HOw TO EASE aS YouR = CHESS” BA oT JEREMY SILMAN© copy Jeremy Sinn 199 Al igs reserve. No pat fhe bok may be wed oF Teprobied i any nioner whiaoeer mit ween sma rom te plier, emcee in the eas fb Fe Sie es tin 987654 bray of Congress Cutoging--Pbeaion Data Siem, jeremy ow to eats your cess" crete chesrmasery cou / Seren ima I Ses Pree rig published: Expanded Se Ine Anges Sone Pu, ©1993 Tedd gnghl eeeer or14955555 197 WUIT—EAI SETS son soms.006 ‘ove en by Hest Peder Cone phar and tracy Dani Sh Sis Press 43624 Shannon Road 12s Angeles CA 90027 Dedicated to Steven Christopber—the kindest gentleman “Tue ever met in my ches travels, Tis book would not exist tutbou bis belp and encouragementCONTENTS Key to Notation and Symbols x Preface tothe Thied Edtion tt Introduction av PART ONE: BASIC ENDGAMES Chapter One—Understanding the King 3 (Chapter Two—King and Pawn Endgames 9 Chapter Thsee—Rook and Pawn Endgames 15 PART TWO: THINKING TECHNIQUES AND LIST OF IMBALANCES 23, Chapter One—What Is 2 Plan? 25 Chapter Too—imbalances and the ‘Silman Thinking Technique’ 27 PART THREE: CALCULATION AND COMBINATIONS 35 Chapter One—Caleulaion 37 Chapter Two—Rules of Combination 47 PART FOUR: MINOR PIECES IN THE MIDDLEGAME 53 Chapter One—The Bishop 55 Chapter Two—Undersanding Knights 79 Chapter Theee—Dogs vs. Cais/Bishops vs. Keights 93 Chapter Four—The Power ofthe Two Bishops 171 Chapter Five—The Two Knights Victorious! 127PART FIVE: SPACE AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE 137 Chapter One—The Big Squeeze 133, (Chapter Toro—The Dark Side of Space 142 Chapter Three—Block Before You Punch! 147 PART SIX: THE MYSTERY OF THE CENTER 155 ‘Chapter One—The Center Under Siege 157 Chapter Two—The Indestuctible Center 162 PART SEVEN; WEAK PAWNS-STRONG PAWNS 167 ‘Chapter One—Doubled Pawns 169 Chapter Two—The Isolated Pawn 180 Chapter Thwee—Backward Pawns 189 Chapter FourPasted Pawns 196 PART EIGHT: WEAK SQUARES 207 (Chapter One—The Creation of a Weakness 209 Chapter Two Making Use of a Weak Square 213, PART NINE: MATERIAL LOSS AND SACRIFICE 223, ‘Chapter One—Exchanging Material for Other Imbalances 225, ‘Chapter TWo— Making Use of Extra Material 232 PART TEN: TEMPORARY IMBALANCES—DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATIVE 243 ‘Chapter One—Slow Play vs, Fast Pay-—Statie ws, Dynamic 245 Chapter TWo—A Lead in Development 254 Chapter Theee—Initiative 261 PART ELEVEN: OPEN FILES 269 ‘Chapter One—Penetation Down an Open File 271 Chapter Two—Domination of Open Files 280 PART TWELVE: THREE KEYS TO SUOCESS 285 Chapter One—Mastering Positions with Many Types of Imbalances 287 Chapter Two—Preventing Counterplay 296 Chapter Thre Ar of Fighting Back 302 PART THIRTEEN: USING IMBALANCES IN EVERY PHASE OP THEGAME 321 Chapter One—imbalances in the Opening 313 Chapter Two—imbalances in che Endgame 323 Chapter Three—Opening imbalances That Last. Tile Endgame 333 PART FOURTEEN: GLOSSARY 339 PART FIFTEEN: THE SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS 363 PART SIXTEEN: RECOMMENDED READING LIST 395 INDEX OF GAMES 403,KEY TO NOTATION AND SYMBOLS ‘equality or equal chances ‘+6/Whie has a slight advantage White has a lear advantage +-/ White has a winning advantage Black has a sight advantage -/Black basa cleat advantage *+4/Black has a winning advantage excellent move wesiliant move Poor move PyBlunder interesting move A/Dubious move AL times you will ee a backslash standing between two symbols (like: +/=). The ist symbol stnds for the result i it is White to move. The second symbol is for Black to move. +%-/s means that White to move wins and Black 10 move draws. -+#/+s- means that Black wins if kis White to move while White wins iit Black to move,PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION | orginally wrote this book when I noticed that most ofthe instructional’ chess books really offered no instruction at all. Mos chess literature offers 2 bunch of positions that eater 103 theme but never explain how to implement the examples into your own game. I wanted to give the serious chess student (rom class D to Exper) a way to really improve his or her play-—a serious study ofthis book should enable the reader to achieve thie goal have been more than gratified by the many kind words sven to. How To Reasses Your Chess by players all over the ‘world, These positive comments show me that the book is doing its job—its helping people to beter understand chess For this thie edition Ihave created new chapters, added lots ‘of important examples to already existing chapters, and clari- fied any obscure language that might have detsacted from the instructional value ofthe text T hope How To Reassess Your Ches brings you many hours of pleasure and opens up new levels of understanding to the game that we all love Jeremy Sitman. Bevery His, 1993,INTRODUCTION ‘Often when I talk to players of D-A strength Lam surprised 10 find how litle they know about the game. Moreover, when | recommend a book for them to study they often tll me twas lover their head-—that they had difficulty understanding Is In pantcula, | have found that most players have problems swith the following subjects: 1) Alack of understanding concerning the tue purpose of the opening, 2) No knowledge of planning and the thinking processes ‘hat make ie happen 3). No understanding ofthe most elementary endings. D How all thee of these subjects are closely connected ‘This lack of understanding ofthe fundamentals often contin ues fr a hfetine. Typical isthe following soe: John Everyman was aught how to play chess by bis fate at the age of twelve At Fist he leaned the basic rules and thea, aller he gained some experience, he memorized vasious mating patcens. Everyman was toldthat he should learn some endgame Positions also and so, witha heavy heat, he took the time 10 Figure out how to matein such one sided situations as King and Rook King, However, he generally found endings boring and not Worthy of alfeniion. Everyman was an attacker, he loved chasing an opponent's King across the board. To this endhae studied chess problems and a few base texts on combina tion, Everyman reigned supreme on his block; few coule put up ‘even the (iniest resistance. His ego bursting with power, Everyman decided to extend his area of dominance—he joined a chese club. ‘Against these new, more seasoned adversaries, Everyman, could do litle. He would uy 10 atack, but his cowardly ‘opponents would take a pawn, ade all the pieces off, and ‘eventually win che resultant endgame. Obviously he had gotten involved in a club of wimps—real men would never play such chicken chess! Nevertheless, his syle slowly went through certain transformations. Everyman leamed to avoid weak pawns, develop all his pieces before attacking, try :0 avoid loss of| material, ete. Everyman dida' paniculaly like these changes, bu he liked losing toa bunch of wimps even less ‘The years rolled by with Everyman memorizing 2 few open- ing varations and refining the various postonal lessons he had been givea by the other members. Soon Everyman was top dog In the club. His ego soared to new heights t was time for further expansion. Everyman started to compete in wourna- ‘ments, AC fis his resuits were shaky: the chess clock unnerved him and, in general, he was looked down on by the top players. This proved tobe temporary though-—in a way twas arte of Initation. As he became more familar with the atmosphere of| ‘tournaments and ashe picked up afew new strategies, Everyman stared winning games with regularity. When he got his rating published he felt great pride—1802, 2 class‘ player! ‘More time swam by and Everyman continued to hone his skill When sot working of spending time with his family, Everyman would sit back and memorize a few more opening lines and, a times, leaf though a tedious middlegame mana Eventually Everyman achieved an Expert ranking and ty as he might he could never get beyond i ‘This did not have o be the case. Everyman was tuck because his foundation was rotten. His knowledge was sipshod and Incomplete. Most imporartly, he never viewed the game as hhomogencous whole, Instead, eventing was made of dis jointed fragments. Despite mediocre leaning techniques, Everyman had reached the expert level. Unfortunately, his same mediority as now acting as an anchor and was effectively preventing him from setting any beer, The tuth wasnt prety, but unless he ‘eseroyed that rotten foundation and lesmed everthing again from scratch he would never get over the exper hump, Everyman's stony is common. Most players teach peak and find themselves tapped there—A prsoner of their mind's erroneous dogmas ‘Are You in similar situation? Are you willing to rebuild your foundation, make a change, and reach new heights? Ifyou are, then empry your brain of preconceived ideas, open you eyes, and prepare to he the player you always knew you could be, ‘The purpose of this book i to offer a complete course of study 10 the serious student. You will be taught the basic endgames, middlegame concepts, and the rue purpose of the chess openings. You will be shown how to structure your thinking processes and how to come up with plans based on the needs of any given postion. Tests, basic rules, and other recommendations wil aso be included. You will earn how 10 train yourself and be given all the tons necessary to do this ‘This book is writen on many levels. Much very basle materi 's included, Stady it Even if you feet you know i, sill go over i again. Some ofthe material will be a bit advanced for many players Do the best you can with i Reread this book every’ six ‘months, You will ofen find thatthe material that ws once an ‘enigma becomes crystal clear with the passage of litle time. ‘This isnot simply another tome oa the middlegame Instead | ‘offer a method of contoled thought—we will examine many ferent aspects of chess, but always through the confines of ‘that method. Enough material is given in each chapter to get a point across. A complete explanation of each subject would {ake many thousanes of pages. list of recommended iterature is given atthe end of this book for those who wish to delvedecper into vaious topics Ts iy contention that any student who seriously studies this ‘book ancl continues the work schedules therein can eventually achieve a master ranking ‘One pitfall must be mentioned before we finish this trode. tion and get into the actual lessons, Most players have devel ‘oped a cenain proficiency with ther syle. They are skilled in theie mediocsty. When you start changing the way you think about the game, you may find your results will actually get ‘worse! Don't panic. AS you muster che materials inthis book your downward plunge will reverse iseif and you sill soon {ind youreelf ata point of understanding and achievement fae beyond anything you have previously obtained. OF course, fallin stenggh isnot necessary. Everyone will react eifferently to the information inside. One gentleman had an ‘A’ rating for years but had never won an “A’ section. After one lesson something ‘clicked! and he won 1Wo tournaments saigh, both swith 5.0 scores! May things go so well for you! PART ONE BASIC ENDGAMES ‘This par of the book is an anomaly-—it ealy should not be bere! 've struggled long and hard with the simple face that basic endgames have nothing to do with my general theme, Why then, have 1 decided to include this section? In a way the anstier is less a matter of reason and more @ question of Conscience. Quite simply: EVERYONE needs to know the bases of endgame play. Unforunately 1 have found that players of| every class have very litle Gf any) knowledge of this subject. Since the material in this section represents the building blocks ofall endgames, I feel compelled to offer it here and BEG you to take the time to master, Your reward will be many saves from poor positions and numerous wins fom endings that you ‘ever would have gone into in the past Remember that fam only giving basic endgame material that I think you simply must know. For a deeper study of the subject, there are numerous books on the market that just explore ths area of the game (See the recommended reading lise at the end of this book. Twill take i for granted tha the student is already Familie With the basic mates such as King and Queen vs. King, King and Rook vs. King. etc. More complex and appropriate) endgame considerations will be studied later (See Part Thineen: Imbal- ances In The Endgame)CHAPTER ONE UNDERSTANDING THE KING “Throughout a chess game a player hides his King away on the sidelines where ic quivers ina perpetual sate of eae. Of course {his is easy to understand—a state of marial law exiss on the chesshoard and a wandering King willbe quickly executed by a vindictive Queen and her cohons, Ths matriarch exiss as long. as the all powerful Queens roam. Eventually though, all goes ‘Quiet, the Warring factions have bludgeoned exch other into ‘oblivion and only the Kings anda few faithful pawns ae let (a remaining Knight, Bishop, or Rook may also exis, acting as seal dogs that bark 2nd saap at the King’s heel), ‘When the board is Finally cleared of hostile pieces the Kings finally become supreme, Now, sfe from attack from the extinct larger pieces, the Kings are free to leave their respective bunkers and go fora ssol. At times what’ lft of the two male run armies give up hostihies and make peace—a draw is declared, More offen than not though, the King, so recently freed from the bulying presence of the dominating Queen, finds himself lonely. He misses his lady and goes in seach of new one. Thus the queening of a pawn becomes his sole ambition and he roams the face ofthe boar in an efor to corn {this dream into reality In this chapter we will strive to understand the basic move: rents ofthe King nd the relation that the opposing Kings have tovcach other.“The fight between Kings to determine which one is stronger s eae the opastion agra Both Kings would like to advance but they are placed ina ‘way that prevens thelr counterpar rom doing so. In this type of stuation I is disadvantageous to have the move since you ‘must then give up conto of one ofthe ertical squares and allow the enemy King o advance. With hi in mind, we can see that White 10 move gives Black the opposition since 1.Kd3 allows 1.-Kb4, while 1Kb3 allows 1..Kd4. In both cases, black’s King is making headway into White's postion ‘This called the distant opposition The rule is: Whoever ss 10 ‘move when there san odd number of squares berween the Kings doesnot bave the opposition. The reverse i: Whoever ks to move when tbere isan even number of squares beswoen the Kings des ‘have the opposition. they coniaue to walk towards each other ‘we will arve at diagram #1 again These same rules aso aply to diagonals (gram +), If is White to move then who has the opposition? The answer is that White does since there is an even number of squares between the Kings. Thus White would play L.Kb2 ‘which would leave Black on the move with an odd number of| ‘squares between the Kings 1 now should not be dificult to determine who has the ‘opposition wien the Kings connect on a rank, file, or diagonal ‘But what if they fallto connect altogether? Docs one then need to ‘work out elficult mathematical formulas? Hardly Lets look at sdagram 24, | Jn non-comeding sustlons the rule is Mate the King to a “square oF rectangle in which each comer © tbe same color Diagram 5 (next page) wil lustrate ths.‘Whites jus played 1.Kb2. The connecting points b2, 8, 8, and f2 are all dark squates and form a rectangle. After LKb2 ‘White as the opposition. Lessee fm telling the truth: 1.KeS (..KI7 23 gives us direc diagonal opposition) 2.Ke2 KIB (2.k¢7 3 Kd oF 2..K08 3.K€2 both give us direct connections) 3.Kd2 KS 4.Ke2 Kh8 5.Kf2 Kh7 G.KfS Kh 7.KF4 and Black ‘an no longer avoid a direct connection (7..Kh7 BKDS; 7..KB7 8.Kg5;7.Kg88 Ke), Notethateach time someone moves, anew series of connection points ae formed. OUTFLANKING ‘Outtanking i simple but useful tool to know. With ta player ‘an make inroads into a position that were not otherwise pos sible. Admitedly, this often cos the opposition but it must be ememered thatthe oppasiion ss only a meas to.an end, not tbe Sai o A close study of diagram #6 ands coerec handing will each the student the finer points of oppostion and outlanking ‘White wo play as the opposition. His goal i to reach f8, g8 or bi in at most seventeen moves. Black will consanly try to sop this. L.Kaat The only way to take the oppeson. The moze clrect path als because i allows Blac to take the opposition: 1 Kb2? Kb8l2.Ke3 Ke? 3KeA Kd6 4.Ked Keb and White will not set close to his tages. 1..KB! A fine defensive move! Now 2.Kad? loses the opposition since Black has his choice of two squares oa the ale and thus can make i either odd oF even (2.Ka), White wil also fai 10 teach his goals alter 2Kb3? Kb7, 2.KD2 TTeading over to the target side of the boar 2..KeS Sill keeping Whie's options 1o a minimum. The seem- Ingly more acuve 2..Ke7 3Ke3 only ads White. 3.Ke2 Sill beading forthe kingside. Instead White could try to outlank ‘Black, but tthe moment this would fall to achieve the set goa. let's ook at an example of outanking: 3.Ka3 ies , 2 Se a ee ypuating a file benwcen the Kings, White prevents black from taking direct opposition while simltancously making forward progress. This process is called outlanking, After 3K83 Black ‘an ake the opposition with 3..Ke? (forming connecting points (09 7, €3, a3, and a7) but White wil be able 19 move forward Kad Ke6 5.KaS Ke5 6 KaG Kos, White has managed to make Inroads into Black's postion but he will never be able to get ‘over to the kings, To solve dlagram #6 White must fust goto the target side ofthe board (kingside) and only hen outlank his opponent. The logic for this is easy to understand: when you are on the keingside, any forward motion will allow Whice to land on bis (goal squares, RAB Ger 3KC2) 4.Kd2 KeB 5.Ke2 KM 6K Kg8 7.Kg2 White is now on the optimum fle siace his King stands In between the target squares. 7..Kh8 &.Kf3 The out Aanking process finaly takes place. 8..Kg7 Diack covld take the opposition by 8..K but afler 9KF4 Kh6 10.K95 Kh 11.06 ‘White would be able to conquer the target square on f8. This Idea of giving up the opposition fora higher prize is a major pan of outfanking, 9.59 Saised that he has advanced one rank, White reakes the opposition. Blunders would be 9K? iG and 9.%g42 Ka. In both cases White wil never reach bis ‘oul, 9..KET 9..Kh7 10.KE leads to the same type of ply 1OKhA! Another outflankiog maneuver. White once again| offers Black the opposition. 10..Kg6 And Black once again refuses to take it After 10.,KF6 1.KAS KIS Black would clearly have the opposition but White would dance forward with 12.6 and claim h8 for himself. 1.Kg$ Grabbing the oppos ton again. 12..KN6 Or 11.7 12.KF5 Kg? 13.K95 Kh7 14.6, ec 12KES Kg? 13.Kg5 KIT 14.Kh6 KyB 15.Kg6 KES 1G.Kh7 and White cannot be prevented from achieving his goal by 17K. Please study the information on the opposition and outank: ing carefully. Dont let the scientific names of the siange rumbers and lines in the diagrams scare you away from learning something that is both easy to understand and highly useful! should add thatthe position in dlagram #6 isa for one to show friends. They will not be able 10 solve it and will be amazed when you demonstrate how one King can actually be stronger than another just by understanding the basics of the ‘opposition and outanking CHAPTER T KING AND PAWN ENDGAMES In endgames with only Kings and pawns presen, the oppost Lon takes on 2 huge importance. This means that ifthe reader thas not fully grasped the material in the previous chapter, 1 recommend that he go back and carefully eread it ‘With King and pawn vs. King the batle revolves around the queening squate of the paw. If White can gain contol of this ‘square he will queen his pawn and win the game. IF of, then a daw will result The opposition will be the means by which White succeeds of fails in his quest (rook pawns form the ‘exceptions and such situations will be studied at the end of this ‘chapte. Diagram 8s an extremely common position, White isa pawn ahead and wishes 1o advance it to e8, Black means to prevent this and atthe moment isfy blocking its path. Nevertheless, White can force the advance of his pawn, Dlack’s ability to draw epends on his knowledge of the opposition and his keeping, control of the queening square (€8). LKEZ KeS I have oftenseen beginners play the atrocious 1..KdBP, Afier 2KP3 Black's king & no longer blocking the pawn and must sit on the sidelines and watch if promote. 2KP3 KIS eit KeS 4.Ke3 ‘White has the opposition and Black has to give round. 4..Ket fier this fine move White can only keep the opposition by playing 5Ke2 Gwhich does nathing 0 help advance the pawn) fr 5Ke Gobich is log. Black's plan i simple. He mens 10 akoays sump 01 front of the pawn when possible. When tis ‘impassibe, Black wil always move straight backwards so that ‘when Wits King comes up Blackcan step fron of wand ake the opposition. For example, i Black had played 4..K1% White ‘would play 5.KF4 and take the opposition. 5.KfS Else Black ‘would go back to 65. 5..KAS Once again, if Black had played 4oKG6 then SKE leaves Black to move and White with the ‘opposition. After the comet 4..Keét SKE KI6 we have the same ‘postion but with Whiteto movethus Blk lsthe ane who has ‘gained the opposition. GeS+ Ke6 7.Ked Temporal taking the opposition. 7..Ke7 Continuingto sep stnight back. Now White ‘would have to play 8 KeS inorder to rein the opposition. Since thisisleal, it will once again switch over to Black. 8.65 Kd7 Obviously not &..KIT? 9.Kd6 sehen White i allowed to come forward, 9.e6¢ Ke7 10.Ke$ KeSt When it coun the most Any tther move would lose. For example, 10..KUR? 1L.K6 Ke8 1327 KIT 13.Kd7 when White has gained contol of ef and wil easily queen his pawn. LLAKFS Hoping for 11d or 11K? ‘when 12.K16 would take the oppostion and win after 12..Ke8 he? followed by 14.K77. 1...Ke7 Always ump infront ofthe pawn when possible. 12.Ke5 KeS! 13.416 KMS 14.¢7+ Kes 15.Ke6 Sialemate and thus dren ‘Drawing this postion should become second nature 10 you, Gta fiend to take the King and pawn while you ty to save the same with the lone King, Use a chess lock and give yoursef twenty seconds he player with the King and pawn can take as ‘much time as he wants) for an infinge number of moves. ter a few practice sessions thought will not be necessary—your hand will know how to dav this in your sleep Wah King and pawn vs. King, White's main hope 10 win occurs when bis King 4 $1 front of the paten. Diagram #9 alstrates this poi White to move isa draw because Black has the oppostions LKd3 Kd5 e+ 2Kc3 Koi oF ZKed KeS are no better 2.Ke§ 3.Ke3 Ke6 with an easy draw as in diagram #8, Black to move (irom Diagram #9) is a diferent story. White ‘now has the opposition and wherever the Black King moves i ‘ill allow White's monarch to advance: 1..Kd5 The same type ‘of pla follows 1.5 2Kdl while 1..Kd62 KA Kes 3 Kes Kal6 “AXES 15 also not eifcul, 2.KFAY White wants to control the pawn's queening squate. The rule 10 follow is: Advance your ing as far as pale without endangering the pave, malsing sure to take the opposition atthe esical moments. With the king far advanced White can take the opposion at anytime because he wil always have tempo moves with his pawn. 2.KAG Other tes D 2uKdS 36 Ged+ KAS 4.5 Is also good) 3..KeS 4ke5! Gtopping Black from gesting in front of the pawn) 4..Ke6 5 Ke Ke? 6 Ke? followed by 65, 6, XI, 7, and e8=Q 2) 2.Ke6 3.Xelt Gand not 304 KIG with a basic daw) 3.KI6 4 KdS KES 5.of+ avoiding 5.Ka6? Kes when the ‘pawn will be eaten) 5..K16 6.6! e547 KeT) 6 .K07 7.65 Chreatening 8KG7) 7..Ke 8Ke6! (taking the‘opposition. A blunder would be 86” Kd8 967+ Ke8 10.Kes stalemate) &..K68 9KT7 winning, SKIS Ke7 Or 3..KAS 40% KdS 5 KE 4.KeS KET 5.146 KG 6.04 KI7 7.65 7.KA7 KIG 8 KAS wastes time. 7..KeB Hse White ‘would play SK? with contol over eB. 8.KeG Grabbing the ‘opposition, Naturally 8.6? would allow Black to gain the ‘opposition by 8..KdB with a draw. 8..KA8 9.K07 White has fined contol of the ceiial 68 square and will shorly queen his pawn, Diagram #10 is similar to diagram #9 but here White wins lnrespective of whose move lt is because he has the oppastion| (Ghanks to the pawn move available to him). White to move ‘would play 1.e3), taking the opposition and winning as in| slagram #9. ‘As player gals more experience he will discover that a Rook pawn will ofien provide exceptions to rules that we normally take for granted (see diagram #11. Usually sucha fine King postion for White would guarantee tim the win. fo this case however, Black will experience no sifficulties in drawing because he cannot be flushed out of the corner. Lh Kg8 2.h5 Kh8 3.Kg6 Kg8 4.86 Kh8 5.47 stalemate. Diagram #12 shows another strange Rook pawn result. Blac, ‘who has no material tall, stalemates the stronger side. 1Lh6 1LKhS Kg is also a basic draw, as was seen in dlagram #11 1.sKf8 2.Kh8 Or 2K@6 Kp8,e(6 2..KIT 3.47 KiB stalemate t's elear that the oppesition doesn't mean much when the only remaining pawn is a Rook pawn, White must cootrl the queening square and avoid having hls King trapped in the comer if he hopes to win, ‘To complete our discussion of King and pawn endgames,le’s touch upon an old fashioned pawn vs. King foot race. fa King is far away from an enemy pawn, how cin you tell if i wil arrive in time 10 slop i om queening? Is it a maker of Calculation? No, is actually ute a simple process. «aHDiagram #13 shows a quick and easy method. Create 2 20.hxg3 hxg3 2L.NB3 Reh3+ 22.gxhb Qxh3e and mates. 