The Knights' Defense

Next level

2010-06-24T15:37:00.001-07:00

Round 1 - level 3 - 84% (397 -617)

Progress

2010-06-18T14:48:00.001-07:00

Round 1 - level 2 (ex.111 -396) - 92 %

Round 1 - part1

2010-06-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

Tactics exercises 1- 111 - round 1: 98%

Restart circling

2010-06-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

I have decided to pick up chess again. Life has changed a lot over the last 4 years. I have two new queens. Lost a couple of times my job. Took on a complementary study to obtain my teacher diplome.(still working on it) My income has been cut in halve and I have become a certified potter in the meantime.

I will do the same as in the past. I just pick up the circles again and off we go.

Spotting weaknesses

2008-02-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

What do I find very interesting in this position?

Black threatens the capture of the bishop on the next move, followed up with a double attack on the g2-pawn (threatens mate in 1) and the queen. For white it seems that these are desperate times. There is no good way to prevent the capture of the bishop. Retreating the queen to e4 would result in a loss of material. One can try from this position to induce an eternal check on the king but a calculation error, or missing a move is easily made. So only a forced sequence which can overrride the threat can save him the game. Forced sequences have the advantage that only limited amount of moves are possible, which eases one's calculation. It can also relieve pieces from their normal duty without a loss of time. Furthermore it is a very good exercise in visualization and assessing a position. Some people do not like to sacrifice material. In this case, one is forced to.

If we look at this position we see furthermore that black's king is in the center and is a bit exposed. White's rooks are on the center files exerting pressure on the king's position.Black's f-pawn is not really free and is the last flank protection to shield off the king. Black's king rook is badly placed and has only a limited function.

So why is rook taking the knight (1. Rxe6) an obvious move for white?

I can only come up with one answer. The reduction clarifies the position. Counting the amount of black pieces really being able to protect, shield off and assist the king in its protection, Black has to say only one can really protect him and that is the queen. The rooks are not really helping.They are exerting pressure on files not important to the protection of his king. They do not challenge the white pieces on any account. White has three pieces in the attack. The bishop is preventing the king its access to the f -file and also preventing the Queen of intervening on the e5 square. The King cannot hide himself behind the f-pawn. It seems that white has three pieces he can use in his attack on the king. A surplus of 2 pieces.

On the capture black has only 2 choices: either recapture or move his king out of the check.

1.Rxe6+

game continuation

Kxe6 2.Qe4+ Kd7 3.Qxb7+ Ke6 4.Re1+ Kf5 5.Qxf7+ Kg4 6.Qf3+ Kh4 7.Qh3# 1-0

Somewhere our Champ missed a mate in one?

[5.Qe4#]

I especially enjoy the variation where black's king is trying to play hide and seek.

[1...Kd7 2.Rexd6+ (2.Rdxd6+ Kc7 3.Qc2+ Qc5 (3...Kb8 4.Rd7 Qa5 5.Ree7 Rxg7 6.Rxb7#) 4.Qxc5+ Kb8 5.Rd8+ Rxd8 6.Be5+ Rd6 7.Bxd6#) 2...Kc7 (2...Ke7 3.Qe4+ Qe5 4.Qxe5#) 3.Qc2+ Kb8 4.Rd8+ Rxd8 5.Be5+ Qxe5 6.Rxd8#; 1...fxe6 2.Bh6+]

I calculated the following combination.

1...Kd7 2.Rdxd6+ Kc7 3.Qc2+ Kb8 4.Rd8+ Rxd8 5.Be5+ Qxe5 6.Rxe5 +/-

I did not calculated in anyway 2.Rexd6+? Why? It did not crossed my mind in anyway. I missed the threat 4.Rd7 and black should have no good answers.

It seems that I still miss plenty!

Steinitz - Strauss, 1860

2008-02-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

What happens when your king is in a rat trap?

White just played Rfe1, pinning the knight against the king. Black answers with Qg5, eying a tactical blow against the bishop on g7 and the pawn on g2.

How can one save the bishop?

Valeri Beim latest shot

2008-02-06T03:07:00.000-08:00

Currently going through the book " How to calculate chess tactics", written by Valeri Beim and published by Gambit.

It consists of two parts which ends with exercises for both parts: Part 1 - Tactics in chess ; Part 2 - The technique of calculating variations.

There seems to be a lot of new material in the book. Yours truely wonders if it will improve his calculation mussle dramatically. We will see said the blind man

I conclude with the words of Tigran Petrosian as stated in the book: I believe that in chess, everything depends on tactics.

Some other books by Valeri beim

-How to play Dynamic chess
-Lesson in chess strategy
-Chess recipes from the Grandmaster's Kitchen

Reflection over Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur

2008-02-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

It's time to revitalize to old bugger.

The wall

2007-08-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

I hit the wall. My road is barred. Many thanks for the support through all those years and I enjoyed the process very much. Good luck to all in your endevaours.

Rating progress

2007-07-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

Question is "doing the circles does it pay off" ?

My yearly progress

I played only 10 OTB games this year. The average strenght of my opponents was 1582.

Range:1513-1739

Rating increase of 103 points to 1668. I think I have climbed in 2 and 1/2 years time about 219 points. It is not so impressive as MDLM but I am quite satisfied. However, let's focus on the amount of games and we get a rather different picture. I played about 31 rated games since Jan 2005 which I hardly can call much. MDLM played about 20 tournament games a month if I am not mistaken. So I should raise the amount of tournament games if I want to increase more sharply.

I assume that an average of 25 would be fine with premisses that you play opponents above your current rating which ends for 80% in a victory. The more wins you have the less games you have to play to induce a substantial increase. So the large amount of games that MDLM played were surely not necessary. The biggest increase in my playing strenght, I think was due to avoid inacurracies in calculating, and (I only calculate when I think that position becomes critical (dangerous word)) avoiding mistakes. (I mainly focussed on 2 tactics, double attacks and pins)

So the question remains: "doing the circles does it pay off"

Well, it sure helps

I am on leave for three weeks. Enjoy your summer holidays.

If I am quite correct, Tempo wrote in one of his previous posts about the amount of games you should play to have an increase of 100 points. I played 10 games got a score of 8. Does it fit the bill?

My new Queen "Fleur"

2007-06-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Quite challenging!! born on the 22nd April.

Rook position

2007-04-09T03:31:00.000-07:00

I bought myself a new book about rook endings with the swirling title: 1000 rook positions from GM Joséf Pintér.

A quickly opened the book looked at the first position and thought by myself well the first position seems to be solvable.

Test position 1 from N. Grigorjev 1945 – I should have known.

I had 2 thoughts 1. Kc5 and 1.Rh7. So I decided to analyse 1. Kc5 first as this seems to be to my experience the correct answer.

On 1 Kc5+ Black has 4 possible replies.

If the Black king goes to the a-file we have a draw as the white rook will never allow the black king to go off to the b-file. Other tries by challenging the rook on the b-file leads to no avail.
So only 1.Kc3 and 1.Kc2 remain to be looked at.

I pictured the following series of moves

First I give check and separate the black king from the pawn.
I swing the rook to the h-file and bring the rook aside, giving black a perpetual check. No place to hide.
Therefore the black king will probably try to approach the rook. When the king comes close enough, I shall swing the rook over to the a-file and make sure the white king will be the first at the pawn. In this way the pawn + rook can be exchanged for the rook.

So a couple of sequences that shows the idea.

1.Kc5+ Kc3 2.Rh7 a3 3.Rh3+ Kd2 4.Rh2+ Ke3 5.Rh3+ Kf4 6.Rh4+ Kg5 7.Rh1 a2 8.Ra1 Kf4 9.Kd4 Kf3 10.Kc3 Ke2 11.Kb2=
[9...Ra3 10.Kc4 Ke3 11.Kb4 Rd3 12.Rxa2=]

Well if you have accepted this explanation you obviously -just like I did- missed something crucial.

So what did I miss?

The hiding place!

As shown in the diagram the black king can hide himself from the white rook behind the white king. Whatever the next move of the rook, this will be answered by the check on the white king which in turn will free black’s king position. Now the black king can support again the advance of the black pawn. The win is not immediate obvious but the white king has been shielded of.

1.Kc5+ Kc3 2.Rh7 a3 3.Rh3+ Kc2 4.Rh2+ Kb3 5.Rh3+ Ka4 6.Rh4+ Ka5 (diagram) 7.Rh3 Rc8+! 8.Kd4 Kb4
· 9.Rf3 9...a2+- (keeping the rook on the same rank)
· 9.Rh2 Ra8 10.Ra2 Kb3+- (blocking the progress of the pawn)
· 9.Rh7 Rb8! 10.Ra7 Kb3+- (try to attack the black king from behind)

For clarity the position is a draw

Fun

2007-03-30T00:29:00.001-07:00

.Introduction to coordinated squares

I. Consider the following position

Identify the key squares and determine which squares can be used as invasion points.

For white we have 3 key squares, in this overall blocked pawn position. If white can stand on one of these squares the opponent's pawn will irrevocable fall.

Determine the access square(s) to the key squares and draw the shortest road between the access squares for both kings.

The blue rectangles refer to the access squares of white. The blue line corresponds to the shortest road between the blue access squares.
The red rectangles on the other hand refers to black's access squares. The red line to the shortest path for black.

Configuration of path from Q-side to K-side - blue - 1,1,2,2,1,1
Configuration of path from Q-side to K-side - red - 1,1,2,2,2,1

It is important to note that black has no key squares to the Q-side only to the K-side. This is of fundamental importance. This means that black can only try to invade the position of white on the K-side but not on the Q-side. So it is essential for white to move the play to the Q-side.

Both paths are as long to each other. Each 6 moves long although the pattern is different. Black cannot take advantage of this as he has only one invasion point which does not give him room enough to invade.

On the shortest path both kings are in knight configuration to each other meaning one file difference on the correspondence square (one file distance to the distant or close opposition square). So it is vital for white if he wants to invade to take the opposition anywhere on the shortest path. Black's should always be to the left of white's king. This is the first determinant.

One access sqaure on the kingside (blue and/or red) can defend two key squares.

How to determine the correspondance squares

- start with the squares on the shortest path: The squares are special squares, anologous to no others on the board (yuri averbakh)

- designate a number to the squares where there is only one anologous.

- establish the relation between these opposing squares geometrically. This established relation determines what kind of relation we have.

- work down rank by rank

- use direct opposition to find correspondance squares

- check distance to the invasion points if the correspondance is unique.

Remember the squares on the shortest path are unique!! You need the opposition to invade.

To number the squares, go rank by rank and use direct opposition, king relation and distance to invasion point.

Notice that the relation 2* (red versus pink) are not always co-ordinates in true since of the meaning. Their distance are different to both invasion points and cannot be considered as real correspondance squares!! also they violate the kings' relationship to each other. (distant and one side = extended knight opposition)

Alternative solution - CT-art 582

2007-03-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there are mates which takes one move more, but are equivalent forcing. You guessed it, CT-Art omits them.

We have here problem 582 of the CT-Art CD

Main solution

1.Ra8+ Kb7 2.Qb3+ Kxa8 3.Ra1+ Qa6 4.Rxa6# 1-0

Alternative but equivalent solution.

1.Ra8+ Kb7 2.Ra7+! Kxa7 (2...Kb6 3.Qxc7#);(2...Kb8 3.Qxc7#)3.Qxc7+ Ka8 (3...Ka6 4.Ra1#) 4.Ra1+ Qa6 5.Rxa6# 1-0

Update on the circles

Finished level 3 (7x)

93%,95%,95%,97%,97%,99%,99%

Along the road

2007-03-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

In one of my games, I came accross a mate that I learn through CT-art.

Ct-art N° 425

1...Qg4+ 2.Kg2 [2.Bxg4 hxg4+ 3.Kh4 g5+ 4.Kh5 Rxh2#] 2...Rxe2+ 3.Kg1 Qe4-+

This is the position from the game.

White just grabbed the pawn on a7. Black to move.

At first sight it looks that white has a tight grip on the game. Black will soon give white a kind of reverse "Kramnik move". (My opponent went after playing Rxa7 to the toilet). When he got back I thought he would go for the toilet again after I played my move.

Tactical exercises

2007-02-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Currently, doing tactical exercises.

Killed off j'adoube - Part 3 study plan finished - lol

great feeling

Still plugging tactics

A Sicilian disaster - A Scotisch gambit victory

2007-02-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

Last Game N°5 Round 1

After my feable play of the last Game, this one keeps you smiling

Montse (1565) - Samy,H (1513) [B30], 30.01.2007

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Ne5?!

I do not understand why they always attack immediately. The sensible move Nf6 or Qb6 might be much better. Anyway the knight on e5 can easily be pushed away from its central square by white by playing f4-f5. But before you play this it is better to get your pieces coordinated to support the attack. So the general maxim "develop before you start attacking your opponent" is still valid.

6.Be2 Bd7 7.Nc3 e6 8.Be3 a6 9.0-0 Be7

White retreats the bishop to e2 to guard against g4 & c4 tricks. Your light squared bishop is currently too valuable to be traded. White keeps on developing pieces into the game. Be3 is necessary because when white push the f-pawn, your g1-a7 diagonal becomes very weak. Therefore you protect it with the dark squared bishop. Although at first sight white's position seems a little bit passive, it is full of potential energy ready to be unleached.

If we compare after 9 moves both positions we see that black still holds a knight on g8. It is time to use this fact by launching an attack to his undeveloped kingside. What a better move than f4 do we have? Notice that Black is currently lagging two moves behind white to complete his development (Knight development and castling)

10.f4 Nc6 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.f5

Before you play f5 you need to know what positions might rise from this move.

1. Capture exf5
2. Other moves such as developing moves Nf6, Bf6, e5
3. Currently there are no immediate threats against the king position

I got Mr Brainless working on how to solve this:

A)12...exf5 13.Bc4 f6 14.Rxf5 0-0 15.Bd4! Bd7 16.Rf4 Rc8 17.Qd3 (diagram)±

playing for black's d-pawn seems interesting

B)12...exf5 13.Rxf5 (best) Nf6 14.Qd3 0-0 15.Bd4 Bd7 16.Rf2 Be6 17.Raf1 Rc8 (diagram 1) 18.Nd5 Nxd5 19.exd5 Bxd5 20.Bxg7 Kxg7 21.Qxd5 Qb6 22.Bd3 (diagram 2)+/-

My ideas are simple. For instance White will pressurize along the f-file, especially to the square f7 and try to weaken at the same time black's kingside.

12.f5 Nf6 13.fxe6 fxe6 14.Bh5+ Nxh5? 15.Qxh5+ g6 16.Qf3 Rf8 17.Qh3+-

So Nxh5 is not playable (remove the attacker), A possible move left is g6 (blocking move). I did not consider the move to put the king out of check as the center pawns are very weak and cannot be really used as pawn shield for your king.

12.f5 Nf6 13.fxe6 fxe6 14.Bh5+ g6 15.Be2 0-0 16.Qd3 Qd7 17.Rf3 b5 18.a3 Qb7 19.Bg5 Rf7 20.Raf1 Raf8 += We obtain an interesting position.

The tactic with 19. ... Nxe4 fails

19...Nxe4 20.Bxe7! Rxf3 21.gxf3 Nxc3 22.Qxc3 and white's Bishop on e7 is indirectly protected by the white Queen as the black Queen is tied down to the protection of its bishop on c6.

If white had responded with 19...Nxe4 20.Nxe4? Bxe4 21.Rxf8+ Rxf8 22.Qg3 Bxg5 23.Qxg5 Qb6+ and black has an great position -+

threat is a Q-invasion on f2 and causing a double attack with mate pressure on g1 and capture of the bishop. So Qg4 seems to be only reply but what will white do on Rf4. White's only chance lies in a perpetual check on the black king as he is quite exposed.

So let's go back to the game

12.f5 Bf6 13.fxe6 fxe6 14.Bd3

Now Bd3 has a double edge. If he miss the threat involved he is about to go down in a spectacular fashion. If he answers correctly he is able to equalize.

My first idea was to put the bishop on c4. But this was too my idea not a real threat. It belongs more to the category getting small advantages. So then I was looking at Bd3. At first it seems very passive.

Also black is still undeveloped so if he wants to castle short his N will go to e7 and then probably to g6. I used that idea to set up an attack. I can force him to play Ng6 if I play Qh5. He can answer with g6 but this will structurally speaking be a weakening to his kingside as the Q can go to h6 or I have other possibilities. I have the forcing move e5 which unveils my bishop with attack on his bishop. So I have to be aware that If I play Bd3 he might answer with e5, blocking the pawn push to e5 and protecting the dark squared bishop. So Can 14.Bd3 be met with 14....e5?

Without calculation you can easily see that his light squared fields will become extremely vulnerable around the king. White can take easily control over these fields by playing Bc4. Besides that black has given himself a backward pawn in the center and the king is still in the center. This backward pawn is not supported by any other pawn which makes it extremely vulnerable.

So 14...e5? 15.Qh5+ g6 16.Qf3 b5 Necessary to prevent Bc4, otherwise white will kill off the knight and with this win Bf6 17.a4!! +- This is much better than playing directly 17. Nd5.

So everything seems to be OK. Now the "seems" should be stressed. I missed 14... Bxc3. UUh. My brainless interface pointed out to me that I was lucky and played a bad move with 14Bd3. At first I resented the idea. I looked a little bit closer and try to understand why this move would equalize.

- the exchange forces a structural weakness to the endgame.
- with this exchange a potential attacker has been removed. White was waiting to activate his knight towards d5, e4.
- Main reason: the exchange lead to a gain in tempo for black to develop his knight as white is stalled for one move in his play. He is being forced to recapture to equalize. The field on f6 has been vacated for his knight. So black can develop the knight to f6 and protect his king at the same time against Qh5 check. The e5 pawn push is not possible anymore as there is not immediately anything to gain at the kingside. In other words white has lost the initiative.

14...Bxc3!! 15.bxc3 Nf6 16.Bg5 =

I believe that 14...Bxc3 is not such an obvious move to spot as tendency goes that you want to keep the bishop pair intact. Exchanging must give you a feel that this position would be equalizing otherwise you don't play this move even if you have considered it.

Well, what do you expect.

14.Bd3? Ne7 15.Qh5+ Ng6 (diagram) 16.e5 dxe5 17.Bxg6+ Ke7 18.Bc5+ Kd7 19.Rad1+ Bd5 20.Nxd5 Kc6 21.Nb4+ 1-0

we have the typical connection 1-2-3 (red squares)

1 knight
2 pawn
3 rook

The knight is being tagged by the bishop (green dots) and the rook by the queen (purple dots).

My opponent played as I imagined. As shown in the diagram I exploited this weakness of my opponent. So again a good development plan is important.

15...g6 is not a solution neither.

15...g6 16.Qh3 should learn to play this position! 16...Bxc3 17.bxc3 Qd7 18.Qh4 0-0-0 19.Rf7 Rde8 (20.Raf1!)

16.Qf3 would not be considered as good as Black answers with Nf5!!. Pawn is pinned against my Q. So pawn on e4 cannot guard f5. It is important to keep the activity of your pawns and pieces maximal.

20. Bg5 fails due to

20.Bg5? h6 21.Bxe7 g5 and the Queen can no longer protect the bishop.

Final position before he resigned.

Well, this makes 4,5 out of 5 games. Let's keep it that way.

A Capa finish well-executed.

2007-02-11T03:52:00.000-08:00

We see the game Capablanca versus Funaroff, M - New York 1918.

I like the resolution of this game, but also the way how he simply reached this position on the board. (OK, you always paint with 2)

At first sight black has no real weaknesses. A closer look shows that black is severely tied down. The way Capa handles this is simply nice but as you will noticed a complex finish which eventually lead to mate. To keep you encouraged, the threat of mate is sometimes more painful and obscures the thinking processes of the player under strain.

