Hi all, I have another amazing blitz game to show you at the super GM level or the super super GM level
Veselin Topalov against Magnus Carlsen this is in the grand
Chess Tour Paris Blitz section 25th of June 2017 we have c4 c6 so Magnus
is offering actually this is a variation of the Caro Kann with an unusual one
but he's offering that but White just goes into the Slav lines with d4
Knight f3 Knight f6 e3 and now slightly unusual move a6 is played this is fourth
most popular very interesting move quite often Bishop f5 or e6 or Bg4
a6 is chosen that has been played more than 2000 times like Nc3 e6 and you might think it's a little
bit weird putting all these pawns on light squares but after b3 black has
got a really solid position. This bishop (on c8) can be a menace later quite often believe it
or not even though it is temporarily imprisoned. We see Bishop b4
Bishop d2 Nbd7 Bishop d3 castles Queen c2 Qe7 and now with the plan of
e5 this Bishop is going to see the light of day soon across this diagonal
at very least white tries to put a stop to that with Knight e5 because
immediately on path is e4 of course forking here so yeah puts a breaking on
that with Ne5 Knight takes e5 d takes Ng4 has slightly compromised white this
whole sequence here. You might think hold all of second isn't there Bishop takes h7 in this
position isn't this a bit strange?! I'm not sure White has time for that
let's just check this one out so Bishop takes h7 Kh8 - in fact if
well the bishop is trapped and lost to Queen h4 check here for a start if
there's f4 and if the bishop goes back this is actually quite good because a
centre pawn has been won at the cost of a flank pawn and Black's King
safety is not that compromised here this is this is okay for black. So white
maintains his center pawn. He is not attracted to that. He just wants to maintain his
centre pawn we have f5 blunting now the diagonal
protecting h7. I'm not sure it's in White's favor to take here
and again we've got the idea of maybe e5 immediately or taking and then e
five assuming B takes so okay that that pawns just left there it's not taken on
enpassant so we have g3. Why g3?! That is an interesting question
maybe g3 might not have been strictly necessary here maybe a move like this
is interesting okay but we have g3. Sometimes that diagonal I guess if the
Kings left for a moment longer in the center it could be dangerous.
Now rook d8 and there is a concern here about this D file if what white can't
castle Queen side just yet by the way. He kicks the knight actually which is
justification for g3 blocking lines because then Queen h4 would be terrible
if he doesn't kick the knight
I believe the knight can just just go into f2 yeah this is great for Black so white
kicks this knight here knowing that Queen h4 is rule out Queen h4 so there's a
method in the madness of g3 but Knight takes e3 has been permitted. This is a
temporary piece sac. Black is getting a piece back and you could argue that
White's position although technically equal has
a feeling it slightly overextended now this bishop issue you might think all
this madness with all the pawns on light squares it's kind of addressed now
with c5 clearing out this diagonal and after castling b6 so this Bishop is
seeing a light down this diagonal. g4 now maybe this is a bit too much maybe
preparation for that with Rhg1 and this position maybe is more prudent to
wait on g4 because what happens here actually I have to say it's a little bit
it's a little bit hi-jacky. g4 permits black to kind of hijack
some of the weaknesses after bb7 Rhg1 is played but more
cautious Rhf1 one might already be needed for whites to fight
to maintain a good position like this for example this this kind of
scenario with King takes not losing f4 should be equal but in the game
continuation we have the less cautious Rhg1 yeah of course white
wants to break through and this kind of move now maybe takes Topalov by
surprise it's kind of pinning that pawn to f4 it's unpleasant to say the least
if that f5 was taken here it takes Queen takes f4 check exf5 and it's not
easy to get rid of this irritation it's really irritating Queen because say Rdf1
Qh2 check and that Queen's a right pain after say Rfd4 here how do we
get rid of the Queen it's really irritating
and this shuts down this diagonal so you know e6 is less as menacing and yeah
blacks getting control of the position. He cant even take on f5 because of g1. Black is
actually clearly better here so this is what I mean this is a bit of a
exploiting White's weaknesses but now Bishop c2 it's late rook takes Bishop
takes and the Queen is really irritating forking now the rook and the pawn it's
horrible that White's collapse seems imminent
because of that f4 weakness. You would think all the excitement is with white opening
up the g-file but in fact black with its pieces barely out of the box here.
The bishop is now on a really good diagonal compared to earlier but black
with the Queen is really harassing white and after Qg3 white is
groveling basically for a draw here. After the Queen takes he has to defend Queen
a1 so he's hoping for repetition now after Queen c3 Queen f2 may be hoping
for a repetition but Magnus improves now the damage has been done here. He snaps up
a pawn and he wants to expose the king so guess what black plays in this
position if I give you 5 seconds starting from now black to play
okay queen d4 yeah to harass the King like this (Qa1 threat). So you might think hold on a sec
isn't that King b1 here to stop queen a1 check that this is
horrible actually for white in all variations now. On Kb1 we play the
check and if here white ends up getting mated yeah. Queen b2 check and this
is a forced mate in three yeah and yeah there's not much to do there if Bishop
c2 this is also horrible after Queen d2. Say Rc1 there is Rd8 and
the threat here is Rd3 actually yeah that's a really nasty threat
it takes takes again and Rd3 is now threatened so this is totally diabolical
for white in this position so it seems queen d4 for yeah King bee one's no
good after Bishop e4 simply yeah there's just nothing good here it seems.
The Queen and Bishop are working very well on the light and dark squares for
the attack there so we have G takes f five but this is horrible now.
The King is just being kicked to death.
After the check. Rd8+Qb2 check .Game ends here. for a start if here Queen d2 let's
get that one out of the way that's checkmate in one if here then that's a
checkmate in four after the check Queen takes D 1 and if King F 2 root d2
check and that's mating it's all very easily mating you can see that all of
three of blacks pieces are just killing the white King here
that's unpalatable as well of course just wrote Rxd1 White is going to give
up the Queen so yeah the game ended here. What can we say about this game ?!
Visually you know even though technically it seems equal at one point
it seems as though white was having to be a bit more careful white seems have a
more unstable position fundamentally prone to weaknesses and that was fully
tapped into and underlined with that move Queen h4. The f4 pawn was the
early Achilles heel over here and it just led to White's downfall. Yeah Magnus really
found the downsides of white's position which was that f4. The queen invasion was
just devastating. The rook on d8 didn't need to do anything it was this
bishop supporting the Queen which made sure there was no way of repulsing the
Queen and it did so much damage in this game it's remarkable really
these games to study from a blitz perspective if nothing else. Hope you
enjoyed it. Comments questions likes shares appreciated.Thanks very much.