Original subtitles

hi everyone

and welcome to today's lecture at chess lecture.com

Today I would like to talk about an opening

which I play a lot

and this is my favorite opening from black

the King's Indian Defense

and I will actually show you one of very nice games

that I played at a recent tournament

the Merchant Open in upstate New York

so I'm black let's start

d 4 Knight of 6

c 4

g 6

Knight c three

Bishop G 7

so all theory so far

I'm ready to play the King's Indian defense

so after E4 I play D6

now besides these 6

black can actually castle

so after e 4 castles this is another possibility

followed by d 6 later because black is not to play

is not afraid of e five

but I played G6

so again E4

d 6 and now my opponent plays bishop e 2

now what's the idea of bishop e 2

well the idea of bishop e 2 is to play bishop g 5

and this is called the Averbach Variation

of the King's Indian defense

so white is keeping the knight on g

1 for as long as possible

potentially stopping bishop g 4

and sometimes they can also play f 3

to strengthen their pawn on e four

but I play here Knight a 6

again this is my favorite move in King's Indian defense

the idea behind this move is

it's such a flexible move that I can play E5

or C5 and I don't have to castle right away

so really I have a lot of different choices after 9

8 6

so my opponent plays night of three

so basically now

we're transferring to the main line of the 96 variation

Castles Castles and I play E5

again here

white has typically three main moves Bishop e 3

Rook e 1 or d five d 5 was played by my opponent

which is considered not the best move

because it immediately allows black to fight for the

e 4 pawn after knight c 5

and his knight into the center

and now that white has closed the center

black is also gonna be much easier

for black to play f 5 and to play on the king side

so let's take a look queen c 2 threatening d 4

and I play a five

so again I got a very nice outpost on c 5

and it's not so easy for

for white to prepare a 3 before

because if white plays a 3 immediately

notice that after a four

white will never be able to move his b pawn

because of a to x b

so this is very very good for black

so my opponent plays b 3

and now simple developing move Bishop d seven

so Black's plan is to play on the king side

by moving his knight to either e

8 or h 5 and f 5

but really Bishop d 7 is another very useful move

because it stops white from playing a 3

and the reason why a 3 is bad

is because I have a very nice move a four

and now after b 4

knight b 3

white really is gonna get in trouble because the knight

he's doing all sorts of different things

on the Queen side and it's gonna go to D4 possibly

basically white is not doing very good

and actually this is exactly what happened in the game

except my opponent played bishop e 3 first

and I strengthened my knight on c 5 with b 6

just in case if he thinks of taking

I'll recapture with the b pawn

and now he plays the move which I consider bad

a 3

and this is actually a very good thematic game

because it shows you how quickly

black takes over the initiative

after a three

again here I have two choices

I could play a 4 immediately followed by b 4

knight b 3 rook b 1 and continue play from here

or as I played in the game

I played knight g 4

the idea behind knight g 4 is first

I wanna force the bishop to move

or recapture on c five

if he does take on c 5 and after B take C

it's really hard for white to play b 4 here

so that's why I'm not really afraid of Bishop take

c five

and at the same time I'm getting ready to play F5

if the bishop moves anywhere

and also a 4 is a big threat

so my opponent decides to win a temper with Bishop g 5

attacking the queen and now simple move f six

and it's really unclear where the bishop belongs

because if bishop goes to d 2 or c 1

I'm gonna play a 4 and knight is gonna end up on b 3

if the bishop goes to h four

then it's completely cut out from the king

from the queen side

and now of course I can play a four

night b 3 Rook a b 1

and now I can even play h 5 with idea g 5 and h 4

and if knight moves from f 3 anywhere

than I d 4 is coming up very

very powerful position for black

so let's see what happened in the game

so after F6

my opponent plays Bishop d two

and this is really good for me

because knight is gonna go to B 3

attacking both the bishop and the rook after a 4

so this is what I played

and now really

white has no other option but to play b 4

taking on a 4 is really bad

breaks up their pawn structure

