hope you're all doing well I wanted to share a fun game that I played against Hikaru today in his sub
Q this was an odds game where I started out with four bishops with the black pieces and Hikaru as
you can see started out with the four Knights now obviously in a three minute odds game craziness
is gonna happen but there were some instructive moments and a lot of fun moments so I figured
I would share it with you so things got off with just both of us taking control of the center and
Hikari immediately attacks my Bishop Bishop comes back and Knight d3c 692 now he cards just trying
to get developed here he's trying to make quick moves early on but already a pretty instructive
move here from the black pieces and hilariously enough as this is going to sound the move that
I'm about to show you is the engines preference okay so keep this kind of idea in mind when
you've got Knights standing on g3 g6 B 3 and B 6 these squares can sometimes be undermined with a
flank pawn and for that reason I played h5 and and this already puts this knight in a bit of a
precarious position because if he core allows me to play h4 he's just gonna have to return
his knight here this is not going to be pretty at all so he Cardo plays h4 himself but when you've
got a bishop versus a knight in a kind of dynamic like this one that h4 pawn is very tough to guard
and that's gonna become relevant later so again a good way to fight against Knight sometimes in the
edge of the board if you're not castled that way for example is to use this kind of flank
pawn maneuver so here III played a move which in hindsight was a little bit silly but I had a plan
behind it I thought that after it takes Hikaru would play Queen d3 and that would allow me to
develop another Bishop here with tempo but Hikaru just recaptured with the pawn which actually does
make a lot of sense what I should have played here by the way was just to bring out the Bishop
on its own and put pressure along the diagonal and you know obviously that would have given me
some some some very very good LightSquared control on e4 some pressure on d3 and so on and so forth
especially once I take this knight b2 will be softened up as well so don't trade too quickly
it's kind of the lesson here but I took took and played Queen b6 Queen d2 and g6 so of course this
supports the pawn and potentially you know gets my Bishop out in the future Knight c3 and here again
remove well you're never gonna have three bishops in a game probably but I had to and so what do you
do when you have a lot of you know you got a lot of Bishop firepower you try to open up the center
of the board so takes takes key Cara wins the tempo and again I I shouldn't have rushed here but
I wanted to simplify the position just a little bit so it would be a bit easier to play and I
took on g3 because I figured his night on g3 isn't really that strong and my pawn structure is doing
quite well but of course here there is no need to rush I can back up and really my problem is
my LightSquared Bishop I'm not gonna win this game with two dark-squared bishop I need to be dominant
on you know on both colors so it takes takes Bishop d6 and obviously the idea was to take but
then he garu castled and this kind of this kind of surprised me I thought he was gonna have to
make some sort of move covering this but here we see traditional positional value a diminished okay
and so you know while I'm breaking his structure and obviously softening up the you know II for
a little bit in the center and III could be weak in the future the real problem is I'm not really
developed and he just opened up his line directly toward my king with his rook so taking on g3 not
you know not the best thing even though if you if you go elementary level of analysis ago doubled
pawns are good and I'm breaking up a structure but not not the best move but I also didn't play
the best move here I saw an idea which seemed very straightforward but it's got a bit of a drawback
on developing my queen and going after as I said a couple minutes ago that weak pawn on h4 now at
first glance it looks like I'm just winning it okay it looks like I'm picking up the pawn
that I'm gonna have pressure I'm gonna castle my king it's gonna be good now I want you if you're
watching right at this moment first of all like the video and subscribe if you haven't loved you
but if you're watching right now pause find the best move for white if you want to I can flip the
board so it would be a little bit easier for you what's the best move in this position for a white
and I'm gonna tell you the answer right now the best move in this position is efore you're not
going to be able to guard this pawn anyway and so the reason you play e4 is a couple of things
so first of all white is much more developed in black castled rooks connected Queen out Knights
out black is at least two moves away from castling and and the other way you find e4 is while the
Kings right here that's that's you know that's that's really the biggest thing and in general
that kind of ties to point number one is that I'm not developed on a few moves away from castling
but you need to attack a king that's in the center of the board and you need to try to make progress
with your pieces okay these Knights can't go forward without a pawn trade right they have
no way to come forward so that's why one should play e4 here and then after something like pawn
takes e4 Knight e4 is coming rook e1 is coming and I'm not going to be able to take this pawn
actually it's a tactical defense of this pawn hikaru makes a mistake plays f4 I mean he's just
human and I take on a story place queen f2 I long castle and now another instructive moment opposite
side castling white is down a pawn but black is also down about a minute I think at this point
I had about 90 seconds he had 230 so he's up on time very practical decision here from Hikaru in
