Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Anatoly Karpov playing against Wolfgang Unzicker.
This is a 1975 Milan tournament, round four.
So this follows their earlier encounter in Roy Lopez.
So playing the role of Hans here.
But 84961 cancels Bishop E seven rookie 1b5 Bishop be free.
d6c free.
Black cancels.
H 395 Bishop drops back.
C five.
Now we have D four Queen C seven, Knight, BD two and now Bishop D seven.
So this is a novelty from their previous encounter, which is 9c6.
And that was a real masterpiece, a really celebrated masterpiece by Karpov after D five.
E kind of took away Black's counterplay really ruthlessly.
And it was the classic with the Bishop a seven.
It's worth checking out again if you haven't seen it or revise it multiple times.
That's in this course.
If you want to check out the other unzicker game.
But here we have Bishop DD seven.
So nice to have one.
This seems fairly logical.
Rook eight.
That seems fairly logical.
D five.
Knight BD seven might be nine.
Now the knight goes to H two so this is actually a little bit of an attacking positional move.
And in fact, black plays what seems to be putting the whole position at risk.
G6 King Safety is hugely important.
It seems as though C four is the way to go.
So for example, Knight G three just to use the perk that Black has of potentially using the C five
square because White has committed that d5 pawn, there should be about even and it's important that
Black's structure is solid and also the F six is supported quite easily with the pawn in the game.
G six is played and in fact Karpov plays to exploit the F file and in particular the F six target.
He plays 9g3.
First we have C four here, but it's under very difficult different circumstances.
Now we have F four comp of is aiming to open up the position and exploit weaknesses around Black's king
like F six and G seven.
So we have e takes F4 and this opens up potentially using the F file and you might say, hang on, isn't
this pawns slightly vulnerable?
That's right.
This pawn is on a semi open file, but the upside is here to gain access to F six completely outwait
that decision.
We have Bishop F eight and now Bishop G five.
So what is black actually doing about the knight we have here?
Bishop E seven.
If Bishop G seven then White simply plays Rook f one.
And what is black doing?
90 2h5 looks terrible.
90 takes.
We're just we're just chopping on H five.
What does black do?
Knight takes D five.
We just have Queen 65.
There's no trick here or anything.
So if that's the best, that's terrible.
If that's one of the best.
So Bishop E seven is needed.
Queen RD two here.
This is really quite accurate, queenly to getting more authority, keeping the bishop protected.
If rook f one there is a bit of a trick black can use because of that unprotected piece.
So one has to be alert first.
Black can play check and then the trick is nine times D five and Queen takes D five is not working here
as well as before because the bishop on G five is hanging black, takes on D five and then Bishop takes
G five.
So that shows why it's important to support the bishop in some variations.
And if Knight takes D five immediately, yeah, just Queen takes the five and that protects the G five
Bishop as well.
So this is just winning for white.
So.
Okay, so Queen D two is a good safety move, keeping the G five bishop protected and we have this bishop
going back to C eight.
This doesn't look right, but it does vacate D seven rook F 197.
However, now guess what Karpov plays move 22.
Yeah.
94 and Black actually resigned here.
This is a terrible position.
So let's see why.
Why did Black resign if bishop fate?
Then there are different ways of playing this position, one which is absolutely minimal risk without
sacrificing a piece.
Tell style is just to use the foil pressure to use Queen F for asking Black.
How do you actually defend S.M.?
We don't need to sacrifice a piece if f sexy work we're just going to take.
And then 96 check.
This is fairly crushing and convincing.
If e five we're just going to play 9f6 check and pick up the rook.
So yes, the simple and strong move is actually Queen F four without any risk here.
If you want to play like Tao and Karpov probably wouldn't have played this note at five.
This is also very, very good.
But some of the variations get complex so Bishop f six practicing might with Queen or mating with Queen
G five.
It gets a little bit hairy in some of the variations.
So here this is fairly clear cut when a material if Queen E seven we rescued a knight with Queen D for
check and can take out F six.
But yes, in the final possession, Queen F four looks to be the simple and strong move.
And if we want to get into the spirit of positional players, I think we really should assume they're
going to choose the minimal risk moves to finish off a game where the opponent resigns the queen for
what is black.
Actually, do Black's really in trouble here.
So a very interesting game cop off detected really that maybe as long as goes G six the attack mode
is very justified here.
There are concrete weaknesses around the king.
This makes it quite a low risk proposition just to go on the attack.
The pawn structure is also kind of helping the pieces flow towards the kingside.
It does seem very logical how these weaknesses were exploited by Karpov opening up the file.
So yes, a model game for the Royal pairs.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
So for Bishop G five, Bishop E seven, Queen DD two.
Great move.
Improving the position just before Rook Half one.
So making sure everything's pretty safe.
And a knight G for wonderful stuff.
Very instructive.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as me and so much.