How to Be a Winner at Chess
Page 5
After ...Ra8×e8
White plays pawn takes rook (becoming a queen) check – or d×e8/Q+. Again it is checkmate. The mouse-like pawn has grown into a Frankenstein monster which forces Black’s immediate downfall.
Remove the Blockader!
In our next diagram White confronts Black with a terrible alternative: (D)
White to play
Material is even, but the decisive factor here is White’s powerful e-pawn, blocked by Black’s queen from queening. (Incidentally, what a menial job for Black’s queen – to ride herd on a mere pawn!)
White plays knight to d6 (Nd6), and Black can resign at once. Why? (D)
After Nf5-d6
His queen is attacked, and must move. Once the black queen moves, White’s e-pawn advances to the eighth rank, becoming a queen and giving check (e8/Q+). Black captures the new white queen (...Q×e8 – Black has no choice in the matter). (D)
After ...Q×e8
White now plays rook takes queen check (R×e8+). It is checkmate! But even if Black’s king had some avenue of escape, he would still be quite lost. In effect, the queening of White’s advanced pawn puts him a queen ahead.
How Pawn Promotion Wins Material
It often happens that when you obtain a new queen you can hold on to this new piece and have an enormous advantage in material. At other times – as in the position of the diagram, the new queen is captured, but at fearful cost. (D)
White to play
The position shows a simple and convincing example of this point at an advanced endgame stage:
White is only a pawn ahead – but what a pawn! It is already on the seventh rank, ready to queen. White plays pawn to e8 (becoming a queen) – or e8/Q.
Black has no choice: he captures the new queen with his rook (...R×e8), and White plays rook takes rook (R×e8). To sum up what has happened, take a look at the new diagram. (D)
After Ra8×e8
Comparing the two diagrams as a “before” and “after” tableau, you can see what has happened. Black managed to dispose of the new queen – but only at the cost of leaving White a rook ahead. White will be able to force checkmate in less than eight moves. (D)
White to play
In the above diagram White wins important material in the same fashion as on page 49.
White’s far advanced c-pawn, poised to queen gives White the whip hand. Black’s rook stands on the queening square, preventing the promotion of the menacing white pawn. White proceeds on the principle of “remove the blockader!” (as in the third diagram on page 49). The decisive move is knight to a7 (Na7). (D)
After Nb5-a7
This move points a pistol at Black. If he moves his attacked rook – and what else can he do? – the far advanced pawn moves to the eighth rank and becomes a queen.
Black must then capture the new queen with his rook. This leads to the situation of the diagram. (D)
After ...R×c8
Now White captures the black rook with his own rook or knight. As in the second diagram on page 50, White is left with a rook to the good as a result of the queening operations.
As a general proposition, we may say that the pieces of lesser value – bishop or knight – are the best blockaders of passed pawns. The more valuable the blockader, the more vulnerable he is. This sounds paradoxical, but see page 49, where the black queen is helpless.
Watch for Passed Pawns
Of course it doesn’t require an eagle eye to see the power of the far-advanced pawn by the time it has reached the seventh rank. To recognized the potentialities of a “passed pawn” is really the hallmark of a good player. Take the next diagram as an example: (D)
White to play
White’s f-pawn is a “passed pawn”. So is the a2-pawn. What makes them “passed pawns”?
We say a pawn is passed when it no longer has opposing pawns on the neighboring files that are capable of capturing it as it advances toward the queening square.
So here you have a valuable hint for improving your winning technique. When you have a passed pawn, you have a candidate for queening. Such a pawn should be guarded carefully, nursed along, and gradually advanced toward the queening square.
When you look at the positions like the ones on page 48, bear in mind that the passed pawn took quite a while to get to the seventh rank. Then it advanced one move at a time, to d4, to d5, to d6, and finally to d7.
Now back to our current diagram. White’s passed queen rook pawn (a2-pawn) is harmless right now. It’s still on its original square. White’s other passed pawn, the f6-pawn, is another story. By playing pawn to f7 (f7), White forces an immediate decision. (D)
After f6-f7
Black’s attacked rook must move, whereupon the well protected pawn advances to the eighth rank, becoming a queen.
Black must capture the new queen with his rook. White in turn pounces on the black rook and remains a rook ahead. White has an overwhelming material advantage and Black can save himself further grief by resigning on the spot.
Pawn Promotion Wins Many a Game
Earlier in this chapter the mating powers of the newly promoted queen were mentioned. In our next diagram we have a position of the greatest practical importance. (D)
White to play
Remove White’s pawn and the game is a draw. (A lone bishop cannot force checkmate.) But with the pawn ahead White can simply advance it, giving it adequate protection until it reaches the eighth rank. Then White promotes the pawn to a queen, and the win is child’s play.