19.NK3 There is no doubt whose minor piece is superior’ 19..d4 Creating a passed pawn (he logical result of a pawn majority) and also creating a new and ‘even stonger support point on @3.20.exdl4exdé 21.Q43 Ne3, 22.RE2 QdS The siuation is growing steadily worse for White black’s Knight dominates the board and the Black Queen radites energy from ss powerful central location. 23.33 £6 (Opening up new files so that the Black Rooks can join in the fight. 24x16 gxf6 25.51 An excellent move. White fights to activate his Knight. Now Nimzovich recommends 25.. lhe! ‘vith a toilly centalzed postion, Play might then continue 25.Rfed (Q5.NI4 Neil) 26,.Neg2! 27-Rxe8 Nid+ 28.Qe4 xe ‘vith an immediate win, Analysis by Nimzovich ‘So everthing tamed out quite nicely for Black. The second, player succeeded in every strategic operation he sled: stopped White's majonty, activated his own, found # strong support point for his Knight and relegated White's to an obscure post ‘on h3 Such a lopsided zesulr ust be partly due to some Failing fon White's part—White must be able to do better than that! Let's go back to diagram #51 and ty to create a more belanced sategc struggle. We will allow the fist few moves: 12..Q87, 13.04 0.0.0 14.03 KS ‘white to play. {Look closely at diagram #58, Inthe actual game White played 15.Qb3, but what docs this do to stop Black's pawns or get his ‘own going? Nothing whatsoever, Much stronger is 15.b4 This prevents «.c7 and creates a fine post on dé for the White Knight. Play might continue 15..NI5 16.Qd3 Stopping ..Ne3 and eyeing the important f5 square. 16.ch 17.Nd4 And now Black isthe one who faces a dilemma. If he sceats his Knight {o6 oF€7 then 18,445 leaves White with all the trumps: active ‘majority and superior Knight IF Black captures with 17. then 18.cxdé leaves Black with a strategically lost poston: ‘White's majorty is strong and he has plenty of play on the ‘queenside also. Remember, the idea for both sides (0 activate thelr respective majorities, place their Knights on strong post, and prevent the opponent from achieving the same goals. With this in mind, Black must play 17..g6 Now f remains in Black's hands. Though White should keep the status quo in the mile and sike out on the qucenside wih 224, lets see what happens if White is tempted into doubling Black's pawns SNES QS! 19.Qxf5 gxf5 Black has a good positon. White must always tke a ..d5-d4 advance into account and i a lowed, Black wil ply .Kb8-<8-d7-e6 Ge central King defends £785, and d5) followed eventually by «.b6 and ..c5 when Black's majorty of pawns is nally making Weel fet while ‘White's majority i completely blocked. The play from diagram 158 was more indicative ofa balanced bate of ideas Also notehow the use ofthe msjoriy of pawns remalned a priory right Into the endgame. 9 Guimard Buwe, Groningen 1946, lack to move, In diagram #59 we have a blocked postion, Such pawn configurations are always quke aice for Knights and here Black's steed is the biter ofthe (wo. This is explained by the fact that White's Knight has no useful suppor points while Black’ has 65, b3, and d4. At ths point I can hear the reader saying that am mistaken and that White's Knight has @ nice home on o6 Cobinable by Ne2-bi-c6). Though o isavalable, it would be rather useless fo go there since nothing is happen ing onthe queensde. 1 ike having 2 millon dollars worth of sold in the desert—who want to lug that much metal around when you are dying of thst Here the queenside is a desert, while the sich rank (normally gold) is visually pleasing but totally lacking in effec since it doesnot attack any weak points and does not work withthe other pieces ‘What else is going on? Well t's an Important fact that # closed postions pawn breaks on the wings take on great impor tance imply because this isthe only way that the Rooks can be brought ito play. Here the queenside and center are totally blocked. This leaves both sides slavering tthe kingside. Given time, White will play h2-h4hS which could easly lead to a ‘completely blocked position Black closed things up by 86 85) and a resultant draw, Since a Black advance based on 7 {5 1s suicidal (opens the grile for White and is impossible anyway because of White's iron contol of that squat, that leaves him only one possibly: Black must play fr .h-h5 and subsequent play on the hile. Wih this mind Black's only Fogial candidates are 1) 1.55; 2) 1..KQ7; 3) 1..Rhf, all of "which aim to beeae open the hile, a's look at each one 1) 1.chS?fals io 2gxhS Qxhs 3.092 when nothingisto be done about 4 Rh3 winning the Black Queen, 2D LoKg? This walks into ANG! when 2.52 3x5 wins the Queen again. Bests 2..Kh? when White can trade Queens or return tothe original postion by 3.Ne3, -RhS! Correct—the Rook immediately situates itself 8 the desired fle. Now Black's King can go to g8 without Blocking the Rook's path to the hfe. 2.Q¢2 Getting out of the bothersome pin on the c1-h6 diago- nal, 2..Kg7 Now this s good since 3.NPS+ is met by the calm 3.8 and White must reteat. There is an impor tant lesson here, Don't be afraid of goss Make sue that a move like 3.N5+ rally does something for White before you bother 1o prevent it. Many players would void 2.K97 for fear of 3.NE5+, thereby missing the best move and not allowing White the chance o g0 wrong, Another way of puting t would be: Dea in Fass, not Paranoia! 3.Ng2 Preparing to ty to close the kingside With h2-hd. 3.5 Black beats Whi to # by one move! Tn the original postion (diagram #59) some players might have been tempted to move the Knight tod (via Nb3-d0) before undertaking any other action. This lazy approach takes the Knight into account but ignores ‘every other consideration. Dont get so engrossed In a Single piece that you ignore what the res of your army needs. 4.b4 nga Justin time, A Queen retreat woul hhave been met by 5.5 with a blocked poskion, 5.284Raxhée! sound sacrifice, Materilly Black gets a pawn and Knight for his Rook, With though, he also gets an attack and contol ofthe open Ivf, Black's Knight wil also gain in power since it ean no longer be challenged by is now nonexistent counterpart. 6.Nxh4 Rh! Get. ting the other Rook into play as quickly as possible Obviously 6..Qxhi? 7.Qh2 ‘would end Black's iniae Live. 7AKg2 Or 73 Ratt Rahs @&Qh? Rep ORT ‘IB 1O.RI1 RE also favors Black) 8..Qxh4+ 9.Ke2 Nat 10Qxc3 (Black threatened ...NfH+) 10..Qxel with @ Winning ending for Black. 7..Qxh4 8.gS Nb3 The Immediate &..Qh2+ 9.KF3 would not accomplish any. thing. Now, however, 9,.Qh2" 10.3 Nd isa disturbs ing threat! 9.Rg1 Making 11 available for his King 9..Nd2! Surprising but very logical. White had two squares to un to with his King (fl and f3). Now both squares are off limits and the threat of ..Qh2 mate looms. Of course the Knight cannot be captured be ‘cause the Queen would hang afer .Qh2s, This combi- nation is made possible by 2 weakened White King and hanging Queen, ‘A final point o consider: When attacking the King, don’ just check a King here and there, First cover the squares that it can ‘un to, This way your checks will econte mate, This technique iscalled building a mating net 10.KF2 & horible move to play, Dat there was no defense. 10..Nxe4+ White resigned, since he loses everything. The Knight became very busy at the end by ‘sing is suppor points as jumping off squares for an attack, CHAPIER THREE DOGS VS. CATS/ BISHOPS VS. KNIGHTS “The batle between Bishops and Knights is one of the most Inveresting, and at times subi, i chess. Games are often won for lost because of the superiority ofa given minor piece and this section should be studied carefully ifa mastery of the gare Is ever o be obtained As you have probably heard before, Bishops tend to be superior to Knighsin open psition, Conversely, a sed blocked postion |smore often than nat going to see 2 Knight triumph over a Bishop. [Risimponantto realize that Bishop or Knight arenotof themselves superior teach ether Somanyplayersfeelthat a Bishop issuperior, botthisissimply note. ltiswhat you do witha pasion, how you form it and ts pawn ssucture, that makes one pice songer than another. The poor maligned Kaight must 90 longer be thought Inferiorthere i no room for bigotry on the chessboard In this chapter I have interspersed superior Knights with superior Bishops and have not divided them. Ihave done this so that you can look at each diagram and decide for yourself which minor's beer—any otherlayout would ob you ofthe chance for this extea training, Before we look at specific examples though, season of Stein's ant-Knight rule might prove informativeThe Anti-Knight Technique Iwas Steinitz who frst demonstrated the correct technique for bauling Knights. He showed that you tae away all thetr ‘advanced support points the Knight willbe ineffective a the ‘Bishops will have an excellent chance of winning out. Because ofthis you must make some decisions beforeyou trade off nto 8 Bishop ¥s, Knight position, Ask yourself the following {questions whenever you face the possibilty of creating this type of imbalance: 1D Isthe postion open or close It's closed I may preferto lownthe Knights. 1f’sopenthe Bishops may bea good bet 2) Will there be suppor points 2vallable for his Knights? iF there are, then other questions arse Can bis Knights ge to them? 1) the Knights do getto these squares, does it matter? J other words, if bis suppor point Is on the queenside but al the play is taking place on the kingside then you would acwally encourage him to ‘Sick hls Knight on that faraway pos! © Cap the Bishops reach simlar or superior squares? ‘Once again, i's very important to answer these questions before you make the tride! Don't malke the mistake that $0 ‘many players do and unconsciously make a trade only 10 iscover that the opponent's Knight is a dominant force, If you're going o give im Knights make sure that you can take away al his advanced squates (a la Seinitz) and slowly create an atmosphere in which your Bishops will thrive e-Rudakovsky, Moscow 1945, ‘White to move. ‘we willbegin ou examination ofthe bate berwcen Bishopsand Xighis by looking at typical situation in the Siciian Defense (lagram #60). White has 2 nice suppor poiat on d5 but he snot sie 1 make ute of since iis well guarded by the Bshop on € andthe Knighton 6 His nea few moves revolve around getting rid ofthe Black defenders ofthis square. 1.5 Be4?? Ths seemingly azsive move isin realy a temble misake. As sated eater, Bishop is needed 0 guard the dS square, nd now Black sof, to trade it fora pice that snot influencing dS 2 all Comect vas 1..Bd7 followed by 2..Bo6 keeping an eye on dS and puting pressure on White's ef pawn. 2.Bxe4 White happily obliges 2.,Qe4 3.Bg5 White hurtes to get rid ofthe final defender of 5, Indoingso he wilbe givingupa Bishop fora nigh, butthe Bishop ‘Black wil be left with willbe much lnferior to the powerful Whe Knight which will permanently esablsh itself on d5. 3.fe8 4.816 Bxl6 5.NdSI dB Whive wins the Exchange afer 5. Qxe2 R12 Qe5 7 fllowed by BNCT. 63 The imbulance of minor pieces weighs decisive in White's favor, 6..D5 7.b3 QcS+ KAI Re89.Rf5 Win everthing in control onthe queensideand withthe cxnter in White's ron grip, White is eady to stata kngsie attack 9-8 10.6 gxi6 11.Qh4 Rg 12NXIG Rg7 13.RRS BxiG ¥4.Qxf6 Regs 15.nd1 d5 Back could do nothing about White's threat of Rxd6 followed by Rxg7 and Rd. 1GRxg7 Black resigned since after 16..g7 17.Rxd5 there is no answer to RASoy ‘Blohm Silman, San Francisco 1981 White to move. In diagram #61 Black threatens to play simply 1..Bb7 when his Bishop would be much superior to either White Knight. Add to thisBlack’suse ofthe fine dS square and the weakness of White's pawn on dé and you come to realize White's sad plight. To ‘counter this, White played 1.451? A very interesting dea. White sacrifices @ pawn but hopes to make his Knight better than the Black Bishop. 1.Aed52.NxdS exdS 3.Ndé Thingshave changed! ‘whites weak pawn on dis gone and Black is now the one who must defend a weak d-pawn. Previously Back had use of the dS square, Now that square is blocked wile White has avery nice poston 4, Finally, White's sacrifice has tured Black's active Bishop into an inactive, bad plece—White's once inferior Knight ‘ow sits Securely on dd where i radiates power over the board, 3.-QF6! Well, perhaps White's Knight isn't so securely placed afte all Black nips atthe Kright and offers the pawn back since itonly gets in the way of his Bishop anyway. To the untrained eye tmight seem that both playersare madly avingaway pawns, but in reality neither player is overly concerned with material a the moment. They are more concemed with the activity of tele respective minor pieces. Its clear hata vious battle fo minor piece superiority has been waged over the last few moves. This type of thing is typical of what the fight beeween imbalances is all about: Once you figure outthe differences the postion, you ‘must do everything you can to make your imbalance ourweigh ~ youropponeats. Don tgetdstacted rom thisdirectiee!4. Qxd? {White has reestablished material equality and even gosten sd of| his Weak di pawn, Unfomunately for him the board is now wide open. This means that the swt footed Bishop will prove its fuperiorty over the more ponderous Knight. White must also face the fact that his Knight, while nicely placed on d, is noe Gefended by 2 pawn. This spells rouble since a Black Rook on the efile could easlly leave Whie's panic stricken pieces banging. 4.6 Gaining aciticaltempo.n White's Rook. §.ReS Blocks the Black Queen's access to d4 and intends 10 meet 5. Rac with 6.Qe4 5. .BB7ICturss our that White's Rook on eS is as poorly protected a8 the Knight on oi, 6.Qb5 Rad The aight must move since 7 Rd just walks into a pin.7.NPBA very unhappy decision. White defended his Rook with the Knight because he ssw tha 7 Nb3 Ba6! picks up the poor Rook on eS 7.sBXE3 As Soon as the Bishop claims permanent supetionty it tries ilself away! In this case, however, a new imbalance is created: an exta, healthy pawn and a weakened King position. Sigxf3 BRIS Beb loses 4 piece, 8.Qxf 9-Rael RAZ 10.R65 Rxb2! Whites hopelessly los because his Queen isoverworked. 11.47 Qgét 12.KhI Hoping that Black falls into 12..RK2” 13.Qu7+! Rad? 14.ReB> RPS 15 Rexf¥ mate! Before making any ‘move alnaysask yourslf"Am {hanging anything? Doeshe have any checks?” This may seem silly but guarantee it wll save you ‘rical points and painful losses. Surely this is worth the few seconds it takes odo this! 12..Re2I13.Rd1 Qes+ 14.Kgl Ret fad Black easily converte his material advantage into win, In dlagram #62 (see next page) Black's Bishop appears fairy active while the White Knight is not doing alt. The big point is this. While the Black Bishop has reached its peak of activity, the ‘hike Knight has ‘not even begun to fight”owwinnkeFlobr, Moscow 1936 ‘White 10 move, ‘Whats the Knights optimum square Thase of you who sid 6 can pit a taro your forehead, On tht post teas the board alive and blocks Black’ acess othe weak pawn on df, Can it get here? “To answer this you must work backwards. The only uncovered square leading od sf. Our Knight can reach com 3, €2, 52, and a8 Since ore3 would allow the Bshopto exchange tsi for ‘ur Knighs, we must Find our way 10 b2 oa, The b2 square can cnly be reached from dor d3 but Rooks sand on bath thase Points at the moment. The a8 square, however, can easly be reached fom bi. Thus our move is ebvious! 1.NbI! The Knight stars is journey toward greatness. 1.Q(8 2.Na3 BAS 3.Ne4 BeT Black had 10 defend his a5 pawn, 4.Nd6 "The Knight now consittes a crushing advanage. Black does not want 10 take ‘since a powerful passed pawn would ake is place. However, such 2 Knight cannat be tolerated for long, an Black will eventual feel ‘compelled to hack tof. 4..Rb8 .Rb1 White prepares io open the befile and bring pressure to bear on Black's b? pawn. The Knight ‘lon wil not en te game. Only by eeating a target can White ‘ope to finish Black of. You can do all he right things ia chess but ‘without 2 point of atack you won’ find yourself winning many ames. 5. QUB Gb axbsé 7bxb4 Bxd6 The Kalght had to 20! B.exd6! Opening the ile and thus exposing 2 new weakness 00 6. Black i compleey lost because Whe has a long range endgame advantage sn his pawn on d5 (us pawn also cramps ‘lack’ pieces) plus immediate ages onb? andes The remainder ofthe game was marred by a big mistake on White's par, though fis advantage sso large that he sll gained the victory. For the curious the fish was: 8..QaS 9.RUDS ReB 10.Qe2 Qa 11.Re3 KIT 12.Qc472 12Kgi! would have prevented the following counkeepey, 12,-DS! 13.Qc2 Rxd6 14.cxd6 e+ 15.KB3 exbi 16.Q7+ Ky8 17.47 RAS 18.Qd6 h6 19.Qxe6+ KUT 20.Qe8 D3, 21,Qx28 Rea 22.axb§ RdB 23.Rxb3 Rd 24.6, 1-0. Alekhine Junge, Warsaw 1942 ‘White to move. Diagram #63 is not so easy to judge. No one has any really ‘weak pawns, material is even, and space is also not much of 2 factor. The main imbalance is Bishop vs. Knight, but who docs this favor? Black's Knight on d6 is doing a. good job by challenging White's fr the £5 square. This leaves a comparison to be made between the Black Knight on cB and the White Bishop. The Bishop is bad since is ef pawn sands on a white square fthe Bishop were chased back to €2 would be a poor Piece. As it sands though, i i quite active, On BS i affects Some central squares and sims at Black's kings, Now lets take a lok at Black's c8 Knight. Knights in genera fe poorly placed on the frst rank and should only go Uhre i they are in wansilon to a ier post. This means that at the "moment the o8 Knight i inferior to Whites Bishop. To counter this minor piece inferionty Black must place this Knight on a ‘square where i will overshadow the Bishop-—that square iOn et the Knight blocks the Bishop and atacks the pawn on b2 Once it reaches ¢4 © would abviously no longer be inferior to White's Bishop. Indeed, White might be well advised to chop it cf at that point. However, this Knight i not there yet. For rately for Black, ef can easily be reached by «.NDG-ef. This scans that White’ superior minor piece is only a temporary vantage —White must react quickly to take advantage of i Now that we know what Black is going 0 do (.NDS-), let's figure outa plan forthe White army. Which side of the Board should White play on? Doubling Rooks onthe afl accomplishes poshing since Black would just ade pieces by ..NDG and Ra (Goubling Rooks aso has nothing to do withthe imbalance—any plan must work with the Bishop on b3). Cental action also falls Since it dese take Black's plansinto account. Fr example: 12 Nb6 2 Rad Nees when White's strategy canbe seen asa complete ‘bust. The logial place for White to sec play’is the kings. The reason for this rater staighforward: White has tree pieces pressuring the ingside (Queen, Knight, and Bishop) while Black has no pieces there at al (other than his King) tis important for the student to realize that White's Bishop on 3 resides on the queenside but exens no real pressure there. Is influence, the ze of ts gun, pointed a the kingsde, To repeat YOU MUST MAKE USE OF YOUR FAVORABLE IMBALANCES In this case that ‘imbalance aims tthe kingside. When the Queen and Knight oin| ‘vith the Bishop they canal wor together towards a single goa [Note that the Rooks perform 2 prophylactic function: they ee the ‘pen files and prevent Black from geting counterplay there ‘Now that we know that Whites going to play on the kingside, we must determine which kingsde point White will choose 10 ack (7, g7,0€ 7). I not my intention to give an indepth explanation on how to attack a King here. A fantastic book that docs this to perfection is Vukovie's Art Of Attack Chess. Suice icto say that one does not rush madly atthe enemy King like a berserker, Instead you should pick one point and apply pressure to iin an effort to induce a weakening. In the present case is ‘leat that istoo well defended The h? point can be attacked by ‘our Queen oniy—ardly suicient to do anything wicked. That [eaves 7, a point that can be atacked by both Queen and Knight “To sum upr So far we know that Back intends (or shoul Intend? ..Nb6 followed by .Nbef. We aso know that we will sat a kingside tack and that g7 our main target. ‘Only a ths point, when we know eracly what both sides ace to do in the postion, do we decide on our candidate moves. ‘Which moves attack our target (g7) The only reasonable choices are: LQai; 2) LN; and 3) 1.NhS. To et down on our ‘workload we can reject 1,Qg because it can aways be played and we might prefer afer a Knight move) to move ito g3 instead (vith a double atack on e5 and g7). At this poit you should analyze NPS and 1LNh and choose the one you deem superior. Inthe game Alekhine played LLNS! Many players would reject, this because of 1..NxfS when after 2x5 the attack seems to have ended before i ever gotstared. However 1. NxISisan ee10r since White can play the surprising and strong, ZexfS!, The doubled pawns don’ hurt White's posiion at al in fact the 5 ‘pwn is an attacking force that threatens to push on to f6 and Continue the svike agsnstg7. The Bishop helps this atack by preventing ..715 de tothe pin oa the 22-98 dagonal. Actually, aller 1..Ne? 2.ex/5! Black would be unable to stop the pawns advance to 16 since 2.Qe7 3. Qxe6 hangs 2 pawe, while 2S 3 Red Qua 4.Rdi QF 5 RAT leads to a winning bid for White (ver and above al ofthis however, comes a suber fact, Wi the clearing ofthe ed square the White Bishop gains a permanent superiority over the Knight. Even It gets chased back toc2 i wil have the fine ef squareto ston, This makes t appareat that White ‘Snot just attacking the King and hoping for mate. He ialso tying, omakeistempocary advantageous Bishop a permanent advan ‘age. In this way be can carry his advantage ino the endgame fa Iidalegame knockout punch eludes him. 1..Nb6! Black wisely avoids geting distracted fom his logical plan of posting a Knight ‘nef. 2:Qe31A very hard move to find, and stronger than 2.Q93 186 31NhGe Kg7 4.NgG I, Aer he text move White threatens both 3.Nad6 winning apiece and 3.Qp NxfS 4 exf5 NA 5 Red Ru616 and mates. 2.NXFS? Black panks. He should have calmly played 2..Nbe when the final pot of 2Qe3 is shown: 2..Nbed| Brot Nxct 4.Qu5 gS Nh» Kg? 6.Ng6 and unlike 2.083, the Queen now sandsin font ofthe Knight and threatens 7 6 Kgs {SING mate, Ate the fonher6,.£67.Qhr White would rela jst a small edge. So White started with a small edge and perfect efense by Black would keep it at that tet me tll you a secret— very few people defend perfecly! 3.exf5€5 1F3,.Nd5 then 4.3 iG 5. with a permanently superior minor piece and 2 song, snack 4.{61 A wonderful thrust White has been constant trying to accomplish two goals to atack g7 and to make his Bishop ‘permanenily eter than the enemy Kright. This does buh wih tne move! Now the Black King is weakened and after 4..gx"6 “White's Bishop wil breathe firedown thebi-h7 diagonal. 4. Obvious 4.96 5.Qh6 must be avoided. 5.Qh6 At the moment the Bishop is sill doing a great job on b3. Now the threats are 6 Qulb and 6182, 5..f5 Here White, realizing that all she rules for 2 combination were present Gveakened King, hanging piece [black Queen, inadequately guarded pieces) played 6.BxfTHt and completely destroyed Black, For the conclusion see Part ‘Three, Chapter Two (rules of combination, diagram #34 oH co Poletayey-Hlobr, Moscow 1981, ‘White 1 move, A glance at dgram #64 gives a very favorable impression for Black’ cause. He isa solid pawn ahead, his Knights wel placed in the center, and White's pawn structure is inferior 1 Black's To make matters worse, Black i$ the superior playest Surpeisingly though lack is dead lost White's pan minus &2 negative, and bis pawn structure 1inferioe. The fcr that changes everyihing isthe fight between the Bishop and the Knight. In this case the Bishop wl prove to be far superior. Le this pawn had stood on b2 hereby ‘improving’ his spt pawn structure), then White trould indeed have ben los because the d5 square would be a permanent support pot for lack’ Knight However, alr Let the Knight must move and the newly opened diagonal fr the shop quickly tums out 1 be decisive. L..NET Black also loses after 1..N162.Qf3 RdB 3.25 wih 2 quick decision. 2.983 immed tly making use ofthe Bishop's power by teatening mate oa 18. Ins now clear that Black’ advantages (pawn structure and Inatera) were static. White's superior minor piece and the insiave tt confers isan acve or dynamic advantage. Is impor tant to sate that dynamic advantages are not necessarily better than static ones the Individual poston wl determine which one wil win out I the dynamic Gmmedate) advantage can be ruled, then the state ong range) plusses of the defender shoul lead to eventual victory. In this ase Black is no able to sc up a successful defense, and so his sate advantages will rove useless similar fe station is that of person wo puts all of| his money away for his old age—oaly to die at thity-fivel2..Qe6 Black would suffer afer 2..Ne6 too: 3. xa 4.Qe3+ KaB 5 RG followed by 6Qc5. %QXE7 So much for material dsparty 3..Qe5* 462 RAI Black acvaly threatens to mate by Qs. “White's King would be too open after 5, and 5.14 BS compl: ‘ates matters, The move White plays activates the only piece that 's not carying its load. 5.Re3! Intending to simply guard it next ‘move by 6.Qxe6, This eapeure would also open the efile forthe Rook, win a pawn, and create a double stack on the €7 Krigh ‘The Rook cannot be captured by 5..Qxe3 because after 6 Qre7* ate would follow. 5..b5 Trying to give the King 2 runaway Square on 86. Qxe6 Ne Now ales experienced player might Bet excted by 7.Q07+ Kb6 8.Qb7* KaS, but is wrong to jus ‘heck without 2 clear purpose i mind. Black's King is veryunhappy on a7 since it is tormented by White's Bishop, Queen, and Rook, Allowing ttorun to a5 would get it out ofthe Bishop's Influence. 