 Good evening and welcome to our fourth and final masterclass of the 2016 Tradeways to Broughter Chess Festival. And here with me is a special guest for the show, Kenny Solomon, Grandmaster from South Africa. Kenny, this is your first masterclass at this event or at any event. Tell me, have you ever done something like this before or not really? No, it's the first time. Well, thanks to you as well for agreeing to go on. Short notice, I have to say. So, well, you've got a couple of games to show us, I think. Yeah, I have two games I would like to show. One game I've played was in Gibraltar last year. Right. The Grandmaster of Wagner. And another game I've played recently in December in Italy, where I now reside. Right, okay. And part of it, I think it was a good game. And I would like to take us through these two games. Both games, right. Okay, well, why don't we kick off and then we can have a chat maybe later, and maybe you take some questions from the audience about the games. Okay, thanks. That's all right. So, we're going to see the one from Gibraltar first, are we, from last year? Yeah, I was white. And, okay, I remember, I think before playing this game, I lost the round before and I thought, okay, I'll have to try and play four-win. And actually, I didn't know much about my opponent. And I think it was a good thing. Right. Had I known, I probably would not have played as I would have, as I actually played in the game. So I started with D4. And, yeah, he played 9 of 6. Actually, he didn't prepare anything for the game. So you're playing Sebastian Wagner, right? Yeah, yeah. What kind of rating was he? Do you remember? I think he was 25, 70, something at the time. German Grandmaster. Yeah, actually, I didn't prepare for the game. I didn't, I was, as I said, I've lost the game before, the day before. And, yeah, sometimes chess can be tough. And you have to, you know, you can do, it's always something that has to change. And I decided that I wouldn't prepare before the game. Right. And, yeah, he played E6. And I'd have 3, B6. I went, it was a Queens Indian. And he played G6. Interesting. Yeah, I actually played this myself a few times. The idea is to go to play something like, like C5. And Fiancet of the bishop on, on G7. I think the idea is to play, yeah, something like C5. So it's about C5 and Bg7. And to play on the long diagonal, play basically on the queen side. And I noticed that, yeah, I've played a game with black, and I discovered that, okay, I can try some interesting move order. I went, instead of castling, yeah, I went knight c3, which there's a trick to it because now, okay, if he, if he would play, for example, the normal move, if I, if I can just go back, if white castles here, if white castles, how do I get that? So, okay, so if white castles. Yeah, okay. The rook doesn't want to move. Just when the guy went. Okay. Yeah. Let's leave that line. Let's leave that line. Yeah. If white castles, it's possible to actually go Bg7. Okay. If castles, Bg7. And if knight c3, they follow knight e4. But in this line, as the game went, knight c3, I don't think it's possible to play knight e4 now because there's d5. There's d5. And if knight takes c3, queen d4. Oh, okay. No, it's not. It's the idea. So, we can see that. Okay. Logically, you can postpone castling and play a more useful move. It's quite a concrete, concrete idea to prevent knight e4, to exchange the exchange of knights. So, he went Bg7. And I was happy and I got d5 in. And with d5 comes control of the center. Right. Yeah. Born on the fourth rank means more space. Any castles, castles, and c5 is normal. Yeah. e4, and we can see that white's got good control of the center and more space. I was quite happy when I reached this position. Instead of c5, could he have played c6, a plan with c6? c6? c6. Yeah. Let's see. c6. I think I can play... Yeah, maybe. I don't know. c6 looks interesting. Hey, by the way, I don't know if you saw the game. I'm reminded of one of the Battle of the Sexies games. Did you see those great games on Saturday night? No, actually not. Instead of c6, it's not this position where Richard Rapport played them with B5, B6 to B5. And this kind of position to undermine white's pawn sense. Yeah, that's basically the idea. When white gets the big center in the Grunfeld, or in these type of setups, black tries to undermine white's big center. Sort of like a retty, reverse idea. Yeah, c6 looks interesting. Maybe I'll play e4. Take, take, take, take. I will try to maintain the pawn on d5. I shall keep the space. If black captures twice, I don't know. I will capture, capture, capture. And as we can see, I control the c6 square, c6 square, and I have more space. I like my central control. I don't know. Maybe the knight will come out to a6 and to c5. I don't know. But in general, I think white should be okay with the pawn on the fourth rank and having all the space. So what he played was c5. He played very quickly. And once I had e4, he now was quite happy because it meant central control and more space. And also the bishop on b7 is quite affected by the pawn chain of e4 and d5. It's a very solid structure. I don't know how he would activate the bishop. So after c5, when e4, he captured. And yeah, I think I looked at the game afterwards and the computer told me that I should play pawn takes d5 and or even c takes d5. This was the normal spatial advantage. Black would try for a6, b5, but yeah. During the game, I liked the idea of going e5. That's quite energetic. Attacking the piece in the opponent's camp and gaining some control in the center. When I g4, I went bg5. That's actually the idea. When playing e5, I saw that once Knight moves, I have bg5. I liked the idea of the bishop coming to g5 with the gain of tempo. And I think that's the reason why I liked e5. Although the computer prefers e captures d5, White is just better at having more space. So e5 is more forceful. And bg5 attacking the queen. He went f6 and take. I don't know if he could do something better, maybe... Qc7, I don't know. Qc7 and Knight. Knight b5. Anyway, he