Pawn Breakthroughs - GM Ben Finegold - 2014.12.23

Grandmaster Ben Finegold guides you through a jungle of tied-up pawns. How do we untangle this mess and break through with a powerful passed pawn? Sacrifices, king position, and more...
Lund vs Nimzowitsch, 1921
Andrei Kharlov vs Thomas Ernst, Haninge (1992)
Capablanca vs Ed Lasker, 1913

[@MatoJelic]

I like your lecture

[@deepatel123]

+MatoJelic It's Mato!

[@ministerofleisure]

hi dis ees mato! dude, i love your channel. thank you for all your tireless work. great stuff.

[@notpresobama1553]

MATO!

[@MrSupernova111]

Me too. Did you find the killer moves?

[@alfonsbreu8298]

MatoJelic kk

[@mymneisadj]

if I lived anywhere near st Louis I would never miss a Ben Finegold class he is a good teacher and seems like a good guy

[@GlobalUnion420]

Thank you GM Finegold! This was another awesome lecture!!

[@angokwuoi9796]

Ben is the best teacher.

[@diabl2master]

The Icelandic breakthrough is brilliant. One of the most beautiful positions in chess, imo.

[@ienjoyapples]

Great topic, Ben is the man.

[@gregorygranger4298]

Excellent lecture GM Ben! ~~ Please, Please do more lectures on Pawn Structures and Pawn Play! ~~ Question: What would happen if Capablanca played a4 instead of a3? ~~ Henry David 'Doc' Levy: [In a fancy restaurant] How could you forget to wear a tie? Babe: I didn't forget it. Who wears a tie when they eat lunch? Henry David 'Doc' Levy: [to Elsa] Well, at least his fly is buttoned! ~ Marathon Man (1976)

[@johbue7701]

Ben you are a great chess teacher! I really enjoy your sense of humor and your explanations ! Regards from Germany (btw why are you in other videos often saying "as the germans say Ich dont think so ? ;) )

[@Thaumazo83]

GM Finegold also makes fun of Germans by mockingly saying "Nein! Nein! Nein!". That's xenophobic.

[@SF-eo6xf]

@@Thaumazo83 no it isn't.

[@TheSm1thers]

@@Thaumazo83 There's nothing phobic about making fun of foreigners. Phobia is fear.

[@Thaumazo83]

@@TheSm1thers So making fun of Jews saying that they're allegedly stingy and greedy would not be Antisemitic and of Muslims because they show their bottoms when they pray wouldn't be Islamophobic?

[@TheSm1thers]

@@Thaumazo83 Shhh don't let Finegold see this comment

[@reflectionofpower8339]

Emmanuel Lasker & Edward are related in a very small way because GM Finegold started bringing this up at: 20:27 mark Lasker lived on the Upper West Side of New York City until his death in 1981. He was friends with former World Champion Emanuel Lasker. Edward wrote in his memoirs of the New York 1924 tournament as published in the March 1974 edition of Chess Life magazine: "I did not discover that we were actually related until he (Emanuel Lasker) told me shortly before his death that someone had shown him a Lasker family tree on one of whose branches I was dangling." In a February 8, 1973 letter to Robert B. Long, Lasker explained their exact relationship:[7] The genealogy, incidentally, indicates that the common forbear of Emanuel and myself was the son Samuel Lasker of the Rabbi of the Polish village Łask, whose name was originally Meier Hindels. However, later the additional name Lasker was given to him to distinguish him from another Meier Hindels also living in Lask. Samuel Lasker moved to another Polish village, Kepno, in 1769, after it had been captured by Frederick the Great and became a German township, and I am the last descendant of his who was born there. He was the greatgrandfather of my greatgrandfather. His first-born son left Kepmen [sic-Kempen] and moved to Jarotschin, another Polish village, and Emanuel Lasker was that one's greatgrandson. From Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lasker

[@flpsnk4848]

What a funny big guy :P this was an "actual" breakthrough with me :) thanks

[@josephferdinand6255]

MOST PLEASANT Chess Lecturer ever seen!!!

[@dusanmijatovic7913]

Sure

[@MrSupernova111]

Great lecture!

[@hoomandehghani2035]

The pun at the end got me xD

[@Fcstfan]

Wooow. Argen got incredible stronger in the last years. Now he just answers every question perfectly. Here, not so much xD

[@notpresobama1553]

*Arjun

[@landakmdk8478]

@@notpresobama1553 arjun eregaisi?

[@diabl2master]

12:43 "It's unusual that you get to see what you learned in theory and put it into practice" Oh.

[@ian101284]

I enjoyed the Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns joke. One of my favorite boxers.

[@toadmove3774]

Awesome reference! Hearns v Hagler, best match ever!

[@a690ac52ed7]

Had I gone on to grad school there's a very good chance I would've got an advanced degree in hyperbolic topology.

[@artcamp7]

The first example is losing play for black. After the pawn breaks, white has the resource of g4 check, giving him the tempo to queen first and win. Strange that this mistake was missed

[@berbs9691]

It doesn't work I think. King takes G4, and then whatever white does (D6 seems best), black pushes E2, and black's king tries and fails to stop the E and B pawns. If black just keeps pushing, the E pawn queens one move earlier, and the white D pawn queens without giving check. So black wins.

