[Music]
I'm actually kind of surprised that a
lot of you guys you really like the
longer series I've been hearing lots of
good things about the long series when
we do three four or five part episodes
about one opening so we really can cover
it a lot in detail so that's what I want
to do again so I'm really happy to
announce we will be doing a six seven
eight who knows part series on the semi
Slav so this will be the complete semi
Slav and today we'll just sort of
introduce the semi Slav in general and
we'll talk about the classical Moran
lines the lines we're on the eighth move
you play a six as black and sort of the
way it's gonna happen is the Moran is
gonna be split into two at least and
okay we're gonna get one of the lines
today where the lines next week and
we're gonna talk about anti Moran's
we're gonna talk about you know what
happens when they bring their Bishop out
and the bot fennec and the Moscow we're
gonna try to cover it all over the next
couple weeks here so I hope you like the
semi Slav cuz that's what we're doing
for for the rest of the year okay and so
this is the position and I do kind of
want to talk about certain move orders
and we'll figure out how we we got here
because there's a couple of things right
off the bat that we should know okay so
it's in d4 d5 and c4 and here already we
know we're gonna set up the triangle
formation so different people like to
start with different moves here we're
gonna kind of stick with the classic oil
Slav move one reason people don't like
to do this and they'd rather play pawn
to e6 first is because they don't like
the exchange Slav so after this some
people don't want us to take here and
play this because white gets a slight
edge and some people don't want to play
it so that's why some people start with
e6 however if you play this way you do
have to be ready for the cattle and so
if you do want to play this way then you
should know that theory if if this is
how you choose to play okay and then
from this position we we again see that
okay in general III is a move but let's
look at the different night developing
moves that white can play Knight f3 is
actually the most popular move here if
they play Knight to c3 there's a couple
of different things that you can
actually do here as black if you just
want to play the semi Slav then just
develop your knight and if they play
here boom you got the the semi Slav
however there's also some interesting
options for black for example the window
where counter gambit so this is one
option that white is allowed by playing
this way so he should know something
about this it's actually a really
interesting openings I hope we get to
talk about that someday cuz it's it's
actually a pretty good surprise weapon
for black then I think a lot of players
don't know about all so we'll just look
at this for a second one extra option
you have when they go here is you can
play a move like C six and if you play
the note boom which was my first chest
opening is explained you can aim for
this and also you can also just go into
the semi Slav also when you play this
way if they play here you can also go
into a stone wall formation if you want
so there's some different options
depending on on how white chooses to
play another thing too is if you play
here you're hoping that they play Knight
f3 and you can play the note boom well
you also have to be wary of the the
marshal gambit here so that you can get
this wild crazy gambit where after this
check
you can either block like Carlsen in the
World Championship or you can you know
go in for this this gambit and okay I
think at the amateur level it's actually
really hard to deal with White's
initiative here so White's given up a
pawn so you would have to know this and
be really careful as black if that's how
you want it to play so there's a couple
different move order things just right
off the bat now we're going to stick
with the pure Slav order here and we'll
follow the main move and okay you could
play e6 here or Knight f6 this is the
more popular way and now here we have it
the semi Slav and why I'm you know
pretty excited opening I think the semi
Slav is actually what chess is all about
it has everything it's you can get very
dynamic tactical positions and it can
we'll be a super positional opening so
it actually has sort of everything all
at once and it requires you well to know
a lot of theory which is okay huge part
of chess and it requires you to be
really good at positional chess and have
a large tactical ability so this can
lead to some of the most interesting and
complicated positions in all of chess
which is why we're gonna go kind of slow
and take it week by week and try to
discuss some of these things and we'll
see so today we're gonna look at the
move III and one of the reasons people
play here is this pawn on c6 while it
does block in the night and then you
know that usually is a great square for
a night it does have the ability that if
you ever take here it supports the move
b5 so in a lot of lines you'll grab this
pawn and try to keep it so for that
reason Wade will often play the move III
so that now if you take it I can just
take it back with my bishop we will be
looking later at what is probably the
most natural move so in the course of
this series we're going to talk about
Bishop to g5 if you get your Bishop
outside of the pawn chain and then next
move you can play e3 and right we'll be
going over some really complicated stuff
like what if we try to grab the pond and
we allow this this is the bot fennec
system so we will take a look at this
