Original subtitles

hi everyone this is Grandmaster Eugene Perelshteyn

and welcome to today's lecture

now as some of you know

I played at the recent tournament

Spice Cup Invitational

which is a category 15 tournament

organized by Susan Polgar

and Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas

this is the strongest ever 10 player

round Robin tournament in United States

and since I won the last year's tournament

which was category 12

I automatically got invited to this one

and this is actually pretty funny

I I am sort of say the defending champion

but at the same time

I'm the lowest rated participant out of the 10 players

my rating was lowest at about 2550

while one of the top seeds is Alex Onischuk

and Harry Krishna from India

and of course there are many other famous chess players

so the tournament was actually quite tough for me

I ended up losing to a Cuban

with black in the first round

then I made a few draws

then I lost to Anishuke with black again

and later on I even lost to Kaidanov with black

so I had three losses and a few draws

but then toward the end

I really got more confident maybe

or even started to play better

and I won against 10 time Icelandic champion

Stefansson in round seven

and in the last round I played a really good game

and I beat very strong grandmaster from Israel

Mikhailovsky and today I wanna show you this game

which I think is really instructive

and another

thing I want you to notice about this game is

if my opponent wins he gets a tie for first place

so this is kind of psychological battle

you know for me I'm just playing chess

I have really nothing to worry about it

but my opponent played

with some kind of nervous tension

so let's take a look at this game

I am playing white

and the first move I play is night f three

now of course in round Robin tournaments

one of the most important things is to prepare well in

in the opening so Knight of 3 is the ready move order

but really Knight of 3 is more of a transposition move

usually the game transposes into some kind of English

or other openings so my opponent plays night of 6 c 4

c 5 so so far so good this is the symmetrical English

and now after night c 3

he plays D5 and for those of you who are accelerated

Dragon Chest players

you automatically notice that now we get

similar to Martha's setup

except we are tempo up because we're playing white

and this is what happens after C takes d 95 G three

night C6 Bishop G2

first Black prepares night C7

with idea to play E5 and set up the bind in the center

now why can't black play E5 immediately

so this is a good question to answer

if you look carefully the position

you notice that white has a very nice tactic here

and I takes pawn

now if night takes

then simply night takes d 5 or bishop d 5

winning a pawn

but if we continue exchanging

night d 1 night d 8

it's clear that

white is doing really really well

so if black recaptures the knight

white recaptures on d 1 White is up a pawn

but what if you continue a little bit further

now it takes f two

well we can't even play 90s F7

90s H1

well how about knight takes h 8

and now there is a problem

knight on h 1 is trapped

while the knight on h 8 still has some time to live

and after night take g 3 pawn takes

white is temporarily up a piece

so this is really good for white

so let's go back

and that's the reason why e 5 is bad

so night c seven

D3 and now E5

so we are basically in the

Mart's a variation

except again up a tempo

so let's see how this favors white

so black simply plays bishop e 7

so after d 3 e 5

well I

I castle first and after bishop e 7

what is the goal of white setup

and the key here is the outpost on c 4

and the bishop on g 2 so the next move is quite obvious

you open up the bishop

and you move the knight from g 2 to c four

Mihalevski played Bishop to d 7

now why is this move usually played

of course black and simply Castle

but this gives white an extra option

for example I can start with night c 4

and after f 6 I can even

give up my very strong bishop for the knight on c 6

and very seldom

this is very important

very seldom do you give up such a powerful piece

but on these types of position

it's a concrete threat you double up the pawns

and you're not really afraid to weaken your king

because you can always play f 3

and block the light squares

but c

5 and c 6 are what is called the chronic weaknesses

and now with b 3 bishop a 3

knight a 4 or bishop e 3

knight e 4 these pawns

especially the pawn on c 5

