Sports & Gaming

Bonus! Secret Novelty

Garry Kasparov

Lesson time 06:47 min

After a crushing loss to Karpov, Garry analyzed his play and came up with a variation that he never used.

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Topics include: Secret Novelty

Preview

There were so many ideas I wish I could have used, but I didn't play enough games to put on display all my analysis. I've been thinking about a few ideas that I never used, and they could still have some practical importance for you guys. I came up with a few, but the one I want to show, it's another sacrifice. I like sacrifices. And it's one of my favorite openings-- King's Indian. And it's somehow connected to my matches with Karpov-- surprise, surprise-- actually to the game, game 23, our match in 1990-- the game I lost. After losing the game, you always come back and try to come up with some new ideas. It's King's Indian-- d4, Nf6, c4, g6, Nc3, Bg7, e4, d6, and f3-- Samisch Variation. 0-0, Be3. I played here all sorts of moves, but e5 that I played against Karpov, more often than other moves. So d5-- I played both Nh5 and c6 against Karpov. But here is Nh5, Qd2, and not f5-- that was a classical approach-- but this move, Qh4+. First it was introduced by David Bronstein against Boris Spassky in 1956. The idea of it is if white goes Bf2, then you can play Qf4, exchange a queen. But also you can go Qe7, and bishop on f2 is not well located. So after f5, white eventually will have to play Be3 and then black has just an extra move. But what if white played g3? And there's a queen sacrifice. Nxg3, then Qf2, pin. Nxf1, Qxh4, Nxe3. White has to defend against Nc2+. That's Ke2. That's a right move. Nxc4. The best move is Rc1. And black plays Na6. And it's a game. It's a game. In fact I even played this game with white once against Yasser Seirawan. Very complicated game-- I think I was better at one point, but it was very sharp and ended up as a draw. I have to say that in the game against Karpov, for some reasons I decided against sacrificing the queen and went back to e7-- bad move-- and Karpov played a very good game. He won it. It didn't help him to save the match, because I was already two points ahead. And we drew the final game, game 24. I won the match-- our last match, the fifth one. And I kept coming back. So I was thinking, OK, so what about this queen sacrifice? Because what I didn't like is just that when you take this pawn, the knight has to go back. And it's not the best location. And then suddenly I realized, it's always nice to take a pawn. But we already have a broken material balance. Black has two bishops and a pawn for the queen. One extra point maybe doesn't make much of a difference. What about playing Nc2? That's a move I strongly recommend. That's a novelty that, you know, could be a game changer. White moves rook somewhere, on f1. And then you go back. Now Nd4+, Kd1, Nd7, Nge2. And here you can even play something like a6, preventing white from exchanging and going on b5. Because when white takes here, and you take-- knight goes h...

About the Instructor

At age 22, Garry Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion. After beating Bobby Fischer’s peak rating, he outranked his fiercest competitors for over twenty years. Now, Garry is ready to share the chess strategy that made him a six-time world champion. Through detailed lessons, including his favorite openings and advanced tactics, you will develop the instincts and philosophy to become a stronger player.

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