Original subtitles

hi everyone this is Grandmaster Eugene Praveshtine

and together with Chess lecture.com

I'd like to welcome you to today's lecture

now today

I wanna talk about

one of the best games that I played at the recent

US Chess Championship and this is actually in round 8

as black against Yuri Shulman

who actually became the US champion

shortly after that game

um he was one and a/2 points ahead of me

and a whole point ahead of the field

and this was a very very important game for him

because if he is about to lose

then you know

anything goes but he needed to get a draw with white

to secure himself at least a tie for first

or clear first if he ties or draws the last round game

so

this is very very important game for me as well

um I had a shaky start after losing to round 3

to another very strong player

Anish Shuk and then I made quite a good comeback by

uh winning a few games in the middle

and then actually beating Yermolinsky

with white in round 7

so this game I was very confident going in

and even though Yuri is in very good form

you know and I'm playing black

I still think that I had a very good chance

of beating him

so

the very first problem I face is what opening to play

because he's gonna play D4

and since I have a very wide opening repertoire

I you know

I can dig deep and find some interesting lines

but this is actually another question that

comes to my mind for example

do I play super sharp openings

such as maybe King's Indian defense

for example after knight of 6 c 4

g 6 knight of 3 or knight c 3

bishop g 7 knight c three castles

e 4 d 6

so this King's Indian was a possibility

or I could have played the same opening that I played

against Anish Gok

which is the Grunfeld again

very sharp opening with a lot of unclear play

and yet the problem behind King's Indian and Grunfeld

I felt that Yuri was quite well prepared

because he knows that I play these openings

all the time especially the King's Indian

and he knew that I played the Grunfeld against Anish

Giri

and after a long thought I came up with the idea that

instead of playing super sharp

aggressive openings

it's actually best to play a very solid opening

and the reason why is

although I'm not fighting for the initiative

from the get go I am simply obtaining a comfortable

middle game position

and all the pressure is gonna be on my opponent

on Yuri to either try to play for a win

or to try to make a draw

because really it's hard for him to make a choice

because sometimes when the position is very quiet

and he plays too quiet you know

I can get the initiative in my hands

or if he doesn't go for the initiative

he makes some kind of slow build up moves

then he might actually get into worse position

so what is the quiet solid opening

so knight of 6 c 4 e 6

knight of 3 and now I play the d 5 move

this is very classical approach

trying to go for simple central play 93

and now Bishop b 4 this is called the ragozin defense

and it this opening is actually quite rare at you know

super GM level

but nevertheless a lot of GMS play this opening

and you know it's quite solid opening

as a matter of fact

Morozovich has used it recently

to try to off balance the position with some new ideas

and any shook plays this regularly as black as well

so

white has a few different plans

and one of the plans that Yuri

could have played is Bishop G5 move

I actually had to prepare a lot for this game

because there are so many lines

as a matter of fact

I believe I prepared for at least 3 hours

just for this one game

so Bishop G 5 is a possibility

another possibility

is the line that Yuri played against me

she takes d first E takes d and now Bishop G 5

alright and now I played H6

so the Rogozin usually goes with bishop h 4 g 5

bishop g 3

knight e four night C night d two for example

usually white doesn't take on C3 and I take G 3

H take G C6 is a solid alternative to take it on C3

so as you see this is very solid position for black uh

he has the two bishops

the problem is the overexposed h 6

g 5 weakening the kingside

but black doesn't have to castle kingside

that's the beauty of it

black can prepare the queenside

castle and then develop the pieces

so this is the main line in the Dragon Zone

and understandably Yuri

who just needs a draw to secure

at least a tie for first

wants to steer away from any type of complications

and he plays the line notes for its solidity

No. 1 Bishop takes queen takes queen b three

so obviously now if white gets my b before bishop

he's gonna have very solid pawn structure after e 3

and uh really very

very low chances of losing one might think

and after Queen b three

black has again several options

and I opted for the most solid one

Queen d six

among options c 5 is a more sharp

uh approach to play for the initiative

but queen d 6 is simple and solid move

so now of course

white wants to get rid of the before Bishop

and he plays a three

and I took on C3 otherwise if bishop a 5 he can give

a nasty check on either b 5

or a 4 and force my knight to c six