went f6, I captured. Bishop takes f6 and Knight takes d5. I actually calculated the line before playing e5. Basically all the moves are force. Usually when the moves are more or less forceful nature, it's easy to be attracted by forceful moves and to be tempted. It might not even be the best, but just because it was forceful, that's actually why I went for e5. What happens after bishop takes bishop? Bishop takes bishop. Bishop takes bishop. I have Knight takes g5. Knight takes g5. Queen takes g5. And there's this Knight e7 check. Queen takes e7. And bishop takes b7. And winning the exchange. So that's basically an idea. A while back here I went e5. I don't know. He went actually Knight c6. Yeah, I took. It's quite a logical sequence. Knight e5. Basically all the moves since e5 were more or less of forceful nature, and I would call this... If I have to put a theme to this game, it would be energetic play, transition, opening, tomorrow game. Basically, the moves will be taking place on the fourth and fourth ranks, and you'll be making moves, gaining moves with tempo. Is this typical for your style? Would you say it's the kind of chess that you try to play when you get a chance? Yeah, if I notice that my opponent... If I notice I have a leading development, I think we have to be... You have to play energetically. If I have a static advantage, I would try to play more quietly. That's the idea. So if you go back from... Let's say from e5 over here, e captures d. Actually it's interesting that computer says e captures d5 is the best, or c takes d with spatial control, and also because the bishop on b7 is actually quite affected by the solid structure in the center. I was attracted by e5 because I calculated and saw that... With bishop g5, I'd be developing the bishop of tempo, and I have a kind of a leading development here. So 9g4, and as you can see bishop g5, and I have 1, 2, 3, 4 minor pieces already out, and the knight on b8. Because if you play knight e4, you just had knight takes d5, I suppose. And also bishop on b7 is undefended in some of the variations here. So f6 capture, bishop takes f6, we've been here. And 9g5 quite forceful. He went with c7. I spent a lot of time in this position. Obviously bishop f6 is more or less forceful moves. I went 9g4, and rook d6 was a mistake, I think. I don't know, maybe he could play better in this position. It wasn't possible to take on d7, was it? On d7. After rook takes f6. No, because... Queen takes d7 for example, was it possible? No, now he takes d7, he's got... No, no, but queen takes, can you tell me how many? Queen takes. Ah, sorry. Queen takes d7. He just got... Maybe, I don't know. Queen takes d7, what if he plays... Queen takes d7. Knight takes d7, rook d6. And basically... d1. Yeah, d1. You have to take. It takes d1. It looks good for white. Endgame, yeah, it's an endgame. I think white should be... White looks good. King g7. King g7, knight takes it. Maybe king g7. Oh, but the knight takes c5 the strongest. Yeah, knight takes c5, no, no. I was knight a5. Okay, but pawn up, no? Yeah, pawn up. It won't be easy. Yeah, pawn is a pawn, no? With the presence of rooks on the board. Yeah, white's just got a clear advantage here, huh? Yeah, I think so, yeah. And it was also possible. Queen takes d7. Maybe. Queen takes e5, that's queen takes b7. He's winning a piece. It might even be strong... Well, maybe, yeah. Winning a piece, no, because of rook b8. Queen takes d7. Takes on this... Queen takes e5, queen b7, rook b8. Well, queen d7, yes. Queen d7, c9 d4, rook d8. Should be f5. Not so clear. Yeah, it's not so clear. But anyway, it's not in the... I thought it was maybe not... I didn't want to go into endgame after playing all these energetic moves in the opening. So I thought I have to continue the attack and seeing that we've already exchanged off the darks for bishop. I thought it logical to continue the attack and I think the move, knight g4, rook d6, bishop d5, made a strong impression coming to the center with check. Yes. And attacking the king. So here, black played king g7. And, yeah, white has a very strong bishop in the center. The king... Black's king side is a little bit exposed. The king sits on g7 and is exposed on the long diagonal. And h6 and f6 squares are weak. So it's basically white to play, white to play and win. It's a nice combination. In this position? Yeah. So basically when you're looking for a forced... You know, when you're looking for... When you're attacking, especially when you're attacking the opponent's king, you have to make forceful moves and, you know, inside the opponent's territory. So you have to keep threatening the opponent. So that's the clue. I still like Qd2 even if it's not forced. Yeah, Qd2. That's correct. Qd2, yeah. Qd2 and I'm threatening basically to come in with a Qx86 check. Knight d4 is logical. It's the only move. And let's see if we can calculate to the end. White to play and win. The first move is pretty easy, yeah? Usually the first move is quite easy. What's the opposite move for white? He has just played Qd2. Q86, king would go to h8. OK, Q86, King h8. That's for our viewers. I think Qf5 was better, no? Well, the knight e2 check. Yeah, you have to watch out for the fork. Let's just saw that. If Q goes to f4, then it comes. Knight e2 check. Pretty simple, yeah? So logically Qd2 threatening. Important to threaten the opponent. Knight will come to d4 and Q86 check. King h8, king, forced. And it looks like we've run out of forced who moves, huh? Knight e5. Knight e5, what if black plays... Better to bring another rook into the action. Rook to e1. Yeah, rook e1, that's correct. Well played. Rook f2 e1. Redeeming yourself after Qf4. So if you notice... Yeah, rook e1 is a quiet move. And you know, you have to place... Let's say, from this stage, bishop d5 is forceful. King g7, rook, Qd2 is threatening. It's also a forceful move. Knight d4 is more or less forced. Q86, King h8 is forced. And now when we say, okay, all the forceful moves are not working, we have to search for a quiet move to strengthen the attack. And