How to Be a Winner at Chess
Page 7
Let’s emphasize this again, because there is a moral to this that can be applied to win repeatedly.
White has three units that cooperate powerfully to bring about the downfall of Black’s king. The other white units do not cooperate in this project – but neither do they hinder, nor are they afflicted with any weakness that might distract White from his winning maneuver.
Black’s pieces, on the other hand, do not work together. They are scattered, jumbled. Their present ineffectual state is the result of thoughtless, creeping development.
Finally Black decides to “unpin” his knight at g7. He gets his king off the vulnerable line by playing ...king to e8 (...Ke7-e8). (D)
After ...Ke7-e8
Black’s despairing king move has not affected the basic ailment from which his position suffers. His position still remains crowed, his pieces are still crippled by bad communication.
White now advances his h-pawn to h6 (h5-h6 – see the next diagram) and Black discovers to his horror that his unfortunate knight is still pinned! For if the attacked knight moves there follows queen takes rook (Q×b7). This is the kind of punishment that overtakes a player when his pieces do not cooperate and consequently become vulnerable to enemy attack. (D)
After h5-h6
The two basic techniques then, for winning in the middlegame are to give your pieces as much mobility as you can, and to see that they cooperate with each other. As you try to achieve these objectives, you will also strengthen your opening play. As you develop your pieces in the opening, you will ask yourself, “Will these pieces be active later on?” and “Can they work together, or will they be separated from each other?”
This will lead to an improvement in your play that will help you win more games. As you give more attention to the middlegame factors, you will play the opening more thoughtfully. As your handling of the opening improves, you achieve more promising middlegame positions. It all adds up to better chess – winning chess.
Chapter Nine
The Endgame Is the Payoff
Five Basic Rules for Endgame Play
Some years ago I saw a picture of two chimpanzees “playing” chess. The picture was good for a laugh, but it reminded me of an interesting experiment.
This experiment was devised by scientists who wanted to find out whether chimpanzees could be induced to work. By lifting an eighteen-pound handle on a “work machine,” the chimpanzees could obtain a poker chip. When they inserted the chip in a slot machine, they received a grape for their effort.
The animals took to these machines with astonishing skill, yet one feature was striking; as soon as the chimps were no longer hungry, they stopped work.
It would be impossible to apply the psychology of the chimps to chess. All the moves of a game make up a single unit. In chess, we can’t quit when we’re ahead. Unlike the indolent chimps, we have to play out the game to a finish. And this is what makes the endgame so important.
In a game of chess the endgame is the pay-off. This is the concluding stage, reached when most of the pieces have been traded off. Here a player pushes his advantage to a logical conclusion – if he can. If he has gained material, he uses his extra material to enforce checkmate or to queen a pawn – if he knows how.
To “know how” is the secret of good endgame play. Five basic principles stand out when it comes to playing the endgame effectively. Here they are:
Know the elementary checkmates.
Have your king play an active role.
Utilize passed pawns.
Post rooks on the seventh rank.
Simplify when you have a material advantage.
Know the Elementary Checkmates
When you are ahead in material and your opponent refuses to resign, you may be called on to force checkmate. This makes it essential for you to know the elementary positions in which you can checkmate with a minimum for force.
The checkmate of king and queen against king is the easiest. The diagram following shows a standard mating position. (D)
Final position
Another standard mating position with king and queen is shown in the first diagram on page 16 in Chapter One.
When we come to checkmating with a rook we are confronted with a somewhat harder problem. The rook can force checkmate only in the following manner. (D)
Final position
Whether checkmating with queen or rook, it is necessary to drive the enemy king to one of the sides of the board. The above diagram shows a typical rook mating position.
One bishop cannot enforce checkmate, but two bishops can. The two-bishop mate requires forcing the enemy king into a corner as in Chapter Three, page 27 and in the diagram below. (D)
Final position
The checkmate with bishop and knight also requires “cornering” the enemy king. This checkmate is shown in the next diagram. (D)
Final position
Note that the corner square must be controlled by the bishop. Here Black is at h8, a dark square, and White has a dark-squared bishop.
In all these elementary checkmates, it is clear that the king of the winning side makes an important contribution to the setting up of the checkmate position. This leads to the second basic principle.
Have Your King Play an Active Role
To avoid any confusion about this advice, remember that it applies only to the endgame.
In the opening and middlegame, the chief role played the king is that of a target. In these earlier portions of the game, with all or most of the pieces on the board, the king is best handled by being kept away from the scenes of greatest activity.
But in the endgame most of the pieces have disappeared. The danger to the king is greatly reduced. At last the king can venture forth and play an active part in the game.
To say that the king should be active means that this piece should be centralized. Once in the center, the king is ready to move fairly quickly to any sector of the board.