coming up in the future and there's also
you know some quieter but there's still
a lot of danger and exciting lines in
the Moscow / anti Moscow which we'll
cover towards the end but today let's
focus on the move III
now black displays the most logical
developing move and here there's
actually two moves that we're gonna look
at in this series for the first two days
we're gonna be looking at Bishop to d3
which seems like just the most logical
natural developing move and then also
coming up we'll look at Queen to c2 now
the reason some people would try to
avoid this even though it looks like the
most popular move is blacks plan is as
follows I want to take and then I want
to expand on the Queen side
and over the next few moves I'm gonna
try to play moves like a six Bishop e7
and c5 if I play c5 and I get all these
moves in then usually black has a very
comfortable position and my bishop
suddenly has a great diagonal so some
people they wait they want to you know
play Queen to c2 very good move because
now we're not really tempted to take
here and black has to find another move
so okay you have to try to do something
else and we'll have a look at that but
we're gonna look at the Moran so they
play Bishop d3 and after we take we play
b5 now here there's three logical Bishop
moves that actually make sense
Bishop f1 doesn't make a lot of sense
because then you can't castle but the
most common move is what we're gonna
come back to Bishop to d3 but I figured
in this introductory video we should
talk about some of the other moves
because there's actually well this is I
think this the only move I've ever faced
but there's actually some very
interesting options Bishop b2 and Bishop
b3 are both actually really interesting
so we'll have to look first at Bishop to
e2 which can be kind of a positional
line and with all moves in chess you
know there's we want to think about the
differences here there's things that are
good and bad about the bishop being on
e2 rather than D 3 d3 is obviously like
the most active diagonal you're looking
at the H pawn so you can see that's you
know a very good reason to put your
picture up on d3 but with this line
you're trying to have your Queen
connected to your deep on which will be
important in some variations we'll see
also in some lines it's easier to play
the move a4 if black tries to play a
quick a 6 and c5 and so let's let's
figure that out so the the main move
here is Bishop to b7 and as a general
rule if in this position you're just
what's the easiest way to remember this
as black
if the bishop stays on this diagonal
it's normal diagonal then Bishop to b7
is a good move that that can help you
remind it and then if they go here you
have to learn something a little bit
different
because if you just now try to routinely
play as we're gonna kind of see today
we're gonna see lines where you play a
six before the bishop goes to be seven
and then you just want to play see five
this actually can lead to a problem for
black and this is the general rule for
white in these positions if you know
because black always has to decide do I
develop my bishop first or do I move my
pawn first and in general if they move
their pawn first you want to try to
exploit the slow play you know your que
you're moving upon again by playing the
movie four so in general that's how you
should respond and in general if they
instead of playing a six they develop
their bishop then usually the right move
is castling
because if here efore and if you just
try to play the move c5 this actually
isn't a very good move because now I can
play this move e5 you have a question
which side so black determined that it
would be a semi Slav in this position
when he played the movie e6 what's that
it's good for both sides it's like every
chess opening so probably white is a
little bit better in every line because
that's every chess opening but it no
it's playable for both sides and so lots
of top players have played both sides of
this and a lot of it just comes down to
what you prefer and one reason a lot of
people like to play it as black is
because it gives you a lot of chances to
win so you know you want to play this
way as black especially when you're you
know you're good and you're playing
other good people because you have
chances win certain if you're playing a
lower rated player you have chances to
win when you play the semi Slav so
that's that's part of the appeal so
returning to the Bishop e2 line let's
look at the two casual we'll move here
see five and now e5 and this is where
things usually get pretty crazy in these
types of lines it's not really easy to
move our knight because if we go here
okay they'll take it and then we got to
worry about a six we don't want to go
back so we take here on d4 now when
there's a bishop here then normally they
take on f6
we take on c3 and that sort of a deal
but in this line we can now take with
our queen so this was the whole point of
playing Bishop to e2 we didn't block in
the Queen's connection from the D pawn
so here we can just take it and now okay
if you have to go back then okay this
has been a success in the opening for
white and it's true that you can toss
this move in but as another general rule
since white is gonna go attack you
you're probably gonna castle over here
in general if the Queen gets over here
it's really good for white conversely in
most positions when you get your Queen
out here and their Queen isn't out here
then it's good for black because both
Sansa's both sides actually get a lot of
chances to attack in this line because
