Hi all! Let's have a look at one of the amazing games coming out of the Leuven
Blitz in Belgium this is Magnus Carlsen against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL)
this is around Round 12 - second of July 2017. 1 c4 from Magnus so English opening at the
moment and now e3 and this is of course instructive for me because if I kick off
the game with a e3 and they play e5 I could get this position with c4 we're
combining a kind of reverse French defense with reverse Sicilian defense
and now after Knight f6 Knight c3 is very logical waiting to be able to take
here and open up that C file Nc6 but we will also into the mixture
of systems a kind of Grob move now g4 so Basman was keen with g4 on the first move ..
So this aims to sometimes control that d5 square but there's other ideas
in the Grob which actually Magnus makes use of. After Bb4 g5 white gets
this bishop pair but what good is the bishop pair if this is blocked in
later?! so this is another fantastic idea the pawn is slightly vulnerable instead
of protecting it one of the kind of more aggressive ideas of the Grob system is
to sometimes use that as a pawn sack to get an active rook on the g-file ... pressure on
the G file but so White is interested in boosting all his pieces here like this
bishop on c1 this rook on h1 so yeah very interesting idea sacking that pawn and
also now after Queen g5 we get some other effect that this bishop is also
kind of targeted. First this Knight is kicked but now this this pawn move locks
in the counterpart - the Bishop over there so this one saying to this one 'haha
I'm not blocked and you are!' so very interesting pawn sack this whole idea
sacking the 'g' pawn there that kind of accepts imprisonment with
c6 - what else can he do here ?! if he takes it might be worse actually if he took
then there's things like Bishop a3 and Queen takes d6 to follow this might be
even more dangerous in a practical sense. So c6 looks like
a really miserable move imprisoning that Bishop so white is also gaining with
tempo Knight f3 and now Rg1 - look at all of White's pieces ... from a
practical point of view this is much easier to play with the white pieces
from the engine point of view it might be - an engine might think black so okay but really this is
so difficult for black to actually play here - the immediate threat is parried with
Ne6 and now another startling move ... I wonder if you can guess it if I give you
five seconds starting from now ... okay
both bishop engines are activated now with e4 - this opens up this bishop as
well so we've got both bishops kind of activated - it maybe this one needs a bit
more activation later but this after e4 Queen takes e4 check .. Bishop e3 it's
all about the bishops being really active and the pieces being really
active and yeah this is getting dangerous - Bishop d3 threatens
immediately to trap the Queen so the Queen moves - we have Queen f5 now Knight
g5 very interesting to build take on e6 and then crash through on g7 ... we have Nf4
trying to parry that idea ... White gives up one of the bishops this is taking out
one of blacks only active pieces there's only the Queen that's around at the
moment and the Queen is subject to tempo game .. rook g4 - and again Ne4 and now
after Queen f3 White is potentially threatening here
Queen g3 hitting e5. This is a very very tricky part of the
game here. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave plays Knight f6 probably expecting Knight
takes f6 which actually technically this position if we just get this
simplification is about equal here you know black has paid some something for
that Knight f6 here and this this from you know from a technical engine point of
view is about equal or even if anyone's better .. maybe black can start
wriggling out with b6 but Magnus keeps the tension in the position he plays a
really really interesting move here ... I wonder if you can guess it .. if I give you
five seconds to pause the video what would you consider playing with white?!
okay it's a bit of a stunner ... rook takes g7 and black is probably shell-shocked
by this move and he immediately plays
probably not the most accurate reply basically clearly it's it's very
dangerous for black - you know the worst move would be N takes because that's
a mate in two but um the best move is probably King f8 here so giving
the option of King take g7 it's it's a very very calm resourceful response no
panic about it .. King f8 if the rook goes back then actually this d6 pawn might
actually be a liability ... Knight takes and Queen takes d6 and a lot of
blacks problems are solved now .. this might be you know okay or even slightly
better for black technically but Magnus is playing against human who panicked here
yeah this causes a panic. Queen takes g7 immediately ... White has got
masses of compensation here on the dark squares by taking out g7 f6 has being
weakened and e5 ... it's a whole ripple effect on the dark squares which we
start to see now after Knight takes we start to see this from this position ..
