Original subtitles

hi everyone this is Grandmaster Eugene Perstein

and welcome to today's lecture

now today

I wanna show you one of the most beautiful attacks

that I have seen and this is from a very recent game

by none other than the

one of the greatest modern attackers of all times

is the US grandmaster Larry Kristiansen

and a few background a few information

a few notes for the game

Larry Christianson is just like me

we are playing on the Boston Boots Chess Team

and if you're not familiar what it is

you can go to website called US Chess league.com

and all major cities have teams

and the idea is that the average rating

of the team cannot exceed a certain Mark

which makes for very interesting chess

so Larry usually plays Board 1

I play either Board 1 or Board 2 for Boston

and we have a lot of other strong players

who play for the team

and this is a game from the finals

we are playing Boston Blitz against Utd

or Dallas Destiny so let me show you this game

Larry's playing White e 4 c five

so we're gonna see some kind of Sicilian knight of 3

e 6 d 4 C d knight

d 4 knight c six so this is the Timman of Sicilian

or the Timman of variation

it's very similar to the Paulsen

the only difference is that on the Paulsen

Black typically plays a 6 first

but things could really and most often transpose

so after knight c 6 Knight c 3

queen c seven

white has several options

one option is to simply play Bishop e two

fold by short castle and this is one of the main lines

but nowadays white prefers a more aggressive setup

which starts with the move bishop e three

no bishop e 3 actually allows white to play queen d 2

and castle long and immediately play attacking chess

in addition

bishop e 3 allows you to go for various other lines

such as f four f 3

Bishop e 2 Bishop d 3

so it's just a very uh

useful move in basically all the major lines

so a 6 this is the typical prophylactic move

which is stopping Knight going to B five

and also the idea of black setup is

black is trying to sort of play by the ear

he's trying to figure out what white wants to do

and then change his setup

the following so he can play d 6

he can take his bishop out of c 5 or b 4

he can play knight of 6

and he can go for b 5 immediately

so both sides are kind of playable

playing the flexible setup

so now Larry plays F4

this is

what is called

one of the most aggressive ways to play this position

another way to play it as I mentioned earlier

is Queen d 2 followed by long side castle

Bishop e 2 followed by short side castle

and uh

these are pretty much the

most popular ways to play this position

so let's see what happens after F4

and what is the idea behind this move

so No. 1 is f 4 is taken up controlled the e 5 square

so now if black gets to play night of 6

which looks like a normal developing move after e five

it turns out that

there are simply no good squares for the night

and if you go to night G5 takes takes

this is something that

not all black players would like

because from the get go

you get a double points d 5 D seven

so the most natural way to counter f 4 is Bishop d four

immediately the idea is to pin the knight

and if white plays something like bishop d 3

then you can follow up with knight of 6

the idea being that e 5 is no longer a big threat

you can simply go knight d five

have this pin to your advantage

and now it is white who's in trouble

so that's why typically after bishop before

white can play immediate a three

to try to clear up the situation

because even though these points are doubled

the nature of the

open position or semi open position

and especially the

dark squares and blacks territory should favor white

so this is kind of a you balance one thing for another

this is very typical in chess

and probably besides a 3

there is an a different way to play this position

maybe perhaps queen d 3

and try to recapture c 3 with the queen

but I like a 3 the most

and so

Larry is playing against a young fellow named zivonich

and he is not that well known in American chess

I think he's originally from one of the former

Yugoslavian republics

and he's a very strong international master with rated

rated 2552

so his Larry's opponent plays B5

again this is a matter of preference

B5 is a typical move you wanna play a bishop

B7 in particular you wanna play before as well

try to fight for the center

and uh

in addition

the move b 5 kind of keeps your options open too

because the bishop can go to c 5 or b 4

and you get to pick later on

and now Larry plays the smooth Bishop d 3

at first it appears as this is a blunder

because black can simply take on d 4

Bishop takes and win the point on f four

and there is no immediate

punishment for black so is this a blunder

well let's see what black plays next

as a matter of fact

without much thinking he did take the knight

Bishop takes and Queen takes f 4

so when I first was watching the game from the audience

I thought that this must be a well known trick

because we are only on move 9

and

both sides are going for this position pretty quickly

and the only thing that I couldn't quite figure out

is that

who does this favor

at first

it seems that white has an overwhelming advantage