Position with white to move

game finish

1.Rxd6 Rxd6 2.Bxe5 Rd1 3.Rxd1 Bxe5 4.Nh6+ Kh8 5.Qxe5 Qxe5 6.Nxf7+ Rxf7 7.Rd8+ Qe8 8.Rxe8+ Rf8 9.Rxf8# 1-0

However somewhere along the line black could have resisted much better than during the game. Could you find the move?

Just one of those ugly .... games

2007-01-31T12:59:00.000-08:00

Game 4 of round 1

OTB 40moves/1h45min 15min KO

My opponent had the white pieces and seemingly he prepared an opening against me which was classified as "out of my book repertoire" . Normally he is a 1.e4 player, but this time he played 1.c4. I was nailed to my chair. A quick filling of the glasses was a must to keep Caissa pleased and off we go.

Thys,H (1743) - Montse (1565) [A16]
27.01.2007

No fancy stuff in this one. For godsake who plays the English.

1.c4 Nf6

What will he do? No benko tonight.

2.g3

idea of fianchetto and pressurizing the black Queenside through the white diagonal.

g6

I can play this too. No worries just keep close track on his moves.

3.Bg2

Now the logical Bg2 really annoyed me. It was time to through some "handcuffs" into the ring hmm well center. I played d5 straight away, directly what white wants.

4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nc3 c6

I really did not want to play c6 to reach a sort of caro-khan or whatever sort of structure. Played anyway c6. Actually the knight is a little bit loose on d5. If white hits the black knight the pawn would be in the center again. And logically speaking why did you play c4 in the first place if black may bring back his pawn to the center. Just have to be careful for Qa4 tricks especially in relation to the black rook on h8. Not defended. Although the rook is in no danger at the moment it is a good habit to keep track of your undefended pieces.

6.d4 Bg7 7.e4 Nxc3 8.bxc3

White has built a strong pawn center in the middle of the board. It is like an invitation that starts with a scream: " hit me hit me" . It is demolition time.
Black cannot wait to my perspective until white would be fully mobilized with his pieces. The center must be attacked. One has to keep in mind that freeing the center increases the power of the fianchettoed bishop as it will bear down at your pieces: "I can see you" "You cannot hide"

So what will I throw first my kitchen spoon "e-pawn" or the toilet sink "c-pawn". Choose my kitchen spoon.

e5 9.Ne2 exd4 10.cxd4 c5 11.Be3 Nc6

Up to this position we can roughly say that both positions are equal, no real advantage.

No comes the climax of blunders!!

12.e5??

Impressed by his move I showed that I could level him. I blundered with the immortal saying "safety first".

The only reason that I could see why he played this move is that in this way he open up his diagonal for his light squared bishop and block at the same time the diagonal of black's dark squared bishop. Although at first sight this might seem to be ok, it actually undermines, I think, the strenght of his center. In this way he creates a backward pawn which is multiply threatened.

The d4-pawn is 4 times attacked while three times defended by white. So he has to do something. with the d-pawn. I think d5 would have been a good try and this is actually confirmed by Fritz.

Now Fritzy says:

12.d5 Bxa1 13.Qxa1 Nd4 14.Nxd4 cxd4 15.Bxd4 0-0 +/-

Although black wins the exchange - a rook for a bishop - he has seriously weakened his kingside. The King has become quite vulnerable along the dark square as white has full compensation, still has a strong center where he can hide the dark squared bishop behind.

So my conclusion is that my opponent saw the material loss and discarded this option, without considering the position he could have obtained.

Now I know that he does not think 8 ply deep.

12. 0-0?? 13.0-0?? cxd4 14.Bxc6?? dxe3 15.Bg2 exf2+ 16.Rxf2 Bxe5

Now we have an example of the Arcane Utter Patzer Chess. Tension raises, spectacles are moved, beers zipped. Question marks thrown around, wood pushed, a sigh, a toilet time-out, a counter productive move, a gleam at the end of the tunnel, a smile, a green face.

So 12. e5 could have been immediately answered by cxd4.

17.Rb1?! Rb8 18.Qa4 Bf5 ½-½

Why did I offer a draw? Well I was starting to play really bad. Almost blundered my bishop away by playing g4. The bishop was still not released when I spotted that it was under attack of the Q and I could retrack it to f5. Just a great oversight which could have determined the game. So I decided to call it for today.

diagram after 18.Qa4 (nothing fancy) a6 was OK.

The reason why I wanted to play the Bishop to g4 was the following sequence: 18.Bg4 Qxa7 19. BxN!! and If RxN 20. Bd4+ and wins the Queen. Now both 18 moves can be classified as ?? The great thing was that the knight was not really defended coz of the double fork by the bishop against Queen and king.

If I go back to move 17. ..Rb8. Well this one is actual bad are really not to the point as black should play actively by reducing the activity of the white pieces. A queen swap was more to the point.

Although two pawns and soon only one pawn up. I would classify this game as a bad game.

Lessons to be learned:

*It is not good to change abruptly your opening repertoire to confront an opponent and try to wrinckle him out.
*Destroy your opponents activity when you are ahead in material. An approach of containment and effective activity reduction would be more accurate and effective.

or referring to mousetrapper's fine remark:

«If you are winning, it is a completely different game.»

A very important point, brought up by Dan Heisman in one of his older Novice Nook columns at chesscafe.com. The most important point is that security and the conservation of the advantage and the destruction of every possible counterplay are first goals, and that all other considerations become secondary.

Well what can I say

A beauty in chess

2007-01-28T04:19:00.000-08:00

An interesting example of chess beauty

I like problem 536 of CT-art

Black has a mate in one threat. A torpedo aimed at f1. In game term terminolgy one would ask himself? How to break this attack.

As white you have many options: good ones, less good ones and bad ones.

1. directly defend the f1 square with an extra piece without loosing material.
2. alleviate the mate threat by freeing the king position.
3. Capturing or trading down a piece of the torpedo without loosing material .
4. Counterattack
5. Disrupting the torpedo along the f-file by disconnecting temporarly the opponent pieces.

Option number 1: white has Qe2 or Qe1 which highly likely will lead to a trade down of the queens.

Option number 2: there is no good solution. Playing h3 or h4 lead to the loss of the rook

Option number 3: capturing a rook with a queen does not lead to a viable solution

Option number 4: Counterattack.

The counter-attack must be forcing enough to break black's mate in one on his next move meaning you have a mate threat in one yourself or you have a sequences of checks against the king leading to mate (aiming at the king) or eyeing the torpeado. If you eye the torpedo you want to keep the material balance at least at level. other possibility inducing a perputual check.

Option number 5: Rf3 will lead also to the loss of the bishop.

So there is only option 4, and option 1 left.

Option 1 is a very natural response.

Option 4 is not that easy to find under OTB conditions. One is puffing smoke in your face, zipping his beer and burbing just to show how satisfied he is with his position.

1.Rc8+

[1.Rf3 Rxf3 2.gxf3 Qxf3+ –+; 1.h3; 1.Rxg7+ Kxg7 2.Qg5+ Kf8!; 1.Bh7+ Kh8 2.Rc8+ Bxc8 3.Qe8+ (-+); 1.Bh7+ Kxh7 2.Qh5+ Rh6]

1...Rf8

[1...Rf8 2.Qxg7#; 1...Bxc8 2.Qe8+ Rf8 3.Rxg7+ Kxg7 (3...Kh8 4.Rh7+ Kg8 5.Qg6#) 4.Qg6+ Kh8 5.Qh7#; 1...Kf7 2.Qc7+ Bd7 3.Qxd7#]

In red you have CT-art's solution, In blue the correct answer to 1...Rf8 But what happens if you have chosen to feast on the bishop first.

2.Qxe6+!? R4f7 [2...Kh8 3.Rxf8+ (3.Rh3+ Qh4 4.Rxf8+ Rxf8 5.Rxh4#; 3.Rh3+ Rh4 (diagram) 4.Rxf8+ Qxf8 5.Rxh4#; 3...Rxf8 4.Rh3+ Qh4 5.Rxh4#] 3.Rxg7+ Kxg7 4.Qg6+ Kh8 5.Rxf8+ [5.Qh6+ Kg8 6.Rxf8+ Rxf8 7.Qh7#] 5...Rxf8 6.Qh7# 1–0

I have chosen this variation as it is a pure material variation which leads also to mate. I like the pins involved and how they are exploited to induce mate

(diagram)

New leap beyond my possibilities

2007-01-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

So My chess strategic plan anno 2007:

1. No accidents. Just had today another one and I'm recovering of a swollen elbow, hand and wrist. Yep DD same arm. I think I work too hard.
2. End my circles this year - somewhere and somehow.
3. Kill off J'adoube - happened already. I can here him say, where, when and how? Now a clue: look-up the blogg address. Does it ring a bell? Currently still struggling with another game against - you guessed right - "J'adoube". In the former he was bravely benkoed!! In the latter still have to be extremely careful - game is still in progress.
4. Extend my knowledge about pawn endings.
5. Extend my knowledge about my black 1...e5-repertoire - therefore I never play sicilian. Tried it a couple of times, got the feeling that I was playing at the wrong side of the board.
6. Go into rook endings.

Now did I forget something: Tactics - sure there will be time left.

Who is afraid of the Benko? - J'adoube?

2006-12-31T01:38:00.000-08:00

In the good all tradition -It has happened again. Another victim. Another kill.

Listening to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade 'The Sea and Sinbad's Ship', this music brings back sweet memories of a daunting quest to slain your opponent in pieces.

Lamp, F - Montse [A57]

J'adoube enjoy the game.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.Nc3

The Zaitsev Variation

5. axb5

Is a logical answer but alternatives such as 5...Qa5 or 5.. g6 can also be played. Standardly speaking, I just hit the pawn back - is probably best.

6.Nxb5 Qa5+ 7.Nc3 g6 8.Bd2 Bg7 9.e4

Now 6.e4 is a possible continuation and according to IM Steffen Pederson a main line to follow. I tried the aggressive Qa5+. Drawback your queen is early in the game so you have to watch out that it will not become a target. So 7. Nc3 becomes forced and 8.e4 is not immediately possible. So your Knight on f6 is save, for a while at least.

Let's go to position after 8 moves of play.

Now white can play. 9. Ne4 hitting with his dark squared bishop the Queen. On Na4 he looses his knight. Black moves Q to b6 on Ne4 (c7 is possible but might not be as strong),and the only remaining target for white's knight is the defended Knight on f6. This type of play would not beneficial for white, as it would not support his development. By the exchange on f6, black's dark squared bishop has been uncovered and starts to pressurize the b2 a1 square holding back the b-pawn. And already black is in for equalisation.

This is defenitely not the type of play you want to have with white.

Well back to the game!

My opponent played the delicious 9.e4 and here we go.

9.e4 d6 10.Bc4?! 0-0 11.Nge2 Nbd7

Question what might be the idea of Bc4?

Preventing black to play the freeing break with e6 in the future? Bb5+ looks promising but I would say that if you play for the exchange of your bishop for a knight you are looking for small advantage on long term. This long term advantage would only be possible if you manage to halt black's Q-side play by putting up an effective blockade. Easy to say, but very hard to realize. Also you have to take into account that you have weaken your light squares especially d3-c4. When you played e4 to support d5, d3 cannot be longer controlled by a pawn. On the other hand you killed off a very handy knight that might have been very obstructive in realizing your queen side blockade. There might be extra considerations to be made in view of whether white has a fianchetto structure on the kingside or not.

Whatever the reasoning every game has to be played.

11 Nge2 is Ok, but Nf3 would have been more promising. With Nge2 white does not directly challenge black for the control over e5. His plan is simple. Castle short and use f4 for the break. Open up the f-file for his rook. A question one has to ask oneself is what do I obtain after the execution of the plan.
Well a loss of the pawn, I would say. White does nothing to gain control over the e5 square. So logically speaking, first f4 and then follow up with Nf3.
The only merrit that I see for Nge2 is that it safequards whites castling whithout the necessity to trade off queens. It might strenghten Nc3 but it does not help you on the light squares. So black's strategy becomes very clear. Kill off the light square bishop. Get control over e5, push c5 c4 and put a knight on d3.

Back to the game

12.f4?! Ba6 13.Bxa6 Qxa6 14.0-0 Rfb8 15.Qc2

I don't like 12 f4. The pawn push is not supported. Ba6 forces white into a capture. with this the Q has taken control over the diagonal a6-f1. More imortantly over d3. This calls for a beer. First part of the plan OK - get a grip on d3.
With rook b8 black forces white to protect the b-pawn with the Queen.

Second part of the plan. Get a knight on d3. Importantly, if the knight would be exchanged on d3 you don't want to loose the pawn with it. When you recapture with the pawn you may not loose this pawn. Why? Otherwise you will go into a lost endgame! There will be no stopping of white's pawn march along the a and b-file. Even the translocation of the pawn to the d-file might lead to a position hard to maintain. It comes down to piece cooperation.

Now Ne8 with the idea to translocate the Knight to the Q-side.

16.f5?! Ne5 17.fxg6 hxg6

f5 I don't like neither. It creates a hole on e5. As there is no cooperation with the h-pawn, there is no danger to my kingside. As Silman would say, improve your pieces. With Ne5 black increases its grip on the diagonal a6-f1.

Furthermore, black has only to maneuver his second knight to d7 (2 moves) and its already on a railway to d3.

18.b3 Nf6 19.h3? Nfd7 20.Bc1 Nd3 21.Bd2

Ne8 lovely move, coz it might also lead to the support of the e5 knight.

b3 to develop the dark squared bishop to b2, and inhibit the strenght of the g7 bishop but the bishop is on d2 or a4 with knight to b5 and the other knight to c4. Effective blockade of the q-side. He still needs to sort out the rook on a1.
h3 time to see ghosts. WHOOOOOOOOhhhhhh Ng4? Qb6 - c4 idea. No, I got something more stiffling.

It is important to note that from move 18 to 20 his main idea was to improve his position of his dark squared bishop. He realised that after Nd3 his plan was utterly, not to the point.

With Nfd7 black can play Nb6 and support c4, or c4, Nc5. But have you notice the highway to d3 is installed. I would say Alrighty, you almighty @&$*!!!... . Time to chopp your head off. Well we are reaching a critical point in the game. How to cash in? I earn EURO's no dollars. Please take a seat, put the peddle to the middle and do not hit the breaks.

21.Bd2 c4 22.Rab1 Nb4 23.Qb2 Nxa2 24.Ra1 cxb3 25.Be3 Qd3 26.Qd2 Qxd2 27.Bxd2 Nxc3 28.Bxc3 Bxc3 29.Nxc3 Rxa1 30.Rxa1 b2 31.Rb1 Nc5 reaching a winning position.

22.Nb4 is the suprise double attack. I want to have the a-pawn. By eliminating one of the pawns black is obtaining the better deal out of this.
24. ... cxb3 and not Rxb3 as it might be very tempting.
25. ... Qd3, I hesistated between Qc4 and Qd3. Qc4 would pressurize the Nc3. As it is three on a row but Qd3 trades off a possible counterplay of white. Increasing the viability of the pawn on b3!

28. Nxc3 Bd4+ 29.Kh1 Rxa1 30.Rxa1 Rc8 (this is FRITZ - a big plus - piece up)

Black's plan is easy. Undermine the two pawns in the center for the loss of extra b-pawn. End result will most likely be two pawns up.

31.Rb1 Nc5 32.Kf2 Rb3 33.Nd1 Nxe4+ 34.Ke2 Nf6 35.Rxb2 Rxb2+ 36.Nxb2 Nxd5

This part is the elimination of the 2 center pawns. Black managed to do this by cripling severely the movement of white's knight. Black's knight controls greatly white's knight. Rb3 forces the knight to move but also severely limits the movements of the white king. Now if black manges to attack with the knight the rook on b1 the game is over. This weakness to prevent this makes his pawns in the center of secundary importance. Well, I went after the two pawns and history was written.

The game

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.Nc3 axb5 6.Nxb5 Qa5+ 7.Nc3 g6 8.Bd2 Bg7 9.e4 d6 10.Bc4 0-0 11.Nge2 Nbd7 12.f4 Ba6 13.Bxa6 Qxa6 14.0-0 Rfb8 15.Qc2 Ne8 16.f5 Ne5 17.fxg6 hxg6 18.b3 Nf6 19.h3 Nfd7 20.Bc1 Nd3 21.Bd2 c4 22.Rab1 Nb4 23.Qb2 Nxa2 24.Ra1 cxb3 25.Be3 Qd3 26.Qd2 Qxd2 27.Bxd2 Nxc3 28.Bxc3 Bxc3 29.Nxc3 Rxa1 30.Rxa1 b2 31.Rb1 Nc5 32.Kf2 Rb3 33.Nd1 Nxe4+ 34.Ke2 Nf6 35.Rxb2 Rxb2+ 36.Nxb2 Nxd5 37.Nc4 Kg7 38.Kf3 Kf6 39.Kg4 Nc3 40.Kf3 d5 41.Nd2 e5 42.Nf1 Ke6 43.g4 g5 44.Ng3 d4 45.Kf2 Kd5 46.Ke1 e4 47.Kd2 Nb5 48.Nf5 Nd6 49.Ne7+ Kc5 50.Ke2 Kc4 51.Nc6 f5 52.gxf5 d3+ 53.Kd2 Nxf5 54.Ne5+ Kd4 55.Nf7 e3+ 56.Ke1 d2+ 57.Kd1 Kd3 58.Ne5+ Kc3 59.Nf3 Ng3 60.Ng1 Kd3 0-1 (Ne4-Nf2 mates also)

Mr Deep thought

2006-12-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

The following OTB game was played. 40 moves in 1h45 min; 15 min KO.

White against "Mr Deep thought"

Game two

Montse(1565) - Van D,F (1613)
27.10.2006 (1-0)

In the good all tradition -It has happened again. Another victim. Another kill.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4?!

After 4 moves my opponent went in a state of paralysis for about 30 min!!. I was moved by his deep thoughts. I bought myself a beer. Having visited the toilet meanwhile many times ( as a new devotee to Kramnik's newly and highly unappreciated but recently discovered scientific method which gives your opponent a definite and indisputable a toilet move), I eventually became baffled by his sequences of moves.

I consider 4d4 rather as a dubious move as after the recapture of the knight black could easily moved his knight to e5 and attack my bishop with no clear compensation. Seemingly some black players trade the knight off which is bad because white can activate his queen effortless. In the conjunction with his light squared bishop, if black allows it, it might already form a serious threat to the black position. Well anyway who is afraid of the big black wolf??

4...exd4 5.Nxd4 Nxd4? 6.Qxd4 b6!?

He recaptures the knight and here we go. I think that b6 is not to the best move as the field e5 becomes unprotected. Either 6 Bd6 or 6 d6 are possible. I prefer the latter but this means that black will create a passive position as the diagonal for his dark squared bishop is now blocked by his own pawn.

To prevent this he may have opted to develop his light squared bishop along the long diagonal and castling long. If this would lead, on the part of white, upto a recover of the pawn on the K-side, black could easily pressurize the castled position. White helps black by creating semi open files for his rooks, from where they can easily attack unhindered white's position.

7.e5! Bc5 8.Qf4! Qe7 9.0-0 Ng8

Now the mighty horse is back in his stable. This is reverse development.