and gives black very good play

and now after knight b 3 he plays rook a b one

so the question is

is white is white threatening to take on a four

no because if knight takes a 4

Bishop takes a 4

recapturing b 3 will simply lose an exchange

so that means white is not threatening anything

and black can continue to play on the queenside

with f five

notice how I don't even want to take that bishop on d 2

because I know that my knight on b 3 is much stronger

it could go to d 4

whereas the bishop on d 2 is not really playing at all

so after F5

it's clear the black has taken over the initiative

the initiative and I'm playing on both the queen side

and on the king side

so after f 5

my opponent plays bishop g 5 and after knight f 6 again

instead of knight f 6 I had another move queen e 8 here

but I didn't like knight b five

now if I play Rook c 8

then ideas such as night a 7 aren't pleasant here

and then night might end up going to c 6

but taking on b 5 is not really good either

because I give white a C five

so that's why

I played night of six

because the night on g 4 really doesn't do much

where's on f 6 is gonna put pressure on the e 4 pawn

and especially after I play h 6

I'm gonna put a lot of pressure on White's bishop

and the pawn on e 4 as a result of that

so here it's really hard for white

to come up with a good plan

probably

he could have tried to play knight d 2

but then after knight d 4

it's really

really unpleasant to have a knight on d 4 like that

so instead he decides to say

well basically I lost the battle for the squares

and I'm just gonna go ahead and win the a 4 pawn

b 5

very anti positional move

gives up the c 5 square for my knight

but it's kind of a greedy move

because now the pawn on a 4 is really weak

and white has a good chance of winning that pawn

so I was really happy with my game

and I simply play knight c 5

now the knight on c 5 is really really strong

well but now white can play knight d 2

and defend his e 4 pawn

so I play H6

I'm continuing with my plan to play on the

on the king side and white plays Bishop e three

again for those Kings

Indian players you have to understand that

the attack on the king is very important

and sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn

or the whole

initiative on the queen side for the attack

in this particular position

I felt like f 4 is the best move

not only I get a temper on the attack followed by g 5

g 4 but also I am inviting white to take on c 5

actually forcing white to take on c 5 and win the pawn

after a 4 f 4 Bishop takes c 5

I have a pleasant choice to take with a b or d pawn

I think either way works

I like to take with a deep one during the game

just in order to keep

the block on the queen side more solid

so there is no b 6 ideas in the future

and at the same time

preparing very nice knight e 8 knight d 6

and I'll post on d 6 for my knight

now

let's see what else I could have tried instead of f 4

so I think f 4 is the best move

but actually

I could try taking on e 4 with either knight

for example night takes e 4 night takes

and now I could take either with the pawn

or maybe the knight

and now after knight takes knight pawn takes knight

notice that how white cannot recapture with

with the queen

Queen takes e 4 loses an exchange after bishop f 5

and now black is simply pawn up

but the problem is that

it's really hard for black to win this position

because it's very closed

and the attack is not going anywhere

because I don't have the f 4 push

although I do have an extra pawn

but it's gonna take a long time to convert it

and it's not simple at all

because the position is very closed

so let's go back

and look at F4 this is what I played in the game

so Bishop has to take and I take with a deep one

and again in this position

white really has no other plan but to win upon an a 4

because he already lost the battle on the king side

so Knight takes a four

and I simply play G5

this is the typical plan with idea G4 and then 13

f 3 or g three to open up the enemy king

but if you look on the queen side

the extra point is not really helping white at all

because white has to waste a move

rook a 1

then waste another move by retreating with the knight

from a 4 to c 3 or b 2

and only then they have to play a four night

b 3 and a 5 just to get something going

so that's a lot of moves in the meantime

black is gonna checkmate white king

so after g 5

White decides to meet me with f 3 and I'm happily

continue my attack with g 4 and now rook a 1

