Chess

Bancroft Middle School

Chess Champion
2010

Kevin Marroquin 1.-Place
Christopher De Leon 2.- Place
Jonathan Hurtado 3.- Place
Tae Kim 4.- Place
Guanzon Anthony 5.- Place
Sobrina Fontilla 6.- Place
Aguilar, Sky Bear 7.- Place
Mathew Villagarcia 8.-Place
Catherene Morales 9.-Places
Nima Khalaji 10. Place
Julio Escobar 11.- Place

BANCROFT LIBRARY

update: 05/27/2010
at 15:30
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Rules

1.-Be Quiet

2.-You Touch You Move

3.-You Let it go, You Must let it go

4.-Respect Your Opponent

5.-Think Before You Move

6.-It Helps, If You Record Your Moves

THE 64
COMMANDMENTS
OF CHESS

A Summary of Hints, Pointers and Precepts from the
ABCs of Chess

by Bruce Pandolfini provided by Lonnie Lee Best

Be aggressive, but play soundly.

Don't take unnecessary chances.
Make sure every move has a purpose.
If you know your opponent's style, take advantage of it.

But, in the final analysis, play the board, not the player.
Don't ignore your opponent's moves.
Don't give needless checks.

Check only when it makes sense.
Answer all threats.

Try to do so by improving your position and/or posing a counter-threat.
Play for the initiative.

If you already have it, maintain it.

If you don't have it, seize it.
When exchanging, try to get at least as much as you give up.
Take with the man of least value, unless there is a definite reason for doing otherwise.
Cut your losses.

If you must lose material, lose as little as possible.
If you blunder, don't give up fighting.

After getting the advantage, your opponent may relax and let you escape.
Never play a risky move, hoping your opponent will overlook your threat, unless you have a losing position.

In that case, you have nothing to lose.
Rely on your own powers.

If you can't see the point of your opponent's move, assume there isn't any.
Don't sacrifice without good reason.
When you can't determine whether to accept or decline a sacrifice, accept it.
Attack in number.

Don't rely on just one or two pieces.
Look for double attacks.
Play for the center: guard it, occupy it, influence it.
Fight for the center with pawns.
Don't make careless pawn moves.

In the opening, move as few pawns as necessary to complete your development.
If feasible, move both center pawns two squares each.
In the opening, move only center pawns.

Unless the opening system or situation requires otherwise.
Try to develop your Bishops before blocking them in by moving a center pawn just one square.
Develop your pieces quickly, preferably toward the center (especially Knights, which often are "grim on the rim").
Develop purposefully, and not just for development's sake.
Don't waste time or moves.

Try to develop a new piece on each turn.

Don't move a piece twice in the opening without good reason.
Try to develop with threats, but don't threaten pointlessly.
Develop minor pieces early.

King-side pieces should usually be developed sooner than Queen-side ones, and Knights before Bishops.
Develop during exchanges.
To exploit an advantage in development, attack.
In the opening, don't remove your Queen from play to "win" a pawn.
Don't bring out the Queen too early, unless the natural course of play requires it.
Try to give as much scope to your pieces as possible.
Seize open lines.
Develop Rooks to open files, or to files likely to open.
Castle early.
Try to prevent your opponent's King from castling.

Keep it trapped in the center, especially in open games.
Try to pin your opponent's pieces.

Avoid pins against your own pieces.
Don't capture pinned pieces until you can benefit from doing so.

If possible, try to attack them again, especially with pawns.
After castling, don't move the pawns in front of your King without specific reason.
To attack the King, pick a target square around it.
When applicable, pick target squares on the color of your unopposed Bishop.

(Bishops control squares of only one color. If you have a Bishop that controls dark squares and your opponent has exchanged his corresponding Bishop, your dark-squared Bishop is "unopposed" on those squares.)
Look for tactics especially on squares of the color controlled by your unopposed bishop.
Try to avoid early exchanges of Bishops for Knights.
Double your attacking pieces by building batteries (two or more pieces of like power attacking along the same line). Put queen and Rook(s) on the same file or rank, and Queen and Bishop on the same diagonal.
Build batteries with the less valuable men up front, unless tactics require otherwise.
Maximize the efficiency of your moves.

Play flexibly.
To strengthen control of a file, double your major pieces (Rooks and/or Queen) on it.
Determine whether you have an open or closed game, and play accordingly.
Usually play to retain you Bishops in open games, and sometimes Knights in closed games.
To improve the scope of your Bishop, place your pawns on squares opposite in color to it.
Keep your weaknesses on the color opposite to that of your opponent's strongest Bishop.
Trade when ahead in material or when under attack, unless you have a sound reason for doing otherwise.

Avoid trades when behind in material or when attacking.
Choose a plan and stay with it.

Change it only if you should or must.
To gain space, you usually have to sacrifice time.
If cramped, free your game by exchanging material.
Trade bad minor pieces for good ones.
If the position is unsettled, disguise your plans: make noncommittal moves.
To gain space or open lines, advance pawns.
If the center is blocked, don't automatically castle.
If behind in development, keep the game closed.
Try to accumulate small advantages.
Try to dominate the seventh rank, especially with Rooks.
Use the analytic method.

When you don't know what to do, first evaluated the position (as best you can), then ask pertinent questions about your analysis.
update:
05/25/2010
15:30

NUMBER	NAME	POINTS	PLACE	Mr.Perez and Jose Mejia
11	Kevin Marroquin	171.5	1	Teachers = 7 points each
26	Christopher De Leon	171	2	Draw = .5
8	Jonathan Hurtado	157	3	Won = 1 point
7	Tae, Kim	123	4	Lost = 0
38	Guanzon, Anthony	100.5	5
2	Sabrina Fontilla	91	6
14	Aguilar, Sky Bear	80	7
6	Mathew Villagarcia	79.5	8
1	Catherene Morales	65.5	9
16	Teachers.	60	10
10	Nima Khalaji	58	11
13	Julio Escobar	55	12
32	Ramirez, Jose	54.5	13
4	Kevin L A	39.5	14
19	Bosque, A	29	15
17	Diego Camilii	26.5	16
34	Nicdao,	24	17
30	Michael Suarez	22	18
27	Angel Rivera	21.5	19
15	Portillo, Daniel	21.5	19
80	Hernandez, Alex	20	20
43	Sanchez, E	18.5	21
42	Vlasac, D	15	22
67	Hernandez, Orlando	13	23
70	Cayetano, Felipe	12	24
20	Vahagh K	12	24
31	Mendez, A	11	25
21	Elijah Harris	10.5	26
59	Justin Juarez	10	27
86	Edwin Calzada	9.5	28
3	Brenda Aguirre	7	29
40	Galven,	6.5	30
69	Ramirez, B	4	31
12	Roger Riviera	4	31
45	Adams, Djabra	3	32
53	Kevin Rodriguez	3	32
65	Oleg Chernov	3	32
68	Quite, N	2.5	33
88	Wolfredo Trujillo	2.5	33
18	Cruz, Michael	2	34
89	Dulce Jimena	2	34
5	Fredy Vazquez	2	34
76	Lopez, B. L	2	34
47	Mheryan, Robert	2	34
73	Miguel Menevarr	2	34
85	Nicole Bautizta	2	34
90	Paul Safar	2	34
64	Vanessa Dominguez	2	34
23	Lopez, Ricardo	1.5	35
82	Cruz, Eduardo	1	36
71	Cyntia, Enriquez	1	36
60	Navid Khalaji	1	36
35	Nova, Luis	1	36
93	Rodmir Mechishchev	1	36
97	Saint	1	36
36	Taron Tonoyan	1	36
81	Curado, Byron	0.5	37
46	Marroquin, E	0.5	37
55	Ogulcer Yetke	0.5	37
92	Angel Castro	0	38
79	Angel Lopez	0	38
94	Angelica Esplana	0	38
91	Armando, Lopez	0	38
41	Arres,	0	38
61	Arturo Mheryan	0	38
51	Batis Brown	0	38
39	Bautizta	0	38
24	Christine M.	0	38
75	Cyello Michael	0	38
62	David Margouryan	0	38
77	Diaz, B	0	38
96	Elliot Sietz	0	38
57	Emily Torres	0	38
9	Giovanni Tejada	0	38
48	Gor Horhamisyan	0	38
78	Hernandez, DeLeon	0	38
29	Herson Rivera	0	38
37	Hrachia Sahakyan	0	38
58	Jaime Surio	0	38
99	Jairo Echeverria	0	38
100	James Martinez	0	38
72	Jenne Cortez	0	38
50	Jhester Penafiel	0	38
52	Julio Gomez	0	38
74	Karen Itskana	0	38
56	Karina Guerrero	0	38
33	Larte, A	0	38
49	Lluvia Nunez	0	38
98	Lopez, Armando	0	38
83	Lopez, Jesus	0	38
95	Mark Orbe	0	38
28	Marvin Salinas	0	38
84	Mellado, Rubaldo	0	38
63	Mohamed Issabi	0	38
54	Muratan, Yethe	0	38
44	Neftaly	0	38
25	Rickeira, P.	0	38
22	Ross, Edgar	0	38
66	Terroneo, Gipson	0	38
87	Z	0	38

1
a b c d e f g h

(1) Grischuk,A (2736) - Topalov,V (2805) [E15]

XXVII SuperGM Linares ESP (9), 23.02.2010

White Black

1.d4 - - Nf6

2.c4 -- e6

3.Nf3 -- b6

6.Bd2 -- Be7

56.Kf2 1-0

Warriors of the Mind

In contrast to Elo and Sonas's systems, Raymond Keene and Nathan Divinsky's book Warriors of the Mind^[15] attempts to establish a rating system claiming to compare directly the strength of players active in different eras, and so determine the strongest player of all time. Considering games played between sixty-four of the strongest players in history, they come up with the following top ten:^[16]

Garry Kasparov, 3096
Anatoly Karpov, 2876
Bobby Fischer, 2690
Mikhail Botvinnik, 2616
José Raúl Capablanca, 2552
Emanuel Lasker, 2550
Viktor Korchnoi, 2535
Boris Spassky, 2480
Vasily Smyslov, 2413
Tigran Petrosian, 2363
Judy Polgar** (the best chess female) ** Look at the end of this webpage.

Bancroft Chess Tournament 2010
update 02/24/2010

prodigy from Macedonia

Marko Calasan plays chess with his friend Bojana Vasilevska (notpictured) in Skopje February 8, 2010. Macedonia, which hopes to transform itself into a regional tech centre, could not be more proud of nine-year-old Marko Calasan, who recently became one of the world's youngest Microsoft Certified System Engineers.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHESS
WISDOM
THE GOLD NUGGETS OF CHESS KNOWLEDGE
Opening, Middlegame, Endgame, Strategies, Tactics, Psychology, More
The Essential Concepts & Thinking that Every Chess Player Must Know
Eric Schiller CARDOZA PUBLISHING

Except among rank beginners, games are not decided by checkmate in the first few moves. A long term strategy is needed to create the circumstances in which a mating attack is likely to be successful. Strategic skill is not easy to acquire. Where tactics are mostly a matter of pattern recognition, strategic planning requires intelligence.
Planning requires several things. You must have a good objective grasp of the situation. This is actually the hard part. Once you have worked out the relative merits of each side’s position, you can determine whether attack or defense is appropriate. Then you can choose the appropriate form of action.
Although serious errors may change the direction of a game radically, Steinitz’s concept that a chess game is won through the accumulation of small advantages still remains the foundation of modern chess. Attack or defend as the position requires, not as your mood dictates. Objectivity is crucial, and each configuration of pieces must be evaluated dispassionately.
The evaluation of a position takes into account both permanent and temporary factors. Of course no advantage is really permanent, a bad move can easily throw it away. Better to think of it as an advantage which you can hold on to.