10.Nc3 Bb7 11.Nd5 Bxd5 12.Bxd5 0-0-0

The question was, is 10 Qg3 playable instead of the Nc3 with an attack on g7. This was the other option but I preferred the former as the knight might become handy when his king castles long. Also by trying to snoop the g7 pawn he might have later a clear shot on g2 through the semi-open file.
Furthermore after playing Nc3 the protection of d5 square by black becomes forced. There is a little trick which has to do with a lack of space for his dark squared bishop. Actually chess is also about field covering and reducing the space for your opponent's pieces. Threat was 11.b4! Bxb4 12. Nd5 and his bishop is death due to a fork with the Queen. So on for instance 10...Nh6? (no consideration for d5) 11.b4 b5 12.Nd5 Qd8 13.Bb3 Be7 14.Qf3 and black has real problems. There was also the option of 11. Nb5 aiming at the c7 or a7 pawn but 11. Nd5 has the extra benefit of the possibility of trading down his light squared bishop for my knight. By trading pieces and due to a fianchetto set-up on the q-side his light squares at Q-side are really vulnerable. He has now no counterpart for white's light squared bishop. By castling long, he just improves the value and the strenght of my light squared bishop. Therefore giving me the plan of playing along the light squares. But usually things change during the game as the game progresses.

13.a4 c6 14.Bf3 f6 15.Re1 fxe5 16.Rxe5 Bd6

My first thought was to swing my queen through c4 (aiming at f7 (battery) but real focus was a6), a6 & b7. 3 moves for a brandy but this looked too simple and there was c6.

I particulary didn't like c6, although it would lead to a weakening of his king position. So Qf3 was not an option as I wanted my bishop aiming at his Q-side. I figured out that he would probably try to chase off the light squared bishop as soon as possible and the only move would be c6. Other consideration was that my center pawn is a real pain for black. Therefore I need to protect it as long as possible as it will cramp his position (Knight block). Winning f7 and loosing the center pawn was not my cup of tea. If the f-file opens up he can pressurize f2 etc. Furthermore I need to develop. Most preferably I would like to put my dark square bishop on f4 but my queen was already occupying this square. So I played a4 probably not the best move (preventing b5), but with the idea of c3 and b4 attacking his dark squared bishop again. And while the pawns are rolling, it would become a threat to his king position.

So black prevented this by attacking the light-squared bishop and change-off the f-pawn for the center pawn.

16... Qd6 might have been better but white keeps the advantage

(16...Qd6 17.Be3 Qf6 18.Rd1 Qxf4 19.Bxf4 Rf8 20.Bg5)

17.Rxe7 Bxf4 18.Rxg7 Bxc1 19.Rxc1 Nf6 20.Rf7! Rhf8 21.Rxf8 Rxf8 22.Re1 Kd8

By playing Bd6 I saw I could win a very useful pawn. By pressurizing the knight I could further reduce his counterplay by exchanging rooks. There is something to say against this all as I exchanged an active rook for his passive rook.

I think it is vital for white now to keep his rook and taking the open file. I think black could have challenged white's rook for the possession of the e-file. White would have been forced to move or to trade down. The trading down would have given him a difficult endgame. For white it would be a difficult win as black can move the pawns to the squares opposite in colour to white's bishop. His greatest comfort lies in the knowledge that he has a dormant pawn majority at the kingside. Black's pawn majority lies on the q-side. Also White's king is in a certain way obstructed by the bishop on f3 or the rook. By going to the Q-side he has to go through e2 which invites black to give white a check and trade down the rooks. So the white king is hemmed in by his own pieces as his prime responsibilty lies in blocking the advance of black's pawn majority. Rearranging the white pieces would consume too much time.

23.Kf1 d5 24.c4? (diagram) dxc4? 25.Bxc6 Kc7 26.Bb5 Ng4 27.f3 Kd6 28.Bxc4 Kc5 29.b3

So what to do? White has to hold the play on the Q-side and then push the K-side pawns. I played c4 challenging his pawn majority but i think the Kd7-reply would have been better for black as the capture leads to a loss of an extra pawn stiffling his Q-side play.

Ng4 is no threat as h2 is indirectly protected. On Nxh2 Kg1 wins the knight for three pawns.

On 29.b3 white has crippled the Q-side play of black and there is no real progress possible.

29...Rf4? 30.Re7 a5 31.Ke2! Nf6 32.Rf7 Kd4

I really do not like Rf4 as the pawns on his second rank become unprotected. I was wondering if he was going to exchange his rook for my bishop + pawn. Re7 was obvious but has something more. On a5 I played Ke2 and not Rxh7. I was not after his pawn but after the knight. Black has two possible moves Nh6 and Nf6. Nh6 would lead to the loss of the h-pawn. And on Nf6 he goes in to a pin where his defender the rook is cramped to the Knight although not that obvious.

Trying to break the pin by protecting the rook with his knight lead to the loss of the h-pawn.

1 ... Nh5 2. Rxh7 Nf6 3. Rf7
1 ... Nh5 2. Rxh7 Rf5 3. g4 Nf4 4. Ke3 Rf8 5. h4
1 ... Nh5 2. Rxh7 Rh4 3. Kf2 white has threat to move Bf7 and win the knight. On Rxh2 4. Kf1 Rh4 5. g4 wins

Ne5 is not playable. So he played Kd4.

The idea is now to cramp black's space for his rook and to win the knight.

33.g3 Rf5 34.f4 and the knight's fate is certified. It was time to refuel the glasses.

The rest of the game was a kind of 'sweeping the floor event' where he eventually tried in his last effort to provoke a stalemate.

Whole game notation

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Nxd4 6.Qxd4 b6 7.e5 Bc5 8.Qf4 Qe7 9.0-0 Ng8 10.Nc3 Bb7 11.Nd5 Bxd5 12.Bxd5 0-0-0 13.a4 c6 14.Bf3 f6 15.Re1 fxe5 16.Rxe5 Bd6 17.Rxe7 Bxf4 18.Rxg7 Bxc1 19.Rxc1 Nf6 20.Rf7 Rhf8 21.Rxf8 Rxf8 22.Re1 Kd8 23.Kf1 d5 24.c4 dxc4 25.Bxc6 Kc7 26.Bb5 Ng4 27.f3 Kd6 28.Bxc4 Kc5 29.b3 Rf4 30.Re7 a5 31.Ke2 Nf6 32.Rf7 Kd4 33.g3 Rf5 34.f4 Rh5 35.Rxf6 Rxh2+ 36.Kf3 Kc5 37.Rf5+ Kd4 38.Rd5+ Kc3 39.Rd6 h5 40.Rxb6 h4 41.gxh4 Rxh4 42.Rb5 Kd4 43.Rd5+ Kc3 44.Rxa5 Kd4 45.Rd5+ Kc3 46.a5 Rh8 47.a6 Re8 48.a7 Kb4 49.Rb5+ Kc3 50.Bd5 Kd4 51.a8Q Re3+ 52.Kg4 Rd3 53.Qa7+ Kc3 54.Qa5+ Kb2 55.Qe1 Rxd5 56.Rxd5 Ka3 57.Qc3 Ka2 58.Ra5+ Kb1 59.Ra1# 0-1

An intermezzo on the pawn stuff

2006-11-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

The hand is fine again. Went into kine and the improvement was really astonishing.

Currently I am on vacation untill the 4th of December.

Update

2006-10-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

A month ago I managed to block one of my nerves of the right hand while I was sleeping on the bench. Result: I woke up with a severely impaired hand (movement). In other words a real drop hand no feeling and no motoric at all. I am still in revalidation as there is no full recovering yet but progress is visible. The good thing is I can move my Queen on the board again. It is time for a new romance.

I played tonight my first OTB game of the season, and won. Not the most smashing game but a good game. (my opponent resigned after 25 moves; 40 moves/ 1h45 min)

I started to play correspondence chess. I play on chessville and red hot pawn. My handle name is crystalleaf.

I picked up tactics again level 3 and currently I am at exercise 520. Can move the mouse again.

See you all around

K+2P versus K+P - Protected passed pawn Part IV

2006-09-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

The same mechanism as with the Q- bishop pawn can be applied to the Q-center pawn. It is important to notice that a counterattack against white's rear pawn would lead to a lost Queen versus pawn ending.

Only when white's king is on the 8th rank black can draw if he manages to keep the opposition. If black does not have the opposition the position is lost. Keep in mind that the square of the protected passed pawn in both directions covers all the files. This means that black can use the whole length of the board to defend. So his mobility is not restricted along the files and by maintaining the defensive opposition he can hold the draw.

With a black K-center pawn the position is always a loss regardless of the relative positions of both kings.

Notice black cannot use the whole length of the board to defend an intrusion from the back. The first stage for white will be to bring his king down through the green squares.

Now it becomes clear by looking at the invasion points there is no good defense for black. If white would be on b3 and black on b5 having the opposition, he would not be able to prevent a kingside invasion. As white goes from the Q-side to the kingside relative to the pawn position black needs an extra tempo tempo to prevent white's access to g3. The same holds in the opposite direction.

If we have a starting position with the kings respectively on g4 versus f2, black would not be able to prevent white reaching the blue square. Once white has access to the blue square, the capturing of the black pawn will become unstoppable.

White's second mechanism to win is by triangulation using the orange squares. Here the white king triangulates not to gain the opposition but to force black to make a choice which invasion point he wants to defend. By choosing one invasion point he accepts the invasion of white through the other side.

Treating the following positions of the King's Bishop pawn or knight pawn might be a good opportunity to introduce the topic regarding the defensive opposition.

The defensive opposition: is the blocking movement used by the defender's king to prevent an intrusion of his territory. Failing in do so will most of the time lead to a win for the opponent.

For an intrusion the stronger side will need:
- space to invade (at least three files or ranks must be freely available, your opponents piece or unprotected pawn which can be captured on the move by the king must be included)
- the turn of the move must be in your opponents hands when your path is directly blocked by your opponent's king

Now let us consider the following example

The defender black is in lateral position to white. If it is black's turn, then white has the opposition; the lateral opposition. On the other hand if it was white's turn black has the lateral opposition also named horizontal opposition.

With black to move, let us say 1...Kf8 white can invade black's position by capturing the black pawn.

With a black knight pawn and an outward protected passed pawn on the 4th rank black manages to hold the draw if he can maintain the defensive opposition.

Consider the following diagram:

This position is a win for white.

It is important to know that black cannot draw by counterattacking white's rear pawn. By trying to capture white's rear pawn he will find himself in a lost Q versus pawn ending.

By knowing this fact white is in no hurry to close up to the king.

In green we have the squares which are not accessible to the defender and which are under the controle of the pawns. White cannot invade as it is his turn to move. White will break the defensive opposition of black by moving in the direction of the green square. Reaching the green square black cannot hold the opposition anymore and the pawn will have a free run under the guidance of his king.

Now the same holds in vertical direction with the following starting position.

Again it is white's turn to move and black has the opposition. White will move to d4 and black cannot keep up. Once more black's defensive opposition has been broken by the non-accessibility of certain squares.

This knowledge can be the starting point to set up the minimal requirements and to find the axis where the black king can hold the defensive opposition.

In pink you find the minimal requirements shown by the axes where the black king has to be to keep the draw. We have an axis on the 6th rank and an axis on the e-file.

Until now we have not taken into account the restricted mobility of the black king and the crictical squares of the blocked pawn.

In green you have the critical squares of the rear pawn and in blue the square of the protected passed pawn which severely hampers to mobility of the defending king.

So bringing both pictures together we might conclude the following.

The primary determinant is the restricted area in which the defending king can move. Therefore the axis parts that falls out of this area is not accessible to the black king.
We see that e-file axis acts as the primary through the critical area. All critical squares fall within the area of the protected passed pawn, therefore the king can extend his defending zone to the d-file.
Black needs to maintain the opposition on the pink axes within area of the protected passed pawn.

Notice the d-file blue zone ( see diagram =/-) can completely used by the defender to keep the opposition and preventing white of lateral invading. Once more to have the opposition is crucial.

From an attackers point of view the win zone can easily be determined.

In horizontal direction the defensive opposition could be broken on 7th rank

In vertical direction the defensive opposition can be broken along the d-file.

The zone defines by the intersection of both red rectangles within the area of the protected passed pawn shows you the critical squares to obtain a win. Actually to be more precise, the outside critical square of white's rear pawn forms the corner with the new identified red critical squares. If white manages to reach one of these critical squares it will always be a win no matter what black does.

With a bishop pawn on the 4th rank and an outward protected passed pawn black normally draws by holding the defensive opposition. In the contrast to the inward protected passed pawn black cannot perform a counterattack against white's rear pawn. The king will be at the wrong side of the pawn - long side - to be stalemated when white's Q captures the pawn. Therefore black needs at least two moves to transfer his king to the right side (short side) of the board. This fact increases the territory of the white king to obtain a win.

With a pawn on the 3rd rank, following notions should be kept in mind:

1. if black manages to capture white's rear pawn a draw follows. The resulting Q-ending versus Q-ending should be a draw.

2. If white manages to reach the second rank, without losing his rear pawn he usely wins regardless if he has the opposition or not. However pawn positions with an outward protected passed pawn (OPP), could be drawn if black manages to keep the defensive opposition. This is not the case for a black pawn in the center with OPP on the bishop file, but clearly the case for an OPP on the knight and/or rook file.
Why: the stronger side has a second invasion point on the others side ot the pawn configuration which is not the case for an OPP on the knight and/or rook file.

3. The stronger side cannot invade lateral or from behind as the defender, located within the area of the protected passed pawn, just marches unhindered to his opponent's rear pawn securing the draw. Basically it comes down to the fact that if the defender is nearer to white's rear pawn than white is, the pawn can be grabbed unhindered. Also the critical squares in red defined for a pawn on the 4th rank does not exist for a pawn on the third rank.

4. For blocked center pawns white usely wins by outflanking his opponent on one or the other side. White has two invasion points, and the knight opposition on the corresponding squares cannot secure the draw. The shortest path for black is one tempo longer than for white. The kings' positions should be so that a direct attack against the rear pawn should not be allowed.

In the world defined by kings' mobility opposition should be seen as treat of the chessboard while corresponding squares as bounding treat of the position.

K+2P versus K+P - Protected passed pawn - Part III (in progress)

2006-09-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

With a black pawn on the fourth rank, black's possibility to defend becomes more pronounced. The option of the counter-attack against white's rear pawn with the so- called defensive opposition increases black's ability to maintain the balance.

With a rook pawn the position favors always the stronger side.

The critical squares of white's rear pawn (green rectangle) falls within the square of the protected passed pawn (blue).In comparison to the position, moved up one rank black has gained in territory. So his king is less restricted. Alas, to no

Again both mechanism described for the rook pawn on the fifth rank can be applied. White does not have to worry about the counter attack against his rear pawn as the resulted Queen versus pawn ending is a loss. The attack against the rear pawn can be an interesting defense for black when he has a bishop pawn.

So the first mechanism - kingside invasion by using your space advantage.

I have not been very precise on the term Kingside and Q-side. So let us define what I mean with it. Kingside and Q-side does not necessarily refers to the division on the chess board to the right or to the left half of the board. It may coincide. I use the term as follow. I use King and Q-side in reference to the blocked pawn stellation. So a blocked rook pawn on the a-file with a protected passed b-pawn has only a K-side and no Q-side although the pawns are on the Q-side of the board.

In orange you can easily see white's target squares to put black in zugzwang. Notice that I did not highlighted black's path. White is not really interested in what black's answer is. His best defense is to maintain the direct opposition as long as he can to prevent white of going up one rank. Only when white has reached the orange target square the reply of black becomes more or less interesting as a wrong move might prolong the defense of black. No worries just go back to the orange square and try again.

So in the starting position white does not have the opposition. To invade the king needs to be in opposition & a space availability of at least three files or ranks. To gain the opposition white goes through a non-corresponding square for black. This last point is vital as the implication is more far reaching than the above example shows with two kings in direct opposition. In fact it shows you the basic method to win in any king position with this pawn configuration. Remember the black king is a sitting dead duck.

Let us first look to the second mechanism before we go into digging out the above statement.

So the second mechanism - X-cross method.

In this method white notice that black cannot maintain the direct or distant opposition as both squares (c3 & c5) are not accessible to the black king. White make use of the restricted mobility of black in that area of the board to gain the opposition. By gaining the opposition white can invade black's position and can move up one rank. By moving up one rank (to the 3rd rank) black will be able to regain the opposition. To make progress to the next rank white can exploit the weakness on c5 by going to c3. Again black has no corresponding square and he will have to make way to white. White can move up one rank and reaches the critical squares to win the black pawn.

Here white used in the beginning the technique of triangulation to gain the opposition.

Let us consider the following position with as difference the relocation of both kings. It is white to move and black has the opposition.

In orange you can see the squares where you can put the black king in zugzwang. The red rectangle is your final target square (remark lower square of the X-cross). When your king occupies the red square, you have reached the square where you can invade black's position.

For example the following play can happen.

Because of the fact that black cannot counter attack against white's rear pawn, white has all the time to bring his king to the lower part of the X-cross. The same should hold true for a knight pawn (b-file) with an inward protected passed pawn. It is always a win for the stronger side.

With a pawn on the 4th rank and on the bishop file, one has to take the possibility of a counter-attack into mind. White cannot just go off and try a kingside invasion on the premisses of having the opposition.

Let us consider the following position

Notice in all other positions the stronger side had to win first the opposition before he could invade. Here we already grant white the opposition. His task should be considerably easier, although unthoughtful play might lead to a draw.

To invade white needs to have the opposition and space of at least three files broad. Black, however, cannot prevent this (invasion) of happening.

With the kings on the primary and black has the move he has either two choices:

either he allows white to take control of the lower-end square of the X, red square

or he might try to prolong the fight by sealing of the critical square nearest to the pawn.

If white tries to outflank him on the kingside black (with a bishop pawn and an inward protected passed pawn) just encourages white to do so.

Why?

The kingside outflanking can only be applied in cases where the capture of the rear pawn by black makes no difference to the outcome of the game. Here, with an inward protected passed pawn white will be punished for its dareness as the resulting queen ending is a draw.

When white goes to g3 black will attack the rear pawn. White needs 4 moves to promote the pawn. Black needs 5 moves to bring the pawn to 2nd rank. But it is black's turn to play he has an extra tempo. Now the win or a draw will depend on the position of the white king.

1.Ke2 Kf4 2.Kf2 Ke4 3.Kg3 Kd3 4.d5 Kxc3 5.d6 Kb2 6.d7 c3 7.d8Q c2 (=)

In the Queen ending white can only win if his king is within the blue area. This means that the white king is near enough to allow a direct capture of the pawn or that black will be mated after the pawn Qeens.

If White's king is too far off (out of the blue area) than black can draw by going to the corner as the capture of the pawn by the queen will stalemates the black king.

Notice the inward protected passed pawn shows already on which side the black king will move (opposite of the promoting pawn) to prevent a check by promotion of the white pawn to a queen.

So with a bishop pawn on the 4th rank and an inward protected passed pawn white cannot leave his rear pawn unprotected. To win he will use a different kind of set-up.

Let us have a closer look to the initial position.

Now we know if white's king would stand on e3 he would have a forced win. Now how can white accomplish that?

At first sight it seems that black has a good starting position to defend the e3 square. White cannot make progress even if he has the opposition. Therefore white will create a second weakness. If we consider e3 as a kingside invasion point than a4 should be the Q-side invasion point.

Remember a4 is a critical square of the c3 pawn. So white needs 4 moves to be on a4 and 3 moves to be on a3 (shortest path). Black can stop the invasion on the q-side by blocking the access to this square. Therefore he has only 3 moves at his disposal. At the 3rd move he can be on b5 preventing white reaching a4. So white might conclude that he can make no progress.

So we looked at the invasion points as two separate entities. We can draw between the two invasion points a path of minimal tempos for the black king but also for the white king.

But white has more than one path while black has not. The orange squares shows you where white has a choice.

Black going from one side to the other is restricted to follow the line and cannot deviate from it as he is bound to follow the shortest path. If he dares to deviate he cannot be on time to defend both invasions points against white. White on the other hand has flexibility and can make a choice. He can even decide to prolong his path with one move, staying at the same distance of both invasion points. By doing this he will bring black into zugzwang and forcing him to make a choice. whatever choice he makes white will react by going to the other side and the intrusion cannot be prevented.

