Hi there.
In this lecture we see Anatoly Karpov playing against Vishy Annan's in 1991.
The candidates match.
They had it in round eight, so we see D four from Karpov D five, C four, C six.
So we're going to a semi Slav variation.
So 93.
E six.
e397.
Now the weighting move Queen C two So why it doesn't want to play Bishop de Fray because black has dc4
and this generally equalizes so Queen C two is an interesting weighting of trying to get the bishop
to go to D six.
Basically, if Bishop e seven white can consider be free and have potentially a small advantage.
So Bishop D six Bishop E to both sides, Castle D, C for Bishop C for Queen E seven and now a free.
So this is an interesting move in itself.
From a positional perspective, Karpov is not committing to E four, which would be very, very tempting
for a lot of players and after e5h free black can play E takes D for nine, takes three for 95, and
black should be fine.
It should be an even position.
You can see that black's kind of liberated the C eight bishop and this position.
Yeah it's it's interesting there are possibilities and why can't easily play for F4 because of this
diagonal so yeah this is an interesting position for black if by the way 95 wasn't played in Queen E
five, this is asking for trouble like a free queen e71 has Bishop E four and if rookie eight why can
actually play Rook a one here and black's just really wasted time.
Here.
If Knight takes a Fall Knight, take four, Queen, take four.
There's Bishop takes F seven check.
So if King takes, there's 95 check.
And if King F eight, this is just an advantage for white.
And let's say black plays H six.
It's a little bit too late.
White's established an advantage.
This protects the Queen, which means that Knight takes hare.
Knight takes, Queen takes.
There's actually Bishop RD for winning material.
Yeah.
If queen size is going to take on eons and take on C two after so let's say Bishop C seven Bishop d4
this would be nice for white, but as mentioned, black doesn't have to play this city.
Queen E five going for H two.
It's just silly.
If black player is 95, black should be in good shape.
So yeah, there's an underlying tone here for free to not commit this e four And in fact this bishop
doesn't actually have to be opened up on this diagonal.
What about this diagonal where it could go into D two sometimes?
So very interesting.
E five is played here and now H three we have Bishop C seven if E four here, 95 and Black has trouble
protecting E four because there's F three in this position.
If Knight BD five we can take on E four like this 9c48 we can take on F six check to relieve the pressure
and then Queen takes free with small advantage.
So Bishop C seven was played Bishop eight two.
So again, Karpov hasn't really committed his pawns and he's waiting for black to create weaknesses.
H six So why H six you might wonder.
Let's have an example if Rookie Eights bishop need to and let's say B six white can use the G five square.
And this is actually annoying because white can now play F4 and this rook has been developed as well
and this is quite dangerous for black.
He takes e takes this position with rook e one queen at Rook two This is going to be better for white.
So that whole Yeah.
9g5 and F four.
It's kind of dangerous for black.
So H six is a precaution against nine G fives.
We have nine H for exploiting logically G six.
So 96 sometimes is an idea, but also nine F5.
So 96 to win an exchange because of that bishop pin we have rookie eight.
Funny enough, let's have a look at this after a five the strongest move.
What do you think the strongest move is?
So this is quite curious in its own right.
The strongest move turns out to be 95 because 96 we haven't got an every night defending H two black
has queen de sex, which is tricky because of that h to square.
And as example, if light takes their fight e takes DX four so actually practicing checkmate.
So it's not that clear cut to win in exchange taking hair this position.
White does have an advantage but it's not as great actually as playing night at five.
This is very awkward because it kind of sucks the life out of Black's possession of the night.
BE 596 and this position, for example, White's got rid of Black's Bella bishop and this is just a
much superior position overall.
So this is another way which maybe less controversial than trying to win the exchange.
So this is very interesting for whites with the bishop pair here.
So this situation is very, very comfortable indeed.
So yeah, So anyway, we have rook eights being played and now 95 hair 96.
Again, Queen de sex is a good idea for this diagonal takes nine takes blacks actually a little bit
better so 95 is important here Queen of fake.
Yes Kicking the king the queen back to the first rank and now might be fine trying to suck the life
out of the position.
This better bishop trying to get this better bishop out of the two bishop beings is played and now a
key move.
Can you see what this key move is?
It seems as though.
Well, isn't this pointless?
The knight has to go back.