I.- PERMANENT ADVANTAGES

• Material advantage
• More pawns in center
• Passed pawns
•Weak enemy squares (whether or not occupied by enemy piece)
• Healthier pawn structure
• More appropriate minor pieces

II.- TEMPORARY ADVANTAGES

• Vulnerable enemy piece
• Superior coordination
• Control of the center
• Control of a line
• Advantage in Space

KOTOV’S LIST OF ADVANTAGES

In this chapter we will consider

coordination,

control of the center,

space,

and pawn structures.

There is no magic formula to calculate the size of an advantage. Computer programs apply crude algorithms to come up with numbers, but rarely does any human have the capability to explain them. There are so many ways to calculate a numerical evaluation of the position. We learned early on that simply counting up material points does not suffice. Many factors are subtle, and while clear and simple logic is most often associated with chess, sometimes fuzzy logic is more appropriate.
One aspect of the game that Alexander Kotov should have included in his list of temporary advantages is the initiative. This is one of the most important factors in the middle-game, and also plays a role in the opening and endgame. The initiative is discussed in the middle-game chapter.
Strategic planning is best handled by non-linear thinking, absent of calculation.
Look at the position. Imagine a similar, but more attractive position (from your point of view). Then try to come up with a plan to transform the present board to the desired one.
We will now look at six aspects of the game which can be especially useful in strategic planning. We start with piece coordination, the degree to which each side’s pieces work together. Control of key squares is the next topic. We move on to the effect of control of greater space, which often confers the right to attack. Many books have been devoted to the subject of pawn structure, and we’ll just get a brief overview here. We finish up with a discussion of purposeful moves and the importance of the
underlying idea.

STRATEGY 217
“tempo,” which is a unit used to measure time as it relates not to the chess clock, but to the abstract drama of the chessboard.
COORDINATION
Coordination refers to the ability of your pieces to work together.
If they can bear down on a particular square, or defend each other against attack, their combined force is greater than pieces working alone. The better coordinated your pieces are, the more likely you are to win. Whether in attack or defense, pieces working together can easily defeat an army that is scattered. The most tightly coordinated pieces are those that form a battery, teaming up to attack enemy territory. Any two pieces can form a battery, though the plodding king and lowly pawn are not generally considered participants because of their limited range.
QUEEN AND ROOK
A queen and rook make up the most powerful battery. Against an exposed king, they usually deliver the fatal blow quickly. The following amusing position shows the Tarrasch won this game against Pribulsky at Berlin 1880 despite the fact that both rooks are attacked, one is pinned and threatened with a capture and check. Tarrasch simply moved his king to h3 with discovered check. Black resigned, because taking the rook at g1 allows the other rook, no longer pinned, to slide to g3 and deliver check- mate.
The checkmating power of the queen and rook battery can be seen in artistic combinations even in scholastic chess. The game between Scott Thibaudeau and Wogae Sung from the Junior Varsity section of the 1998 National High School Championship featured a surprising turnaround.
218

At first, things look bad for White, because the queen-side pawns are weak and there is pressure in the center. White has control of the h-file, but Black can defend against queen and rook by retreating the queen to the king-side via f7 and g8. White found the brilliant 33.Bh5!! Black should not have taken the bait.
33...gxh5? This opens the floodgates and the White forces rush in. 33...Qf7; 34.Qg4 Rxa3 allows 35.Bxg6!! Qxg6; 36.Qd7+ Kg8; 37.Rh4! but 34...Rb7! would have left White grasping for a decent move.
34.Qxh5 Qf7; 35.Qh7+?! 35.Qh8+ Kg6; 36.Qh6# would have been more efficient. 35...Kf8; 36.Qh8+ Qg8; 37.Qxf6+ Qf7; 38.Rh8#.
QUEEN AND BISHOP
Queen and bishop can wreak havoc from a long distance, and are a great team as long as there aren’t too many pawns on the board. The White battery has to maneuver in surprising fashion in our example, which shows two useful queen and bishop formations.

26.Qc3. The battery aims at g7, the mating square. 26...Rd4; 27.Kg2 Red8; 28.Qc7 R4d6? This lets White reconfigure the position for a different mating approach. The
STRATEGY 219
rook should retreat to d7, so that the f-pawn can be advanced and the g7-square will be protected. 28...R4d7; 29.Qe5 f5; 30.Qh8+ Kf7; 31.Qxh7+ Kf8; 32.Qxg6 will win eventually thanks to the extra pawns, but mate is not in the immediate forecast.
29.Bf6! The bishop cannot be captured, because the rook at d8 would hang. The rook cannot advance to d7, because then a check on the back rank would be deadly. 29...R6d7; 30.Qf4! Checkmate blows in from another direction. 30...Re8? This makes it simple. 30...Rd6; 31.Bxd8 Rxd8; 32.Qc7 loses both queen-side pawns. 31.Qh6. Black resigned, as mate at g7 is next.
QUEEN AND KNIGHT
The queen working in close proximity to a knight is a tremendous fighting force. Although the queen can cover all files, ranks and diagonals, only the knight can cover a square which is not on a straight line. The ideal coordination of queen and knight is found in the Smothered Mate, which is presented in the chapter on checkmating patterns.

The game Jain vs. Musketh, Hastings 1995, saw mutual checkmating threats as the game approached time control.
After 39.Ne5 Qf2, Black may have felt that White had nothing better than to re- peat the position by retreating the knight, faced with mate at g1. White has other plans!
40.Nf7+! Kg8; 41.Nh6+ Black resigned. 41...Kh8; 42.Qd8+ Rg8; 43.Qxg8# is all that is left.
ROOK AND BISHOP
Rook and bishop are ideally coordinated when they converge on a single square. There are a number of checkmating patterns that use these two pieces, as you will see in the section on checkmate. Let’s take a variation on one checkmating theme, the Opera Mate. The example is Spielmann vs. Hoenlinger from Vienna, 1929.
220

The queen, knight, and distant bishop stare menacingly at g7, but that square is defended by the knight. It is the rook, not the queen, who will deliver checkmate. Not at g7, but h8! First Spielmann gets the knight out of the way of the rook.
25.Ne7+!! Qxe7. The next shot is 26.Qxh7+!! The queen sacrifices herself so that the rook can team up with each bishop in turn to create a beautiful checkmating combination. 26...Kxh7; 27.Rh5+. This takes advantage of the power of the bishop at d3, which pins the pawn at g6. The Black king is driven back to the home rank.
27...Kg8; 28.Rh8. The dark squared bishop is the partner as the final curtain is lowered. For the most potent combination of rook and bishop power, see the section on the Windmill in the tactics chapter.
ROOK AND KNIGHT
The rook and knight do not get along all that well. Even working together, they are rarely effective. They can often be attacked by an enemy king, wedged in between them but not under attack.

In an endgame with rook and bishop against rook and knight, the limited range of the knight makes life difficult in many cases. Sometimes, however, a knight can be a
STRATEGY 221
valuable assistant to the rook. When it occupies an outpost in enemy territory, the knight can safeguard a rook on the seventh rank, as in the following position.

This position was reached in Solt vs. Krizsan, from a game played in Hungary in 1974. The White rook is anchored by the knight at d5. The knight later plays an active role in the destruction of the enemy position.
26...Rd8. Black defends the bishop and thus protects the c-pawn, which cannot be captured by the knight, which must remain at d5 to protect the rook. If the bishop retreated, the c-pawn could be captured by the rook. 27.Bxg7! This exchange strength- ens the power of the rook at e7 by creating a more stable pin on the 7th rank. It also frees f6 for use by the knight.
27...Qxg7; 28.Nf6+! Kh8. If 28...Kf8; White can take the bishop with check, since the rook cannot be captured while the king must stay at f8 to protect the queen. 29.Bd5 Be8; 30.Rxc7 b6; 31.g5. Black has no useful move.
The bishop has joined the attack, and now all of White’s forces are coordinated, except for the queen at c3, which will quickly move to the e-file.

31...Rb8; 32.Qe3.Black resigned here. After 32...Qf8 33.Re7 the bishop is lost.
222 TWO ROOKS
When a pair are of coordinated rooks take part in attack, the defense usually has a difficult time. They are best used on adjacent files, because when doubled in a battery they control fewer relevant squares. A battery of rooks cannot smash through a well defended pawn barrier easily. Instead, they are usually used to make progress on open files.
A frontal assault can sometimes be effective but the most deadly infiltration is the occupation of the seventh rank. Doubled rooks on the seventh often threaten perpetual checks and can sweep enemy pieces off the board. An ideal rook battery consists of rooks on the seventh rank of the central files.

The ideal rook battery is seen in Luckis vs. Letelier from the 1946 Mar del Plata tournament. It is Black’s turn to move but a defense to the threat of Nd6 and Rd8# is hard to find. Notice that the rooks control not only the seventh rank in its entire length, but also both central files. The control of e1 prevents checks, and the control of d8 stops the queen from getting back to defend. Defeat is inevitable.
The game concluded. 34...Kf8?!; 35.Nd6 g5; 36.Re8#. That was just one of many possible mates!
All things being equal, the player will prevail who first succeeds in uniting the efforts of both rooks in an important direction
— Znosko Borovsky
STRATEGY 223
CONTROL THE CENTER
All schools of thought agree that players should try to control key squares, especially in the center of the board. The center need not be occupied with pawns, but if a player can control the middle ground then winning
chances are greatly enhanced. Perhaps the most important aspect of controling the center is that it gives you the freedom to operate on either side of the board, or both! Your pieces can safely transfer from one side of the board to another, with the central zone being safe territory. The defensive side, how- ever, having less room to maneuver, must somehow man- aged to guard both flanks if a counter attack in the center is not available. Chess masters frequently exploit this by developing threats on both flanks.
As with most of the topics in this book, entire treatises have been written on the importance of the center. Indeed, major philosophical debates have taken place, and the understanding of the center has been greatly refined since the days when occupation of the center by pawns
was considered a goal in itself. Domination of the center is now understood to be achieved by a mixture of pawns and pieces. The pieces need not be stationed in the center, but must have scope over the central squares. To have scope over a square, a piece needs to be able to reach it in a single move.
Our example involves the game Timman vs. Portisch, from Tilburg 1979. The position is a hedgehog formation, which is discussed in the chapter on pawn structure. White has greater space, but Black’s position is very solid. The defense was very much in vogue at the end of the 1970s. White has just played 17.f4, completing the domination of the middle of the board.

White completely dominates the center. The d5 square is within reach of five pieces,
Control of the center brings the possibility of influencing activity on both flanks simultaneously
— Nimzowitsch
224
while Black has only three aiming at that spot. The pawn at e4 is supported by three pieces and attacked only by two. The knight at d4 cannot be disturbed except by an advance of the pawn to e5, which would critically weakened d5 and allow the knight to take up a strong post at f5. The e5-square is not yet under White’s control, but since the pawn cannot advance from e6, it cannot be put to good use by Black.
17...Rc8; 18.Re2 Nc5; 19.Rfe1 Bf8. White has doubled rooks not to prepare the advance of the e-pawn, but to overprotect it. 20.Qd1!? The over-protection strategy continues, as White prepares to triple on the e-file without conceding the g4-square to the Black knight.
20...Rac7; 21.Re3 Rd8; 22.Qe2 Rcc8?! 22...e5 might have been tried now, since the knight is easily driven off of its new home at f5. 23.Nf5 g6; 24.Nh4 seems only a little bit better for White. 23.f5! Despite the buildup on the e-file, this is the intended advance. The e-pawn must stay at e4 or Black will exchange bishops and White will have problems on the light squares. 23...a5. This allows White to create a serious weakness at e6.
24.fxe6 fxe6; 25.Rf1 Re8; 26.a3 Re7; 27.Ncb5. White is just maneuvering pieces to improve the landscape before the serious work begins.
27...Ncd7; 28.Rd1 Ree8; 29.Nc3 Ne5; 30.Bh3! White’s over-protection of e4 allows the bishop to take up an active post, targeting the weakling at e6. 30...Kf7. There is no other way to defend the pawn, which guards the critical central outpost square at d5. 31.Rf1 Rcd8.