because black has only one piece

if you call it a piece

because it's a queen developed in the opening

and we all know that queen by herself

especially early in the opening

is not a good thing to have on the other hand

Black's king is nicely tucked away behind d 7 e 6

f 7 pawns

there are no weaknesses

there are no immediate

squares for white pieces to jump onto

and the only

advantage that white has is development

so this is one of those classic cases

you sacrifice upon for an early lead in development

but in this particular case

white has pretty much his whole army developed

so I should even argue that this is

without even question

white should have sufficient compensation for the pawn

I don't even have to analyze lines

or go deep with computer analysis

my intuition tells me that

especially if you understand classical chess

and if you looked at the early chess by Morphy

and those guys and Andersen

you see a lot of these different sacrifices

of of material

such as pawns 1 or 2 for early lead in development

except now the position is not as open

but yet this is still the same case

so perhaps Larry's opponent had something in mind

let's see what happens next Rook F 1 xclam

whenever you said a you have to follow up with B

don't stop at one point continue your attack

this is a tempo move on the queen

it's okay if you're not gonna castle

because you can castle queenside

and the key now is you have the open f file

for the queen and rook to attack

the weak f square f 7 square

now black immediately retreated to f c 7

and one might ask question

why not simply pick up the h 2 pawn

and my answer is simply this is too much

after queen f 3 hitting the pawn on f 7

White is gaining another tempo

and it's not so obvious how black can defend

why is that well if black plays night of 6

then after simply Bishop takes pawn takes queen takes

this is huge

huge advantage for white and such as queen move

such as queen g three are probably playable but

nevertheless should not be worry

because I can either play rook at two

and there is not much black can do

he has to go back with the queen to G7

and I can just drop back to F3 again

cast along and have a great attack for white

another way to play besides Bishop takes F6 and perhaps

a more interesting way is e 5

so this just shows you how many option white has

and now if knight goes of course

queen takes f 7 so queen h 4 check hitting the bishop

runs into a problem

bishop f 2 hitting the queen right back

so as a matter of fact E5

might already put black on the brink of complete loss

so e 5 is the right move

so queen s 7 was played in the game

now Larry plays queen h 5

during the game I was actually thinking of queen f 3

but queen h 5 is actually more dangerous for black

because the queen is not only playing

straight on the f file

queen is also participating on the diagonal

so this allows more options

and now of course

moves such as f 6 are not possible anymore

this is a big dilemma for black

how do you defend the weak square on f 7

if you play g 6 well

this is exactly what Larry wanted

he just simply goes back to f three

and the position is really bad

if you play f 6 I can just take

take with the queen and now white is simply winning

because the rook on h 8 is lost

well if black doesn't play f 6

what other options does he have

I mean g 6

he can play night f 6 or night h 6

so let's take a look what happens during the game

so Zvani plays night f 6

and I can understand his idea of wanting

to get White's dark square bishop

because after night h six

let's just say white simply castles long

now there is a problem

there is no easy way for black to play

what is his next move

he can't develop with the bishop from f 8

he has to play something like bishop b 7

but this allows all sorts of options

so what are some of the different options now

well one of them is simply

to attack the knight with the bishop to e 3

but I think this is a more passive way

because after d 6 taken taken

black is kind of surviving

now let's try to figure out some other options

besides bishop e 3

because normally we wanna keep the initiative

and bishop e 3 is

you kinda go with the same piece twice

so after night age 6 Castle on Bishop B7

let us think and try to figure out

what are some of the options white has

so the way I typically look at this position

I ask myself a question

what is Black's next move

because bishop b 7 by itself doesn't create any threats

and really

the only way for black to get out is to castle long

alright so I keep in mind black might castle long

now how is this gonna benefit white if king is on C a

hmm perhaps there would be some kind of tactical shot

on B5 so let's think

let's say we make a prophylactic move

king B1 Black Castles long right

because this is a a typical move and now

white simply plays Bishop takes b 5

and if I put it on my rybka

this is immediately showing as huge advantage for white

so you see

all you have to do is kind of think in terms of

what is your opponent's next move

because

his next move might not actually be a good move

so we made the prophylactic move king be one

basically saying that

we have all the time in the world to set up our attack

