For today's video we are going to be taking a look at the 9th and final round of the New

York Fall Invitational.

This event has had some big surprises and none more so than the famous YouTuber and aspiring Grandmaster candidate Levy Rosman who has entered the fray, jumped in the tournament after one of the players withdrew after 5 rounds.

Levy has been doing pretty well, he's had 3 draws against all high rated opponents, 2 of them being over 2500, he's gaining a pretty good sizeable amount with 7 rating points thus far, and in the 9th or his 4th round, also the final round of the tournament,

Levy is the white pieces against International Master Justice Williams, also from New York, rated 2355.

So, Levy with the white pieces after drawing his 2500's, surely he's out for blood and wants to win.

Alright, so let's jump right into the action.

Levy is the white pieces and the game starts with the move C4, we get Knight to F6, Knight to C3, G6, E4, D6, D4, BG7.

This of course is the classic King's Indian Defense, which I have played a lot over the course of my long career.

It's a very sharp and double edged system, but more importantly, it means that Levy is in for a fight in the final game.

Now also, as I said, I've actually played this opening for most of my career, so you know what, let's look at it from the side that I feel most comfortable, also being the black side.

So Levy plays move F4, this is the classic 4 pawns attack variation in the King's Indian.

It's not perhaps the most well known or sharpest variation in terms of what is known these days, but what I do like about it is that it is very forcing and black generally is very limited setups.

So we get castles, Levy plays Knight to F3, and here Justice plays move BG4.

Now one thing that surprised me when I was watching this live and commenting on my kickstream is that it seemed as though Justice was unfamiliar with the 4 pawns attack.

Now back in my day when I was much younger, I remember all the way back in I think 1997,

I remember reading a book written by Anatoly Vysor on the 4 pawns attack, and what I learned about the system is that generally in these setups, black has to either go C5 right here, going for the classic Ben-Oni structure, or playing this move, E5, trying to strike on the E-file.

So Justice plays BG4, it's a little bit dubious, normally if you want to go for this line, you want to play C5, D5, and then BG4, or something like E6, B2, takes, takes, A6, A4, and then BG4 in this situation.

Now why do I bring this up?

The reason I bring this up is because what you'll notice here is that the central pawn structure is very fixed.

White can push E5 later on, but there aren't options with either taking on D5 here, with either the E-pawn or the knight.

Alright, so back to the game, we get BG4, B2, C5, D5, and now we get the move Bxe9.

Now this also is a mistake here, Justice should have played the move E6 trying to transpose into the main lines, but after castles, takes, takes, you get A6, A4, and now takes, takes, rook E8, and the show goes on.

At any rate, he trades, we get to move knight to A6, and here Levi decides the castle is king.

Now, it seems also clear to me that while Justice is probably not super well versed in this variation, Levi himself, it would appear, is a little bit unfamiliar with the plans as well, because in this position, let's take stock of what's going on.

Normally when black gets this position, I'm just going to set it up with EDCD, the knight goes to D7 here, you play A6, A4, but the knight is here trying to stop white from pushing

E5, whereas in the game, we have this knight going to the C7 square, where it doesn't really pressure the pawn on D5.

As such, here what Levi should have done is he should have gone right after the black king and started attacking on the king side with something like G4, knight to C7, G5, knight to D7, and H4.

Now white has a massive pawn center here, you're pushing P all over the place, white has so much more space here, look at how rigid black's pieces are, they're really suffocating here on the first two rows, whereas white has all these pawns that are already all the way up to the fifth ring.

Now I firmly believe that if Levi had played G4, this game would have been a complete wipe out.

I think Levi would steamroll justice, we get an amazing recap about how brilliant Levi is, and how he crushes the king's Indian defense.

Alas, Levi decides to castle instead, and the game goes on.

Now we get the move knight to C7 here, worth pointing out that if black plays E6, white can now play the move E5 here, attacking the horse, and after takes, takes, knight to D7, takes, takes, white can take the juicer on B7, and both the knight and the rook are under attack, and you will lose one of these pieces.

So we get knight to D7, Levi plays queen to E2 here, a very nice move, again trying to stop black from playing E6, because if you go E6, now there's E5, opening up the scope once again for the bishop.

So we get the move knight to D7 from justice here, trying to stop Levi from going E5, Levi plays bishop to E3, nice developing move, spying the pawn on C5 down the road, because maybe you'll have some E5 to weaken the structure, additionally, you now can put the rooks on

E1 and D1, and complete your full development.

So here we get the move E6, Levi plays rook a D1, we get takes, and now Levi correctly plays this move knight takes pawn.

Now I really love Levi's confidence here going for this, because I think it would be very easy to sort of tunnel and think, you know what, it's a Ben Oni structure, almost always in the Ben Oni, you want to create this structure with E4 and D5 versus D6 and C5.

Instead Levi decides to take with the knight, and this is the correct maneuver here, because now if black trades the knight, you have this rook pressuring the pawn and the knight on the D file, you can go for a double stack, and white is doing very well.