The stage is set for a sacrifice. White still controls three of the four central squares. The knight at f6 is an important defender, which is eliminated with a strong sacrifice. 32.Rxf6+! Kxf6; 33.Qf1+ Ke7; 34.Nxe6 Rc8; 35.Nd5+! Bxd5. Black has no choice. 36.exd5. The remaining knight is now the critical defender. White can blast it from the board at any time. 36...a4; 37.Nf4 Kd8. A prettier finish is 37...Rc7; 38.Bxe5 dxe5;
39.d6+ Kxd6; 40.Qd3+ Ke7; 41.Rxe5+ Kf7; 42.Qd5+ Kf6; 43.Rf5+ Ke7; 44.Ng6#. 38.Bxc8 Kxc8; 39.Ne6. By blocking the e-file, White cuts off a supply line to the knight at e5, which becomes vulnerable. 39...Kb7. 39...Ng4; 40.Qf7! Nxe3; 41.Qxe8+ Kb7; 42.Qd7+ Ka8; 43.Nd8 is another win, with Qc6+ looming.
STRATEGY 225
40.Bxe5 dxe5; 41.Qf7+. Black resigned. The end comes quickly as the remaining pieces fall. 41...Be7; 42.Nxg7 Rc8; 43.Qxe7+ Rc7; 44.Qxe5 Qh8; 45.d6! Rxg7; 46.Qxg7+ Qxg7; 47.Re7+ with a simple win.
If the center can be blocked, however, its loses some of its importance. Then the speedier f lank operation will win. We see an excellent example from the game Rosenthal vs. Zagoryansky at the 1936 Moscow tournament.

Black has just played 16...f5! White has a difficult choice. There is only one opportunity to capture en passant, but blasting open the king-side is also tempting. As it turns out, neither of these plans is correct. The best way to keep control of the center is, paradoxically, to remove the pawn at d4 by capturing at c5.
17.g4?
With the center closed, White tries to get the king-side attack going. Black’s counter-play on the queen-side seems insignificant, but it is not. Capturing at f6 would also be an error, but White could have retained the advantage by capturing the pawn at c5. This illustrates the difficulties that proper evaluation of the center can present. 17.exf6?! gxf6; 18.Rfe1 cxd4!; 19.cxd4. Capturing with the knight would have allowed Black to advance the e-pawn to e5 and annihilate the center. The superior 17.dxc5 Qxc5; 18.Rfc1 would have maintained the balance on the queen-side. White would have a nice post for the knight at d4, as an exchange of knights would solidify White’s advantage in space. 17...b4! The base of the pawn chain is attacked. 18.gxf5 This also attacks the base of the pawn chain!
18...exf5; 19.Kh1 a5. Black continues to play on the queen-side. 20.Rac1 cxd4; 21.cxd4 Nd8!
226

This is a multipurpose move. The knight will take up a new post at e6. At the same time, the bishop at d7 can support an advance of the a-pawn, and the c-file can be contested by a rook at c8.
22.Ne1? This is a very poor move contributes nothing to the king-side attack. White will soon regret his folly. The correct move was 22.Rg1.
22...Bc8; 23.Qd2. The knight is evidently headed for d3. In any case, White did not want to allow Black to move the bishop to a6. 23...Ne6! White cannot complete the maneuver, because the pawn at d4 would not be defended if the knight gets in the way of the queen.
24.Rc6? White has no support at all for a queen-side invasion. The impudent rook is chased away. 24...Qb7!; 25.Rc2 Bd7; 26.N1g2 Rac8!; 27.Rxc8 Nxc8. The rook was unavailable for recapturing duty because it needed to remain in a position to guard the f-pawn.
28.Nc2 Ne7; 29.Bd3 Bb5!; Black exchanges bishops. The tide has turned and the blockaded White center is weak. 30.Rf3 Rc8; 31.Bxb5 Qxb5; 32.Kg1.

White counts on using f2 as a safe square. The hole at c3 is the reward for Black’s bold queen-side strategy starting at move 17. In his concern for the king, White over-
STRATEGY 227
looked a simple tactic. 32.Nge3 was the best defense. At least the Black knight at e6 is tied to the defense of the pawns. 32...Rc3; 33.Rf1 Qd3; 34.Qg2 Qe4 would also be unpleasant. Black threatens to capture at d4, but the exchange of queens does not help. 35.Qxe4 dxe4; 36.Rf2 Nxd4!; 37.Nxd4 Rxe3; 38.Rc2 Rc3 followed by ...Nd5 would still be difficult to defend.
32...Rxc2!; 33.Qxc2 Nxd4; 34.Qc7 A desperate try to stay in the game, but after 34...Nxf3+; 35.Kf2 Nd4, White resigned. 36.Qxe7 is mated by 36...Qe2+; 37.Kg3 Qf3+; 38.Kh4 Qg4#.
SPACE
When you control greater space, you can more freely maneuver your pieces and shift them quickly from one side of the board to another. The space you control is generally an area behind your pawn barrier, if it is intact, or within the scope of your pieces. Remember that a square is within the scope of your piece if it can reach that square in one move, and it doesn’t matter whether or not your piece would be under attack on the target square.

This position arose in a 1989 game between Glek and Yanvarov, played in the Soviet Union. White controls much more space in the center and on the king-side. Although there are no immediate threats, Black is in trouble. White starts by repositioning the bishop on the important central square d4.
16.Be3 Qb4; 17.Bd4 bxa4. Black is making progress on the queen-side, but it is irrelevant. 18.0-0! White mobilizes more force by bringing the rook to the f-file. From there it can maneuver, thanks to the free space, to the g-file or h-file as needed.
18...Nc5; 19.e6! Bxd4+? The best defense is 19...fxe6; 20.Bxg7 Kxg7; 21.dxe6 Qxb2; 22.Qe5+ Rf6; 23.Qxc5! Qxc3; 24.Ne5!! A fantastic move, blocking the defense of f6, so that now Qxe7 really is a threat. White controls the space all over the board. 24...Nc6 buys a little time, but 25.Qxc6 Qd4+; 26.Kh1 Ra7; 27.Qxc8 Qxe5; 28.Qxc4 Qxe6; 29.Qxe6 Rxe6; 30.Rxa4 is a simple enough win.
228
20.Nxd4 f6? 20...f5 is better. Still, White has 21.Nxf5 gxf5; 22.Bxf5 with a winning position, for example 22...Nb3; 23.Qh5 Rxf5; 24.Rxf5 and mate follows. 21.Bxg6!

The remainder of the game is not available, but Black is lost in any case. After 21...hxg6; 22.Qg4 Kh7; 23.Rf3 f5; 24.Qh4+ forces mate in 6. 22...g5 is not much better. 23.Rf3. The rook lift is used to get to the h-file. 23...Qxb2; 24.Rb1 Qa3; 25.Qh5 forces mate in 7! 25...Nxe6; 26.dxe6 Bxe6; 27.Qg6+ Kh8; 28.Nxe6 Qc5+; 29.Nxc5 g4; 30.Rf5 Rf7; 31.Rh5+ Rh7; 32.Rxh7#.
Space is generally limited by pawns, either your own or enemy, and therefore will figure prominently in our discussion below.
PAWN STRUCTURE
Attacks on your major pieces require open lines, which means that the defending pawns have been cleared out of the way. If you are defending, you want to keep the pawn barrier intact so that it can continue to protect your territory. When you create weaknesses in your pawn structure, these attract the attention of your opponent, who
Take care of the Pawns and the Queens take care of themselves.
— Loyd
will figure out a way to exploit them. We’ll look at ten different types of pawn structures and see how they can be ex-
ploited.
1. BACKWARD PAWNS
A backward pawn is one which has no neighboring pawn on a rank behind it to offer support. Pawns like to be supported by other pawns, and may be difficult to maintain if they have to rely on pieces instead. Here is a position where White must use all of his resources to defend the weakling.

We join the game Szabo vs. Tal from the 1958 tournament at Portoroz. White has a backward pawn at c3, and Black has blockaded it by placing a rook at c4. Ideally, Black can attack c3 with all four pieces, forcing White to use all of his pieces to defend the pawn. How will Black make progress in this case? The plan involves maneuvering the knight to b5, supported by a pawn at a6.
24...a6; 25.Qb6. This stops ...Na7. 25...Ne7. Black will try to get to a7 via c8. 26.Qd6 Qe8; 27.Rb6. 27.Qxe6?? is a blunder. 27...R4c6 traps the queen.
27...R4c6; 28.Rxc6 Qxc6; 29.Rb1 Rd7. Tal puts the question to the enemy queen. If the queens are exchanged, the endgame with good knight vs. bad bishop is a straight- forward win. 30.Qb4. 30.Qxc6 Nxc6; 31.Ra1 Na7; 32.Ra3 Rc7; 33.Kf2 Rc4 reaches a winning endgame. The plan is simply ...Nb5, and if the rook goes to b3, to maintain the pawn at c3, then ...Ra4 sneaks behind the a-pawn. 34.Ke3 Nb5; 35.Rb3 Ra4; 36.Kf2 Rxa5. This looks risky, because of the potential advance of White’s c-pawn with a direct attack on the knight and a discovered attack against the rook. There is no danger, however, since 37.c4 is countered by 37...Ra3!

30...Nc8; 31.g4. White sees that Black will now be able to carry out the plan of ...Rc7 and ...Na7-b5. Opening lines on the king-side is intended to provide some
230
counter-play on the king-side. Black keeps the position closed. 31...g6!; 32.Qf8. A lone queen presents no danger. 32...Rg7; 33.Kf2 Qc4; 34.Rb2 Na7; 35.Rb6 Nc6! The a- pawn is now the target. Eventually the Black queen strikes deeper into the enemy position and the knight can make use of c4.
36.Ke1 Qd3; 37.g5 hxg5! There can be no danger on the h-file because White still has a pawn on the file and the rook cannot get there anyway. 38.fxg5 Nxa5; 39.Rxe6 Nc4. The e-pawn was of no real significance. The coordination of queen and knight leaves White defenseless.

40.Bc1 Qxc3+; 41.Kd1 Qxd4+; 42.Ke2 Qe4+; 43.Kd1 Qf3+; 44.Kc2 Qe2+; 45.Kc3 d4+! 46.Kb4.46.Kxd4 Qd1+; 47.Kxc4 Rc7+; 48.Kb4 Qe1+! 49.Kb3 Qc3+; 50.Ka2 Qc4+! 51.Ka3 Qxc1+; 52.Ka4 Qc4+; 53.Ka3 Qc3+; 54.Ka2 Qd2+; 55.Ka3 Rc3+; 56.Kb4 Qb2+ and mate next move. 46...a5+
47.Kc5 Rc7+; 48.Kb5 Nxe5+; 49.Kb6 Rc6+. White resigned, because capturing the rook loses the queen to ...Nd7+.
An alternative to simply winning the backward pawn is to use it as a barrier to keep enemy forces from coordinating in defense. That can be seen in this excerpt from the game Smyslov vs. Rudakovsky, from the 1945 Soviet Championship. White has just played 17.Nd5, a powerful move which occupies an outpost in front of the backward pawn. Black is unable to secure an effective defense against the king-side attack which follows.

17...Bd8; 18.c3 b5. Black’s queen-side counter-play is non-existent. White enjoys a considerable advantage in space. 19.b3 Qc5+; 20.Kh1 Rc8. Black has no targets. White can now freely pursue the enemy king. 21.Rf3 Kh8; 22.f6! The barriers start to fall.
22...gxf6; 23.Qh4 Rg8; 24.Nxf6 Rg7; 25.Rg3 Bxf6; 26.Qxf6 Black resigned. White will bring the rook at a1, which has not yet moved, into the game with devastating effect. 26...Rcg8; 27.Rxg7 Rxg7; 28.Rd1 Qxc3; 29.h4 Qc7; 30.Rxd6. White wins.
If the backward pawn is such a liability, why then is it seen in many important variations of the Sicilian Defense? The answer is that a backward pawn can be remedied by advancing it. The pawn also serves as an anchor for a pawn at e5 or c5, which gives Black control of d4. In the Sicilian, Black has a semi-open c-file which can be used by a variety of Black pieces to indirectly support the pawn. The famous “Sicilian Break” is a case where the backward d-pawn advances to d5.