you're gonna have this awesome bishop
here so both sides want to get their
Queen on the King side it's just in most
lines it doesn't happen although here it
does if they they allow you to play this
way so that's why this can actually sort
of backfire on people so it's also a
good reason to play it as white because
you want to play it as white there's
also a lot of like tricky stuff mr. b2
also this move earlier okay and yes
we'll talk about that too so instead you
okay they should play Bishop to b7 and
then they should castle which follows
just the general rule when they develop
the Bishop you castle if instead here I
want to show this only because there's a
very humorous line they are the Four
Queens variation okay so we tack here
and they attack our Knight so yeah it's
kind of a hint maybe we can figure out
how we're gonna get this and in this
position you should probably take with
the knight but but yeah yeah there's
this game yeah so we all make Queens we
took each other's Knights and then we
all made Queens so probably black
shouldn't play this way because it's
better for white because White's gonna
Castle kingside and be a lot safer than
the black King but with so many queens
on the board there's you know lots of
room to outplay people and you know it's
it's easy to get confused and actually
the highest rated game in this position
comes from Shimon ah've who's local goes
to Webster
so a local guy is the highest rated guy
that that played this opening as as
black it was an interesting game too but
we won't be focusing too much on that
instead with us look at what happens
when white castles okay now we can play
a six and our next move is c5 so and
you'll see this is the typical point for
white he delayed he played III and
developed his Bishop and then only later
plays a 45 and again we'll get a
position like this where we don't really
want to take here because the Queen can
still take and then it's hard for our
Knight to go forward yes so they play 95
hmm so what's that yeah so if yeah they
take right away we just take back with
our Bishop we don't have to compromise
our pawn structure let's see so this
position here okay a four is not the
only move but let's just take a look at
this this is sort of the main starting
position so we'll just discuss what both
sides should be thinking about in a
position like this this is the most
difficult position you get in the Bishop
e2 line the big thing for white here is
okay I got big control over the d6
square so at some point I would love to
drop my bishop in if you'd let me I
would really love to trade these bishops
like this would be like super dreamworld
and you give me access to d6 so it's in
Black's best interest in these lines not
to trade the dark squared Bishop this is
what this is your your really important
bishop in these lines so it is kind of
funny because in a lot of lines black
actually wants to trade lots of pieces
because if you enter an endgame this
actually might be a weakness so you're
gonna try to prove as black that the
center is a liability and White's gonna
try to show that he can use the center
to get some of his Knights to these
really good squares you can imagine if I
get lots of knights jumping in on d6 or
if you're playing bug house you just say
sack your queen give me a knight and
then you crush your opponent but in
chess yeah so this actually is a common
maneuver in this type of position all
the Knights go here your Bishop can go
to f3
that's something that you you might want
to look for it so he does have the c-4
square and he has the d6 square that's
kind of what he's playing for it is
black you're gonna try to show that the
center is a liability
the most common move is Queen to c7 so
sometimes maybe we can take and then the
epon is a little bit weaker here and
just to show okay one will stop a bit
about here h6 just the idea is now I can
play Bishop e7 and you can't try to
trade the bishops so this would be the
typical position that you're trying to
get with both sides here and you know
it's it's very dynamic and it's
unbalanced and okay there's so there's
still a lot of play here this is a very
interesting line that people should
probably look at they should probably
look at all these the alternatives to
the main line because they're they're
pretty interesting as well okay the
audience has never seen this move and
okay this is actually a very aggressive
move and it reminds me kind of of the
the Queens gambit accepted you can
imagine and we were looking at that very
briefly before this is the kind of pawn
structure you can get in the Queens
gambit accepted and in a lot of those
lines the Bishop stays here on this
diagonal where it has lots of pressure
and has the possibility of sacrificing
on e6 and these lines can get very sharp
especially okay we'll just look at the
the best move according to theory here
which is b4 and we'll see so the knight
normally goes to e2 and we'll we'll take
it we'll come right back to this but the
main idea for a white here it's to put a
knight on f4 and g5 and then you have
lots lots of sacrificing you can play
Knight takes f7 and if the King takes
Knight takes c6 and you can you can
notice some bad things might happen so
black does have to be really careful as
there's lots of games where white just
wins immediately he puts this Knights on
their best squares and sacks everything
and it's over
yeah in that yes if I cousin Castle fast
yeah it can be a problem but as a
general to whenever they you want to
make sure whenever they have a night