and uh

this is not something I want

cause I want my pawn to go on c 6

so now I play Bishop takes knight

Queen takes

and now we have reached this position that apparently

Yuri was looking forward to

it's simplified the pawn structure is well known

so white is gonna play e 3

followed by the minority attack

I'm gonna end up playing c 6

hoping to play either on the king side

or in the center with e 4 square

keep it in mind and really for practical game

it seems that this is about equal

but the correct variation is that likely

it's unclear

and the weight of all of the struggles

gonna be shifted toward the middle game

and this is by the way

exactly what I wanted when I prepared for Yuri

I didn't quite expect this particular opening

this line

but I wanted to get a playable middle game position

where both of us you know can really

try to make plans around move 30 or 40 when it gets

you know maybe in time pressure

and

my main thing is to keep pressure

for as long as possible because really I have

I'm playing black I'm one and a/2 points down

and all the pressure is on Yuri

so

this is something that I really was looking forward to

get out of the opening

alright so Queen C3 I simply play C6

e three

and I played Bishop at five

I'm just developing my pieces

and I don't mind the change of the light square bishops

after Bishop d 3

and you replace bishop e two

the thing here if you look at the pawns white has f 2

e 3 d 4 and black has d 5

c 6 b 7

so the pawns being on the light squares

in the future would benefit white

because it's gonna be easier for white to attack

the light square pawns

or save some endgame

but we're far away from any endgames

so black should not worry about that for the moment

so castles

castles 97

so I haven't really made any

aggressive moves

and Yuri starts to create initiative on the Queen side

with b four

so really

the plan is simple to do the minority attack with a 4

b 5 rook f c 1 for example and so forth

so while White's plan is straightforward and simple

I am yet to figure out my plan here

now typically

black has enough time to play on the king side

but in this position I only have two minor pieces

I can't really create any danger

so I will be

kind of digging in and getting ready for him to

play a 4 b 5

and potentially counter with either C 5 or with a five

but before I do all of that

I really wanted to pin down his knight and bishop

with this nice little move bishop g four

initially it doesn't look like much you know

I'm not threatening anything

I can't really put any more pressure on the knight

but I tied down his hands for now

and I like this move because my bishop on a 5

for now at least is not doing much

so Yuri plays a four

so he's ready he's getting ready to play B5

and I play a six

again useful prophylactic move against b 5

I can always open up either the a file or

or play C 5 in the future

and now he plays the interesting move h three

which actually both of us thought is a bit weakening

because it

it really weakens the king side just a little bit

although

it does open up the window for the king in some lines

but you're gonna see shortly why h 3 is a bit weakening

and he could have simply played

rook f c 1 with almost exactly the same as the game

but let's try to figure out what to do after h three

now if I take on f 3 and trade the bishop

I really can't justify

giving up my bishop for no reason

because now once the position opens up after b 5

it's really

gonna be hard for my knight to find any good squares

on the board

and it takes me way too long to get to e 4 knight of 6

94 and even then

he can trade me with after bishop takes e four

so

I kinda decided there is no reason to force things now

and just simply play Bishop H five

as a matter of fact

I want Yuri to play g 4 and after bishop g 6

the king is now really weak

and I'm ready to bounce with h 5 and f 5

and create a king side attack

so bishop h 5

and now rook F to c 1

so he is really getting ready to play b 5

and I play rook F to c 8 to stop him

on the other hand rook f to c 8 doesn't really stop b 5

because if I do c takes b

he can give up the queen for two rooks

and after a long think Yuri decides to play b 5 anyways

so how am I gonna stop him now that he plays B5

I really don't wanna go into this position

because now he can simply maybe play a takes B

and I can't really justify giving up

two rooks for the queen

and on the other hand if I do a takes B a a takes B

now rook takes a 1 he has an unpleasant choice

to take with the queen or rook

and now put pressure on the a five

so for example if Queen takes

his next move is gonna be queen a 7

and really annoying pressure on a five

so this is a possibility

and I didn't want to give him a free play

without any counter play on my part

so after B5 I played C5

this is the typical way to counter

white in these types of positions

whenever white plays b 5

he always has to be ready to face c five

so now the position is getting interesting

and notice that we are on move 18 so the bulk