7a! Very strong. AS mensoned in an earlier chapter, this technique is known 25 building a mating net! The idea is 0 close the doots ofthe King's escape routes and only then chase him, OF course—now he doesn't have anywhere {0 nun to 7..Qe7 Sopping 8 QI7+.8 Qed Threatening mate on a8. 8..QS 9.4 A sadistic move, The Rook on di hangs, and 10.Gxa7+ ‘would be a bone-cusher. Since 9..Ra7 sil leaves the Rooke en rise snd 9.6 bangs the Knighton <8, Black resigned. Instead ‘f 9.084, Whe could also have won more bray by 9.Qe7!+ Nxe7 10.Rx67+ QU? 11.RxD7* Geting up the Famous Windmill theme) 11,.KaB 1295+ Ka7 13.RD7* Ka8 T4.RDI+ oF 14RA7> and Black has been cleaned out (O'Kelly Naldrf, Dubrovnik 1950, Black wo play. Many of my students think that postion #65 is quite nic for White. He has a space advanage and two powerfully advanced ight. The bad Bishop on g2is aso serving 2 useful Fonction ‘guarding the pawns on h3 and ef, and can always become ative by an eventual eS advance. Though Black has pressure on the cf pawn, he cannot capure because a catasvophe is theentened (07. "hus, Black's ist consideration must be a way of dealing ‘withthis threat Reents by Na oF .Neb ae passive and space ‘Black’ best piece dhe Knighton 5). This leaves Black having to capaure one or both of the bothersome Knights—dont allow your ‘opponent to keep such fine looking beasts on the board IE Black takes on bS with his Bishop it wil create an imbal ance of Bishop ¥s. Knight. However, befoce doing 50, Black must decide if such an imbalance would be favorable to hie. He ca’ forget that aking on bS opens up the eile for White. ‘his means that if White ean chase the cS Knight away by an eventual b2-bé advance, then the pressure oo the backward &7| pawn might prove to be unbearable, ‘Nice taking in all the facors of the postion, Black hss upon the followinglong range plan: He wl capeureon dS fist Tis wil force ‘White recapaure with hs ef pawn (since ox would hang the BS ght and FaxdS would lose the e:pawn to ..Bc6). By making ‘White's e;pawn go 10 d5 he has made White's Bishop on 2 permanently bad Ge can no longer fee sel by ef e5). Next Black ‘wl capture the other Knight on b5, creating 2 Bishop vs. Knight ‘malance. The Kaight on 5 will then be stong, but can sill be chased away by the pan on 2 or captured by the Bishop on 3. ‘These two pubic enemsesmust be dealt with othe postion could ‘um against Black-White succweds in chasing the Knight from cS and opening up the cle, White would gan a lear advantage To revere this Black wil play 23%, planing the pawn on be by the ‘Bishop on g7. Whi wil then be forced to defend by Bor Be, ‘whereupon Black wil ade fist the pawns and then the Bishops, thas geting sd of both public enemies and leaving bimself witha ‘Beat Knighton 5 completely unaslable and permanent versus 2 emible Bishop on g2. This advantage shouldbe decisive les see how Black accomplished these goals: 1..Nxd5! The correct move order. 1..BxbS allows 2.NxI6» BxtS 3.xbS, and ‘Whit’ Bishop on g2 can eventually become active by an ei-e5| Advance. Now this Bishop will become bad without any active Potential. 2exd§ As sated earlier, 2RxdS Be6 wins material for lack, 2..Bb5 Creating the imbalance of Bishop versus Knight Black only di this because he realized that he could make his ‘night permanently superior to White's Bishop on g2. Note that, the alternative 2..BI5 was very tempting. However, ater 3Qd2 ‘Black hasan active poston but no way to cash in. This 8 a caseofthe stati, long term advantage (Superior Knight inated by 2..2xb5) being much beter than the dynam, shor term advan {age @..BIS), 3.exb$ a3! The pavin is atacked and cannot move ‘because the Rook onal would hang, appears that White has to ‘guard it with is Bishop Gf he doese't want to lose materi thereby allowing Black to trade the only two pieces that could bother his Knight. 4.844? Since this leads to a postionaly lost, ‘game with no active potential whatsoever, White should have ‘acificed the Exchange by bit Brat 5.Rxal, This would Force Black’ Knight to leave ats preat pos on 5. True, Black would enjoy an exra Exchange; but White would be lft with pressure on thei, wo Bshops, and threats against Black's King onthe 0-8 diggonal. tn this way White would have had sever favorable imbalances to play with. Whether this would have offset Black's material advantage is @ moot point—never leave “yourself witb no favorable smbalances or no chances to create ‘them. f you do you will surely ose It's much better wo sacfce material for some sort of compensation (inthis case both long, range [larget pawn on €7 and two Bishops) and shor term Ichances agains Black's King) than to st around passively with nothing whatsoever 10 crow about and lose like a dog Gs happens inthe game). Note that say that you must sacrifice for compensation—dont sacrifice for one or two cheap shots and then eesig if your opponent doesn fal for your taps. ‘After the Exchange sacrifice Black would haveto play very well to win and the slightest sip could easy lead to a White victory For mote information on material imbalance vs. various forms of compensation, see Part Nine, Chapter One, 4.BXd4 There woes enemy #1. 5.x axb2 And there goes enemy #2. 6.Qxb2 b6t ‘An urassuming but very imporet move! I gives adltonal suppor to the Knight, fies the bS pawn on a light square (hereby furter imiing the scope of the 2 Bishop), and prevents White rom gaining counterpay with BS-b6. In postions lf this kind tis always a good idea take time out and lini the opponent's active possibilties. 7.RA2 QI Bick has a strate cally won game thanks to his superior minor piece. Now many players in Black's poston would be tempted to triple the Rooks Te! Queen on the afle and try % Wie White's 22 pawn. However, this would fail 1 take into account possible White ‘Counterplay dawn the ele or on the kingsde. center les are pon a rarely a good sea wo decentralize one’ forces. must te realized that Blacks advantages inthis position are of lasting ature, His Knight wll always be beter than the useless eresture fon g2. White's pavins on 22,55, and d5 ae alla litle Toose, while Black's queenside pawns ae very secure. I's also important to pote that the Bishop versus Knight ending would favor Diack ‘Snoe no White pavin is safe from the Knight (which can go 10 fny colo). This means that Black & in 90 hurry; his advantages are not going vay. ‘Because ofthis Black decided upon thefellowing plan: He wil Play to ake contol ofthe open efile. When this done he will tffect a penevation into White's position along the seventh or cighth ranks. Ths, combined with his superior Knight, should lead to larger gins. The beauy ofthis plan i t keeps the Black pieces centralized and thus offers White vicvally no counter chances! 8. Re2 Nd3 The Knight doesnot intend to permanently leave 5, i just snipping at White's heels and inducing him 10 ve upthe efile 9.RxeS+ RexeB 10.Q¢2 Gest Geting Ou oF the pin by attacking the Rock on al. Now the efle Is firmly in Black's hands, H.Rd1 NeS 12.4 Qe2 The decisive penetration ‘white now loses material by foce. 13.942 13.Qxe2 Reis also completely hopeless, 13..Qxb5 The fist fits of his positional ‘concept The immesate Urea is4,.Re2. Heed Rxel 15.Qxe1 (Q2 16.44 Or 16.Qe8+ KgT 17.Q8 QUIZ 18QXCT Nef with 2 {ie decision. 16...K88 Preventing the Queen from entering oa Fores, 1745 A desperate bid for countesplay, 17..QeS 18.01 Also easy for Black ks 18.Qxe5 des followed by ..Ke7 and KdS. 18..QKI5 19.Qx5 gxf5 20.813 Net With the heavy Pieces gone, its no longer important to keep the ele blocked. Now the Knight cin roam in search of food, 2L.BxhS Ne3 22263 Nxaz, 0-1“Though every good player must be willing to make wse of any imbalance that comes his way, a certain amount of favoritism harks in the minds of most people. The great Chigorin thought Knighs ‘were superior to Bishops while Dav Janowsky had such a lowe for Bishops tat he would often go out of his way Gversening his postion in the process to veld wading them. His preecton fr Bishops was 50 wellknown that fora couple of decades a pai of Bishops was wually seemed 1 asthe “TWO Jas ‘We find examples of minor piece preferences with modem players also: Perosian had a known fondness for Knights while Fischer enjoyed making use of the long range powers of a Bishop. Personally, nothing makes me happler than a fishy Knight running rings around a hemmed in Bishop. I will end this chapter with a cassie game that features a plan based on “Koights winning out over Bishops SchlecbierJobn, Barmen 1905. 104 d5 2.c4 €6 3.NC3 15 4B €6 5.Bf4 BAG Black is playing the solid Stonewall Dutch ‘The one problem with this opening Is the weakness created on 5. White will ty to dominate that post and Black will do his best to keep the pressure on e§ under contol while Fighting foe domination of ef. However, the et square is nota permanent ‘outpos for Black since White always has the option of playing 1248, Ged! A very Rood move, White would be happy #f Blac doubled White's pawns since that would give the first player an iron grip on €5. 6..Nf6 7.Bd3 Qc7 8.831 oor ‘White makes sure his Bishop stays put, only allowing Black to cexclange if he i wing to increase Whites control of €5.8..0-0, 5.0-0Ned 10.Qb3 Kh 11. Rac Bxfé Finally giving White what he ‘wants. A2.exf4 QFE 13.NeS Qe7 14.Bxedt White sees that the poston’ closed and that Knighs wll become very valuable Since Black's Knight might eventually challenge White's contol of e5 ‘vith . NdSand.,.N7, White snaps of leaving Black wihauscless piece on c14...fxe4 15.63 Forcing open the efile andl exposing Dlack’s weak, backward paw on o6, Thisonce again illustrates the importance of creating an atackable arget. 1S..exf3 16Rcelt Threatening 17oxd5exdS 18 Nd} exd 19.Ng6+ winning Blacks (Queen. 16..Qe7 17.Qa3 KgS On 17..NE7 18Qe7 leaves Black badly tied up. 183 NaG 19.63 Qds 20.05 Continuing to grab ‘more space and camp Black 20..Ne7 21.Qb2 BAT 22.e2 Ifyou wanted to play 22.Nxd7 here then shame on you! White's Keight ‘ones is an exceptionally song pice. To rade tof forthe pathetic thing on d7 would be criminal 22..Qe7 28.Reft Since Black has managed to defend hs backward pawn on e6 several times, White prepares to grab more space on the kingside and create new weaknesses in that sector. 23..Rae8 24.g4 Be 25.Rh3! Creating new holesin Black's camp. Neverhe satisfied with what you have— chess isa gamefor greedy people! Leavethe opponent widhasmany ‘weak points a posible and his game will evenualy dsintegrate 25,.g626-b4 Aside from her things, Black must also woery about 2 potential queenside breakthrough via af and BS, 26..Q16 27.RhfS Re7 28.9.6 29.Ndtit White icends to pay g5 when he wl plop his Knight into the newly acquied holes on f6 and ho by Nal-es, Don just leave your Knights on reasonable looking squares, Place them on advanced posts even ft takes several ‘movestoetthem there. 29..R7 30.Ne3 Qe731.85BA7 32.NSu Be833.Nh6+ Kh8 34.Qe2 black hasthveemajorholesiahiseamp: 15 {6 and h6. White plans to oooupy al hrce with Neg, Qe5 and NG. 34..Qd8 35.Negs BAT 36.Q¢5 NeB 37.Rh3 Qe7 Black is running out of moves. 37..Qe7 38 Qb8 would lead tothe los oF a Paven, 38.NIGICHAPTER FOUR ut : te ee ‘a ime) . Black is completely overrun, Owning Knights doesnt get much better than this! 38..Qxe Not a happy choice but 38..Nxl6 39.Qxc7 drops the Queen, and 38..QdB 39.NXHT! is also hopeless. 39.fxe5 Re7 40.Rhf3 Nx{6 41.16 RxIG eexfGt Much beter than 42.x{6 since now White regains control of the e5 square and is able to se this square as an eventual entrance for his King, Wraile ii true that most books tell you to capture with your pawns towards the center, it is correct to capture away from the center at least thiny five percent ofthe time! This tes you that these rules are just basic ‘guidelines. Every situation requires independent and original thought. 42,.ReB 43:NE7+ Bringing tbe Kright back to the center. 43.8 44.NeS RAB 45.KQ2 KMS 46.N4 Bed 47K [BET 48K Following « simple but important rule; When you reach an endgame bring your King towards the center! 48,..KeB 49.RbI Finally White prepares the long-awaited queenside pawn advance. Once the White Rook enters the Black position the game will come to an end. 49..KMS 50.b5, 1-0 duc to 50,.axbS Si.axbS Be8 52:bx0S Bxe6 (52.,.bxc6 33.Rb7 leaves Black completely helpless) 53.Nxef! (White finaly exchanges this piece so that his King and Rook can penetrate) 53. 54.KeS Re8 55.Rb7 and Black wil lose all his pawns. THE POWER OF THE TWO BISHOPS ‘As we know, Bishop's weakness thi itis suck on one color complex of squares. However this snot a factor ifa player owns {wo Bishops, Two Bishops working ogelher ae a very power force because they have all the long range powers intrinsic in Bishops and also contol both colored diagonals. Let's take @ look at how the two Bishops can make Knights look sly: BotwinnikeD Bronsein, World Championship Match, 1951. lack isa pawn ahead but is Knights ae tied down to the defense of his pawns and ae notable wo do any aggressive act Whites speedy Bishops however, not only atack the enemy pawns but also ie down Black's King and restrain the Knights. 1Lhg Fixing the Black pawn on 6, Now it's just another Weakness that White can atack. 1.-NabS 2.Bg5+ KE7 3.065 Is‘obvious that White's Bishops are dominating the board. 3..NA7 Hoping that Whice wil allow him to advance hie pawn to bs, A.B Nbc 5.843 Preventing the DGS advance. 5...NB Ge? Kg6 7.Bd3+ KIG 8Be2 White i gaining time on the lock, 8..Kg6 9.B13 NGe7 10.Bg5 and now Bronstein thought for forty minutes and resigned. He Is In zugzwang and mus lose material Ifthe King moves the h5 pawn wil fl; the Knight cant move since that would hang the €7 Knight, any move withthe e7 Knight would hang the dS pawa, The real problem is that once he loses a pawa he wil sill bein the same Unpleasant 1wo Bishops ws. Knights situation, only with one pawn less than he sired with! Nevertheless, I would pesson- ally have played it out and mace him prove the win, As the old saying goes, "Nobody ever saved a game by resigning.” Its clear that this type of Bishop domination s no fon! Ifyou. find yourself in 2 position with Bsbop and Knight (or two Knights) vs. two Bishops you should follow this useful strategy: trade a pair of Bishops (or a Knight for one of hs Bishops) and leave a mare manageable Bishop versus Knight sation. “The following game i an excellent illustration of ths, Clicksman Silman, Software Toolwores 1988, 1d 4 NIG 2.04 6 3.NP3 BbA+ 4.NC3 €5 5.€3 Ne6 6.843 Bxc3+ Black gives up {he two Bishops witiout provocation! His strategy ito compro ‘mise White's pawn structure and play fora locked center, This vill block the White Bishops and hopefully lead toa situation where the Keights will prove supesoe, 71bxe3 6 80-0 €5 9.Nd2 0-0 Black refuses 10 win a pawn by 9.. 32.KG ReG 33.15, xd 34.3 Rg, 0-1, since 35 pé Qxpir 364KN2 Nhs is mate 1 few years afer this game was completed the following game beween Portisch and Karpov, Bugojno 1978, was played. {Ld NI6 2.06 €6 3.Ne3 Bb4 4.03 0.0 5.Bd3 €5 6.NI3 d57.0-0, dxci 8 Bxc4 exdi 9.exd4b6 10.Bg5 Bb7 11.ReI Nbd7 12.Re1 Re 13.843 Bxc3 14.bxc3 Qc7 15.c4 RfeB 16.Qe2 h6 17.BA2 ol Wine er Black to play, look familia? Ws almost Identical to the Flesch game (dia ‘13m 76), Though Black's usual strategy in this system isto pu ‘ressure on White's pawns on e4 and di Black was delighted ‘o see that he had been given the oppomunity to create homes for his Knighus!17.-Bxf3! 18.Qxf3 e51 19.837! White decides to sacrifice a pawn in an effort to activate his Bishops. The Droblem with this that Black will retain several advantagesaso, namely an extea pawn, a target on cf, and two extremely ‘Useful Knights. One of the beasts wil it on the dominating post, while the other will tay back for defense. 19..exd4 2O,Rxe8+ Nxe# 21.14 Qe6 22.Bf5 RAB Black calmly stops out of the pin and places his Rook behind his passed pawn in aneipation of pushing it. 23.h3 Ne5 24.Rd1 Qf 25.Bb1 Qe6 2GKh2 KfW 27.BeS Ques 28.Qf4 Ne6t Showing that Knights Ihave a grace ll their own. On eS the hopper guards 87 and di, ‘and attacks the Queen on Fi. 29.Q64 QdS 30.Qe2 NAG 31.24 [Ned Now both Knights are well posed, and the end is ncar for White, 32.883 Nes ‘White to move. A case of two Knights looking more cooedinated and more Ureatening in an open position than two Bishops! 33.822 d3 34.Qe1 Qdé 35.f5 NeB The Knights keep coming forward, and |X becomes increasingly clear that the poor Bishops are no match for them, 36.Rd2 Re8 37.Qe1 Nxaf Like ll hard work tng animals, they need to feed as they labor! 38.Kh1 NeS 39.802 QeS 40.Bb1 Kg, 0-1 ‘ever let anyone tell you tht Knights ae inferior to Bishops! ‘we have seen that snot the invial Knight oF Bishop that ks ‘inferior or superior—its the way you handle them. Solve These Problems Black to play. ow can Black creat static imbalance that caa be nurtured and used through out the game? \What minor pieces rule inthis postion—the advanced Black Knights or White's two Bishops?Black o play, ow can Black play fora superior minoe piece? ‘White to play What i his correct move? —_— PART FIVE SPACE AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE “The 1800's was a Fun time fr chess—sparkding combinations, sacrifice (their soundoess dlda't matte); everthing and any- thing in the hope of a prety mate. Those innocent days were shattered when Stentz discovered that vetory could be had by “other means a well He offered the chess playing public itis. taste of scientific chess principles and, when Sieger Tarasch Joined the bandwagon and stated raving about the Joys of a tenitoral advantage, the game had been completely trans formes. ‘With the tum of the century came 4 new breed of chess smasers, No more srving alter attacks with reckless abandon! Instead players such as Maroczy, Schlechter, Teichmana, and Rubinsein took on a style of tench warfare. Their idea of a ‘eood time was to squeeze thelr opponents to death. No muss, ro fuss, no rsk—Just a nice bowlike crushCHAPTER ONE THE BIG SQUEEZE ‘What is space and wihy is it imporand A player's territory Is vsually determined by the positioning of one’s pawns. If we look at a line of pawns as a fence, we can see that the area ‘achind these foc soldier is their property-—they have claimed 1 and put up borders that announce that claim, This extra propery is an advantage fora very simple reason: if you have ‘mare tertory you also possess more room to move around in. Can someone really lase just because he has les territory? ‘©ue fast example will make the answer abundantly leat Capablanca-Treybal, Karsbad 1929. ‘white to play. In the dlagrammed position both sides have an equal stake Jn the center, but White's superior Bishop and his space advantage on the queenside give im a clea advantage. 1LNAES Stengthening his contol of the eS square, RAS 2.b4White's control of the qucenside grows, and Black must con- sanily be on guard fora breakthrough there by bi-b5, 2... Black avolds placing his Knighton ef, since aside from ignor- Ing i, White could obtain a crushing Knight versus a patheic Dishop:2..Ne@ 3.NxI7 Qa"? 4.Nes followed by 5.Bxet. REL 86 4.00 Nxe5 5.Nxe5 NAT Following the rule that the side vath less space should waite exchanges so that he will have ‘more room: 10 move about tn. NES And White follows the ‘opposite rule: These with more space should quatd exchanges. 6..Rde8 7.¢5 Increasing the space advantage and further re Scting Black's pieces. Now White will play for 2 break Uheough by af and BS. White will also anempt to play for a -ingside expansion with 42-84 (In positions with this type of| pawn stucure on the kingside [White pawns on e3 and £4 versus Black pawns on e6 and f5, whoever gets to advance his ‘pawn to the fouth rank frst (gl for White and g5 for Black) ‘wll usually take the advantage on that side ofthe board since 18 White can take the inkiaive there 10, then Black will not be able to consider action on that side of the board himself in that case White would control the whole board and Black ‘would be condemned to complete pasivy. This means that a kingside expansion by White # not only sn aggressive plan, but also defensive! 7..NfG 8.a4 Not Fearing the upcoming one move atack on his Queen since the enemy Knight can easily bbe chased away. Don't waste time and stop someone from making an allacking gesture i i tums out to be a dead end ‘sreet for him. 8..Ngé 9.Qe1 Nh6 10.h3 NIV 11.g4 So White was the fist to advance his g-pawn. This means that he s now in contol on the kings also, which leaves Black passively stewing in his own juices. 11..BA7 12.Re2 Preparing to switch the Rook over o the kingsde. 12..Kh8 13.892 RgS 14.95 More space! Black's pleces are trapped on the frst two ranks, and he can only wait and prepare himself for White's evenival breakthrough. Now White wil lay for both the bi-bS and bh 1 breaks. 14,.Qd8 15.h4 KQ7 16.45 By expanding his ter torial limits on the kingside, White takes the Fist step in his plans to dominate the board. Now Black must wosry about ‘white tripling his heavy pleces (Rooks and Queen) on the b fle and beeaking though there. 16.88 17.8h2 QT 18.Qe3 QdB Note how Black's lack of space leaves him completely helpless. He can only go back and forth and hope that White is ‘unable to effect a breakthrough. 19.KF2 With the postion closed, White can maneuver as slowly as he wishes. He now Intends to double Rooks on the I-fle. When the opponent is rnelpless (asin the present case) you can and should take as many moves as you wish in seting up a desired positon. ‘What's the hury? By not letting the opponent know what you intend to do and when you iniend 10 60 , you keep bitn off | balance, Here White will only play fxg6 if and when suis him. 19.47 20.RDMI Rag8 21.Qa1 Black has set up a solid defense on the kingside, so White maneuvers a bit before Initiating bis long awaited break on the queenside, 21..RbS 22.Qa3 A sublle tactical move that helps make his B45 advance possible. 22..RbgB 23.b51 Now the gree firs player annexes more teritory on the queenside 25 well. 23..axbs “The point of Qa3 is revealed if Black plays 23..cxb52 246+ KiB 25.06" winning a piece. 24.N6e! Going all out for a queenside decison! Black would gain a litle counterpay ater the automatic 24axbS exhst 25.Reh5 RaB. This closing of the Ikingside also accomplishes two other goal: 1) Traps the Black Rooks on the kingside long enough to tenable White o obtain complete contrat of the soon to bbe opened afl. 2) Takes even more space away fom the Black pieces 24..KM% Now the King inteTeres with the action of beth Rooks, 25.axb5 Ke7 26.061Black to play. Seting up one of the unique positions in chess literature ‘White has a crushing spatial bind and has effectively taken over the whole board, Now that White has succeeded in his plans of pital conquest, what does he need to da to actually win the ‘game? The fist thing he needs lea target. He also needs a way to penetrate into the Black position. The role of targets taken | ‘up by the base of Black's paw chain—the pawn oa b7, White's plan is to dominate the open aie (be means of penetration) and bring a Rook to a7 where it attacks the b7 pawn. Once this 's done White must bring more pressure to bear on b7. What ‘other White pieces can do this? you saw that you could bring, the White Knight 0 25 (antasy position: White Rooks on 47 and a1, Knight on 28) then you ate doing very well indeed! 26..Qb8 The attempt to grab the afile by 26..Ra8? falls to 27.QuaSl. 27.Ral ReB 28.Qb4 Rhd8 29.Ra7 KAS 30.Rh1 Bes 31Rhal KgS 32.t1a4 KM 33.Qa3 The ale obviously ‘White's, bur where i the breakthrough? 33..KgB 34.Kg3 White {8 well aware that he wants to bring is Knight to a5 and apply pressure tothe B7 pawn, Before doing that, however, he wants to place his King on its safest possible square in case of an ‘eventual desperado ..NxgS saenifice (after White moves his Knighd, The fact that he takes several moves to do this merely highlights the fact that Black is completely helpless. 34..B47 35.Kh4 Kh8 36.Qa1 KyS 37.Kg5 KIS 38.Kg2 BeS 39.Nd2 Finally the Knight begins ts journey to 45. 39..B07 40.Nb3, ‘eB Or 40,.Be8 41.Na5 Ra? 42.NND7 Reb? 43.RaB winning the Black Queen. 41.Nas NdB Can Black hold on? No, White has ‘one more piece that s capable of assaulting b7. 42.BaG! White places everything but bis King on the alle, Now b7 goes and the game comes to an abrupt end. 42,.bxa6 43.047 Re7 Quiet moves like 43..Kg8 lose the a-pawn to 44.Nb3 and ‘5 .Rxa6, 44.RodB+ Rd 45.NxC6, 1.0. In the game we jst saw, Capablanca obtained an enormous advantage in space on the kingside and queenside. Gaining ternitory on the wings is wonderful ithe center is closed, but if the middle i not Blocked by pawns then cental space will usually be boss. «s) Gissin-Bowinnik, USSR 1932 Black to play Diagram #85 shows a typical Maroczy Bind stuation in which Black has a comfortable cenzal space advantage. White's prob lem is compounded by the fact that be as no way to get counterplay on the wings: b2-b4 advance just loses materia, and a6aS allows ..bG-5, depriving White's Knight ofthe fine post on et ‘White i also unable to generate kingside play because any pawn advance there would simply weaken the pawn cover round his own King. For example, (241 weakens the 3 ‘square, aside from simply dropping a pawn to ext i's clear that g3-g¢ is stocious, and h2-h has no purpose at alliy now it should be apparent that Black has «clear advan- tage. Black’s plan is to post his Knight on the advanced d square. From there i will dominate the board. If White event ally chases t away by e2-¢3, Back will have a nice target to attack in the form of a weak pawa on d3. If White captures on 14, then Black will ecapture away from the center Vi .exd4 ‘This opens up the ele and allows Black to pot pressure on White’ pawn on c2. L.Nd4 2.Qd1 Bes Forcing White 10 capture on di, since 313 would leave White with many weak points and no active play. 3.Bxd4 exdé 4.Qd2 BEB Black now Gears the efile i artiipation of doubling on it, 54Re1 Re G.b4 This weakens the pawn position in front of White’ King bout he was already without good moves, sine 6.e4 dxe3 ep. would leave the &3 pawn deathly weak. 6..Bh3 7.BE3 Re ‘B.Nh2 Kce8 9.1 BeG 10.63 Nbé Black hopes to play PAS and trade off White's important defensive Bishop. Note that 10,.New would have been an error due 0 11.4, 1.Bg2 Bd5 IANS RIT Intending to being his dark squared Bishop into acive play, 13.Kh2 BdG 14.Bh3 Qd8 15.Rab1 RIE7 16.Ng1 “The poor 16.Nxd6? would trade off Whice's most active piece for Black's bad Bishop. 