here on f4 this is the big thing you
need to know this line is you want to
have a bishop here on d6
because then if they bring their other
night in you can get rid of this guy and
then the sacrifices usually don't work
in those positions I do want to mention
one move that surprisingly that some top
people have played so maybe it's okay
but here black has a very nice move
Bishop a6 just restricting castling so
that's one of the downsides of having
your bishop on you know in an unnatural
diagonal it doesn't normally go here so
it's you want a lot of attacking chances
which is also why it makes sense to
normally bring your Knight to e2 because
then you can go to f4 and you have lots
of you know potential to attack okay so
instead we can get a position like this
this is the typical line and now that
you're threatening maybe to take some
stuff we want to be able to get rid of
this guy so if you you know achieve this
you get c5 in these positions should be
fine for blacks this is what your you
can kind of expect in a variation like
this so this will be a typical position
and why didn't get to sacrifice and so
black is is doing just fine here so it's
still an interesting position this is
the kind of thing you might expect in
the Bishop b3 line okay but we come now
let's just go back to this position so
after we take and play b5 what happens
if white just plays the most natural
move Bishop to d3 and the old way of
playing the classical way is the move a
six and this is where we're gonna start
and you kind of want to spend some time
talking about this move before we move
on to what is often considered the
modern mainline nowadays people will
develop their pieces before they're clay
a6 and there's some differences that
we're gonna see by Larson I can believe
it seems like something you would do you
fact check that at home did Larson first
one to do this comment below
though also there's a something to be
said about this move which is gained
popularity after the game between
Aronian and non from 2013 and I think
Jen Shahaji did a video on that like
forever ago like when it happened for us
so that that's on their channel
somewhere but if you guys want to see
that line let me know maybe for is a
line let me know if there's something
you guys want to see this is a complete
series we'll talk about whatever you
want this can last forever
but today we're just gonna look at the
move a six so come back next week if you
want to see Bishop to b7 and the point
is I protect my stuff and now I play c5
so since we've talked about the general
rule I guess I'll come to this side of
the room they move their pawn here
instead of playing Bishop to b7 so what
moves should white play so in general so
he can either castle or play and move
like 'if or and black played a very slow
move he just moved another pawn and
blacks next move is to play c5 so which
would punish a slow move more castling
or efore
and the answer from this side of the
room was he for now yeah II for X clam
great move cash is a bit slow so we'll
see if if black just gets to play all
the moves he wants to play which is c5
and Bishop e7 then he's doing just fine
so we'll look at one game very briefly
here Nick civic verse Dorji EV from tava
2011 and we'll only show that okay in a
position like this black can very
comfortably get all of his pieces out
and this also is a great move castling
has been played like half the people
Castle here half the people play Queen
d5 and the higher rated half of people
play Queen d5 in this position which
goes back to kind of what I was saying
black just like how white wanted to and
the other line wants to get his queen
over there cuz that's how I checkmate
you that's where your King is and that
can cause you a lot more problems and
make it harder for you to attack me so
yeah Queen d5 was a very nice move the
Queen is just gonna go over to h5 and so
that's kind of what happened and they
traded stuff and you can just kind of
tell from a position like this that
black doesn't have any problems so while
it's not you know a horrible thing to
Castle or whatever it just doesn't pose
enough problems to black to be worthy of
you know real theoretical contention for
an advantage as white okay so instead of
castling efore is the most common move
in this position
okay now c5
and as we saw a sort of the other
variation b5
yeah d5 this is the Reynolds attack so
we will be talking about this normally
it occurs more often in the Bishop b7
lines so imagine why does you know I
played Bishop e7 and white castled so
this is more commonly played there and
it almost always transposes there's not
a whole lot of like independent
significance so we're gonna study this I
guess two weeks from now
that'll be yeah we'll study this in the
ad the Bishop d7 ran I thought about
including some of the differences but uh
yeah we're just we're gonna focus on the
this line which is you know an
independent try for white to try to you
know I don't wanna play the Reynolds
attack because you played this way this
is the the line that I can play to try
to cause you some difficulties and now
again it's kind of hard to move your
knight to any useful place like if here
again you can take it and then I got to
worry about a six so black takes on d4
and so yeah we see this is a common
thing you're attacking my knight I'm
attacking your knight and now this is
the bloomfeld variation I'm gonna lose
my knight
so I sacrifice it anyway and then if you
take my knight which is the main move
you take Y Knight
so we'll come back to this this is
actually a major parting of the ways