that there are actually issues now on other dark squares so an amazing
practical decision for Magnus causing a suboptimal you know human reply it is
just blitz after all as well so interesting moment here ... the King goes
to d8 let's have a quick look at this if King f8 Queen f5 maybe the key move
with Queen takes e5 to follow ... and it's difficult for black to actually do
something about this for example this position is pretty miserable with these
two threats .. you can see it's not just about the bishop being blocked in .. It's
the interruption on the whole back row especially with this pawn ... this is
another attacking piece basically near the king so there's some dire issues
here for black to solve .. we'd have to actually give up a rook here which is
not very very nice this is just totally lost for black this position okay things
like Queen d8 to follow so yeah the King actually goes to d8 preparing actually to shuffle
the rook here so making space for the rook to go there
Queen f5 rook e8 to counter sac the exchange to defend e5 on b6 this yeah
this is just end of game after Queen takes e5 for example like this and it's
just mating so black has to actually sac the exchange here with rook e8 to defend
that's taken and now this Bishop is activated c5 activating that Bishop and
we have b5 at least trying to stop the use of the c4 square
I mean c4 might might be useful But Bishop d3 ... blacks not interested in
the h7 form here and there's no time to try and win a rook you just get mated
for example check it's just a way of her getting mated over here
Queen takes e5 and then Queen h8 checkmate that pawn is part of the
mating that there so there's no time for any material hunting .. f6 is played we
have king e2 and this is a very interesting move coming up here after
king f7 white really wants to be able to have an option of rook g1 but how to
achieve that here ?! blacks really tied down to d7 in this position so white
plays a mysterious move looking move here which caught my attention really I
wonder if you can guess it if I give you five seconds starting from now ...
mysterious looking move ... what would you play here okay rook h1 it seems
ridiculous to put the rook behind the pawn but it's actually like a sliding
block puzzle because then this king can go there and then rook can go there
protected by the king so by doing this it's just making way for the
king to come here but also in some variations h4 is also useful supported
by the rook - we have rook b8 let me just show you one of those variations I'm
mentioning ... I'm thinking of Queen g6 Queen f3 here
Queen g5 they could be h4 utilizing that rook on h1 so it's like a mysterious
rook move and here white is also ready with his passed 'h' pawn so this is
winning for white basically so anyway rook h1 rook b8 was played. Now King f1 so
Rg1 was introduced we have Queen g6 Queen f3 hitting the Queen
Queen goes to h6 now finally Rg1 and there are ideas of Rg3 to
h3 which would target h7. Bishop a6 finally black
moves the bishop but d7 is a target which is immediately
tapped into - that 'weakness of the last move'. Poor Bishop - the rook is tied down
now to defend that instead. Rook g3 if check I don't believe this is
particularly good after Kg2 there - the tempo gain there (Rxc1 threat) is a bit of a killer so
humble move Rd8 Rg3 e4 - this looks pretty desperate - Queen takes
e4 now threatens Qe7 - now Re8 Queen g4 hitting d7 again and also
potentially h7 is loose in these lines as well so Bishop c8 King g2 taking away
any potential checks there which might have been useful Qg5 Queen f3
keeping the Queens on for a moment Qd5 and it's here actually Magnus does
take on d5 Queens do come off Bishop takes h7 threatening Bishop g6 so it
wasn't just winning the pawn it was getting that g6 square to
threaten Bishop g6 Re5 coming out of the firing line there on the
diagonal f4 we have this check rook takes h2 but now check here so getting
that Center pawn with the immediate threat of rook to g8 checkmate - that's parried Kf2
Bishop a6 and now the King marches up the board in this final phase king d4
Rg7 - rook on the 7th - White's got all the big positional trump cards here you can hope
for c6 undoubling his pawns technically and
crashing through much more effectively now - the rook on 7th is much
more effective so a5 ... the king coming in to c5 and the game
ended here ... and that's a very miserable looking position visually let's have a
look say b4 c4 and say f5 Ra7 you know black's not
really doing much here say this.. rook a8 that nasty pin (c8 bishop pinned) because with the threat
Bishop d7 why can just start picking off the pawns at leisure and eventually you
know blacks gonna have to do something desperate like that because if black
doesn't do something desperate well let's say rook g7 Ra8 and
there's the threat for example of sometimes d7 or even just Bishop d5 here
let's see Bd5 might even be better just to go for that c8 without
losing anything so this this is the kind of thing - Bishop e6 - so it looks
fairly hopeless this endgame scenario - let's look where the game ends again if we
throw in the check ... King b6 this position is yeah it's just all
pretty hopeless White's going to just play this ideally ..which threatens
that mate to get that nasty pin so once that happens you have similar situations
before even with d7 let alone that Bishop move .. d7 here is
killing okay so it's a totally killing final position and yeah it just
shows really for me as a blitz player as you know from the Kingscrusher
channel ... well my first lesson from this game is to combine the reverse French
with the reverse Sicilian and the machismo Grob with the gambit .. he
basically in doing that .. he ... both bishops were really activated fully later and
this Bishop was hemmed in most of the game ... d7 was an issue much of the game ...
there were constant threats to handle basically and the endgame favors white
basically massively with the rook coming into the position
it was just fantastically active dynamic aggressive blitz game from Magnus Carlsen
and shows it was like one of those wonderful Alexander Alekhine games yeah
with the dynamic pawn sac in the opening ...it was a bit like that it was
actually a dynamic pawn sack in the opening here with that 'g' pawn ... if we just
yeah .. it's just a wonder .. if we just appreciate the dynamic aggressiveness of
this game it really was amazing ... so something to learn from here for sure
especially if you're a blitz player to take these sort of risks ... comments
questions like shares appreciated ... thanks very much