are likely to get you know

in big trouble

so that's why this gives an extra option for white

and Michalowski plays the correct move

Bishop d 7

Knight c 4 again

castling is a possibility

but the pawn sacrifice after bishop takes

bishop takes knight e 5 Bishop e 8

I believe is not sufficient

and as a matter of fact

I played the game exactly like this

and after Bishop e 8

this is my game against a pretty strong

master level player

Michael Agner from the US Championship in 2008

so if you're interested

I would highly recommend you look at this game

how I realized the extra point

so alright so let's keep going

I d 2 Bishop d 7 94 f 6

so unlike the regular Marcy Bond

Black hasn't had time to castle

that's why immediately

white can continue his attack on the center

with the move f 4 and this is what I played

now take a look what what happens if pawn takes f 4

Bishop takes f four

now the knight on c 7 is a little bit in trouble

because I can take and play knight d 5

and really good powerful piece play

so the whole point

behind white setup is to get

important piece play in the center

and black of course has more space

and his goal is to try to build the bind

so f 6 followed by rooks 8 and b 6

and some kind of a bind or even b 5

so okay

I play f 4 and now Michalowski plays the correct b five

so he kicks the knight from powerful outpost on c 4

knight e 3

and now he gets to unpin the rook rook to c eight

so black still maintains strong buying in the center

but he hasn't castled yet

and now of course pawn on b 5 becomes a target

and the correct move here is a 4

and this is what I played

I'm forcing black to either concede the a file

for example a 6 takes takes this gives me the a file

or by playing b 4

he gives up very important outpost on c 4 so pay very

strong attention to this square

this is gonna be the key square

for the rest of the game

and now I play this unusual looking move

knight to B 5 of course I can play simple move knight

knight to d 5 so for example knight takes

knight takes

and this is just a good position for white

you know slight edge

but I was kind of a little bit afraid that after

maybe night takes

night takes I might not get such

a crucial advantage in the opening

so I think 9 b 5 perhaps puts more pressure on black

because if black plays knight takes b 5

pawn takes knight d 4

I have this very strong move pawn takes e 5 pawn takes

and now in addition to rook takes a 7

I can simply play knight c four

and now with the threat of E3

night takes E5 and queen H5 check

it's possible that black

skin would never be able to get out

so this is my main idea of night B5

so black has to play extremely carefully now

in order not to get in trouble

and of course move such as a 6 only helps white

because I can always take

and now I have a pleasant choice to play 95

with a tempo or 94

getting the outpost on c four

so that's why black has to take on F4 this is key

and now we reached one of the crucial position

in this variation

you can call it of the symmetrical English

of course I can simply recapture on a 4

but also as another possibility I can take on C6

and now if bishop takes c 6

Knight takes a 7 hitting the bishop and the rook

so black has to play very careful now

so for example after bishop c 6

it's probably best to simply take the knight on e three

and now after Bishop d 7 Queen d 7

Bishop e 3

Knight b 5 8 x b

black can try to play this position

but the key point

the key point here to understand

is that sometimes

black can even sacrifice the exchange

so that's why it's very

kind of hard for me to calculate all of these lines

after bishop takes c 6

because if black gets my powerful bishop on g 2

so for example after E takes f

bishop takes c six

and let's say Pontix 97

these types of possessions are not so easy to evaluate

why

because sometimes black can simply play rook a eight

and after bishop takes queen takes this exchange

sacrifice is powerful why

because bishop comes to H3

potentially the angle is wide open

and there is still plenty of

problems white has to solve but not of course

nevertheless Bishop takes c 6

is I I agree

this is probably the best way to try for

for an advantage at a grandmaster level

but I actually chose a different plan

I simply take on c 7

of course rook takes and now pawn takes f four

so I'm not trying to gain material

I'm simply playing chess

and if you look at the position what does white have

white has the c 4 outpost for the knight

d 3 and e 2 central points