though there's actually three moves here
and I think I faced them all I guess I
guess I've played this a lot I guess so
this is this is a move what are the
other two moves
yeah ninety five and you know the third
move
those two right yes there's a but yeah
so I I thought there was only two moves
here when I was playing this and uh I
was playing at 2300 and he really
surprised me he went here Knight to g4
now you don't want to play this at the
top level
I guess because white can play twenty
more moves of theory and get a slightly
better endgame so that's okay that's why
I people at the top level don't play
this however you know I was quite
surprised by this and I played the third
most popular move here which was here
which is actually interesting and it
should be an okay move but there it's
funny the way I lost you so the opening
was you know okay I didn't really get a
big advantage but it was some nice fine
opening and then in some position like
it's impossible for you guys to ever
imagine the move I play it like I just
played King d1 for like no reason and
I've done that before like everybody
makes different mistakes like some
people looks like why do you keep
putting your pawn on f6 and then your
knight never gets to go there and your
King's exposed some people make that
mistake my mistake that I like to play
is king d1 like don't don't do that
I mean you got that just don't just
randomly move your King there for no
reason it's never worked out for me but
I keep doing it do you think I should
stop yeah yeah I think so
no it was a long game yeah and it's yeah
I just threw it just threw the game away
flicking to one for no reason that's
just a mistake I like to make I guess
okay and we'll show just out of interest
since this is semi opening for just
black I would like to show you just how
complicated it can get so we'll just
kind of admire the complications the
main move here is actually Queen a for
creating a pin on the a file and then
after here I showed like the following
lines to somebody like the highest rated
guy that was at the club and he's just
like none of these moves make any sense
and nobody could ever play this so
that's kind of why you would play this
surprising move is black this is a great
surprise weapon because I think if White
knows his stuff and plays this crazy
computer line that we're gonna we're
gonna see coming out
but people can't understand ready for
this
get ready yeah so if if they figure out
all of this you know if they it's like
alright it weights a little bit better
in an endgame so it's a great surprise
weapon and I think the computer even
says it's like equal but you know ok I
mean White has more pawns so you can get
this type of position that's really
crazy but I think it's actually
something people might want to look into
because if they don't find all these
moves and they they get into trouble and
that's kind of what you play the semi
Slav in general anyway there's some
people that they hate playing theory
they just like I avoid playing anything
that you might ever know and I think
that's more people than people that
actually book themselves up I think
everybody's always worried that
everybody else is all booked up on every
opening ever but that's very rarely the
case even you know grandmasters you see
yeah I didn't know this line there's and
it's like you know book lines that they
should probably know if they're playing
these openings but uh I think that's you
just want to be the one that's more
prepared in these openings and that's
why you'd you'd play something like this
in that that can be a great surprise
weapon also taking here is a move and it
leads to some other really complicated
crazy lines that will breeze through
unfairly so something like this you know
very complicated stuff and you know
maybe weights a little bit better but
yeah yeah everything is very sharp and
so even this the main move in this
position let's just go back so we can we
can see this all one more time so we
played a six and after E for c5 they
play e5 we got nowhere to go so we have
to take here and so they give up their
Knight the main move is taking with the
pond so this is what we'll actually
focus our attention on okay so they got
a take our Knight pond takes soon
and we're up a pond is black that's good
we should stop here for just a minute
and kind of take stock because this is
obviously a very sharp dynamic position
we've opened up the G file we're gonna
try to use our rook here which means our
King is probably gonna stay in the
center yes yeah you can this is this is
like an okay move I think I just take
your check though I get my pawn back
it's to to safe and secure now you gotta
worry I'm most it's check and I'm on
this guy you know yeah cuz I think if
you just did something like this I can
take here now it's me that's up upon so
yeah you good you do gotta kind of yet
to be willing to play sort of sharp
positions in these types of lines so
yeah okay before we look at any moves
here okay we see the rook it's gonna get
some active play this rook already
pretty good piece because now sometimes
you have to do you know if you want to
move this guy away I'm on you're a pawn
so already he's got some active play
this bishop I see a good diagonal for
him where he's gonna coordinate with the
rook you know so the bishop on this
diagonal is gonna be pretty great the
Queen often goes to b6
tonight almost always goes to e5 the
bishop oh you know usually goes to c5
and my feeling of this position is it's
a lot easier to play black I think white