we can see that the rook on e1 and the rook on f1 are not participating in the attack. And usually when we are in the process of conducting... You know, when we are conducting a king-side attack or we have just sacrificed a piece or some pawns, we have to include all the pieces into the attack. So rook f1 is quite logical. And the threat is to enter the seventh rank and to threaten late. So we will have the quality of five points. Plus the queen is nine with the knight and the bishop. So we also... I find very instructive that when we are conducting an attack, we have to take into consideration the quality of the pieces that are participating in the attack. So it means that if I'm not playing rook e1, it means that I can't find forceful moves with the knight, with the bishop or with the queen to complete the checkmate. It means I have to include more pieces into the attack. And yeah, so that's basically the idea. Rook e1, it goes knight f5. And attacking the queen. And I think the next move is quite easy, queen f4. As we can see that on this diagonal, the king is quite exposed on the a1, h8 diagonal. So that's logical to bring the queen to f4. Also, we find that the rook over here is pinned to the queen on c7. So queen f4 and yeah, bishop takes d5. Is this the game, Kelly? Yeah, this is the game. The king is forced, pawn captures, and we can find that the rook is not able to play rook takes d5 because simply queen takes c7. And we find that the rooks, black's rooks are quite finally positioned. They are not coordinated. Okay? So you went h5. There's really nothing to do in black's position at the moment. I was expecting knight h6. Sorry, no, it doesn't work because you're threatening queen e5 check. That's the point. Queen e5, yeah. I was going to suggest rook f8, but then queen e5 check is finished. Rook f8, queen e5 check, king g8, and knight... Oh no, it's not finished. No, it's not finished. Let's see rook f8. Not finished. Rook f8. Yeah, I saw this move. I think I would have played, I don't know, maybe I can play rook e7. Ah, that's a nice move. So including all the pieces into attack. If we look at this position, if the rook on e7 and the queen on f4 and knight on g4 is not sufficient to give mate, we always have to take into consideration the piece that is furthest away. I usually call this the piece that is furthest away, the executioner in the attack. The executioner, yeah. Usually if you notice, there's a lot of combinations, most combinations, the piece which is furthest away usually enters last and to finish the attack. To finish the job, yeah. But in any case, due to the strange position of the rook on d6, rook on d6, yeah, it's quite strange position. I think it's enough just rook plus queen and knight which is 5 plus 9. Now you start the queen e5 check and knight h6 and knight h7. So anyway, you win h5 and I play knight h6. It's pretty obvious threatening knight f7, f4. Rook f8, knight f5, gf and rook e7 and queen g5 and that was the game. Just take us back to the last couple of minutes and please, can you? Yeah, after h5. He's already lost, is he after rook e1? Yeah, I think it's lost over here already. After queen d2, I think the position is just winning. Yeah. Actually, I think I saw this. Knight d4 is forced, queen h6, king h8 and rook e1 is the key move. Usually the key move is that quiet move. Yeah, it's these quiet moves that are quite strong. He can't give the exchange up on d5, something like that. Rook takes d5, is it possible? Rook takes d5. I think I just have rook e7. Yeah, and he can't stop knight. Yes, that's right. And it's important to use not the a rook but the f rooks and this way the king can escape to f1. No, that's interesting. Should there be an escape? Yeah. So yeah, it was all forced. Yeah, I think white's moves or playing in an energetic style of play can make an impression on the opponent that he doesn't find the key move. I think somewhere you must be away for black to defend this because e5 was not the best move. It was an interesting move, I would say. This was a game that you said you didn't prepare for. You just came to the board clean and came with energy. Yeah, it was a lot of energy. So yeah, I liked this game quite a lot. That was played here last year? Last year. How did you finish up in the tournament last year? Did you finish on a good score? No, I think I finished on 5 points. It's an incredibly tough tournament but I think I find that about six times that I'm playing here and I love playing here. It's an incredibly tough tournament. I think it's all champions playing in this tournament. There are so many players who have won so many tournaments, different tournaments all over the world and they're all here and they're all playing and it's just a tough tournament to play. Everyone is well prepared and even the younger players and the lower rated players are so motivated and that's what makes chess incredibly tough. And the women are motivated to play here? Yeah, exactly. Actually, yesterday I lost to Stefanova. They said, OK, better players are always lucky. And I see it as my investment tournament for the year knowing that it's a tough tournament and usually I learn quite a lot. The experience is very important. Was she lucky against you yesterday? No, I don't believe it's about luck. I think each player has a turn to move and she makes a move, I make my move and with every move we make we're basically posing problems to each other. And when I had a... it was about equal and she made a mistake and my mindset was on equalizing and then when she made a mistake I knew it was a mistake, I realized it was a mistake and then came all this rush of emotions that suddenly I'm better and I became too confident and I wasn't able to handle the new situation and having under six minutes we both had quite a low on time. So yeah, she managed to find the hidden resources and I missed the intermediate move actually. So it's credit to her. So it's not really luck. It's about once you have an inferior position it's about posing problems and she was able to do that. And