The diagram following illustrates this point effectively. (D)
Black to play
Here both kings are centralized but Black’s pawns are vulnerable, and White’s king is more aggressively placed.
Suppose for example, Black plays ...king to d6 (...Kd6). White replies king to f5 (Kf5), winning a pawn on the next move. This will give White a passed pawn, which he can then advance until it reaches the eighth rank and becomes a queen.
Or coming back to the diagram, suppose Black plays ...king to f6 (...Kf6). In that case White plays king to d5 (Kd5), again winning a pawn and winning the game in the same way.
In the next diagram Black’s king is effectively centralized: (D)
Black to play
Black plays ...king to f3 (...Kf3). (D)
After ...Ke4-f3
This aggressive move carries a threat of a subsequent move of ...king to e2 (...Ke2), forcing White’s protective knight to move – after which Black can capture the f-pawn at f2, with an easy win. (Note in all these examples that the advancing king is in no danger because the material has been reduced considerably.)
Another example of a powerfully centralized king is offered in the next diagram: (D)
Black’s king is so far advanced that White is practically paralyzed.
Black to play
Black wins here by advancing the pawns on the queenside, where he has four pawns to three. First he plays ...pawn to b5 (...b5) and ...pawn to a5 (...a5) and ...pawn to b4 (...b4). Then, after several pawn exchanges, Black reaches the position of the next diagram. (D)
Black to play
Black now plays ...pawn to c3 (...c3) forcing a passed pawn that will win quickly for him.
These examples reveal the vast power unleashed by the king in the endgame stage. Skillful maneuvering with the king will win many an endgame in which the material is even at the start.
Utilize Passed Pawns
In Chapter Six you saw many examples of the promotional powers of the pawn. Most endgames center around the struggle to turn a p
assed pawn into a queen.
Inexperienced players are unaware of the strength of the passed pawn, and thus miss many winning opportunities. The following diagram shows how quickly a passed pawn leads to victory. (D)
White to play
White’s knight is attacked. Instead of bothering to defend this piece, White plays an astounding move: pawn to e6 (e6). The passed pawn advances.
After Black’s reply ...bishop takes knight (...B×f4) White has still another remarkable move: pawn to e7 (e7). This leads to the following position: (D)
If Black captures the white rook, White advances his king pawn to the eighth rank, obtaining a new queen.
And so in the position of the diagram, Black has nothing better than ...rook to c8 (...Rc8). When the pawn advances to the eighth rank, becoming a queen, Black’s rook captures the new queen.
After e6-e7
White recaptures with his rook. He thus remains with rook against bishop – an easy win for White.
Our next diagram offers another convincing example of the power of the passed pawn: (D)
White to play
In this position with material even, most players might find no feature worthy of special notice.
Actually there is a factor here which gives White an easy victory. His a-pawn at a2 is a “remote passed pawn” – a weapon against which Black is helpless.
White plays pawn to a4 (a2-a4). If Black makes no effort to stop this pawn, it will go right on to the queening square. Consequently, Black must play ...king to d8 (...Kd8) in order to capture the sinister passed pawn.
But now Black has abandoned his pawns to the inroad of the white king. White answers king takes pawn (K×f7), and proceeds to capture the remaining black pawns as well, after which he will be in a position to queen one of his remaining pawns.
These examples indicate how you can make use of passed pawns to win in the endgame.
Post Rooks on the Seventh Rank
Still another characteristic and formidable endgame weapon is the placement of a rook on the seventh rank.
When you post a rook on the seventh rank you are generally attacking several hostile pawns. The need for defending them ties down your opponent’s forces and gives you a strong initiative. It often happens in the course of the endgame that you can advance your king to add to the pressure.
The following position is a good example of the possibilities resulting from seventh-rank penetration. (D)
One big distinction which we noted in several middlegame positions also appears here.
White’s all-powerful rook is active, Black’s purely defensive rook is passive. Similarly, Black’s king is burdened with the job of guarding his g-pawn at g7, whereas White’s king is poised for activity.
White to play
Note the enormous scope of White’s rook. To the right, it attacks Black’s gpawn at g7 and ties the black king to the defense of this pawn. To the left, White’s rook attacks the a-pawn at a7 and ties Black’s rook to the defense of this pawn.
This strict passivity is Black’s role in this ending. White, on the other hand, has two winning possibilities: one is to bring his king to g6. This will win Black’s g7-pawn, followed by the win of more pawns.
White’s other winning method is to bring his king to a6. This will win Black’s a7-pawn, followed by the win of more pawns.
From this characteristic diagram you can realize the stifling pressure exerted by a rook on the seventh rank – in the heart of the enemy position. This maneuver will often assure you victory in the endgame stage.