so why the sort of saying

well I'm not afraid of your attack

I'm gonna continue with my plan

because the position is closed

and your two bishops are not really doing much

in a way it's true

but the problem is white has a king on g 1

rather than on b 2 or b 3

where it's nice and safe

and after rook a 1

I play h 5 in order to free up my knight from f six

now I can go either night E8

night D6 or even night H7

with the idea to play night G5 later on

to support the attack

so after H 5

night C3

I play Knight H7

the reason why I like the knight on h 7 more than on e

8 is that after knight e

8 and knight d 6

the knight is standing nicely

but it doesn't really do much in terms of helping black

in his attack whereas on h 7

I really like the knight

it could go to g 5 and really help in the attack

now besides

transferring the knight to g 5

Black just created a very

powerful threat to play queen h four

and bring his queen into the top

so let's see what happened in the game

Queen D one

and now I play Queen h 4

and now it turns out that trying to exchange Queens

maybe that was the initial idea of Queen d 1

is losing because of a very beautiful checkmate

after g three

H 3 Bishop takes H

this is very typical piece sacrifice

and a lot of King's Indian games

are basically over in this fashion

after pawn takes bishop queen takes

there is no defense against queen h 2 mate

so let's go back

and ask ourselves how can white defend against g 3

so queen e 1 is losing but my opponent

actually found a nice way to defend and prolong

the game F takes G

H take G and now queen e 1

well now g 3 is not as powerful because knight f 3

but the problem is

black has an overwhelming attack

and now I just have to move my queen back to G5

f 3 sometimes is a big threat

g 3 or even powerful threat of rook f 6

Rook h 6 would probably finish the game

immediately

so king h 1 and rook f 6 so the game

is basically over on the king side

because I think there is simply not enough pieces

and not enough resources for white to defend his queen

his king

black has just an overwhelming attack

so let's see how the game finished

so after rook f 6

White plays

g Rook sorry

rook a 2 and after rook h 6 White plays g 3

so you see after F takes G

the idea behind rook h 2 is now Queen takes g 3

and white is still in the game

because all of a sudden

the rook on h 2 plays an important defensive role

but of course

black doesn't have to take on g 3 right away

and instead I played Rook h three

with the powerful threat of F takes G

or queen h 6 or h 5 helping the attack

now rook g 1

and now

notice how white king is sort of in a box

this already should

probably get you thinking about some mating patterns

especially if f 3 square is occupied by black pawn

so let's see if the rook sacrifice works right away

so check

Queen h 6 or queen h 5 doesn't matter

king here and now f 3 or queen h 3 check

so let's think if queen h 3 check

kings king has to go to F2

and now it's not so easy to win immediately

because if F takes g

I can probably play

king e 3 here

and try to run away after bishop h 6 to d 3

and so forth and if g 2 check

perhaps bishop f 3 or knight f 3 to prolong the game

and even this position is probably totally losing

after bishop h 6 and G to F

but why calculate all these variations

when black has a very nice move here F three

if the bishop moves anywhere

rook takes h 2 and queen h 6

or queen h 5 finishes the game on the spot

so

it's now white who has to sacrifice a piece and play

bishop takes pawn so the game is practically over

of course if I can take one

I can take 1 of 3 and win this

but why give white any hope to prolong the game

instead

black has a very nice move

Rook f 8 this quiet move finishes the game on the spot

and here white can immediately resign

because now g takes f is a big threat

just simply winning on the spot

or if the bishop moves like happened in the game

white gets checkmated very nicely

Rook takes h 2 King takes queen h 6

king g 2 and queen h 3 mate

so you see this

little game showed you how powerful Black's

attack would be

if white is not careful on the queen side

and if white departs with his dark square bishop

because typically whenever white plays f 3

he has a bishop on f 2

to try to defend against g 3 ideas

whereas in this game my attack rolled really

really fast

and having the extra point

didn't even matter for white

because he really got nothing going for him

on the queenside

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

bye bye