recover from the mistake that she had made? Yeah, she made a mistake and then I played a good move and then my next move was a mistake and the move which seems so good at first hand is actually the tempting move which is... yeah, it looks good but it was actually the mistake. Instead the move I should have played E6 and I would be slightly better but it's one of those situations and I see chess here as an opportunity to grow and to learn a lot and usually it's always a tough tournament it's one of the best opens in the world if not the best and every year I come to learn So I think this game is instructive from a point of view from playing energetic playing energetic style can have an impression on the opponent. I mean you crushed him basically from that game you just crushed him. Very little that he could do about it. I think also maybe if I knew who I was playing I might not have played in this style or in this way. So there's some psychological factors involved. So the next game I would like to demonstrate was quite recent I was playing black in Pardova in Pardova it's a city my new home town in Venice it's about 20 minutes drive from Venice How long have you been living in Venice? I'm living there for four years now four and a half years What a great place to live in Venice Fantastic Actually my wife is... she's a Venetian and I met her in one of the Chess Olympiates actually my first Chess Olympian back in 1998 we were teenagers then and what happened was that we lost contact after for some years Can you put the board around the other way maybe? Ah, just... Okay, sorry So you say she's a chess player you met her in Olympiad? Yeah, I met her she was representing a country in 1998 and we lost contact for many years and then with Skype we found each other again and now I'm in Venice Fantastic But I still represent South Africa and we'll always play for South Africa That's good Okay, anyway I was playing black and my opponent was Zelcić from Serbia Right, strong grandmaster yeah, it's 2600 with their belts I think he lost some rating points over the years he was 25-20 when I played him and after this game he lost more points Okay, we all go up and down So yeah, Knight f3, Knight c6 Bishop c4, Bishop c5 Actually for this game I also didn't prepare anything because on this day it was a double round So in Parva we have one round every day but on the Tuesday there's the double round That's really tough, two games a day Yeah, two games a day and on that day I played black on both games and I managed to win both games This was the afternoon game The first game was taking place in the morning and yeah, so there was no time to prepare Usually when you have two rounds you should rather focus on conserving your energy and being trying to recover from the first game So yeah, he castle I actually didn't know what to expect what he was going to play I thought a good strategy would be to play something solid Yeah, I win Knight f6 I thought he would play the geocupiano but he surprised me with d4 So yeah, I actually remember looking at this variation I think it was popularized by Moff Sissian sometimes some years ago and I remember looking at it with the computer and I remember Bishop takes d4, Knight takes, Knight takes f4 and d6 and always when preparing for e5 I always check this line Just in case Yeah, it can be quite tricky and capture, capture This is how the theory goes I think the first game that was played was with Bishop coming to e6 No, no, no, sorry It was Queen e7, Knight a3 and Bishop to... That looks a bit strange, Knight a3 Is that because of Queen c5? Knight a3 Yeah, but if Queen c5 No, the reason of Knight a3 is to protect the bishop and then Bishop e6 was being played This was when the theory was still developing and then with the emergence of the engines they found Bishop d7 I remember looking at this and you know, you just in a few seconds just browse through the games and I remember once the computer in this line suggested Rook g8 I actually didn't believe it at the time I thought, okay, the computer doesn't know what It was just a couple of seconds just browsing through quickly before one of the games Yeah, but actually my opponent went Knight d2 Is Rook g8 okay? It's not such a bad move? And yeah, after 20 minutes thought I played Rook g8 Yeah, I remember the computer suggested Rook g8 and actually after the game I checked the database and I found that there were two or three games played with Rook g8 but not with a Knight on d2 but with a Knight on a3 Okay, well, that was strange And why 20 minutes of thinking I thought, but what can be the reason? Actually, it's actually quite a clever move because White has just sacrificed a pawn which was quite committal And yeah, White's whole play is based on actually capturing that Knight on f6 So when White captures the Knight on f6 the Rook would be ready already developed on the g file So there's a logic to it and also I leave the e6 square open for this Knight instead of going Bishop e6 Yeah, so the more I thought about it the more I liked Rook g8 Yeah, and my opponent continued He thought for some time and he went King h1 Yeah, I think the more Rook g8 it must have surprised him Yeah, so, you know, they call it the mysterious Rook moves but there's logic to it because sooner or later White will capture the Knight on f6 and the Rook would be activated on g file instantly You probably feel the same as me if I were White and my opponent played Rook g8 I would do everything possible not to take that Knight on f6 Every other way you could play the position and sort of make it look like a wasted move Yeah, but a pawn is a pawn You know, and in South Africa or I know in Africa there's a tendency to grab pawns and to hold on to the pawns An African style of play We grab pawns and we keep them Hold on to the pawns So, okay, sorry, what did I just do? So he played King h1 Yeah, King h1 and I didn't want to occupy e6 with a bishop and I went with bishop d7 signaling my intention to castle queen side The Knight on d4 is quite annoying for the White side because