Tubertz (1608) vs SenseiDanya (1590)

1600Episode 11 · 0-1

During the gameIn the review

  1. Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation, 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.c3 Nc6
  2. 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5
  3. 3. exd5 The Exchange Caro-Kann, and the other capture Opening The Exchange Caro-Kann, named as it appears: taking on d5 is only one of White's answers, and it is the introduction to several different systems rather than a line of its own. The other capture, c4, is the Panov, and he sets it aside for after the game.
  4. 3...cxd5
  5. 4. Bd3 The square that takes ...Bf5 away Opening Bd3 is the accurate square precisely because of what it takes away - the light-squared bishop can no longer come out to f5.
  6. 4...Nc6 5.c3 Nf6
  7. 6. Ne2 Ne2 rather than Nf3, and the plan it refutes Opening Knight to e2 rather than f3, and the whole of Black's opening choice turns on it. With the knight off f3 the f-pawn is free, so White can answer a knight on e4 by pushing it away - and a knight on e4 is the move that sets everything else in motion. The plan that worked in the other game is refuted before it starts.
  8. 6... Bg4 Two bishops in each other's way Opening Both bishops want developing and they get in each other's way: e6 shuts the light-squared bishop in, while g6 leaves it biting on granite, staring at a pawn it can never take. So the bishop comes out first and the pin is not the point - the point is to drop back to g6 later and trade it for White's, a bishop with far more to do than his own, which has pawns on its own colour everywhere it looks. Fetched up in the review: the same position in one of his own earlier speedruns, solved the other way with g6 and a fianchetto, where the drawback is exactly the granite - accepted there because g6 also prepared Bf5, a stronghold on e4 and a rook on the g-file. Which is why the bishop came out here instead: it is never stuck in no man's land, because its retreat square is its destination.
  9. 7.O-O e6 8.Qb3
  10. 8... Rb8 Pick the defender that hands over no tempo Opening The pawn needs defending and the choice of defender is the whole move: with the queen it comes with a tempo attached for White, Bf4 hitting it, so the rook does the job instead. And Bf4 then runs into Bd6 - the dark-squared bishops come off, which is not what Black wants, but his queen lands well and White's is left misplaced.
  11. 9.h3 Bh5 10.Nf4
  12. 10... Bg6 Not castling, on purpose: the rook and the hook Strategy The trade arrives, and with it a question worth stopping on - the king is still in the middle and most players would call that behind schedule. He may never castle at all. The rook is already on the file the attack will use, White's h3 is a hook to hit, and the g-pawn becomes the battering ram that prises it open. The review walks the attack he never got to play: a battery, and g3 answered by taking on h3 twice with mate close behind, so White is forced into f4 - which is another hook, met the same way. And a word for the doubled pawns it leaves, which are not a defect here: one of them is the battering ram and the other stays home as shelter, so the attack can fail and the king still has cover. Insurance, not weakness.
  13. 11.Be3
  14. 11... Bd6 The compromise castle Strategy The compromise castle, as he calls it: invite the capture on g6, then tuck the king onto f8 by hand. It looks like a beginner refusing to castle; it is the same shelter bought without moving the rook off the file the attack needs. Why it works here and would be terrible elsewhere: the rook is doing something on the h-file. Without that it is simply a rook locked out of the game. And Kd7 rather than Kf8 walks toward the centre, where c4 opens lines and the king is in the crossfire.
  15. 12. Nd2 Type-2 undefended: the standoff on d3 Piece play The move that loses, and losing it needs no tactic - only the habit of counting defenders. A type-2 undefended piece is one held up by a single other piece, and the bishop on d3 is held up by the knight alone, in a standoff with a bishop of Black's. Taking on g6 with the knight was the move; after this one White is simply lost.
  16. 12... Bxf4 Slice off the defender first Tactics So the defender is sliced off first, and every recapture arrives too late.
  17. 13.Bxg6