isn't you know better in this position
like I've actually really liked playing
this this is why I don't play the a6
line cuz I don't want to play this as
black I think this is good for white but
it's so easy to play black you know
where all your pieces go and it's not
entirely obvious what whites should do
usually what comes in handy is you got
these this majority here on the Queen
side obviously black has his own
majority in his own passed pawn but
that's unlikely to be pushed until the
end game and sometimes that's what
happens and you can win in games so it's
again the situation where black is
actually sort of attacking white and he
doesn't mind if you exchange pieces
because the endgame should be fine
because I get this this pasture here
which makes it kind of pleasant to play
as black
okay and I just took you now the most
common move might surprise you because
there's these pawns that look like we
can just take him white usually castles
he's down upon and he doesn't get his
pawn back let's look at both of these
captures this one first because it's
easy to refute yeah
Queen a5 check and you win the bishop so
okay that one's right out what about
this move why not get my pawn back and
the problem is but can actually already
get a very scary initiative Queen b6 and
I want to look at a game where white was
a little bit too greedy and he got
punished this is the game egg - Vesna
nice from a Correspondence game in 2004
so do they even have computers this was
probably a legitimate correspondence
where they like yeah yeah actually
thought about it themselves and didn't
have to use a computer okay and in this
game he took with this Knight
so now he's up a pond but here already
so this is the point of this is we're
gonna see the initiative that black can
actually get when white plays this way
and all of the moves come very naturally
there should be seven I'm on the Jeep on
very nice diagonal for a bishop so he
castled defended his pawn rook g8 very
easy now I'm I'm gonna take this so
provoked the move g3
okay
Bishop c5 is is okay he played here
though 95 which yeah comes with a threat
so yeah he's able to put his piece where
he wants to go with a threat and here
white blenders already by playing the
most natural looking move possible
there should be two and this is a
mistake and now the game's over
but can you find it so here's a real
challenge you might want to pause at
home this is it's a pretty good
challenge there is so so far today
nobody's been able to solve this I've
showed it to reasonably high rated
players so what is what's the winning
move here
why mr. mc5 right yeah awesome right you
kind of want to play a move like Queen
c6 because then you might checkmate your
opponent with this battery here but then
they play the move f3 so ya Claudio's
got it exactly right
you've seen this how have you seen this
game this is like two people you've
never heard of and I can't pronounce so
he just yeah he keeps the F pawn in
place and now how do you stop me from
going here and in here well he found any
way to stop him but ok he's lost now but
a4 so that now after a queen to c6 we're
gonna understand this move he played
Knight to d6 and be really careful don't
don't do this be careful okay so you
have to take back with the Queen which
is fine because now you're up a piece
and even traded Queens and that's as far
as well go so you can see already black
one a piece and then he went on to win
without any real trouble here so yeah I
mean the initiative comes really really
fast for black so okay this this will
suit a lot of players that like to play
this way and so we can get an idea of
why white should perhaps not be so
greedy and just castle Queen b6
defending both of the pawns and ok again
it's easy I do this you know that's what
I do
Queenie - this is the main move
attacking this pawn
do you see do I need to like change the
border oh yeah
alright so most people push their pond
because then they don't lose their pond
though it is worth mentioning that in
the the 2008 World Championship yeah he
played this against kramnik twice and he
won both times with black and I think
did it Eric Hanson do that who did
somebody talks about Game five those
games three and five you're not sure who
did it go go find it you're on the
Internet
but yeah I think somebody's already
covered that so I didn't want to I
didn't want to recover that if it's
aren't even covered he did yeah he did
and then if I remember right the first
game Game three he played here and then
he clearly out prepared his opponent
brilliant game it's really good go look
at that game of that's your homework you
didn't think you'd get homework from
this video and then in Game five you
know so and it's it's pretty suspicious
this this move giving up the pond like
this so then Kramnik presumably he had
all of his seconds and all his people
telling them okay well this is bad so
you should play it again well then when
they play it again in he had whatever he
had prepared andand played a different
move like what g8 and then he was more
prepared in this line too so he had two
lines prepared for this and okay then
kramnik stop playing that against him so
yeah I mean two wins with that and
that's how I became you know the world
champion again so yeah somebody asked me
today how do you become a world champion
I said you play the Moran and in this
position either you play Bishop to b7
that's how you become the world champion
so okay if it's good enough in the World
Championship even if it's a little
dubious it's you know good enough in the