he cannot make use of the e2 f3 squares Sooner or later he has to play c3 and evict the Knight which he did do Knight e6 and he captured knight e2 and I was happy with my position to have a pawn up He went queen f3 rook g6 Yeah, it's difficult to suggest how White should continue I think Black's just a solid pawn up but the central structure is fixed There's only one file open and half open file but f6 is solidly defended by rook and queen So, it's difficult to suggest So he played queen f2 trying to prevent Still, you know, I think Sorry to go back a bit When you played knight e6 I think if I were White I'd be thinking about maybe just playing bishop e3 and just saying okay let's do something else Yeah, bishop e3 maybe was Play with the bishops and if Black castles queen side I might take queen e7 Yeah, it's better I think I also think bishop e3 was better Because, okay, it's a pawn It's still a pawn It's just that there's no immediate immediate way to for White to show to make contact and attack There's no points to attack in the Black territory Okay, the king is in the center but with the king in the center I think, sorry with the king in the center I think Black's Even with the king in the center Black looks quite solid Black could play rook h8 Rook h8, king f8, g6, king g7 in the future, I don't know I don't know It will be a slow game But, I mean Anyway, if you look at the pawn structure c3, b2 and these pawns over here It's difficult to open up anything on the side of the board Yes? Yeah So, yeah What happened? Okay, so he took an f6? He took It was difficult to capture the deck on f6 but he did it After rook g6 Yeah When queen f2 preventing castling queens if I cast a queen side and just queen takes queen captures a7 So that's basically the idea queen f2 And now I thought okay, what to do I cannot castle I cannot go rook d8 immediately King f8, king g8 looks like an idea But, okay Basically, I'm in a situation where Okay, usually in the game you don't always know what to do So I thought, okay I'll jump into his position and create some weaknesses Also, I see you couldn't play queen c5 Yeah, because the bishop takes a6 Yeah I'm winning the piece It's a surprise I just pointed that out queen c5 would be a nice move Yes But there's bishop e6 and queen f2 there's bishop takes Yeah internet zone Okay, so, yeah After queen f2 I decided, okay it would be useful to create weaknesses in my opponent's camp Yeah, g3 looks more or less forced And, yeah knight h3 attacking the queen queen moves and, you know, what to do knight g5 And, yeah it's difficult to suggest what white should do a thought for some time and he went b4 Okay I think even not b4 you should play a4 but as you can see the position is kind of the structure is fixed in the center with only one d file Yeah, it's difficult to full of, you know and two minor pieces has already been exchanged so it's not so easy for white to create play and I was quite happy creating weaknesses on f3 h3 squares which g4 which my pieces can use okay Yeah So you went b4 I went rook d8 rook d8 is quite logical It's logical because if you don't know what to do you have to look for your worst place piece and Execution it and activate Yeah, but this is not a combination Yeah, there's a difference there's a difference in a strategic sense if you don't know what to do look for your worst place piece and activate it I think I've learned this from Jacob Argard books Right, okay Yeah, activate your worst place piece I thought you were going to say tarash or someone like that tarash Yeah I actually like some of tarash games Okay He emphasized playing with space and not exchanging pieces with a special advantage Yeah, so I thought okay, what to do When your king is safe and you can put the king on g7 if you need to Yeah, the king is well surrounded by pawns over here and yeah, I have all my pieces around the king and as you can see that there are not many lines going towards the black king the result is I mean for example if you look at the rook on a1 and the rook on f1 they're not biting anything you know Yeah, so let's see I think if what happens if he plays queen takes a7 I just see Bishop Bishop c6 Bishop c6 Bishop c6 Okay attacking the knight Queen e3 maybe and then you can sacrifice queen comes to e3 probably rook takes d2 rook takes d2 yeah, let's finish and yeah we can see that he cannot capture the a pawn so I was a bit worried but about my rook it's not being being connected but I was a pawn up so I was happy okay so he came h4 and what is the problem of h4 anybody question for audience yeah but also g4 h3 squares it weakens the g4 h3 and also g3 weakens the squares and yeah in particular h3 is becoming more of a weakness and yeah h3 basically all those g4 g3 h3 squares are being weakened but it's difficult for white it's difficult to recommend anything for white yeah he cannot play too quietly else black just consolidates and is a healthy pawn pawn up so he tries to do something active and knight e6 king h2 trying to cover the g3 h3 squares and how does black continue in this position hmm how does black continue bishop c6 bishop c6 bishop c6 and what's the idea well you're I guess you're bringing the routing to yeah let's say control it okay and then bishop coins and bishop pawn okay maybe there's rook a d1 simply yeah you're going to take the path okay knight f4 knight f4 okay you're looking for a combination I think I will just take the piece f5 f5 was the idea wasn't it ah f5 can I defend are you threatening mate can I play rook f3 knight f3 maybe ah knight f3 yeah better knight f3 okay so yeah I went knight g7 basically targeting the the new weakness which was created by h4 so it's actually quite quite quite quite interesting I think that if you look at the game going back how many times the knight has moved here one two three four five five times knight g7 knight's just dancing all over the show that's a difficult one to see knight g7 it's not so easy to see yeah but I think it's important to a friend of my what to call fellow South African chess player who's