16..Be7 17.Na3 BOT! With a bind in the center, Black tums his attention tothe kings (he treats {Qd5). This isthe beauty ofa space advantage in the middle: centrally placed pieces can strike out atthe wings 25 they sit smugly on their cental posts. 18.Bg2 Bxg2 19.Kxg2 2 20,Ne2 Hoping to play b3-bi with some counteepay. 20. black intends to throw bls Knight onto the strong but seemingly defended e3 square. Why? Because he sees that is capture ‘would lead to a mate after ..Qxg8. This would not be possible | White's pawa sil stood on hz, since the pawn on g8 would then be more solidly defended. 21.NaB 21.b4 would have run Jno the same reply. 21,.NeS+1 22.Kh1 Ngd 23.Qf4 Aa admis: sion of defeat, but 23/1 QdS+ 2413 Bxp3 or 28 Kg? Naf 2AKxf2 Qugst 25.K1) Red 25,NE3 Qhd+ 27 Kgl Bhz2+ ae bos hopeless possibllies for White. 23..Qxf4 24.gxf4 Nxfz+ 25.Kg2 NxdS, 0-1 Now that we have seen what a space advantage can do we must address the question of bow and when one creates such @ state of afar. A ferorial edge usualy comes about from the ‘opening, but ths tends to be minor and can be challenged if fone plays actively and makes sure that some sort of courterplay cexiss. However, if player does not sepond in a. proper manner, then the tiny’ space disadvantage can come back 10 hae him. ‘arrasch-Schlecher, Leipzig 1894. Led €§ 2.NES NeG 3.65, «46 This system was very popular in the late 1800's and early 1900's Black ends up with a somewhat cramped but solid position. 4.d4 BAT 5.Nc3 NIG 6.0-0 Be7 7.Rel Nxdé Black Follows one of the most important rules relating to cramped positions: When you have es space, exchangesome pieces Tis will give you more room and make the cramp less ciel Naturally, the other side of the coin Is this: you have more ternary trade as few pecs as psstble! 8.8xd4 exdt 9.Bxd* Qud72t The cause of fuure problems. tn later years it was realized that 9..xG7 was stronger. In that case Black's pieces ‘would find good squares: his Knight can go to ¢5 oF ¢5, his Bishop will be moved to f6 oF to f8 and eventually g7, and his Rooks will ind play on the e-file with pressure against White's € pawn. 10.Qxd4 0.0 11.b3 Avoiding Bg5 because Whit sees that at some time this could lead to more exchanges when the 6 Knight moves, As sated in the note to Black's seventh move, White wants 10 avoid exchanges because he is the one with Tore space. 11..Rfe8 12.Bb2 BAS 13.Rad1 Qe6 14.3 Re6 1SRde3 Rae8 16.N3! A good move. White takes away the es square from Black's Knight and prepares a later g2-gé advance. 16..Qb6 17.Qd Sill efusing to wade! 17.06 Threstening to liberate himself by 5. 18.Nad Qe7 19.041‘Whites plan, based on his advamtage in space, isthe flowing: 1 Make his one attackable point (the pawn on e4) invul erable, 2) Prevent any pawn breaks by Black that would fre his pieces or give him any kind of counteplay 3) Once all of Black's pieces have been relegated wo passive posts, White will use his greater mobility by starting an atack against Black's King White's last move (19.04) follows point wo—he prevents Black from playing the freeing .d6-d5 advance. 19..Nd7 20.KhAA White sees that at some time Black wil hreaten to gain some space by 75, so he prepares to discourage tis by g2: ‘a4 and gh. By taking away all of Black's active options, White ‘knows tha Black wil eventually choke to death in the Folds of| his own constricted positon. 20,.{621.Qc2t Moving his Queen away from danger in view of the upeoming «.NeS oF NES. However, i tums out that 21.QbI! was more accurate. The “unprotected state ofthe Queen on c2 allows Black his longed for chance of a ..d6-d5 break. See the note 1o Black’ twenty: {hid move fora demonstation ofthis, 21..NeS 22.Nc3 White's Knight i no longer doing anything on a4 s0 he moves i (0 a Detter location. 1s now heading for the fine f5 post via €2 and £83 (or GD. 22..NEV This stops 23 Nez due to 23.5, 23.947 A ood idea since Wt ils Black's .{6-5 advance. However 23.Qb1! Ghul have been played lt, wih 2g llowing air hat BoQa5 Mining big hac! He shoul ght beak ht Bins by Bde! when Bled cxdS 25.NadS loves to S$. dad the Quren had ood on bt Gwe note o White seca is move chen Blac a adanee wuld nor hve Beene Ae 23-85 235 Rae 5 Res Raed 63 Bie pees wou ump ie eich that apc avenge ike having an coemy under ont, While hes bound sd peed ecping ine Howe fu rc your anenoe fre moment be may a esse 6 25nd Ned BRS NIT 2.8 Now he pannel defended and all of Black's pwn breaks have een perma nen) sopped. White has only pay Ned elev Ing ne sul 27.-NhO 8.NE2 Qe? Bek woul find hs Cee sin ovr exh afer 28 QU 2B. 9 Rh No SNM at once da 029.5, aking advange ofthe hang ing Rov ong, 29..Q0° SONA Rt 3148 bys 92a SO 33ND Alf soden Whe’ Rol, Kah nd Diop Sal jumping onthe Blac King ade fm the mundane Bi Nec Wha thee 342 one ain we how te advange in cena pce anno n eral aceon fe ofthe wing 33803 Despeel ying lock thes 1 diagonal, 3068 White cout macy, He wll nore 34d wih QS Rad 38.85 By? 366.1.CHAPTER TWO THE DARK SIDE OF SPACE [An advantage in space has been shown to be a nice thing 10 nave because it gives is owner greater room for maneuvering ‘while simultaneously restecting the opponent. However, t can also be a double-edged sword. Since a space advantage is ‘created by far advanced pawns, you can easly lose control of critical squares 8 the pawns advance. The further a pawn advances the lass squares t can potentially control. This means that at mes these forgotten squares can fll tothe hands ofthe enemy, and instead of being an advantage the space edge becomes a curse. It should also be noted that the advanced pawns themselves can often become targets, a8 can the ones in back since they no longer have suppor from the fons runners E.Osbun-Siman, San Francisco 1981, Black to play In diagram #87 dhe advanced pawn on c5 gives White a clear queenside space advantage. However, ths same advanced pan has lost potential contol of the bi, bi, and bs squares nd i can no Tonger give support to the pawn on dt (as i ‘would if stood on 3), Also, the absence ofa b-pawn and the fact that White's depawn stands on di leaves the of square vunguardable "To sum up: White has various weakened squares on the b: file, weakened ct square, anda d-pawn that can no longer be ‘supported by other pawns, As forthe minor pieces, White has ‘wo Knights that are going nowhere, a tertile Bishop on a, land 2 "good! Bishop on g2 that is completely inactive Black, on the other hand, has a tight, very safe, pawn formation, 2 Bishop on a6 that slices across the board, and Knights that sim at such useful squares ab, d,and e4 ‘fier afew moves twill be apparent that Black s making use of the weak squares on the queenside, Why is White unable 10 play on that side of the board himself The answer lies in the realm of target consciousness: Black has tage! attack on dd thie White bas noting to attack at alls is 50 common, the person withthe weakness or target (White) i off balance and forced onto the defensive, 1o.Qa8 Naking way forthe Rook and taking control of the a-file. 2Mel RBS 3.BES Preparing Qa‘ ‘which fas right away to 3. Qa? Quad 4 Nea Be? 5.Rxe2 RBI ec. Bale Black's active pieces, conal of qucenside squares, pressire on di, and more compact pawn structure combine 19 Be him a clear advantage. 4.Qad Quad 5.Nxad NA7 Keeping ‘White out of 6 and intending to intensify the pressure on dé by BIG. 6.8e3 B(6 7.RA1 Bb3 Winning mera, Ral Ra 9.NDG Rxal+ 10.Beal Nuc§ 11.Bc3 Nad 12.Nxad Bxad, 0-1, since Black wil also win the -pawn after. BbS. ‘When we read Nimgovie’s comments about 2 pawn's "ust to expand," we might ind it dificuk 1 see how the advance of a pawn could contribute vowards player's downfall The follow Ing example must be understood i you are to gain an apprecia- {on ofthis concept.White's pawn on 2 may not seem important to some players bot itis actually the one of the most important pawns White has! From c2 it potentially controls the squares from b3 t0 D8 and d3 tod. As advances i stants o lose some ofits pote For example, iit goes o ¢ it would lose control of d3 and b3, For ths reason a player must be vey careful when he advances prawns because they can move backwards and what they give ‘up is forever. In this case the e2 pawn is important because t tell play to 3 (Whites willing o lve up d3 and b3 since Black is nat in a postion to make use of them) and, aside from blocking the diagonal of the g7 Bishop, it keeps Black's pieces out of dé and bi, However, a beginner might ty c2-, Feasoning that he is making again la terior In reality though, €2-c4 would only accomplish a bunch of negatives. It would take away the useful ef square from White's Knight and it ‘would permanerily give Black use of the b4 and df squares. This shows us that you can just rush your pawns down the board in an effort to gain space. You must carefully weigh each ppawa move you make. ‘Our next example is rom Grandmaster play and shows White playing for and gaining a large edge i etry. Unfortunately for him, head not take into account the weaknesses he was cresting and Black was able to enter White's postion on these sf spots. Ccsom-Korchnoi, Hungary 1965. 1d4 NIG 2.04 96 3.05 A highly unusual move at this stage. White makes it clear that he intends to grab al the space he can. The problem with 3.5 CGside fom the loss of time in moving a pawn twice) is that it ‘opens up the hB-al diagonal for Black’ dark squared Bishop and also allows Black vo post pieces on the newly weakened «5 spd €5 squares. 3.BQ7 4.NC3 0.0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 6 7.803 a6 Intending to gain space on the qucenside and chip away at ‘Whites pawn chain with ..b7-b5. Bad White prevents Black’ advance and takes over some teritory on the queenside him self, he trouble Is that White has left hole on bi. 8..a5 Grabbing b4 and also preventing a later b2-b4 advance. By doing this Black has also permanently annexed the ¢5 pos. ‘White may be wishing that his a-pawn could go back to a3! 9.4 White's neat few moves start take ver kingside teritory| aswel. 9..Na6t Eyeing b4 and 5. 10.67 Unleashing the g? Bishop and pointing another eye to 5, 114h4 Black to play “To the non-master, things probably look very good for White ‘He has more space in the center and he seems to be overran ring Black on the kingsde. However, this snot really the case Black's next few moves show that White's pawns on b2, ef, c, and wae all in need of a defender or wo, Ase fom this, the 1S, bs, and b squares are about fall nto the hands of the lnemy. This was made possible by the indiscriminate advance Of the White pawns. 11..NdeSt Theestening 12.xe3+ fo lowed by 13..Nxed. 12.863 QbG! ending fo eat the b2 pawn, Now 13.Rhz is answered by ..Qbé with a double atack on c3and 64, 13.0¢2 A disguised trp, He is hoping that Black will, take on b2 and fall for his trick, 13..Qxbatt Black promply| ‘alls At this point White got very excited, He was sure that lack hil overiooked something! 14.Qxb2 Nd3¢ 15.Kd2 Nxb2 16,Be2 It appears that Blacks Knight on b2 is stranded. Accor tng to Flesch, Csom lft his seat and was congratulated by the spectators. However, «surprise awaited him when he recned to the board. 16,.Bxgat, On sceing that 17.Bxpf 8 met by Y7.uNxet+ 18Kd3 NxeS, White resigned. O-1. A tragic end. Ne bul a nice big house (filed with lots of space) and ial ell on his head! Iran be seen that coatel of squares (which give one's pleces nice homes which, in tur, leads to enhanced activiy) is just as Imponant GF not more so) a8 an edge in space. OF course, in ‘general superior space does constitute an advantage. I mention the disadvantages because I want the student to remember that nearly every rule of formula has exceptions, and all must be Judged in relation 10 the other imbalances and according (0 cach individual siuation, Saying that any one imbalance will sive you an advantage othe exclusion of every other consider ation is, to say the leas, naive, Dogma and blind faith in rules will stunt the growth of any player—be # in chess or in other areas of life CHAPTER THREE BLOCK BEFORE YOU PUNCH! ‘we have seen that a space advantage can be very effecive i you can preveat the opponent from making vse of any weak: ened squares or other avenues of counterplay. Is very impor tant to spend 2 few moves and stop him from geting anythin saned—when you finish killing his play your advantage in terory wil stil be there. Once your opponent's options have been silenced and his army is groveling before you, then and only then should you look for a way to bresk down his las defences and pencirate into the hear of his postion -Kupchik- Capablanca, lake Hopatcong 1926 Black to play Diagram #99 shows « mutual wing attack situation. The center 's completely laced. Black has a sizeable space advantage on ‘he queensi and wil advance his pawns in that area—ther is nothing White can do to sop this White, for want of anythingbetter, should play for a g2-e6 advance and a subsequent Ikingside attack, It seems that 1a would be the logical move for Black. However, Capablanca comes up with another idea Since space is about equal on the kngside, he will play on that side of the board frst order to prevent White from gaining any chanees these. Only when he as killed White's kingside hopes wil he advance his pawns on the queenside. 1aNS! 2Refl Rh6! A successful g2-g4 advance for White is now a long way off 3.Bel g64.h4 KIT 5.Qe1 a6 Though White has followed the base rules and gotten his bad Bishop outside the pawn chain, he is unable 10 generate open lines on the kings. Now Black stants is queensie offensive and White will discover that he has no adequate counter to this plan 6.Ba4 DS 7.Bd1 BeG 8.Rh3 a5 9.8g5 Rhhs 10.Qhs An impres- sive display that accomplishes nothing, In clsed postions with locked centers ou mut attempt to get open lines on the wings by breaking with pass. If your opponent accomplishes this be fore you do, you will usualy be at 2 marked disadvantage. 1O.-b4 11.Qel White suddenly realizes that his stack’ on the kingside 4 dead in the water, and so be rushes back for defense. 11..RDB 12.863 af 13.R3f2 a3 Blasting open the (queenside, 14:b3 Black would dominate the open bie after tba} bxa3, 1d..cxb3 15.xb3 Bb5 16.Rg1 Qxe3 With all the play and an extra pawn, Black won without dificult. Capablanca has just shossed tat when you have a permanent advantage in one sector, you should not just allow the oppo- rent to get countesplay in other areas ofthe board. We are not fer race! We want a tisk fre victor! Some people have the mistaken impression that s they contol one area ofthe board the opponent has 2 right to another area. Why? If you can take over the queenside, center, and kingside then you should do 0, Greed pays in chess—you can be nice fer the game: ‘Our next example 6 2 rarity: White makes spatial gains in every sector and, after stopping all his opponent's atempes at ‘counterplay, blows Black off the map. Silman-Barkan, US Open 1981 ‘White to play. The idea of taking the initiative in an area ofthe board where the opponent is making threatening gestures is a useful one, In the position from diagram #91 White has an obvious space advantage on the queenside, and the usual plan is qucenside expansion by bf, a4, and B&BS. However, Black has his plans also. He intends to gain space inthe center by .c6-5, which could easly lead toa kingside tack i ack i allowed to push ‘on tof followed by ..{65. So, if White plays a natural move lice 1.0.0, Black wil eeate messy complications by 1.5 ince 2dxe5 would leave the e-pawn undefended), With this in mind White takes the intative ln the center himself, thus depriving Black of his dreams of central activity, Led! Now 1..xe4 2.Nxed is very good for White, since the d6 squares # ice ome for White's ef Knight and h2 Bishop, TI 2.0-0 Bh6 3.Re2 Kh8 4.Re1 NF 5.BE1 RgB 6.b4 Wih the center under control, White resumes his queenside expansion. ..NBB 7.04 85 Black can no longer just move to and fro waiting for his execution, so he goes on a desperate bid for kingsde play. This 'sa sensible decision—White owns the queenside and center, © Black tiesto lay claim to the only area sll not in his ‘opponents possession. 8.x gx 9.N2 An extremely greedy ea! Already in charge of the queenside and the centr, White ecides to atack Black's King also! I he ean get away with his, "hen Black willbe totaly without counteplay. White's justifiestion is his central control (which allows his forces to rash to any side of the board with great speed), and his lead in develop rent. Qu.Ng6 An attempt to prevent QhS by 9.-Qe8 fas to 10.exd exd5 11.Nxd5, Xe, 10.QhS BIS T.exd5 exd5 Now \White basa permanent endgame advantage due to his beautful queenside pawn majoniy. However, at this point White has Digger gains in mind. 12.Bd3 15 13.NP3 White's forces Now very quickly t9 the center and kingside. 13..Be7 Vi.Ree2 Bf I5.Rxe61 Completely decisive. The f5 pawn will also fall now, and Whites Bishop will come strongly into play. This type of thing cannot realy be considered a sacrifice since White wil pet at least two pawns forthe Exchange. Material will acually be ‘equal, while Black's ther weak pawns, shaky King, and inac- te picces will decide the game in White's favor. 15..Bxe6 AGRxe6 Be7 17.515 Threatening to simply capture a free piece 00 g6. 17..NEB 18.NeS! All of White's pieces now join in the fomp. 19.NI7» isthe immediate threat. 18..Qe8 19.NI7* Kg7 20.Nxd51 A re joint effor—all the pleces work towards the extinction ofthe Black King. 20..Nxe6 The Queen would be lost ser 20..QxI7 21,8407. 21.QHG¢ Kxf7 22.Bxe6 mate. We finish our discussion about space with a game that wams us not to foeget about targets. you have space on one side but itdoesa' come with any atackable target then you will eventu- ally fun into belek wal ‘glance at diagram #92 suggests that the chances are evenly balanced. Afterall, bth sides have a lot of space on their respective sides. The truth, though, is that White enjoys a Siniicant edge. White reasons thal his queenside chances ace not going away and ie can stop Black rom geting too far on the kingside he will be able to eventually take over the game. Since Black threatens to play Nh, White takes te Out to ‘contain the Black pieces on that side of the board. 1.g3! £3 2.Net Now Black’s 8 Bishop and his (6 Koight are blocked by the pawn on gi, whi his Knight on g6 cant go to ether For [nf due tothe pawn on 3, Black s already reaching a dead end, 59 he quickly plays to open the bvfile, 2..hS 3.Qa hi 4.R€1 Jnxg3 5.tnxg3 BRG So fir, Black has played quite logically. He controls the open Ivfle and now gets 10 trade off his bad Bishop for White's good one. The problem with Black's game is that he only has one real target-—the pawn on f2, and that litle pawn is amply guarded by White's Rook on f1. Allright, the student may say, but whats so special about White's game? ‘What does he have? Aside fom his obvious advantage in queensie space, White vullalso be able to put pressure on Black's d pawn Via Qb and a later NDS, If Black ever plays ..a7-a6, then his b6 square becomes weak and can easly be invaded by Nat, Black mus also watch out for a White advance based on 25.28, when the reply ..b7-b6 allows Be6 followed by NbS with presire on both di and a7. Whe's inal Wea is quite simple: given ime, he will playa Rook o the open efile and penetrate nto Black's poston. We can now see that Black’s play is 1) centered around his, control of useless file far away from the action on the ueenside and in the center, and 2) pressure agains a pawa that is easly defended, White, on the other hand, has many Jong term ideas and several potential points of atack. 6.NB3, RbS7.Qbit An excellent move, Now Black can play apiece to secause d6 will hang, Note that 7.a8 now fails to 8.Bxas. “TauKQ7 8.B5xh6+ RXhG9.NA2 Nh 10.NO4 NET 11.Ne3 A great ‘square for this Knight. lack must always woery about theKnight crashing through 10 5, 11..Qh8 12.0.0-0 Rh2 13.Kb1 Seeing what Black has ia mind, White gets his King off the cl 1n6 diagonal. 1f given a chance, White Intends to play Rel with Penetration down the efile. 13..Qh6 Threatening to sacifice the Exchange wih 14..RX2! 15.Rx2 Qee3 with song play. Naturally, White stops this idea dead in as tacks. 14.Rde1t INh7 15.Qe4t This wins by fore, The threat is 16.Q67 Ra 17.26 bbxa6 1ABe6 winning material. 15..a6 16.Q¢7 RaB 17.Ba71 ‘Wining the battle for the square. 17..Bxd7 18.Qxd7 NIG 19.Qxb7 Qh8 20.NI5+ Kg6 21.Nhie Kg7 22.NI5+ White was a itl iow on tie, she repeals moves io get that much closer to the time contol, This is a usefl ching to do, but you mast be careful not to allow a three ime repetition! 22..Kg6 23.Nh4+ XKg7 24RhI Very strong, White takes away the b-file from Black and gets Fd of the opponents acive piece on 2 2 RXhI 25.Rxhl QU 2GNIS+ Ky 27RHGH , 1.0. 27..Nxb6 28 Qa7+ KhS 29.Qxh6 mate Solve These Problems ‘white 10 pay ‘White can gain space on the queenside with 1.b2-b4 or he ‘can gain space on the kingsie with L.3-F. Which idea is bes? lack 10 move. ‘Though Black's pawns are pointing towards the kingside (in positions with closed centers you should usually play in the ‘ection your pawns point, he chooses 1o play on the oppo- sie ng wt Las, Is this wise?PART SIX THE MYSTERY OF THE CENTER In the 1800's and early 1900'S most players fet that 2 laepe psn center bestowed an instant advantage on is owner, Tis ‘ew dominated the chess scene until upstart hypermoderns| like Ret and Nimzovich claimed that a piwn center could be viewed a8 an object of attack also. Nowadays we know that owning an imposing pawn center i bath a boon and a responsibilty. The positive side ofthe pawn center is that itrestits the enemy pieces and gives its owner a spatial plus. However, ke any ariel bulk edifice, t may casly turn into 2 lability which will be in need of constant efense, ‘The fis responsibilty ofthe owner ofa bg centri t0 make t Indestracibe If this can be done, then the opponent will be ‘wuhout play and will smother to death inthe folds of his owe position Conversely, the responsiiliy ofthe player facing the pan ‘enter 10 apply constant pressure to, and iy 0 prove 10 be a weakness instead ofa srengtCHAPTER ONE THE CENTER UNDER SIEGE creating fll pawn center is an act of was! Once you push your pawns to the middle and start to annex space, you are announcing your intention of entombing your opponent in its rison-like walls This teat of death by asphyxiation forces the ‘opponent to fight and destroy this central monolith before ic becomes too strong, He must throw everything he has at the ‘offending line of pawns before it destroys him. A typical txample of the center's birth in the opening and the concen: ‘sated elfr the other side makes to dismantle can be seen In the following popular variation of the French Defense: Led e6 2dd dS 3.NA2 NIG 4.05 NIT 5.14 White establishes a space ‘Advantage on the kingside and gives extra supporto his pawn fon eS. He hopes to make his center so song that Black will be "unable to dreaten i, Then White wll be able to atack Back on the kingside at his leisure. 5e5 Losing no time in starting ‘countermeasures against White's center. 6.c3 NeG All of Blacks moves will naw revolve around White's center and the pressure That Black hopes to bulld against. 7.NABB In tuen White realizes that he as bul a large center (ata eestin cost time) and he must do everything he can to protect his investment “The more natural 7.Nf3 fal to ring as many defenders to Now (after 7 N43) White's Queen eyes and the other Knight an goto 2 where it will also hold onto i. 7..Qb6 Continuing, lo snke atthe White centeal pawns, B.Ne2 169] Se is aeeady In fll swing and Black will not stop ‘anaeking di and eS unl something cracks. The furer course of the game shows that the iter of contal war tends 10 8%" crnher than lesen, 9.3 exdé 10.cxd8 BbE+ T1.Ne5 0-0 White ‘Sil has his advantage in space but all the pawn moves have “lone Black to take a lead in development. Since Whites King, fe all in the middle, Black will do his best to knock Wes ter aide in an attempt to each the enemy monarch, 12.23 Bor 13.Na4 QT 14.Be3 Black gets a strong attack afer 14.BRS fees 15. Bee Kh8 IG.dxe5 Nae 17.Dxd5 Nef 18.Bx13 BAS. This is nok srpeising—Whie's greed (via 14.Dh3 and 15,Bxe6+) has helped Black o ip the White center open and break though the middle, 14..g52 Black is willing 10 do anything 10 push Whites enter pans aside! 15.0406 Nxf6 16.NxBS eS! “White's centr finaly gets ripped apart and Black's pices get tne chance to ty and chase down the White King, ¥7.Qc2Ht ‘Worse le 17 fe5? Ng, but 17.€xe5! Ngt 1B. sil leaves the burden of proof on Black. So far we have been following Shamkosich Brown, London 1981, sow Back should have played 17..