One final example will show the tremendous dynamic power unleashed by a newly promoted pawn. (D)
White to play
Black has a queen for a mere pawn, and he is actually threatening checkmate by ...queen to h5 (...Qh5#) or ...queen to h1 (...Qh1#).
But luckily for White, it is his turn to move, and he completely changes the course of the game. He plays pawn to g8 (becoming a queen) check – or g8/Q+. (D)
After g7-g8/Q+
Black’s king must move out of check, allowing White’s new queen to capture Black’s queen (Q×d5). And White wins!
In the starting diagram position White had only a pawn against a queen. Nevertheless, the promotional power of White’s pawn proved stronger than Black’s already existing queen!
These examples give you an impressive picture of the power of pawn promotion. You can now see that the pawn is much more important than most players realize. You can also see why it is bad policy to be careless about losing pawns. Every pawn is a potential queen.
Looking Ahead
In the next three chapters, we shall take up the basic opening, middlegame, and endgame ideas essential to winning chess. As you read these chapters, you will want to keep in mind the three strongest moves: checks, captures, and pawn promotions.
At every point in every game you play, you want to ask yourself these three routine questions until it becomes second nature to ask them:
Is check possible?
Is a capture possible?
Is there a passed pawn that has queening possibilities?
Once you have formed the habit of asking these questions, you have made very substantial progress toward becoming a good player – a winning player.
Chapter Seven
“How Do I Get Started?”
Five Basic Rules for Opening Play
“I don’t know what to do!”
“How do I form a plan?”
“I just make any old move.”
“I’m completely bewildered.”
Rueful remarks like these more or less sum up the way inexperienced players feel at the start of a game.
Some players are so puzzled that they fly to the opposite extreme. They clamor for a foolproof plan that will provide the whole course of the future play.
No chess book can do the whole job, nor would we want it to. We want our own initiative, our own spontaneity, our own fun in playing our own game.
We cannot expect to be infallible. Even the multimil
lion-dollar electric brains are not infallible. There is the story of a scientist who had developed a mechanical calculator capable of doing the most complicated problems in jigtime. On one occasion when the machine was being demonstrated, an exceptionally difficult problem was given to the electric brain.
The scientist pushed a button. The machine banged and clattered and hissed. Bright lights flashed on and off as its “innards” heaved to solve the problem. At last, after a loud crash the answer appeared:
“Drop dead!” Something had gone wrong.
Some such result bedevils us when we try to follow instructions too literally and too far. So let us try to find some generally helpful procedures, instead of looking for infallible methods.
Simple Plans Are Best
The main difficulty of most players at the start of a game, as we’ve seen, is lack of plan.
To get over that hurdle, you don’t need a very elaborate plan of campaign. Many skillful public speakers will tell you they can deliver a much more effective speech from rough notes of a few basic ideas than from a completely prepared talk in which every last syllable is spelled out and every semicolon is carefully indicated.
The same applies to chess as well. What you need for the opening stage are a few basic rules that will work because they apply to all kinds of opening position.
And because these rules do work, they will keep you out of trouble; they will give you confidence; they will provide the momentum for reaching the middlegame with a promising position.
Five Basic Rules
These basic rules can be expressed in both positive and negative form. We’ll state them both ways for some learn best from such instructions as, “Keep off the grass.” Others find more meaning in such instructions as, “Stay on the sidewalk.”
So here are the five basic rules:
1. Bring out your pieces and pawns so that they bear on the center squares of the board.
(or: Don’t neglect the center squares.)
2. Develop your pieces rapidly.
(or: Don’t neglect your development.)
3. Develop your pieces effectively.
(or: Don’t make repeated moves with the same piece.)
4. Guard your king against enemy attack.
(or: Don’t ignore the welfare of your king.)
5. Postpone the development of the queen.
(or: Don’t play the queen out early in the game.)
Control the Center
By “the center” we mean the central group of squares indicated by crosses in the diagram. (D)
We know from a vast amount of experience that pieces are placed at their best in or near the center. From this sector they can move rapidly to any other part of the board.
On the other hand, a piece that is kept at home is ineffectual. And if played to the side of the board, a piece is generally out of the battle.
If you place your pawns in the center, you prevent hostile pieces from moving to the squares commanded by those pawns. For that reason pawn to e4 (e4) is a splendid opening move. (D)
After 1.e2-e4
Your first move has accomplished a number of important things for you. It places the king pawn on an important center square. It prevents your opponent from bringing his pieces to d5 and f5, the two squares commanded by your pawn at e4.
Nor is this all that this first move accomplishes for you. Study the diagram and you will observe that the move of the e-pawn has opened the diagonal of your king bishop (now still at home at f1). You have also made it possible for your queen to move. However, you do not want to move that piece too early in the game.