We come to the stunning conclusion that both kings have a different degree of flexibility concerning both invasion points. White has 2 paths of minimal tempo versus black, which has only one. This method might be interesting to figure out the corresponding squares. For corresponding squares I refer to temposchlucker's interesting post. (24 february 2006)

One note: if we consider the degrees of freedom (along the paths) from left to right for the white king we see the following pattern 1-1-2-1. For the black king we obtain the following pattern going from left to right 1-1-1-1. Black could have hold the draw if his pattern was 1-1-2-1 but the pawn formation does not allow this. His second square is where the pawn is standing on d4. So we have a symmetrical pattern shifted with one file-move versus each other.

No in the language of triangulation (through the orange squares) this is an example where the king has been placed into zugzwang.

K+2P versus K+P - Protected passed pawn - Part II

2006-09-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Observation: A kingside invasion mechanism is always possible with a blocked black pawn on the fifth rank and an inward protected passed pawn.

An inward protected passed pawn points to the center while an outward protected passed pawn points to the edge of the board.

For the center file pawns: d-file

upper part: inward protected passed pawn
lower part: outward protected passed pawn

For the center file pawns: e-file

upper configuration: outward protected passed pawn
lower configuration: inward protected passed pawn

For the KP, BP, NP (e,f, g-file) a kingside invasion mechanism is on correct play on the part of black not possible.

Let us consider the KP first.

It is impossible to have a kingside outflanking. In the words of Grigoriev

Again the Q-side outflanking mechanism is applicable. The critical square b5 falls out of the square of the passed pawn.

As black cannot counter-attack against white's blocked pawn he is doomed to try to prevent the Q-side invasion. If he does the passed pawn will promote.Below you can find a possible path to victory. There are others.

Notice that black if he wants to have a succesful defense he has to have access to both yellow squares.

The Q-side invasion mechanism is applicable for the d-pawn to the g-pawn. This means that when you have a blocked d-pawn with an inward protected pawn both mechanism are applicable.

For a blocked pawn configuration on the 5th rank (black) with the protected passed pawn crossed the mid-half and to the right, we have

in blue: only Kingside invasion is possible
In green: only Q-side invasion is possible
In yellow: Q-side & K-side outflanking are possible

Summary for a black pawn on the 7th, 6th or 5th rank

In orange we have the draw possibilities if black king stands optimal.

With the protected passed pawn in one direction (right) we get the following diagram

This gives us 21 positions. By including the symmetrical positions with the passed pawn to the left, we obtain the following conclusion:

The orange squares shows you the draw squares the rest should be winning no matter where the white king stands. So this concludes the more obvious positions.

K+2P versus K+P - Protected passed pawn - Part I

2006-08-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

In theory you should be able to play all static K + P versus K + P correctly. With static I mean all positions where the pawns are blocked, and the only moveable pieces left are the kings. A good way to practice your knowledge is to isolate on a regular base 50 positions. Evaluate them as a win or a draw, and then play through the positions. Evaluation is based on the knowledge of the important target squares. The positions should be checked against the Namilov endgame tables. In the beginning the evaluation make take some time, but once you have grasp the theory,then later on you will be able to decide in a flash how to play the positions. It will become your second nature to check the relative positions of the kings versus their target squares and if their paths will actually cross. See you in the meeting hall.

Let's move on to King + 2P versus King + P static positions

There are 35 unique positions with a protected passed pawn.

Note: Generally speaking, the backward pawn of the chain can 'never' be attacked and captured by the defender's king (here always black) or otherwise the protected passed pawn will have a free run to his queening point. With other words the black king will be bound to the rank of the protected passed pawn and in most cases will be punished when he dares to cross the rank. (All cases will be handled)

As blunderprone stated it is time to sharpen the rusty sword again. It could have sounded as "Next head please, don't be shy - go on. It will be a clean chop. Trust me, I know what I am doing."

Let us consider the white protected passed pawn be to the right of the blocked position.

With a black pawn on the 7th rank 3 positions are drawn with an optimal black king position. The rest of the positions are a win no matter where the black king stands.

This is the case for a black RP (a-file), NP (b-file), NP (g-file).

Position QRP - a-file

The Black king can hold the draw by alternating through the squares b8-c7. White cannot approach or get the black king out without stalemating the opponent.

Position QNP - b-file

The rook file is not accessible for infiltration. The Black king can hold the draw by alternating through the squares c8-d7. White cannot approach or get the black king out without stalemating the opponent.

Position NP - g-file

The black king have to be on h8 to be stalemated.

Position RP - h-file

The case with a black rook pawn (RP) on the h-file cannot be considered unique as the position is symmetrically to the position on the a-file. The protected passed pawn will be to your left side or is pointing to the Q-side.

The 4 other positions (QBP, QP, KP (king pawn), BP) are an easy win. The easiest way to my taste is the outflanking approach.

Notice that the protected passed pawn controls black's passage to the Q-side. Therefore the black pawn has been cut-off of the direct protection of the black king.
So the winning mechanism exists in bringing your king to the Q-side and capturing the black pawn.

Second mechanism is by sacrificing the protected passed pawn and obtaining an optimal position with your king so that you can force the black king to give up his pawn.

Initial position - Kingside outflanking by sacrificing the protected passed pawn

In light green you have the critical squares at the right side of the blocked pawn. Notice the yellow vertical line. To obtain an invasion of the critical squares you like to be in opposition. If black has to move white can invade.

Here, it is white's turn to play. By promoting the protected passed pawn white is forcing black to capture and now he has this extra tempo which makes it possible to invade black's kingside flank.

Black has two choices. He can either play Kf8 or go to c6. If he plays Kf8 white can take the direct opposition. Black is in zugzwang and white can on his next move take control of one the critical squares. Now it becomes unstoppable for black to prevent white of capturing his pawn. And with this the game is over. The second choice c6 is too far off for (the black king) and is neither an option to play.

This mechanism is not possible for the QRP, QNP as black will be able to protect the pawn. Black can freely alternate on a8-b8.

White cannot approach or black will be stalemated.

With a black pawn on the 6th rank 1 position is still a draw with an optimal king position for black. The other 6 positions (QNP, QBP, QP, KP, BP, NP) are a win no matter where the black king stands.

Draw position

The sacrifice of the pawn to gain a tempo to invade the position of black does lead to the capture of black pawn. Unfortunately, depending on which site you play, the capture of black pawn is not enough to win the game. It is impossible to promote your pawn on correct play of black.
Without the pawn sacrifice it is interesting to note that black has 2 ranks (7th and 8th) to defend while white needs at least 3 ranks with the opposition to invade black's position lateral. The same holds for files.

The red squares shows you how black can defend if white does not sacrifice the pawn.
The sacrifice of the pawn must happen in such away so that white can improve his king position by taking control of the critical squares.

For the other 6 positions (QNP to NP) the obtained K+P versus K position leads to favorable pawn promotion.

So the winning mechanism is by sacrificing the pawn to outflank Black's king position.

It might be good to learn first the positions to play with the king in direct opposition. Later you can move both kings to other positions.

Another mechanism which unfortunately is not applicable for all situations but is a must to know. You will love this one.

Consider the following position:

The light green square shows the critical squares of the blocked white pawn. The blue square shows you the square of the protected passed pawn in both directions. The black king has to stay within the blue square or otherwise the protected passed pawn will have a free run.
So what do you see? Some critical squares fall outside the blue square (square of the pawn in both directions). We immediately see that white can perform a Q-side outflanking without even to bother what black might play. The black pawn is doomed and white has identified his target squares. White just go to b6 or a6 (a bit slower and more painful).

The Q-side outflanking (or invasion) mechanism is applicable for the QBP to the NP. In case of the QBP, the black king might stop your progress to a6 by playing b7. By pushing your protected passed pawn forward black will be obliged to give white access to the critical a6 square and this should be decisive.
However, it is not applicable for the QNP (b-file) as white has no free file left to invade.

With a black pawn on the 5th rank all positions are lost for black. Again we start with both kings in direct opposition as this shows you the basic mechanism on how to invade on the kingside.

Note: the black king becomes vulnerable at his lateral side (3 ranks to protect - see red squares versus the yellow squares for white)

Initial position - Kingside invasion

In light green we have the 3 critical squares for the blocked pawn. In blue the square of the pawn (in one direction) which restricts the mobility of the black king.

In the first mechanism we make use of the space advantage that white has against the black king. Remember the mobility of the black king is hampered by the protected passed pawn. Thus, the black king is restricted. This notion white will exploit at the fullest to improve his king position and eventually turn to the game into his advantage.

Black has the opposition, so it is white to play.

1. White's is going to f3. Why? In this way black will be forced to make a concession. There is no direct opposing field left because f5 lays outside the square of pawn. Moving the black king to f5 would lead to a free run of the protected passed pawn.
To prevent white invading along the ranks black needs to be always in close direct opposition. (If you are not sure just put 2 kings on the board and prevent the other king going up one rank; this can only be done by being in close direct opposition).
White will use this to hand the move to black. When white moves to the right black just follows. But when white plays f3 black cannot follow, he has to play a different move. And according to black's play, white will adjust his play. So black has been put in zugzwang, and his next move will allow white to invade black's position.

Black has three choices on 1.Kf3:

1. Kf3 Kd5 - taking the close diagonal opposition, White will move up one rank to Kf4.

2. Kf3 Kd6 - white plays Ke4 and black goes in close opposition by playing Ke6.

3. Kf3 Ke6 - white plays Ke4 (latter is less interesting as white is already in opposition)

In case 1 & 2 Black handed the move to white and restored the fact he regains the opposition at the cost of one rank. In case number three he is worse of , giving up one rank without regaining the opposition.

White would make no progress if black was allowed to play on every square on the 6th rank. This is not the case. One can easily see that c6 is not accessible for Black, meaning c4 and e6 has no counterpart in close direct or lateral opposition.

Again white will use the same technique to invade black's king position. White's target square is c4. On c4 he will hand the move over to black. Again black will be forced to do a concession, giving up a rank and allowing white to reach the critical squares on the fifth rank. Now white is in a position to attack black's pawn and with this winning the game.

So 1Kf4 Kd6 2. Ke4 Ke6 (regaining the opposition) 3. Kd4 Kd6 4. Kc4 (zugzwang)

Short summary for the kingside invasion mechanism

White is making full usage of the restricted mobility of the black king. Target squares for white are those squares where black has no corresponding square in close direct opposition. Either these squares can be outside the square of the pawn or not immediately accessible to the black king.

This mechanism is actually limited in the sense that this kind of play only counts for the rook, knight or bishop file.

We can also force the win through a similar approach. Actually white does not have to go to f3 to obtain a winning position. A more general mechanism is what I call the X-cross mechanism.

Let us consider the following position with white to play

You draw a cross through the protected passed pawn. The red squares are the fields which are not accessible to the black king. By identifying those field white can easily find his squares which are in direct or in distant opposition.

Intermezzo - opposition -

There are two kinds of light squares which can never be in any form of opposition to each other. You can easily find the squares of one color, which are in opposition, by drawing a rectangle or a square consisting out of four corners of the same color. Those same color fields (light squares) which fall out of it can never be in opposition with the corner squares. Practically speaking the chess board with its 64 squares can be reduced to a square consisting out of 4 unique fields and those 4 unique fields are in opposition with the rest of the board. Thus the king on the dark square a1 can never be in opposition to a king on b4,d2,f2,d4,f6,h6, ... but can be to a king on all dark squares on the c-file, e-file and g-file and on the remaining squares left on the a-file.

So a black king stuck on c5, who cannot access the upper and lower light square on the same file, has actually no good reply to c2. For black there is no accessible corresponding square to c2. C4 is out of the question or otherwise the pawn will promote unhindered. So only c6 remains and this square is not accessible.

By playing c2, white can immediately put black into zugzwang. White is handing the move to black and on his reply he will play accordingly. So the akward move c2 becomes quite understandable. Black has no good reply.

So on 1.Kc2Kd5 follows 2.Kd3 taking the opposition and black cannot avoid white reaching the 4th rank. The rest follows the same principle as mentioned above, exploiting again the weakness on c6.

So this Kingside invasion mechanism needs much less space. it is valid for a black pawn on the a- to d-file. With a protected passed pawn on the f-file this mechanism cannot be applied.

Observation: A kingside invasion mechanism is always possible with a blocked black pawn on the fifth rank and an inward protected passed pawn.

Basic pawn endings: Blocked rook pawns

2006-08-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

On the 20th of March I would have wrote this follow-up. Something came in between - result it was stored away luckily not indefinite.

When we have a blocked rook pawn position it is important to notice that there is no turtle position to save the pawn. Simply because no file exist beyond the h - or before the a - file. So it comes down to the fact that the pawn can only be attacked or defended by the (hostile) king from one side of the board.
Furthermore the position shows that the hostile king can only attack the pawn from behind or from aside. This gives the pawn 3 vulnerable squares (violet).

Let us have a closer look to the following example: a4Kd3a5Kg2

Your first question should be something like: what are the target squares black has to go for to obtain a draw? And not something like "How to judge this position"? because this implies you know the mechanisms and have a total overview.

Before you can judge this position you have to know what kind of defenses black has. Only through the knowledge of the draw positions you will see which target squares will become important. Once you know that it is a rat race to the right square. .

Black has general speaking two important means of defenses to draw the position? It does not mean that he has two ways to play the position but the type of defenses are related to the target squares black can play for.

First defense is the square defense.

The target square is c8 (= the square on the back rank on the bishop file). If black managed to be there first, it does not matter where the white king stands or whether he has captured the black pawn or not, a draw follows.

This shows immediately that for white his target square will be b7. If he occupies b7 black is shut off of his vital square. If white wants to queen his pawn, he is obliged to capture the black pawn to free the path of the white pawn.

For white to calculate the amount of moves to b7 = distance (white king - black pawn) + distance (black pawn - target square b7). The distance is being expressed in # moves necessary to reach the target square.

# moves = (d-file - a-file) + ( b7 - a5) = (4-1) + (7-5) = 5

For black to calculate the amount of moves to c8 = distance (black king position - c8)
# moves to c8 = (c8 -g2) = 8 - 2 = 6

From this knowledge one can easily draw the conclusion that black cannot draw the position through this defense. This would be true if both defenses (lateral or square defense) would be totally non-related items on the board. As previous shown there are many routes to the same square but only a few which covers the shortest path.

So with white to play black has only 4 moves to reach c8 because on the 5th move white will be on b7. Using the drawing method ''the square of the pawn' a square can be drawn starting from c8, showing the outer limits of this defense.
So the c-bishop file (3) + 4 moves = g-knight file (7) and for ranks we have 8 - 4 = 4. This shows you the square in one direction, in the direction of your black king.

Second defense is the lateral defense on the bishop file

If black manage to reach the bishops file, the move immediately following the capture of his own pawn by the hostile king, a draw can be obtained if his king is in direct opposition or in knight opposition towards his back rank (towards c8). This implies also that the square in lateral opposition should hold a draw.
In other words you should be at least on the same level of the bishop file with your king the move following the capturing of your pawn by the opponent's king.

In our example the squares are c5 (same level) & c6. (this should also be true for c7)

It takes white 3 moves to capture the pawn on a5, so black has 3 moves to reach the bishops file at least at the level of c5. One thing you may not forget is that the minimal path of the black king may not be prolonged by the other king.

Using the drawing method ''the square of the pawn' a square can be drawn starting from c5, showing the outer limits of this defense in one direction.

Third defense is the capture of the opponent's pawn through the counter attack. I called this the destination square defense.

It basically comes down to the fact that black is nearer to white's pawn than white is to black's pawn. If white would be on b5 black would not be able to capture the pawn on a4. So if the distance of the black king is shorter to the white pawn than the distance between the white king and the target square b5, black can succesfully eliminate the pawn.

The target square is the square on the knight file aside your opponent's pawn or easily the square defended by your opponent's pawn.

As in our example it takes for white two moves to reach b5. With white to play black has only 1 move to capture the pawn. The pawn to be captured for black is standing on a4. So here only the immediate squares around a4 gives black this type of defense.

Putting all the pieces together the following overview can be deduced; orange squares are non-accessable as initial starting places for the black king. With black to play, black has to enter the purple region to draw. So on 1... Kg3 black looses, on 1...Kf3 or 1...Kf2 a draw follows correct play. With white to play black has to be within the purple region to draw. Depending on the black king's position one can easily see what kind of defense one has to follow to draw the game. Notice the squares are drawn in one direction. For c8 you can draw the sqaures in 2 directions from c5 in 4 directions. Where you have overlap of the squares both defenses (lateral or square defense) are available.
Furthermore a2 and b2 falls within the 3X3 square of c5 drawn to the lower Q-side of the board. The lateral defense is not working for these squares due the meeting hall effect. (both kings will be in close proximity when their paths cross, causing a prolonged path for the one of the kings)

Summary for the defender

1, Draw a line through the bishop file, draw a horizontal line through your own pawn. From the square of intersection towards your back rank square, these squares function as your target squares for a draw. By calculating the minimal path to these squares you can see in what positions you can for instance loose a move to obtain a draw or what kinds of defense you can use to draw. (lateral or square defense) Always watch out for interference caused by the crossing of both paths.- remember the meeting hall.
2, If your king happens to be near your opponents pawn it might be worthwhile to check if a direct capture is possible.
3. If the lateral file distance between both kings is equal to 2 , lateral defense will lead to a draw unless the rank distance between the kings is larger than 1. If the lateral file distance is larger than 2, lateral defense cannot be used to obtain a draw.

It is important to note that the king nearest to the blocked pawns can play for a win while the other one is bound to play for a draw.

Status circles

2006-08-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

Repeating the 7 circles starting from level 1

Level 1 (7x)

99%; 99%; 99%, 100%, 99%, 100%, 100%

Level 2 (7x)

98%; 98%; 98%; 99%; 99%; 99%; 99%

up to next level

New OTB rating

2006-08-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

My new rating (OTB) for the next year has been established. An increase of 52 points. Former rating was 1513, new rating 1565. To obtain this result I played 17 games, of which only 13 games were taken into account. The other 4 were against non-rated players, so they did not count unless the person himself got an established rating which meant that he needed to have played against 20 rated players in that same period.
In short, to obtain an substantial increase in points one needs to play much more games, preferentially at least 50 -100 games a year. Only then a substantial increase may follow.

Philidor -Part II

2006-07-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Let us consider the following position:

If we bring the white king on d5 instead on f5, pawn on e5.

Now here we have a drawing zone which is 5 squares large. With the king on f5 instead we obtain een drawing zone of 3 squares.

So what is the reason for this small difference?

The main point is that the defender's rook is at the same side of the hostile King. This means that the white king cannot use the pawn as a shield and therefor is prevented to go directly to the sixth rank. So the white king will be forced to loose a tempo to attack the black rook.. This knowledge known by black that white has to loose a tempo to chase the black rook away, gives him an extra tempo to improve his king position.

So on 1. e6 follows Kf8! and NOT Rb1! as the latter allows white to move forward unhindered. So your first question after the pawn push to the sixth rank should be something like "Can he follow-up immediately with his king to the sixth rank".
If the answer is affirmative, your rook has to go down to attack him from behind. In this position you do not have the time anymore to use tempos to improve your king position.

The 3rd rank defence or Philidor comes down to:

control of the square on the 7th rank in front of the pawn by the defender's king (to shield off the other king of a hiding place - orange square) together with
a continous attack from behind by the defender's rook on the hostile king. As the hostile king is exposed he has no safe place to hide from the rook and hence from his checks.

Thus the relative position of both the hostile king versus the defender's rook (pink squares) determines if one has an extra spare tempo or not. Keep in mind that the hostile king must be able to chase away the defender's rook to the opposing side on the sixth rank or to a different rank.

If the defender's rook cannot be chased off, a draw immediately follows as the rook can move back or forward on the sixth rank. It takes too much tempos to bring the king to the other side of the pawn. Hence white can only win if black completely misplay the position.