This position was reached in the game Van der Wiel vs. Browne, from the 1980 Wijk aan Zee tournament. White seems to have everything under control, as far as the d5-square is concerned. After all, the knight, pawn, and bishop at f3 all guard it, and a rook can come to d1 next turn. With the center under control, White looks forward to a king-side pawn-storm. Black has a strong move, however.
232
14...d5! The Sicilian Break opens up the position and leads to an initiative for Black. The initiative is supported by a pawn sacrifice.
15.exd5 e4! White realized that 16.Bxe4 Bd6; 17.Nd2 is countered by 17...Rxc3!; 18.bxc3 Bxd5 where White is in deep trouble. So he played 16.Nxe4 Bxd5; 17.Ned2. Perhaps Black’s best move is 17...Bd6, but Browne selected 17...Qc7; 18.Bxd5 Nxd5.

The exchanges have not hurt Black, despite the pawn deficit. White’s pieces are underdeveloped and uncoordinated. Black has plenty of time to get pieces to the king-side to attack the White king, which has only pawns as protectors. Black has eliminated the backward pawn and has an active game, which he eventually won after a long struggle.
2. DOUBLED PAWNS
A pair of pawns are doubled when they reside on the same file. Doubled pawns have been traditionally considered a weakness, but in recent decades quite a number of exceptions are found in respectable openings. One can no longer recommend fol- lowing traditional advice to inflict doubled pawns whenever possible. Nowadays the specific circumstances of each doubled pawn structure must be considered. Let’s start with an example of bad doubled pawns.
Doubled pawns are especially weak when they are isolated. Without the support of neighboring pawns they are difficult to defend. When the doubled pawns are part of what should be a healthy pawn barrier protecting the king, the consequences can be fatal. We can see this even in the opening, for example in the Max Lange Attack.
The following game is attributed to Muller vs. Bayer, played in 1908. It is stunningly beautiful, but perhaps is an example of a composed game. The opening starts out in exciting fashion.
STRATEGY 233
MULLER - BAYER
1908
1.e4 e5; 2.Nf3 Nc6; 3.Bc4 Nf6; 4.d4 exd4; 5.0-0 Bc5; 6.e5 d5; 7.exf6 dxc4; 8.Re1+.

8...Kf8? Black should play 8...Be6.; 9.Bg5! White threatens gxf7 attacking queen and rook so Black must capture.
9...gxf6; 10.Bh6+! Kg8; 11.Nc3! White continues to develop. The pin on the d-file is deadly, even though the Black queen is defended.

11...Bf8. 11...dxc3; The trap is sprung on 12.Qxd8+ Nxd8; 13.Re8+ Bf8; 14.Rxf8#. 12.Nxd4! White offers yet another piece. 12...Nxd4?! Hard to resist, unless you see what is coming. 12...Bxh6; 13.Nxc6 Qxd1; 14.Ne7+ Kg7; 15.Raxd1 would have left the game level, though the weak pawns and White’s spatial advantage are meaningful. Black’s extra pawn is not worth much, since it is also doubled, though defensible.
13.Qxd4!! Bf5; 13...Qxd4 loses to 14.Re8 which threatens mate at f8. 14...Qd6; 15.Nd5!! Black is mated in four moves.
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Black continues to suffer from the isolated doubled pawns.
14.Qf4. 14.Nd5 is a simpler win. 14...Bg7 allows 15.Re8+!! Qxe8; 16.Nxf6+ Bxf6; 17.Qxf6 Qf8; 18.Bxf8 and wins. Or 14...Bxh6; 15.Re8+!! Qxe8; 16.Nxf6+ Kf8, when 17.Nxe8 Kxe8; 18.Qxh8+ Bf8; 19.Qe5+ Be6; 20.Qb5+ will be easy for White to win. 14...Bxc2?; 14...Bxh6! is much stronger, though White has a clear advantage by taking either bishop. Of course such an end would have deprived us of the artistic finish.
15.Rad1!! Bd6. 15...Bxd1; 16.Qg3+ mates. 16.Nd5!! White sacrifices the queen to force mate. 16...Bxf4; 17.Re8+!! Qxe8. The weakness of the isolated doubled pawns finally leads to checkmate.

18.Nxf6#. So many brilliant moves by an obscure player and a suspicious oversight by Black combine to lend credibility to the notion that this was an invented game. I have not researched the matter, but would hardly be surprised to find that it had been composed.
When the doubled pawns are not isolated, they can be part of a strong defensive barrier. Nevertheless, in the endgame the pawn structure can be fatally unbalanced, if one side has a pawn majority that has no doubled pawns, and the other side has doubled pawns. This endgame can arise from many openings where a central pawn
STRATEGY 235
captures on the bishop file. The most recognizable example is the Exchange Variation of the Spanish Game, which begins 1.e4 e5; 2.Nf3 Nc6; 3.Bb5 a6; 4.Bxc6 dxc6.

White will obtain a permanent king-side pawn majority with an early d4, for ex- ample 5.0-0 f6; 6.d4 which can lead to an early endgame after 6...Bg4 7.dxe5 Qxd1; 8.Rxd1 fxe5; 9.Rd3 Bd6; 10.Nbd2 Nf6; 11.Nc4 0-0; 12.Ncxe5 Bxf3; 13.Nxf3 Rae8; 14.e5 Bxe5; 15.Nxe5 Rxe5.

We are following Grefe vs. Koelle, Australian Open 1975. White has two advantages. The bishop is better than the knight and the doubled pawns on the queen-side hurt Black’s chances of making anything with the pawn majority.
16.Bf4 Re2; 17.Rd2 Rfe8; 18.Kf1. White chases out the invader. 18...R2e7; 19.Rad1 Nd5; 20.Bg3 b5. Black does not want the knight to be chased from d5, where it guards the pawn at c7 and blocks the d-file.
21.h3 Re4; 22.Kg1 Kf7; 23.f3 R4e6 24.Bf2 Ne3? A strategic error. Black needed to keep the minor pieces on. The closer the game gets to a pure pawn endgame, the worse Black’s chances.
25.Bxe3 Rxe3; 26.Rd7+ R8e7; 27.Rxe7+ Kxe7.

Black had perhaps counted on a rook and pawn endgame which would be very difficult to win even with imperfect defense. This particular position does not allow for that possibility, as White can force the exchange of rooks.
28.Kf2 Re4; 29.Re1 Rxe1; 30.Kxe1 Kd6; 31.Kd2 Kd5; 32.Ke3. We arrive at a pawn endgame with no chance of survival by Black if White can manage to advance the
king-side pawn majority.

32...c5; 33.f4 c4; 34.c3. White will not allow the Black pawns to get too close to the promotion rank. 34...a5; 35.g4 h6; 36.h4 g6; 37.h5!
STRATEGY 237

The pawn chain is weakened, but a passed pawn is created.
37...gxh5; 38.gxh5 c6; 39.Kf3! The battle for the tempo begins. Sooner or later Black must give way, and White’s king will get to e4.
39...b4; 40.Ke3 c5; 41.Kf3 Ke6; 42.Ke4.

White has the opposition, and wins.
42...Kf6; 43.f5 Kf7; 44.Ke5 Ke7; 45.f6+ Kf7; 46.Kf5 a4; 47.a3 b3; 48.Ke5 Kf8; 49.f7. Any king move wins by force, but no doubt White had seen the game to the end, where the win comes on the wings of a single tempo.
49...Kxf7; 50.Kf5 Ke7; 51.Kg6 Ke6; 52.Kxh6 Kf6; 53.Kh7 Kf7; 54.h6. Black re- signed.
There are some positions where the doubled pawns are not a liability. They can be an asset, keeping enemy pieces off critical squares. The file where the doubled pawn once stood is now open for use by a rook. Many times the doubled pawns are the result of an exchange of bishop for knight, so there is additional positional compensation. Our example shows how deadly the compensating factors can be. In Korody vs. Benko, Budapest 1921, White has just advanced 16.b5, since it was attacked at b4.
238

White has not been able to make any progress against Black’s well-defended cen- ter. The d5 and e5 squares are overprotected, and both f-pawns play an important role in the central barrier protecting the king. The g-file is ready for action, and the bishop at b7 joins the rook in converging at g2. The knight is in the way, of course, but can be lured away. The surprise came in the form of 16...Qxd4!! White is left without any good moves. 17.Nxd4?? is out of the question on this turn, because of 17...Rxg2+; 18.Kh1 Rxh2+; 19.Kg1 Rh1#. 17.g3? allows an elegant mate with 17...Bxg3!! 18.hxg3 (18.Nxd4?? Bf4+; 19.Bg6 Rxg6+; 20.Qg4 Rxg4#. 18...Rxg3+! 19.Kh2 Bxf3 and to pre- vent mate at h4; White must capture the rook. 20.fxg3 (20.Kxg3 Qg4+; 21.Kh2 Qg2#) 20...Bxe2; 21.Bxe2 Rc8 and Black is seriously behind in material.
So White chose 17.h3, to which Black replied 17...Ne5!; Trade a non-attacker for a defender! 18.Nxd4. The alternatives were not much better. 18.Be4 still allows 18...Rxg2+!! 19.Kxg2 Bxe4; 20.Rd1 Bxf3+; 21.Qxf3 Nxf3; 22.Rxd4 Nxd4 winds up with Black a knight and pawn ahead, with the doubled pawns as healthy as ever! 18...Rxg2+. The rest is simple.
19.Kh1 Rh2+; 20.Kxh2 Ng4+; 21.Kg1 Bh2#. The doubled pawn remains intact here, too. Doubled pawns are weak in many cases, but strong in some, so you should evaluate each case on its own merits. It is safest to accept doubling of your pawns when you can comfortably capture toward the center, as this does not bring with it the like- lihood of a losing king and pawn endgame.
3. FIANCHETTO STRUCTURES
A fianchetto places a bishop at b2 or g2 (as White) or b7 or g7 (as Black) with some surrounding pawns, and it’s formation is strong as long as there is a bishop at home. If the fianchettoed bishop is exchanged, very bad things can happen. The fianchetto is the base of operations for many opening strategies, including the King’s Indian Defense and Dragon Sicilian. In the latter, the bishop is needed both for de- fense and to attack the enemy queenside. The fianchetto (both the Italian pronunciation fee-ann-ket-to and American fee-ann-chet-to are used) is one of the most dynamic formations and is considered positionally sound.

In the game Nunn vs. Mestel, from the 1982 Zonal at Marbella, two great Dragoneers met. Black was tempted by the pawn at e4, reckoning that it was insufficiently defended because of the pin on the long diagonal. After 15...Nxe4?!; 16.Bxe4 Bxe4; 17.Nxe4 Bxa1, White established a strong position with 18.c3!

The Black bishop is trapped in the corner, and the dark squares on the king-side are vulnerable.
18...Na2; 18...Nc6 would have provided better defense. 19.Bh6 f5; 20.Qd5+ Kh8; 21.Rxa1.
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Now the knight at a2 is trapped, so Black has to capture at e2.
21...Qxe2; 22.Qd4+ e5; 23.Qxd6 fxe4. 23...Rf7; 24.Qxe5+ Kg8; 25.Nf6+ Rxf6; 26.Qxf6 and mate in 3. 24.Qxe5+. White won.
4. HANGING PAWNS
Hanging pawns are adjacent pawns with no visible means of support. They can appear on various f lanks and files, but are most often seen on the queen-side. Hanging pawns on the c-file and d-file are very common in the Queen’s Gambit Declined and Nimzo-Indian Defenses, where many main lines revolve around the weakness of the pawns and the need to protect them.