been number one in South Africa for a number of years he once gave a lecture at one of the university in Cape Town and he mentioned to me in the class that the Russians like to talk to the pieces yeah so and yeah you have to talk to the pieces for example the weakness is g3 and only the rook on g6 is looking at g3 which is the weakness and the question is how can you include other pieces to attack okay it's difficult to get the rook on d8 to g8 but okay and even the queen doesn't have any lines to get to g3 but there's the knight it's the only other piece as the bishop is on the white square so knight would come to g7 sorry back to the knight g7 you have the queen in 6, queen h3 yes exactly well bishop on c4 still yeah still the bishop on c4 still the bishop on c4 so knight g7 he went rook a e1 and knight h5 logical yeah he went rook f3 and yeah how to continue the attack bishop g4 okay good we attack the rook rook f2 and now how to continue the attack bishop c8 excellent very good very good very good bishop c8 and the idea is very simple we are targeting the h3 square so we're going to put the queen on d7 right so that was the right idea in fact and then queen to h3 and yeah so okay the bishop moves forward driving the rook back and going back to c8 and basically all black is trying to do in this position is to attack the weaknesses the weakened squares what was better than there was some detail at the rook on f3 because actually it was difficult to tell but with the rook on f3 I figured it is better to have his rook on f2 and then go bishop c8 and g3 will not be defended so you would have to use another tempo so after bishop g4 rook f2 bishop c8 gives me a tempo to attack g3 so his next move is more or less forced rook g1 and now queen d7 which is the size of bishop f1 is forced so we see we are in the process of a combination or attacking and the moves are of forceful nature bishop f1 and yeah we have to sort of make moves in our opponent's camp and that is queen g4 and our threat is knight f4 so he actually it is a position at this moment it is actually winning for black and yeah there is nothing I don't think much white can do about this position so he went rook e2 and knight f4 rook f2 and the winning move for black knight h3 knight h3 that looks good knight h3 it may be knight h3 what bishop e2 okay queen will go back to d7 and knight h3 looks good knight g2 just bishop takes it bishop takes it so we see here that knight, queen, rook bishop are all working together okay I think bring the rook rook h6 rook to d3 rook d3 that is the size of that finishes the game immediately yeah so we can see it is a nice finish that all black pieces are working together harmoniously in the attack and basically he cannot go bishop takes d3 because of queen h3 queen h3 is queen h3 is made so yeah after rook f2 rook d3 he went rook f4 rook e3 takes takes and he resigned so thank you thank you very smooth I'll say a question it's a very smooth win Kenny thank you yeah Tim of course yes comment first now is that this gambit line with the d4 and f4 bishop d5 this was a favor of 20 miles when he was a teenager I remember seeing him play this in Birmingham that's interesting he was a Tony that I've never made it into databases that would be in old newspaper columns in Birmingham Mail or in chess magazines you'd have to plan and hunt them down but I'm sure he would never have had to meet this rook g8 idea but I think Tony would never have made an awful move like h4 h1 he would have talked to his pieces and he would have said that knight on d2 has to move and he would have just played as if he wasn't a pawn down played something like knight b3 in that position and carried on playing normally okay I don't care I'm still a better player I get a win in the end you know okay that's the comment the question is now I've noticed that Tim do you mind if I just say that there's not so many people here listening at home I just repeat some of that for people listening at home watching the show not sure if they have just to say that Tony Miles is Tim Harding in the audience telling us that Tony Miles is a young man correct Tim you saw him play this line many times or you saw games of his in this line with this quick d4 and giving up the pawn in that form which I didn't know but that seems to be I actually didn't know but I know Tony Miles he created I mean he was quite a creative player and he came up with you know new ideas in the opening like you know I don't know how many lines you can count but yeah so you had a question Tim as well my question to Kenny maybe I noticed that when Mike isn't playing the gambit line but recently I was often playing four castles and balling up with five d3 whereas the old way of playing used to be to play you know c3 and d3 and hold back the casting moves so I wonder is there some special reason why grandmasters have gone over to play four castles and then call up with three d3 later on do you know the answer Kenny? I actually don't know I just noticed in you know several masters on TV are watching online okay you know the standard move seems to change yeah I think theory is always changing and sometimes the lines are fashionable and when something is well known there comes a change yeah so and I don't know if this variation d4 will be any popular after this idea of even bishop d7 I think you know I mean it looks good for black keeping the pawn and even with the king in the center it's difficult for white to bite anything enforced you know I mean the black king didn't experience any checks you know so it means that it's quite safe in the center how did you do in the tournament the pad over open how did you finish up the remember yeah it was also a tough tournament I finished on five five points out of nine yeah it was it was some some good players playing yeah I think this was one good game that I've played both good games the other one you showed us is very good as well yes question I'll be interested to know why you picked up chess oh ok yeah actually why did you start playing chess can you tell us this