Original subtitles

hi everyone this is Grandmaster Eugene Perelshteyn

and together with Chess lecture.com

I'd like to welcome you to an unusual lecture today

called losing to the Boy Genius

the reason why this is a very unusual lecture for me

is because this is the game that I lost

in a very recent tournament

where I played in New England Masters

and this is a Round 8 game

against the most talented chess player in America

very promising young kid I think he's 12 years old

Ray Robinson

so together with you I would like to look at this game

and to try to understand

since I lost it where I went wrong

and at the same time

I'd like to show you how brilliantly this kid played

and he basically checkmated me

in the game

so let's start I'm black he plays E4

so I usually play different openings

but my main opening is the accelerator Dragon

but this time I decided to try classical approach

and I played the E5

so after night of 3

knight c 6

bishop b 5

a 6 bishop a 4

so the this is the main royal opus so far

night of six castles

Bishop e 7

rook e 1

defending the e 4 pawn

b 5

Bishop b 3

and now I play the most classical move d six

in the past years the Marshall attack after castles

has become really popular after C3D5

but I really wasn't sure if my opponent knows

the theory here

so that's why I decided to take the classical route

and to test my young opponent

in the line after d 6

so C3

castles

H3

so we are on the steps of giants

this is the classical rylopez

and black has basically

at least a dozen ways to counter white setup

but I chose the oldest and the time tested

Chigorin variation

night A5

Bishop c 2 and c 5

so let me briefly

talk a little bit about this pawn structure

and what are the plans for either side

the key for black in this position

is to get his knight from a 5 into the game

this is a very big bad piece

and once black solves the problem with the knight

he's usually okay

now white is at the same time

has to figure out the problem of the knight on d

on b 1 but it's a little bit easier

as the knight usually goes to f 1 via d 2

and sometimes to h 2 or g 3

helping white with his attack on the king side

but after c 5 the main line is

of course to fight for the center with d 4

and here I chose the time tested queen C seven

again this is very

very complex opening

but Black's structure

is sort of reminiscent of Sicilians

where Black's bishop is usually on g seven

and you might say this is like the bishop b 5

Sicilian's where bishop goes to B 5

then a 4 and c 2

so those are kind of a little bit similar ideas

where black has opponent c 5

and let it plays e 5 to challenge white in the center

so my opponent plays D5

closing the center

and basically deciding in favor of kingside attack

versus central play the main line is

of course night b

d two

he's not afraid to give up the d 4 pawn temporarily

after c d

C d

E d

because of his very centralized pieces

he can either play Knight takes d 4

or move the knight to f 1 first

but I had a couple of ideas in mind here

and it's just a different variation

you can say

but D5

so what makes D5

so strong

well why just close the center

this is very important remember that

whenever you wanna attack on the king side

you have to make sure the center is closed

so this is exactly what my young opponent does

after d 5 I cannot open the center in any way

and his plan is actually quite simple

night B d two

night f 1 g 4

night g 3 followed by the king side attack

whereas I really don't have as many pieces to defend

because of the knight on a five

what usually happens is

the black brings the knight into the game

via b 7

and sometimes d 8

and sometimes plays f 6 and knight f 7

and the other one is usually placed on g 7 via g 6

knight h 5 knight g 7

so we have this little interesting setup

where black tries to counteract White's attack

and the same time Black's plan is to attack in the

on the king's

on the queen side with c 4 and then a 5 and b four

so let's see what happened in the game so Bishop d 7

connecting my rooks

and not quite showing my opponent what my next move is

night B d two

and c 4 again

I'm getting ready to put my knight on c 5

and then play a 5 b four

taken more space on the queen side

so knight of one

and night b 7

again I am very patiently waiting for the g 4 move

because I have a very interesting idea

in this position

and this is exactly what my opponent plays

this is the main move g four

and I play at first against all rules

I play on the same side where my opponent

has strength I play h 5

so instead of me playing on the queen side with a 5

b 4

I challenge my opponent immediately on the king side

because he has a temporary weakness on H3

this temporary weakness gives me a chance

to try to build up a fortress

so after G takes H Bishop takes h 3

I get sufficient play on the king side myself

and the h 5 pawn is really weak

especially the light squares around the king

but after night f h two

which is actually played in the game

I play g 6

so trying to build up defenses on the king side

and I'm not really afraid of bishop h 6 or bishop g 5

so if bishop g 5

well then I can simply play night takes d 5

end of Bishop h six

but after rook e 8 followed by king h 7

I get plenty of counterplay myself and if knight g 3

I can always kick the knight out with h 4

followed by knight h 7

and grabbing the g 5 square for my knight

so in this position I was pretty happy with myself um

whereas my opponent clearly wasn't aware of this plan

and he took time to figure out

and make a very interesting move

he plays F4 immediately trying to open up the position

so if I take on a 4 Bishop takes

now all of a sudden

he's always gonna be threatening with E5

and I don't have a knight on e 5 yet

and to get the knight to e 5

my bishop on d 7 is on the way

so it's not so easy for me to play this position