Now what should Black do? On this point he can consult the great Chigorin, one of the outstanding masters of the nineteenth century.
When Chigorin had White, he played pawn to e4 (1.e4) on his first move and felt that he had the better of it. When he had Black, he answered his opponent’s pawn to e4 (1.e4) by playing ...pawn to e5 (1...e5) in the sincere conviction that he had at least an even game.
This may sound like bad logic, but it is good psychology, and we will adopt it. Black answers ...pawn to e5 (1...e5) and thus gives his position all the benefits White obtained from the same move. (D)
After 1...e7-e5
Let’s sum up the first rule in this way, then: Play to control the center, and always play out the king pawn (e-pawn) on your first move.
Develop Quickly
To win games, you have to put your pieces to work. They exert no force while roosting on their initial squares. To “develop” means to play them out so they can come to grips with the enemy. The faster they develop, the faster you can become aggressive.
Now back to our last diagram. You can play out your king knight (at g1) or you can develop your king bishop (at f1). What should be your choice?
Well, let’s see. Bishops move on diagonals and they sometimes have a choice of several possible squares on a diagonal. Thus, you can play bishop to c4 (Bc4); although bishop to b5 (Bb5) may seem desirable a little later.
Suppose on the other hand, we consider moving out the knight first. Can we reach an immediate decision about where to move the knight? Yes we can.
We have a choice of knight to h3 (Nh3); or knight to e2 (Ne2); or knight to f3 (Nf3). (D)
After 2.Ng1-h3
This is the position we will have if we play knight to h3 (2.Nh3). It is not inviting, for the knight has little scope at h3. It has only three possible moves, none of them located to a square in the center. (Because of its short hopping move, the knight is best placed in the center.)
For these reasons, we rule out knight to h3 (Nh3). And precisely for these reasons, knights are rarely played to squares on the rook files (a-or h-files). Now let’s consider another possibility: knight to e2 (2.Ne2). (D)
After 2.Ng1-e2
This is the position we reach after knight to e2 (Ne2). This development is also not inviting, although the knight does have five possible moves from the e2-square.
Another merit of playing the knight to e2 is that it strikes at the d4-square – one of the vital center squares.
But these advantages are completely cancelled out by the fact that the knight at e2 blocks the development of White’s king bishop at f1. Always distrust opening moves that block the development of some other piece!
Now only one other move is left for White’s king knight, That move is shown in the next diagram: knight to f3 (2.Nf3). (D)
The more we study this move the more it appeals to us. First, the knight attacks Black’s e-pawn at e5 and threatens to capture it. Development plus attack is the most economical form of development there is. Black is already on the defensive.
After 2.Ng1-f3
Secondly, on f3 the knight has far more scope than the knight gets from playing to h3 or e2. Note also that the knight strikes at two important center squares – e5 and d4. This tells us that the knight has a fine future at f3.
A final point – at this square the knight does not block the development of White’s king bishop.
Now we come to two conclusions:
1. The king knight should almost invariably go to f3 in the opening. You can forget about the alternative possibilities for this knight.
2. We know where we want to develop the king knight, whereas the king bishop’s development is still in doubt. Therefore we develop the king knight before the king bishop.
Let’s return to the last diagram to see how Black proceeds. He needs to protect his king pawn at e5, and he ought to do it with a developing move. The answer as seen in the next diagram: ...knight to c6 (2...Nc6). (D)
After 2...Nb8-c6
Black has done well. His e5-pawn is defended. Now it is White’s turn, and the logical move is to play out his bishop. He has two moves, either one quite good: bishop to c4 (3.Bc4), or bishop to b5 (3.Bb5).
This is an example of simple, purposeful development that will serve you well in game after game. Thus your opening problems are greatly simplified.
You can pay a heavy pr
ice for neglecting your development; therefore, don’t lose valuable time by running after some decoy pawn. Such a chase will cost you time and effort. It will leave you way behind in development and very likely expose you to sharp retaliation.
Don’t make one pawn move after another – as many players do because they don’t understand the value of development. Take the following position, after each side has made six moves: (D)
White has played out both his center pawns; he has developed both knights to their best squares; he has developed his king bishop; he has castled, bringing his king to safety. In short, White has achieved a great deal in six moves.
What has Black done? He has moved six pawns, and his utterly miserable position offers no promise whatever. Broadly speaking, many games are won or lost in the opening. Here it is no exaggeration to say that Black has lost the game in the opening.
Develop Effectively
This rule tells us it is not enough to develop rapidly; we must also develop effectively. In other words, bring pieces out to their best squares – the squares on which they do their best work. In the diagrams on pages 56-57 we see poor development of White’s king knight. On page 57 we see splendid development of the same knight.