Because the hanging pawns cannot be protected by other pawns, they must be supported by pieces. If the defending pieces are eliminated, or sufficient force is brought to bear, then the pawns can be captured. The weakness of the hanging pawns is illustrated nicely in the following position from Karpov vs. Georgiev, Tilburg 1994.

The hanging pawns at b6 and c6 are weak, and each has only a single defender. The remaining Black forces are in no position to assist with the defense of the pawns, so sooner or later one of them will have to step forward. This is not simple, because White has two pawn restraints at a4 and d4, as well as queen, rook, knight, and bishop all overprotecting the key squares.
22.Bc4. A cunning move, tempting Black to advance the c-pawn and open up an attack at e4 as well as d4. Black first swings the bishop into a better position at g7.
22...Bg7; 23.Re2 c5. Black must try to get into the game, and at least at e4 there is a target. 23...b5 would solve the problem if not for White’s tactical refutation. 24.Qd2! Qxd2; 25.Bxf7+! and Black cannot take the bishop because of Nd6+ and the rook falls with check, after which White can recapture at d2. 25...Kf8; 26.Nfxd2 Re7; 27.axb5 Rxf7; 28.Nd6! Mate is threatened at e8, but the bishop at b7 is also under attack. Black must settle for 28...Bxd4; 29.Nb3! Ra4; 30.Nxb7 cxb5; 31.Nxd4 Rxd4; 32.Nd8! White wins the exchange.
24.d5! Raa8; 25.Rbe1. White is setting up more tactical threats. Black now tries to reorganize to go after the pawn at d5. The hanging pawns are still weak even in their new formation.
25...Rad8; 26.Qb3 Ba8; 27.g3 Qb8; 28.d6!

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The bishop at a8 is released, but the pawn at f7 falls, and then the White pieces quickly move in for the kill.
28...Rf8; 29.Bxf7+ Rxf7; 30.Neg5!! White has no need to conserve material. Black’s queenside forces cannot come to the defense of the king in time to make a difference. 30...hxg5; 31.Nxg5 Rdf8; 32.Re8 Qxd6; 33.Qxf7+ Kh8; 34.Ne6. Black resigned. Hanging pawns are not always, weak, however, as Karpov has demonstrated from the
other side of the board.

In the first game of the 1981 World Championship match Karpov obtained a favorable hanging pawn structure as Black against Korchnoi. Each pawn enjoys the support of three pieces.
24.a3? 24.Ne5 d4! (24...Bd6; 25.Nxg6 fxg6; 26.Qc2 gives White some serious at- tacking chances.) 25.exd4 cxd4; 26.Ne2 Rc5 and Black has an active game with pres- sure at b2 indirectly protecting the d-pawn. 24...d4! 25.Ne2. 25.exd4 Bc6!; 26.Qc2 Bxf3; 27.gxf3 cxd4 is very strong for Black.
25...dxe3; 26.fxe3 c4. The pawn structure has changed radically. White has the weak pawns, and Black’s pawns are fairly healthy. The bishop pair and mobile piece give Black a clear advantage.
27.Ned4 Qc7; 28.Nh4 Qe5; 29.Kh1 Kg8; 30.Ndf3 Qxg3; 31.Rxd8+ Bxd8; 32.Qb4 Be4 and White lost after another ten moves.
Handling hanging pawns takes a great deal of care, and is a task best left to professionals. You should avoid hanging pawns because they tie down your pieces in defense. When your opponent has hanging pawns, look for ways to attack in other areas of the board.
5. HEDGEHOGS
The hedgehog formation is a relatively modern innovation, at least as a serious defensive setup. Black places most of the pawns along the third rank, and usually fianchettoes both bishops. Many of the pawns are a bit weak and require the support of the other pieces, just as in the case of hanging pawns. The hedgehog formation can
STRATEGY 243
be reached from the Sicilian Defense, English Opening, Queen’s Indian, and other popular openings.
The hedgehog is not only a defensive formation. If White does not carefully over- protect the center, the entire White formation can come crashing down. We see a classic example from Garry Kasparov.

This is an excerpt from the game Hübner vs. Kasparov from the 1981 Tilburg tournament. Both sides have completed development and have slowly maneuvered through the first 22 moves. White seems to have a firm grip on the center but the weak pawn at d6 has no way to get to d5 and smash open the center. Or does it?
23...b5!; 24.cxb5 d5! This is a very instructive game because it shows how quickly the center can be undermined by well timed pawn advances combined with pieces that are situated to take advantage of the new environment.
25.exd5 Nxd5; 26.Nxd5 Bxd5; 27.b4 Bxg2; 28.Kxg2 e5! Black maintains the initiative. The remainder of the game, while not relevant to the question of the hedge- hog formation, is worth viewing. 29.bxc5 exd4; 30.Rd2 Rxc5; 31.bxa6 Qa8+; 32.Qf3 Qxa6. Material is now equal, and Black has a powerful passed d-pawn. 33.Red1 Rf5; 34.Qe4 Qa4!
The pawn is indirectly defended because 35.Bxb4? loses to 35...Rfd5, exploiting the pin on the d-file. 35.a3 Re8; 36.Qb7 Rd8; 37.Rd3 h5; 38.R1d2 Qe8!
The hedgehog is a peaceful creature. But those who try to hurt it soon experience the sharpness of its quills
— Adorjan.
244

Black must find a way to remove the blockade of the d-pawn, and finds the means in an exchange sacrifice that will come at the last move of the time control (move 40). 39.Kf1 Rb8; 40.Qc7 Rxb2!; 41.Rxb2 Qe4. A clever move, which threatens both the rook and ...Qh1+. 42.Qc4 Qh1+; 43.Ke2 Qg1; 44.Rb8+ Kh7; 45.f4 h4! 46.Rb5 Rxb5; 47.Qxb5 hxg3; 48.Qg5 Qf2+; 49.Kd1 Qf1+. White resigned. A very efficient
win by Kasparov. The hedgehog is hardly a perfect creature, however. The counter-punching can
only take place if the defensive formation can withstand all of White’s attacks. Our next example shows White exploiting the weakness of the queen-side pawns. It is taken from the game Smyslov vs. Dzindzichashvili, played at Moscow, 1972.

Black’s position seems solid enough, with all of the pawns defended. Smyslov ex- poses the hidden weaknesses of the hedgehog position with a fine sacrifice. The e5- square, which Black seems to have well under control, plays a major role.
17.Nxe6!! fxe6; 18.Qg4 Nf6; 19.Qxe6+ Kh8; 20.Nxb6. White has three pawns for the piece, and the central pawns, supported by rooks, crash through.
20...Rf8; 21.c5! Ra7. 21...dxc5?; 22.e5! wins a piece. 22.cxd6 Bd8; 23.Na4 Re8; 24.Qf7 Ba8; 25.d7 Rg8; 26.Qe6 Qb5 and in this pathetic position Black resigned,
STRATEGY 245
since the advance of the e-pawn will wrap things up quickly. Weak pawns are targets, but so are empty squares which cannot be protected by
pawns. We’ll meet those next.
6. HOLES
A hole is a square near enemy pawn formations which cannot be defended by an enemy pawn. Holes are significant at every stage of the game. When a hole is occupied by a piece, we call it an outpost, because it represents a safe haven deep inside enemy territory. A couple of holes can easily lead to checkmate.

In Unzicker vs. Aarlund, from the 1974 Olympiad in Nice, Black suffers from serious holes at f6 and h6. White threatens 22.Bf6+ Kg8; 23.Nh6#. This often happens when the bishop is removed from the fianchetto formation. The king at g7 is less good as a defender. White owns both f6 and h6. The game cannot last long, and didn’t. Black retreated the knight from d4 to f5, to cover h6 and g7.
21...Nf5; 22.Bf6+ Kg8; 23.Nh6+ Nxh6; 24.Qxh6 d5. Black has no way to save the game. After 25.Rad1, Black resigned, because there is no defense to the rook lift to h3 and checkmate.
Weak points or holes in the enemy position must be occupied by pieces, not pawns
— Tarrasch
246
It is often tempting to place a pawn on a weak square in the enemy position. Such holes are better occupied by pieces. When a pawn sits on square it has control only over the two squares diagonally in front of it.

The pawn at f6 is useful of course, but the effect is limited by the short range. Black is deprived of two squares, and the pawn cannot reposition itself to inflict any serious damage.
A knight has a much greater effect because it attacks four points in the enemy
position.

The knight would fork any two pieces on d7, e8, g8, and h7, possibly also enemy pieces to the rear at e5, h5, d5, and e4. It can move to any of those eight squares and reposition itself for another attack, should the immediate occupation at f6 not bring the desired result.
Bishops can be very powerful when operating from a hole in the enemy position. There are many checkmating patterns that involve a bishop on this square, as you will see in the inventory of mating positions in the Tactics chapter.

You can see that the bishop controls key squares at e7, g7, h8, and d8. The bishop does not have the ability to attack squares of both colors, so is somewhat more limited than the knight in this regard.
Because holes are, by definition, close to the enemy home rank, the queen is less effective. Often she can be chased away easily enough. In any case, the queen only adds an additional two squares to the coverage of the bishop, f7 and g6. Of course if the f-file is open for use by a rook, the pressure on f7 can be intense. And if the queen is backed up by a bishop on the long diagonal, the combinational possibilities are usually excellent, as we see in a game between Delmar and an unknown amateur, played in New York in 1890. We join it in the early middle-game.

The queen is now in position, and Black naturally had to worry about a subsequent knight move, for example ...Ng4 with three different checkmate threats, at h6, g7, and h8! So Black tried to chase the queen out of the hole with 17...Be7 but encountered the brilliant 18.Qh8+!! Kxh8; 19.Nxf7+ Kg8; 20.Nh6#.
A rook strangely enough, is almost useless when it is occupying a hole. It is surrounded by well-defended pawns. In general, it is not better than a rook safely stationed further back on the file.
248

Therefore, it is usually best to occupy holes with minor pieces.
7. THE ISOLATED D-PAWN
Entire books have been devoted to discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the isolated d-pawn. Many important variations of the Queen’s Gambit, French Defense, Caro-Kann Defense, Nimzo-indian Defense and other major openings crucially revolve around this pawn, often called an isolani.
Siegbert Tarrasch was convinced that the traditional evaluation of an isolated pawn, that it is a major weakness, was wrong and that the isolated pawn was in fact a strong weapon. Let’s first look at the pawn structure by itself.

If the game came down to a king and pawn endgame, Black would be lost. The pawn at d5 is weak, and can easily be blockaded by an enemy king at d4. In fact, the blockade is the best–known strategy for operating against an isolated d-pawn. The best blockaders are pieces of limited mobility and value, which means that a knight is ideal.
When there is a White piece at d4, the Black cannot advance the pawn from d5 and White can aim other pieces at it. Extreme views have been expressed on the sub-
STRATEGY 249
The strength of an isolani lies in its lust to expand...
— Nimzowitsch
ject of the “isolani.” The great Hypermodern strategist Aron Nimzowitsch considered the blockade a potent weapon against the isolani, rendering it very weak. For the Classist Siegbert Tarrasch, on the other hand, the isolani is a source of dynamic strength, because it cramps the enemy position. Modern thinking holds that the isolani is neither good nor bad in isolation, but must be judged depending on the surrounding circumstances.
An isolated d-pawn on the fourth rank does indeed feel a powerful urge to get to the fifth rank. The pawn does not feel comfortable on the fourth rank, where it can be blocked by one enemy piece and then attacked from all sides. Advancing the pawn can be effective even when it merely seems to simplify the position. The following example is very instructive. We join the game Dolmatov vs. Larsen, from Amsterdam 1980, at the end of the opening, before White’s 12th move.

