Original subtitles

so for those that don't know

I spent the last about three and a/2 weeks in Dubai

during the World Championship match

I was there as official photographer for fide

but I also found the time to play a rap tournament

it was a two day rap tournament

at the Dubai Chess Club

which I have to say was just amazing

chess club uh very big

I do have some pictures actually to show

it was a ton of space for chess and uh

very nice scenery outside

this photo was taken right before my first round

and uh this was at night

yeah they actually had a

a live broadcast on their YouTube channel

and every single game was played on a DGT board

so all the games were broadcast live

so in this video

I wanna start with a recap of my first round game

and this is gonna be the start of a 9 video series

where I'll recap every game that I played

um had a lot of fun games

some slightly dubious gambits

I did manage to get uh at least one Stafford

but I don't wanna spoil too much of what happened

and it was really good event over 100 players

um the the conditions were

were amazing and people were super friendly too

but a lot of people who recognized me from YouTube and

asked for photos and autographs

so it was super flattering

but uh let's not waste any more time

and let's get into my first round game

I was playing black against uh the name uh Saxena

my opponent actually came up to me while

before the first round started

and told me that we were playing in the first round

so opponent clearly was excited to play me and uh

going into the game okay

obviously I saw my phone's rating just below 12

but I wasn't sure like sometimes when you go to

to other places people can be very underrated

and this is actually the case with my opponent

um my opponent played at least like 16 to 17 strength

I would say this game

like it still took some work uh to win

and let's get into it uh

he played D4 and I was actually debating

whether to go for something uh

like

super aggressive or something maybe a bit more solid

usually I like to play the Budapest

especially in like Online Blitz or bullet

but in this game

I decided to go for the so called Knight's Tango

also known as the Mexican defense

and this is a pretty off beat opening already

uh developing both Knights immediately

and I took this opening up kind of on and off

a few years ago actually inspired by Fabiano Caruana

he used this opening with some success

in the pro chess league

and if we look in the master's database

um yeah

he had a nice win against Grisha Kovchan

and it's not a bad line to

try and just get a dynamic position for black

and play for a win with the black pieces

so my opponent played one of the most common moves

Knight to f 3 um

I will explain that if d 5

this is nothing to worry about black can just play 95

continue with e 6 and this pawn is a bit overextended

the other main line is night c 3

but this can allow e 5

and very often in the knight's tango

this is one of the main breaks

that black wants to achieve

and if d 5 97

the knight can reroute to g 6

Bishop can develop happily

and as we'll see we

we did end up getting a similar structure just from a

a different move order so after night c 6 night of 3

I can't immediately play e 5

unless I want to transpose into a Budapest but um

play the main move here e 6

looking to develop the bishop

opponent played night c 3 and I played bishop to B 4

so we actually kind of transposed into a Nimzo Indian

but kind of a weird version of the Nimzo Indian

where I've already committed the knight to c six

which has its pros and cons on one hand

it does block my c pawn cause in the nimzo

sometimes black likes to play c 5

but at the same time I'm a bit ahead in development

and the knight can still support

the eventual e 5 break

usually in conjunction with d 6 and queen e seven

now one more thing I'll note here is

the more annoying move for white to play

instead of night c 3 is to play a three

and I can recommend this for anyone

who might encounter the knight's tango

where

now the bishop has a very awkward time developing

actively um

e 7 is kind of a passive square

and if my opponent were to play this

I would have played g six

and this is actually following the

is it following what happened in Kobe and Carowina

ah so okay

so Fabiano actually played D6 here

but then played G6

it would probably go for some transposition

where the bishop develops

as a fianchetto on the king side

and then what happened in this game

Fabiano played kind of an interesting uh

expansion on the kingside um

eventually got the bishop pair

and I'm not gonna dig into the whole game

but he he won a nice kind of grinding endgame

so anyway that was my inspiration for

for playing this opening

but we got into this position after Bishop d four

opponent plays Bishop d two solid looking move breaks

the pin is a little bit passive uh

maybe more typical is queen c 2 but uh okay

we both kind of complete development pawn d 6

Bishop d three and uh

with White's last move bishop d 3

it really provoked me

to play aggressively with the move pawn e five

and the reason for playing this is to try and exploit

the setup of White's knight and bishop in the center

if White's not careful here and castles

I believe black is already winning a piece with takes

takes and e four

so white has to be very careful with the bishop on d 3

not only the potential fork ideas

uh with bishop takes c 3 as a threat

but also if white takes

I take back and the d file opens

the bishop can be hit

and this would give black some uh some nice initiative

so after I played e 5