and potentially I can play b 3

bishop b 2 and have two bishops on the best diagonals

on the board

so my strategy is called a long term strategy right

I am slowly gonna utilize all these pluses

to build up a strong middle game position

so I think this is very instructive

in terms of how white can build up from

you know lacking space

but key squares and probably better pieces

how he can gain the middle game advantage

alright

so my Michaelski plays bishop e 6 to prevent knight e 5

and now I play

night to see four

as a matter of fact in this position I had F5 move

so let's try to evaluate this F5 move

and try to understand

whether or not this is a good move or why

well

I didn't like to tell you the truth at 5

and it's hard to explain

but my main intuitive feeling is that it's too losing

because black can simply play bishop f 7

and now the e 5 square and the diagonal d 6

h two could become really crucial

and I feel that I still don't have my bishop on c 1

developed whereas d 4 and e 5

and of course the bishop d 6 are gonna come next

and by the way I also felt a little bit uneasy about

future counterplay with g 6

so I felt f 5 is a little premature

and my strategy is to go for knight c four

so here actually instead of Immediate 94

I played B3 first and let me tell you why

Immediate 94 didn't quite appeal to me

well first of all

black can take

and take on d 1

of course I have the intermediate bishop take c 6

but if I take with the rook

this knight d 4 move is a bit annoying

Knight is coming to B 3 and hitting the pawn on e 2

so I wanted to actually take on c 4 with the b pawn

and another thing

why I didn't feel like playing night c 4 right away

is because after night c 4

Bishop d 5 is a possibility

and trading light square bishop

is a bit weakening for my king

so I felt that b 3 first

followed by night c 4 is a better idea

plus I think that control of the d 5 square

and the bishop going to B 2

should make b 3 quite a useful move for now

so the question now is how does black play

White's plan is bishop b 2

knight c 4 e 3 followed by simply central domination

black has to be careful if black plays slow

he can get on a little bit of a trouble

so

my opponent decides to play aggressively with the move

night d four

but it turns out that this plan with nigh G4

is probably already a mistake

I prefer F5

and the key point here to understand is that

Bishop on e 7 is simply a bad piece

after f 5 Bishop b 2 Bishop f 6

Black gets to trade his bad piece

and in return

he gets the complete dark square domination

d 4 and c 3 squares

and now probably I have to take and play 94

and this position is roughly even

because black has its trumps

white has the C4 outpost and it's unclear

probably dynamic equilibrium

that anyone has an advantage here

so this is

I think where Michalowski makes the first slip

and from a psychological perspective 94

because remember he's playing for a win

he needed to win to get at least a tie for first

and from a psychological perspective

night g 4 makes perfect sense

he's getting the central square

he's attacking the b 3 pawn

which is a tempo move

and he's gonna put pressure on my E2 point

but

you're gonna see shortly why the aggressive strategy

backfires completely

so what do I play now

well of course

I'm not really worried about the b 3 pawn

because I'm gonna play night c 4

and that's what I play immediately

and Michaelsky continues with his aggressive strategy

Bishop g 4

and again I have a very simple defensive move

Rook a two

and here of course he should have castled

but he continues with the aggressive strategy

queen d 7 probably what I did to play queen to e six

but I'm not afraid I simply play rook beat 2

and let me explain to you the idea of rook beat 2

you see the problem is my queen is tied up

defending the b 3 pawn and after rook b 2

I can play queen e 1 and e 3

so first I'm gonna break the pin with queen e 1

I'm gonna play e 3 and slowly

all of Black's pieces are simply gonna go backwards

so now you get it

to see how slowly white uncorks his position

it's like a spring which coils right back at black

so what to do now

well for some reason

Michalowski now didn't like queen e 6

and let me explain to you why

first of all I have this nice neat knight e 3 move

hitting the bishop and also blocking the queen

and also getting the d 5 square

but I wanna show you even a more interesting idea

the one that I prepared to play after queen e 6

simple rook f 2 now f five and queen f 1