12.d5! exd5; 13.Nxd5 Bb7?! 13...Nxd5; 14.Qxd5 Ra7 would have been a better defense. 14.Nxe7+ Qxe7; 15.Bg5. The bishop pair is a powerful force in this game, thanks to all the open space. 15...Nbd7; 16.Re1 Qc5? Like it or not, Larsen had to retreat the queen to d8 here.
17.Be3 Qf5; 18.Nh4 Qe4; 19.Bg5 Qc6. Black tries to set up an attack, but White just drives the queen away with tempo. 20.Rc1 Qb6; 21.Be3 Qd8; 22.Nf5 Be4; 23.Nd6 Bg6. Black has arranged the defense of the kingside, but White’s advantage in space and control of the center bring the game to a rapid conclusion.
24.Qd4 Qb8; 25.f4. Black cannot preserve the bishop at g6 without critically weakening the kingside. 25...Rd8. 25...h6; 26.f5 Bh7; 27.Rc6! White dominates the board. 27...b4 28.Bxf7+! White wins at least a pawn, because the bishop cannot be captured. 28...Rxf7?; 29.Nxf7 Kxf7; 30.Qc4+ Kf8; 31.Rxf6+! gxf6; 32.Bxh6# is just one example of an embarrassing finish.
250
26.f5 Bh5; 27.h3 Nb6; 28.Qxb6 Qxb6; 29.Bxb6 Rxd6; 30.Be3 and Black resigned, since the bishop is lost.
The lesson here is that the advance of the isolated pawn is not just a way of getting rid of the nuisance. Since the holder of an isolated d-pawn often enjoys an advantage in space, the elimination of the pawn can increase that factor and result in a substantial advantage.
If you have an isolani, you must consider whether the advance of the pawn and offer of exchange will improve your position. If you release the tension too soon, you will be left with mere equality. If you wait too long, you’ll be stuck with a sick pawn in the endgame.
When playing against the isolated pawn, try to blockade it with a piece and control the neighboring files, then you can try to win it. Do not rush the attack on the isolani. As the game progresses it becomes weaker and more vulnerable.
8. Passed Pawns A passed pawn is a pawn which has no enemy counterpart directly in front of it or
on either adjacent file. Each time a piece leaves the board there is one less resource to be used in stopping a pawn from marching up the board. That’s why you should try to exchange pieces when you have a passed pawn. Reduce the number of potential de- fenders and you will have a significant advantage.
Our example shows this idea with a twist. It uses the important technique of let- ting your opponent capture one passed pawn while you create another one. Some players let themselves get tied down to the defense of a pawn and overlook simple winning combinations. A group of players representing the city of Nijmegen did not fail to spot the possibility to eliminate defenders in a correspondence game against The Hague.
A passed pawn increases it’s strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes.
— Capablanca

White has a passed pawn at d6, but there is no way to get it passed d7. The Black knight must stand guard over d7, at least until the bishop can get to a better position. 48.d7+! 48.g6? fxg6; 49.Nxg6 Bxg6; 50.Kxg6 Nc4 turns the tide, and it is White who must worry about the weakness of the pawns. 51.Kf5 Kd7; 52.Ke4 Nxa3; 53.Kd5 Nc2; 54.Kc5 Ke6 will end in a draw. 48...Nxd7+; 49.Nxd7 Kxd7; 50.Kxf7. White has lost the d-pawn, but gained a passed g-pawn. The g-pawn, though only on the 6th rank, is even better, especially with the knights gone from the board. It is further from the queen-side. Black’s only hope is to get the king to a3, give up the bishop for the g- pawn, move the king to a4 and try to exchange the remaining White pawn. This plan is doomed, however.
50...Bd3; 51.Bc5 Kc6; 52.g6 Kd5; 53.g7 Bh7; 54.g8Q Bxg8+; 55.Kxg8 Kc4; 56.Bb6.
Black resigned, because the bishop will come to a5, and the White king will eat the Black pawns as follows. 56...Kb3; 57.Kf7 Kxa3; 58.Ba5 Kb3; 59.Ke6 Kc3; 60.Kd5 Kd3; 61.Kc5 Ke4; 62.Kb6 Kd5; 63.Kxa6 Kc6; 64.Ka7 followed by 65.Kb6.
Keep in mind that when you have only one pawn your opponent can sacrifice a piece to remove it and will often achieve a draw as a result. This defensive plan is the
key to many endgames.

252

The passed pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient.
— Nimzowitsch
Things look bad for White, but there is an escape. Black captures the pawn at b2. If the king captures the bishop, then the White king grabs the e-pawn an the game is drawn because Black has insufficient mating material. If Black ignores the bishop at b2 and protects the pawn by moving the knight to g3, then White moves the bishop to e5, attacking the knight. The game is also drawn.
Your opponents passed pawn can be your worst nightmare. In the endgame, preventing a passed pawn from reaching to the promotions square is one of your most crucial tasks. The best defense is to keep it routed to its square, unable to advance. That is what it means being under lock and key. The surveillance Nimzowitsch refers to use pieces to control squares which live between the pawns current location and the promotion square. The problem with this form of defense is that such pieces can often be deflected or destroyed, sometimes through sacrifices, and then the pawn gets through.
9. PAWN CHAINS
Pawn chains are groups of pawns that are connected to pawns on adjacent files. They can be static, as in the case of stonewall formations, or dynamic, advancing to attack the enemy position. A pawn chain can look like this.

We rarely encounter such a long chain, but pawn chains are characteristic of certain openings, including the Saemisch Variation of the King’s Indian Defense, the French Defense, Colle System, Torre Attack, and the older Benoni formations. Chains consist of at least three pawns and can have different shapes.

A three-pawn chain facing forward is called a wedge. It is seen in the French Defense, Caro-Kann Defense, and in other Semi-Open Games.

This is a stonewall. It is characteristic of the Colle Attack, some lines of the Torre Attack, and of course the Stonewall Attack. Black often adopts the formation in the
Stonewall Dutch.

254
The basic pawn chain along a diagonal is a straight chain. It is seen in the French Defense and some other openings. We will use this simple chain for the remainder of our discussion.
We are often taught that the best way to attack a pawn chain is at its base. The base is the pawn which lies on the rank closest to the enemy home rank. In the diagram above, the base of the chain is at b2. Yet in many cases the target is the head, rather than the base. The head of the chain is the other end, at this case, e5. Sometimes, the intermediate pawns are the focus of attention.
In reality, there is no way to make a simple generalization about attacking pawn chains. It is true that most of the time a pawn at the base can be attacked by pieces, while the other pawns can only be hit by pawns (unless a pin or other tactic enables a piece capture). Let’s look at four situations where a different pawn is the target in each case.

This position is from Ermenkov - Tukmakov, Vrnjacka Banja 1979. Black combines threats on both flanks to win, but the primary objective is the advance of the b-pawn. With 37...a3! Black attacks the base of the pawn chain. This is especially effective because the pawn at c3 is supported only by the b-pawn, so that if White captures at a3, Black can capture at c3, forking the rooks.
38.Nxd5 Qxd5. The knight which threatened c3 is now gone. White has no good queen moves, so the queens must come off the board, too. 39.Qxd5 Rxd5; 40.Ke1. 40.bxa3 Rda5 will result in the same sort of finish.
40...axb2; 41.Bxb2 Ra2. The invasion of the seventh rank leads to a winning position. 42.Kd1 Rda5. White resigned during adjournment. Is the position really that bad? Yes, and all because of the pawn chains. 43.Rd2 h6! 44.Bc1 hxg5; 45.hxg5 Rxd2+; 46.Kxd2 Ra2+; 47.Ke3 Rc2; The base of the pawn chain, now at c3, is doomed. 48.Bb2. (Or 48.Bd2 f4+! 49.Ke2 Be7 and the g-pawn falls.) 48...Be7; 49.f4 Bd8; 50.Kf3 (50.Ra1 Rxb2; 51.Ra8 Rc2; 52.Rxd8+ Kf7 is a simple win.) 50...Ba5; 51.Ra1 Bxc3; 52.Bxc3 Rxc3+ etc.
c3.
STRATEGY 255

In Norwood vs. Tiviakov, from Calcutta 1993, Black opts to go after the pawn at
23...b4!; 24.Bb1 bxc3; 25.bxc3 Kc7! Black will now use the open file for infiltration. 26.Nf4 Qa3; 27.Qf2 Rb8. White is in a desperate situation. He tried a sacrifice at f5 but after 28.Bxf5!? Bxf4; 29.Qxf4 exf5; 30.Rg7 Rb2!; 31.Rxf7+ Kb6; 32.h4 Qxc3 the base of the chain falls, and the other pawns are vulnerable. Black won without difficulty.

This is an excellent example of attacking the neck of the pawn chain, which is the pawn just below the head. Black not only uses the c5xd4 capture (twice!) but finished up with an attack on the head of the pawn chain, giving us two lessons in one! Our teacher is Bent Larsen, playing Black against O’Donnell in a 1970 game played in the USA.
24...cxd4; 25.exd4. Both pawns chains are undoubled. Larsen continues vigorously in pursuit of his target. 25...c5! 26.Rc2 Rc7; 27.Ke3 g5; 28.Ne1. The knight heads for a more useful post at d3, where it can protect b2, at least temporarily.
28...cxd4+! 29.cxd4 Rb3+; 30.Kd2 Bd8!; 31.Rxc7 Bxc7; 32.Nd3. White defends b2, but the pawn at d4, our old target, is undefended. 32...Bb6!; 33.Ke3.
256

Now there are pins at d3 and d4, which means that e5, despite all appearances, is actually undefended! Larsen relentlessly continues the assault, not minding a little sacrifice along the way.
33...f6!; 34.exf6 e5!; 35.Kd2. The pawn cannot be captured because of the pins, so the king retreats. 35...e4! The knight is chased, and the b-pawn falls.
36.Nc5 Rxb2+; 37.Ke3. Black now enters a winning king and pawn endgame. 37...Rxe2+; 38.Kxe2 Kf7; 39.Ke3 Bxc5; 40.dxc5 Kxf6; 41.Kd4 Ke6; 42.Ke3 Ke5; 43.g3 d4+. White resigned.
Summing up, the art of chess strategy lies in understanding broad and general concepts, such as those we have examined in this chapter. Now we turn to more specific matters, the tactical operations which take advantage of successful strategic planning or mistakes by your opponents.

Judit Polgár

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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

The native form of this personal name is Polgár Judit. This article uses the Western name order.

Judit Polgár
Photo by Gennadiy Titkov
Full name	Judit Polgár
Country	Hungary
Born	July 23, 1976 (1976-07-23) (age 33) Budapest, Hungary
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2682 (No. 46 on the January 2010 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2735 (July 2005)

Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history.^[1] In 1991, she achieved the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years and 4 months. She was, at that time, the youngest person ever to do so. Polgár is ranked number 46 in the world on the January 2010 FIDE rating list with an Elo rating of 2682, the only^[update] woman on FIDE's Top 100 Players list, and has been ranked as high as eighth.

[hide]

[edit] Background

Judit Polgár is Jewish, and from Budapest. Members of her family perished in the Holocaust.

She and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Susan and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klara educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject. However, chess was not taught to the exclusion of everything else. Each of them has several diplomas and speaks four to eight languages. Their father also taught his three daughters the international language Esperanto.

The rest of Judit's family eventually emigrated (Sofia and her parents to Israel and later to Canada, Susan to New York), but she remained in Hungary and married Gusztáv Font, a veterinary surgeon from Budapest, whom she met through his caring for her dog.^[2]

[edit] Career

Polgár has always preferred not playing the women's specific division events, making it clear from the beginning that she wanted to become the true World Champion of Chess regardless of gender.

