Hi all, I have a very interesting game to show you of Magnus Carlsen the current world
champion against the former world champion Vishy Anand, played in the Gregg chess classic
in Germany, the 6th of February 2015.
What's fascinating about this game is Magnus's choice of opening after d4 he has been speaking
recently about playing flank openings to try and play for a win with black.
So it's very interesting to see the world champion experimenting with openings in today's
climate where we have endless Slavs and Grune full defenses he plays what is a kind of outrageous
opening.
Not as outrageous as some Nakamura's openings.
But f5, the Dutch defense.
Well here this is already a big surprise believe it or not.
At the super grand master level this is rarely played nowadays.
It used to be popular in like the 40s for example David Bronstein, 30's Alexander Alekhine
used to play the Dutch defense through some very famous wins.
But theory has progressed and one of the problems with the variation which play adopts which
is the Dutch Stonewall is that it's quite a fixed Pawn structure.
We look now at the Dutch tone wolf formation being crated with e6.
Black is putting all the Pawns on the light squares and in doing so is weakening the dark
squares.
So we have c4 and the move order here is interesting.
Black plays c6, not d5 immediately.
This is actually the more common while playing it.
C6 to give back maybe two options on any cxd5.
Nf3, d5.
So we have this Stonewall being created, a literal Stonewall that's how it's named and
you will see that this Bishop is kind of hemmed in and it creates well-defined strategies
for both sides, this Pawn structure.
Black is often keen in Stonewall to try and for a King side attack.
He has got a good clamp on the e4 square.
White is often trying to trade off this Bishop for this Bishop.
So that these weaknesses are more exploitable.
That's a key defender of the dark squares.
This Bishop is often be routing a bit like this in many Dutch Stonewall games.
Occasionally it can flick out like this, maybe.
But it's known as, it's kind of considered a bad Bishop and also the e5 square is often
pivotal.
Literally the Knights pivot around e5 quite often.
There's very standard maneuvers well defined about e5.
Like both Knights here often look at E 5 and trying to exchange off the Bishops.
So the strategy is very well defined for both sides.
Very fixed structure.
White castles and now Bd6 and here white plays the most common move, b3.
You'll note that this Knight is staying at home.
Because b3 means with the Knight at home Be3 is very convenient and black usually tries
to stop Ba4.
He doesn't want this strategic exchange of Bishops.
So black played Qe7 here.
Now often players with white just go to another plan then Bb2 and just try and keep the pressure
on e5 against any liberating e5 from black.
Another idea is to persist with the Ba3 plan.
This is also quite popular a4.
We have games like this.
But it's not meant to be that bad for black in theory, this kind of position.
But yeah white didn't play a4.
You can see that this nice heading for a classic clamp on e5.
White didn't play a4.
White actually played Ne5, okay and now Magnus castled, Nd2, so it looks as though white
ready for supporting Knight for example and also the Band come to b2 to support this Knight.
So black doesn't really want to take on e5.
He'll be doing whites job and also that Bishop will even be, even more rampant on blacks
dark squares later.
So that Knight has to be tolerated for the moment.
Magnus plays a5, we have Bb2.
Nbd7, Qc2, another very interesting move here with especially hemmed in for the moment black
stretches out on the Queenside with a4.
White really doesn't want to take this, he will be structurally compromised.
The black will end up with some good compensation and peace pressure.
So white ignores this just strengthening his grip on e5 is all very very logical.
The e5 square is a kind of central square to clamp down on in general.
Black has though Ne4 and it looks as though in a way blacks kind of solid here and CD
can be answered with ED, white doesn't need to be allowed any infiltration on the C file.
White plays e3.
Now quite a committal move here from Magnus, he plays a3, because this Pawn could be in
the future looking weaker when things get traded off.
So quite committed, Bc3 and offering a dark square Bishop.
Does black really want to take this dark square Bishop?
Well black is actually more interested in challenging this c5 Square and trying to do
something about this c8 problem Bishop.
Magnus actually takes on e5 here.
Nxe5 and our Bd7 as though this kind of stand the maneuver might be on the cards.
But there's another possibility with Bd7 that maybe also b5 could be interesting to try
and create some Queen side play.