[@mladendvornic1946]

Black's king has to go to f6 ant not to f5, in order to avoid g4+ check

[@reflectionofpower8339]

I just encountered a situation where I utilized these concepts cause my pawns were locked and I remembered watching this video yesterday and I busted my opponent to destruction.

[@hiphopesq]

Terrible analysis...is he really claiming die hard 2 was better than the original? ! But seriously, this was another great lecture. I look forward to more from GM Finegold, and/or especially on pawn work (chains, breakthroughs, etc.).

[@kaewonf8]

He also blunders into Godfather 2 over the OG. Patzer analysis!

[@niravapurv4578]

The h4 breakthrough at 05:34 in first possition dont work. Later in that variation; at 06:04 white can play g4+ and it gets into a drawn pawnrace. So in the possition at 05:34 e3 or c4 has to be played first. The best winning plan at 05:34 is acctualy to play e3, when white takes with fxe3, blcak playes e4 so to cut of the white king.. now black can smootly go at catch the white freepawn, while the white king as to go forth and back with waiting moves.. then when the black king is back at d5 or d4, black playes c4 and will have 2 connected freepawns against the king on the queen side.

[@cyrusvanbeethoven8799]

I feel like a bad person for thinking this, it's so rude of me Lol... But Ben looks like the "Penguin" from Batman with the shadows in his eyes... Forgive me.

[@MrSupernova111]

lmao

[@ministerofleisure]

"and if he got that joke...very suspicious."

[@ashvinim]

Thanks.

[@adflicto1]

This was great but, when will we get lectures with Ronen? :(

[@pasaltkrakan]

Ben is awesome

[@lovetownsend]

i love the 'peasants revolt' game :) white starts with normal row of pawns and his king. black starts with king and 3 horses.

[@jasondoe2596]

***** It really depends on your mother-tongue ;)

[@ViniciusGuitarGuy]

Jason Doe It really does make sense to call them 'horse', for a horse figure is depicted in the chess pieces. Not sure where the difference in nomenclature started though, I am aware that in Portuguese (cavalo) and Spanish (caballo) the piece is called a 'horse' and in French (cavalier) and English it is a knight (or horseman).

[@jasondoe2596]

Yes, yes, we know :) BTW, there is even more variation when it comes to the "bishop" piece. It's interesting, actually.

[@ViniciusGuitarGuy]

***** I did not assert that it was correct to call it a horse, I made the point that it makes sense, so much so that it is the case in other languages. And I am still interested in how these differences arose.

[@BoBnfishy]

i always thought it was weird that the king would randomly marry some soldier in the middle of a battle.

[@jubinjohnind]

+BoB n fishy Desperate times

[@braininahat]

Another great lecture. Thanks to Ben Finegold for this. Now, who are the morons making puerile comments about his weight? He is a grandmaster who makes entertaining and informative chess videos. Seriously, why the eff did you even watch the video -- for the chess lesson, right? If so, then you got a great lesson. How much of a freakin ingrate are you, or how childish are you, that you found it necessary to comment on his weight? Even if you don't like his sense of humor, you still got a great lecture. Argh...freakin idiots pollute this planet.

[@galacticstorm854]

Wut

[@Toxie207]

1 a3 Ke6 2 Kxd4 Kf5 requires some calculation. White wins but this should have been mentioned.

[@MundusTransit]

big naka sign behind him

[@ChromaticTempest]

I would of liked if he showed the classic idea from the main line carro-kann. That helps unite the idea of an opening with the endgame nicely.

[@leopardcabra]

At 6.05 white don't play bxc4 but g4!! and king's black must retreat!

[@christophsuster8371]

chupacabramannaro g4 geht's captured with the king, all it does is sacrificing a pawn for nothing

[@MrSupernova111]

21:29 hahaha

[@whoisbhauji]

great culture references - u do learn more than chess in BF's lectures... of course u do learn chess...

[@TheRcEngineer]

Cool the mongolian tactic

[@tomsmith4452]

lol 37:34 is ben fan of tony robbins?XD ...seems unlikely :P

[@TheNuncFluens]

Ben looks sad here.

[@MainlineNovelty]

6:05 y u no make explosive joke

[@lindageltz1009]

the only thing breaking through is his belly

[@WillToWinvlog]

Your only video is a montage of an action figure that you took about 30 different pictures of in different poses with an awful rap song playing in the background. You are an idiot and your opinion can be quickly ignored.

[@lindageltz1009]

thanks for stalking. i am overwhelmed

[@misanthrop1958]

You are a disgusting creature, full of jealousy and envy. Your contribution is totally irrelevant. Ben is the best: Very competent, funny, interesting and a great teacher.

[@lindageltz1009]

misanthrop1958 the irony

[@Scientist1642]

Dude :D :D misanthrop1958 I don't think he has anything against Ben, Calm down.

[@jesusrios1313]

First