of the hard fought middle game is gonna be around

move 20 to 30 or even 20 to 40

and this is exactly what I wanted it to be

because again

all pressure is on Yuri because he's always thinking

do I play for a win do I play for a draw

do I play for a win do I play for a draw

how do I equalize or maybe I'm better

see these thoughts are always running in his mind

and it doesn't give him

time to really concentrate on the position

whereas for me well my job

I'm playing black I wanna equalize first

and only then

I might think about playing for the advantage

so B takes C sorry

B takes a B takes a and now again

Yuri makes a very good looking move

solid and strong queen a 3

he's pinning the queen he's getting ready to pounce

on c five on the right moment

and even double up his rooks

or even play a 5 to secure my a 6 point

by the way

if he plays some other move such as a 5 right away

c 4 gives me plenty of counterplay

notice that my knight can go to e 4

now the c pawn is a defended passer

and he really can't take advantage of the b file

for now everything is defended

and taking on c 5 is a possibility

but yet again

either knight take c 5 or rook take c five

um as long as black stands at least equal

I'm okay

so queen a 3 looked like the reasonable move

and now tactics

help me out I really don't wanna play Queen f 8

as it's kind of slow

and I'm not even sure if Queen f 8 gives me enough for

Equality and I simply play Queen f six

knows that he can't really win the material

because the a 1 rook will be hanging

so if he plays d takes c

Knight takes rook takes after rook takes c 5

he can't recapture with the queen because of a 1 rook

so even though this is a positional battle all along

tactics are always and always present on the chessboard

and this is something for everyone to keep in mind

you might play certain opening

with idea to play positionally

but you will never ever get rid of tactics

they're so prevalent in any positions

so queen f 6 now

with this little tactical shot of x

raying the diagonal

I'm creating a dangerous threat to play C4 myself

and Yuri found no better move than to take knight takes

and although you know

I have a few weaknesses

such as the isolated pawn on d5

possibly weak pawn on a6

after he plays a5 to secure the weakness

the things that I have going for me is

control over the E4 square

and from E4 then I can go to C3

this is key

control over the C3 square is even more powerful

and yet the pin is still annoying for him

because he can't really move his bishop or the knight

well he can move the knight

but that allows me to play knight e 4

or to take on the knight e 4

and I have really no problems

so f 2 is gonna be weak

so you replace this good looking move

Rook d 1 and again

initially this looks like a solid move

attacking the d 5 pawn

and it turns out that I have no good way of defending

the d 5 point

my rook can't move because it defends the knight

and with my queen I can't even move my queen to e 6

because of knight d 4

and I can't move the queen to f five for

you know the same reason if I move the queen to d 6

then what was the whole point of playing queen f 6

then I'm now pinned in all different ways

but again tactics tactics

tactics

and now I correctly sacrificed the pawn with this move

knight to e 4

alright so now we're getting to move

this is now 22 slowly climbing the time pressure zone

and Yuri now has to solve problems

should he allow n I c 3 should he take the pawn on d 5

and these problems again are gonna keep bothering him

because all of a sudden he had a very easy position

with sort of zero counterplay on my part

but whenever he played B5 after C5

now I get my own counterplay

so after a long think

he takes on d 5 and allows me to play knight c 3

Bishop rook takes h 5 and knight takes e 2

so this is really interesting position

so let's take a look

so black is down the pawn

his knight on e 2 is really

you can say a little bit misplaced

cause it has almost no escape square

but if you look deeper

you realize that rook on h 5 is cut off

because I can play g 5 on the future

the rook on a 1 is always in constant watch of my queen

because queen on a 3 can't really leave this rook

and this tactical kind of things keep black going

and even give me the initiative

I should say

so again white has several moves with the king

you replace king F one

king h 2 was another was another possibility

but now it allows me to play g 5 for once

and cutting out the whole rook from the game

in the future I have

you know if the queen moves somewhere

I have the checks on the g 6 if he leaves the diagonal

or I can play knight c 3 back or queen g 6

and should have plenty of counterplay

and it's not so easy for white to play

so king f 1 immediate attack of the knight

and now I saw my main idea how to get the knight out

and it starts with this active move rook c three

now we're really getting into a messy position

I have knight under tuck

king is on f 1 my rook is on c 3

Rook on h 5 Queen was defending the rook on a 1

