Original subtitles

hi everyone this is Grandmaster Eugene Perelstein

and together with Chess lecture.com

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

now the topic of today's lecture is a very

very profound and beautiful idea in chess

called the Desperado piece

and I'm gonna talk shortly what a Desperado piece means

and this is the Karpov and Desperado rook

that we're talking about which is amazing

amazing game

played by Anatoly Karpov against one of the top

you know world's attacking players

Veselin Topalov

way back in Linhares 1994

when Karpov demolished one of the strongest field

fields ever produced

including Kasparov with 11 out of 13

this is his dream tournament

and

probably one of the best performances in his career

so carpal was white Topolo was black

let's begin

d 4 Knight f 6 c 4

c five

so now this game was played in 1994

which is way past Karpov's prime

when he used to play D4

when he started to play D4 actually

and he used to play E4 for a long time

and then he switched to more solid repertoire

and now he is not trying to

strive for immediate opening advantage

as a matter of fact he just plays chess

and Topalov is inviting him to go for a very sharp

for example Benko gambit or a modern Benoni

where there is a lot of theory

and Karpov says I want none of that

I just want to play simple chess

so knight at 3 c takes d knight takes and e 6

alright

so now Carpal Finch Arrow says Bishop G 3 Knight c 6

Bishop G 2 Bishop c 5 forcing

the night to leave the center

night b 3 a tempo move hitting the Bishop

Bishop e 7

night c 3 so far just simple development castles

castles and d six

so let's briefly take a look in this position

and see what we have here

black has a typical hedgehog type of structure

which could arise from many openings

um whereas white has a weird looking knight on b three

sort of misplaced you can say

so in the seemingly quietly position

you can say calm position

carpool unleashes unbelievable attack

not only that

his moves are very very strong and very hard to guess

so the first move he plays is Bishop f 4

a very unusual place to develop the bishop

because the bishop could be hit with e 5 or knight h 5

but at the same time he puts the bishop on a square

where he's attacking the weakness on d 6

so

it's very hard for black to develop his light square

bishop to d seven

so the reaction by Topalov is

obvious night h 5

he's trying to displace the bishop from a 4

and yet another unpredictable move by Karpov

and a very very strong move e three

he is ready to give up a bishop pair but not only that

he's ready to double up his pawns so this is very

very interesting play by Karpov and I think very

very instructive play in these types of positions

so there is no reason to play g 6

as h 6 square is now weak

and Karpov takes the bishop and the question now

do you take towards the center

away from the center and again

unconventional decision to take away from the center

by Karpov

and you're gonna see shortly why so E takes F

bishop d 7

queen d 2 and queen b 8 so top of of

can't really find a good square for the queen

because on c 7 could be hit by a knight from b 5

so for now

he plays queen d 8 with idea to play rook d 8

and possibly to play hedgehog type of plan

a 6 and b five

so it's clear that black has a bishop pair

and a comfortable position

but how can we explain White's play

and let me talk a little bit about this position

so white has two powerful points c 4 and f four

they are like a clamp they are keeping black in a bind

now Queen on b 8 is defending the d 6 pawn

so does the bishop on e seven

but there is one thing that carpool is good at

is spotting chances and counter chances

so with this little quiet move

Rook f 2 e 1 he is setting up a nice trap to play f 5

and the weakness

of the bishop on e 7 would be obvious after f 5

because black cannot take

so with this seamlessly quiet move

he makes black to commit and play g 6

and that's what top of plays

and now

really really powerful move h four

so you see how he made black commit to g 6

black king is a little bit weaker

white is very safe and now white is playing h 4

what I did to play h 5 to open up the enemy king

and yet it's still very unclear to me

how the heck is white

gonna transfer all his pieces on the king side

and checkmate black

so this is very instructive play by Karpov

so top of the place

he has plan on the queenside with a 6

h 5 b 5 so black is getting counter chances

so white has to be careful h 6 g H take G

so now it's unclear that

white has anything going for him on the king side

but the key is and Carpo is really good on this

is to get all of his pieces involved

so the bishop on G2 is playing a very good role

the rook on e 1 is playing a good role

so there is something missing

and that's the knight on b 3

completely isolated from the game and knight c 5 xclam

and of course

Topalov doesn't mind trading the knight for the bishop

so he takes with the pawn queen takes

and now he sets up a very

very powerful trap rook to eight

so you see that if bishop takes knight

there is rook a 7 hitting the queen

white has nothing better than to retreat

Rook takes his 6 and now black has a fine position

with chances to take over the initiative

so this is a very interesting trap by Topalov

but now we're back to the theme of today's lecture

the topic of today's lecture

Desperado piece what does that mean

and the reason why rook c 8

and this whole plan is not so good for black

is there is this unbelievable move

Rook takes e 6

so if you saw this you should give yourself credit

Rook takes e 6 is very hard to see during the game

and probably top of missed it

and now if pawn takes rook

then simply queen takes with check

king goes somewhere and bishop takes knight

you can see that white has overwhelming compensation

for the exchange

but Topalov doesn't want to take the rook

he throws in rook a 7 in there

and now this move is really

probably shocked Topalov of his seat Rook takes G six

the rook wants to be taken

this is the whole point behind the Desperado piece

that piece does as much damage to the enemy position

and until it's it's taken right