that's why I take on g 4 first and after pawn takes

I play knight h seven

so I am actually fighting for g 5 square

now after e takes f bishop of 4

all of a sudden

bishop or knight can go to g 5 with sufficient play

and at the same time

white cannot play knight f 3 because the g pawn hangs

so really

he has to watch out for bishop h 4

or e takes f and knight g 5 or bishop g five

but again my opponent makes a wise decision to play f 4

he's not afraid of bishop g 5 flight

dark square change because of a simple move

knight of 3

Bishop takes c 1 and now he can take with the queen

and after king g 7

he can simply play queen e 3 followed by knight g 3

king g 2 or even g 5

sufficient attack on the king side

no need to have dark square bishop

and that's the reason why I play knight g five

alright the idea of night

g five is to take control over the g five square

and to meet night f 3 with either simple move

queen d eight

or more aggressive approach

night check and night at 4 check

trying to get an imbalance position

but queen d 8 is the reasonable move

which I prepared during the game

and my opponent actually plays king g two

so after f 5

knight g 5 king g 2

defending against any knight h 3 ideas I might have

again I was pretty happy with my position why well

I have the g 5 square

the position is really kind of closed on the king side

except that I can now play on the h file

after king g 7 rook h 8

and at the same time

after knight c five and a five before

I can play on the queen side

so

my goal is to keep the position as closed as possible

on on the king side

and not to give my opponent any counter play at all

so that's the reason behind king G7

and now he plays Knight of three

and I realized that after

rook h 8 which I planned during the game

the position becomes not as clear as I wanted it to be

so actually 1 second

so after queen d 8 first

the position becomes not as clear as I wanted to be

because of the move knight 1 to h 2

and now if I follow up

with rook a8 Knight takes bishop takes

and knight F3

and I really wasn't sure if this is good for me or not

because I give up the G5 square

so that's why I played immediately after night of three

because I really wanna get the g 5 square

for my bishop I took queen takes and queen d 8

hoping to meet my g 3 with bishop b g 5

of course

but I completely overlooked a very

very powerful move and I underestimated this idea

Queen E3

so he kind of

completely neglects the development of the bishop

temporarily or the knight to g 3

but this powerful

build up on the dark diagonal prevents me

from playing bishop g 5

and he's actually threatening to play king

queen to h six

so that's why I play rook h 8 and now 9 g three

so you see how he puts me in this bind

where both of my bishops are not really playing much

but since I exchanged the pair of pieces

and remember in cramped positions

it's very

very important to exchange at least a pair of pieces

I'm not doing as bad as I could be

so now I play N I c five

and I'm not really afraid of the move g 5 at all

the reason why is because after g 5

I can play f 6 and challenge my opponent

because his king is also weak

so that's why g 5 is not such a big danger

but he simply plays Bishop G2 and now all of a sudden

I'm trying to figure out my plan and I can't

because what if he's gonna play rook h 1

g 5 and I really can't do

anything that quickly on the queen side

so I finally decided enough is enough

and I'm gonna build defensive set up with G5 F6

so I start with F6 first

if I play G5 I wasn't sure if he can sack upon with F6

and then a 9H 5 and this is probably okay for him

but I wasn't sure about that so that's why I start with

f 6 first not being afraid of takes

king takes not f 5 and now I can probably take on f 5

and if pawn takes king of 7

his king is really weak and if e pawn takes

I could also play king of 7

and it's not so easy for his two bishops to get

valuable advantage

so my opponent continues with his plan again

he plays perfectly for the 25 moves so far

Rook h 1

and now

the threat I'm taking on G6 full by night

F5 is looming in the air

and I quickly close up the position with G5 move

so again

I'm quite happy with my position as long as I control

the defensive squares

and he doesn't have any attack going at all

but the problem is after rook takes h 8

Queen takes h 8

he takes over the h 5 first with rook h 1

and all of a sudden after king

queen to g 8 he plays queen to g 1

and I am getting a little uncomfortable

because of the plan rook h 3

queen h 1 and he takes over the h file completely

so to anticipate that

I ran away with my king to the other side

or at least I tried to king of seven

so now if he plays queen h 2

I can simply play king to e 8 and run away

or even king or bishop f 8

and then king is on king d 8

King is on

but he plays a very powerful move again

very good move rook to h 6

he's eyeing that g 6 square for the rook

and at the same time

he's ready to double up on the h five

so now I have to play extremely careful

so I attack the rook

rook g six

run away with my queen

notice I have to play queen h 8 because queen h 7

I have to give up the queen after night h 5

and rook g seven

again I might have some compensation here for the Queen

but why would I wanna give up my queen so early

for no reason

so that's why I play queen h 8

and anticipate in either h 5

and then I just simply play bishop e 7

all happy and ready to change

rook after rook to g eight

whereas Roger 7 is not much of a threat

I can drop back and prepare Bishop E8 retreat

so again I was quite happy with my position

but my opponent after queen h 8

uncorks a complete surprise move

on the other side of the board b four

he's basically trying to say

well I did everything I could on the queen side

sorry on the king side by paralyzing my queen

now he wants to open up the king

the queen side