and now you replace the correct looking queen b four

now Queen A2 was another possibility

but you're gonna see shortly why

Queen B4 was a safer move by Yuri

so now I follow up with my plan

and let me give you a second if you can see this idea

how can I get my knight out of the way

and at the same time get my pawn back

and the move here is if you saw it already

give yourself a credit Rook takes e 3 xclam

I sack a whole rook

but now the rook on a 1 is under attack

and he has to really take

and now 9 g 3 can come out attacking the rook on h 5

so this is really fun

so the whole combination with knight e 4

knight c 3 knight takes e 2

was based on a little tactical idea of rook c 3

Rook takes e 3 isn't that pretty funny

and now after king f 2 Knight takes h 1

the rook on a 1 is under threat

so he has no time to play g 4

and he can play the rook d 1 or rook c 4 1

and now I'm slightly better

and you're gonna see why

but for now

let me go back and try to show you what could happen

after queen a 2

now rook takes e 3 is no longer possibility

why

well because now the rook on a 1 is well defended

and he traps my knight with g four

and now white is totally winning

so this is very interesting

so

I have to resort to other ways to keep my initiative

going and both of us thought that Knight C1

is a very strong idea

and so now moves such as queen d 5 are really no good

due to rook d three

sorry not rook d 3

Rook d 8 and if queen e 5

then white is lost after a simple rook d 1 check

knight e 1

Rook takes e 1 King takes e 1

knight d 3 so nice little combination and queen is lost

so it's really hard for white to make a defensive move

now

well perhaps he can try to play Queen b 2

but even then I can either play

you know Knight d 3 with the tempo

I can double up on the C file

and really

it's hard for white to coordinate his pieces

so Queen b 4 was a correct

practical choice to go for that position

alright so rook takes e 3

this is all forced

pawn takes check

king gives two knight h 5 and now rook c 1

so let's take a look in this position

and try to evaluate what is going on

well as a matter of fact

rook on c 1 is really not doing such a great job

we after the game both of us thought that rook on d

1 is a much better place peace

but to go into that extreme

to kind of feel for the best place for the rook

you have to look far into what could happen in the game

so for now

it just appears that the position is roughly even

except White's pawn structure is a little bit damaged

but really with the exchange of Queens

it should be draw

but exactly that little advantage of his pawn structure

ruined

gives me enough edge to have the initiative for a very

very long time and again

psychologically

he said

that it was very hard for him to play this position

because although he feels that he is about even

you know maybe initially

he won't thought that he's slightly better

but it turns out that psychologically

this is harder for him to play it

because once I coordinate my pieces

and get my knight to e four

then it's really gonna be tough for him to defend

so my next move is rook a8

and now queen C4

so he's playing solid what I did to play Queen c 6

so the question now for you is

how do I get my knight into the game

right now it's on the edge of the board

doesn't do anything

so let's thank you

and by the way

if he plays G4 here

I can simply play a tempo move attacking the e 3 pawn

he can't take my knight

because he loses the rook on c 1

so and then I can simply play knight of 6

and g 4 is just weakness for no reason

so to get the night into the game

I really need to open up the f 6 square

so my next move is obvious and strong queen to g six

and I think Yuri underestimated this move

now she plays Queen d 4 well

she's trying to centralize the queen of course

and simply knight of 6

once the knight gets to your 4

well now we have all sorts of problems for what

so he correctly plays King G1

he's trying to get away from basketball 94

plans and yet king g 1 allows me a different plan

a temporary regrouping with queen e 4

because queen on g 6 is a little bit misplaced

of course taken he's gonna lose a pawn

not something that he's willing to do right away

and he really

decides to dig in and play rook e 1

defending everything

and yet I have made very important achievement

I have able to put him in this kind of passive stand

you can say cause Rukwan E1 is really passive

now once I did that

my next thing is to regroup and I play Queen C2

now I can always play Knight e 4

rook e 4 and all of a sudden he's feeling a lot

a lot of pressure don't forget

this is move 33

so we have seven more moves to make time control

both of us are very low on time here

and it's clearly that without an obvious plan

white has to kind of wait and hope for the best

so you replace King H two night e 4 activated my knight

and now in time pressure

Yuri makes a very good decision

queen d 7 to attack my rook

now I was a little bit reluctant to play rook e 6

allowing N I d 4 in some lines