The principle of the seventh rank can be extended still further: rooks are always most effective in aggressive setups. Passivity is often fatal.
Simplify When You Have a Material Advantage
Frank Marshall, the leading American master for many years, once gave this sage advice: When you have the better of it, play simply. When the game is going against you, look for complications.
There is an important moral here for the player who has obtained a material advantage. Simplicity is in his favor. Why? Because if the game proceeds along tranquil lines, he will go to turn his material advantage into victory.
On the other hand, complicated play often leads to confusion or inconsistency or lack of concentration on the main goal.
Here is the recommended course: When you are ahead in material, seek exchanges that will make it easier for you to use your material advantage while at the same time avoiding needless complications.
This usually involves getting rid of the queens. As the queen is the strongest piece, removing the queens is the surest way to rule out complications.
The diagram shows one way of simplifying. (D)
White to play
White, who is a pawn to the good, wants to simplify the position by exchanging queens. He achieves his purpose by playing queen to e4 check (Qe4+). (D)
After Qe3-e4+
This forces the exchange of queens no matter what Black does. Once the queens are off, White has a straightforward ending, with no middlegame problems to be considered.
What will his winning plan be? He has four pawns to three on the queenside. He will advance these until, by means of exchanges, he obtains a passed pawn. He will then aim to queen the passed pawn. These tasks become a lot easier with the queens out of the way.
A different technique solves the same problem in our next position. (D)
White to play
White has two ways of forcing the immediate exchange of queens. Let’s consider one way: queen to d4 (Qd4). This move offers the exchange of queens and also threatens queen takes a-pawn (Q×a7).
Black is already a pawn down. If he evades the exchange of queens, he will lose a second pawn – a loss that he cannot afford. He therefore plays ... queen takes queen (...Q×d4) and White replies rook takes queen (R×d4). (D)
After Rd1×d4
Again the complications have been removed.
This example ends our study of the five basic principles of endgame play. You will find that knowing and applying these principles is very rewarding, for few players are familiar with endgame technique. Playing the endgame well will be an immense help to you if you want to become a winner at chess.
Here, once again, are the five important principles of endgame play:
Know the elementary checkmates.
Have your king play an active role.
Utilize passed pawns.
Post rooks on the seventh rank.
Simplify when you have a material advantage.
Chapter Ten
“You Can’t Move That Piece”
Winning by Pinning
In chess, they say, the threat is stronger than its fullfilment. A threat which hangs over a player’s head like the proverbial sword of Damocles may cause him great uneasiness. On the other hand, the execution of the threat brings at least the relief of getting rid of the suspense.
Among chess players, the mental anguish caused by threats may take strange forms. Take the case of a famous grandmaster named Nimzovich who hated smoking in all its forms. If an opponent tried to smoke during a tournament game, Nimzovich headed like an arrow for the tournament director and protested bitterly.
One day Nimzovich was paired to play Vidmar, another outstanding master. Vidmar was a great cigar smoker, but he abstained in deference to Nimzovich’s well-known hatred for smoking.
However, Vidmar could not resist teasing Nimzovich by setting out his cigar case on the chess table. Nimzovich eyed the cigars nervously for hours. Finally he could no longer restrain himself and rushed off with his complaint to the tournament director. After listening patiently to Nimzovich, the official was baffled.
“But you admit he hasn’t smoked, so what are you complaining about?”
“True,” Nimzovich replied, wringing his hands; “but he threatens to smoke, and you know, with us chessplayers, the threat is stronger than the fulfillment!”
The Irritating Pin
Of all the different kinds o
f threats, the pin is undoubtedly the most irritating.
The pin is an attack by a queen, a rook, or a bishop on an enemy unit that screens another from attack. The diagram shows a typical case. (D)
Black’s bishop at c5 is pinning White’s knight. The knight in turn screens the white king from attack. A pin of this kind, where the king is the screened piece, is called an “absolute” pin. The pinned piece cannot move, because that would expose the king to attack. This is prohibited by the rules of chess.
Sometimes a piece may continue to be pinned for a long time. In some cases it may be attacked several additional times, for in chess it’s praiseworthy to hit a chessman when he’s down. Even where the pressure is not increased, it is very burdensome to be subject to a nagging pin. Many a time a long-standing pin has goaded a player into some impatient dash for freedom that quickly proved fatal.
The pin, then, is a powerful weapon in several ways.
To be familiar with it is of great practical value, for pins are probably the most frequent kind of attack seen on the chessboard. A good working knowledge of pins will win many games for you.
How Pins Work
The quickest way to appreciate pins and learn how to use them is to study some devastating examples. Our next example shows the tremendous power of the absolute pin. (D)