To summarize

If the defender's rook is on the same side of the pawn as the hostile king, the defender has a 5 square drawing zone for his king on the back rank. If you switch the rook to the otherside of the pawn the drawing zone will be reduced to the initial three squares in front of the pawn.
The main task of the defender's king is to prevent the hostile king to have access to the square in front of the pawn on the 7th rank.
The defender's rook moves down not on the idea when the pawn is pushed to the sixth rank, but rather on the fact if the king can move upward unhindered the next tempo to join the pawn.

Philidor - Defending rook & attacking king on opposing side

2006-07-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted to know in which Philidor-like positions the game is a draw and in which the game would lead to a loss. In most endgame books which handle the Philidor position the author limits himself to consider only one position to explain the mechanism. And with this you have to do it. There are no general rules, no background to be found which explains what are the main points to focus on. Does it matter if the attacking King is on the same side as the defending rook in respect to the pawn? How far can the defending King be moved on the back rank to the right or to the left from its ideal position? etc...

Consider the following position

Black has just played 1... Rb6, cutting off the march of the white king. The main idea of this defense is to prevent the king of moving upwards forcing him either to play with the rook or with the pawn.
Playing with the rook does not help white to make any progress as black has sufficient resources to keep the position equal.
Moving the rook up and down between the seventh and the back rank gives black just a check and repetition of moves will soon follow, leading to a draw (1.Ra8+ Ke7 2.Ra7+ Ke8 3. etc)
Pushing the pawn to the sixth rank (e5-e6), will force the rook down again to the first (Rb1),2nd (Rb2), 3rd (Rb3) or 4th rank (Rb4). The main idea here is to check the king as the attacking king cannot hide behind the pawn and hence is exposed to constant checks from behind. (e7 is being controlled by the black king)

In the Philidor position above(Rook versus Rook + pawn) the defending king on the back rank should be in front of the pawn.
The attacking rook is on the 7th rank, defending rook on the sixth rank and attacking king & pawn on the fifth rank aside each other.

This is the most ideal position. It is important to notice that in the above position the black rook is not at the same side in respect to the pawn than the attacking king. It makes a small difference but a crucial one with respect to the drawing area of the black king.

Let us first designate the area where just moving the black king (defending) still holds a draw.

The green rectangle shows the position where the king has to be (white's turn) or to enter (black's turn) depending on who has the move. Clearly, the possibilities are limited.

If white can push the pawn to the sixth rank before black king can be in the green area than the loss will be inevitable.
So if white plays e5-e6, the black king has to be either on f8,e8 or d8 square to hold the draw. On g8, h8, c8 black can not avoid loosing. When the black king is on b8 e5-e6 will lead to draw. The immediate capture of white 's rook does not change anything to the result. The pawn becomes unstoppable. So black will be forced to exchange the rook for the pawn.
But if white move his rook first into safety (for instance to h7) he wins!

Let's move the initial position king-pawn one to the left and placing the black king out of the green rectangle area.

Again the 3 positions appear where one can have a draw. Putting the black king on f8, g8 or h8 looses immediately.

So what about b8, If I bring the black king on b8 will this be a draw or a loss?

By comparing both positions we see that in both cases black threatens to capture white's rook on a7. In the latter if white brings his rook in safety, black can use the tempo to enter the green area. In the former (with pawn on e5) the extra tempo is not enough as the black king is still outside the green area. (Black's king will strand on c8 as the green area holds the squares d8, e8, f8)

So in the latter with black to play, black can step outside the green area attacking white's rook, and than move again into the green area when white has brought his rook into safety.

Now comes the question when can white safely loose his rook and still force a draw?

When the initial distance between his rook and pawn equals 4 (5(=e-file)-1 (a-file))he can safely loose his rook. Keeping in mind that the white king is on the opposing side and already on the fifth rank and his pawn on the sixth rank!

This might be quite handy if you have to make a capture on a7 followed by a recapture of your rook by the black king. Now you know that in this position K+R versus K+P there is still a draw present. Don't play this if you don't have to give up your rook as you otherwise through away the game.

Let's consider the following position

White draws with 1.Rxb7! Kxb7 (forced) 2.Kg6 =

Summary: Attacking King and defending rook on opposing side

In general: The defending King must be in direct or knight opposition to the square in front of the pawn to hold the draw. He can afford to step outside the drawing zone if he can recover this loss tempo on the next move to step inside the D-zone again(for instance by attacking the rook).

Restarted the tactical exercises!

2006-07-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

A periodical refresh course in tactics is for me a must to keep my engine running. So I dig up CT-art 3.0 and fired it up. Off we go again!

Database - tactical theme

2006-07-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

Currently I am building a database on one tactical theme 'Piece defelecting' (source theme artistry by E.A.Furst). I loaded about 220 positions and it took me about 10 hours to create the positions and save them as pgn files (with clean-ups). I might do the same with rook and pawn endings as there some 6 piece endgame databases freely to find on different websites. (thank you tempo)I will incorporate this in the circles. In this way the knowledge can be converted into ability.

Into the gray area

2006-06-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

Last game was a great fight. I barely won as white when I defenitely made a mistake in the opening. It was time for revenge.

My opponent invites me to play the evans gambit. (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4) I think you can snatch the pawn but this will accelerate white's development. c3, sooner or later he will follow up with Qb3 with the idea of attacking f7 and b7.The square f7 will be hard to defend and this was not my cup of tea. Well I'll make it coffee. So I decided to play Be7 and see what kind of storm will hit me. 'Hit me, Hit me, hit Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'. This must be from a song.

Snatching the pawn may lead to 4...Bxb4 5.c3 Be7 6.Qb3 Na5 7.Bxf7+ Kf8 8.Qa4! Nc6 9.Bd5 Nf6 10.d3 (+/-)

So I want to avoid that my king is being stuck in the middle of the board and being the rest of the game a target to be shot at. So I played Be7 and comforted my self with the fact that this move was not bad. If there exist an accepted version there must be also a declined version. So let's go for this one.

5.Bb2 d6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 Nxd4 8.Bxd4 Nf6

My opponent develops with the intention to put my kingside under heavy pressure and quickly opens the center. I play along. White obtains an active position but black is solid.

What might be the plan of white here?

9.Nd2 0-0 10.0-0

White is one move away to complete his development.

So I counter-attack through the center with 10. ...d5

10. d5 11.exd5 b5!? 12.Bb3 Nxd5

My opponent did not dare to take the pawn coz of a double attack of the Queen on his two bishops. At first it looks strong for black, but it is not! Apparently he did not know how to break the double attack. Neither was I fully aware of the fact that the idea I played, was absolutely not waterproof. It would eventually lead to a loss of a pawn, although at first glance it looked fine. This is an interesting point to notice.

Let's have a closer look to the accepted variation

11.exd5 b5 12.Bxb5 Qxd5

The Queen attacks the two bishops simultaneously. How to defend?

When a piece is attacked the following defenses are possible

1. move away the attacked piece
2. capture the attacking piece (exchange)
3. defend the attacked piece (covering move)
4. counter-attack with a greater threat: for example attack a higher ranked piece or mate threat
5. put a piece in between if possible

Did I forget one?

In a double attack combinations of these basic mechanisms are necessary to deal with the threat. But one has also a couple of extra defenses.

For instance in some cases the pin or a check might be enough to break the double attack.
So how to find the correct response?

1. Which pieces are being attacked? Both bishops
2. Can I capture the attacker? No
3. Can I move away, covering or put something in between?
4. Can I counter-attack with a greater threat,give check with a threatenend piece or pin the attacking piece? Do I have a mating threat?

What white can do and something which I was not fully aware of during play was the exchange of a threatened piece for an equal piece. I noticed the exchange and was content with a renewed threat to the rook a1. But here comes the clue. White is able to break both threats!!! The Q-threat against the bishop and the bishop threat against the rook. And this was not forseen. If he had accepted and played correctly it would have been time for another beer.

In orange we see the defense of the black pieces but also its connection. White exchanges his dark squared bishop for the knight. The attack of the Q on white's light squared bishop becomes impossible. Black is trapped in a kind of forced sequence due to the fact if black does not respond to the capture by recapturing the bishop he might end up loosing 2 pieces for one. If the queen takes, white respond by capturing the bishop on e7 and threatening the rook.

So black is forced to take the dark squared bishop. With this move he renews his attack on white's pieces. Black is now threating the capture of the rook on a1 or the light squared bishop.

13.Bxf6 Bxf6

How to break the attack on both pieces?

By creating a counter-attack with a greater threat.

Playing Bc4 is not good enough as black will follow up with Qd4, white has a forced rook move and Rd8 eyeing Bc4 and Nd2. The Knight on d2 cannot be defended and moving the knight will lead to a loss of the bishop.

14.Bc4 Qd4 15.Rc1 Rd8 (-+ winning N or B)

or

14.Bc4 Qd4 15.Qe2 Bg4 16.Qd3 Qxd3 17 Bxd3 BxRa1 (exchange up) -+

To find the answer you have to remember that the queen is a lady. Now she doesn't like to socialize with peasants. So move the pawn to c4!!!

This is the move that flaws Black's little combination. By playing c4 you are creating an attack against the Q and at the same time protects the light squared bishop.

So now for instance 14. c4! Qd4 15.Rc1 Rd8 16. Nf3 or 15.Qe2 white has a slight advantage. Although black is a pawn down, his activity (bishop pair) momentarily is compensating for the loss of the pawn.

So I might have fallen victim of my own combination. It is a lovely example of multiply times breaking double threats.

Now back to the game.

My opponent could not see that far. So he decided differently. He choose to play 12.Bb3

12.Bb3 Nxd5 13.Nf3 Be6 14.a3 a6

I eliminated the center pawn although b4 could also be directly eliminated. My opponent played 13.Nf3. Here I hesitated, to grab the pawn on b4 or not. The thing is I reasonend that If I took, my knight would be totally relocated on the Q-side of the board. This meant that my best defender of king position would not be on time if troubles starts; So I kept my knight in the center. Justified or not at that time it looked reasonable not to be too greedy as I noticed he was relocating his knight to the kingside. I played a developing moving Be6 instead. My opponent played a3 and know I could not found any immediate weakness in his position to exploit. I played a waiting move a6. In this position I had really no idea what to play and it looked pretty much equal. So I decided not to disturb the balance too much.

15.Qd2 a5 16.bxa5 c5 17.Bb2 c4 18.Ba2 Rxa5

My opponent activated his Q and with this I decided to play for a little trick. I played a5!? My opponent fell for the trap and took the pawn. My primary concern was to neutralize the activity of one of his bishops. Having both bishops aimed at my kingside was not comfortable at all. Giving up my 'a'-pawn would free the path of my c-pawn and with tempo I might push it down the file and block the activity of one of his bishops. This I would consider a good thing.

I noticed that if he would capture my a-pawn I could recover the pawn afterwards as he cannot defend it adequately. His dark squarted Bishop cannot go through c3 to protect a5 nor can he play b6 attacking the queen. So the pawn can be recovered as it is twice being attacked by black and only once defended by white.

For instance 15.Qd2 a5 16.bxa5 c5 17.Be3 c4 18.Bb6? Nxb6 19. axb6 cxBb3 (-+)loosing a piece

Obtaining eventually this position, I knew that I had a big advantage.

Due to a lack of mobility his light-squared bishop is in big trouble. It is a matter of increasing the pressure on the Q-side before the bubble eventually will burst.
Relocating the light squared bishop will be at the expense of a couple tempi and might go through the back rank. This means that his rooks will be temporarily out of connection unless he decides to move the a-rook towards the center. The drawback of this move is his weakness along the a-file.

19.Nd4 Qa8 20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Be5 Rxa3 22.c3 Rf5 23.Bg3 Bf6

My opponent went for a simple fork on c6 (see attacked squares in orange), probably hoping I would not see it. By playing Nd4 he reinforced my idea of playing Qa8. Now black is really pressuring white along the a-file. He decided to trade off his knight for my bishop. With this he actually activates my rook on the f-file, increasing the pressure on his position. (Keeping in mind that the Queen on a8 has an eye on his kingside). Eventually he decides to activate his bishop and to give his a-pawn away. I gladly accept his offer.
Now the pressure on the light squared bishop is real and his rook is cornered to the a1 square for defense of the bishop. All that black has to do is to increase the pressure and the nut will explode. His rook is a sitting duck.

22.c3 (diagram) Rf5!? 23.Bg3 Bf6

White closes the diagonal and in this way protects the bishop on a2 twice. Seemingly white is holding on. It is time to exploit a second weakness: The kingside.

With Rf5 my idea was to pressurize his Bishop to make a decision. Protecting the kingside or remain on the diagonal and protect the c-pawn; the menace of the rook lift (the possibility to swing my rook to the g-file + Qa8) made him protect his g-pawn. With this the protection along the a1-h8 file disappeared and I could post my bishop on f6.

Now where was the duck again?

24.Qe2 Qa6

My opponent tries Qe2 with the idea of capture e6 with check, I defend but keeping the pressure alive.

25.Bb1 Rxa1 26.Bxf5 Rxf1+ 27.Qxf1 exf5 28.Qe1 Qc6 29.Be5 Qe8 0-1

The game ends in a pin

Whole game

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Be7 laatste zet uit boek [4...Bxb4 5.c3 Be7 6.Qb3 Na5 7.Bxf7+ Kf8 8.Qa4 Nc6 9.Bd5 Nf6 10.d3] 5.Bb2 d6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 Nxd4 8.Bxd4 Nf6 9.Nd2 0-0 10.0-0 d5 11.exd5 b5 12.Bb3 Nxd5 13.Nf3 Be6 14.a3 a6 15.Qd2 a5 16.bxa5 c5 17.Bb2 c4 18.Ba2 Rxa5 19.Nd4 Qa8 20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Be5 [-2.29 Fritz 7: 21.Rad1 Bf6 22.c3 Bxc3 23.Bxc3 Nxc3 24.Bxc4 Nxd1 25.Bxe6+ Kh8 26.Rxd1 Rxa3 -1.37/9 ] 21...Rxa3 22.c3 Rf5 23.Bg3 [-3.85 Fritz 7: 23.Qe2 -2.53/9 ] 23...Bf6 24.Qe2 Qa6 25.Bb1 [-6.72 Fritz 7: 25.Bxc4 Rxa1 26.Bxb5 Rxf1+ 27.Qxf1 Qa8 28.Qe1 Qc8 29.c4 -4.21/10 ] 25...Rxa1 26.Bxf5 Rxf1+ 27.Qxf1 exf5 28.Qe1 Qc6 29.Be5 [-10.88 Fritz 7: 29.Bd6 Nxc3 30.Qe6+ Kh8 31.Qf7 h6 32.Qf8+ Kh7 33.h3 Qe4 34.Kh2 Be5+ 35.g3 Bxd6 36.Qxd6 -6.62/11 ] 29...Qe8-+ 0-1

Chess games are never won! Chess games may only be lost!

With a little help of ...

2006-06-10T03:15:00.000-07:00

Sammy (1507) - Montse (1513) [D13]
[,scully]

SCULLY

Why misplaying the opening can be sometimes quite painful?

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5!?

I always play c5 as second move against 1.d4-openings. Most of the time it is for 1500 players an out of their book move. Actually Black is inviting White to take the pawn. I never follow up with Qa5+ and capturing of the pawn coz your queen is exposed and much too early in the game. Just develop Nc6,etc and break the center open. The problem with d4 players is that they hate open games. So why not send them immediately an invitation for an open game.

3.c3 cxd4 4.cxd4 d5 5.e3 Bf5

Playing c3 rang a bell. He was playing a system - colle like. That meant as black that I will try to kill his light squared bishop as soon as possible. But first I will try to take control over b1-h7. Controlling this diagonal weakens my Q-side light squares as the bishop is now located to the K-side of the board. So that's why I am not following up with e6 coz in this way my bishop has still access to the Q side through d7. Actually killing his vital light squared bishop, one of the main pieces usable in an attack, is in itself already a victory.

Watch his Q-side pieces.

6.Nbd2 g6 7.Qb3 Qc7 8.Ne5

So why can I play Bg7? Is d5 vulnerable? No If white plays 9. Bb5 black just follows up with 9 ... Nbd7.

So if white wants to exchange on d7 black will take back with light-squared bishop as Knight f6 is necessary to defend d5. And if he continues to trade down black will take back with Q. d5, b7 are now covered by the Queen.

The idea Nbd2 Qb3 is bad development.Locks your dark squared bishop to its initial place and with this the mobility of the rook a1 becomes very much hampered (no rook connection; there is no idea of pushing the e4 pawn (no rook on e1 etc) Considering Qb3 Ne5 Bb5 is not enough pressure on black's defense. Black can hold on. Later during the game white will try to free his dark-squared bishop but it is too late. Black has finished his development and is ready to attack.

8. .. Bg7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Nxd3 0-0 11.0-0 Nc6 12.Qc2? Rac8 13.b4 Nxd4 14.Qxc7 Ne2+ 15.Kh1 Rxc7 16.Re1

Instead white played Bd3, an invitation to trade down one of his most dangerous pieces. Who can resist? After the trade down white wants to free his bishop, therefor moves his Queen to the c-file (not the best). With rook Rac8 I grasped firm control over the c-file. By playing b4 (his idea of freeing the bishop) he actually blunders a pawn. He must have missed the check.

White just played 16. Re1 attacking the knight? How to follow up?

there is the possibility to move the knight, to exchange the knight and to look for a greater threat.

Ne4!! 17.Rb1 Nxc1 18.Rbxc1 Rxc1 19.Nxe4 Rxe1+ 20.Nxe1 dxe4 0-1

Vision without action is daydreaming, action without vision is a nightmare.

Whole game

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.c3 cxd4 4.cxd4 d5 5.e3 Bf5 6.Nbd2 g6 7.Qb3 Qc7 8.Ne5 Bg7 9.Bd3 [9.Bb5+ Nbd7] 9...Bxd3 10.Nxd3 0-0 11.0-0 Nc6 12.Qc2 Rac8 13.b4 Nxd4 14.Qxc7 Ne2+ 15.Kh1 Rxc7 16.Re1 Ne4! 17.Rb1
[B)17.Bb2 Bxb2 18.Nxb2 (18.Rab1 Bc3 19.Rxe2 Nxd2 20.Rc1 Rfc8 21.Rc2 Bxb4 22.Nxb4 Rxc2 23.Nxc2 Rxc2) 18...Nxf2#;
C)17.Rxe2 Bxa1 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Nc5 b6 20.Nb3 Rd8 21.h3 Rd1+ 22.Kh2 Be5+ 23.g3 Rcxc1 24.Nxc1 Rxc1 -/+
D)17.Nxe4 dxe4 18.Rxe2 exd3 19.Rb2 Rfc8 20.Bd2 Bxb2 21.Rb1 Rc1+ 22.Bxc1 Rxc1+ 23.Rxc1 Bxc1 24.Kg1 d2 25.Kf1 d1Q#]
A)17...Nxc1 18.Rbxc1 [18.Nxc1 Nxd2 19.Nb3 Nxb1-+ 20.Rxb1-+]18...Rxc1 19.Nxe4 Rxe1+ 20.Nxe1 dxe4 0-1

A leap in the dark

2006-06-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

In the next game I deviated early in the opening from the main line and got myself stuck into a real bad situation. It might be interesting to notice why the side line was a bad choice. Fortunately at our level everything is still possible, and with a bit of luck the killer move might be just around the corner. One thing that I have learned is that I will never play this variation or whatever you may call it again.

Montse (1513) - Tristan,M [C55]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 d5

Main line goes 6.Bb5 Ne4 7.Nxd4 Bd7 8...

