts, Knight takes each check, and that's a winning advantage.
So.
King The king is brought out.
And the point here.
Is 400 points.
Yeah.
Bishop ey five double check Now double checks forced the king to move.
So here we have King takes five protecting the queen.
If King E six, we just have Queen F six.
Checkmate.
In fact, we don't even take the queen.
If King G five, we actually have Bishop F six.
Checkmate.
So the king takes on E five.
And actually, there are two ways of playing this.
But Karpov's is the most simple from a human perspective.
Cup of sympathy takes on E four.
Yeah.
So King takes E four.
And the point is rookie one check king of five, Brook takes E is now forking two bishops.
And so this is the exchange up for why it's a winning advantage if black black took on a two and after
rookie eight black actually resigned here if the game continued for example Bishop D five rook C seven
black is actually losing material if 95 hair.
Then rook takes five.
And the other point here, if B six, then white can actually play c four and here undermine the Knight's
protection with F three.
So this is absolutely winning.
So Rook takes F seven check and you know, we're rook up basically.
Yeah.
So it's a remarkable game.
It shows that although we think of Karpov as a, you know, a great positional player like Capablanca,
they are seeing a lot of the forcing moves and variations in positions by default.
So if there's a clear non controversial path, they'll take it.
It turns out in here, by the way, there's a murkier path which might actually be more technically
accurate.
But for a human it's more difficult.
Queen takes F seven requires a lot of guts in my view, but it turns out here F four, check rookie
one check.
This is rather crushing of the Queen C seven check.
This is crazy stuff.
Which engines can work out just like that.
But yeah, humans be more difficult.
But yeah, this is actually a winning position as well.
So check here and then White will be winning here.
But why play that when there's from a human perspective, there's a much simpler way that Karpov played.
So Queen Takes F seven is also winning.
If Queen are five, Rook the five check, Bishop d3g3 Rook takes F five.
Yeah, this is going to be pretty nasty for black.
Black's getting a ton over here.
So yes.
Beauty tactic 96 though you wouldn't associate this with Karpov, but in this course I wanted to show
a kind of.
Full context of two great positional players or more to like, well, many positional players, but
especially Anatoly Karpov and especially Michael Adams and other positional players as well.
It's nice to see the broader context of their play and to realize and appreciate their tactical imagination
is there as well.
So nine of six is a truly imaginative tactical move.
Worked out pretty simply then.
It's definitely getting a non-controversial advantage in this position where the bishops are --
here.
So beautiful stuff.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as me.
This blend of positional play and tactics is very important to be tactically alert at all times for
the opportunities, whether you're a positional player, a tactical player, etc. The idea generally
is to try and win in chess.
And this was a beautiful win.
Och, thanks so much.