  18. 13... Bxe3 Take the other bishop Tactics Not the bishop he was offered - the other one. A piece up, and the knight is attacked into the bargain.
  19. 14.Bxf7+ Kxf7 15.fxe3
  20. 15... Rf8 The foot comes off the gas pedal when material arrives General The moment material arrives is the moment the foot comes off the gas pedal, so the remaining problem gets solved instead of celebrated. Castling by hand, in the right order - Kg8 first traps the rook, so the rook steps out and the king follows.
  21. 16.Rf2
  22. 16... Kg8 Doubled on the file is an asset, not a threat Piece play The king is safe, and the doubling on the file is not a threat to fear but a feature to use: four rooks on one file is a trade waiting to be forced.
  23. 17.Raf1
  24. 17... Qc7 One problem at a time, and name them first Strategy A won position is not won in one move, and he names the things wrong with his own: rooks unconnected, a queen doing nothing, a rook babysitting a pawn. The queen goes where it does two jobs - nearer the centre and adding a second defender to b7, which is what frees the rook rather than any intention of moving it. Qe7 sees less and sits under its own pawn; b6 defends the pawn but leaves the knight loose, and loose pieces are not worth creating for nothing.
  25. 18.Qc2
  26. 18... Rf7 Double the rooks in order to trade them all Strategy Rooks doubled on the open file, for what it makes possible later: all four of them coming off, which is exactly what a player a piece up wants.
  27. 19.c4 Rbf8 20.a3
  28. 20... Qg3 A transit point for the queen Strategy Every improvement is made, so the position has to be turned into something concrete: a piece up wins nothing on its own. Qg3 is a transit point, not a destination. It offers a trade the side a piece up should want, it brings the queen to the side of the board where the knight can leave f6 safely, and it covers e4 - which is what puts Ne4 on the table at all. The review's own summary of it: Qg3, and Qg6 next.
  29. 21. Nf3 Ask what his last move gave up General Logical, and a second mistake - the question White skipped is what his own previous move gave up.
  30. 21... Ne4 The dilemma with no answer Tactics Now the dilemma has no answer: leave the rook and it goes, move it and the knight goes to the pin. Queen and knight together, and every piece where it was put on purpose - which is what he says the Caro-Kann is for, and why he recommends it to players who want to practise placing pieces rather than sacrificing them.
  31. 22.cxd5 exd5 23.Re2 Rxf3 24.Rxf3 Rxf3 25.Qb3
  32. 25... Rf7 Name what makes the move nasty General The precise version of what is threatened, which is not the pawn - it is the pawn with check, and check is what costs a knight. A piece up twice over, the pawn is affordable; the tempo is not. So the rook steps back and takes the sting out, and the capture arrives without check. The lesson he stops the game for: when a winning position is met with a nasty move, panic comes from not naming what makes it nasty. Not the pawn, the check. Not the capture on b7, the rook left hanging when the queen has to move. Asked in the review why not Nf6: the pawn goes, and the rook has no way home. And the same idea in a sentence - treat the disease, not the symptoms.
  33. 26.Qxd5
  34. 26... Ng5 The knight covers a square on its way Tactics The knight covers the back rank on its way, and threatens to take on h3 - which is where the game ends.
  35. 27.Kh1
  36. 27... Nxh3 A cornered king is a forkable piece Tactics It looks like a blunder and it is not, because the rook that would recapture the queen is pinned: Qf1 arrives instead, the king cannot take it, and either mate follows or the rook does. How the move gets found in the first place: a king in close quarters has two things to fear, and mate is only the first. The second is a fork - a cornered king is a forkable piece like any other.
  37. 28.gxh3 Qxh3+ 29.Kg1 Qf1+ 30.Kh2 Qxe2+ 31.Kg1 Qxe3+ 32.Kg2 Qf2+ 33.Kh3 Qf3+ 34.Qxf3 Rxf3+ 35.Kg4 Nxd4 36.a4 a5 37.b3 g6 38.Kg5 Kg7 39.Kg4 h5+ 40.Kg5 Ne6+ 41.Kh4
  38. 41... Kh6 Leave him a pawn and stalemate cannot happen Endgame The stalemate hack, offered as a habit rather than a calculation: leave him a pawn to push and the position can never be stalemate, so a move like this needs no checking. Hoovering up every last pawn is what walks a won game into a draw.
  39. 42.b4 g5#
  40. White was checkmated
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