my opponent relatively quickly played d 5

which I think is the most uh

principal move gaining space

and uh I don't have time to go for the fork

because my knights attacked

so I played 97 and then e four

so my dreams of forking these pieces are put to a halt

and uh the center is pretty much closed down

and the strategy shifts now of

somewhat more maneuvering game

the plan of going for that 5 break is uh is very

very clear especially given that white wants to castle

and my next few moves indicate that uh

I do want to attack on the king side

so after night g 6 castling night h 5

um not only do I wanna have the option of playing f 5

but I'm also looking to go in with a knight f four

and even though white hasn't really done anything

too wrong here

it's already a bit more pleasant for black

just because I have

some very clear ideas on the king side

and it's not entirely clear what white is uh

is trying to do in the position

I'm realizing I've I'm showing the notation here

hopefully people aren't uh

spoiling themselves too much with looking ahead

I'm gonna hide the notation for the rest of the game

cause there might be some moments coming up where

I'll have uh

viewers try and guess the move

so my opponent play Day 3

I took on C3 um I didn't wanna suffer with my bishop

like if I move back and then b 4

and then there's some C 5 potential at some point

maybe night a 4 and then C 5 could be annoying

so it's very typical that uh

black is okay giving up the dark squared bishop

opponent took back and uh yeah

this is kind of an ugly move doubling the pawns

um it's possible that my opponent didn't want to take

because uh

one of the nights f 4 would be a bit unpleasant

maybe wanted to keep the bishop eyeing f 4 square

but now I play bishop to g 4

developing my final minor piece

white played h three

and now I would have really liked to maintain the pin

but of course my my pieces are a little bit awkward

so I just move back

and even though it looked like I've lost time

moving the bishop twice uh because white played h 3

it gives me a

another potential target in the position here

there's there's possibilities of queen c 8

and going for the sacrifice

but also there's idea of knight f 4

queen f 6

queen to g six and uh because opponent is on h 3

there's just more targets to uh to try and attack

so opponent plays rook b 1

I play b 6 trying to be patient

not giving any

any progress for white on the queen side

king h 2 and now night of 4

so bring the knight from the edge towards the center

hitting the bishop

white trades take back and now bishop to c two

so already I'm really liking my position

uh it's very difficult for white to remove this knight

on f 4 because whenever g 3 is played

it's weakening to h 3 I play queen f 6

of course with idea of queen g 6

targeting the potential mating square

opponent uh plays night g 1

not an easy position for white

um but this is actually a

a move to put up some resistance

it does reinforce h 3

it allows for queen f three however

things got bad for white very quickly

I start with queen h 6 White played queen f 3

and now I play f five and for the last few moves

the position has kind of been playing itself for black

all the moves have been very very natural um

just trying to get as many attackers

into the game as possible

now there's some X ray vision along the file

and in the event of takes and takes

there's idea of bishop f 5 to exploit

White's pieces on the diagonal

and now white plays g 3

which is an attempt to remove the knight

but unfortunately for white

this is a losing move and instead of retreating here

I'm gonna put the question uh

for the viewers watching black to move

find the the most aggressive way to finish off attack

in this position

feel free to pause the video if you want

a bit more time to think

but the move I played in this position is pawn takes

pawn counter attack simultaneously attacking the queen

and also unleashing my bishop

also unleashing my rook very multi purpose move

whites in big trouble here

if the queen were to take

there's multiple ways to win this

one options to take with the bishop

another options to take with the knight

bishop f 5 also uh

very crushing so for all of these reasons

my opponent played queen h 1

which is a somewhat comical move

but uh yeah what else to do

after Bishop takes h three

my opponent threw in the towel and resigned

in this position not easy to to survive

as white

actually when I played bishop takes h 3 in the game

I was a little bit curious where my forced mate was

after pawn takes knight

cause it turns into a somewhat fun calculation

um cause after takes

if the king moves up I guess

this would be a nice way of finishing things off

and if knight blocks

and white is just losing too much material

even if it's not forced mates

um it is game over

so it was a nice start to

to the first round my opponent just based on the

the level of opening and early middle game play

the the blunders weren't so obvious

I was just happy to get kind of the

the dream opening structure

especially from a Knight's Tango

this is kind of what you aim for as black

and the attack really flowed nicely

and sometimes

this is a way to outplay a low rated player

is to get a position

where it's not clear what the opponent's plans are

and uh it's very clear what uh

what my plans were in this game

so I hope people are maybe somewhat enlightened from

from this game from this opening

and thanks so much for reaching the end of the video

if you enjoyed it leave a

a comment

a thumbs up and stay tuned for my recap of Round 2