So justice goes knight to E6 here, trying to argue that white has a bastion with the knight on D5, but black is going to claim his own bastion with knight to D4.

So Levi plays bishop G4, we get this move knight to B6, and around this point I did start to notice that Levi was moving a little bit too slowly, and justice, even though he maybe has a bad position, he's really starting to sense the maneuvers and what you're aiming for.

Now, what do I mean by that?

What I mean by that is in this position you can tell that white has a lot more space, white wants to go F5 or E5, really attack black's kingside, but when black goes knight

B6, what you want to do is remove this bastion on D5, because you can remove the bastion, now you put your own horse on D4 with the bastion, and white is simply struggling to push P in the center of the board.

Additionally, after knight B6, it would be very easy to be panicked, because Levi plays this move E5 after a six minute think, trying to open up the D file, and suddenly you worry about all kinds of fossils on your queen, and ending up in trouble.

So here justice decides to take, Levi recaptures, and now we get this move knight takes knight, rook takes knight, and this is the moment in the game, so to speak.

Levi here is 28 minutes, justice is 50 minutes, and it's very clear to me that Levi thought that he was much better if not winning somewhere around this moment, maybe a couple moves earlier, and he starts to doubt himself, and he becomes worried, and I think that Levi probably thought after takes, knight to D4, takes, takes, the line that he saw was rook takes pawn, queen to B6, pinning the rook, and after rook D1, rook to E8, white is up a pawn temporarily, but you will lose this pawn on E5, and black gets a wooden shield, and black has great chances to achieve the advantage.

However, after takes, takes here, white can play the move D6, and after queen to G5, trying to attack these pawns on E5 and D6, if white plays the move rook F to E1, guarding the pawn on E5, let's just say black were to take, for example, white can take, and after queen

G4, you can simply play rook takes D4, queen D7, and a move like queen to E7, with this passed pawn on D6, white is much better, it may not be winning on the spot, but black is definitely suffering.

Additionally, in this position, after D6, queen G5, rook E1, you might think, well why not rook E8?

But if you go rook E8, white can play E6, black takes back, and now you play D7, rook

D8, takes, king H1, and even a quiet move like bishop to H3 here, retreating the bishop but keeping an eye on the pawn, and trying to infiltrate on this E file, would give white tremendous chances to win the game.

So Levi should have done this, I suspect he underestimated his position here, and instead he decides to take with a rook, now we get queen C7, levy takes, rook takes pawn, takes takes, and after queen D7, the dust has settled in the middle game, where white is now up an extra pawn, the pawn on C4, but the rook on C5 is actually very janky here, this pawn on E6 stops rook D5, black can claim both the F and the D files in this position, and now if anybody is to be careful here, it's actually white in spite of being up a pawn, and to make matters worse, levy is also down half an hour on the clock.

So we get rook to A5, justice plays the move rook to F8, levy goes queen to E2, and now we get this move queen C7, now this is a big mistake by justice in the position, he should have played the move B6, forcing the rook to B5, because if you go back, you hang the juicer on E5, and after rook B5, queen F7, it's very similar to the game, actually this might even be a transposition to the game in fact, but black would be okay, whereas in the game, after queen C7, here levy could have played the move rook to its pawn, and after bishop takes to E5, no doubt levy was afraid of the fact that the pawn on H2 is under attack, and if you play G3, he saw the sacrifice, and after takes, takes king H1, at the very least, black has a draw by repeating, but black can also play the move rook to F3, trying to checkmate the white king.

So levy instead goes rook C5, and now we get queen to F7, at this point, it was very abundantly clear to me that black's moves are much easier than white's moves when you combine that with a 30 minute time disadvantage for levy, combined with the psychological impact of knowing he must have been much better if not winning earlier, I think it's very dangerous to be in this situation.

So levy goes to H3, we get queen to F5, and now levy plays the move queen to G4, trying to trade off the queens.

Justice plays queen D3, an excellent move here in this position, a move that he plays very quickly too, by the way, because here, after queen D3, you might be thinking, well wait, free pawn, check the king, but after king H8, here white is actually losing the game because now if you move the bishop here, I go check, you lose the rook on C5, and if you play bishop F2, many different ways to win, but probably cleanest is to go check, king H2, rook takes bishop, check, and now after bishop to F8, black guards the bishop with a rook, there's no queen F6 here, and with a queen rook and a bishop versus a queen and a rook, black is completely winning.

So levy finds queen D4, the best move, uses five more minutes here, justice plays check, king H2, and now we get the move queen F5.

Now you will, of course, notice here, computer is laughing, saying it's zero, it's a complete draw, what's the big deal here, what's going on, but the problem for levy is that he's down 30 plus minutes on the clock, he's a very weak king, he has to guard this pawn at E5 at all costs, and that makes it very, very difficult to play, and at this point,

I'm sure that levy was ruining his time usage in the game.

