Original subtitles

hi everyone this is Grandmaster Eugene Perelshteyn

and together with Chess lecture.com

I'd like to welcome you to my new lecture

and the topic of today's lecture

is gonna be how Irina crushed

the US chess champion Alex Shabalov

Irina Khrush is a very very strong chess player

and she had a great tournament at the National Open

and let's take a look at this game

she's white d 4 d 5

c 4

c 6 so this is the Slav defense knight c 3 Knight f 6

Knight f 3 e 6

and now after Bishop g 5

this is the main move in this position

black can play the super sharp

Botvinnik variation of the Slav

this was popularized by Mikhail Botvinnik

he is the father of this variation d takes C

normally this line is played

if black is looking for complications

immediately out of the opening

the positions arise are really

really crazy and you need many

many hours

of study to try to understand what is really going on

but Alex Shabalov is a well known

tactical chess player

and he actually played this line as black

at this US championship against Alex Onischuk

he actually managed to lose this game

if you see if you notice in very similar variation

so you you could see that playing this line is very

very dangerous for black but at the same time

both sides are walking on a tightrope

and the game leads to a lot

of great and fun chess

so do you take C

this is the beginning of the Botvinnik creation

and white plays e 4 so white sacrifice the pawn

but as a result white has a powerful center

he is completely developed

except the bishop on e 2 and his king

whereas black is lagging in development

but nevertheless he just grabbed a pawn on t 4

which he is gonna protect with all his might

with b five

so we immediately reach unbalanced position

right out of the opening

and let's see what happens

so I read the place e 5 and this is the main line

h 6

bishop h 4 g five

so for why to regain the pin

he has to sacrifice the 9

so she actually sacrifices the nine

pawn takes and bishop takes

and now black simply plays knight b to d cell

and white takes e takes f

so this is

possible move or white doesn't have to take right away

and this is what Irina played

she actually played the move that wait

the waiting move is g three

now what is the idea of G3

as opposed to takes on F6 right away

well let's try to figure it out

the thing is that the knight is pinned on f 6

and with g 3

White immediately prepares the bishop g 2 development

whereas if you go back and you take

it's not gonna be as easy to play G 3

because bishop B 7 and c 5 right away

but most likely it's gonna be transposition

because after G 3 White will still take on F six

now the move that happened in Alex Onishchuk game

against Shabalov is E takes F

and now

queen to a 5

a very rare move in the super sharp botvinnik line

typically the main line goes with Bishop b seven

and now after G 3 C 5

White has to play D5 and this is really

really imbalanced position

there are hundreds and hundreds of games

and we are not gonna have time today to look into it

but this is definitely

a lot of fun to analyze

these types of positions for either side

so instead of bishop b 7 in the Unissue Shabalov game

after queen a 5 the game continued with bishop e two

Bishop B 7

castles

castles long

and this is again a very sharp position

and Anish Gok was able to uncork a great novelty

and ended up winning the game

and about 20

or even 30 moves so really

really good game which we

if we have time

we're gonna look in maybe a next lecture

so let's go back to the Irina's game and she played G3

well Shabalov decides to play the most active move

the same move that he played against Anishuk

Queen a five

which typically

would transpose to the same types of ideas

except the pawns on g 3 versus the bishop

being on e two

another thing why white plays g 3

allows black to play rook g eight

and again

this is another very complex position that rises

after h 4

Rook takes g 5 a takes G and knight to five

usually white plays g 6 and again

black has two pieces for the rook

and complete domination on the queen side

where is white has immediate attack on the king

queen g 4 is gonna fall up rook h eight

and the position is really really complicated

so this is another main line

so after Queen a five

it takes off

and now black plays b 4

as you see

b 4 hit in the knight on c 3 and bishop on g five

so black the black's idea of queen a 5 is to storm

the queen side immediately

leaving his king in the center for the time being

let's see what Irina played here well

to protect the knight and the bishop

knight e 4 is the only move

at the same time centralizing the knight and

she's not really afraid of B 3 check

because bishop can simply drag drop back to d 2

or even queen can go to d 2

and interpose the check

but bishop d 2 is probably the best move

after b 3 check

and now black spawns are really really weak B3

C4 and C6 spawns are all really really weak

so that's why Shabalov plays

Bishop a 6

protecting his c 4 pawn

and potentially threatening to play b 3 in the future

so you could see that

white is gonna play on the king side

and he's gonna try to castle

where his black is gonna play on the queen side

and possibly castle long

leave his king in the center for the time being

so after Bishop a 6 Irina plays queen f 3

so this is all theory so far

and after queen 8 f 3

Shabalov plays

a novelty that hasn't been played on high level chess

rook to d eight

very hard to understand move

because typically you wanna play developing move

such as Castle

so this has been seen a lot or another move

a very solid move queen d 5

centralizing the queen and fighting for the diagonal

8 8 h 1

but Shabalov is a great expert in this line

so he must have prepared something

so let's take a look at the rook d 8 move

I think his plan is to prepare

night b 6 Rook d 5

possible blockade on the d 5 square

or maybe try to hit the d 4 pawn with c 5

and trying to get his rook out of the discovered check

knight d 6

and the queen is gonna hit the rook on a

so let's see how Irina reacted so Ruby 8

and simply bishop e 2

again notice it's not bishop g two

but bishop e 2 leaving

the option to castle

or to run away with the king of one king g 2 move

because the problem of bishop g 2

is that black can really open up

the diagonals

and leave white skin pending in the center

prone to all sorts of attack

from the queen and the bishop

so Bishop e 2 is the right move

and now night b 6

preparing the assault on the deep pawn

and preparing night d 5 or rook d five

so let's see what happened here

Irina played a remarkable move

a really powerful move

that I think maybe Shabalov underestimated

knight to c 5

the whole point is that now the c

6 pawn is under attack