and opening up the checks

you know on the 8th rank

so I correctly decided to repeat the position

gain time on my clock queen d four

and now

I found the right plans to get my rook into the game

with rook e 4

so queen d 8 check

king h 7 a few more moves left until time control

all this has been played relatively fast a 5

she really has to save the pawn

and now this is my key transformation Rook a 4

so again pay attention to the moves queen g 6

knight f 6 queen e 4 Queen c 2

Rook e 4 Rook a 4 I'm slowly

slowly putting my pieces on ultimate squares

on best squares

where they're gonna cause the most damage

so of course my simple threat is to play rook h

rook a 2 threatening mate

so if she plays let's say queen d 6

rook a 2 rook g 1 now I can throw in knight e four

and he is in a little bit of a trouble

cause Queen F2 is coming up

and Queen g three with all sorts of problems

really hard to find any defense

and especially if he takes the pawn

this just simply loses on the spot

after queen c 7 check and now king h 1

knight f 2 mate

so this these are the things that

he always has to keep in mind

once my pieces get really activated he's in trouble

so again Queen b 6 sorry

after rook a 4 he plays the correct move rook to d one

of course

if I play rook a 2 this is not an achievement if he

especially if he plays rook d 2 and try to trade

and now I really have to put pressure on the pawns

and the move here is rook a three

so as a matter of fact

I'm playing relatively good compared to

especially

if you compare it to the first line of the computer

uh all the moves that I played so far

actually

showing as either 1st or 2nd choice by computer

and Yuri is actually defending quite nicely as well

so he plays rook d 2 putting pressure on my queen

and now this is the last time of the

the last move of the time control

I simply play queen c 3

because I want to keep the pressure on e

3 and a 5 point

so we have reached this position um

you know I kept on building up my initiative

trying to win one of the pawns or even go for mate

uh Yuri defended quite well

and now we are entering the next stage of the game

so now it's really

really hard for Yuri to hold one of the pawns

he's gonna end up giving up one of them

and if he loses a pawn it's gonna be a technical stage

where I'm gonna be trying to win

so for the next stage of the game

I you know both of us are trying to kind of play very

very hard he's putting up a tenacious defense

and I'm trying to win

so let me continue with the next stage of the game

in our next lesson and in the meantime

let me go back and again

emphasize some of the key lessons during this game

so No. 1

whenever you play an opening and you have to win

you don't have to play super aggressive

and end up in getting a bad position

it's okay to play solid

and the opening of my choice was the very solid

or super solid vergous in defense

and Yuri played the line

considered to be super safe for white

which I didn't mind at all

because after Queen d 6

we are shifting

the weight of the game into the middle game

and this is exactly what I wanted

because the pressure keeps building with every move

for Yuri to either play for a win or play for a draw

and now the next decision

sorry after bishop f 5

bishop e 2 castles castles

knight d 7

b 5 before

the next decision was to tie down his pieces

as to not allow the bishop or the knight to move

and after a 4 a 6 rook c 1 rook F to c 8

I kinda

who's the question to why

well I'm just defending

you gotta make progress

and he finally makes this progress

at the cost of allowing possible counterplay

which came as you see with the queen of 6 move

putting pressure on the diagonal

and now almost by force after rook d 1

knight e 4 well actually

you're gonna see why h 3 and h 5 was important too

because after Queen a three

he could play

right he could play after queen of six

knight e 5 and this is the possibility

by the way

that he doesn't have in the game because of h 3

bishop h 5 and now takes takes

my queen is under attack and my bishop is under attack

and my c 5 point is under attack

so this is the possibility that he now has

and that's why I mentioned that h 3

bishop h 5 favored me earlier on

so this is what happened in the game

and now

you realize that after c 5 queen a 3 takes takes

I should serve c 5 takes queen a 3

queen f 6 almost by force

we get into this position

where I finally got counterplay

that I was looking the whole game

so you gotta be patient

you gotta play solid and sooner or later

when the opportunity comes

you have to take the full uh

the full advantage of the opportunity

with this knight c 3

and this this combination is really

I'm happy about that Rook takes e 3 takes

takes knight g 3 king e 2

Knight takes h five and with this part

now I am the one who has the initiative and finally

I was able to improve my

position and put Yuri on the brink of a loss

so

let's see if he was able to defend in our next lecture

thank you so much

and I hope to see you all very shortly bye bye