knights tournament in every action quad
but okay after before I do want to find
a game here this will be our last game
here for the night we'll see this to its
completion this is the game between him
Barsoomian in kiss matul in from 2015
okay
and rook d1 is the most popular move
here for white and then on the next move
Bishop to f4 so usually this rook ends
up going to d1 but we'll just focus here
on this game
so there should be seven you know it's
very easy move to play and we decided in
this game not to put the rook on d1 but
to put it on c1 and he's keeping this
rook here because somebody's got to
defend this pawn okay so here actually
two we're starting to coordinate here
you know our rooks so we got like the
triangle of death going on so we got
that going on as white so you played
Bishop c5 just to break this connection
so nothing comes down here and after
this he's gonna try to trade off for
blacks really strong dish up we reached
this position and he plays f5 he says
I'm not worried if you want to trade
with me because then my Queen goes here
and I have some threats and for example
let's we can we can make some a funny
blunder whoops
so that's check so you'd have to play g3
okay I'm not really worried if you want
to trade with me so the Bishop 1 to f3
and he connects his rooks that's where
the King normally goes in this line he
goes to e7 and usually you're pretty
safe behind all of these ponds it's not
so obvious how white could ever open
this up and really attack you it's it's
mostly black that's attacking in this
position
a4 and what's the best move in this
position
also everybody I've asked today has
gotten this one right so it's always
strange which ones are easy and which
ones are hard all right so if you're
just joining us
why just played the move a 2 to a 4
what's the best move for black
there's your basics that looks like a
good move I mean okay so I'll have to
just move my queen somewhere now
hopefully this this ends up being decent
for me this is outside pawn in the
endgame that's kind of what I need as
white as I need this this outside guy
and I'm kind of trying to trick you I
asked all these people this cuz I'm
trying to trick people what's the best
move and the best move objectively is to
just take the pawn so perhaps he was
worried about a situation like this and
after some trades you can get a position
like this and so the computer would just
take the pawn but this is kind of scary
because you got to worry about all these
dark squares and your dark squared
Bishop as you know a little bit far away
but this should actually be fine for
black so he could take it in the game
however he decided to play it safe and
he just brought his rook to c8 and now
the blunder of the game here and then
he's gonna you know double down on the
blunders on his next move so Bishop g3
this was not a very good move
d 3 mm-hmm and white took it which is a
mistake you should probably stay
connected to his f 2 pond which is a big
hint as to what the right move is here
so instead he took here and now it's
black to move pause your videos at home
if you want to try to find this one
what did black play in this position
okay you want to take here you take it
back
yeah
right yeah very good Brook g3
the point is after we take here we can
take on f2
so now all we got to do is get one of
our heavy pieces to this file to give
checkmate we're very close if we could
like do this maybe checkmate
conversely if we brought this guy over
here and we did this that also would be
checkmate so that's what he did in the
game now here wait triple blundered
every move has been a blunder he should
have in fact continued with a move like
a four the point is I'm gonna go to h6
and checkmate you but at least in this
line you'd be able to block with your
knight though you're still you're still
in bad trouble
so instead though Knight to c4 attacking
the Queen so rook g6 threatening me and
white had been banking on this move
Queen to d2 he thought that this must
save them haha you know go to h6 but
then black played one more move and
white resigned so this is the last
puzzle of the day so go ahead and pause
one more time can you find what what
black played in this position you just
need to find one more move and you win
the game
yeah because the problem is we can't
play rook h6 because of the Queen Queen
is the problem
you get that queen out of there yeah
Queen III ok very decent idea but sadly
mmm you're too tricky you have to take
this way ok yeah I can't take with the
night obviously because the night take
me what the night would be a funny
encounter blunder but yeah I can do this
and I'm and so yeah the thing is when I
take your queen in this line I'm still
on this square so you're very close
though you're very close
don't try again
can you get it before the master
yeah look at that Queen d4 that's how
the game ended and yes of the yeah the
problem is there's nowhere on this
diagonal that's safe for the Queen's ago
they won't involve her getting traded
off what do you want to do Queen takes
on a four on d4
yes something let's see so yeah I guess
I have to take this and I'm still
threatening mate yeah that's enough
yeah you just take here and you're still
turning mate so that's how the game
ended so I hope you guys enjoyed it let
me know what you guys think of the semi
Slav let me know if you guys like
playing it as white or black in the
comments below let me know if there's
anything else you guys want to see hit
like share subscribe and we'll see you
next time
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
[Music]