But Karpov has a great idea.
Tactical idea in this position.
Can you see what it is for 100 points?
So all of this without touching the e pawn Bishop dd two with the big fat of bishop before.
So a five creating weaknesses if C sex.
Let's put this on the board Bishop before What is black do here?
Black's going to be losing material trying to save the queen.
That's horrendous.
The queen is kind of otherwise checkmated.
So yeah, we have a five trying to cover the B four square D takes E five.
Technically nine C free is interesting.
So this position with D takes and this position is a small edge, but D takes E five.
We have Bishop takes e five.
If rook takes e five.
It seems as though white is comfortable, but black might actually be okay here.
This should be an even position in theory.
Nine times e five.
There's this position which black has B five just in time for 94 and this actually creates a quality
any other movement and White's going to be slightly better like that gives up D four but B five here
seems very appropriate for equality.
So it's interesting.
Bishop takes, if I might be one of the more controversial choices compared to the other two.
We have four and that bishop is kind of restricted now.
So yes, Black is not interested in taking the nine on B five here.
This wrath of the file will be too much.
So Bishop eight we have the knight going back Finally Rook D and inaccuracy.
But there's only a magical tactical solution.
And if Black doesn't see it, Black doesn't say it's very hard to comprehend.
Let's c five actually might offer black a decent game.
So as example, let's say knight g free and it looks as though White's going to just push through here
potentially with E four and E five.
But look at this H five rook 81 then say Bishop A seven, Bishop B one and H four.
And it's reaching a critical point for Black's sensitive square.
So Knights H five trying to lure the knight away from H seven.
But Black has this very interesting tactical idea to suppress the white position.
And if B for just sacrifice a piece.
This is crazy stuff.
This is computer land stuff.
So Knight G three hence the Queen, hence the knight h5e for Knight takes E four.
And the point is, Black gets quite a lot of pawns here for the piece sacrifice.
And this actually can lead to potentially a decent enough position for black.
So here, for example, Bishop Ephraim and coming up with Bishop takes a three It's crazy stuff if we
look at this if a four here there's rookie two that's crushing.
So the point of F5 is to be able to answer rookie two with Knight and for defending G two and hitting
Ito.
But yeah, Bishop be free this is guaranteed four black.
It seems to be a decent enough position if we look at the pawns.
Yeah, it's quite a lot of pawns for the piece.
So that's about even.
But yeah, that's just a crazy continuation with 95 but a slight inaccuracy.
And now Bishop E one which makes this bishop come alive on this diagonal.
So blunting the opponent's bishop and having one's own bishop kind of do a French defense style maneuver.
You know, when bad bishop and the French is like the bad bishop here is coming to a much more decent,
energetic diagonal with targets.
If E4 this would be premature, it seems like C five, E five.
There's not fee for tactically exposing the F five Knight.
So Knight takes Bishop takes out five, doesn't matter about nine, F six Check.
Black can accept the structural damage here and be even that's a different ball game.
So Bishop e one we have Knights H seven.
So.
If C five hare Bishop H four for four.
It doesn't quite work.
There's 9hh6 check.
So desperado before taking on E four and then this possession there's 9f6 check picking up F five bishop
soon so that's crushing.
So night h7h4 So this is a nice move, but also e four here is decent enough just to push through with
E five and this is a nice advantage for white, but Bishop H four is decent df6 look 81 here 94 is interesting
and this position white stands very nicely after Bishop B one but rook 81 black plays, rook takes D
one rook takes the one.
And here's the really big mistake of the game match.
It does seem as though this accelerates Black's demise here.
Black played Bishop Essex.
Now why is this a mistake?
This is really interesting from the point of view of king safety and tactics, actually.
So even if you're a brilliant tactician, this is you know, it's a bit tricky what Karpov played.
But let's have a look at Bishop takes that five first.
This seems counterintuitive to give up the bishop, but it might have been the way to go after Bishop
A seven, Bishop f2b5 White does have a small edge, so this position is a small edge, especially with
the referee keeping the tension on the defile.
That's an important move here to nurture a small advantage and say Black play's king h h here rook takes,
queen takes.
We have Bishop takes F seven
and this is working as black's got a weak back row.
Black can't go and win material because of Quincy ain't coming later And that's working.
And if Rook takes the free, this position is nurturing small edge for white.