and black is really struggling to find the next move

we can play g 4 g 5

we can sack on b 5 on the right moment

but the king on b 1 is a very typical Sicilian move

but to actually finish this line

let's see what happens after a takes B and I takes b 5

it's clear that queen on c

7 is feeling a little bit uncomfortable

to say the least Queen a 5 loses to 96

or night a 7 Queen c 6 loses to night a 7

so it's almost as though the queen is trapped

this is really bizarre but it could happen

and move such as Queen B eight

don't really look promising either

not only white can play night a 5

and queen a 5 with made

let's just finish this for one more move

this is just terrible position

so this just shows you how powerful white attack is

if I can make a prophylactic move

king be 1

and yet black cannot really do anything about it

so thus knight of 6 is a more of a simplification move

so you wanna get rid of your of my attacker

even though you give up the pawn back

but at least you get the dark squares

alright

so after night of 6 bishop takes pawn takes rook takes

it's obvious to me that

there is just no doubt why it is much better

whether or not white is winning

it's still hard to tell because with the next move

black temporarily solves all his problems d six

queen does a nice job of defending f 7

the bishop is gonna go to B 5

the king could potentially stay on e 8

because the three pawns

are actually doing a pretty decent job of defending the

the king

actually

the rook can come to a 7 and help out with the defend

defense of the f 7 pawn

so black is actually surviving a little bit but again

key

concept here is white attack has a huge advantage

because we have so much

development whenever you have advantage in development

it's definitely a great help to any attacker

and Larry Christiansen simply says hey

all I need is to bring another piece into action

and get the king out and this is Castle

the rook can go to f 1 with a triple threat on f 7

but let me show you what other

possible resource white has

so after bishop g seven

Larry on corks a brilliant move

let's see if you can find

it seems as though Rook has to go to f 3

Bishop can take the knight and ruin the pawn structure

and slowly black will get back into the game

but not when you're playing against one of the greatest

attackers now

black is facing some difficulties

the next move is Bishop takes B 5 x clamp

and this is a cold shower for Larry's young opponent

now

it's obvious that White's attack is just too powerful

by the way notice that every single piece is playing

a part in the attack after a takes b

Knight takes b five

we have knight druid and f 6

druid and d 1 and queen and h 5 all playing as one unit

and this is the greatest power of attackers

is that it all started with Mikhail Tal

when you make the most out of your pieces

even though often Tal had one piece less

perhaps two pawns less than his opponent

but he made it look so easy

it looked as though white

whenever he played white

had more material than it actually was on the board

and this is one of those examples

and now the position is totally lost

because if you move your queen

knight takes d 6 check

followed by rook takes f 7 and this is over

so taking on b 5 is not an option

and black is actually not afraid

he plays a brave move king a 5

he says look

you have two pieces under attack

your rook and the bishop

and in the meantime I'm simply hiding my king

and the black is saying OK

you're yet to win a game

but now you have to be calm

and this is another great thing

that all great attackers have

is simply drop back with the rook

because white realized that if you take on b 5

Knight takes b 5

followed by rook takes d 6 or knight takes d 6

this is a great attack

because queen is running all over the place

having to defend the f 7 square the king is basically

thread to all sorts of back rank checks too

and the checks on f 7

there is really no time for black

to get back into the game

and the next move queen

this is already by the way a bad position to defend

but the next move

Queen e 7 is really hard to explain

other than black already felt in big trouble

and I can't really help black in this position

but just to show you my point

after a takes b knight takes b 5

anywhere you move with the queen you're in trouble

if you go queen b seven

Rook takes d 6 followed by rook d 8

check king d 7 Rook takes f 7 is uh

basically over and there is no adequate defense

you can't play bishop d 7 but queen takes f 7 mate

so this is trouble for black and if queen e 7

well now I can take with the knight

and the problem is now the f 7 point

so no matter how you how you do it

either way black is gonna get in trouble

so let's take a look at what happens next

so Queen is 7 is somewhat defending

but does this allow

white to continue his beautiful talk

and the answer is yes with the next move

Larry proves

he still has huge firepower in the position

Rook takes d 6 x queen

notice how all the time white is offering a sacrifice

and black can't really take it

whenever you took the bishop black is in trouble

now if you take the rook

you get mated and if black takes the bishop

rook d eight follows by Queen f 7 is mate