Black really wants to keep this nuisance Knight there instead of taking on c3 right now and
any Bxe4 white will be weakening the light squares after F takes black could look forward
to some sort of light square attack.
So this Knight can be kicked though with f3 when it's prepared well.
A very interesting strategic decision is played now by Vishy Anand and apparently it has been
played before a while back by Salo Flohr who is a great master of positional play.
It looks odd, Nxd7.
Yes because it seems to be like blacks you know problem strategically assault that balls
the bad Bishop.
You could think alternatives to leave that Knight there to keep the kind of bind on the
possession and just try and kick this away or even move this away and then then kick
the Knight.
So it's a very interesting decision which has caused some controversy by many commentators
of this game.
Nxd7, it seems you know White has a pleasant enough bind and didn't need to do this.
Because one side effect of course is blockading right now this e5 Knight is actually blockading
the e6 Pawn.
So you can imagine in the future that playing for e5 would become more practical.
Black might want to play for e5 to kind of make White's Pawn structure more fragile and
maybe increased chances of a King side attack later.
So it seems as though why it's kind of unbinding this clamp on e5.
You know the bind on the position seems to be less.
Very interesting exchange, Qxd7 and now c5 closing up the position.
Bc7, but the Bishop stays on this diagonal in preparation for a future e5.
Black doesn't have any major problem pieces here.
But what is potential here concern is this a3 pawn, after b4 it looks as though this
b3 Pawn could be targeted and there has been another recent Dutch defense game of Magnus Carlsen
where actually a3 was taken and Magnus ended up losing the game.
Which is not interesting, I actually I'd like to show on a channel soon.
This flirtation with the Dutch defense is very interesting just from a strategic point
of view.
You know it's like a, it's a bit double-edged this Pawn now.
It could be potentially weak in the future.
But for the moment Magnus now with this Bishop on c7 seems to have some attacking prospects
and plays h5.
He just wants to weaken this structure.
Also you can imagine you know you get Rook behind this and this h-file attack could be
whipped up.
Very crude but is white in a position to really defend this that well?
Well whites first response is Be1.
So that seems to be solidifying structure a little bit.
Now we have the e5, yes kind of weakness of the last moment was off e5.
So why not play e5 here?
White takes now, Bxe5.
So what happens structurally here after Rd1?
Okay structurally it seems are that maybe if the Knights kicks later these two Pawns
might be a bit more fragile.
That's one thing.
Black is not in any great position to ever play f4 now.
Whites got a good grip on both f4 and d4.
But also there's another interesting possibility that's emerged here that the Bishop controls
this diagonal and actually Bb2 is an interesting resource to bear in mind protecting the Pawn
and blocking white's connection to the a2 Pawn.
It is a potential weakness now.
You can imagine with Bb2 this could become vulnerable in the future.
So keep a watch of that.
Especially with Magnus's next move which has double intentions, Qe6 it's an extra attack
on a2.
But also the Queen is free to switch for a King side attack.
We've seen that f3 kicking the Knight.
Nf6 and now what looks to be quite dangerous Bh3 and kind of celebrating the fact that
white has taken blacks Light Squared Bishop earlier.
So black is kind of more vulnerable on these light squares in theory and not only that,
this is a pin which can be exploited it seems with e4.
So after pawn protecting effect e4 here is played.
So okay this looks to be quite uncomfortable just on the light squares now f5 and d5.
Does this justify whites earlier Nxd7?
It's very interesting.
But now we have some very tactical considerations coming into this.
So although in theory White has the Bishop pair and should have advantages putting pressure
on to sensitive points on light squares where white has the light square Bishop and black
doesn't.
But we see now dxe4 unveils that attack on a2 takes and now with all this pressure on
f5 black is virtually forced into this sequence with Bb2 looking a2 now.
So for the moment it's the exchange of prisoners but with the a2 Pawn taken out, the exchange
of prisoners and Nimzowitsch saying you exchanging one weakness for another.
But if black takes out a2 then this is a very dangerous pass Pawn.
It's only two steps away.
So we have now exf5, Qxa2 and black is immediately threatening also Bd4++ now to win the Queen.
So white has to parry Bd4.