€xf I8.BxF4 QaS¢ 19.b4 Nxbé 20.axb4 Bxb4+ tvith teemendous complications in which Black’ atack gives him compensation for the sacrificed pit ‘our next game explores a sillar theme: White i allowed to tiger the center with pawns and Black does his best to sweep her away. Scheichel-Adorjan, Hungary 1981, 1.04 Nf6 2.64 g6 3.Ne3 a Acad Nud5 5.04 Nxc3 6bxe3 White already has a huge ‘center Black must start immediate operations agains tor rs being squashed. 6..BA7 7.Be4 0-0 8.Ne2 c5 9.0.0 Ne6 10.Be3, (Qe7 TLRe1 RAS. a) “The ideas being used by both sides are easy to follow: White 's doing his utmost to uphold the integrity of his center. Black has assigned an armada of pleces to attack White's dé pawn, 12.43 White wants to take even more of the middle with PF bute is worried about ..ig4 when one of White's dt defend: {er would be chopped off. 122h3 ends this possibilty. Another ‘ay of defending the center i by 12.Qd2 followed by 13. RFd When White's entire amy is backing up his pawns. How can Black hope to destroy the White center in this case? Hall: Kovatly, Cannes 1986 shows us a useful strategy instead of| estroying the center he forces to advance. This leaves weak Scuares in its wake 12,.a6 (after 12.Qd2) 13,4 BS 14.83 15!15.exf5 (15.05 leads tothe same type of light square domination for Blac) 15,.c8 16Mb1 gxfS 17.Ng3 €6 18.NHS DB 19.863 Ne7 20.82 Bb? ‘Black has won the central batle without destroying the White ‘center! How is this possible? By getting id of the e4 pawn, {forcing the pawn to €5 would have created the same station) Dlack ereated 2 terrible weakness on d5 and along the a8-b1 diagonal This shows us that there are two ways to defeat a fenter 1) Destoy i; 2) Force 10 advanee, thereby creating weak squares that can be occupied by the opposing forces. TRemember—a center ts onby good because if resirits the oppo trent pieces. ft has to advance and give te enemy peces good quares then its wbole purpose bas been negated’ After the further 21Re3 KP7 22:Rcel RoG 23Bh4 Ny6 26.095 bit the remains of White's center was falling apart and Black enjoyed a big advantage. 12..B6 Since the Bishop can no longer go (04, ‘lack places i on 7 where it will pose a threat to White's pawn, fon ef 1344 White grabs more space and has possiblities of ‘Suing kingsde attack with an F15 advance. 13..€614.Qe1 NaS 15.843 (5t Hoping for 16.5 when 16..c4 17.1 BOT fuives Black all the squares. 16.g8 Whice Is hoping that his ener will hokd up long enough for his kingside attack to Ret some momentum. 16.87 ‘Quite a picturet White's central pawns on dé and es are both under attack by the enemy pieces and pawns. 17.Ng3 Black's pieces get 100 active afte 17.ex gxf 18gx"5 Re. 17..Qd7 ISRAI exd4 19.BbI? Ned 20.8xd4 est The cenval batle reaches ts peak. 21.fxe5 fps 22.Qe2 QeT 23.Qxg4 Nxe5 The ‘only things that remain of the once proud White center ae two weak pawns on ¢3 and ef tis also important to note that all of White's minor pieces ate inferior to their Black covoterpars. ‘The rest of the game needs no comment: 24.Q85 6 25.Q¢3 RES 26.Kg2 BaG 27.Rxfi+ RAf 28.Bxe5? QxeS 29.82 Bod 30.Bb3 Bxb3 31.axb3 Que} 32.Qxc3 Bxc3 38.RA7 RIT, 0-1CHAPTER TWO THE INDESTRUCTIBLE CENTER ‘We have seen how a center can fall apar if ts owner doesn't take measures fo insure that remains intact. Lest the impres- sonable reader think that a full pawn center is nothing o feat, here are two games that show sin a postive light -M.Borvinnik-M.Yudowich, USSR Championship 1933. Let NIG 2. g6 3.Ne3 5 4.NE3 BRT 5.0b3 c6 6.cxd5 Nuds 7.842 0-0 ‘S.e4 NBG 9.RAL! White immediately sat to defend his center, ‘This not only means that he wil guard each pawn, i also means tht he wil attempe to prevent Black from attacking the center with the usual breaks (.7<5 oF «.c645). SuiNBOT 9..Bxc loses material to 10.BR6. After the more active 9.84 10.Be3 Bu3 11 gxf3, White's center would be very solid. 10.a4 Threat ‘ening to capture more terrtory with 24-5. 10.98 Black stops White's teat but weakens the BS square. 1LBe3 Black is already ina desperate situation. He ls unable vo atc White's center With <5 oF .e5 because of the unforunate postion of his b6 Knight (11.5 12.dxe5 uncovers Whit’ 3 Bishop onthe 1b Knigh) 11..Qc7 12.Be2 Qd6 Black hopes to pay 13..Qb4 when the pressute i of is Knight on b6. 13.Na2 Since White has more temtory he has no interest in allowing exchanges unlesit leads to some particularly fivorable stuation. Note how ‘Whites center restricts al of Black's pieces and leaves him with no active play at all 13..€6 140-0 M6 15.Rel £5 Finally Black gets to kick at the White center bit Unfors rately this leaves the g6 and e6 pawns weak. This a typical rmetamomphosisone type of advantage may disappear but usualy leads to the creation of anether. In this case Black ll succeed in gaining a square of vo but he now must contend ‘with a weakened King postion and a weakling on 6. 16.Ne3 Kh7 I7.RUAI fees 18.Nxe4 QbA Black goes after White's 24 pawn but forges that hs King sin danger. Better Was 18, Qe7, though even then 19:Qe2 Nd5 20.Ng3 leaves the g6 pawn in need of careful defense, 19.Q¢2 Quad 20.63 Qa3 21.Nh4 Now 66 crumbles, 21..Q¢7 22.Nxg6 Kxg6 23.Bh5*), 1-0, Both 23. KM? 24.Nf6e and 23..Kxh5 24.Ng3+ lead 10 mate Blick died without a fight simply because the White center ‘deprived him of any kind of play. t's amazing how strong an uncontested pawn center can be! In our final example we see Black mistakenly allow White build up an imposing center, Afer this error, though, he sans to atack it with gusto. However, one lazy moment on Black's part ends his cousterplay and soon the pawn center ells over the enemy postion. Leonhard-Bur, Carlsbad 1911. Led e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.84 Bes 443 d6? Whie threatened to tke over the center when he Played €2-<3 and Black ignored him. If your opponent wants ‘something good for himself, dont lt him have it More purpose ful is 4..N66 (counteratacking White's ef pawa) 54 cxdé Sous Bogs 7. Be? Bed2+ B Nbxd2 dS 9.exd5 Nl followed by6 and .0-0 when White's once proud center has been blown tobis, dé exd Gives White a strong, mobile center. However, 5 BbG loses 4 pawn to 6 KdS 25.Rb7 and White went on to win the ending. lk may appear that doubledislated pawns are never useful ‘and may at best be offer by some other advantage (asin the Fischer-Ewue game). However, this by no means the case. The following game presents a sound argument agains this opinion. Hammie-Siman, San Francisco 1975. 14 ¢5 2.03 Ne6 3.d4 cxd 4.NxdE Q6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6Be3 NIG 7.Be4 Qas, 8.0-0 040 9.Nb3 Qc7 10.f4 d6 11.Be2 b6 12.8F3 Bb7 13.2 ‘We seem to be in the middle ofa typeal Sian Defense —the amateur may think that Black is supposed to play on the queenside with ..b6-05, while Whice will uy for a kingside attack with g2-g4 However, Black upsets the apple can with an insane looking move. 13. cont “This offers co accept doubld-soated Rook puss Naturally, White couldn’ resist the temptation to chop on 25; stopping ‘Black from jumping into cf and simultaneously destroying his ‘opponent’ pawn structure. 14.NwaS bxas 15.Bdi Nd7 16.25, Bxds Playing for a superior Knight versus a bad Bishop, ‘exds Bxd4 18.Qxd4 Qe5 Believe itor not, even though Black has those horrible looking a-pawns he realizes that is advantage will increase fhe can uade the Queens, Why? Blak allowed his pawns to be doubled in the fst place because he ‘aw that he would be able 10 use the open ele and befle 10 pressure White's pawns on c2 and bz, Since the presence ofthe {Queens gives White some chance for kingside counterplay, Black welcomes their exchange. This leaves White with only fone point of anack—the pawn on e7—but Black can easily defend i with a Rook on bY and a King on f8 19.4 Rabs 20.<3 RDT! This prepares o defend e7 with the Rook and also to double on the ble. Black enjoys an active position 'A this point I can hear the sharp teader say that though the doubled pawns did indeed give Black play oa the ble, they themselves are not serving any dynamic role in the game. Tis assumption is shown tobe alse when we look a diagram #108, Black to move. ‘Ths Is the type of postion that could have arisen from our previous game. With White's Bishop looking useless and the &7| pawn solidly defended, Black i ready to play for a decisive break-through. He can only do this with the help of bis dynamic ‘pawns: 1a Now we sce tha the a-pawns are being used as Dating rms, Black knows that Fhe can destoy the base ofthe ‘pawn chain on bs, then ef will be deprived of protection and ie. 2.Bd1 a3! Usually Black pays 2x3 followed by 7-25 44, However, he sees another klea in the postion. 3.Re2 Not 23Re2 Rect and the pin on the bile leads to the win ofa pawn, 3.-a5 Here comes the other one! 4.Re3 2 when after 5..axb3 ‘the doubled pawn has been transformed into 2 powerful passed awn on a3‘We have seen that doubled pawns defy any absolute label of ‘ood or bad; however, sometimes their lack of flexibility can turn potentially useful doubled pawns into weak targets ‘Aller Ld NIG 2.04 e6 3.Ne3 Bb 4.a3 Bxc3+ Sbxc3 0.0 6.83 we have a situation where White's doubled pawns give hhim a song center and more space. Fortunately for Black, he ‘can develop his pieces in such & way 28 19 make the doubled ‘pawn on of dhe objec ofa search and destroy’ mission, 6.61 IF Black just developed by 6.46 7.e4 Nba, the White center ‘would be unassailable after 8 Bd3. Instead, Black wisely takes note of the potential target on ef and does everything he canto attack i, 7.04 Nef Blac can defend his kingside with . 75 and this Knight can aso go after ef with .NdS, 8.803 BaG 9.Ne2 Ne6t followed by ..Na5 with strong presse against cf “This last example shows us tha if your opponent has doubled pawns, you must sve 10 lake advantage of thei inherent ‘weaknesses, IF you fail to do this then your opponent may make use of the dynamic possibilties that they provide; the poston will then turn against you, copy Black 1 play. The type of postion in diagram #709 can easly favor White. ‘ter all, be as more space, a strong pawn center, and bis pieces are fully mobilized. On top ofthat, his potential weak ‘es on ci is completly safe since Black's pieces are unable 10 et 10 it, Seeing that White would cement his advantage if he ‘suceeeds in moving his Knight and playing (2-4, Black begins a plan to control the f square bimself and siop White from texpunding on the kingside. 1..NhT71 A deep move that preven's| ‘ini and prepares to being the Knight to e6 where i il eye both (% and a4. 2.h3 Sill hoping to play Nh2 and P24 1 should be noted that White has no intention of every playing {-d5 since that would give Black use of the eS square and allow Blak to open the efile by ..c7<6. tn general, White will only play d4-d5 if Black plays .c7-c5 frst. Then the cS square will be blocked by a Black pawn and ..c7-<6 will no longer be possible. 2..Nhf 3.NK2 NeG! The point of Black's play. The ‘White Knight had to move to make 12-F possible, but this took the Knight away from the center and weakened 6 4.3 Th space gaining F214 advance is sill threatened. 4..e5t 5.05 NEAL [Black forced White to push his pawn to d5 since now 6 Bxt4 cxf gives lack use of the e5 square, 6.Be2 NIB and Black his cffectively stopped White from gaining ground on the kingside ‘The closed postion makes the Knighis more valuable than the Bishops How did White's doubled pawns influence the play in the Janowsky-Nimzovich game? Were they a negative Factor or was White simply ouiplayed? While White was clearly ouicassed, the doubled pawns aso played a par in the direction the game followed. The reasoning for this goes as follows: IF Whites Pain on ef stood on b2 (as it would in pon-loubled pawn Positions), White would have the option of playing on the qucenside by d5, ef, bé, and cS. However, the fat that the c Pawns were doubled meant that White was not able ta pl anywhere but the Kingside (dhe center was for all intents and Purposes locked—any advance by dédS would only help Blac. In other words, the inflebilty ofthe doubled pawes left White with fewer options than normal. In view ofthis, Black ‘ame up with a plan that stopped White's kingsde play and, a5 2 result left White with nothing to do anywhere,0 eT ePaARen le es ‘atmem Bae Davin Rete, ‘World Championship Tournament 1948 Black to play. ‘This postion, like the previous one, seems nice for White, who has a lead in development, atacking chances on the kingside, wo Bishops, and moce space. Yet the tuth Is that Black's game is preferable. The reason Is that Black has no weaknesses in his camp and he is well positioned to defend himself on the kingside, Black's main trump however, is the very weak pawn on of (easily attacked by ..NaS and .Ba6); 2 pawn that White will have great difficulties in defending, 1L..NaS Though behind in development, Black moves an al ready developed piece. As strange as may scem, the move makes perfec sense Black has two main conceens: 1) attack the pawn on ¢4; 2) defend his kingsde, The move chosen (1..Na8) stars to 2d dress the fist problem. In contrast, a developing move like 1.847 has nothing to do withthe position — It doesnot attack cand i has nothing to do with kingside defense. 2.593 BaG 3.Qe2 QUT! A wonderful dual-purpose move. The Queen cao ‘Bow go to 24 and increase the pressure oa C4. The ater point of .-Qd7 i that It allows Black to play ..7-5, This advance ‘would sille White's aggressive intentions down the bh? agonal. 4.8415 Black does not rush to win the ef pawn. He reasons that if he can form an unpassable defensive shield round his King, then he can later win the e pawn (and the jane wth i without risking an unhappy kingside debacte Stset lack would only increase his pressure on ct ater 5.65 $61 60x05 Ques 7ex gx. Sug Here we have an inierest ing bate of ideas: White attacking on the kngsde, lace on the quecnsde. Happily for Back, is ages on the queenside fre ready made and pemanent (weak pawns on 3, 3, and 9. Whites plan & more wishful thinking. He has no clear ‘bjt of aac and thus he finds himself a slate of despers ton for he fal onthe Kngside, he wil surly perish on the opposite wing lack then merely hasto strike a alance on the Kingsice for an eventual win, RT QE7 7.65 Ref So that afer fiends Nad6 the e5 pawn wil be defended. BRET dxest Subse Ng? Now Black's kngside ia sold aya rock 10NFL ids Reshowsky shows great patience, His ast move ends sry White fantasies of play down the open die, 11.82 Nhst 12.8g3 and not 1243, which would lead to death along the a8 hi clagonal afer 12..Qe8 followed by 13..Qe8 and 14, Bb7. 12..Qe8 13.Ne3 Qad White was let without prospects while Blacks ply on the quecnside was just geting sarced. Black eventually wonCHAPTER TWO THE ISOLATED PAWN An isolated pawn is potentially weak because no other pawn can help defend it Since no pawns can stand by is side, the square diealy in front of i also tends to be vulnerable, f we want to sce such 2 pawn a is worst, then a glance at diagram #11 wil suffice to make us avoid i0's lke the plague an TE Ames ‘White to play ‘without 2 doubs, Black is suffering. His pieces are passively placed and his isolated pawns on a6 and 6 are both very sweak—they ace targets and nothing more However, this posion dida’ paint a complete picture—the lowly isolated pawn has some good points 2s well i contols squares that might tun out to be useful homes for your pieces; there ate open files on either side ofan isolated pawa—place {Your Rooks on them and strive for activity. Te should also be mentioned that an isolated pawn doesnt have to remain on a sickly square. Ifyou can advance it then the once spurned foot soldier might tum into a. powerful barering ram (lagram #106 in the chapter on doubled pawns isan excellent illustration ofthis batering ram idea), Our next example shows aspects of al these postive features 02g WEeen aca ae Fischer Spassky, Return Match 1992, Black to play. Tn this game the dynamic potential ofthe isolated pawn more than compensates fr its sight weakness. It gives Black control of the cS and e5 squares (excellent poss for the Knights) and offers the Black Rooks nie files on ¢8 and o8, Ln.NeS If White plays 2.Qd2 then 2..Net is bothersome. Note that the ‘weak’ d6 pawn is defended twice and atacked by nothing! 2.b3 Keeping the Knight out of e4. 2.45! Demonstrating an important rule: If you can advance and subsequently trade your isolated pawn, then the supposed weakness ws nothing more than a ili sion, 3.Qd2 White had probably counted on 5 Exes Rxe5 4.4 Ref 5.c5 but then realized that 5.Ned! is strong: 6.Bxe dxed| 7.Nxeé Bred! S.Rxe4 Qu5 and the threat of BS gives Black a Winning advantage. According to Serawan, White's best move Was 3exd5 Qud Ned Ned7 5.Nxf6+ NKI6 G.RKeE fxe8 TNS ‘ith a ikely dav. 3udxe4 4.Nxe4 NAS! and Blacks threats of Naf and ..Bb4 gave him the better game, ‘A mlzror Image ofthis ast example ean be seen in diagram 2133 (net page)Kerpow-Kasparav, World Championship Match 1996. ‘white 0 play ‘White played ILexbs, expecting that afer the obvious 1..anb5 bie would have some pressure on Black’s pawns on db, , and 1b (ithe c pawn ever advanced). Surprisingly, Black recaptured ‘away fom the center with 1..exbl and gave himself an wolated pawn on db, He had several seasons for doing this: 1 His pawns ‘na and bS are now completely safe;2) As is common in these ‘svations, Black has use of the cS and eS squares, plus chances fon the open “Cand “6 files. I'S Imporant 10 note thatthe &5 square is almos like a permanent suppom poin for Black since f While ever ties to contest i with F415, his e-pawa wil become quite weak; 3) He opens the diagonal for his Bishop on b?; “The isolated pawn on dis not really a weakness since he can trade # off by .d-c5 anytime he wants to, Kasparov's cancept was proven correct afer the futher 25ReMt Ne$ 38M Re8 4.812 and now instead of 4.452 Sex Nxds ‘when White could have taken advantage ofthe newly weakened & squate by GNet Ghowing that the d6 pawn dows play a significant ole in corelling the c5 and eS squares), Black should have keps building with 4.Res flowed by Nef with 2 dynamic pastion, The most common type of isolated pavin tends tobe ad-pawn, and several opening systems exis where Whie or Black wiingy allow themselvesto be stuck wih one inthe hopesthat the p2wn' ‘dyeamic potential will effer ample compensation for is static ‘weaknesses, In diagram #114 we see a qulet poston from the Tarrasch Defense tothe Queen’ Gambit. aro Nisson-Stolz, Stockholm 1950, ‘White to play. Black has an isolated d-pawn, but can such a pawn be considered weak? Not at all At the moment the d-pavn is solidly defended and can be given extea suppor by & Rook i the need arises, The real weakness in the position is White's pawn on e2, a pawn that is suck on is original square duc to the cramping influence of the d-pawn. If you add to this Black's obvious advantage in space, you come to eealize that insead of being worrled about his pawn on di, Black is actually delighted with if LIRe1 Qb6 2.03 6 By king time fut to keep White out of g8, make h7 avallable for his Bishop, and sop any future back rank mates, Black is saying that he has 2 comfortable gime and is in no hurry to prove anything 3.Qd2 BFS 4.RfdI Rads 5.Re4 RfeB Black exes an uncom fortable amount of pressure on his opponent. The centralized Black Rooks are panicularly atracive. GBA d3! Allowing {every Black piece to reach a high level of activity. 7-exd3? Bes B.Ne1 Bd5 9:Rf4 g5! 10.Rad Nas! The d-pavin is gone but the Black army 6 stating to overrun the White postion, T1LRxds White saw no other Way to contend with the treat of Relfollowed by 3+. 11..Qxd4 and Black's material advantage led to an eventual wi, Piece activity i the Key word when trying to make use of an ‘solated pawn, Oftenthiscantransateintoa diectkingside attack Keene Miles, Hastings 1975776 ‘Whi 1o play. {As is so common with isolated d-pawn positions, White has kingside attacking chances due to bis pressure down the half ‘open e-file and use ofthe eS square. In retum Black has the dS ‘square asa home for his Knight and lasting pressure against the ‘di pawn, However, White's threats against Black's kingside are ‘more pressing atthe moment, I's important to realize, though, that as the minor pieces get taded off hereby reducing, White's attacking poteniad, the weakness of the d4 pawn becomes more ncticeable. This means that while White's im- mediate chances ae preferable, Black has the better long range possiblities, The dlagrammed positon is very common in ‘modern practice, and Whit Is considered to have a slight eige, ‘with the smallest mistake swinging the balance in favor of the ‘opponent, Inthe present case the dynamic potential of the ‘so! ‘overcomes its long term state weakness, LBgS Nt Beer i 1.6 with B57 to follow. 2.BbI BG 3.NeS Bb7 4.Re3t White is not in a subkle mood. He wants to mate the Black King before the isolated pawn becomes a problem, 4.86 5.RB3 Ref? Ignoring the danger! According to Keene, Black should scriice the Exchange by 5..NoS 6.Dn6 Quad 7.Qxd Nac 86x08 Kx with only 2 slight advantage 10 White. 6.Bh6 ReB +.a3 Ne6 8.NXgG! Black's King positon istorn asunder. 8. hogs 9.896 fxg6 10.Qb1 NeS Instead of resigning, Black wics 10 make the game last longer so that i wll look better on ‘paper! ThdxeS Nef 12.Nxes Kh7 13.NfG+ Kh8 14.857+ Kxg7 15.QxR6+, 1-0. Beer to resign than to get mated! ‘We have seen that a central so" grants its owner active piece play, butas these pieces gettraded it becomes mare of ably In general, an Isolated pawn reaches ls peak of vulnerability ‘when alle minor pieces are gone and oaly a couple of Rooks | (or Queen and Rook) remain. In that case, the heavy pieces can 20.Kxh8 KFA is also rather one-sided, ‘Our next example (iagram #208) shows the oer side ofthe «coin—an open positon leads to a Knight belag eaten alive bya frisky Bishop. Tr Fischer-Taimanov, Vancouver 1971. ‘White to move ‘What isthe diflerence between this postion and the previous fone? In general a Bishop is superior to a Kpight If there are pains on both sides ofthe board, because then is long range powers come into effec. In DamjanovieFischer, lacks pawns ‘were safely placed on the opposte color of the Bishop. In the present example, however, Black’ kingsde pawns are vulner able ecause they are stuck oa ight squares. These weak pawns and the White King’s obvious superiority to is counterpart ‘combine to give White a winning postion. 14Bb3 Ka7 Or 1..Ne8 Ghreatening 2..Nd6 mated) 2Bd5+ when both 2.Ka7 3Kc6 and 2..Ke? 3Ka6 allow White a furher penetration into Black's postion, 248d1 KB7 3.B43+ The point of White's eater play ‘The King can no longer happy mark time on a7 and b7, 3--KE7 No betters 3..Ka7 4. NgB 5 Ke6 NI6 GKd6 Ne‘ 7KeS Nags '8KF6 and white wll scoop up the Black kingside pawns. 4.Ka6 Now White's next cep isto put his Bishop back on 7 where it ‘es the Knight down fo the defense ofthe pawn on 86. 4.8 White geesa winning King and pawn ending ater 4..NeS 5 Bxc6 Kxe6G of Ke? 7Ka7 KeS & Kb8. 5.Bd5 Ne7 IF 5.6, then 6.17 Nod 7.Byg Nxg3 &KDS Ne2 9.Bx5 Neff 10.817 wins for White, Since the Bishop always bests out a Keight I mutual passed Pawn situations. 6Be4 White wants Black to move his Kaight firs, since then BIT wil be with tempo. 6..Ne6 7.BE7 Ne7 ‘S.Best ziggewangy Any King move will drop the BS pawn. AnyKnight move would drop the g6 pawn, and 8..c4 9.KBS or 9.7 picks up the cl pawn, &..KdS 9.B4g6t White gives up his Rishop fora whole herd of pass. The Knights limited mobility generally males ita poor pice 10 Sop passed pawns. 9..Nxg6 TOKXDG KAT 11.Kxc5 Ne7 12.b4 axbs 13.cxb4 No8 14.05 Nd6 15.b5 Ne 16.KD6 Kes White queens after 16..yg3 17.36. 17.Ke6 KbB Or 17..Neg3 1846 KBB 19.06 Net 2027+ a8 2.b7+ KxaT 22Ke7. 1866, 1.0. ts clear that most imbalances have the same effect in the endgame 25 they do in the middlegame. However, some endgame situations do change the nature of rules that are taken for granted in the middlegame, Two of these rales are: 1) Inthe middlegame it s well known that you should keep your King safely hidden behind ts pawns. Inthe endgame the King turns into = fighting piece (he reduced forces make i safe from atack) and must be brought into the center of the board as quickly a5 possi. 2) In the middlegame you usually want to place your pawns on the same color a6 the enemy Bishop since then it wil be blocked and is acivty will be curtailed. In the endgame you want to place your pawns on the ‘oppasite color from the enemy Bishop s0 that yout pawns will be safe from the Bishop's exrivorous a “The postion in diagram €209 isa simple ilustration of this second rule. i'this were a middlegame and many more pieces roumed the board, i is not hard 10 see that Black’s King would be extremely uncomforsable (not to mention the Bishop's great acy in this positon). For 2 midlegame, Black would prefer to place his pawns on (7, g6, and h7. Now the Bishop is attacked, no longer has the Scope i previously had, and Black's ‘ing i finely safer. Aside ftom considerations like minor piece battles and pawn, safety, ther imbalances must also be addressed. Something like extra material self evident, but does a space advantage play 2 role in the endgame? In the opening i rests the ‘opponent's options and in the middlegame i takes away his acive possiblities. Since space conssis of far advanced pawns ‘hat map out terrtory, an endgame situation might easily see these advanced pawns becoming threats to promote, even i they are not passed! a0) es White 10 play. ‘White is able 19 make use of the space advantage and the Accompanying fact that his pawns are loser to. queening by Playing L.BaG! when Black must resign since 1.,.bx46 2b7 Allows the pawn to promete, This tactical idea is quite common, Let’ take # look at the Position featured in diagram #211 (sce next page.