and black doesn't have sufficient time to win material

if Rook takes d 4 then immediately black is in trouble

you might ask what about bishop takes c 5

well exactly the same thing

queen takes

and then black is in trouble after rook d seven

simply Queen takes your 5

and the two bishops and white simply dominate the game

so

this is probably the move that Shabalov underestimated

but his position still remains pretty solid

with the move rook g five

blockading all the threats and at the same

at the same time hitting the bishop on G5

now knight takes a 6

queen takes a 6 and the simple move bishop e 3

so you can say that we have reached critical position

in the opening and before we go any further

let's try to use our judgment to try to evaluate

and give an assessment who is better to the position

so

it's really hard to figure out

the strengths and weaknesses

but

let me give you a guide to how you can figure it out

using a simple method

so the first thing is king safety

No. 1 in chess

is to make sure you're not getting mated

so Kingdom E1 versus Kingdom E8

it is clear that Kingdom

E1 is probably safer than his counterpart

because with the next move

white can Castle

and the king is gonna be behind the wall of f 2

g 3 h 2 fortress and black cannot really break through

Black's king on the other hand

is kind of protected for the time being

but the problem is he can never castle kingside

and the only way that he can walk to the queenside

because he cannot castles through king d seven

and then king c 7 and even there

because black pawns are so far advanced

he's gonna feel uncomfortable

because of moves such as a

3 and b 3

opening up the queen side

completely so king safety I would give a plus to white

well the next thing

let's take a look at material advantage

who is winning who has an extra material

well white does have 2 bishops

and as far as the pawns we are even

except

white

is up a pawn

but the problem is

we're not really seeing this pawn advantage play

in the middle game

because of this such complex position

we are really far away from the endgame

but nevertheless

let's keep in mind that white

is up a pawn

next thing is two bishops

normally two bishops is a very

very big advantage on open positions

but this position has a tendency to become open

but for now it's rock solid

but if white and licious move B3

then he is really

she is really gonna have a very powerful attack

so I would give this as a plus to what

now what else

well

these are the major things

what about the minor things

such as squares weaknesses

positional weaknesses and endgames

now in terms of weaknesses

I would think I would think we're about even here

white has its weaknesses black has its weaknesses

so you can't really judge looking at the position

but about squares and endgames

I would give an edge to white

because 2 bishops and pawn up

in any endgame is a big plus

so to sum it up

I would say that white has a good advantage

and black has to be very careful in order not to slip

and in the game

Shabalov made the immediate mistake in this position

he slipped

and he played B 3 and immediately got punished

what he should have done is figure out that

he should keep his fortress

on the Queen side and check

to make sure the bishops are not really

doing the damage

and try to solidify his pieces on the squares

such as queen on d 5 and rook on f 5 so I would start

with the move queen b 5

with the idea to solidify after rook to f five

this is probably the best choice

but probably after B3 I would prefer white

simply because of this dangerous pin

now besides Queen b 5

let's try to figure out what else

how else can black try to hold the position

well probably another alternative is queen a four

with the

idea to try to hold off B3 for as long as possible

or queen b 7 and then rook f 5

but again

Black's position is not a pleasant one

and I would prefer white

so with B3

Shabalov goes all out he's

he burns all bridges

and tries to complicate the position

and this is where we have to give credit to Irina

for not being afraid and for playing very well

good chess

simple castle and she's not afraid of anything

she understands that

all of these black assaults on the queen side

are not really going anywhere

and king safety is what matters most

so after B 3 castles

b takes a yes black got a pawn all the way to a 2

but so what look at all these points a 2 c 4 c 6

they're really weak points

and all white needs

to do is to open up the position just a little bit

and black will collapse immediately

so Irina plays a very powerful move b 3

and now

it's completely tough for black to defend his position

I would give white a very large advantage

at this moment

so King d seven

and b takes c

again due to the pin

black cannot take on c 4 because of rook c 1

and what to do

well Shabalov tries desperation attempt

rook a 5

and Irina simply plays Queen e 4 and now queen a four

so the king is in the center

white has two bishops

an ability to open up the position even more

no wonder that the game finished very

very quickly in the next few moves

Irina won

so let's see how it happened

Rook f c 1 again

notice that she doesn't go for the throat

but she builds up and simply says

I'm gonna prepare my attack

whereas

black doesn't really have any moves that can help him

so rook f c 1

Rook a 5 again

moves like that are not really helping black

and bishop d 1

not just the queen

a little bit from protecting the c 6 square

Queen a 3

again

see how quiet Bishop d 1 moves and another quiet move

yet an attacking move Bishop f 3

and now all of a sudden

black cannot defend the c 6 square

and at this moment Shabalov resigned

because after queen a 4

white can finish off the game with a nice

rook sacrifice Rook takes

queen takes

Queen takes pawn check

queen d 8 King d 8 sorry and bishop f four

again mates are hanging in the air

C7 square cannot be defended

so black has to play e 5

and now Bishop takes

now again what to do

Rook has to take pawn takes

and now there is no defense against Rook d 1

Black has to sacrifice his queen

and he's completely lost

Bishop on F8 and rook on h8 are not playing the game

so as you see this is a beautiful win by Irina

against the current US champion

in 25 moves

and this shows you that

modern opening theory has to be thoroughly studied

even if you are the US champion

sometimes you make one mistake in the opening

especially super sharp Botvinnik variation

that could lead to disaster

but I would give the credit to Irina

she played perfectly

and she had actually a great run at the tournament

I think she increased her rating by a lot of points

she actually went over 25 USCF

and let's wish her more luck in future tournaments

thank you very much and I hope to see you all next time

bye bye