I tried something different. I should have known coz someone told me in the past that this was absolutely not good. (Then I did not know why, now I do). Also the variation with 'en passant' capture should be disregarded but this variation I still have to try out. So if I play it, it will not be over the board but against my mechanical brain-wave 'scully'.

6.exf6?! dxc4 7.Qe2+ Be6 8.fxg7 Bxg7

Let's evaluate the position.

After 8 moves black has a lead in development of 5 moves. Pardon me, are you for real? White needs 2 moves to reach its position. Black on the otherhand needs 7 moves to reach this position and is only 2 moves away of completing his development.(castling and activating his Q). White has still his Q-side pieces (R,N, B) in its initial position. He needs 3 moves to complete his development. If we only compare completion of development black is a mere move ahead. But what a position!!

Black has
- the bishop pair which can be very deadly in the open game and in the endgame, (actively placed)
- a semi-open g file to attack white's position. Short castling for white might become very dangerous.
- a pawn shield in white's territory who actually impedes the development of white's knight to it most favorable place (from c3 white has a good control of the small center). The pawns can become a very deadly spear in the hart of white's position.
- the dark squared bishop controls the long diagonal, and is leaning on white its UNDEVELOPPED Q-side. Target: rook a1 (I am your bullet with your name on)
White will have to be very cautious in what order he will develop his pieces. White its dark squared bishop is tied to the defense of b2. C3 would be very unhealthy as you give up the defense for the square d2.

So white its main task is to develop and try to get its pieces out to places with high activity.

Looking at white's fantastic realisation there can only be one 'saying': No worries mate and one 'deed': another mild beer, make it a double.

Playing 9. Ng5 0-0!? and if 10.NxB ... - doesn't look very healthy for white

9.Na3 d3! 10.cxd3 cxd3?!

I tried to create counterplay by attacking c4 as I saw that this pawn was hard to defend. His reply was a breath-taker.

I was forced to exchange the pawn, but did not expect him to recapture with the pawn but instead with the Q. An early Q exchange would be a forced issue and the resulting position I think might be winning for black. Anyway If I refuse to exchange black just go 0-0-0 and yes you got it a torpedo right through your throat (=center).

My opponent decided differently and kept his flagship 'the Bismarck' on the board.

11.Qe4 Qd7 12.0-0 0-0-0

Again my opponent plays a move where he doesn't want to exchange his Q. I expexted Qd5.

White's question was how to develop your bishop with tempo? Answer: Attack a more important piece with your bishop. I attacked his rook with my bishop, so if he cannot find a better threat or move then the move qualifies as sufficient.

Notice it is important for white to keep control over d2! Notice he has a missile to launch with a warhead as Q!! Meaning the Queen is a bad defender of squares, minor pieces and pawns coz of its own strenght and value. So as a direct link to the pawn and acting as a lonesome pusher, I decided he can have his missile. As long as I can defend d2 with my minor pieces and he does not attack my defenders or mobilise his forces to gain control over d2 and the surrounding squares - his battery is just an imaginery force. So momentarily he is looking for the ignition key. No not right, left, I said left.

Judging the position

Black has still a deadlock on White its Q-side, mobilising his h-rook to the g-file (g8) combined for instance with the dark light squared bishop makes the K-side quite vulnerable 1. ... Rg8 2. ... Bh3 3. gxh3 Bxb2+ (with check) 4. K-move and Bishop takes rook on a1. The real goodie is the attack on the rook through an attack on the king.
And then there is the major weakness in the center. This annoying pawn is restricting the mobilty of my pieces.

So black has an enormous advantage although material is even! Positionally speaking this s...s.

So white has no time to loose.

13.Bg5 f6 14.Be3 f5 15.Qa4 a6?! 16.Rac1?! Bxb2 17.Rb1 Qg7 18.Nc4

My little trick for development, followed by Qa4. And this apparently knocked his socks off. Even then Black had such a strong position that he should have been fine. 'a6'I think was not yet necessary. He reacts on a possible threat which is not yet operational. So it has to be classified as a waste of time. His waste of time is my gain in time.

I played Rac1 which actually invites black to take the pawn. My opponent greatly accepts and I thank him by squeezing my rook back to the b-file. In this way I can have a much better look at his King's defense.

An exchange of the bishop for my a3 knight would be best for white as this would immediately eliminate one of his most active pieces.

My opponent decides differently and plays Qg7. Therefor I attack his black bishop a second time. Instead of exchanging immediately he could have played 18. ... Rhg8 which would have been a crushing mate threat.

18.Nc4 Bxc4 19.Qxc4 Rhg8 20.g3

My opponent has seemingly a very comfortable position and decides to open up my pawn shield. He plays h5, with the idea to follow-up with h4 etc...

This was a total wrong assessment of the position and the turning point of the game. Because of the exchanges on c4 my Q has slightly moved towards the center.

21.Qe6+!! the killer move

This move allows white to attack different pieces immediately with check. The weakness of black's position is that the Q is bound to defend the bishop on b2.

21. Qe6+ Qd7 22. QxQ RxQ 23. RxB (piece up +-)
or
21. Qe6+ Rd7 22. RxB QxB 23. QxRg8 (piece up +-)

21.Qe6+! Kb8 22.Qb3! Na5

Now his Bishop is 2 times attack with a battery along the b-file. His Bishop is lost.

In the game I looked at 20. ... Qg4, with his Q attacking my knight but seemingly Prof Fritz likes 20... Qc3 even more. I agree.

23.Qb4?? Bc3 24.Qc5 Nc6?? 25.Qxc6 b6

And now It became messy - 'A' grade real patzer chess. One blunder follows the other. We all love it when it happens to our opponent. I started, he must have been in shock. Convinced he could do better he puts his Knight 'en prise'. I was baffled, got myself another beer & cooled down a bit. Eventually I looked him in the eye and smiled. Life can be great!

So why did I not play 23.Qxb2.QxQ 24. RxQ Nc4 25. Rb3 or Rb1. I calculated it correctly but then started to look for a move without allowing to have him a fork. I decided that he might have some counterplay but this was a wrong assessment. So I looked to Qb4 and saw a double threat which I thought was equivalent. Attack on Bishop by rook and an attack on Knight and Bishop by my Q. Also the battery was intact on b7 so everything seemed to be in order. Unfortunately I did not see Bc3! and with this move all my threats were covered.

Eventually the following position was reached which is typically CT-art orientated. Please restrain yourself a little bit.

Have a go!

solution: way below

26.Bxb6!! cxb6 [#3 Fritz 7: 26...Kc8 27.Bd4 Bxd4 28.Qe6+ Rd7 29.Qxa6+ Kd8 30.Rb8+ Ke7 31.Re1+ Qe5 8.53/9 ] 27.Rxb6+ Ka7 28.Rxa6+ Kb8 29.Ra8# 1-0

Not the best game - but an instructive experience!

2006-06-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

This was my first game in the finals against a player of my strength. There are a lot of mistakes in the game. So it might not be the best game. I post it coz I find some useful lessons in it.

Montse (1513) - H,Sammy (1507) [C00]

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d6 3.Nf3 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.Nc3 Qxc5
My opponent starts out as a very passive player and quickly violates (to my experience) the opening principles.

From here I decided to bring out my minor pieces against his Queen.

6.Be3 Qc7 7.Nb5 Qd8 8.Bg5

Now look at his position. I have 3 minor pieces out. His pieces on the other hand are all on its initial place. He has still one move to play. It took white 5 moves to obtain this position in shortest amount of tempos. It took for black 2 moves to get his pawns in this position + one extra move still to play, White has an increased lead in development in comparison to the beginning of the game. Black needs 6 moves to complete his development minus 1 coz its his turn to play. White needs 3 moves to complete his development (Bishop, connect rooks and activate Q). A difference of 2 moves. Due to an activation of your minor pieces against his Q, you have built up a massive lead in development. This means that black might become very vulnerable and might be exposed to an early attack from white. And if correct, black will not recover.

The Black Q is tied to the defense of the square c7.

8. ... Nf6 is not possible due to e5!
8. ... Be7 looses a pawn or looses the right to castle.

Already black have troubles.

8. ... Qb6 [8...Be7 9.Bxe7 Nxe7 10.Nxd6+ Kf8 11.Qd2] 9.a4 a6 10.a5 Qc6

So the question why a4?
I want to trap the Q, or at least harrash her as much as I can without retreating the Knight. Also I saw that I could push the pawn up to a5, taking control over the b6 square which might become an interesting outpost for a knight or a bishop.In the endgame without pieces we have one pawn that holds two.
What I clearly missed was his response with an attack on d4. I saw Qc6 but did not check the consequences. So I calculated 4 ply deep (lol) and was satisfied with the obtained position.
In my logic, another piece move would have lead to a recover for black in his development as the white knight sooner or later is bound to retreat.

Not defending the d4 square would lead to a loss of the Knight on b5 coz black takes with check. So 2 pieces are hanging. How to defend?
Look if one of the hanging pieces can be move to the defense of the other piece without being captured. Most of the time this will do. So knight goes to c3. With this defensive move without any threat black can take over the initiative, meaning he can force white to react to his moves. Black should do this by boosting his development and if white does react and complies to black's play, black can reduce his lag of development. I know most people define initiative in a different way. By playing Nc3 white gives black actually a free move, a recovering move coz white has no threat following up.

11.Nc3 Be7 12.Bd3 Qc7 13.Be3 Nd7 14.0-0 Ngf6 15.Na4

So why not the exchange on Be7?

Black asks for an exchange which would mean that white would trade an active piece for a less active piece. Black would recapture with knight which would boost black's development as he can castled short the next move. By letting him capture Bg5 you can boost your own knight to his Kingside as the knight comes in for a swing.
That's why I played Bd3 (developing move, defensive move d4, freeing Nc3 of the defense of d4). The rest are developing moves.

On 15 a4 I went for a little trick. If Qxa5 than Nb6 wins the rook as the Q is attacked. Also It gives my the opportunity to take over the control of the diagonal d8-a5.

15... 0-0 16.Nb6 Nxb6 17.Bxb6 Qd7 18.e5!?

18.e5!? Nd5 19.Bd4! Nb4 20.exd6 Bxd6 21.Bxh7+?!Kxh7 22.Ng5+

With e5 an important defender has been dislodged from the protection of f7. With Nd5 he aims at my light-squared Bishop on d3, the center piece of a possible white's attack on Black's Kingside.
To evaluate the sacrifice one has to calculate all three possible moves of the black king once he accepted the sacrifice. If he has a defense in one of the three variations the sacrifice is dubious which was the case here. The e5 pawn was necessary to protect the f6-flight square. I will not go into details of the greco saccrifice as much literature has been published on this matter. The basic set-up of the pieces is as in the game but with an intact pawn on e5 (which was not the case here). This meant that there was a defense but it was necessary to bring the king in front of his pawns.
But as the bold idiote would say this is hope chess. But where does hope chess starts and where does hope chess ends? When we cannot foresee the outcome? By the evaluation of a position 10 - 20 ply deep? So why than does GM's still loose games. We all play hope chess but we all try to minimize the unpredictable. What seems to be good in 3 ply might sometimes be bad in a 6 ply mode. What might be good in 6 ply might be bad in 12 ply mode etc. So chess becomes hope chess beyond your level of calculation. So my view is you can try to minimize it but it is always present. It never stops.

22....Kg8 23.Qh5 Rd8 24.Qh7+ Kf8 25.Qxg7+

Why didn't I play Qg8+?

In the heat of the battle I didn't found the follow up with Bc5. I only looked to Bg7 and Bf6. So it seemed to me that it was not enough to mate him. I was focused on mating him and was not out on material advantage. With Bc5 it leads to a definite material advantage for white but during the game I missed this move. I did not even consider it, So I played Nh7 with the idea to mate him on the next move (seemed to be the best move then), forgetting of course the Knight on b4. He played Nd5 and here I realized that the simple Nf6 wasn't possible anymore. So push the defender of the f6 square away and therefor I played c4. He played f6, and here I panicked. If black would manage to trade of the Queens he would win the game.It is important afterwards to see this and to behonest with yourself. Due of the fear of loosing I stopped looking for mates but instead started to look for a draw. It was easily found by repetition. Actually there is still a forced mate on the board.

25...Ke8 26.Nh7!? Nd5 27.c4 f6?!28.Qg8+ Ke7 29.Qg7+ ½-½

When I went home I was wondering where I made the mistake. If there was not more in the position. I set up the position again and almost immediately I saw the solution. On 29 ... Ke8 30 Qg8+ Ke7 31. Bxf6+!!! Nxf6 32. Qg7+ Ke8 33. Nxf6# (and this is a beauty)

The point is due to the fear of loosing my Q (game over), I could not think clear anymore. I went for the easy outcome. Better was to stretch my legs, go for another beer and walk around a little bit until I was more relaxed.

Did I sleep well that night?

Again running

2006-05-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

Computer crashed awhile ago. As you read, it is working again.Unfortunately, I never take back ups. So I lost my data. Great going!

Finished the finals with 3.5/4 and this made me the winner of my Class in the club. I will post the games later this week.

Back to basics in pawn endings - pawn initial pos

2006-04-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

King versus King + Pawn.

Pawn on its initial position – 2nd rank (same holds for the reverse situation).

Positions where the stronger king is far away from its pawn.

Attacking king = king with extra material, plays for a win.

Defending king = king alone, plays for a draw.

If the defending king can prevent the attacking king of reaching the critical squares on the fifth rank, the defender has succeeded to intervene. The pawn cannot brought safely in the vicinity of the attacking king.
If the attacking King can reach the critical squares on the fifth rank; the defending king must in the consecutive move capture or block the path of the pawn. The capture of the pawn is only possible if the king is already blocking the path of the pawn. This implies that for the defending king the square in front of the pawn becomes a destination square to draw.

With a pawn on its initial position there is no lateral attack possible. A pawn in its initial position can move two steps.

If the attacking king can reach the key squares on the fourth rank, and the defending king cannot capture the pawn in the consecutive move, the queening of the pawn becomes unstoppable.

A. Both kings compete for the destination squares on the same side of the pawn.

Practically speaking one has to look to the amount of tempos necessary to reach the key or critical squares for the attacking king and compare this with the amount of tempos that the defending king needs to reach its destination squares (the critical squares of the pawn)

B. Both kings race to the destination squares on the opposite side of the pawn.

Two basic positions with defending king always on the key square.

1. Attacking king on ‘critical’ square (5th rank square)

Whoever moves first wins.

Black to play plays d3; White to play plays Ke4 or better pawn d4.

2. Attacking king on ‘key’ square (4th rank square)

Attacking king wins always

If one can reduce the relative pos of both kings back to those two basic pos one can easily calculate the amount of moves both kings need to reach their destination squares. As the defending king cannot approach the pawn laterally, the destination square d3 can only be reached through a key square.
Furthermore with the attacking king to play the defending king has always one move less than the attacking king to reach its destination square, obtaining a draw. With an equal amount of moves the defending king always looses unless he has the move and the attacking king can only reach the critical square but not the key square.

I hope this will help me in the analysis of positions where the pawns are not yet blocked (dynamic)and on the same file (K+P versus K+P).

Introduction: Blocked rook pawns

2006-04-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

No Namilov endgame tables allowed to solve this.

Loss, draw or win if White to play and if Black to play.

Galvanize the cheese

2006-04-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

I started to follow Blunderprone's method by repeating the levels immediately once I finished a level. I repeated some levels from previous finished circles.

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%
Level 5 – completed – score 68%
Level 6 – completed – score 59%
Level 7 – completed – score 55%
Level 8 – completed – score 51%
Level 9 – completed – score 54%

Current status: Cycle 2

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 96%
Level 3 – completed – score 89%
Level 4 – completed – score 80%
Level 5 – completed – score 76%
Level 6 – completed – score 68%
Level 7 – completed – score 60%
Level 8 – completed – score 53%
Level 9 – completed – score 61%

Current status: Cycle 3A

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 99%
Level 3 – completed – score 95%
Level 4 – completed – score 88%

Current status: Cycle 4

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 98%
Level 3 – completed – score 97%
Level 4 – completed – score 80%

Current status: Cycle 5

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 99%
Level 3 – completed – score 94%
Level 4 – completed – score 87%

Current status: Cycle 6

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 99%
Level 3 – completed – score 97%
Level 4 – completed – score 92%

Current status: Cycle 7

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 99%
Level 3 – completed – score 99%
Level 4 – completed – score 97%

I decided to postpone the effort a little bit. I know It might loose some of its strenght but I'm planning to do some rehersal of the finished levels before I tackle the higher levels. I want to finish first some pawn endings K+P versus K+P and K+2P versus K+P and maintain the knowledge that I build up.

Finished as first (8/10) in my series at my club. Now I have to compete with two others for the best class player in thye lowest class.(ROLF)It is slaughter time. Last time I was butchered. Anyway I stalemated my opponents Q between my rooks and some other pieces. He protected his Q with his Bishop. Bishop was dead duck - a pure loss of a piece. I was greedy and took the wrong rook, trying to kill of the Q. Bad choice! My Q wasn't stronger than his two rooks. I just missed at that moment his dead duck (bishop). I was too greedy. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.

I came to the conclusion that my kingside attacking skills are very weak. Thank you very much CT-ART for pointing out my weakness. I know it hurts to admit but it also shows that i have to start from scratch again to build up the knowledge to understand these positions. What pîeces play a role in this type of defenses? What squares do I need to make the attack succesfull? etc...
So simplifying the positions to its essentials and trying to identify the basis mechanism could function as a blue print to more complicated poisitions with more defenders and attackers.

Big plans in little....

Meeting hall

2006-03-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

There is an easy way to calculate the relative positions of both kings when they approach each other.

The mathematical formula is straight forward

(king position 1) - (king position 2) - 2 = distance expressed as total amount of moves both kings can make, leading each other into the meeting hall.

Example

King 1 (white) on g8
King 2 (black) on e2

Diagram "White to play"

It takes White 5 moves to reach the opposition square b4. It also takes 5 moves to capture the pawn. Black needs 4 moves to defend his pawn and win the pawn of white. His target square is a6. If white wants to defend his pawn by going to c7 he will be the rabbit king in the turtle position. Whoever moves first looses.

The territory of the shortest path can easily be drawn if you know what the target squares are for both kings. Meaning the destination squares that you want your king to go to.

Black a6 - white b4 his best try to obtain a draw.

So white has two main diagonals (a2-g8;a3-f8) while black has one diagonal to reach his destination square. (straight line)

As both path crosses each other you would like to know where they meet, if there is impedement, and which King will be pushed off his path. This happens of course in the lovely place which we call "the meeting hall".

The meeting hall(green)is the square defined where possible impedement (shouldering effect) can take place. This means that the kings have come so near to each other that one of the kings have to prolong his path to his target square.

King pos 1 = g8 (8 rank)
King pos 2 = e2 (2 rank)

Formula: 8-2-2= 4 moves.

White begins, so he will have 2 moves played. Black will have 2 moves played. It will be White's turn to move.

From this knowledge you can draw easily the meeting hall and see what the relative position will be of both kings. Who has the move and who has not.

Rule: If both kings encounter each other in the meeting hall, impedement will only follow if one king succeeds in forcing the other king from his shortest path without leaving his shortest path. If the king has to step out of the territory formed by the shortest path, his path will be prolonged and he will need extra moves to reach his destination square.

So basically it comes down to 2 aspects (when the paths of the kings cross each other or come very near to each.)

What is the relative position of both kings in the meeting hall?
Can the king follow his traject without being hindered, bearing in mind the king who has the move? If he is not hindered he can reach his destination square without prolonging his path.

Another spin

2006-03-18T03:22:00.000-08:00

BDK,

In the good all tradition -It has happened again. Another victim. Another kill. He had suicide tendencies. I gave him a hand. I did not want to prolong his struggle endlessly. A pawn, A loyal knight!

I bought myself an another beer.