Trained in her early years by her sister Susan (who ultimately became Women's World Champion herself) Polgár was a prodigy from an early age. She first defeated an International Master (Dolfi Drimer) at age 10,^[3] and a Grandmaster (Vladimir Kovacevic) at age 11.^[4]

Judit Polgar qualified as a Grandmaster in December 1991, aged 15 years 4 months, at the time the youngest ever. In 1993 she confirmed her status as one of the world's leading players, narrowly failing to qualify for the Candidates Tournaments at the rival FIDE and PCA Interzonal tournaments.^[5]^[6]

In 1994 she suffered a controversial defeat at the hands of then-world champion Garry Kasparov, the highest-rated chessplayer of all time. Kasparov changed his mind after making a losing move and then made another move instead. According to chess rules, once a player has released a piece s/he cannot make a different move, so Kasparov should have been made to play his original move. However, Polgár did not challenge this because she says there were no witnesses and an arbiter was not around. She was also unaware at the time that the re-move was caught on tape by a television crew. The tournament director was criticised for not forfeiting Kasparov when the videotape evidence was made available to him.^[7] However, she won a rapid chess game against Kasparov in 2002 and her official score stands at +1 -11 =3 with Kasparov.

On the January 1996 FIDE ratings list, Polgár's 2675 rating made her the number 10 ranked player in the world,^[8] the only woman ever to enter the world's Top Ten.

In 2003, Polgár scored one of her best results: an undefeated clear second place in the Category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, just a half-point behind future World Champion Viswanathan Anand, and a full point ahead of then-world champion Vladimir Kramnik.^[9]

In 2004, Polgár took some time off from chess to give birth to her son, Olivér. She was consequently considered inactive and not listed on the January 2005 FIDE rating list. Her sister Susan reactivated her playing status during this period, and temporarily became ranked the world's number one woman player again.^[10]

Polgár returned to chess at the prestigious Corus chess tournament on January 15, 2005, scoring 7/13. She was therefore relisted in the April 2005 FIDE rating list, gaining a few rating points for her better-than-par performance at Corus. In May she also had a better-than-par performance at a strong tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, finishing third. This brought her to her highest ever rating, 2735, in the July 2005 FIDE list and enabled her to retain her spot as the eighth ranked player in the world.

In September 2005, Polgár became the first woman to play for a World Championship, at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. However, she had a rare disappointing performance, coming last out of the eight competitors. Nigel Short criticised her poor opening repertoire, and some speculated that taking a year off to have a baby may have left her rusty, despite her strong performances in two tournaments earlier in the year.

She did not play at the 2006 Linares tournament because she was pregnant again. On July 6, 2006, she gave birth to a girl, Hanna.

In October 2006, Polgár scored another excellent result: tied for first place in the Essent Chess Tournament, Hoogeveen, Holland.^[11] She scored 4.5 out of 6 in a double round robin tournament that included two wins against the world's top-rated player, Veselin Topalov.

In May-June 2007 she played in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. She was eliminated in the first round, losing 3.5-2.5 to Evgeny Bareev. In November the same year she took part in an historic event, the "Liga de Campeones" tournament, played in Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain. That tournament was conceived to put together all the living active world chess champions, plus Polgár. She managed to score 50 percent, finishing third.

In January 2008 she competed in the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament, scoring a respectable 6.0/13.

In November 2008, Polgár played the number 2 board for the Hungarian open ("men's") team in the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden, finishing 3.5/8.

[edit] Playing style

Polgar is known for an aggressive playing style, preferring openings like the Sicilian and, while a solid positional player, excels in tactical positions.^[12] She has also spoken of appreciating the psychological aspect of chess. She has stated preferring to learn an opponent's style so she can play intentionally against him versus playing “objective” chess.^[13] In an interview regarding playing against computers she said, “Chess is 30 to 40 per cent psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it."^[14]

[edit] Illustrative games

Polgar-GM Ferenc Berkes, Budapest 2003

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.O-O-O Be7 10.Bd3 b6 11.Neg5 h6 12.Bh7+ Kh8 13.Be4 hxg5 14.g4 Rb8 15.h4 g6 16.hxg5+ Kg7 17.Qf4 Bb7 18.Rh7+ Kxh7 19.Qh2+ Kg8 20.Rh1 Bxg5+ 21.Nxg5 Qxg5+ 22.f4 Qxf4+ 23.Qxf4 Bxe4 24.Qxe4 1-0

Polgar-Kasparov, Russia vs. The Rest of the World match, Moscow 2002

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 h6 10.Rd1+ Ke8 11.h3 Be7 12.Ne2 Nh4 13.Nxh4 Bxh4 14.Be3 Bf5 15.Nd4 Bh7 16.g4 Be7 17.Kg2 h5 18.Nf5 Bf8 19.Kf3 Bg6 20.Rd2 hxg4+ 21.hxg4 Rh3+ 22.Kg2 Rh7 23.Kg3 f6 24.Bf4 Bxf5 25.gxf5 fxe5 26.Re1 Bd6 27.Bxe5 Kd7 28. c4 c5 29.Bxd6 cxd6 30.Re6 Rah8 31.Rexd6+ Kc8 32.R2d5 Rh3+ 33.Kg2 Rh2+ 34.Kf3 R2h3+ 35.Ke4 b6 36.Rc6+ Kb8 37.Rd7 Rh2 38.Ke3 Rf8 39.Rcc7 Rxf5 40.Rb7+ Kc8 41.Rdc7+ Kd8 42.Rxg7 Kc8 1-0

[edit] Literature

Forbes, Cathy (1992), The Polgar Sisters: Training or Genius?, Henry Holt & Co., ISBN 0805024263
Hurst, Sarah (2002), Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld, Russell Enterprises, ISBN 1888690151
Karolyi, Tibor (2004), Judit Polgar, the Princess of Chess, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-8890-5
Polgar, Susan; Truong, Paul (2005), Breaking Through : How the Polgar Sisters Changed the Game of Chess, Everyman Chess, ISBN 1857443810
Shahade, Jennifer, Chess Bitch: Women In The Ultimate Intellectual Sport, Siles Press, ISBN 189008509X
Polgár, Judit; Kepes, András (2008). Matt a férfiaknak (Checkmate to Men) English translation due 2009.

[edit] References

^ "Judit Polgar: 'I can work myself into the top ten again'"

. ChessBase. 2007-11-11. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4244

. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
^ Allott, Serena (Jan. 16, 2002). "Queen Takes All"

. The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JOAYG3V2KRJ15QFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/health/2002/01/16/fmpol16.xml&page=1

. Retrieved Dec. 7, 2009.
^ "Judit Polgar vs Dolfi Drimer"

. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1110730

.
^ "Judit Polgar vs Vladimir Kovacevic"

. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1110745

.
^ 1993 Biel FIDE Interzonal Tournament

, Mark Weeks' Chess pages
^ 1993 Groningen PCA Qualifying Tournament

, Mark Weeks' Chess pages
^ "The Kasparov touch-move controversy"

. http://www.controltheweb.com/polgar/#controversy

.
^ FIDE Top 10 1970-1997
^ "FIDE profile of Judit Polgár"

. http://www.fide.com/ratings/top_files.phtml?id=700070

.
^ Why Judit Polgar was not on the ratings list

January 14, 2005
^ "Essent 2006: Mamedyarov, Judit Polgar are the winners"

. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3459

.
^ "Anand describes Polgar’s playing style"

. http://www.chessbase.com/newsprint.asp?newsid=4804

. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
^ "Polgar interview speaking of psychology in chess"

. http://www.playe4.com/judit-polgar-article.html

. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
^ "Polgar quote in Independent on computers in chess"

. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/paul-vallely-the-perpetual-struggle-of-man-against-machine-614581.html

. Retrieved 2009-07-27.

[edit] External links

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player profile at ChessGames.com
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of Judit Polgar The Princess of Chess

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International Master Jennifer Shahade.

Chess strategy

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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Chess strategy is concerned with the evaluation of chess positions and setting up goals and long-term plans for future play. During the evaluation, a player must take into account the value of the pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, position of pieces, control of key squares and groups of squares (e.g. diagonals, open files, black or white squares), and the possible moves the opponent will make after any move made.

The most basic way to evaluate one's position is to count the total value of pieces on both sides. The point values used for this purpose are based on experience. Usually pawns are considered to be worth one point, knights and bishops three points each, rooks five points, and queens nine points. The fighting value of the king in the endgame is approximately four points. These basic values are modified by other factors such as the position of the piece (e.g. advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on their starting squares), coordination between pieces (e.g. a bishop pair usually coordinates better than a bishop plus a knight), and the type of position (knights are generally better in closed positions with many pawns, while bishops are more powerful in open positions).

Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawn structure or pawn skeleton. Since pawns are the most immobile and least valuable of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and largely determines the strategic nature of the position. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns and holes, once created, are usually permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid them unless they are compensated by another valuable asset, such as the possibility to develop an attack.

[edit] Basic concepts of board evaluation

[edit] Values of the pieces

Main article: Chess piece relative value

A material advantage applies both strategically and tactically. Generally more pieces or an aggregate of more powerful pieces means greater chances of winning. A fundamental strategic and tactical rule is to capture opponent pieces while preserving one's own.

Bishops and knights are called minor pieces. A knight is about as valuable as a bishop, but less valuable than a rook. Rooks and the queen are called major pieces. Bishops are usually considered slightly better than knights in open positions, such as toward the end of the game when many of the pieces have been captured, whereas knights have an advantage in closed positions. Having two bishops (the bishop pair) is a particularly powerful weapon, especially if the opposing player lacks one or both of their bishops.

Three pawns are more likely to be useful than a knight in the endgame, but in the middlegame a knight is often more powerful. Two minor pieces are stronger than a single rook, and two rooks are slightly stronger than a queen.

One commonly used simple scoring system is:

Piece	Value
Pawn	1
Bishop	3
Knight	3
Rook	5
Queen	9
King	∞

Under a system like this, giving up a knight or bishop in order to win a rook ("winning the exchange") is advantageous and is worth about two pawns. This of course ignores such complications as the current position and freedom of the pieces involved, but it is a good starting point. In an open position, bishops will be more valuable than knights (a bishop pair can easily be worth seven points or more in some situations); conversely, in a closed position, bishops will be less valuable than knights. Also, many pieces have a partner. By doubling up two knights, two rooks, rook and queen or bishop and queen the pieces can get stronger than the sum of the individual pieces alone. When pieces lose their partner, their values slightly decrease. The king is priceless since its loss causes the loss of the game. However, especially in the endgame, the king can also be a fighting piece, and is sometimes given a fighting value of four.

[edit] Space

All other things being equal, the side which controls more space on the board has an advantage. More space means more options, which can be exploited both tactically and strategically. If all of one's pieces are developed and no tactical tricks or promising long-term plan is apparent, he or she could try to find a move which will enlarge one's influence, particularly in the centre. However, in some openings, one player will accept less space for a period of time to set up a counterattack in the middlegame. This is one of the concepts behind hypermodern play.

From Evans, page 103

White has an advantage in space

The easiest way to gain space is to push the pawn skeleton forward. However, one must be careful not to over stretch. If the opponent succeeds in getting a protected piece behind enemy lines, this piece can become such a serious problem that a piece with a higher value might have to be exchanged for it.

Larry Evans gives a method of evaluating space. The method (for each side) is to count the number of squares attacked or occupied on the opponent's side of the board. In this diagram from the Nimzo-Indian Defense, Black attacks four squares on White's side of the board (d4, e4, f4, and g4). White attacks seven squares on Black's side of the board (b5, c6, e6, f5, g5, and h6 – counting b5 twice) and occupies one square (d5). White has a space advantage of eight to four and Black is cramped.^[1]

[edit] Control of the centre

Centre squares are marked by "X"

The strategy consists of placing pieces so that they attack the central four squares of the board. However, a piece being placed on a central square does not necessarily mean it controls the centre – e.g. a knight on a central square does not attack any central squares. Conversely, a piece does not have to be on a central square in order to control the centre.

Control of the centre is important because tactical battles often take place around the central squares, from where pieces can access most of the board.

Chess openings try to control the centre while developing pieces Hypermodern openings are those that control the centre with pieces from afar (usually the side, such as with a Fianchetto); the older Classical (or Modern) openings control it with pawns.