so basically you wanna bring yourself into

sacrifice for as much as possible

and take all of these points

and that's what the rook does it's a desperado rook

so well black has nothing better but to take the rook

and now again Queen's e 6 check

and Bishop takes 9

so now

it's clear that white has sufficient compensation

for the exchange

and yet it's still not so easy to checkmate the king

so let's take a look at this position

try to evaluate that

so the material is roughly even more or less

because white has the two pawns for the exchange

now black has some defensive ideas

such as queen d 6 maybe

and the problem is rook on c 8 is hanging

so Topalov plays rook d 8 first

now the question is

does the opposite color bishops give white

an edge in the attack and the answer is yes

of course

because it's gonna be easier to create threats

whereas Black's dark square

bishop

would not be able to defend all the light squares

around the king

and it's very hard to keep the king safe with only one

weak pawn on g six

so while a lot of people will try to shift their focus

on the

king side

and try to maybe play bishop e 4 or knight d 5

Karpov is very keen in realizing that

the king is not going anywhere

and it's time to take some material

so very strong move pawn takes b five

you never know when that extra pawn on the queen side

will help you

so pawn takes b five

so what to do now for black

so let's try to figure it out

what Topalov plays

well he's trying to activate the bishop now bishop f 6

and now simple centralizing move knight e four

so bishop takes b 2 is not a problem

we can simply play rook b 1 and if bishop f 6

my guess is now b 6 and very very powerful

centralize and play by Karpov

so night e 4 and now Topalov centralizes his bishop

bishop d 4 which makes sense

and the pawn on b 5 is not going anywhere

okay

and now again

a lot of people will try to look in the king side

bishop d 5 knight g 5

but there is no forced win

so Karpov correctly takes another pawn on a 6

notice that you can't really take with the rook

as you give up the e 7 square

and the king is gonna be in this array

and getting mated so

that leaves

black to try to pick up that pawn with the queen

so queen b 6 pinning the bishop

and now the pawn on a 6 is playing a very crucial role

and you're gonna see why rook d 1 again

look at this quiet move

really it's hard to explain

why would somebody play a rook d 1

so top of play queen takes a 6 and now he's shocked

probably for the third time in this game

he's shocked because of this next

move rook takes d 4

now the other rook is destroying Black's defenses

this is unbelievable game by Karpov

so rook takes d four

if pawn takes then this simply loses to queen f 6

and the rook on d 8 is hanging

and now the combination of queen

knight and bishop is really overwhelming

and the rooks on d 4 and a 7 can't really help

so now with the checks

white should be able to win all of the points

queen f 6 check

black doesn't have much of a choice

but you simply go back Queen takes king f 8

and now Carpo is really good at centralizing his pieces

so look what he does Queen check

King g 7 Queen d 5

he really loves centralizing the queen

to control all the key squares and the dark squares

and then he's gonna defend the d

5 square for his bishop

so now Topalov is struggling and he plays King G

Knight of six everybody wants to play king of seven

now Bishop joins the party

king of eight

well and now it's a matter of

finishing black off with queen takes pawn check

so now the rook is hanging

so Topalov decides to give up the other rook

and get the exchange back

well the only problem now is that he is 5 pawns behind

so that exchange

doesn't play a role and now a simple quiet move

Bishop h five

and black is totally busted

there is no defense whatsoever

so top of all played a few more moves

Rook d 2 b 3

rook b 2 and now typical Karpov like move king g 2

solidifying everything

and there is really no defense against the pawn

march on the queenside and Topal resign

a really brilliant masterpiece by Karpov

and very instructive

so let's go back and try to understand

the key moments of this game

and why this Desperado idea is so

so powerful in this position

so let's go back in the opening

and there are a lot of moves that are kinda hard to

explain but now they all should make sense to you

so the first plan is to get the night

away from the center on B3

which is very unnatural

so let's go back where this happened

so this night be 3 move

with a simple idea to gain a tempo on the bishop

so with this car for gets a slight edge in development

and now this bishop f 4 move

with a simple idea to defend with the pawn

a very powerful idea

giving up the bishop pair for lasting advantage

and the clamp on Black's position with the c 4

f four

and now I think the crucial moment is this rook f 2

e 1

threatening f 5

making top of commit with g 6

which already may be a mistake

and h 4

as a matter of fact

Topalov might have tried to play h 5

but after f 5 this has gotten very ugly

pawn takes queen h 6 and really the king is wide open

so he had to do something

does the counterplay on the queen side with b 5

and this is almost by force

he goes into this position and now move double X clan

Rook takes e six

the rook is becoming a desperado piece

because black can't really take it

and now he forces

Carpo forces top off to take the rook

and now the game is practically over

again pay attention to the to the technique

there is always

all the time in the world to take these pawns

after rook d 8 c takes b

and now this final idea of rook d 1

and rook takes d 4 is a killer

totally killer plan

to gain control over all the squares around the king

by killing the last defender

and the rest is just simply picking up the material

by Karpov

so I hope you Learned a good deal of

of lessons from this you know

seemingly quiet opening and very powerful attack

and Karpovian desperado rook is what wins this game

one rook on e 6 then takes on g 6

then he sacks the rook on d 4 amazing play by carpool

so I hope you enjoy today's lecture

and I'll see you next time bye bye