so this is just beautiful attack and by the way

every move that white makes is just simply perfect

it's part of one well coordinated

and I call it the flawless attack

so black is in huge trouble

but he is trying to fight for his life

with the next move Bishop to F six

and now Larry doesn't stop there

he could have simply finished the game

possibly with the move E5

because really if you think about it

Bishop cannot take due to rook d a check

and this is over but fireworks are still present

Rook takes f 6 x clamp

wow this is simply unbelievable stuff

well black can't say much

he has to take the rook

and now Larry falls up with another beautiful move

knight to d five

take a look that queen doesn't have very good

you know very many squares left

if queen goes to g 7

then you get mated with rook d eight

so this really allows only one option

queen to g 6 by the way

notice how beautifully bishop controls the f 1 square

so there are no checks whatsoever so queen g 6

and now the attack is flowing

you can say sort of with one breath

and it's all forced

so let's see if you can find the next move for

for white or the next sequence

and it's quite easy so whenever I say forced

you look for forcing moves

Rook check

this is the first step king G7

and now you really don't wanna trade Queens

now a queen E5 check

by the way notice what happens if black plays f 6

by the way this is the game now Queen c 7 check oops

the rook on a h 8 has to go

there is simply no defense

but now black says well

at least I don't wanna give up my rook

take the bishop

so this is kind of

black is already in agony

and he's trying to deflect the loss

but this is simply unavoidable

well now basically anything wins

but Larry I think finishes the game in style

Rook takes g 7 check the king is still running around

king h six

now the bishop and knight are still under attack

but not to worry

we have it covered Queen f 4 check queen g five

and now with the next move

this kind of seals the deal

Bishop C6 and now black realizes that wait a second

if I take the knight

white can simply simplify it into easily won endgame

so let's take a look

pawn takes queen takes now king or pawn doesn't matter

Bishop takes rook takes pawn takes d five

white is up three points

this is simply resign so after Bishop to 6

Larry's opponent could have safely resigned

but he continued to play on

Rook a to c 8

at least he's trying to create some pressure

he's attacking the bishop

the knight is still under attack

and now with the next move

white shows to his opponent that hey

you wanna take my knight go ahead if you do

you're really gonna regret it

Rook takes f 6 check king h 5

and now simple rook h 5 finishes the game on the spot

so this just shows you how powerful

coordination of white pieces

and notice that from move

when is it from move 10 after rook h 1 to now

white has played perfect simply flawless chess

and now a few more moves followed

Rook h 2 d 8

now Larry just simplifies into one endgame

Queen takes king takes rook takes e six

so white is up three points and two pieces for the rook

so I'm I'm not quite sure why black doesn't resign here

Rook f 8 King d 2

White can do whatever he wants

he decides to put the king up

f five

king e 3

by the way king in the endgame is a useful piece

even in these types of positions

don't be afraid to put your king in the middle

pawn takes king takes

and now rook f 2

so this is the first attacking move of the game

that black actually made

he's trying to go on the second rank

and pick up all the points he can

possibly can find

but with the next move

Black's hope

diminishes 93 defends everything

Roxy 2 f eight

and now rook e 5 check just a few armor moves

king g 6

king d 4 with idea Bishop e 4 check

and simply playing c 4 c 5 and so forth

or a 4 b 4

whatever you feel like

easy win for white and zivonish finally resign

so although black could have resigned

probably around move 20 something

this is a beautiful attack by Christianson

and his opponent is not some kind of a weak player

he is a strong international master

and it just shows you how dangerous it is to go

pawn grabbing whenever you have no development

even though the opening is not as open as e 4

e 5 this is this is the pawnson or the time of Sicilian

this still shows you how powerful attack really is

and unfortunately we won on board 1 and on board 3

but we ended up losing on boards 4 and 2

and the match went into a tie break

and in the tie break we lost to Dallas

and they became the US Chess League champions

just like last year we lost to them on the final

on tie breaks the same way

so there are a bunch of strong guys

very young team but this is kind of unfortunate

that Boston stumbled twice and we could have easily

if we get one more draw on boards 2 and 4

could have easily won the match

because Larry won a beautiful game

and Mark Eserman won on board 3

and I highly recommend you to go to the US Chess League

and check out the matches

the standings and the games

and they have the best game of the week prize

and of course this is the game that won the best

the best game of the week prize

thank you very much

and I hope you Learned a lesson today bye bye