[edit] Initiative

Main article: Initiative (chess)

The initiative belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored. He thus puts his opponent in the position of having to use his turns responding to threats rather than making his own.^[2] The player with the initiative is generally attacking and the other player is defending.

[edit] Defending pieces

It is important to defend one's pieces even if they are not directly threatened. This helps stop possible future campaigns from the opponent. If a defender must be added at a later time, this may cost a tempo or even be impossible due to a fork or discovered attack. The approach of always defending one's pieces has an antecedent in the theory of Aron Nimzowitsch who referred to it as "overprotection." Similarly, if one spots undefended enemy pieces, one should immediately take advantage of those pieces' weakness.

Even a defended piece can be vulnerable. If the defending piece is also defending something else, it is called an overworked piece, and may not be able to fulfill its task. When there is more than one attacking piece, the number of defenders must also be increased, and their values taken into account. In addition to defending pieces, it is also often necessary to defend key squares, open files, and the back rank. These situations can easily occur if the pawn structure is weak.

[edit] Exchanging pieces

Main article: Exchange (chess)

To exchange pieces means to capture a hostile piece and then allow a piece of the same value to be captured. As a general rule of thumb, exchanging pieces eases the task of the defender who typically has less room to operate in.

Exchanging pieces is usually desirable to a player with an existing advantage in material, since it brings the endgame closer and thereby leaves the opponent with less ability to recover ground. In the endgame even a single pawn advantage may decide the game.

When playing against stronger players, many beginners attempt to constantly exchange pieces "to simplify matters". However, stronger players are often relatively stronger in the endgame, whereas errors are more common during the more complicated middlegame.

Note that "the exchange" may also specifically mean a rook exchanged for a bishop or knight.

[edit] Specific pieces

[edit] Pawns

Main articles: Pawn and Pawn structure

An example of visualizing pawn structures

After 12. ... Re8 at Tarrasch – Euwe, 1922^[3]……

…and its pawn skeleton ("The Rauzer formation")

In the endgame, passed pawns, those which cannot be hindered by enemy pawns from promotion, are strong, especially if they are advanced or protected by another pawn. A passed pawn on the sixth row is roughly as strong as a knight or bishop and will often decide the game. (Also see isolated pawn, doubled pawns, backward pawn, connected pawns).

[edit] Knights

Main article: Knight

Since knights can easily be chased away with pawn moves, it is often advantageous for knights to be placed in "holes" in the enemy position (an outpost), squares where they cannot be attacked by a pawn. Such a knight on the fifth rank is a strong asset, and one on the sixth rank may exercise as much power as a rook. A knight at the edge or corner of the board controls fewer squares than one on the board's interior, thus the saying "A Knight on the rim is dim!".

A king and a knight is not sufficient material to checkmate an opposing lone king.

[edit] Bishops

Main article: Bishop

A bishop always stays on squares of the colour it started on, so once one of them is gone, the squares of the other colour become more difficult to control. When this happens, pawns moved to squares of the other colour do not block the bishop, and enemy pawns directly facing them are stuck on the vulnerable colour.

A fianchettoed bishop at, e.g., g2 after pawn g2-g3, can provide a strong defence for the castled king on g1 and often exert pressure on the long diagonal h1-a8. After a fianchetto, giving up the bishop can weaken the holes in the pawn chain; doing so in front of the castled king may thus impact its safety.

In general, a bishop is of roughly equal value to a knight. In certain circumstances, one can be more powerful than the other. If the game is "closed" with lots of interlocked pawn formations, the knight tends to be stronger, because it can hop over the pawns while they block the bishop. A bishop is also weak if it is restricted by his own pawns, especially if they are blocked and on the bishop's colour. Once a bishop is lost, the remaining bishop is considered weaker since the opponent can now plan his moves to play a white or black colour game.

In an open game with action on both sides of the board, the bishop tends to be stronger because of its long range. This is especially true in the endgame; if passed pawns race on opposite sides of the board, the player with a bishop usually has better winning chances than a player with a knight.

A king and a bishop is not sufficient material to checkmate an opposing lone king.

[edit] Rooks

Main article: Rook

Rooks have more scope of movement on Half-open files (ones which do not contain pawns of one's own colour). Rooks on the seventh rank can be very powerful as they attack pawns which can only be defended by other pieces, and they can restrict the enemy king to its back rank. A pair of rooks on the player's seventh rank is often a sign of a winning position.

In middlegames and endgames with a passed pawn, Tarrasch's rule states that rooks, both friend and foe of the pawn, are usually strongest behind the pawn rather than in front of it.

A king and a rook is sufficient material to checkmate an opposing lone king, although it's a little harder than checkmating with king and queen; thus the rook's distinction as a major piece above the knight and bishop.

[edit] Queen

Main article: Queen

Queens are the most powerful pieces. They have great mobility and can make many threats at once. For these reasons, checkmate attacks involving the queen are easier to achieve than those without. It is generally wise to wait to develop the queen until after the knights and bishops have been developed to prevent the queen from being attacked by minor pieces and losing tempo.

[edit] King

Main article: King

During the middle game, the king is often best protected in a corner behind his pawns. If the rooks and queen leave the first rank however, an enemy rook can checkmate the king by invading the first rank. Moving one of the pawns in front of the king (making a luft) can allow it an escape square, but may weaken the king's position.

The king can become a strong piece in the endgame. With reduced material, a quick mate is not an immediate concern anymore, and moving the king towards the centre of the board gives it more opportunities to make threats and actively influence play.

[edit] Considerations for a successful long term deployment

[edit] Strategy and tactics

Chess strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game — for example, where to place different pieces — while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuver. These two parts of chess thinking cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved by the means of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play.

Because of different strategic and tactical patterns, a game of chess is usually divided into three distinct phases: Opening, usually the first 10 to 25 moves, when players develop their armies and set up the stage for the coming battle; middlegame, the developed phase of the game; and endgame, when most of the pieces are gone and kings start to take an active part in the struggle.

[edit] Opening

Main article:

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defence. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. It is recommended for anyone but the chessmasters that when left with a choice to either invent a new variation or follow a standard opening, one should do the latter.^{[citation needed]}

There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (e.g. the Réti Opening) to very aggressive (e.g. the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequence considered best for both sides has been worked out to 30–35 moves or more.^[4] Professional players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve.

The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:^[5]

Development: To place (develop) the pieces (particularly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have an impact on the game.
Control of the centre: Control of the central squares allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have a cramping effect on the opponent.
King safety: Correct timing of castling can enhance this.
Pawn structure: Players strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled or backward pawns, and pawn islands.

During the opening, some pieces have a recognised optimum square they try to reach. Hence, an optimum deployment could be to push the king and queen pawn two steps followed by moving the knights so they protect the centre pawns and give additional control of the centre. One can then deploy the bishops, protected by the knights, to pin the opponents knights and pawns. The optimum opening is ended with a castling, moving the king to safety and deploying for a strong back-rank and a rook along the centre file.

Apart from these fundamentals, other strategic plans or tactical sequences may be employed in the opening.

Most players and theoreticians consider that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a small advantage. Black usually strives to neutralize White's advantage and achieve equality, or to develop dynamic counterplay in an unbalanced position.

[edit] Middlegame

Main article:

Chess middlegame

The middlegame is the part of the game when most pieces have been developed. Because the opening theory has ended, players have to assess the position, to form plans based on the features of the positions, and at the same time to take into account the tactical possibilities in the position.^[6]

Typical plans or strategic themes — for example the minority attack, that is the attack of queenside pawns against an opponent who has more pawns on the queenside — are often appropriate just for some pawn structures, resulting from a specific group of openings. The study of openings should therefore be connected with the preparation of plans typical for resulting middlegames.

Middlegame is also the phase in which most combinations occur. Middlegame combinations are often connected with the attack against the opponent's king; some typical patterns have their own names, for example the Boden's Mate or the Lasker—Bauer combination.

Another important strategical question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transform into an endgame (i.e. simplify). For example, minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose an appropriate way to achieve an ending. Not every reduction of material is good for this purpose; for example, if one side keeps a light-squared bishop and the opponent has a dark-squared one, the transformation into a bishops and pawns ending is usually advantageous for the weaker side only, because an endgame with bishops on opposite colours is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of one or two pawns.

[edit] Endgame

Main article:

Chess endgame

An example of zugzwang: The side which is to make a move is in a disadvantage.

The endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier stages of the game and endgame:^[7]

During the endgame, pawns become more important; endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank.
The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame and it is often brought to the centre of the board where it can protect its own pawns, attack the pawns of opposite colour, and hinder movement of the opponent's king.
Zugzwang, a disadvantage because the player has to make a move, is often a factor in endgames and rarely in other stages of the game. For example, in the diagram on the right, Black on move must go 1...Kb7 and allow white to queen after 2.Kd7, while White on move must allow a draw either after 1.Kc6 stalemate or losing the last pawn by going anywhere else.

Endgames can be classified according to the type of pieces that remain on board. Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. For example, king and pawn endgames involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other more complicated endings are classified according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. "rook and pawn versus rook endgame".

[edit] Quotes

"Strategy requires thought; tactics requires observation." - Max Euwe
"When you see a good move, wait - look for a better one." - Emanuel Lasker

[edit] See also

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Chess

[edit] References

^ Evans, New Ideas in Chess, pp. 103-4
^ http://chess.about.com/od/reference/g/bldefini.htm
^ "Tarrasch vs Euwe on chessgames.com"

. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1006866

. (Java needed)
^ Collins, Sam (2005). Understanding the Chess Openings. Gambit Publications. ISBN 1-904600-28-X.
^ Tarrasch, Siegbert (1987). The Game of Chess. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-25447-X.
^ Harding (2003), p. 32–151
^ Harding (2003), p. 187ff

Evans, Larry (1958), New Ideas in Chess, Pitman (1984 Dover edition), ISBN 0-486-28305-4
Josh Waitzkin (2002). Chessmaster 8000 Classroom

[edit] Further reading

James Eade (2001). Chess for Dummies. Gambit. A comprehensive guide for beginners.
John Nunn (2001). Understanding Chess Move by Move. Gambit. An International Grandmaster explains the thinking behind every single move of many world-class games.
Silman, Jeremy (1998), The Complete Book of Chess Strategy, Silman-James Press, ISBN 978-1-890085-01-8
Jeremy Silman (1999). The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery. Siles Press. A chess teacher analyzes and corrects the thinking of advanced beginners.
Yasser Seirawan (2005). Winning Chess Strategies. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-385-3.

[edit] External links

64 Commandments of Chess

by Bruce Pandolfini
Chess Strategy, Second Edition

(also at Gutenberg-project

), and Chess and Checkers: the Way to Mastership

by Edward Lasker
The Blue Book of Chess

; "Teaching the Rudiments of the Game, and Giving an Analysis of All the Recognized Openings" by Howard Staunton
Chess Strategy

, free lessons on basic elements.

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THE 64COMMANDMENTSOF CHESS

A Summary of Hints, Pointers and Precepts from theABCs of Chess

by Bruce Pandolfini provided by Lonnie Lee Best

(1) Grischuk,A (2736) - Topalov,V (2805) [E15]

XXVII SuperGM Linares ESP (9), 23.02.2010

Warriors of the Mind

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Career

[edit] Playing style

[edit] Illustrative games

[edit] Literature

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Chess strategy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Basic concepts of board evaluation

[edit] Values of the pieces

[edit] Space

[edit] Control of the centre

[edit] Initiative

[edit] Defending pieces

[edit] Exchanging pieces

[edit] Specific pieces

[edit] Pawns

[edit] Knights

[edit] Bishops

[edit] Rooks

[edit] Queen

[edit] King

[edit] Considerations for a successful long term deployment

[edit] Strategy and tactics

[edit] Opening

[edit] Middlegame

[edit] Endgame

[edit] Quotes

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

THE 64
COMMANDMENTS
OF CHESS

A Summary of Hints, Pointers and Precepts from the
ABCs of Chess