bishop h 4 now trap

trapping the rook and I saw all of this

I wanted to give up the exchange

this is a positional exchange sacrifice

e 3 Bishop takes queen takes night c 6

and all of this I calculated

and I actually believe that white is slightly better

yes you can say black is simply up and exchange

where is the compensation

but the problem now is that black has very bad

minor pieces the knight on c 6 and the bishop on g 4

furthermore black has no open files

but the key here is the knight on c 4

and the two bishops

which is gonna be g 2 and b 2

so bishop goes to B 2 after rook d 2

and now

these bishops are really ripping apart the whole board

don't forget I have the outpost on e 5

I can play queen g 3 king h 1

try to coordinate attack on the g file and the c 2

the d 3 point is my only weakness

which is easily defendable

either my queen or my bishop

or even the move d 4 later on

so this is I believe

compensation for white

and of course 93 was the other move

immediate 93

hit in the bishop preparing f 5 and I d 5

so black clearly didn't like this and he castles

and I just follow up with my plan

you know

queen e 1 and e 3 so that's what happens now Rook e

rook e 8 e 3 bishop f 8 temporarily pinning

so I have to play queen f 2 to break the pin

96 and now

the next phase of my plan is to finish my development

with Rook d 2 and Bishop b two

and now again this is the key point

that I wanna make here

every move that white made after night d 4

helped white

whereas black didn't achieve anything

the knight lost the tempo by going to d 4

and backwards

Rook

and Bishop of faith didn't really put any pressure

and Bishop on G4 is shooting nowhere

while I'm gonna play bishop b 2

and have all my pieces ideally placed

so I think already here white is white has an edge

so

Mihajlovski is trying to solve the problem of the f 8

bishop and he plays g six

but this just adds more fire

because after bishop b 2 bishop g 7 I have very

very strong move

and let me give you a moment if you can find it

so the key here is that

White's bishops are ideally placed

White's rook on d 2 is perfectly placed

x raying the queen on d 7

and the knight on c 4 is also helping white

so whenever you feel that

all your pieces are perfectly placed

and your opponent doesn't quite have time to

organize his army look for key breakthrough moves

and in this position the breakthrough move is d four

because there is no way black can blockade

this powerful pawn I'm gonna play d 5

d 6 and just two more moves away from queening

so pawn takes pawn takes knight d 8

d 5 Knight of 7 d 6 rook c eight so wow

look how quickly the pawn got to d 6

and queen as we know is not a very good blocking piece

so now what's the next stage of my plan

well No. 1

I gotta get my pawn rolling somehow but No. 2

I can utilize the bad placement of the f

of the g 4 bishop to open up a second front

and this is what I'm gonna show you

the key move now is Knight e three

setting up a small

but really dangerous threat of night sakes

Bishop in d cell

and it's not so easy to defend against that

other than bishop e 6

and now

this is the perfect timing for the second front

I play f 5 now

notice

my queen on f 2 and rook on f 1 are perfectly placed

again together with my bishop on b 2

I'm really putting up tremendous pressure on black

so of course taken on f 5 is suicidal

and Michalowski wins a pawn with Bishop takes

b three takes on g 6 pawn takes

and now the combination that I saw after I played d 4

is a temporary piece sacrifice after bishop takes f 6

so now Bishop takes f 6 Queen takes f 6

and here my opponent was thinking

thinking thinking

but realized that taking

the night may not be such a great idea

so let me try to show you why

rook takes e 3 is not good

so queen takes pawn check

now king to f 8 loses to beautiful tactic

queen h 6

notice that the knight is pinned and queen takes rook

so that means that king h 8 is forced

and now all we need to do is put our rook on the h file

so rook d four

threatening rook h 4 mate

and it turns out there is no way black can stop you

other than the move rook c four

and I actually saw this rook c 4 move

and now white simply simplifies into one endgame

Rook takes f seven

and now this is basically over

if queen takes f 7

Queen takes f 7 rook c 1 check

well

I can simply play queen f 1 or I can even play king f 2

Bishop takes king takes and this is the winning

endgame that I was talking about

so really the rook on e 3 kind of helps white