and this is

truly shows how

well advanced my opponent is on his chess understanding

for a 12 year old this is amazingly

and surprisingly good so B takes C

a takes B and now I play a 5 in anticipation of b 4

the a file needs to be opened up

so he plays B4 of course a takes B

C takes B and now I drop to night A4

and here he plays night h 5

forcing Bishop to e 7 and now queen c one

and in this complicated position

I make the first and probably the last

blunder of the game

after which my position is becoming

on the verge of being lost

so I play queen to see

completely underestimating the beautiful sacrifice

which fall

what actually keeps me in the game is rook to C

because now the sacrifice is not as dangerous

and he has to really work hard to break the pin

on the c file in the meantime

if the queen moves I can try to change rook at rook g 8

and Black's position is OK

white is probably slightly better but not by a lot

so Queen c 8 is a terrible blunder

that I just simply played fast

and completely underestimated my opponent's next move

which is

Rook check

king of faith and Bishop takes g five

so this cold shower really brought back

brought me back to thinking here

what to do

my position is about to collapse here

so what happens I immediately

try to see if I can have counterplay

what if I drop my knight back followed by rook a 2

because somehow

I felt that taking the bishop is just bad

so that's why I don't even calculate too much F to x g

and I play knight b 6 first

but let's take a look at why

taking on G5 is not that great

well first of all he can play rook h 7

and now threatening rook h 8 check

if I move my queen

let's say queen c 3

then rook h h check simply wins the rook

so Bishop E8

and now

F6

so notice how easy white attack is

so this is one idea but the main idea

what I was kind of afraid of is Rook takes e 7

why well

if king takes e 7 then this is a mate right here

it's over just as quickly as it start

so

do I have a different move after rook takes e seven

what happens if I play night b 6

this is probably the critical line

so after night b 6 let's take a look at Queen takes g 5

so I am basically defenseless against mate

and my only hope is to give perpetual

to the king so queen takes c 2

king h 3 rook h a 3

check knight g 3

not king h 4 because of mate

so night g 3 Rook takes g 3

King takes g 3

queen check

king h 4 remember if king tries to go to h 2

then we just keep on repeating perpetual queen

check king h five

and now in this position

black is really on the verge of losing

because after Bishop check

the right move is not to play king h 6

which immediately gets white into trouble

but a simple move Rook takes e 8

and now the queen and two pawns

is just more than enough for black to handle

so check king d 7 f 6

King c 7 f 7

knight d 7

and this position should be easily winning

after f 8 night takes

queen takes because the king can

pawn will advance quite easily here

simply because

black doesn't have as many squares for the queen

to check to check

and another reason is

because Black's king is right there

where white wants him to be

helping to advance White's point

so this is completely lost

and I didn't even have to time to calculate all of this

but it's clear that my opponent saw

probably all of this at the board

and so I hope he saw all of this at the board

and decided in favor of what

so after night b 6

I was still hoping to get away in this position

after Bishop takes pawn

takes for example

and followed by rook a 2 in the right moment

or maybe even I takes one

but now the rook is hanging

but the move that I completely missed

it is a simple move Rook h seven

and now all of a sudden I am in big

big trouble

the rook h 8 is a big threat

the bishop the knight

I mean the rook yeah

no longer is defended by the knight

so the knight can take to f 6 and this is basically

on the verge of collapse for me

so probably what I could have done is

I could have taken here and played down a queen

and given that my opponent didn't have too much time

this was probably the best practical chance

although white is still better and has

black doesn't really have sufficient play for the queen

and I decided that I might have some

perpetual ideas

and play the move queen c 4

again my opponent was quick to notice that

there is no perpetual at all and he takes on f six

and now of course I could have simply resigned

after I realized that after queen check

King G3

there is no perpetual

and if I even sacrifice the rook the king runs away

via this

square via the h 4 square

no problem at all

and now I did see that I'm getting checkmated

but since my opponent didn't have much time

I decided to play one more move

Bishop takes and after queen h 6

king g 8 my last hope that if he takes with the knight

then I can try to run away and actually fight

but no

he goes for the throat for the mate with rook H a check

and now I can happily resign

if rook if bishop takes queen takes

I am getting mated after f six

and the game is off

and if I go to Kingdom of seven

then I'm getting mated

via queen f 6 check

now king g 8 then queen g 7 and king g 8 9 G 7 mate

so it's clear where black went wrong

at least the blunder on G5

for me is really bad with Queen C8

but if you look at the game overall

white didn't make a single mistake

and this is amazingly for only 12 year old kid

so I would think that Ray Robson is extremely talented

and he basically outplayed me

and with his final blow of Bishop takes G5

I had really no chance at all

and my main mistake was to play Queen C8

instead of Rookside after he played Quincy 1

but even there

I'm not sure if black has sufficient

play to actually get a good game

probably enough to fight for a draw

but amazing play by such a young boy

thank you very much

and I hope you Learned a valuable lesson

from this game bye bye