yeah it wasn't actually it was you know I started quite late at the age of 13 to play chess yeah so actually my elder brothers were playing chess and I knew how to move pieces to play chess at the age of seven or eight but I just wasn't interested until I saw my elder brother get on on an airplane to the chess Olympiad which was in 1992 and it was quite an emotional experience seeing a family member of and I thought ah chess chess is can take you places and that's how I got interested and once he was off on the plane and we returned home in the evening I started to take take down some chess books off the shelf and started to to study chess yeah and then I was gripped gripped by this beautiful game I think you said in here last year Kenny to continue this about your chart and growing up and the role that chess had in your life and has in your life maybe um that you had it was quite a violence sort of your life growing up where you did in the country South Africa in that part of South Africa and at the time I grew up in Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town Mitchell's Plain it was at the time probably still is can be can be quite rough and chess is like you know at the time was you know okay yeah it was it wasn't you know I was always outside with my friends and I didn't imagine I would turn out to be a chess player at you know being so young and um in Mitchell's Plain was notorious for gangsterism and crime at the time and yeah um okay but also a lot of good things and for sport and basically yeah I thought I'd be a football player or cricket player yeah but yeah chess chess it was I mean sorry about the first game um you keep on mentioning that the computer says it takes you five minutes but e5 it's a very interesting move I mean like it's towards the demolition basically okay um I'm almost certain that it was impossible to calculate all the consequence after e5 9g4 yeah there are e5 9 28 I mean that's a difficult line yeah there are there are many there were some alternatives for black um so how do you just end up on the move yeah okay it's impossible to see everything you know but usually yeah okay when I played e5 I was convinced it was the best move you know and also because I saw bishop g5 coming with tempo and I thought okay this is the the right direction to go in and yeah and I thought the opening uh line with g6 was a dubious line and I thought okay and dubious lines must be punished with energetic play hmm hmm hmm so in that spirit I played yeah I played e5 yeah and what about South Africa and chess today I mean I know you live in Italy but you still go back to South Africa of course yeah I played I played the South African Open last year and in July I see that now there's a lot of interest in chess in South Africa okay there are a lot of um young youngsters developing young players and activities and also um there's been more free day free day rated tournaments in South Africa right like like five six tournaments or something or even more I don't know and also work with the Kasparov chess foundation involvement I think chess in South Africa is just it's now taking off hmm yeah I also yeah I saw a picture on Facebook like there were a thousand kids there wearing all dressing matching they have different each team they have jessies on and it was just a real war you know if you're proud of South Africa there were all races blacks colors um every all of them Indians everybody they were fantastic this was a kid's tournament was it Kenneth? yeah it was a youth tournament South African youth event and I went to South Africa um when it was still an apartheid country to help with the reintroduction of all the racial groups in chess so I went to the world chess preparation back then so for me to see that now I even visited to deliver a township in South Africa and they killed the American girl about three hours after I left that township I was arriving and they gave so to see that kind of coming together of all the groups of people and all different groups and that's the first time I met this elder brother who from Tianzongan and it was amazing to see that is chess particularly suited for bringing communities together uh across racial differences definitely definitely that kind of stuff I can confirm this definitely yeah yeah definitely chess brings all kinds of people of it doesn't matter of race or culture everyone chess definitely chess is the game to unite people definitely I can have my experience is that something you felt as you grew up and is it something that kept you in chess and made you want to pursue it yes the idea that it was some sort of equal equal chances for everyone you know as a young as a young player as a youngster you don't really think you know just in it and I liked it was like you know as as as he mentioned that seeing all the young the world the South African youth I remember being a junior player myself and it was so nice to be a part of you know a team you know and you know the diversity and South Africa is known for being a multicultural country and you have to we have to unite and be tolerant and chess definitely brings people together so I experienced and seen this and definitely I'm sure that chess definitely unites and the South African youth championship takes place usually every every year in December I think this year this time it was in January and I think it was like a record event in youngsters I think like never before together and so there's a lot of interest developing in South Africa amongst or race or religion so I mean I played in South Africa the only time I've been there I thank you for that Kenny couple of years ago wasn't it in the Commonwealth Championship in Port Elizabeth and again it looked like a thousand or over a thousand people playing in that one huge playing hall it was amazing amazing to see so many there are so many so many chess players in South Africa and there are so many I think underrated chess players and chess players I don't know I don't think they have even federated but in South Africa we have a South African