a position rather than just sit tight and defend and let me expand my pieces he starts opening the
lines on the Queen side now of course this is a free pawn but the drawback is that my bishop kind
of walks away from this diagonal he might back up his night or just transfer both rooks and all of
a sudden have some very annoying pressure on my Queen side now when you plug in that position to
the engine um it actually says that you should take them before and then suck it up absorb the
pressure you'll be fine that's not always so easy to do especially when you play someone higher
rated but instructive moment right sometimes our opponents are bluffing and if you don't
see a follow up you should go for it I decided all right I'm gonna disregard that I'm gonna go for my
own play obviously the point here is that if you take Bishop g3 and it's over so he can replace b5
now again I have a very aggressive playing style for better for worse so I swapped the pawns off
here and here I obviously didn't want to take that allows the Knights to come that also opens the C
file the Queen comes in but I I play to move here which in hindsight made the game a little bit too
crazy and ultimately you know I I burned my hand on the stove but it's it's kind of an instructive
moment for you anyway I just counter-attacked on the other side of the board I allowed him to take
on c6 and here rather than simply recapturing which would have been the best move I decided
to go all-in on the G file and on that side of the board and I and when he took my second pawn
on b7 with check I used this pawn as an umbrella pawn Robert Hess shout out to him he coins this
term in one of his commentaries that I saw this is when an attacking pawn does not get captured
by the defending side and instead you hide behind it and because he Caro has Knights here it's not
easy for him to get to the only two squares where he can put me in more danger so I hide behind the
pawn and everything is okay 92 Queen g4 he offers a queen trade when you're under pressure it's good
to trade the Queen's that's why he's doing that I backed up and he plays rook f2 and I decided
well you know I've got to do something here it's very difficult for me to mobilize so I'm playing
h4 giving another pawn in the process and h3 now this looks like a V you know he cannot take like
this but if he takes like this the whole idea of kicking the Queen away is to get my bishop to e4
that is the reason that I did this because then his queen is passive and my bishop dominates the
center of the board so I sacrificed the pawn for activity at this very moment I would have been
down three pawns but with pretty substantial pressure on his King obviously the position is
still unclear so he corey disregards that and plays rook c1 now here I again I should have
kept it simple but with time dwindling trying to create chaos where there was none I played Queen
h6 which I thought was logical because I defend this now from Queen takes the is open but I don't
have a threat frankly and Hikaru kind of fell for my bluff and played Knight g3 still obviously a
perfectly good move but but I don't have a threat and I mean if he just goes g3 I'm I'm I'm toast
you know there's h2 but he just you know he plays something like king h1 and I'm not going to be
getting in so he played that night Knight g3 and I got very happy I was like oh you know Queen h4
I'm winning then you know the Knights under attack I've got something so another instructive moment
for you all danger levels I'm attacking his night I'm threatening to take his knight well here he
Carter should just use his umbrella pawn and the rook and there's a actually a very simple you know
a win here just disregard this and if if I take then this is mate it's just mate because if I
take he makes a new queen and and if I play Queen takes g3 I think this is still winning with an
absolutely beautiful combination take stakes here and you use the second rook and deliver a stunning
ladder checkmate now neither one of us saw that that's a ridiculous sacrifice to see in a blitz
game and on its game and given the circumstances but just a a hilarious example of white going from
total defense to just transferring and opening these lines and this ties all the way back to
key carros move b4 which he played on move 16 when he opened those lines there was some foresight you
know into the future of what this might look like now he didn't see Queen c3 instead opting for this
trade but this way my king escapes the checks and in a crazy turn of events he's got no follow-up
check alright so here I was getting confident again here he car actually immediately made a
mistake with her got three but I had 30 seconds on the clock and well I went for a sacrifice I gave
him my bishop and I thought oh I'm opening his King and then I got this far and was like uh-oh
and the game ended very unsuccessfully with me pushing and if he takes me he gets mated but uh
you know he just went straight for the kill and I just walked into mate I just didn't see that
I thought if I work here I would at least maybe escape her for a moment but even that's no all
hope is lost once the check comes in yeah the sacrifice in time trouble was not good actually
I should have punished this move and taken on g2 with a very nice idea to take the knight and
then get my Queen into h1 at which point very nasty attack coming pushing through the Jeep on
actually I think engine was like screaming here for this move but what to do right I mean it was
it was a very very tough complex game I mean my King was out in the open only shielded by the
bishop and my pieces from from from a distance but very exciting game and well when when when in the
right hands it seems as though four Knights do to feed four bishops but perhaps if we
switch the pieces you know he car would have also beaten me with with the four bishop army as well