So levy plays king to G1, this is a mistake, by the way, the computer wants king to H1 here, trying to hide the king and the bishop here, what you want is you want to put the bishop on G1, king is completely safe, and now white should never be in danger of losing the game.

Instead, levy plays king G1, we get the move B6, rook to B5, and now justice plays this move A6, attacking the rook on B5.

Levy captures, we get the move bishop takes E5, and this is actually the last moment in the game where levy is relatively okay.

Now what levy needed to play here was the move rook to B3, probably with much more time,

I think levy could have found this move, but the big issue for levy here is psychological in my opinion, where levy knows that he was much better off not winning, but you combine that with a low time situation and all these different emotions running through his head,

I suspect that this is why he played the move rook takes B6, but this does effectively lose the game.

If levy had played rook to B3 here, sacrificing the pawn on E5 after takes and queen D3, you cut off both of the checks on F1 and B1 here, you're still attacking the pawn on B6, and frankly, I think that levy would have had great chances to win the game.

Instead he takes, we get bishop takes pawn, you have to go queen D1, any other square you're losing if you go to D2, there's queen F1 and his checkmate, so you must go here to cover both the F1 and the B1 squares in this situation.

This of course is also a classic 90 degree right triangle.

Justice plays the move bishop to C7 here, an excellent move, we get rook B7, and now after queen to E5, levy is going to have to sack the rook, or he's going to get checkmated by the classic double A battery.

You move the bishop to F2, there's check, check, and takes, and it's really uh-oh spaghettio time, everything is collapsing, you have takes, queen F3, king E1, queen F2 is mate, you go to D2, I play rook to D8, also winning the queen and checkmating in a handful of moves, and so levy sacks the rook.

We get rook takes bishop, takes, and now B3 is played here, trying to guard the pawn on

B3.

Now frankly, I do believe that if levy had like 10 or 15 minutes on the clock here, he could probably survive this position, but with only 4 minutes, justice having 35 plus minutes, the task is basically herculean and frankly impossible in my view.

So we get the move rook to D8, levy plays queen to F3, justice plays queen E5, and here we get the move bishop F4.

Now at this point, the game could have ended immediately had justice played the move queen

D4, checking the king, because if you block, I trade the juicers off the board, and after takes, takes, and rook D1, my king is going to run over to stop C pawn, and the rook is going to gobble either the A or the B pawns.

So justice could have played queen D4, and if king H2 was played here, you can go rook

F8, and now after bishop E3, takes, takes, very similar, very similar with rook D3, rook

D2 winning the game, and if white plays the move G3, now you have E5 picking off the bishop on F4.

Instead, we get queen to F5.

Levy goes queen to E3, we get rook D3, queen E2, and now we have rook D4 attacking the bishop on F4.

Levy plays bishop G3, we get queen to B1, king H2, and now the move queen to E4, trying to control both the E and the D files with the centralized queen and the rook.

Levy goes queen F2, we get rook to D1, and this is simply an excellent move by justice.

Now one thing that you'll notice is justice actually using his time very well in this situation.

He's not moving super, super fast, he's spending a minute here, a minute there, he's not rushing it, and now he plays rook to D1, which is a fantastic move, because it would be very easy to be afraid of something like queen to F6 here, thinking you're going to get checkmated or there's going to be a repetition here with the queen infiltrating, but after queen F6 and rook D2, you simply cover D8, you cover E6, and now you threaten to checkmate on G2.

Levy goes for the move queen to B6, now we get the move rook D2, queen D8, king F7, check, king F6, and bishop F2 is played.

Very unfortunate for Levy here that he doesn't have time to start checking the king from behind on the eighth rank, but alas, his king is getting checkmated immediately.

So we get bishop F2, check, bishop G3, and this was a moment for a split second, I thought that we might get a huge miracle for Levy where this move queen F3 might be played.

Now if queen F3 is played in this position, black actually loses the game because you can play the move bishop to H4, check, and after king to E5, for example, there's queen

C5, check, king E4, queen C6, and you lose the queen on the diagonal, and if you play the move G5 here, white can simply take, and after takes, check, king H5, white can take, king G5, and here you go H4, king G4, check, takes, check here, and queen D2, and now in the endgame, white has two extra pawns, and white will win.

Unfortunately, Justice uses a bit of time, and he plays the move queen to E4, not making up, or not letting up, or not taking his foot off the gas.

Levy goes bishop F2, and now we get the move G5 here, another excellent move, because white's pieces are somewhat paralyzed.

The queen is stuck guarding the bishop, bishop can't move because of the checkmate on G2, and now you're probably relegated if you try to play queen C5 or queen B6, or push

P on the queen side, and to make matters worse, with only two minutes on the clock, it's too much to ask.

So, levy goes queen B6, and now Justice finds the winning line on the spot, check, bishop

G3, if levy plays king G1 here, there's rook D1, check, king can't escape anymore, you have to block, and after takes, it's simply checkmate, GG, why not?