‘Black wo play. Black loses since he is powerless to prevent Nb followed by [NxaG oF NxcS, For example 1.BeB 2.Nb4 Bd7 3.NxaG! Bee 4.NbA KIT 5.6 bx 6.xc6 Followed by 7.Ne8 when Black must give up. (Of course, an advantage in space doesnt only give its owner tactical possibities jst like @ middlegame, you can use Ie 10 squceze the opponent also. Since space 1S such 2 useful commodiy, it pays to go out of your way to claim i this means that a plan based on the acquisition of tertory i an effective ‘way to play many endings Kuznecov Silman, Oregon Open 1986, Black to ply, Black is beter due to his superior Bishop (good Bishop. versus bad Bishop) and the fact that his Knight can make use of the weakened 5 and df squares while ls counterpart has nowhere to go at all. What about space? At the moment the Terniony &S basically even, However, Black's superior minor pieces will eventually allow him to annex space on the kingside Fis plan is this: 1). Place his minor pieces on their best possible squares. 2) ‘Trade Queens since she has litle 1 do with the interte- tion ofthe minors 43) Te White down tothe defense of the a4 and cf pawns. 4) Advance pawns on the kingside and grab as much teertory there as possible. One ofthe alms ofthis i to restrict the White army. The other isto createa possible target on that side as well All this takes time, but Black should not be in any hurry since ‘white can only watch as Black improves his postion, The feeling of helplessness this gives to the defender leads 10 epession and eventually to extrs. 25..NeG Fyeing di and 26.Ne2 Defending these squares but also blocking in the Bishop. 26..Qe7 27.Nel Kg7 28.Nb3 5 Ending any White hopes of a cf-eS advance and naling down the dé square for the Back Knight. 29.Ne1 Be6 30.Qd1 Qa7 The Queens come Off so White's minor pieces must take over their Queen's efensive chores. 31.Qxd7 Bxd7 32.63 Nd The White Knight Stuck guarding the sa litle pawn on b3. 33.Kg1 £5! Creating new imbalances. Now White mst either view eas a poin to be defended or he can trade and give Black the possibilty of passed pawn via a later ..e5-e4. $4Bd3 Be6 35.cxf5 Wah bone piece stuck guarding b3 2nd the other defending ef White ‘vas understandably unhappy. However, a holding pattern by Ki2-e3 was probably beter. 35..xt5 36.K12 KM6 37.Ke3 KBS. 38.1 hs 39.843 hi Threatening to destroy he base of the awn with JnGh3, White is now severely restricted on the Kingside and in the center. 40.83 Stopping the threat but Placing another pawn on alight square. 40... 41. Be? Bes Showing patience while you build up your positon and lookfora method of penetration i neccessary when dealing with a pital edge. So far Black has shown lis of patience, now its time to find a way to break into the White postion. Black's Incention is t0 play £4, .Bb1, and ..e4 424d fae 43.42 bit There ae only afew pieces left on the board but White is sill being pushed bck tothe fist rank! 44.Ne2 edt Threatening to create a passed pawn by ..e4e3 and more importantly ‘creating a way for Black to enter into White's camp vi KES Set, 45.fxe4 Naturally 45.Ned4 e3+ followed by 46..xd4 ‘with wo connected passed pawns is completely hopeless for White, 45..Nxe2 46,Bxe2 Bre I's all over now. Black threat ens to win material by ..Be2xb3, and if White stops this by 47-Bdl then White's King would also be stuck guarding the g2 pawn, Black would win by marching his King to c3 via. KI eS:di-e3, This was all made possible by Black’s restriction of the White forces and the placing of White's pawns on walner able light squares. 47.Bgi Be2 48.K83? Eodiog things sight "sway, but nothing could be done to save the game. 48..Bd1+ 49.Kes Bugd 50-hegé Kegs, 0-1 (Our final example shows how a litle extra space can some- times work wonders MikhalyevslyAkopov, Rostov 1977. ‘Black 1 play, 1 can hear the screams now, “This is a dead draw!” ves, agree with you~calm down. However, there are two facts that enable White 1 rain some hope of victory 1 Hs King isa litle closer to the center than ts Black countespan, 2) Black may not be aware ofa litle known rule, ie. 4 space advantage can take on epte proportions in a [Knight endgame, The reason for this is thatthe side ‘with moce tery has plenty of room in which to move bis Knight to any juicy post that comes to mind. The ‘ramped player though, finds that his Knight is unable to maneuver to its best squares due to lack of leaping space. 1..BEGP A very natural move that goes right into the Knight ‘endgame that White had been hoping for Black would have ‘drawn ifhe had retained the Bishops. One adequate possiblity vas 1.Nd62.NA2 (keeping the Knight out of 4 2.fSbunting hice’ pieces and preparing to bring the King tothe mile 2.Bxf6 Nef62!2..gxi6 is swonger since i takes away the eS square from Whitehorse and keeps his own Knight centralize, 3Ke2 KM Afer 3.Ned 4.3 NeI2¥ 5Kd4 Nal 6e4 White's king would penetrate tothe queenside and dine on the pawns there. 4.843 Ke7 5.Kd4 White now his a superior King and Some extra terttory on the queenside, 5..Nd7 6.NA2! Now 6..Ka6 7.Ne4+ Ke6 8.4 continues White’ campaign of space frbbing. 6..NbG 7.e4 Nad 7..Kd6 85+ Ke6 9.Ne4 leaves Back facing threats ike 10.NdS and IONS. 8e5 White's advantage in teritory is finally dear. He hopes to bring his Knight to d6 when both f7 and b7 are vulnerable. .fS Tring the weakness on 7 fora new one on o6. 9.Ne4 KT 10.NA6 86 11.5 Nb2 12.hd! Tying Black's kingside pawns down and ‘ontinuing to expand on that side 42..Na4 13.NE? Ke? 14.NgS RG 15.Nh3 Kd7 16NU4 Ke7 17.Ked 17.Nd3), shuting the Black Knight out ofthe game, was stonger17.-Nb2+ 18Ke3 Nai 19.Ka4 Nb2 20.g4 fxg 21.fep4 Nat 22.95? No matter how much teritory White owns, fhe cant break into theenemy postion wont do him any good. Here White missed his chance to grab the cial 5 square by 2224 fllowed by 25: 22.Nb2 2845 BS 24KCS gS 25.hxgS leg 26.Ng6+! KIT 27.KDG NdB 28.Kxa6 Nub6+ 29.Kxb5 NdS 30.26 Ne7* 3LKD5 Nxa6 32.Kxa6 Kxg6 3RKDG and White wins, Analysis by Shereshevsky. 22..bg5 23.hxg5 Nb2 Now a3.a4 has been | prevented. 24.96 Naé 25.Nd3 Kd8 26.Ke4 Kd77? Black could (raw by 26,.05+ 27 Kdi Kd? 28. NeSe NxcS 29. KxCS Ke7, 27.5 axb5+ 28.Kxb5 N3+ 29.KXDG NdS+ 30.Kb7 Ne7 31.04 Nug6 32.25, 14. ‘This game has always impressed me and acts as proof thal the smallest imbalance can lead to real chances for victory if you furse it and allow it 10 grow. CHAPTER THREE OPENING IMBALANCES THAT LAST TO THE ENDGAME ‘When I was thirteen years old I read that Soviet players would ‘study openings by learning both the typical middlegame and the typical endgame positions that arose from it. Av the tie, this shocked me. How could a player predict what kind of ‘endgame might arse from any particular opening? T wasnt able to answer tis question unl my sittcenth year, when a study of the Exchange Varlation of the Ruy Lopez suddenly made things very cleat: Led €5 2.NfS Ne6 3.85 a6 4.Bxe6 Giving up the 10 Bishops to weaken Black's pawn structure. 4.dxc6! Immediately giving his Bishops open lines, and not fearing 5.Nxe5 because of 5..QU4, 5.4 exdd 6Qxdd ‘Quads 7.Nxd ‘White hopes to make use of his superior pawn sructure, which fives him a healthy kingside pawn majority vs. Black's useless ‘queenside clump, Actually, we were to take al the pices ofthe board (eaving on the Kings and pawns), White would win ‘because he can always create a passed pawn on the kingside While Black i unable to do soon the opposite wing ‘This means that White should play this opening with the understanding that every exchange leads him closer 10 the position in diagram #215, ars ‘white to play. 1 White can reach this position or something cose to it, he knows that he will win the game! First on the agenda & to end Black’ illusions on the queenside by creating a litle V-shaped formation by 1.a3t Black threatened to steal the game by 1.23! 2x23, and now either 2..b3 oF 2,.bxc3 gives Black a passed pawn that will soon promote, Aer 1.3, play might continue: 1..KgB 2.g4 And not 2axbi? exbs 3 exbf c3 and Black makes a new Queen, 2. 3.Kg2 KeT 4K Ke6 5.4 £6 6.h5 KG 75 Ke7 Or 7..N6 .-Ke5 BKe3 takes the opposition and forces Black t0 back Up) BKI4 b3 9.65 freS+ 10.Ket Kd? 11.Kxe5 Ke7 12(6+1 get 13.KIS KIT 14.6, tc. BIKE KAG 9.95 fxgS+ 10.KxgS KeS 11.hG and the game is over. Fortunately for Black, he is by no means obliged to allow ‘such an endgame to appear. Instead (rom diagram #214), he should vilize the advantages of his poston by, 7..BA7 Calter 7.Nxd4) 8.Be3 0.0-0 9.Nd2 Ne7 10.0-0-0 ReB 11.Rhel Ng6 12.Ne2 Bd6 13.h3 £5 14.ex15 Bxf5 when his Bishops are very active Is clear tat inthe Exchange Variation ofthe Ruy Lopez ‘we get an immediate and intense battle between Black's wo BGhops and White's superior pawn structure where certain ‘endgame situations are already mapped out and assessed a5 fear asthe seventh move Usually the imbalance we create inthe opening docs not lead toanyspecificendgames. However, fyougive your newly crested Imbalance the tention x deserves, ican and often san important clement in the middlegame anda decisive factor an endgame is reached, The game Vilanueva Silman, Los Angels 1989, i fine example ofthis. Lek 8 2.NENC6 3.06 exdé 4 Nd NIG 5.NCS 146 6.14 g67.NE3 BGT 8.843 0-0 9.0-0 a6 10.Qe1 bS 11.Kht oo Fae 7 Villanueva Siman, Los Angeles 1989, Black to move. So far White has clearly been preparing fora kingside atack. ‘Though Black will be playing on the queenside, an obvious ‘arget is not yet discernible, With this thought in mind, Black cides to go after White's Bishop on d3. The idea iso gun the | Bishops and base his later play on that ac, In other words, Black wil ry to transform the poston into one where Bishops ate superior to Knights. OF coure, White's kingside attack may crash theough first, but that’s what chess is bout—it's a bale Ofioeas. 1 .Nb4 12.a3 Need 13.cxd3 Rb8 Black is actually 2 bi concerned with White's potential on the kings and test ‘Rove as quickly as possible on the opposite wing, IF you have ® stuation where you are playing on opposite sides, iis very Jimportan o get your opponent's atention nd make him reactto your threats. In that way be will never really have time to Sart implementing his own plans. 14.b4 White did not lke Black opening up lies with .bS:b4, soe stops it once and for all 14.867 15.Bd2 Q47 Connecting the Rooks and intending to answer 16Qh4 with 16..Qg4. Since Black’s play wil be based on two Bishops, he would be happy t0 go into an ending—then White's kingside chances would be ating ofthe past, 1GRe4? White continves to make natural moves on the ‘queenside, but this is just what Blac wants! White must go afer the Black King-—he has a space advantage there, and his Queen, Bishop, Rook, and Knight all aim at that side ofthe boat. 16.ute8 17.Ne2#! Giving up on his kingside aac for zo reason whatsoever! With 1733 (fo stop ..Q88 followed by (Qh, 5, Bh6, and Ng5, White could and should have sated a dangerous attack. Remember: I you dont do what the postion reeds, bad things will happen to you! The only way you can hope to worry your opponent is by putting pressure on him. White's planes play gave Black great confidence, 17..RXCL Black is very happy #0 trade Rooks. They do litle to enhance Black's Bishops bot they could very easily help White with his kingside atack, 18.Qxe1 White is playing for trades on the c file and a subsequent draw. In doing o, he is ignoring all he éynamic potential that is positon offered his. 18.8 19.Qb1 [Nhst Black continues to fight forthe freedom of his extra! b7 Bishop. White should now play 20.Q63 with a solid postion nd just avery sight inferior. 20.Re1? After this, Black takes complete contral ofthe game. 20..f5 All of a sudden White has nothing on the board to match Black's mighty Bishop on D7. Black's opening strategy of gaining the two Bishops has paid off 21.Q03+ Kh# 22.Rxc8+ Qxe# 23.Ne3 Tempting but ‘Useless is 23.Ng5 h6 24.NIT> KAT, and White's Knight i mapped ‘on 7. Other moves lke 23.exf5 tum the Bishop on b? into a fre Dreathing monster. 23,.Nxfdl 24.Ng5 6 25.NE7* Kh 26.fxf4 Qxe3 27.Qxc3 BxcS 28.ex"5 g5! Also very tempting was 28, gxf5 29.Neh6 Kg6, when Black's to Bishops and cena ‘majonty should lead to a win, 29.Bet To prevent Black from ‘winning the 23 pawn by ..Bb2, 29..BdS 30.NdB Kg White is Completely los. The Knight on 8 is dominated by the killer on G5, while the pawn on fis about to be eaten by Black’ King Sudents should take note! On move eleven Black went afer the 180 Bishops and now, nineteen moves later, those sme to Bishops are wiping White out, A nice case of an opening idea ultimately winning in the endgame. 31.K@1 KAS 32.4 hS ‘334peh5 Hopeless, but so was 33.53 hug Migs BES 35.Ne6 Bp 36.8xg5 BxfS 37.Net+ Bxed 38.dxed KeS when White can resign 33.-Kxf5 Now White's Knight will never see the light of day, 34N6 Kg6 35.H7 BIG 36.KE2 KXxh7 White should now resign, Dut he chose to prolong the agony. The remaining moves were: 37.Be3 Kg6 38.Kg3 KIS 39.h3 Be5+ 40.K2 Bb2 41.Kg5 Bxa3 42.4 gxhé+ 43.Kxh4 Bxbs, 0-1, Solve These Problems ‘White to play _ Should White play dé and trade the Bishops or should he low Black to capaute on b3 when a Bishop versus Knight batle would ensue?white to play. cr 1114 N16 2.04 eS 5.dves Ni 4.BF4 Bb4t 5.NC3 Bxc3+ G.bxe3 Ne6 7.NE Qe7 8.Q5 16 9.ex{6 NxIG 10.43 a6 11.g3 0-0 12.8g2 Bh 13.0-0 Rac8 14.Rfe1 Nes 15.Nd4 Bd ‘we come othe postion in diagram #218, White must come up ‘witha clea plan of action. What should he do? PART FOURTEEN GLOSSARY How many people think that Zugowang isa curse, Mac is a cough or the act of striking someone, Fish Is someting that swims unt you ea, and Zuaschenzug ia sound that is made during a sneeze? These unfonunate individuals abound in ie nd, when they are unlucky enough to vist a chess tourmament, they come to realize that a strange language is being spoken that is only understood by creatures that spend their time Pushing tiny bits of wood and plastic around a checkered board ‘The slossary in this section wil finally enable you to translate ‘he terms being directed at you by the big chess guns and the smaller ish hat surround them,Active An aggressive move, line of play, o¢ postion. When ‘mentioned in lea of a player's syle, it denotes a prefer: fence for sharp, tactical, or vibrant types of play. Advantage taving a superiority in postion based on a panic lar imbalance or series of imbalances. See mbalance Analysis The calelation of a series of moves in a given ‘Postion. This can be done in actual tournament condi ‘ions (in which you are not allowed to touch the pieces) ‘or ina calmer scenato in which the pieces can be moved about ich analyssis often wsten down for future study (or reference). The purpose of analysis i to discover the bes move or plan, There is no limit co its lng, Annotation Writes comments (prose or actual moves) about 3 Dosition or game. Altace To make a theeat oF threats against a specific piece or rca of the boar.Backward Pawn \ pawn which has fallen behind its com. rades, and thus no longer canbe supported or ‘guarded by other pawns of is own persuasion tn the diagram Black has backward pawns at d6 and £7. The pawns on h6 and b7 are ot backward because they can safely advance. Bind ‘To have such a vise-ike gaip on a position that useful Tmaves are dificult for the ‘opponent to find. One often speaks of a crushing space advantage asa bind, ‘The diagam shows an ex- treme example ofa bind: Black is bound band and foot and ‘can undertake nothing post tive aa. Bishop Pair To possess wo Bishops vs. the opponent’ ‘Bishop and Knight or two Knigh's, Two shops work ‘extremely well together and are usually an advantage in ‘open positions. Blockade Concepiualized an popularized by Aron Nimzovich (1886-1935), it refers to the tying down immobilization) fof an enemy pawn by plac: Ing a plece (in particular a igh) diretly infront oft Inthe diagram the Kright ‘nds blockading the pawn fonds, ‘Bunder A horrible mistake that hangs material or makes ‘decisive postional or tactical concessions, ‘Book Published opening theory. A "book player” is one who relies on memorization of published analysis eather thant on his own creative imagination, "Taking someone out of book,” refers to sidestepping published analysis by playing a new or unorthodox move ‘This denies him the chance o make use ofa good memory tnd forces him o find good moves on his own, Break The gaining of space (and thus mote freedom of movement) by the advance of pawn. Ia the diagram, White n= tends 1 open lines of attack fon the queenside by the break ches (prepared by b2- 0, Black will sive 10 at. tack White on the kingside by an £745 break. Breakthrough A means of penetrating the enemy postion This can be done by a pawn break or by a sacrfice Involving pieces of pawns In the diagram at right, both sides are attacking each ‘other's King, At the moment White is sae, since 3 ‘an be safely answered by Bxf3. So White uses the time ‘ven him to effect a bres ‘rough on the queenside by Abxes dxes 2.Nxe5! bxc5 Black does not capture the Knight, White will simply teireat i to d and rip Black open by cf-c5. 3.Qb2 and lack will be matedBrittiancy 4 game that contans a very deep statepicconceps, ‘ beautiful combination or an orginal pan Calculation The working ox of variations without moving the ‘eces physically. Though this book has taught you to tall for reason your way through a game, there 2c many positions that have a purely tactical nature, in such situa- tions the player's ability to calculate variations accurately takes on great importance. ‘The way to tain your combinasve (calculate) vision is to study the games of attacking players ike Alekhine, Tal ‘of Kasparov, Follow ther opening moves and then cover up the rest of the game score. AL this point your should endeavor to igure out all the imbalances, the plans, candi ‘ate moves, te. When tht ¢ done, calculate each cand date move 25 deeply as you can, writing down all this {information as you go. All this must be done without ‘moving the pieces around. When you have done al that’s possible (ake as much ime as you need, we are looking for fccuracy; speed will follow naturally), look at the move played and make iton your board, and keep repeating the process unl the game is complete Keep a notebook with all your analysis. At fist you may ot do well, but wih practice and effort you will notice real Improvement in every aspect of your game. Center Usually considered to be the e4, 4, 5, and squares, ‘hough the tentory within the ef, 5,4, and PS parameters ‘an also be thought of as central CCentraltze ‘Toe central placing of pieces and pawns so they both control the center and extend their influence over other areas ofthe board, A piece will usually each max ‘mum maneuverabilty and power when centrally placed Checkmate See sate, Gaassieal A syle of play (sometimes called a school) which is ‘concerned with forming a full pawn center. The sategic concept that go with i tend 10 be viewed as ultimate laws and thus are rather dogmatic. A cassical opening is an ‘opening based on these views. See Hypennoder, dosed Game A position locked by pawns, Such a position tends to lessen the strength of Bishops and other long range pieces simply because the pawns get in their way, Knights fn the other hand, can jump over other pieces and pawns, and thus ae very useful in such closed situations, A typical seties of opening moves that lead to a closed postion is Ld NP 2.04 €5 3.45 €5 4.Ne3 d6 5.04, te Combination tacical move or series of moves based on the ‘opponent’ weakened King, hanging or undefended pieces, or inadequately guarded pices. Usuilly involving a sacefic, iis a calculable series of moves leading to material or positional gains. It 8 important to note that a combination ‘cannot exist iat leat one ofthe above facors snot preset “Though several players have attempted to create a clear and White muse resign 3..Qet+ 4.081 Qxdtt The beaury of hs move is that aso guard he Khe Go a4 SQxdI NIB Gg? Nudl 7.05 £6 Bg Ned, and Whe resigned ina Few more mare, ‘The lesson tobe leaned from this example I you have various tactical and dyramie factors Ia our far, you mas use them right sey oF the opponent wl et his pieces to better squares and your poses will deappeae Diagram 437 — AmateueMulles, come 1928/29. Black ply. Question Blacks Bishops lok nice, ‘ut is center unde & tof pes fire, Who stands beer hee? Answer, Both Kings ate sll i the enter, but Blacks pices ae much mote aggressively peed and he has ‘lead development. Wiha pin on The 63 Kaigit(which i inadequately protected, since if Black can draw White's Queen away from iis fefense den the Knight wosld hang with check and the Rooke on 31 ‘would fall cad and pressare on the cl pawn andthe 3641 diagonal Black should look hard fora decisive smash. A move lke 18 seems threatening, but by playing 200 White would beable play fn for slong tine you suggested 1.00, then shame on you! Tis is much too otal ands a move tobe corect in ie postion like this Remember, many of your favorite cic mous won't wai around for you to use the’ If you don grab the ting wight away, i wil icky be out of your teach By" concentating on the pit and checking possible, you should be able to come up with 1.84 ‘This wins immediately If White plays 2x6 KIB 5.HeaB, lack Dicks up an extra pice by 5,.Bxeh+ spd 4 Bea}. 2.Qxd4 RBH So Hck has opened up le or his Rook with tempo. This goes slong, with the role of opening up the postion iF you have a lead in evelopment White now lox since theres nowhere he can move ‘is Queen that does nt drop the Kaight on c3 followed bythe Rook ‘on al 3.xe6+ KES 4.Bd5 txd5! White vsigs, since 5 Qed lowes 10'S .BxeB> while 5.cxd5 runs ito 5..Qre2 mate!Diagram #79 — Fanklesinan, San Fanisco 1982, Black o ply (Question: How can Black erste 4 Sat imbalance that canbe mored sid used Unoughout the game? Aower lace has all he chances beeause he can gaia the two Bishops, ‘whic isfivorble bere since ha White Konig have no cent spot points guN65 10Be3 a8 11BxcS Not 2 happy decson, but 1.63 S$ 12axb3 Ref was very nice for Black. {insxeS laces Ushops wl oat White forte test ofthe game 12.06 Ke7 13.Nec3 Bi 14NDI NAT ISNA2 Bd4 Offering White the chance to play 163 bec} which, however, ony succeeds n opening ‘more lines for Blak’ pieces. 1G? Ltending 17-3 bxc} IBN ‘wih play aginst 6, but this tors out To be a serious waste of time YGu.NeS 17ARal Guarding a4 0 the Bishop ean move tock 17..NSbS $8.enb3 Be 19.Rel Rl 20.Nes And not 20 Rec? Rd 21 Ra [xed when Black's Rook decsvely penetrates Into White's poston, 20 Pxch 2.x RAG 22 Ke? Rad 23s Ba7 242 RAS 25.802 abs 26.841 Bxf2 The res needs no comment. 27.Rad8 Ked8 | 2SKxI2 Ke7 29.Ked Ky 30.02 5 31.KA1 ch 321 Re3 33.247 Ret+ 34.42 Rgl 35.g6 3 SORE MDI 3757 Rub? 38.Kd1 cS 39.05 Hb 40.Ke2€2, 01 Diagram 480 _cCapablance ner Bary, Margate 1936. White play. Question: What minor pces le in {is posiion—the advanced Black Knights or White's wo Bishop? ‘Answer Black Kaiguslookswong in the center but they ae actualy Sql insecure. 1Bat One ofthe bes things about a Bishop sts ability to ‘Stat atte dstance Toa the batle tnd sill exer strong presure on the poston. 1aRg8 Whie wins Imatrlafer 1. nS 2Bxe5 dxeS 38X5 gxl5 4 Qa. 2S! Now the Knights suppor points beginto get undermined af 3.51 There foes the second horse ‘The bale now ts fio 3 rout 3nd tixds+ ends 5: Qxd5+ KIS 6.4 Qe6 7x05» KET BUG, 1 Diagram #81 — P.iyiaae Sian, Berkeley 1983, Black o phy. Question: How can Black play fora Stpetior minor piece? “Answer, White has the two Bishops bot they ae nc parca acive. OF course, Blacks Kaighs are not ex clvspping Whie spares Whites 35 pawn Is backward but well de fended nd if White can play 3. the 15 pavin might evenwally Become passed. At the moment, Whites bes pice is thee} Knight, whe Disk’ Bishop one i his avo swat. Blacks st moves logical one; he atempts to trade of his [5 Kaight for White's proud horse on eb. 1L-Ngal NO? Seatepc suicide, Correct was 2Nxgh Brgé 3cf when 3.Q6 leads to 3 postion with chances for both sides. 2.NAIS Sexts BdS 4.Bxd5 Qxd5 5.Qe2 NIG 6.852 Nei! Black hantens to dominate the ct square, which will lead to 2 crushing Knight versus bad Bishop uation, Now 7Rfl (intending ef runs in 7Nd2t 8 Rd) NES ‘9Kg2 © Kh Qe) 9..NxhG> 10Kh3 QPS wi an exes pawn, 72RENT (Qc 8.43 d59.nadi Qeé 10.K92 66 White's completly ost TL.gh NIG! 12g5 Qeé+ Ending any hopes White had of lst inute desperation attack on Blacks King. 13.Qxe4 Ned 14,81 BS 15:Re1 1Ndb 16.56 Nes 17.897 Kug7 Black sil evenly win White's 33 pawn. The conclusion was TRIES Re6 19.Re? ef 20.83 Ral 21.13 ‘g6 22.feed dxed 25.842 RAG 26.Re2 Rl 25.03 Rea} 26.80 Rd 27sRxd2 Nd? 28KF2 NFS! 29.Ke3 KIS 30.042 Hal 31.506 Rets 32:KI> KF 38.Bdi e3+ 34.Bxe3 Red 35.96 Bg6 S6RxgS Rec3 37.RhG He2+ 38.KIT Nah 39.845 NES, 0-1 Diagram #82 — Sliman Wola, Los Anges 1889. Whit to play. (Queson: What is Whe comet plan? Answer The ain imbalance here i Bishop versus Kaigh. Whie White's Bishop is active, the Knight til needs 'ofindts proper place The cS square has some potential, though the Knight | HS {2uld be chased away atany ume by BI S2b4, Another possible square i efGeached va 67-46-00, Though these facors are important, i eer Side want winning chances he must be abl o create some Son of Sheakness or achive a pawn beak that lead to penetration into the {Enemy poston Ts there ay point in Backs postion that shard for nto Gefend The only pawn tht ight Ke ths category isthe one fon 47—the one fanhest sway from any defenders To these ends White comes up with the following plan He wil play h-b¢ (xing the pawn on a7) and a some tie play Qa when the pawn on 37 tril prove very dificult to defend. Ansther part of White's plan ‘enters aod the break with -5, which opens new lines and ean lly create new sete of weaknerses Since Ibi Fixes the Weal pawn on a7, and D4 alo prepares a cs advance, White's st move Eetomes obvious. 