He has to take some time to parry that.
Vishy Anand elects to connect the Rooks and parrying that.
The Rooks are connected, d4 control Bishop pinned., but white is now threatening fxg,
this is handled tactically just with the move g5.
It looks a bit crazy to be moving Pawns around the King.
But white is it not in a great position to exploit this at the moment.
Rfe1, the Rooks look quite beautiful though at the moment on these central files and Re6
will block the Queen's retreat back.
Magnus takes the opportunity to retreat the Queen here before the Queen can't come back.
Qf7, which might be useful defensively and you will notice this pawn is only two steps
away from Queening.
Re6, also there's a battery setup now on f5 which is used.
Ng4 blocking the Bishops protection of f5 and threatening Qxf5.
So tactically this is a really interesting thing that's going on here.
We've got pressure on f5, we've got pressure for a to potentially one day under the right
circumstances not losing the Bishop without doing anything.
So white takes on g4 relinquishing the light square Bishop and now plays your Rg6++.
And Magnus calmly plays Kh7.
So here it's very interesting situation indeed.
Very dangerous looking both white and black, the King looks slightly compromised.
Here Vishy comes up with a move which looks absolutely fantastic.
Looks like a brilliancy.
Can you spot the move that Vishy played here if I give you five seconds to pause the video.
Okay a brilliant looking move.
The problem is with some brilliant looking moves is sometimes they're not sound enough
and the outcome isn't great.
Although they look really fresh the outcome it isn't always particularly desirable and
here it may be such a case.
The idea to deflect the Queen to d7, maybe slightly flawed here and black has got limited
choices.
Black actually forced to play this.
So Magnus must have calculated this position in advanced of course.
It's a basic forcing move to look in a position after that Kh7.
So it takes the Rook and now the idea is revealed.
F6, the x-ray on the King here, Rg7 immediately frightened.
It turns out though that this Rook sacrifice might be flawed in more than just one way.
Magnus plays a brilliant defensive move here to handle the threats and absolutely brilliant
a defensive mode, one of the best moves.
Can you spot the move Magnus played if I give you five seconds starting from now?
Okay deflecting the Queen, Qd1++.
Because it's Queen for two rocks basically.
It's a pseudo sacrifice.
It's not real sacrifices.
It's pretty well calculated and not too much risk after Kxg6.
We call these pseudo sacrifices.
They're not like a major risk has been taken as two Rooks for the Queen.
Plus the fact that blacks got a2 now as a major threat and this is very difficult to
handle.
There was also by the way from a computer point of view which has no fear just the idea
of taking on f6 here is also apparently good enough after giving the Rook back Kg8.
Apparently this is okay, blacks threatening Bishop takes and a2 and for example check
Qg7.
Blacks going to be just winning with a2, he doesn't even need the extra Rook here.
I mean he can just return the Rook and this would be a winning position.
Because this a Pawn, yes it's very very tactical considerations.
I've crept into what was the kind of strategic opening.
This A Pawn has really made Position much more dynamic and blacks King
safety issues.
But anyway so Magnus played this Qd1, Kxg6 check was played, Kh6 and this is fairly hopeless.
How does white actually defend against a2?
It's very very difficult.
Bd5 I think we can just take or maybe even pin, just pin that Bishop.
There's a2 Pawns running away.
White tried h4 and Magnus just played en passant.
So his Kings pretty safe and here Vishy resigned.
Magnus taking en passant by the way had avoided a naughty trap which would have been embarrassing,
mate in two with check with here and a mate and in the final position where Vishy resigned
awfully much safer en passant.
Qd7 is fairly futile here.
Black can even just take this and after Queen taskes can exaggerate its Pawn not bothering
to protect the Rook by playing a2.
So if taking we can Queen supported by the Bishop and black will be a Rook up.
So yes a very tactical skirmish there which ended the game quite quickly.
Maybe this will cause some new interest in the Dutch stonewall defense at all levels.
It's very interesting to see the repertoire of the world champion and the top players
in general.
It does have an influence lower down the chess chain.
Well enthusiasts start taking up the touch stone wall looking at it with a greater seriousness.
Comments or questions on YouTube.
Thanks very much.