so that's why this whole line is simply bad or black

so again after rook d 4

rook c 4

rook rook

rook takes f 7 this is over and white is winning

so what does black do

really he has no other option because g 6 is hanging to

but to play Rook e six

so it almost looks like black is saving the game

if I move my queen he can simply maybe take on g 6

and even get a better position

but now the key move here is night g 4

another tempo move

if he takes on f 6 I take fork in

if he doesn't take I'm threatening queen takes f 7

sacking my queen and then night h 6

fork in again this is better for white

so this is already

probably a difficult position to defend

so Michalowski tries to go for the last trick

which is bishop to c 4

and this is simply

bad for black but I still have to play accurately

so after queen 6 f 7 queen 6

knight h six

he plays king h 7

or actually he plays king g 7

and now I play knight x f seven

Bishop f 1 and d 7

so the pawn

the d pawn is the key to all of White's play

so you see

my initial plan to get the pawn going to d 7

finally worked

and now there is no way

for black to defend so he plays Bishop a six

takes takes

of course black is down a piece

but the game is not over yet because he still

if he wins the a 4 pawn

he might be able to create a draw

because the key here is the h 2 pawn

with the bishop on g 2 let's say we exchange everything

it's gonna be a draw

the bishop on g 2 cannot win against the h 8 square

so I still have to play carefully

so I play night d 6

bishop a 6 and night e 4 simple centralizing strategy

cutting off the rook and preparing rook d 7 check

so he plays rook c 6

rook d 7 check

king h 6 and now even though the b pawn is dangerous

I believe I found the brilliant

well not brilliant

but the best way to play in my opponent's time pressure

because both of us were a little bit low on time

especially black the move h 4

I was simply trying to create a mate

in that if he plays b 3 night g 5

threatening rook h 7 mate Brook c 1 check king f 2

if king h 5

then simply king g three

and the game is practically over

because rook h 7 is next

so he has to give check bishop f 3 check

rook takes king takes king takes h 4

king f 4 and there is no defense against rook h 7 mate

so this is a little neat trick that actually really

really hard to solve for black

so not only he has to worry about the mate

but also the discovered night check

because the rook on c 6 is loose

so what to do if you are black

well he probably could have resigned but granted that

this was a kind of nervous game for him

and he felt that

he could still try to create some kind of

last minute chances he played on

and he played bishop to c 8

not really threatening much I simply take the pawn

and again same threats knight g 5 is hanging in the air

he found nothing better than to play g 5

well I simply pick up with check

king g 6

now white is totally winning rook a 5 with idea

rook b 5

and he plays a rook c four

nah rub b five

and just a couple moves left here

because basically position is already totally lost

well actually he played first rook check

which doesn't change things

because king f 2 is only helping white

and bishop f 5 now

and now I played rook b 5 on this position okay

so basically

his last chance Sora says to give a check

and get the exchange but you know what

this is still totally lost

I'm gonna play rook takes before

and the a pawn march finishes the game

so even the last chance is not working for him

so he played a few desperate moves now

Roxy 4

and now to finish him off I checked 96

rook c 2

king g 3

and here he played bishop d 3 and immediately resigned

because this is totally totally over

so to summarize this game

I played the so to say reversed

Marseille which is the English symmetrical variation

and I was more familiar with the middle game positions

and it's clear that my opponent was a little bit shaky

in the middle game planning

and White's position

where he tried to create threats with moves

knight d 4 bishop g 4

but they all only helped

help me to put my pieces on the best squares

notice the plan b 3 knight c 4

rook a 2 then rook b 2

then queen e 1 queen f 2

e 3

and then rook going to d 2 and bishop going to B two

this is kind of backwards maneuvering

but they all were very very important in White's plan

because I set myself up for g 4

and basically when I play g 4

the pawn storm is simply winning for white

so I hope you Learned a good lesson

and I see you all next time bye bye