2ib4 Qf Back would have iked to play 1-35, bbuthisfals 0 2RdS when the pawa on a5 wil. RFA Now the ‘ct advance (busting open the eile) can ealy become song B.-NG7 3Be6! Much seonger than 3.Q38 NeS when Bhek's Kright income active. Now Black is Ued up. Jule” White threatened to play 4 Qa wining thea? pawn. Now Gat met by 4. Nes. 4. Esha the power on the ie to take advantage ofthe weakness of Blakes back rank Now 2 new weakness wil form on d5.dooNeS, And ot 4 aes SbreS NxeS 6QKS dacs 7RBr and mates. ‘Sed g6 G3 Restcung the Knight and threatening 7.4 when Black mould be forced to shed the db pawn by Nd. Gub8 Hoping {ofump to 4, something White has no intention of allowing, 72x ‘Gxd6 8.845 The postion has now clnfied. White's Bishop i 3 Famastic piece, while weaknestes on a7, D5, and d6 also, make Black's ie dificult ®.-a6 9.RAS Ree® 10.Q¢7 Wie aly decides to go direc for mates gain. Tis always must be careuly doe, Since it = qulte typical for your pices 10 become temporary ‘uncoordinated afer you nish othe ie a gobble someting Inch fase, White has concluded thi Black’ counterpay ean be beaten bck, 10..Re@ 11.Qa7 gS White Would have met 11.Re2 saith BRU, Ti-g5 tops this possiblity. 12. Qxa6 Re2 13.862 WecB HiBedt Rel Only sow did Black notice that he could not play 114 Rade to 13 QxeBs. 15.Qed6 Backs weakeses have fallen, ad the game is nos mon, 15--QB7 T6.QdB 1-0. Diagram #95 — white play. ‘Question: White can gan space on the qusenside with Lb24 ore can fun space onthe kingsie wth 1B [8,Which idea is bese Ansver: These is no question about 44 Whe shoul play 1524 flowed by 2NbS and eventually <5. This plan gins lots of queens space End opens fle forthe Whe Rooks, Sllows both Knighs to enter the game, and softens up the g-a7 ‘igonal for Whites Bishop. “The ateatve, 1134, bs tembl, This seiidestuctve mene does ating fr White's Knights or Bishop Instead Ger Lex) itactaly fres Hlac’s dark-squired Bishop, aves Black's Knight a permanene hme on, ad creates weak pawn amet wich res onan open ie "Be caefl that in your desire for space you don't rete weaknesses \n your own camp and slate the enemy army Diagram #94 — Buck 0 move (Quesion: Though Blacks pawns ae oiming towards the angie pt Sons with closed cee you should sully play inchedeecton your pawns pin) hechooses to ply anthe oppo Steg ah Aas thse? Ansne: Iisa easnable choice and am ald favonte of Bobby Fcher') in {hs pasion, Whe was hoping to get alae space advange on the qucensde wat B26 allowed by oh and Nei Though Black usual gra his own testo onthe King by allowed by 7-15 witha race for inom in each respective ea he puts ths of fora moment Chis king coumterstacle sl ‘resume on the very next move) inode 1 make White's qucenside ‘parson more dieu. By sopping cS, Blick deprives the White Knighton 2 othe active ef post and dooms itt spends ie on es pein square, lack wil allow himself the odd defensive move (pehaps .b7-06 len hut he must not allow himself to lane night of hi core State plan on the kingiseDiagram #102 Whie to Pay = rs \ Srigsaleeccm ss gy torn dupa #102 Buck + be en an Js madnes? ut Pe, ea Answer: Blacks opening i stange looking but consistent He allows ‘Whe obi nice eater and than Ine sans atacei and show that tis ‘ak Qh brea the rule about bringing a Queen ot ea butt {dss ack ef and prevent the e pawn fom being defended by 28, ‘Mier 5.Nd2 BbAt GBd3 65 Black achieves a sharp batle where bath ‘and dé (us QS andlor NeO) canbe atacked "Though theory has faaly confirmed thatthe poston ia disgram 4212 favors White, thisassessment only came shout afer Black sored ‘any nice win again srong Grandmases. The poltssmpe 1 Allg to allow your opponents srong paw center if you can put pressure om ti you ca place presmore on the enemy center then ou should not have allowed ito be created in theft place Diagram #126 — white to play. (Question Who sands bete? Answer: Black wil play Ke5 when ‘Whites two connected passed pawns sr ely blocked and the epawn is in need of corsaat defense: Inthe Imcintime Back can make passed fwason ether wing. The combined ‘eightof Ble’ ssupesr minor piece (vhite's Bishop very bud, superior King positon, and more mobile pawns give the second player 4 wining advantage Diagram #127 — Nimzovich Rosell, Baden Baden 1925, White to pay ‘Question: The postion in diagram SE was reced ater LNG 45 203, 65 53 Ne6 Ab Bgi 5.5 BXtS (xf 657.805 Qd6 White now has the opportunity 0 give hs opponent tlubled pawns by & cde, this 2 foodides? Answer The doubled pawns could ceasly help Back in thls postion. After &..bxo6 9.4 Black would oid -dS-d4, which Would crete a weaknest on cf Insead he ‘would leave ton dSand use is mighty entero squeeze White Duc to his, Whe in attempts to goad Black ito 2 -dS-8 advance before aking onc et dd 9.Na3 Threatening 10 Nc¥ Qe? 11 Bese Su ONC QE7 TLQHS* Cresing 4 weskaess op 5 1eg6 12Q03 Qe7 Bad is 12.0.0 13 Na5 NT 1LQHIS 13.08 Stopping Black fem casing long and irestening QoS. 13.-KPT M444 Whe pays (0 ip open the kingsde and gel to the Black King. 14.15 15.973 exfd 16Bxc6 bxc6 If 16..Qeeo 17 Qu gives White a tong stack However, the doubled pawas thar Black accepted ar abies Since the dipawn has alveady advanced and crened weakness 17.00 g5 1e3¢RdB 19.Rae1 Ne7 20.¢5 All of White's pieces ein in the auace agaist Black's walnerbie King, 20..NP5 2icxds Nad 22.Qe4 BeT 23st QUT 2i.exT6 BxfG 25g, 1-0. Black's King 88 swamped alier 25.867 26 NeS+ Bxe5 27 Qe, Diagram #128—Siiman- Blaenau, Word Open 1689. Black to psy (Question: The postion ia the digram ss ached ser Ld d5 2.04 ded Beh NIG d.xed e6 SNES 65 600 867.Qe2b5 Bhd} cad 9.exd4 Be7 1O.NeS BOT 11.Bg5 6.0.12 Rad [Nbd713:N€5 D6 14.861 NDS 15.963 Nbd5 16.983 NS 17-086 NhIG IWQhS NuCb IDbxed QdS 2.ck Dect 21.txes Qd6 22.Rd3 Kh7 2Rgs Ichas bocome obviovs that Whe wishes to smash Black. s ‘juste to dese ths? Do the postona actors back him up lackthas many defenses analyze them all and give what you feel S bes Answer This game has been a ypc olated a-pown game. White ‘willingly takes on the weakness ofthe slated pawn i the hopes That the cel space adventge he gain rom i pls the contel of the eS square wl grant him chances fora ssccesulKingsde tack Inthe dagrammed positon, Wit fe that he was ready to lunch a ‘winning assault Why? White now bas 3 Rook, Queen, ¢wo Bishops, nd a Right al siting at Blacks poor monarch With such a huge mnount of force avaiable to Whe, hie stack most soccead Note Dat ‘White avoided playing 25 Ba3 since after 23. (ony amounts © {ade Why should White with to ade hs atacking Bishop for Diack’ delesive one on £7? 23..NeB Slack defends 7 ut such passive pay does not bode well for his chances. Howeves, i turs out {hat all the other defenses aso fl 1) 23. 2492 Ignores the atsck and begs for punishment 24 ng! Rng? 25 Bah Ka 26.Qp5+ and mates, 2D Bug 24 Qp0 BE 2543+ Kh 2671 RAI 27.996 and 8) 23. Net 24.48! 65 (or 24.0 25g andthe dhrexened ‘Explosion on hs wil ish mater shory) 25 Reg?! Rxg7 36'BehSe Ky 77d, snd the two teats of 24x67 and 28.Qa5e win for White Bk 2.2430 Bos 5 Rg! Keg 25 BG KyB.27.QRB+ gd 28 Neg and Black ust resign 5) 23. Ret isthe mos important defense. Whie gets winning egane (with 240g Rg? 25 Exe Kg 26.093 Bas Br eg Qo 28 Nae Kh? 29 fxg Kab 50K XQ? LRM Rich 32 No6 Rec8,and now White safely maintains his material advantage with either 33.4507 3315, ‘This last variation is quite instructive since shows 2 case of 2 scmingly crashing sac ishing up as a mundane endgame wis. “This acualy que common’ A mating stack snot st to achieve Checkmate If you win maferal or gain some other kind of huge ‘SGvantage then you must cl the atack succes Da’ put binders fon your eves and ony look or one way 1 win. 24.Bd3* 1525.86 Inending 26.6 of Deis. 25.06 26.043 White can no longer ‘hate Black ao he sees fora win of matral Wah that in ind, White ars to exchange prsces, 26..Qd8 27-Bxe7 Qee7 28.6 Naf? ‘Natural but ata He hao play 28. Ql he wanted to continue 10 ress 29.ReSI Hece is very important concept and a bg rule that oes wih i When you win material, 1 common for your pices tbe a bit sescoondinated since your plan has prsumaiycometo arena. When {is happens, centralize al your pices as qutcly as posible, this ty they wl tart to work geber again. In the present game Whit accepts that his tack has come to an end and soos that his Hook oa g3 now ost of play. case of thi, ‘hive immediatly cenlizes the Rook and homes in on 43 swenkness—the pain on 6. 29u.Ned Back ses that 2. Qa loses 19 3ORKe6! Ques SL. ERS, whe 29..BdS falls 0 30x. 30. NaS SL getse, 10 Diagram #129 — siiman-slnkenay, ‘National Open 1569. White wo play. (Question: Explain this postion Answer: In this luted d pawn pos: ion Black's b pawn ha advanced 0 Ds thisisin sharp convast tos usual placement on bo, where k guards the 5 square. In the dagrammed post tion White can play sharp and Uy 0 ‘win the Dé pawn wits moves ike Qe! or Ls followed by 2 Ret. This would not be bad at leat you are tying to be frcefu, but the outcome would be fa fom {ear For example, 1Qe1 Roa and the bpawn icf ints Instead of f2ing on an adveiute, Whit calmly played to improve the poston [RS pieces His st move was Let Aside from stacking the bt wa the Knight was not very wel placed on a2 Realvng tat tis ploce could be put to beter use, White redicts ito b3 whee fuards the a5 and dt pawns, and alo Ueatens to jump ito oS Black po eaefl 14.00 2Nb3 Now that White's main weakness is well defended, he feeisreew iniate + multude of plans. These ae Blake's bd and 26 pawns are in constant need of defender, the square must be well aed for, and White sil has his usalkingside Shances!2..RacB 3.NeS White sands beter becuse while he has many poins to atack in the enemy poston, Black has alms no ounteplay. 3..NSMG 4.Be3 Qu 5. Nxe57? A blunder, but Blick ‘was geting iespatient due wo his lack of 2 clear object of stack (Gdxe5 Nd7?7.Bxh7+ Kxh7 6d Re White hss won a pawn, bute must ot fal asleep and expect the game to win itself A ne Plan i ealed for hat ses the advantages in ths particular postion Nevek HAY WITHOUT A PLAN 9.Qfzt Since Black has ihe toBishops, White prepares to wade one off with HcS. Once these Bishops go, White's Kaight wall penezate on the dark squares and challenge lacks remaining Bishop fr supeioty. 9.KBB White tvestened o win immeratly with 10 RxeT Rac? 11.Qhs 1OBeSt BeeS ILNee5 Bas 12Nait Having found 2 good square on <5, [Whiequikly vacates it fora hater and more permanens home on b6. 12,,Qc6 15 ND6 RedS 14Red8 Bad 15.044 QDS 16h! Giving ‘whi’ King a place to rn toon H2 and also preparing to weaken Black’ King poston with hS and AS. 16--RDS 17.85 RD7 16.361 sgxh6 19.Ret! Not allowing Black to dominate the open efile White Seo has knockout ish in mind, 19..QuaS 20.Re8e Kh7 21.9341 (Qu 22.ch2 WS 23.Qxh5+ Kg? 24.Qh8, 10 Diagram #130 — Silman-Magar, ‘World Open 1569. Hack wo pay ‘Question: In this positon, pay com aed 1Ng62 Beg eg 3.NA. as Blade's desion w play 1..Ng6 an intelligent one? txplain the da rammed postion nd also the pos: ton aftr 34, Answer: Yet another slated ¢.pawa postion In this case Blacks Bishops ‘0nB7 and d6 are que ave, and the d5 square is wel contoed by Black (lowing the base rule that you mux always con the Spare dicey in Irot of the wolated pawn to prevent from mmoving). As usa, White's main pla 62 kingde attack bu he has hot played fr this in an accurate way, and his only hope now est ia 2 eventual scifice 00s, Realizing thi, Black plays LaNg6l and ler 2Bxg6 fogs White’ aching chances are completly gone. A this point can heat a chonss of woes yelling “But what about the pawn structure” Yes, Black does have doubled g pawns and an [Slated pawn on ot are the weaknesses of thexe things ral OF es pial sions? Lets tae look ‘Mer 2. xg we mus compare pawn weaknesses White ill has his ‘ented pawn on This isn Songer and no weske than Black’ ‘Slnted prvn on 66, which hae the use futcuon of controling the ‘Saquate, Thi means that these two weaknesses cancel ot SO fe Ve Jnsve a measuce of equibeum The Black doubled pawns a nother ater, Are they weal Nota all They make ance cover ft the Black King, hold off White's thee kingside pawas, and have the poten for space gaining aggression bya. 8 advance, resting thes Bishop and the e2 Knight Indeed, afer 8 g6g5 advance Black’ pawns ae jut a safe a8 Whe’, but ae actualy superior n that hey ae playing a more ave pat inthe gaa! ‘nally we must realize that to achieve this doubling of Blacks pawns, Whte had 10 pa with his est pec, the Bishop on d3, Due {ott Black now hasthe wo Dishops, an open Fie, and ao wore tall concerning bis King, I should now be clear that this exchange Frsledoa Black advantage! The continuation was 3.84 Qe8 4.043, [BS SNGO RIT GNes Bes Tadxe§ Ra Tack no longer ha he 0 Bishops, and Whie's islsted d-pawn has changed into sorting fe. Thema imbalance now centers around the Bishops of oppose folors (Black's Bishop is clay more active than White's) and the potenal weakness ofthe White pawn on e5. Qe? Bad is BOS ar, and now oth 9.044 Bg 10 Kg? Ro and 9.14 Nx 10 5 ail lve for White Because his Queen on 6 is unprotected. With 18Qe2, White hopes 10 somehow bring Knight (0 the lovely dS squire via an eventual Ned oe NDS, Nataly, Black wll never alow ‘ier of these possibites lo come about Unies he gets someting ‘ery big in retin, 8NG7 The eS pawn becomes an immediate problem. 9.4 gut 10.BxF NeSt All of a sudden White lost The fives are 11 B46 wioning the Exchange and 11..NS forking the Bishop anf and the Rook on e 1.Qe8 Bab 12.8641 NBS 13.Net [afi T4.NdGNe2+ 15.Kh2 Red6 1G4exd6NXcl. and Whit resigned ina few more moves Diagram #140 — Fischer Gada, Mar el Mats 1960, White 0 play. ‘Question: The poston inthe diagram ime about ater Led c5 2.N03 d6 Budi exdd 4Nxda NIG 5.Ne3_ 26 ‘Shes e6 7.85 bs 80-0 HDT 9. NoG 1O.NxC6 Hse. Black theatens both 1 Nwet and 3. bSb4, Whats Whee ew move? Aner White has been playing an ‘pening thats designed to gezb conuol of the dS squaee1f W takes time to defend agains the tues, then he wi aot achieve his Seal For example, 1.05 des 12 Qxdl 13 Red Na leaves the {Spawn ina sal Sale while While igh-sqoared Bishop remains fle on ba. The only cores wa to play this pstion i 13.5Thewhole point of White's opening Sine he sway ahead in develo wren White dos not aroun 2 pwn if meas opening uP the Foigon The el you though, force Blick o advance his Pawa 15'e5 wen Whites ligheaquared Bishop suddenly becomes very Cake and the d3 square ls ico Whites hands Uwe Giving uP Gs Sqr witoutafghe 11 6? migh ave been ed hough TEOQU sul feo Whte, Backs mow forcing move was {Tb Sines 12d © keeps the White Knight out of d>. However, ater TT ua Whice would nt comply wih Blac’ wishes. Instead e sl saree by 12! cd Sens ad ey Tong smacks 12.049 Simply defending and imending co mest Trnbd Wah NGS. 12 Ber 13. Bps Geng i of deende of 45, That square now a peomanet possesion ofthe Whit ores 13. Qe 14 Kh 0.0 15,6 Bul L6Ba5! Trading of Black ast fide of 4, Now White wil obsn a eusing Kaight wes 2 ESF Dip. 16. Rock 17.06 Race 18. Ral Ris 19.NES Qa 20.3 BoP 2 Rall fo 22.48 Rb823.NaeTs, 1-0, hice picks up the Undeended Rok onc er 28. Que? 28.085. Diagram #141 —Whitew play. Question: Should White double Blacks pros with 1.Bxf6, pin the other ight with 1-865, or clmly develop with 1.Be2? Answer: When playing the oping Jou mes not ut develop You pees 2 then wok who eet once You ie nen cing ot The cr ‘Sinan and then develop sound ha diferenco—the ess 0 “Tengen tar difference (be Bxhop vs Knight material vs. deve {pment or whateva aca sears v0" You inthe dayammed poston Whte has cemly been playing 10 conus he une Hs Roig, poe and 2 Bhopal wok {pues omar ths goal Does 6 e2 bp i his pla? No. How ‘teu Gan Tiss ven worse sine t bangs the Back e-panh inch was dong noting) of where kes all enemy pecs Mt Gres uch me lope i 6Bb5, which nen o Stag ot one of ‘Sucks man defenders of ©, White wanted fo develop is Rie Bap, she finds 2 square whee ads te er pieces accomplishing he ven plan Diagram #151 — Sian Fedorowier, ne Pine 1976, White 10 La wae 7 ee etna, moar ‘exdt Ned NIG SNC 96 G3 ae isc seee He jal YO.Rb3 Ret 1,0:00Nes 12.845 Net AZBxeA RACH 14.NDSRACS 15bxc3 [PS Be 16.05 Ne8 17-BHOBXES 18.88 Kf 19.hel BI we reach the posi ton in the dagram. Black has two Bishops, a. pawn, and attacking chances agains White's King exchange fortwo Rooks. How should ‘white han thie stator? Answer The beauy ofa matral advantage i that you can make a ‘acne 1 quell an enemy iniativeor tack and stl be equalorever Sead in mater. In the present ease White gives back one of his Exchanges to get id fake Back Dishop and to create ature one ‘his st point sof great imporance: Black's pestian had no weak nests to begin with Afler 20.8426 Wie able to create a crack in Blacks armoc. 2046! fee6 21.Qe3 Attacking bol 47 and co 21.8 Defending e6 and counteratacking c. 22.843 Ne7 23.NGS Increasing the pressure on eS. 23.26 24.6 KgB 25:Qh3 All of 3 sudden White dveatens Re3, The 6 pawa is fling unless Black i willing to give up his Bishop ana repair Wisi’ pawns by 25. xd 25 cul. 25..Nd5 26.QueGr Que6 27.NNCONRCS Black sppearsio be oun ll gh, but Wit sable o show that ths more loon than ‘eaiy,28.K€21Nxa2 Baccs happy with wo paws forthe Exchange, but now White's Rook enters the game a the Black hase i show "oe trapped on the side ofthe bourd. 29:Nb3 BS 30.NC7 ba S1.NGS! 5 S2.NefG+ exfG 33.843 Ne} Taran Petrosian, who had been ‘watching this game ith seme interes though that Bick had to be Going well here and. after the game (when the Ft et in dsgus), he honored me by taking the Black side and ying to bash my rane cut ‘Af losing with Black peated, the ex World Charipien soo his head in amazement, mumbled some unintelligible comment and waked avay. Thin ints ater Tigran surprised me by dragging me itv the analysts room again and uying some new den For Black (sly ‘nouph, nthing was weiten down and I remember none of what we looked a. An hour te he agreed with ny assessment, pated me On| the bac, and rgd of ino the sunsct never had the opportniy ‘okt maga. S4KeBtThe King takes up aGominant poston |(4, Note tat 34. Ro 6 lost to M.Nete, Bnd SSKAAKET 363 “Trapping lac’s King cn the kingsde and preparing 0 stop Black’ paseda:pawn, 36.4 37.ReL.a3 38.4605 39.Ral Wie’ King and Rook have dominated the poor Black Kaight 39.-Keb 40.xb4 Ne2 “The poor home now begins to leap around Fanta. .g8 NA Az Rea? NI3 43.c3 44 44.RI2 Net AS ReDe, 10. Diagram 4152 — Bowinnk Mohs, Sitch gene 1938. Black. ay Question: The game has jut been fumed with Wate sealing 163 bat Borne ought he had excel Jem chances to win. Is this we of does lack have resources that his ‘rcl opponent mise? Answer The imbalances inthis pos tion are cenered around the minor pices the Queens and Mack's queeside majo of pawns. appears that eventing aginst lack White's Bishop sboth goodandacive hile the Black Knight licks any hed of wieful square and Seems “loomed to passivity: Whites Quesn is beter placed then Black’ be lak queenside majony (which hoped would bea tramp) appears to be nothing sore than a weakness needing consan defense: AS ‘depressing a this the way most players would lool athe Postion Fok offered up diferent pot of view, one based on ‘willpower, te deseto tn allimbalanees nto vole ones anda ‘open mind hat does not mind he los of material pontonal eas Siabeschioved. 1--d5Blckrealizdthachisqueetside majoriy 38 $ potential pase pawa Hels quite happy to give up material omake that potential a realy. 2exd5 e5 3.bxe5 bucS 4.811 NdG Lo and behold the mole positon has undergne a miaculous change! Now Whites shop isbad and inactive whe the Black Knight astaken Up Aine central postion With Whites extra pawn solid blocked, Back fret stat shoving his passer othe ends of the eat, Whi isthe fe who no ore to Sram forthe da. 5.Qa3 KET 6.Bd3 c6 ‘Fee 7. Qb6+ BAI Ke7 ssstronge but Bvink says tha White ans dw wih9 Ke2 8.Qb4NC49.Qxe3 Qe5* 1OKHI Qxd5r, 25/2 by perpetual check Diageam #153 — Lyublinsky Baten Moscow 19%. Blacktop. (Quesion: Asses this poston and fg- tre aut what Black should do |Answcr Blac has trble problems Tisquoensdepawnsareveryweakand ‘white wiles win the pawn oneSby ‘Ne(and@QI2 Though Black hasthereo Bishops, here ds hardy sigs an advantage since they at both vey inacive Since hs no counterplayatall, he does the oly hing hecan {oinsome play. 1--ROH Now tec pawn sae, Tre, Black spvng ‘pan Fachange; bt he wil gta sod posto, two Bishops, a pase pion andanadiantagein spaceinrewm Thisalladasup fas hat, hecan une in an efoto win ihe had jst ven up the e-pawn ke 2 la, lack would have had no play and would surly have loa. 2Ne2 “Te ook nck going anywhere 2BeB 3NedAt Beer was 3.8 {xdt 4c flowed by bloating the enemy pased pawn by Nd ‘S-scad4 4.81 Very poor: White had been expecngan eas victor but 1 Ral complicated matters orang Wheto change his menial sate ard fight foe the pois. Unable io make the psychological vansiion, hic playsplanlely Since Whiesadvantagessbasedona mara advange of Took vesus Bishop, he must open fs for his Rooks, Thus 4 82 Tose by $3 and 6b waste logeal couse dae8 SRLS The resus of Black's Exchange sualice cn be seen. Black has a space ‘vantage on he queers, nthe center, and onthe Kngside. He aso asa proud pased pawn and chances fora Kinga aac From agst0 ‘che Iehad a price (he Exchange) bt al igs of quali endo cos ‘Totmore, Gigs Ha 7 Rael White would ket ply for open ins 7, but 7 Bol Read ef leaves ack wih apr of crosing ceil piss Talk BIZ 5 9.94 Seg3 ep. 10.4BS Hack would win De Exchange bcaftr1 ig3 Bhs 10-5511 R25 12.8424 13.602 RiwPooe Whitehaso playa allacoupl of planless moves waldo hat 1 you every ime MR REG 151 Kh? 16.81 BB 17.Qe2 QO 1B.QMI Avoiding 18. wt 19g Dag 20; Rap 21 Qn QN~ 2283 Qua wath a wining ending for Black. 18.QhS! Not 18.4 19 fg Bld 20843. Now Whites na good defense to 19. 4 1.Be Quis 20Qx5 RS DBNBS Heds 22.Bxd8 Re3 23.306 Rxes BisbueSRe2 Whie shops os Theis was 25.81 Bg 26.3, xh3 27sb4 BES 28.846 d3 29.bsa 3, 0-1 The heat of $0Bete SL.gI 2+ isennoghto convince Whe hat further esisance suse,Diagram #166 — Sipaia Silman, Reno 1995, White ply. (Quesion: Do you think White can get sway with 1 Qa Answer, Blak i aleady way ahead in developmen. Taking the 46 pawn puis White even further behind aad fant be correct, though it must be ited hat Whites game i already fifcuk, In the acual gume White ‘vas unable to avoid temptation: LQed6? Ifthe is problem with Your pasion Gack of deveiopmend, ever do anyhing at higlghs Ie La atadl 2.9g8 No ang for 25? Qu6 3 Qg3 Bxb3 axb3 Que! Gnd tates 2a 3fead Hach lacs whole army is beating down fn the White postion. Thoughts ofa pawn dict should nex even ‘enter Blick’ head our poss ares ative you wil aly be ‘bie vo regain a sacfced pan or tuo. 4.Be3 Qa6 5.063 Buf Black has won the Exchange but White hopes 1o use his two Bishops toa amattack agains the Black King. RAFU NS With the gain in mata ‘Blac rushes hiforces back othe center, roma cenlized location they wil ll woak together to block the enemy Bishops and sop all ‘Whit couriesplay. 74? Baking Black’ jo easier. 7.81 had tobe played bot the ides of makinga reveaing move while mateal down Gistubed White. 7.Bxdé 8Nxds eS19.NI5 ef With one White Bishop gone and the other inactive, Back i feady to resume an aggresive camuiga, 10.BC2 Qf Defends the delicate Mat dagoral hd tacks the ba pawn. LLNMGe Rg? 12.86 Quba 13.44 Ne3. 0 The teat of 14 Nxat and 14-NE2+ spells doom for White Diagram #167 — Silman Peranovic, “American Open 1589; White play. Qvestion: White doesn't far «efor feifsine bath moves ll Whites Knight wo come toa powefl square Cn eiher dior F On te otber Rand, ‘White does not wish to play 1 eeS since Inde eaves the White misoe pisces with no advanced posts and yes Black 4 mobile center. How ‘Should Whe handle this postion? yr ‘Answer White has lead in development but athe moment his Rooks the pol playing par inthe game, That why LBS! was layed White istends 10 play 242-94 an np open al the lings fen. Such ‘pening up ofthe hingside wl awaystavor te more developed side the posible los ofa pawn afer gg does cancer White i the less NIG 2g3 Qs SS dxe5 gh Qh Trying to kop he hles {Gone is clear that yg xg Qn Gg] would not Be healthy for black SxS Secing that Blac nt gong to allow a crushing sack, White cashes in nd gas some materal 5.-dxes Gige5 KAS {Rdg NDS GRGS HUIS 9.RehG+ pS 1ORGI The Rook on HS is wong but looks very pecular 10.52 1LKee2 Rad 12 g5, 1. ‘lack id cshing but eeact to White's Uyeas afer 18; hats what forcefully pursing the iniatve ean do, Diagram #168 — Abramson. Com: puter, Cafornia 1991, Black o ply. ‘Question: In the dagrammed posiion Black played for queensde space wih 1-bP-DS Is this 2 good move? Aasovee LB7DS!?isteible because lack is Sang 1 atack agains 3 such baer developed opponent. This ‘ope of thing i always 4 sical on erating someone stacks you fom 2 postion of inferionty you must demonsrate 2 certain type ofa ‘wde—you must ins on punishing hm for his obvious transgressions ‘When You have pest lead in development, you must somehow open Up ines that allow penetration into the enemy postion. Moet people think atti means you should auack inthe duecon of his King This |S comple unin! If you can open up any front at ll your larger sum should be able to tiumph, Typically, White may ty somedhng like the mistaken Hel, hoping to get something going down the e fle Bven worse 623, sopping Blick’ plan of 5-4 These ideas tre much to slow. Hemenbxyou ar tying to punish hin! ‘Atul, White has a almost forced win herewith 2bA laying on the side where Black thought he was batt! This move is usually ‘ejected by White Because I wens the cf square and leaves White ‘witha backward & pawn. However, Black is 0 ao posto wo make Use ofthese factors. nthe contrary, White as fixed Black's pawn on bSwhereit wll become a target Hehas also pened time by tacking ‘Black’s Queen and wil fellow up wih 2-9. basting open lines otthe quoensde, 2.66 Sal a6 On 3. bead Whie wil play a4 folowes by 5 Ria and Sb4b5, when he wil wis the pawn on 7 ad eventually the ame. 4aaxbS axbs 5.Qa2t Nouce how Black tas not Jd momento breathe since making is tl mistake of 1.5? Now ‘White testes to simply take the d5 pawn wih his Queen, 5a.e6 G.Qa6t Gist Threatening ta take Blaces Queen, Rook, snd DS pswn, ‘The exchange s forced. 