O,Ivan (1389) - Montse (1513) [A57]
17.03.2006
[,scully]
72MB, Scully 1.c4 Nf6 2.d4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Qb3 bxc4 5.Qxc4 d6 6.e4 Nbd7 7.Nf3 Nb6 8.Qc2 g6 9.b3 Diagram

9...Nxe4 10.Bb2 Nf6 11.Bxf6 exf6 12.Qe4+ Be7 13.Bb5+ Bd7 14.Bxd7+ Qxd7 15.0–0 0–0 16.Re1 Rfe8 17.Nc3 Bf8 18.Qd3 Bg7 19.Rab1 f5 20.Rxe8+ Rxe8 21.Qb5 Diagram

21...Bxc3 22.Qxd7 Nxd7 0–1

What else is there?

2006-03-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

Finished level 9 with an average score of 61%.

Current status: Cycle 2

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 96%
Level 3 – completed – score 89%
Level 4 – completed – score 80%
Level 5 – completed – score 76%
Level 6 – completed – score 68%
Level 7 – completed – score 60%
Level 8 – completed – score 53%
Level 9 – completed – score 61%

Up to cycle 3, what else is there!

Basic pawn endings Blocked pawns 5 - no rook pawns

2006-03-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

There exists mainy models to explain sometimes the same observation. We see this in mainy courses for instance chemistry etc. It can also be applied to chess. So I will try to explain Tempo's observation in rather different way.

Diagram

First white to play

1. White King - Black Pawn distance: (g-file (7) - c-file (3)) = 4 moves; 5 fields !
2. Black King - White Pawn distance: 6th rank - 2nd rank = 4 moves

This means if white to play, on the fourth move white will capture the enemy, black pawn. So black has only 3 moves to capture the white pawn or to defend his own pawn. He will not be on time.

Both paths of the king do not interfere!!. No shouldering effect possible.

If Black to play a whole different story.

1. White King - Black Pawn distance: (g-file (7) - c-file (3)) = 4 moves; 5 fields !
2. Black King - White Pawn distance: 6th rank - 2nd rank = 4 moves

For white there are two defenses.

1. direct defense of the pawn (preventing the enemy king to capture the pawn)
2. If your pawn is captured - preventing the enemy pawn to queen!!

White has to make a clear judgement before he embarks in one of the defenses.

in case number one.

After 3 moves of black, white has made 3 moves.

We have the turtle position. The white king is the rabbit king and he will loose the pawn. The black king is standing on the critical square b5 (red square see previous post) and on his 4th move he will be on b6. On white's 4th move he cannot longer defends his own pawn and he has to leave his pawn to the enemy king and with this the game.

Case number two - covering opposition field

General rule: the defending king (white)takes the direct opposition the move following the capturing of his own pawn by black.

So if black needs 4 moves to capture pawn, white will take opposition on his 4th move and not on his 5th move. But it corresponds to the 5 notation on your sheet!!

let us assume that the paths of both kings do not interfere!! (the moves are between brackets)

1...Kd3(1) 2. Kf5(1) Kc4(2) 3. Ke5(2) Kb5(3) 4. Kd4(3) Kxc6(4)5. Kc4 (4)

in our initial position, black has the possibility to interfere !!! because the pathways of both kings cross each other. Both kings have to reach their own destination squares which are c6 for black and c4 for white.

Territory for white to move to reach c4 within 4 moves is covered by the square g4e6c4e2.

Black's territory to capture enemy pawn within four moves is covered by the rectangle e2f3c6b5.

If we draw a square e2e4g2g4, both kings are in the square.This means that both kings are very near and that they can impede each others path depending on the destination square they have to reach.

If you turn the chessboard 45 clockwise, you can easily see why the diagonal!! is the
shortest path for the king.
Within the territory, if you follow the premisses of the shortest path it means that you cannot stay on a file two consecutive moves. As tempo stated this leads to initial prolongment of the path. So no 2 e-moves (= file moves) allowed for the white king. You have to go one step closer to the c-file every turn!!

For black, he has to move through the ranks every turn. He can play e2-e3, coz he respects the territory of the shortest diagonal, and goes every turn to a new rank.

Something for your imagination. The destination squares are black holes. So every move you make has to be in the direction of the destination square within the boundaries of the territory of the shortest diagonal.

so on 1...Ke3!!. whit has 2 choices 2.Kf5 or Kg3.

Kg3 brings your king out of the allowed territory. Black succeeds in prolonging the path for the white king with one tempo. So black wins on this move. Queening cannot be prevented.

Kf5 pushes the white king in the wrong direction (we already saw that the direct defense of the pawn is lost).

So it is a win for black.

Next position will be one with the White king on h8 - introduction of Knight opposition and how to identify the right path.

The wheel turns

2006-03-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

It has happened again. Another victim. Another kill. I look up into the mirror. Blood everywhere. I want to clean my hands. Some flashbacks haunt me. We played the game "murder" or "to be murdered".
He had his chances. No pity. No remorse. In the beginning he had a strong grip. Gradually, I managed to take over. I admit. I had to endure some blows. It hurted real bad.
He made a misstep. I heard the bells sounding..., so did he. It was a clean, straight fight. No back kicking. Anyway not from his side. He became weaker, I stronger. His death, my strength. I promised to do it quickly, no endless dragging. I failed. I really wanted to squeeze his heart out. He choked. It became messy.

Then the endless questioning, why this, why that? Who cares, he died.

It's time to wash off the dirt. I have to be clean, pure for another kill, another cold-blooded murder.

Game

I. belahin (1447) - Montse (1513) [C66]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.0-0 Nf6 5.Re1 a6 6.Bxc6+ bxc6 7.d4 Bg4 8.dxe5 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 dxe5 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Rd1 Qc8 12.Qc3 Qe6 13.Nd2 h6 14.Bh4 Nxe4 15.Nxe4 Bxh4 16.Nc5 Qf5 17.g3 Rd8 18.Rxd8+ Bxd8 19.Nxa6 0-0 20.Qxc6 Bf6 21.Rd1 e4 22.b3 Qf3 23.Rd7 h5 24.Nc5 Re8?? 25.Qd5 Bc3 26.Qd1 Qf5 27.Rd5 Qf6 28.Nd7 Qa6 29.a4 e3 30.fxe3 Rxe3 31.Re5 Bxe5 32.Nxe5 Rxe5 33.Qd8+ Kh7 34.Qd1 Qb6+ 35.Kg2 Qc6+ 36.Kg1 Qe6 37.Kf1 Qf5+ 38.Kg2 Re3 39.h3 Qe4+ 40.Kh2 Re2+ 0-1

Another cheese plate

2006-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

Finished level 8 with an average score of 53%.

Current status: Cycle 2

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 96%
Level 3 – completed – score 89%
Level 4 – completed – score 80%
Level 5 – completed – score 76%
Level 6 – completed – score 68%
Level 7 – completed – score 60%
Level 8 – completed – score 53%

I really don't like these exercises. Just keep plugging!

Basic pawn endings: blocked pawns 4 - no rook pawns

2006-02-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

2. Both kings are on opposite sides of the blocked pawns separated by one file.(file 2)
-c- both kings are on non-critical squares

diagram 1

Both kings are on non-critical squares.
For instance white to play

It takes two moves for white to the green square (see previous posts), one move for black to the green square at his side. Black needs (7-5)2 moves to the opposition square. His distance to the pawn (4-2=2) is the same as white (4-2=2). White can take two roads two the green square. Either he plays 1Ke5 or 1Kf5. If he plays 1 Ke5 this would be a large mistake coz than the defending King will win your pawn and the game. See exceptional position (turtle position). Going with your king to the green square through 1Kf5 is important coz in this way you can attack his pawn two times while on the second time you attack and defend your own pawn. On the contrary the defending king only has one square to attack the enemy pawn and to defend his own pawn.

the wrong defense after 1Kf5

the right defense after 1Kf5

You only go to the opposition square the move following the capturing of the pawn. Then you take opposition and you go draw the game out. No Qeeuning possible unless you make a mistake.

3. Both Kings are on opposite sides of the blocked pawns separated by 2 files.(file 3)
-a- both kings are on critiqual squares
-b- one king is on critical square, the other on a non-critical square
-c- both kings are on non-critical squares

The outcome of the three possibilities are the same - draw by correct defense

Both kings are located within the same distance from the pawns! (7-4; 4-1 both 3)
Both kings have the same distance to the green squares; Black 2 moves and white 2 moves.
So what is the difference between the blocked pawns where the kings are on critical squares separated by 2 files and the pos separated by one file?

In the latter it only takes white one move to reach the green square while black needs 2 square to reach the corresponding green square. If he defends the pawn directly, he is the rabbit king in our turtle position. Now didn't I tell you that being slow pays.
In the former (2-file), both kings needs 2 moves to their respective green squares.

So if you go from 2 files separated to 1 file as attacker, go through the critical square.You never know if the defender makes a mistake.
As defender, do not play on 1Kf5 Kb4 but Kb5! and then you draw.

so some diagrams

Summary: Kings on a same distance from the pawn!

1.Kings beside pawn - turtle pos: Whoever moves first looses.
2.Kings separated by 1 file from blocked pawn position
A. Both kings on critical squares: Whoever moves first wins
B. One king or no kings on critical sqaures: draw no matter whose turn it is.
3.Kings separated by 2 files
Always a draw by correct defense.

Easy as one two three!

Just one remark - Be aware of blocked pawns on the 5/6th rank as defender coz if you loose your pawn, you loose the game. (Opposition does not count)

Where is the cheese?

2006-02-26T11:14:00.000-08:00

Finished level 7 with a score of 60%. I managed to keep my score barely above the 60%. Can I hold this score until the end of the cycle. 'I will see' said the blind man.

Current status: Cycle 2

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 96%
Level 3 – completed – score 89%
Level 4 – completed – score 80%
Level 5 – completed – score 76%
Level 6 – completed – score 68%
Level 7 – completed – score 60%

Up to level 8

Basic pawn endings: blocked pawns 3 - no rook pawns

2006-02-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

Let us have a look to some basic positions

Opposite king positions.

1. Both kings are on the immediate opposite file beside the blocked pawns. (file 1)
2. Both kings are on opposite sides of the blocked pawns separated by one file.(file 2)
-a- both kings are on critiqual squares
-b- one king is on critical square, the other on a non-critical square
-c- both kings are on non-critical squares
3. Both Kings are on opposite sides of the blocked pawns separated by 2 files.(file 3)
-a- both kings are on critiqual squares
-b- one king is on critical square, the other on a non-critical square
-c- both kings are on non-critical squares

1. Both kings are on the immediate opposite file beside the blocked pawns. (file 1)

Rule:Whoever moves first, looses the pawn and the game!! Be careful it is an exceptional position.

If Both kings have the same King Pawn distance (equal to 1) than all positions can be handled the same. The two diagrams below are equivalent. it doesn't matter where the black king stands both kings are in striking distance of 1 and cannot protect their own pawn.

Diagram 1b

Diagram 1c

At first site, it seems that the White king cannot adequate defend his pawn. 1Ke5 and the black king cannot longer protect his own pawn, while white has defended his. White has reached the same position as the exceptional one. It basically comes down that you never want to reach the exceptional pos as the first king but as the last one. Now be being slow earns this time. For once in your live you want to be a turtle king.

General rule: Whoever moves first wins the pawn.

2. Both kings are on opposite sides of the blocked pawns separated by one file.(file 2)

-a- both kings are on critiqual squares

Showing the basic mechanism at work, white to move (remember the red-green square); Note that white plays the turtle King in approach to the pawns. The "direct defense" of the black pawn fails, trying the "opposition defense" fails also coz black is to far away from the opposition square (7-4=3 + 1 =4 coz white can shoulder the black king off, the black pawn will be captured on the second move by the white king). Black will be 2 moves too slow to reach the opposition square when white captured the black pawn.

Rule A: Whoever moves first wins the pawn and the game (coz the defending King is badly placed)

-b- one king is on critical square, the other on a non-critical square

Rule B: Draw - the attacking king can win the pawn but not the game!

-c- both kings are on non-critical squares

I look to this example in post 4

Rule C: Draw - the attacking king can win the pawn but not the game!

Basic pawn endings: blocked pawns 2 - no rook pawns

2006-02-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

First issue the "Critical" squares of blocked pawns.

The Critical squares are those squares occupied by an attacking king which automatically leads to a win. In our case to the irrevocable loss of the pawn (= the reduction of a K+P versus K+P ending to a K+P versus K ending) but NOT necessarily to the outcome of the game. When the attacking King can reach such square a forced sequence follows which ends with the capture of the pawn.

Diagram 1 ( 6 critical squares for the white pawn on the rank of the black enemy pawn)

Diagram 2 ( 6 critical squares for the black pawn on the rank of the white enemy pawn)

Diagram 1- 2 The position of both Kings are not important for now.

Second issue: How can you easily calculate the amount of moves your King has to make to reach a certain square?

When I started to play chess I always made a lot of calculations errors, especially concerning K-moves. For instance I calculated that my opponent need to make 5 moves with his K to come to the stunning conclusion that I made a mistake. I know that some people visualizes and moves both kings over the board to obtain a similar position. This doesn't work for me. Not always anyway.
So my comfort in the 64 square board lies in the number 64, 8x8. One day I came to the stunning conclusion that I just replace the letters by numbers and pure maths on it. So If my King has to move from let's say g-file (7) to the b-file (2) I know he neads 5 moves (7-2) and not 6 or 4.
This simple fact was quite a revelation for me and If you apply the square of the rule to the King(which one normally uses for passed pawns to see whether the enemy king can intercept the pawn or not) you will see what territory your King can cover within those 5 moves.
The same holds for pawns but be aware a pawn on the second rank can do two-steps. So the pawn needs at least 5 moves to reach the last rank (8-3), your king 6 (8-2)!

Third issue: Behind enemy lines, reaching the red or green square

If you can reach the red or green square without loss of your own pawn, you have reached the critical square behind enemy lines.

In the above example white needs 2 moves to its nearest green square, black 2 moves to its nearest red square. So white to play, and on the 3rd move the black pawn will fall.

If Black decides to go the red square his king will be on the wrong side of the board and white's pawn will have a free run there is no other option than trying to take the opposition on the 3rd move, on the move following the capturing of the pawn.

How to judge?

1. Is my pawn directly threatened by the king or not (distance King Pawn)? (7-4=3;4-1=3)
2. What is the position of both kings on critical squares or not? (not on critical squares)
3. How many moves do both kings need to their respective red-green squares? (2;2)
4. Are both kings on the same or opposite side of the blockaded pawns? (opposite, opposition to invade is not necessary)
5. How far is the defending King to the opposition square? (3 for black)
6. Which king has the move? (white for instance)
7. If both Kings are on the same side, opposition will play a crucial roll whether the attacking king can invade or not.

A cheese buffet

2006-02-25T10:30:00.000-08:00

Finished level 6 of mini circle 2 (= cycle 2) (ex 618-1039) with an average score of 68%. I started with level 7, mini circle 3 (cycle 2) and I hope to finish it soon.

Current status: Cycle 2

Mini circle 2 (ex 618-1039)

Level 4 – completed – score 80
Level 5 – completed – score 76
Level 6 – completed – score 68

- To absorb or not to absorb - that is the question.

Basic pawn endings: blocked pawns 1 - no rook pawns

2006-02-25T04:11:00.000-08:00

I decided to help temposchlucker on the section of pawn endgames. Personally I think he took a great initiative to raise the issue and indeed correspondence squares is not a easy matter.
Secondly I need to refresh the matter anyway, coz my grey cells starts to loose its capacity to retain what it had seen in the past.

As the blogg only allows 5 diagrams to be loaded, I will be forced to publish a lot of posts to complete the subject - May "Caissa" be with me or I will be doomed as Crashnik.

First, 5 diagrams

Diagram 1
Whoever moves first, looses the pawn and the game!!

Diagram 2
Win - The one who moves first wins the pawn and the game

Diagram 3
Draw - The one who moves first wins the pawn but NOT the game

Diagram 4
Draw - The one who moves first wins the pawn but NOT the game

Diagram 5
Draw - The one who moves first wins the pawn but NOT the game

So there are basically 2 questions in these positions:

1. Can I win the pawn?
2. Can I win the game?

The first question is related to the critical squares of the blocked pawns and the position of both kings.

The second question is related to the fact whether the defending king can obtain the opposition immediately after the capture of its pawn by the attacking king and therefor be able to prevent the enemy pawn to queen.

An important item is the ranks on which the blockaded pawns are standing. A blockade on the 4/5 rank leads to a draw while a blockade on the 5/6 rank leads to a win. If the position can be reduced to K+P versus K position with a king in front of the pawn on the 6th rang than opposition doesn't matter anymore. It is always a win.

In diagrams 2-5 the defending king has two options either counter-attack against the enemy pawn or take the defensive approach and go for the opposition.
The attacking king will try to reduce the position to a winning K+P versus K position. Only positions K+P versus K where the opposition doesn't play any role anymore are forcing winning positions, the others can only be won by a mistake made by your opponent.

Going to the next post coz I need images to be uploaded, I explain what critical squares are and than we can handle the diagrams.

Up to another round of cheese

2006-02-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

I went on snowboard vacation to Bulgaria. A first timer, great fun!

Finished level 4, 5 of mini circle 2 (= cycle 2) (ex. 618-955) with an average score of 80 & 76%. Although I have not finished yet level 6 for the 2nd time I already redone level 4 for the 3rd time. There my score was 84%. I will progress now to level 6 and try to complete these in a reasonable time. In this way I can complete mini-circle 2 for the 3rd time.

I got my new ELO (feb). It remained the same (1513). The games I played this season are not yet being taken into account. The tournaments are still in progress. According to my calculation I gathered an increase of 30 points. It is not much but it is not bad either. So let's continue this upward trend.

Last year I only played 8 OTB games. I gained an increase of 60 points. The big difference was the level of the tournament. I played against players with an average strength 250 ELO higher than mine. I learned a lot.

It is important to play against people (for a Class player) which are rated 200-300 points higher than yourself. In this way you can gain a lot of points if you win, substantial if you draw but loose only a marginal amount when you are defeated. Anyway you cannot relax when playing them. So I think this is a very good exercise.

Unfortunately in my case, this year, I play equally or lower rated players. Let's say I am top level player in a bottom rated-class. It would have been better If I could play against stronger players but tournament organizers stick too much their classifications. So I vote for open ELO-rated tournaments with less class barriers. Unfortunately again they are hard to find around here.

Corus Chess tournament 2006

2006-01-22T01:24:00.000-08:00

This year's Corus tournament is underway in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands with a fantastic line-up of players.

Competing in this year's tournament are Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, The well-honourable Knight "Tempo" (Sir Howling Belly), Etienne Bacrot, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, Princess Errant "Margriet", Ivan Sokolov, Gata Kamsky, Sergei Tiviakov, Sergey Karjakin, and Loek Van Wely.

Crashnik was scheduled to play in the event but withdrew due to health problems.

A statement dated Jan. 5th 2006 on his web site (http://www.Crashnik.com/eng/) was released for public view:

“I would like to inform the chess community that due to health problems I shall not be able to participate in the Corus Chess Tournament 2006. A couple of years ago a form of arthritis was diagnosed. A possible cause might have been to many hours of tactical drill repetition. The result RSI (repetitive strain injury) in my right hand. I should have quited at cycle 5 of the program but I was so hooked on it that unfortunately I kept going. I hardly remember how many cycles I did, but I can still feel those click-clicks in my hand and the moves I made. However, this disease causes painful inflammation in the joints.
Unfortunately since that time, the symptoms have started to appear more often and with greater severity. Damned this MDLM Program. Why could I not just went for a walk? I tried a tacital refreshment course in the runner-up to the tournament but was forced to stop halfway. This new recent crisis makes it necessary to undertake serious clinical treatment. Solving the present problem within a few months will allow me to come back and enjoy competitive chess at the highest level. I want to stress clearly, that – as always – I am eager to continue and enhance my chess career. Without doubt playing against Margriet & Tempo would have boost my career and should have been a great opportunity to test my tactical soundness.But there are still many goals to achieve and there is still the Corus Chess Tournament 2007. I am really looking forward to be there and I want to stress that beating them this year would have been a serious challenge."