chess rating and yeah so chess is definitely a lot of interest not only in South Africa but also in southern African countries Botswana Zambia Zambia and you find so many keen young players across all in all in Africa actually and it's growing it continues to grow it's growing it's definitely growing and yeah I'm one of I'm one of them wow I mean you are the first am I correct you're the first South African grandmaster is that right yeah does that make you yeah I I think it's yeah I'm proud of it's not just not not because being the first just because knowing how how you know the the journey what makes me most proud of becoming grandmaster is actually you know the obstacles you know that there to be overcome for a chess player coming from from South Africa far away from you know the European far away from you know I mean chess international chess scene is at the time when I was growing up I mean I could play maybe one or one or two international tournaments per year so I think this makes me quite proud yeah any more questions from my audience here on the games for Kenny well we love having you brought to Kenny you've been here as you said five or six times how you doing this year how many points have you got I think I got 40% it's a tough tournament as I said I'm learning and you lost to Antonetta yesterday did you say yeah yeah but I felt good because I learned something and it was you know it's like I say eating salt and sugar at the same time that's a nice expression yeah so yeah it's it's better to lose but it's also sweet it's also sweet the lesson that I've experienced I've learned something and it gives me direction on how to work and to train and how to improve and in future I can hopefully I can share my experience with the younger players do you have pupils do you teach in Italy where you live in Venice do you have students there so this is the president of the chess club her name is Veronica Goy she has quite a number of young she recruits the youngsters from the schools and we are quite active in our chess club I give regular lessons and also when I was in South Africa I had many students so basically in South Africa I was teaching for eight years. Teaching at lecturing at university, teaching chess privately, teaching chess at schools, and with some development programs. I remember also teaching chess in 2000, 2001, 2000, in prison. In prison? Yeah, we had a development program. Quite an experience, chess. That reminds me, because if you came to that talk that Leon Cho Garcia gave on the first day, maybe you went here, he gave a talk about Bobby Fisher. Yeah, but what I wanted to say is that he, as like as introduction to that little talk, he's, well I said because I asked him, he visited in Mexico in December, this December, just recently he went there for a couple of weeks I think, but he was teaching in prisons over there, very violent inmates or you know people who have violent crimes in NACO, kind of traficantes and murderers I'm sure, and those kind of people, but teaching them chess, and I think he said he taught 15 or 16 different chess lectures in a short period, so for all the inmates in some of the toughest prisons over there. No, I think it's good because chess has this language inside chess, you know, that unites people, and my idea was when I was teaching chess in prison, I thought, okay I was still quite young at the time, and I thought that it would, and I saw that it did teach them that there are parallels between chess and life, and the moves we make over the chess board, we apply it also in life. So every move has a good move, it comes good, and the bad move comes bad consequences, so teachers want to calculate, to be objective, to evaluate, so there are a lot of positive things. You think it's a way of, especially for kids in schools, it's a way of helping them instill some kind of discipline of behavior, and to keep them away from that kind of life, which could lead to prison. Yeah, my experience is that I've observed, even when I was teaching chess in prison, after some years there would be some of the prisoners that came out, they would greet me up to, yes, it was surprising, but I think chess really grips one and affects one positively, it changes you, I can testify to that, and also when I was teaching chess in South Africa, I noticed that the positive thing about chess is that my students, they really excelled in the academics, in the academic field, in the studies in school, they were really top students, and they weren't too serious about chess, but I could see that the chess did help. It did help them. Yeah, definitely, definitely, yeah, good, and the same in Italy now, so now you're doing in Italy now what you used to do in South Africa basically. Yeah, I had to learn some Italian, teaching Italian, and yeah, so I'm quite passionate about teaching chess. I really enjoy teaching chess. As much as playing? Yeah, yeah, I lose myself when I teach chess. Yeah, when I play chess, I want to win, and to learn, but I think I enjoy, I really enjoy teaching. I actually miss teaching. There was some time that I stopped teaching, but yeah, I think teaching is something that I really like. Maybe you have a special talent for teaching, and your students say that, and maybe I sponsor that. I hope so. And you have a young child? I have a daughter, we have a daughter four years old, her name is Eleonora. Have you taught her chess? She has her own rules of chess. She knows how to move the pieces, but I've been teaching her since she was three. It's not like you teach the complete game, a complete set of rules in one go, but gradually, on one day you would say, this is the pawn, and a month later you say, this is the night. So it's a gradual process, but without any effort she knows how to move the pieces, but she still prefers to, after like five, ten moves of normal chess, she prefers to play her according to her rules. Kids have a lot of imagination. Okay, Kenny, well it's wonderful listening and having you here on the show. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much.