Simple chess S 2 John Emms| at Lovers” Holla evenbody! We area group of chess fans who are producing new chess material. We have members frm all around the ‘world, belonging fo iflerent cultures and speaking diferent languages, al of us jined by our common love for chess! We hops you wl enjoy our work! you are intecested in joining us. or send any comments drop us an ema a. calssa lovers @yahoo.com, Best regards! Hota os! esaotlndo diferentes proyectos © fdas, Tenemos micros de diferentes partes del mundo, provenientes de aura dense bah nn act Pormmede ain ort hess apes au asst ce Caissa Loverssimple chess mastering the basic principles by John Emms. EVERYMAN CHESSFirst published in 2001 by Everyman Publishers plc, formerly Cadogan Books ple, Gloucester Mansions, 140 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8HD Copyright © 2001 John Emms ‘The right of John Emms to be identified asthe author ofthis work has been a sereed in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Allright reserved. No part this publication may be reproduced, stored ina retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, clecrostatic, magnetic ‘ape, photocopying, recordngor others, withou rir permission ofthe publisher British Library Cataloguing in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is availabe from the British Library ISBN 1 85744 2385 Distributed in North America by The Globe Pequot Press, P.O Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480. Allother sales enquiries should be directed to Everyman Chess, Gloucester Maa sions, HOA Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H HD tel: 020 7539 7600 fax: 020 7379 4060 email: dan@everyman.uk.com ‘website: wwrw.everymancuk.com EVERYMAN CHESS SERIES (formerly Cadogan Chess) Chief advisor: Garry Kasparov ‘Commissioning editor: Byron Jacobs ‘Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishing, Brighton, Production by Book Production Services. Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.Bibliography Introduction Outposts Pieces: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly The Bishop Pair Strong Pawns and Weak Pawns ‘The Isolated Queen’s Pawn (IQP) Mijorities and Minorities (Other Positional Features ” o 62 a 109 125BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Bishop v Knight: the verdict, Steve Mayer (Batsford 1997) Dynamic Ches Strategy, Mihai Suba (Pergamon 1991) Easy Guide othe Nimzorndian, Joho Eras (Everyman 1998) Encyclopaciia of Chess Openings volumes A-E Sahovski Informator 2001) Endgame Secrets, Christopher Lutz (Batsford 1999) Judgement and Planning x Chess, Max Euwe (Batsford 1998) ‘Kramnik: My Lifeand Games, Viadimir Kramnik and lakov Damsky (Everyman 2000) ‘My System, 2st Century Edition, Aron Nimzowitsch (Hays 1991) Positional Play, Mark Dvoretsky and Artur Yusupoy (Batsford 1996) Positional Sacrfices, Neil McDonald (Cadogan 1994) Queen's Gambit Declined, Matthew Sadler (Everyman 2000) Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy, John Watson (Gambit 1998) ‘Simple Chess, Michael Stean (Faber 8 Faber 1978) ‘The Development of Ches Sele, Max Euwe and John Nunn (Batsford 1997) ‘The Games of Robert Facher, Robert Wade, Kevin O'Connell el Batsford 1972) ‘The Mammoth Book ofthe World's Greatest Chess Games, Graham Burgess, John ‘Nunn and John Emms (Robinson 1998) ‘The Oxford Companion to Chess, David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld (Oxford 1996) Understanding Chess Move by Move, John Nunn (Gambit 2001) Understanding Pawn Play in Obes, Drazen Marovie (Gambit 2000) Winning Pavan Structures, Alexander Baburin (Basford 1998) Winning with the Philidor, Tony Kosten (Batsford 1992) Periodicals ChessBase Magazine (ChessPublishing com Informator ‘The Week in ChessINTRODUCTION In the beginning, I, like many others, found chess o be a simple game. Just rove your pawn to e4, bishop t0 cf, queen to hS, capture on {7 and hey presto, i's checkmate! lost count ofthe ‘number of games I won ia that manner at infart’s school ‘Okay, so this could only lasso long. Gradually my opponents wised upandT realised that a more refined approach was required for continued success. By thistime, however, [was already geared upwith a warehouse fll f tactical tricks to spring on my unsuspecting victims. Winning material was the aim of the game and mine were full of forks, pins and skewers. Once up on material, the rest ofthe game was an easy ‘hoovering ‘up promoting pawns and checkmating operation, ‘But even this couldn't last. Suddenly sy next plateau was reached ~ my more experienced opponents wouldn' fall for any of my tricks anymore. Worse than this they were slowly bu surely grinding sme down to defeat with something called ‘positional chess. Finally the eal work hhad to begin. ‘This book is aimed an introduction topositional chess what to do when you reach a level where the phrase ‘chess is 99% tactics no longer applicable; what tothink about when your opponentssee your traps even before you've set thems hhow to exploita minate advantage such asa better pawn structure of a8 oppo: nent’ badly placed piece. Part of the inspiration for this book. originally stemmed from when moved toKentand began getting involved more and more with chess coaching at junior levels. A few years ago I came across “Michael Stean’s original Srsple Chess and wasso impressed with the style and cla ity of his work that I began using many ‘of his examples when coaching. I dis covered that these examples successfully managed 10 get the important points acrossto the young players and this led toanimprovement oftheir understand- ing and practical play. Ido have confession to make, how- ever. It was only recently that [finally got round to reading Nimzowitsch’s MySystem. So I guess itis posible to be- ‘come grandmaster without reading the classics! However, perhaps my journey woulda't have taken so long if 1 had taken thetimeto read it fifteen yeasago. ‘At lease I now feelin more ofa posi tiontoadd some of my own thoughtson positional ches, trying reflect some of the slight changes in moder chessstrat- cgy,and studying more uptodate battles beeween the grandmasters of today. As Ive said before, thisbook isin the main an introduction to many of the impor tant positional aspects of the game, In some topics I delved farther than inoth- «ers, but [hope this is down to practical usefulness as well as my own interest in the subject. | decided to spit the book into three sections: pieces, pawns and other posi- tional ideas. The first thee chapcers deal ‘with how to and how nortorake care of your pieces. This includes aspects such, a how to use ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bishops, how to create, exploit and fight for out- posts, and how to use open files and diagonals. Chapters 46 deal with pawns and the different structures commonly found in practice. This includes doubled pawns, isolated pawns, backward pawns, hang” ing pawns, pawa majorities and pawn minorities. Also in this section I deal with the Isolated Queen's Pawn (QP), something which has always interested sme and occurs surprisingly often in prac- Finally wedleal with futher positional aspects such a space, colour complexes, prophylaxis, opposite coloured bishops and positional sacrifices. Naturally there willbe some overlap. Many of the examples studied contain ‘more than one positional characteristic. For example, where there’ abackward pawn, you're more than likely tofindan ‘outpost and, possibly a‘bad’ bishop. Irs very rare tofind a modern gameto have ‘only one positional feature, though rmanty have one dominant positional far make no apologies forthe fact that many samples of my own games have crept in. For one thing is easier for me to remember my thoughts during the game and much of this, as yet, unpub- lished. Also, from both my own exper: ‘ence of annotating other people's games and seeing the results of people annotat- ing my games, know how much more difficult i is to annotate when you are personally not involved. I’seasy to miss a critical moment and no amount of study can make up for not having the ‘experience of living through both the ‘game and the post-mortem, Finally I would like to thank Chris ‘Ward for some material and my editor Byron Jacobs for his patience and sup- por. John Emms, Kent, October 2001