So that wouldn't be that bad for white.
So but Bishop takes five is the way to go.
So this situation, if for example King H to that speculative 90 for this position, black can actually
be equal.
If white just goes for the double pawns, it's not such a big deal that should be equal.
So why it has to tread carefully on Bishop takes South five, but with Bishop E six, a really interesting
tactical solution emerges here and it's a lot of forcing moves.
Bishop takes e six for takes and guess what is really strong in this position and why?
Why is it really strong?
I mean, there's a weakness about this that actually Black's weakened that second rank.
The King Shelter G seven is under greater scrutiny potentially.
So that's a clue here.
But White starts off with 410 points.
What does White start off with?
Yeah.
Queen bee free.
It's like a double attack on E six and B seven.
And that's the non-protected piece on eight.
In fact, there was another solution here takes h six check as well with Queen G six check.
This is unfortunate for the h9f8 Queen tax f six is a big advantage for Y, but this is another great
solution.
Queen Bee three We have Queen eight and it's a kind of weakness of the last move here.
So that's compounded this second rank access which already existed and it means something here quite
significant.
If Bishop C-7 had been played instead, then Queen 66 is pretty noncontroversial, just taking out that
E six point.
If Queen F seven wrote the check and here 96.
This position is winning material.
But what else does black do if Queen e796b7 is just winning material.
Winning that key pawn.
So Queen eight was tried.
Now here there is actually more than one tactical solution of the Queen eight.
Now Karpov is playing a very attractive one, simple looking nine times G seven.
Now, for the record, there is actually Queen Bee seven.
So you might have thought, well, it takes gives black E free.
Is that a big deal, though?
If we take on eight Queen takes E free check, we have Bishop F two and the Queen has to scurry back
for the bishop and we pick up another pawn.
It's clearly winning.
So Queen takes B seven.
The concern is Rook seven.
But we do have a move here because this x ray defends G seven, but we actually do have a move here
technically.
Can you see what that is?
Ten points.
Yeah.
Queen Bee six actually frightens Rook the eight.
So e thinks we're going to play rugby eight And given that's the case of 97, we can get back with Queen
Bee free and we've done a bit of damage.
We can maintain that pin on E six and we're just better here.
So yeah, it's, it's a much superior position where tactics flow here that either nine takes G seven
or Queen takes B seven.
They're actually both doing a good job there.
And actually we can even also consider Bishop takes F six first and then 9g7.
It's just a position where tactics really flow here.
So yes, it's it's a very, very difficult position.
This but note takes G seven is Karpov's choice here, which is very neat as well and very simple looking
in many ways.
So so game on.
Black played Queen seven if King takes the point is Queen takes B seven check and then picking up the
rook and notes know the queen's like locked in still it's not out and about.
And if we look at this if bishops C seven yeah, we're just going to take on C seven, take on C six.
Thanks very much.
So Queen seven and now we have 966 winning another pawn.
So it's two pawns up Bishop a seven, Bishop F two defending a free why not rookie eight and now 94
so that rescues of the Knights and the Queen is protected by the knight here.
So Queen takes be free if Bishop takes DD four.
Yeah we're just going to take on F seven and then say it on D four.
Thanks very much.
Two pawns up.
So, Queen.
Thanks.
Be free, Knight.
Thanks.
Be free.
And it doesn't matter here about EA free dropping because why it's taking there and then taking on a
five and this ends the game here move for two quite short game so if rook e seven.
Yeah.
Why?
It's just two pawns up here.
This is pretty much this level over and white can start improving the position soon with 95 to bring
the rook back if needed.
And it's just two pawns up so, you know, can't come up with one that pretty quickly against Vishy
Anand.
So like takes a five the final possession.
So a very, very interesting game.
The way the opening was played in actually is really inspiring because this is actually quite a dangerous
variation when E4 is played in E5, Black does seem to get a lot of peace activity, so the way Karpov
played it was with minimal risk, minimal counterplay and using interesting diagonals for his C one
bishop in this game.
So the C one bishop was really, really interesting.
I was kept at bay and then tactically used in a little combination here with Knight B five for Bishop
D two.
Absolutely fascinating game.
How this seemingly passive structure offers so many opportunities in different ways.
After this E five is played.
Really, really fascinating game.
I hope you enjoyed this one as much as me and so much.