6.. RIG 15.8Ab7 and with wo extra pawns, hie eventually won. Diagram #198 — G.Leveatish: G.lstsin, Moscow 1935, White 10 (Question: List the components of ‘White's advantage and figure out how he shovld proceed Answer White is beter for sever 1) He has moce space ia the ‘enter and onthe queenside B_ Mis Bishop is much more acve than Black’ Keight 3) Black's King is somewhat unsafe due tothe weakness of the dake squares (hand g?) that was ought about wih the oss ‘ot his faachatoed Bishop ong ‘Al these pluses wont win the pame automaticaly though. White rus come up wath a plan i turns oat that both side ae iavlved in A dispute over the open ele. Blck hopes o play Rx followed by cB when the exchanges ge him good chances to daw (he sie ‘wih les space shoul ryt wade the pieces Of). Black also threatens 1.Qrat and something ike 1.92 tums the sad Keigh on 36 ino 8 Powerhouse after 1.NcS. Lie6! White makes good use of the Suppom point on c6 and the fact thatthe Knight on a i an an 2ikward porkon. Black I now forced o either cape on cb and ‘Be White a eishing passed pawn ort allow White otal domination ofthe efile, Laaaes A miserable move but otherwte White wil ay {an fan bar onthe e-file by Qet followed by Rel. Note that 1-SN6 2haek QucH 3Rel ako gives Wht the cle. 2dxe6 Qe6 lack ‘Would lose pece afer 2-.Qee6 $5. 3.Qe3 White now enjoys an ‘enormous advantage in space onthe queerside die to his pawn oa6. 3NT RAL Ret Firmly blocking the passed pave but leaving his paces in passive poston. 5.943 d5 Guten fS Desperately ying to ain some countesplay. 72S Preparing to break ihe blockade oa Sh tadued B.tces Neb Hoth 8. fre and 8. Qeet fal to 9.QU7 Sten pats 10.05 KIT TLLRPL Aside from the monster on <6, Blase alka has sevous problems wid his King. Ths loseates# common Stil theme: the side with more tenor is able to deaten tings on Doth sides of the board due to his eater Dexbly. The lack of ‘aneuvetiag room makes defense a cf ask forthe opponent TiooNg? 128d? ROG 13.et Qe8 14.4 ReB, ow 15 Qe wah the threat of Bxe7 and Bc3 would have le 10 a quick icon. For example: 15 Qa4 Qe7 38Be3 Nes 39.005, Diagram #199 — Peresian Naor, led 1961. White w play. ‘Question: fs White beter, and if 30, Fhow much? How should White con ‘noe here? Answer iis lear that Whit is yng tovorea decison on the quecside lacks only hope i 3 counter dem cosrauon on the Kingsde, but iis ow too fate to accomplish this ‘Though Black has the two Bishops, we havea elosed center which resis both ofthe Bs. The Knights ae supesor a this ease “Te thing to remember here isthat a quownsie tack ends 1 bea Tonger lasing advasage than kingside demonstration. This Inecause a queenside aac goes after weaknesses and squares and hast x much chance for secesin an endgame asi a midlegane ‘Nkingsde atc ually asa now goal=Matel Tiss aan easy thing to force. To make mntters worse ifthe Queens gel exchanged the hingsde ata is usualy over in ths case, White uses his fcgame ode advantage and plays 1.Qb61 Very logical. White pene ‘ates ino the heat of Dlac’s potion and theatens the Bishop on Up-Hie also testers toring a Rook oc. Black must vade Queers, baat then hes doomed o pure defense ine any possible dream of Tings counterpay has ended before began, 1--Qxb6 2axb6 ‘Nowe Wie has tong passed pawa on bs, a Knight ready oivade ‘m6, and anor Kright ready to jump ito a8. This las poi was tude posible bythe Queen ade since the advance ofthe pawn (0 Ustas cleared dhe 35 square 2.6 Back would solo ar 2-25 5 RET. 3IRET BoB 4.NA5 HAG 5.NbeG NG GN Black cesigned, Since he loses apiece after 6.07 7.Na5 Ba BRc8 HST DDS, #200 — Lethal Rati, Moscow 1935, Black ply, (Quesion: The position nthe diagram tras eached flr the foloming open: tng moves 1.44 NIG 2.04 66 3NC3 BDA a5 Bxcd Sbxed cS 68 45 7ie3 00 Bids Nxd5 9882 Nes 10-843 sack doing well oe wl the Mdvantagesin White's position lead ‘icles forthe second payer? Answer The imbalances hate are quite lear White histo Bishops and more ceier pawns. Black hat no problem developing bis ores and bot his Knights ae centrally placed. Probably the most imper: tant imbalances in ths postion, though, are Black’ lead in develop. tuent andthe fact that White's King sin the center. If lack pays Sowiy wih .b6 and ..Db7, White wl catch up ia development va Ned and 0.0 when the two Bishops may make themcver fe et lea tht Black must do something quickly he sto make use ofthe temporary imbalance of development. What ae you to do yout ‘opponent is behind in development and his King unc? The answer is to OPEN THE POSTION! Only in this way can your bets ‘developed amy force is way ino the enemy poston. ‘Tis may surprise some players since they fol hit they are supposed to keep things as closed as posse i they poses Kgs This general tue, ut cleay wrong and sho sighted inthe ease ‘The rule of opening things up for one's beter developed pes aks precedence, since by acting quick Blck keeps Whit off balance ‘nd actualy prevens White from Using the pluses in bis poston Lexi 2eedd eS! 5.dxe5 The ateratves are alo unpalaabie C4 NE 4 Ba ex 5:45 OM SKF Ne5, when Whe no longer has the two Bishops and Black has 3 pest suppon. pot onc Even worse 3 Ne? ex ex Ned 9 Nedh Qh G3 Qu aed Black has won a pawn, Ths combination was possible ave to Whites Hanging right on d4 and is exposed King on el. 3S es [Ned Euwe says that 4 NIG. would have given Bic an edge. $.Qe1 Nudz 6.Qxd2 NIG 7.843 Red .Ne2 QUG Trying to preven Whie fiom easing. 9.NdAt NAS 10.Re4 Nee3 11.Qxe3 15 12.0.0 fed Utne RdB I4.NIS Qued+ 15.Nxe3 Be6 1GRE, 2nd the gameTris now cleat tat Bace had st least equalty in the staring iagram and that a lead in development can proveto be ge potent sas eventually draw | ifaced upon energevealy ‘Diagram #201—tronscin Bown, 1951 Word Championship Sach, 1h same. Whie ply ‘Question: Is anything wrong wit Toe Answer, LQAS? Is bad because i lows Black to create a stvation ‘shoe Blac will owa 4 superior mi for piece Ili! Zeal BS! Bronte i faced wih avery ical dlecsion: He ean give Back «strong atack after 3 Bred def 433 SBSe SI QhS.6Qe3 Qh} 7Q0 AS and the thet of his Jessie, oche can allow Black io ake over the only open fil afer $g2 Qu8-when Black wil effects penevauon into Whites postion dlong the ile. The cay other posbty i tallow Black to tade Fightsquised bishops and obiain a powerful Kaighzon ef versus 2 very bad Hahop, 3.Qa3 So White takes over the afile but allows Dace to create 4 dominating minor piece on ef. 3u.Bxf3+ 4X03 g7Harlynecesiey, but lack in no huey (Backs syperir minor piece it 4 permanent advantage) soe fist defends the B7 pawn i ase the White Queen ater atacks Black’ plan is to creat heats fo the kingsde wich will do two things: 1 Create new weaknesses that ca later be atacked. 2 Force White 1o bring his pieces over 0 the kingsie for defensive porposes which wil alow Black 1 once gain dominate he ale. 5.62 QdS 6X1 Q(G 7.3 nS 8.4 Not ‘what he wanted to pay but he had to prevent Blac from ripping pen the Ringside with 8-hSM4. BGS OREI Qg? 10.913 KE Take Ra lack now owns the open He, has presture agains the pevmanent target on 3, and has a vay supeio minor pce Diagram #217 — Nephiso (com puted-Siman, American Open 1989 ‘Shite play (Question: Should white play 1.844 fad tide the Bishops of should he flow Black wo eaptue oa b3 when 3 Bishop versus Kright bale would ese? Answer White should retin is Knight by INdS. The computer was peo [rammed (0 think tat Bishops were superior to Kaighs in an tendgeme 20 i happily allowed Black to capture on b3. Let? A ‘erble mistake A Knights usually preferable to 2 Bishop with pawns ‘on one side ofthe board because 4 Knight can atack any pa and ‘in chase the King from any aquae. The ably to go to any color S| ‘more important than lng range powers in such stations. L-BXb3 ‘2BxbS Kes Bai NIV To answer d7 wih 4..NeS 4.3 Nes ‘58e2 Ned 6.Bal di 7.Be2 KdS RDS Ke5 9.83 dxe3! The only sa to win. 9.3 is tempting but doesnot alfer any way to break ‘hough 10.63 Nxe3 11. Bed Kad 12.8g6NeU 1SKFZNG214.B5 Deis 15.Bxe4 Kxed 1GKA Ke5 17-Kel €2+ 18.KF1 Ke! 19.42 Ka? 20.501 Ke3, 01 Diagram #218 — Sinan Getz, Wold (Open 1890. Whie 1 play. Question: Afier 1.44 NIG 206 5 Bedue5 Ng 4.504 Bbi+ SNe3Bxch+ Gbxe3 Ne6 7.8 Qe7 8Qd5 16 Seexf6 Nxf6 10.943 6 11.88 0.0 12.092 gh 15.00 Rae 14. Bled Ned 15.NdG BAT we come tothe postion indiagram 6218, White must come up ‘wih a clear plan of action. What Shosld he de? Answer: Black is 2 pawn down but his active pieces, play against ‘White's weak paovnsand conta ofc give hi los of compensaon. hice made use of uci and played the surprising 16.04 Hack Aidt seriously consider this. Gving wp this ightsquared Bishop Is ‘ey sky for White but he acuratey judged that Black wuld have 10 Scie farther material to keep his native or passively go imo a‘ery bad endgame Since White accepted the pawn inte opening, be Shore tan happy to tke tore matezaleven if Black ges an ach neers, H6eQxes 17.NDSI The cT pawn can't be defended ‘Sihowt Blck xing White's pawn stracre wih 17. Qn Relssing To play sucha move, Black lashes ut aguest White's King. Y7.RC4 gull Qufl 19.Nxe7 Wis more materal and swings the Right ver io the wondesfl d§ square. 19. dReS 20.NGS RgS* 22.Kh1 (Quf2 22.983 Qh The bate that was stad inthe opening material Nessus aciviy) is sll being fought 28Rgl Seeking exchangss DaaBgh 24,04 b6 25.843 Nes 26.Rag1 Black's stack is cunning fora steam, White’ take everthing’ seg has won out 26.005 DoNed Bue? 28 RegS hxgs 29.RepS Qed 30NTS Qe6r S1REZ ‘Trrsteing to win Back’s Queen with 32Ne7>. 31.003 32Ne7* ‘his 53Qh4+ QMS 34.Qxhs+ Bubs 35.02 g6 Black si that Be acl is met by 56. bS 37H g6 38 Neg6+. 3GRNMG Ke? 3pic5 Bg S8KRY KIT 39.61 Inating a final series of exchanges that males the win easy. 39-Doxe6 40.Nxe6 Nxc6 41.6 BIS $2 RAG Ke7 43.RNAT+ KAS 44.95, 1. PART SIXTEEN RECOMMENDED | READING LIST ove chess books. Any kind of chess book, any age, on any aspect of chess. Unfortunately, many of these books—dhough interesting from a collec’ viewpoint—are completely inad- cequte for teaching purposes. Others are simply poorly written and are therefore a very poor vale for your money. To save the reader fom buying useless material, | have put together the Following lt of books-—all of which are the best ofthe Kind avaiable Beginner Play Wonning Chess byVasscrSirawan and Jeremy Silman (Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, Washington, 199) ‘fun, easy to read tour ofthe basi ules and satis ofthe game Logical ches, Move By Move by tving Chemev (Simon and Schuster, New Yor, 1957) A collection of games which explins each and every move Opening This subject is extremely vague, since no matter how good an ‘opening book may be, i's usoless if you don’ play the system under discussion,‘Your playing strength i also an impocant consideration. Do ‘you want a detiled wreatise on a pancuar line; or do you want 8 repertoire book that tells you which openings to play and explains the ideas in detail, but doesnt give all variations (60 sive spacey? A general book on the openings is useful for non-profesion alsand professional alike. The Encyclopedia Of Opeings(Chess Informant, Belgrade) i the choice of players inthe expert cass right up to the Grandmaster level. This five volume set covers dliflerent openings in each book. One volume devotes ise t0 ‘ef e6 plus Let e5, Lied cS, Let 6, et, yet another i te set looks at .d4 d5, We could go on and on bat think the points rade. These excellent books go into quite a bit of decil and fare superior tothe classical Madern Chess Openings. MCO Cor ‘ones like RCO) is wseful forthe lower rated player, but here wwe see a case where ils sivengih is also its weakness: MCO places everything In one volume, This is great for those that Iwish to take just one book to a tournament, bur the lack of space also leads toa lack of thoroughness. Middlegame "he Art of Attack tn Chess by V. Vokovie (Pergamon Pres, Oxford, 1965), Tis cassie will make you a maser of ll forms of attack, "Think Like a Grandmasterby Alexander Kotov (BT. Batsford Tid, London, 1978). A complete course on how to calculate, A book that require alot of work, but fun to read Artof tbe Mudle Game by Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov, translated by H. Golombek (Dover, New York, 1989). 8 small, inexpensive book that i fll of useful insights ‘Keres chapter on the at of defending dificult postions is wemendous. Complete Chess Strategy (1- First Principles of the Middle Game, 2 Principles of Paim- Play and the Genter, nd 3 Play on the Wings) by Ludek Pachman (Doubleday, New York). This series belongs in every ches library The Middie Game by M. Euwe and H. Kramer (G. Bell and Sons Ld, London, 196. A two volume set (Static Features 1s the firs book. Dynamic and Subjective Features is the second) that has been our of print for awhile and ishard to get. Ifyou see one or both af these books in 2 used book store, arab them and! don't let go! Pawn Siructure Chess by Andrew Soltis (David. McKay Company, New York, 1976). Lots of information on an important subject. The other book on this subject is ‘Pawn Power tn Chess by Hans Kmoch (David MeKay Com pany, New York, 1975. However, Mr. Kmoch goes crazy with ‘al sons of strange, Invented names (Rangers, Fakers, Stops & Telestops, Leucopenia, and dozens more) that do more to confuse than inst. Bob Fischer: Study of His Approach To Chessy Ble Agar (Cadogan, London, 1992) Exploresliferentmidalegame themes by a detalled examination of Ficher’s games. Tactics Winning Chess Tactics by Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman Cempus Books of Microsoft Press, Washington, 1992). Detaled explanations of each type of tactical motif. Appropriate for every class of player. This is really the only book you need on the subject, but other excellent choices ate ‘The Ar of Chess Combination by Eugene Zaosko-Horovsky (Dover, New York, 1959). Is this a good book or am 1 just prejudiced with happy memories? When I was fourteen years old | gained 400 points after reading itChess Tactics For Advanced Players by Yuri Averbakh ‘Gportvelag, Berlin, 983). Really good, but asthe ttle sugges, advanced, Endgame Good books on this subject used 10 be hard to come by, but row there s an abundance of them sential Chess Endings Explained Move By Move: Volume ‘One, Novice trough Intermediate Revised 2nd eon) by Jeremy Silman (Chess Digest, Dallas, 968). great book for beginners through the expen level, Gives only the endings that are useful in everyday play. Every move is explored, Warning, This second edition of my ‘work is called Volume One (’s the only volume 1 Intend to do on this subject. 1 was not aware of this "Volume One’ label uni after publication). Chess Digest, published a Volume Two, buta glance atthe author wi Show that 1 bad nothing to do with it, 1 DO NOT tecommend this Volume Two by another author! ‘he Endings in Modern Theor) and Practice by PC. Gifts (Chatles Serioners Sons, New York, 1976. Covers di ferent endgame groups in a clear, easy to read manner. Useful for Class’ to Master, -MAL.Shereshevsky's three books: Endgame Strategy, Master ‘explores Dark-Square Strategy, Symmesy, tc. This se ries is expensive but i highly instructive. Useful for Class to professional. Now we get intoa vast field of advanced books onthe endgame; ‘Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine (David McKay Com pany, New York, 1941). Everything i covered in one thick volume. If you want all endings under one cover, then this isthe book to get. However, it makes very dey reading ands moe a reference wot than «book of ‘Yuri Averbakt’s endgame series, Comprehensive Cbess Bd: ‘ngs: Volume One—Bishop Endings, Knight Endings, Vl ume Two—Bishop Against Knight Endings, Rook Against ‘Minor Piece Endings, ee,—the ls. goes on and on— (Pergamon, Oxford), is unsurpassed for depth, These books are very advanced and, like BCE, ate more refer ‘ence works than books of istuction. Pndgame Preparation by Jon Speciman (BT, Batsfor, London, 1981) and Analysing the Endgame by Jon Speeiman (Arco, New York, 1981), Deep discussions of vatious endgame situations. Very advanced, Game Collections One ofthe best ways to learn about chess sto study the lives and games ofthe masters. Who you decide to study i a matter Of style and taste, but make sure that you Took at games with ‘tes that explain what the master was thinking bout, Some of| the bes game collections ar ‘ng The Endgame, Volume I: Open Games and Master ‘ng The Endgame, Volume 2: Clased Games (Pergamon, Oxford). Instead of covering diferent materia situa tions like mest endgame books, these books look at thfferet strategie themes in the endgame, Things ike CCeniralization ofthe King, The Problem of Exchanging Pawn Majoies, are covered in Endgame Strategy. Toe ther two look at typical endgame themes that aise from different openings. For example, Volume Two My Best Games of Chess 1908-1923 and 1924-1937 (wo volumes) by Alexander Alekhine (G. Bell & Sons, Lon don, 1927, 1939; or, as one volume, Dover, New York, 1985). Wonderful examples of atack and combinative i Insight. Both these books are considered tobe classics,‘Tigran Petrostan Hk Life and Games by Vik LWasiliev 1, ‘Batsford, London, 1974). The reading mixes well with the games to make Pewosian an instant hero. For those who like positional chess. ‘The Life and Games of tikhatl Tal by Mikhall Tal (LHL, Press, London, 1976), Endless sores, games, and analy- sis by one of the prestes aackers Gand most entertain Ing chess writers) who ever lve. Grandmaster of Chess: The Complete Games of Paul Keres bby Paul Keres (Arco, New York, 1972). Originally a thee volume set that has now been abridged into one (chess Praxis: The Prasts of My System by Aron Nimzovieh (over, New York, 1962). A classic that shows how Nimovich used his postional ideas. Such themes as ‘overprotection, centralization, restriction, ee, ae dis- ‘cused in deta Aron Nimzowstsc: A Reappratsalby Raymond Keene (David Mekay Company, New York, 1978), This detalled study ‘of Nimzovich’s gimes and siyle is nothing less than bilan. Fun to read and informative. Marshall's Best Games of Chess by Frank J. Marshal (Doves, ‘New York, 1942). This litle book is highlighted by a sho bat interesting bio at the beginning followed by 140 games. Marshall was famous for his swindles and tacks, The games are not subtle, bu they are a lot of fan wo watch, (One Hundred Selected Games by Mikhail Botvinoik (Dover, ‘New York, 1960). This book covers the years from 1926 to 1946, One strategic masterpiece after another. ‘My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer (Faber and aber, London, 1965). Shoot from the hip’ annotations fom arguably the greatest player of all ine. Other Kinds Of Game Collections ‘These books ae forthe serious collector, A, Alekhine Agomy of @ Chess Gentus by Pablo. Morin (eFarland & Co, Jefferson, 1985). A detailed study of Alekhine's life and games ate his fall from grace (and love affair withthe bot) Capabianca: A Compendium of Games, Notes, Articles, Cor respondence, Mustrations and Otber Rare Archival Ma- terials onthe Cuban Chess Genius osé Rail Capablanca, 1888-1942 by Edward Winter (McFarland & Co Jefferson, 1989). Litle known information about the reat Cuban World Champion. Studies his aces, cor- respondence, and games, ‘The Games of Tigran Pewosian: Volume 1: 1942-1965 and Volume 2: 1966-1983 compled by Bdvard Shekhtman Gergamon Chess, Oxford, 1991). Covers every game Persian played plus notes, sores, ee Tal-Botwinnik Match for the World Champtonship 1960 by Mikhail Tal @LELM., Press, London, 1977), Chess reading does not get much better than thst [No Regrets Fischer Spassky 1992 by Yasser Seirawan and George Stefanovic (Intemational Chess Enterprises, Se- ale, 1992) Covers the Fischer comeback match with Spassky. All the games with detalled notes, plus endless Sores, interviews, ete. One ofthe best match books ever, New n Chess Yearbook Periodical analysts of Current Open ‘ng Practice (oterchess BV, Alkmaas), Published four times a year since 1984, A great series that studies the icection of various opening systems by looking atthe latest international games ‘Chess mnformant (Chess informant, Belgrade. A legendary series that comes out every four months withthe bestames from that ime period With games listed accord ing to openings, the Cbess Myformant has become ‘must forall serious players. Chess Books For The Fanatic Reader “These final recommendations are for people who like to read about the game, its history, and its personalities. ches for Pan & Chess for Blood by Edward Lasker (Dover, ‘New York, 1952). Harmless Bul that is lots of fun, Howe to Get Better at Chess Chess Masters on Thetr Avt by lamry Evans, Jeremy Silman, and Betty Robens (Sumit Publishing Los Angeles, 191). Fifty ofthe world’s best, players give their opinions on questions such as: What books or players have influenced you the mos?; Is memory important in chess Is there an age when Improvement stops? The section that deals with anece does is tremendous fen. How to Opena Chess Gameby Larry vans, Svetoza Gligode, ‘Vasil Hor, Patl Keres, Bent Larsen, Tigran Perosian, and Lajos Porisch (RHM. Press, New York, 1974). Stories and opening advice from seven International Gus INDEX OF GAMES ‘The numbers indicate the pages where the games can be found. A bold number means that the fist mentioned player bad the White pieces. Untitled players are not mentioned more than once Abramson-Computer 385, Lists 1375 ‘Adovjan-Scheichel 159 Reshewsky 178; Akopov-Mikhalyevsky 330 Smyslov 115; AlekhineJunge 48, 99,276, Sorokin 293, Namzovich 280, Yudovich 162 Rei 43; Broastein-Bowinnik 11 Rossel 73: Browne-Karpov 21 Selesniew 227 Quinteros 256 Andersson-Karpov 275 Burm-Leonbacde 163; Aronin-Kantorovieh 50 ‘Tehigorin 254 ‘Averbach-Bowvinnik 306 Capablanca-Bogolubov 292, BisguierFiacher 294 ‘Kupehie 147 Biyiasas Silman 371 Milner-Bacry 370; Bogolubor-Capablanca 22 Treybal 133 Bowinnik-Averbach 306, Cramling-Yeola 56 Bronstein 111, 392; (CsomKorchnoi 144 Flohr 98,382; Damanovie Fischer 323 Ken 60, Darga-ivkov 198 Lilienthal 391; Denker Smyslov 198 yublinsky 383; Donner-Unzicker 202Euwe Fischer 172 Guimard 90, ‘Taimanov 121 edorowicz Silman 381 Fscher-Bisguler 254; Damjanovic 323, Euwe 172; Gadia 379, Gheowghiu 278 spassiy 181, 272, 316, “Taimanov 325 lesch-Ogaard 125 Flobr-Botwinnik 98,382; Poletayev 102 Gheorghiu-Fischer 379 Gligosie Karpov 290 Guimard-Buwe 90 HsileKovally 159 Iwanov A-Silman 225 Ivkov-Dagga 198 Janowsky-Nimzovich 176 John Schlechter 108 ‘Kan-Botvinnik 60 Kaplan-tarsen 170 Karpov-Andersson 275; Browne 210, Gligorie 290, Kasparov 182, 274, 308 Kavalek 81 Korchnoi 282 Ponisch 127 Spassky 319: Taimanov 230 Kasparov-Karpov 182,274, 308 KavalekKaepov 81 Keene: Miles 184 Keres Konstaninopols 69 KoblentTal 387 Konstantinopolski-Keres 69 Korchno-Csom 144 Karpov 282 Kovatly-Haik 159) Kuzmin-Goryelov 191 Krames-Thomas 234 Kupchik Capablanca 147 lakdawalaSiman 150 Lases-Kaplan 170; etrosian 258 Leonhardt-Burn 163 Levenfishtisitsin 389) {Uenthal-Borvinnie 391 Lssin-Bowinnle 137; Levenfish 389 Miles-Keene 184 Mulle-Amateur 369 [Najor-O'Kelly 104; Petrosian 390 'Nimzovich-Aleleine 280 “Amateurs 87; Janowsky 176; Michel 215, Rossel 375, O'Kelly Najdort 104 Pachman-Vesely 197 Peters Petrsian 248; ‘Slimaa 255 Petrosan-Larsen 258, aio 390, Peters 248, Reshevsky 228, Spassky 201,296 ‘Tal 305 Portsch-Karpov 127 Quinteros-Browne 256 Remlinger-Slman 239 Reshewsky-Bowinnik 178; Petrosan 228 Retilekehine 43 RohdeSilman 245 Rosenthal-Seinitz 118 Rossell-Alekhine 73; ‘Nimzovich 375 udakovsky-Smyslow 95, Robinstein-Wolf 122 Said Skman 29 Scheichel-Adonan 159 Schlechter John 108; Tarrasch 139 ‘Sharakowich-Brown 157 Slman-Barkan 149, Biyiasas 371; Blankenau 375, 377 Blohm 96, CCoerniecks 83; Delaune 233; Diebere 259; ay 42; Evin 288; Fedoromice 381; Piguth 186; Frankle 370, Getz 393; Glicksman 252; Gogel 112; Gorman 237; Haramie 174; Harari 298; Hating 303; Ivanov A. 225, Kelson 39,250; Kolvic 368, Kuznecov 328, Lakdawala 150 Longren 120; MacFarland 388, Magee 378; Mar 300; Mephiso 395 Minev 185; Osbun 142: Peters 255, Perranovie 384; Powell 236; Pupots 265; Remlinger 239; Rohde 245 Saidy 28, Satyam 388; Schroer 263; Shapivo 219, Sipalia 364; Spiller 299, Van Busktc 367; Villanueva 335: Wolski 371 Smysiov-Bowvink 115 Denker 193; Rudakovsky 95 Tevetkow 74 spascky-Fischer 181, 272, 316 Karpov 319; Petrosian 201, 296 Stein Rosenthal 118Stole Nisson 183 “Taimanow-Buwe 124, Fischer 325, Karpov 230; Unzicker 191 ‘Tal-Koblentz 287; Peurosian 305 Tarasch-Schlechter 139 ‘Tehigoria-Burn 254 ‘Thomas-Kramer 234 Treybal-Capablanea 133 Tsvtkow-Smyslow 74 UntickerDoniner 202, ‘Taimanov 191 ‘Wolf-Rubinstein 122 “Yodavich-Borvinnie 162 Yijola-Cramling 56