Crashnik

Time to steal some cheese

2006-01-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

For the one's who thought that I was dead, bad luck. I had some exams to do. Happy holidays, who wouldn't sign for this. Eventually I was forced to study during my chess time - reduced tactics study to zero but I continued to play long games except last week where I had to forfait a game - coz duty calls -. Finished the marvillas of the world, it's time to slaughter, to spill more blood. Welcome at my table!!!

Along the road

2005-12-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Finished mini-circle 1 (ex 1-617) for the fourth time. It does go quicker and quicker. I must be in the memorization phase. I am wondering if I reverse the colours and play the inverse position, it eventually would go as good. Maybe I can test this out afterwards. In the meantime I plugging through the cycles, well more correctly my devised mini-circles.

The danger with the memorization phase is that you stop thinking about every possible capture or intervening move that can be played. You already know that it will result in a mate or a more advantage position.

So I decided to follow the next regimen :

1. the first three cycles of every mini-circle I explain to myself why the moves that have been played are more likely. If I come across a move that I would have played differently, I'll check it out with crafty. In this why I hope to understand why for instance my original idea has been refuted and/or why the move showed by the program is better.

2. the next 4 cycles of every mini-circle will be for memorization of the pattern.

After the cycles I will categorize the attacks on the kingside in CT-art and try to systematize some basic rules on when an attack will be succesful or not. Quite ambitious If I may say!

In our level of play it often happens that we misjudge our opponents threats. We take unsoud threats for real and come afterwards to the painful conclusion that he or she had no threat at all. You probably had just ruined a good position.

Pretty awful, I must say, but never despair! There are mainy ways to improve your position. Try some garlic.

Current status: Cycle 4

Mini circle 1 (1 - 617ex.)

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 98%
Level 3 – completed – score 97%

Back to business

2005-12-11T14:05:00.000-08:00

Finished level 3 of mini circle 1 (= cycle 3) (ex 1-617) with an average score of 91%. I will cover this mini circle for the fourth time and then I will progress to cycle 2 mini circle 2 (level 4, 5, 6).

Played another OTB game against an unrated player, ended in a draw.

Current status: Cycle 2

Mini circle 1 - 617ex.

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 96%
Level 3 – completed – score 89%

Current status: Cycle 3

Mini circle 1 - 617ex.

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 98%
Level 3 – completed – score 91%

A dark beer

2005-12-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

Finished level 1 and 2 of mini circle 3 with an overall score of 99% & 98%. Indeed the solving of these problems goes quicker and quicker. Occasionaly you will encounter one or the other problem which still ask you to solve it step by step. You also discover new things about problems why certain variations are played. Sometimes I find alternative solutions to the same problem but which either give you a definite advantage or which isn't the shortest variation but finally also leads to mate.

The thing is try to avoid as long as possible to memorize but go instead step by step through the moves and explain to yourself why these are the best moves.

If you are not agreeing with the solution given by the program you can always play your idea against the computer. Then you originally idea can be tested.It can have a quite an enlighting effect on your reasoning. You will soon discover for instance why certain fields are weak and how to exploit them.
Furthermore as you will think in squares which are being covered or not it will become easier to induce certain mating patterns. As the eventual goal and handicap of the program is that it is mainly focussed on mates, you can consider this as a refreshment in "How to mate your opponent in 1209 ways" but it would also be benifical if you learn the fields coverd by the individual and combined pieces. Then you will see the flight-squares of the king.
A king in the field has eight flight squares. At the edge of the bord 5 and in the corner 3. To give him checkmate you have to add one, the field where the king stands on. Flight-squares can be covered by his own pieces or by your pieces.
So if you know how many squares and which certain geometrical figures have been covered by the various combination and cooperation of your attacking pieces you will find it much more easier to induce a definite blow.

Speaking of a blow, here is game (OTB, 2hr 40 moves, 1hr 60 move, 15min KO) which I really like, although not perfect it sure adds some flavour to my beer

Maras,Raoul - Montse(1513) [E61], 28.10.2005
[scully] (=name of my computer)

1.d4 Nf6 2.e3 c5 3.c4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Nc3 cxd4 6.exd4 0-0 7.Be2 d6 8.0-0 Bf5 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Nbd7 11.Ne4 Qc7 12.Nxf6+ Nxf6 13.Bd2 e5!

(the strike on e5 was already prepared when I moved the Q to c7, just waiting for the right moment)

14.dxe5 dxe5 15.Qb3 Rad8 16.Bc3 e4 17.Nd2 Rd3 18.Rad1 Ng4

This is my sweet Knight, showing her eternal love to kick ass

19.f4 exf3 20.Nxf3 Rxf3 21.g3 Rxg3+ 22.Kh1

It is time to end his misery.

Rg1+ 0-1

There is an alternative continuation possible staring on move 19 for Black. I overlooked it during the game but is as deadly.

Played last friday another lifeless game, I had really no inspiration and decided to call it for today. I suggested a draw which he immediately accepted. (19 moves equal position)

Something definitely went wrong. It might have been the beer. I usual settle for a blond beer, my opponent gave me dark one.

- I should be more cautious next time and see If I get the right beer -

Into

2005-11-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

Finished level 3 with an overall score of 89% and with this the first mini-circle.

Current status: Cycle 2

Mini circle 1 - 617ex.

Level 1 – completed – score 100%
Level 2 – completed – score 96%
Level 3 – completed – score 89%

After the reload a down-load!

2005-11-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

Due to limited time I have decided to break up the circels in smaller parts. I will device three mini circles based on the levels. So mini circle one will be level 1-2-3 and comprises about 617 ex. Next mini circle will be level 4-5-6 and last circle will be level 7-8-9.Finished level 2 with an overall rating of 96% and should finish level 3 this weekend.

I have played since my last blog three games. Three wins but one would think that my chess is in great shape. Truth is, it is not so. Seemingly in my last two games I get a good position and/or advantage in material and then I get lazy. And in a couple of moves I can blow a good position into a crappy situation. And then I start my swindles.
I take my bottle of beer, look at it real good, swear outloud to caissa, smile to my opponent and the rest is history...

-Tried CPT, and was quite impressed with it.-

Reload

2005-10-31T22:54:00.000-08:00

Started the 2nd circle and finished level 1 with a perfect score. Up to level 2.

To beer or not to beer

2005-10-30T19:47:00.000-08:00

Finished the first cycle and with this level 9 with a score of 54%. I managed to keep my score above the 50%. I never thought that I would succeed. Well, to be honest I am glad it is over coz i thought it was at times very, very hard. I will do the 7 circles but I will also include some modifications. Perhaps some smaller in between exercises as complementary material.I will give it a thought.

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%
Level 5 – completed – score 68%
Level 6 – completed – score 59%
Level 7 – completed – score 55%
Level 8 – completed – score 51%
Level 9 – completed – score 54%

Last week, I played a game, got smashed coz I messed up (oversight counter-attack). I took revenge last friday against another opponent. He had to suffer for my previous loss. The former was played without beer, the latter with.

Could this be a sign from Caissa?

Another diet of cheese and wine

2005-10-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Finished level 8, with an overall rating of 51%. I have taken a 2 week rest and I will resume now to level 9. Still 67 exercises to go and then I finished circle 1.

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%
Level 5 – completed – score 68%
Level 6 – completed – score 59%
Level 7 – completed – score 55%
Level 8 – completed – score 51%

I'm wondering if I can keep the score above the 50%. Who knows?

Maybe I put the left-overs in the fridge

2005-10-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Finished 1098 exercises and with this ended level 7. Score 55%. The tactic ex. becomes very difficult to solve. I managed to get some totally correct but this level consume way too much time. I need all the projected time, sometimes I get so absorbed that I forget the clock and .... go waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy above the time limit.
And further these exercises are no fun when you are tired, they consume too much energy. What the heck! Up to the next level.

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%
Level 5 – completed – score 68%
Level 6 – completed – score 59%
Level 7 – completed – score 55%

According too my schedule I should have finished the exercises by now. So I still have about 108 exercises to go.

Just left the kitchen in search for the store room

2005-10-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Finished 1039 exercises and with this level 6. Score dropped to 59%. The last ten exercises pushed me under the 60%. Well, I'm almost home less than another 170 ex. to solve but I will go above my time sheet of 64 days. Today it should be roughly day 60 of the schedule. So I have time till the end of the week. I 'll see what I can do.

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%
Level 5 – completed – score 68%
Level 6 – completed – score 59%

Sharpen your teeth

2005-10-01T05:26:00.000-07:00

Finished 1017 exercises and plugging through level 6 as an overloaded donkey. This week I had to interrupt my daily addiction - meetings, lunches etc... - glad this circus is behind my back now. So I can focus again on my daily addiction and wrapped this level up. Current status is 61%.
I played yesterday my first OTB game of the season (30 moves in 1h30 and 1hr KO). I was quite curious what it would give. Normally the match would start at 20h15. Due to organizational problems I think it was soon 21h00 or later before the clock was pushed.

Again I had to stick up with my old pains: time trouble, giving up a pawn for nothing in the opening - all this material you have to watch over, it just subtract you from the real issue - oversight etc.

And there was an additional complication: I had to drive back home! So no strong beer as compensation this time.

I'm black again and the real (under)dog this time.

Yep, an ELO difference of more than 300 points. No worries mate.

Broekaert W.(1874) - Montse (1513) [C50]
Liga 2005 - 2006 (1), 30.09.2005

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.c3 Na5

Personally I find Na5 dubious. Anyway there goes my pawn.

5.Nxe5 Nxc4 6.Nxc4 d5 7.exd5 Qxd5 8.Ne3 Qe4 9.d3 Qg6

At first sight rather satisfied with my pos. and rapid development might give me compensation for the pawn

10.Qa4+ Bd7 11.Qe4 Qa6

With 10.Qa4+ : his idea is to trade off my Q and go for Queenless middlegame and endgame. With center pawn up he will be in great adv.

12.d4 Nf6 13.Qc2 (weak move) 0-0-0 14.Nd2 Ng4

12.d4 his first intention to go for a pawn attack; his king is still stuck in the center; and Q-side pieces are not yet developed. I think he played without a clear plan.

15.Nf3 h5 16.h3 Nxe3 17.Bxe3

Time trouble: 13 moves in 5 minutes.

g6 (weak move f6 was better i think) 18.Ne5 Bf5 19.Qe2 Qe6 20.Qc4 Rd5

21.0-0-0 ?? [-1.94 Fritz 7: 21.Qa4 a6 22.0-0-0 f6 23.Nd3 Qe4 24.Rhg1 Rhd8 0.41/10 ]

Did I see it or not? Yes I did. Coz I was convinced he would protect his Q, I immediately looked for another move. Time trouble. He played 0-0-0. I was so baffled, that I forgot my first move!!

21...f6 [0.34 Fritz 7: 21...Rxe5 22.d5 Qa6 23.Qxa6 bxa6 24.Rhe1 Re8 25.f4 Re4 26.Kd2 h4 -1.94/10 ]

First opportunity to gain an adv but soon I'll knock his socks off.

22.Nd3 Qe4 23.Bf4 Bd6 24.Bxd6 Rxd6 25.f3 Qe3+ 26.Kc2 [-2.41 Fritz 7: 26.Rd2 Bxd3 27.Qxd3 Qxd3 28.Rxd3 Re8 29.g4 h4 30.f4 Ra6 31.a3 Re2 0.47/10 ] 26...Rc6 27.Qb5 a6 28.Qb3 [-2.72 Fritz 7: 28.Rhe1 Qf2+ 29.Kc1 Qg3 30.Qb4 Bxd3 31.Re3 Rb6 32.Qa4 Bb5 -2.03/10 ] 28...Qe2+ (29.Rd2 Bxd3+ 30.Kc1 Qe3) ½-½

So why did I let him go? It was already past midnight and the battle could go on for quite a while, before I might or might not cash in the game. If one feels to tired, one should try to shorten the game if possible.

-chessrat-
Sharpen your teeth, bite and never let go.

I know I let him go

Why not?

2005-09-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Finished eventually level 5 (955 ex) with the immaculate score of 68%. Up to the next level and more painstaking analyses.

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%
Level 5 - completed - score 68%

No, no cheese this time, but beer

2005-09-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

Finished 942 exercises and still 14 ex. to go to finish level 5. Current rating is 68% for this level. Next week starts tournament play. I am quite curious. Last year I had a good result in that tournament. Played average of 230 ELO's above my rating. Open tournament 1400 up to 2100, 7 rounds Swiss, 2 hours 40 moves , 1 hour 20 moves, 15 minutes KO. Starting time 20.00hr. So sometimes it became very exhausting.
Anyway my opponents always ask me at the beginning of the match what I want to drink. They mostly expect, I think, coffee, Cola, H20.... I regret that I have to disappoint them coz I always order a very, expensive strong beer.:-)

-chessrat-
If one loose you still have the beer to comfort you.

Still eating cheese

2005-09-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Finished 882 exercises and I am halfway level 5 of my first circle. I try to keep the 70% score on the board but it gets difficult. If this level will not be the highway to zero the next one will.
Gosh this must be definitely boring stuff for the non-chess player. How dull can one be? You tell me.

The Death stroke of AL

2005-09-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

As it may be encouraging for the lower rated players (including me), I posted some blitz games against a much stronger opponent. "Where there is a will there is a way" or as a Roman senator once said: "Carthago will be destroyed"

I first start with a loss against AL rated on WCN 2346 - 2401. He is no fide master, IM or GM. The point is he is about 800 points stronger than I am. So he should have an easy play.

First encounter

Lewis,Andy - Montse
WorldChessNetwork.com, 08.03.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 Bxa6 6.Nc3 d6 7.e4 Bxf1 8.Kxf1 g6 9.f4 Bg7 10.Nf3 0-0 11.Be3 e6 12.dxe6 fxe6 13.Ng5 Qe7 14.Qb3 d5 15.exd5 exd5 16.Nxd5 Qa7 17.Nxf6+ Kh8 18.Nfe4 Rxf4+ 19.Bxf4 c4 1-0

*I got the comment never give a pawn against a much higher rated opponent.
*Yeah, whatever!

Second encounter

Lewis,Andy - Montse
WorldChessNetwork.com, 28.03.2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 Qf6 6.Qe2 dxc6 7.Nc3 Be6 8.Be3 Bb4 9.Bd2 0-0-0 10.0-0-0 Ne7 11.a3 Rxd2 12.Qxd2 Bd6 13.g3 Ng6 14.Kb1 Rd8 15.Qe3 Ne5 16.f4 Qh6 17.Qxa7 Ng4 18.e5 Be7 1-0

*God it hurts, it really hurts!!

2-0 for AL

Third encounter

Lewis,Andy - Montse
WorldChessNetwork.com, 17.07.2005

1.Nf3 Nc6 2.e4 e5 3.Bb5 d6 4.d4 a6 5.Bxc6+ bxc6 6.dxe5 Bg4 7.exd6 Bxd6 8.0-0 Qe7 9.Nc3 Rb8 10.Qe2 Be5 11.h3 Bh5 12.Qxa6 Bxf3 13.Qxc6+ Kf8 14.gxf3 Qh4 15.Kg2 Ne7 16.Qc5 Bd6 17.Qe3 Ng6 18.Qg5 Bf4 19.Qxh4 Nxh4+ 20.Kh1 Bxc1 21.Raxc1 Rxb2 22.Nd5 g6 23.f4 Kg7 24.Kh2 Nf3+ 25.Kg3 Nd4 26.Rfe1 c6 27.Ne7 Re8 28.Rcd1 c5 29.c3 Ne2+ 30.Kf3 Nxc3 31.Rc1 Nxa2 32.e5 0-1 (resigns)

What a pity! I can't chop the Knights' head off

Fourth encounter

Montse - Lewis,Andy
WorldChessNetwork.com, 24.08.2005
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.d4 e5 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.c4 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 Qxf3 7.gxf3 exd4 8.Bd3 c5 9.Bf4 Nc6 10.Rg1 Nf6 11.Nd2 0-0-0 12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Bxe4 g6 14.Bd5 f5 15.Be6+ Rd7 16.Bxd7+ Kxd7 17.0-0-0 Bg7 18.h4 Nb4 19.a3 Nc6 20.h5 Re8 21.hxg6 h6 22.Rh1 Re2 23.Bxh6 Bxh6+ 24.Rxh6 d3 25.g7 Nd4 26.Rxd3 Re1+ 27.Kd2 Re2+ 28.Kd1 Rxb2 29.Rxd4+ cxd4 30.g8Q 1-0 (resigns)

Yeah!! What a Bishop!

Fifth encounter

Montse - Lewis,Andy
WorldChessNetwork.com, 06.09.2005

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 c5 4.Nc3 Qh5 5.Be2 Qh6 6.d4 Qg6 7.Bc4 Bg4 8.Bd3 Bf5 9.Bc4 e6 10.d5 Bxc2 11.Qe2 Bf5 12.Nb5 Na6 13.d6 Rd8 14.Nc7+ Nxc7 15.dxc7 Rc8 16.Bb5+ Ke7 17.Qe5 b6 18.Bf4 h6 19.Qd6+ Kf6 20.Be5# 1-0

What a mate!! God it must be really, really hurting!!

So AL, this gives me the edge 3-2

Never play in fear. They just longing for the thrill to be crushed by you.
-chess rat-

Give me another one-will you

2005-09-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Finished 821 exercises and with this the 4th level. My performance rating dropped to a meager 70%. I am positive that in the future it will crush but I am just curious when it will hit the bottom. Have patience my friend the inevitable will happen. I hope rather late than soon but I already can smell Death's breath. So the next level will be very painful. By the way I found a job, pays well- I'll keep it that way. Downside: I am a bit exhausted when I come home. The benefits of life in full glory. Who doubts that?

Current status: Cycle 1

Level 1 – completed – score 99%
Level 2 – completed – score 92%
Level 3 – completed – score 85%
Level 4 – completed – score 70%

Just read that Nezha quits for a while or permanently... What a pity! I liked his postings very much. Now I have to find a new victim. Che

Where is the wine?

2005-09-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

Finished already 735 exercises and past the halfway hallmark of level 4. My rating is dropping quickly. Current status: 77 percent. I need some backup quickly.
The need to finish these exercises becomes more important than the correctness of solving them. I think I am starting to loose my patience.

Anyway I decided to post a game of my which I am rather proud off. I like especially the Knight move in this game. (OTB 30 moves in 1hr30min and 1hr KO)

Montse (1449) - Pierre Herremerre (1650) [C02]
Liga 2004-2005, 15.10.2004
[Fritz 7 (60s)]

C02: French: Advance Variation
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 White wins space 3...c5 Black undermines the pawn chain 4.c3 Qb6 5.Be2 Nc6 6.Nf3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb4+ 8.Nc3 Bd7 9.0-0 Qd8 10.a3 Be7 11.b4 a6 12.Be3 f6 13.Na4 b5 14.Nb2 Rc8 15.Rc1 Na7 [15...a5!?±] 16.Nd3 Rc6 17.Nc5 f5 18.Qd2 h6 19.h4 [19.Ne1 Bxc5 20.Bh5+ Kf8 21.dxc5 Rc8+-] 19...g6 20.Nb7 Qb8 21.Nd6+ Bxd6 [¹21...Kf8+-] 22.exd6 Qxd6 23.Bf4 Qe7 24.Ne5 Rxc1? [24...Qg7+-] 25.Rxc1 Qd8 26.Nxg6 Rh7 27.Ne5 Qxh4 [27...Kf8+-] 28.Rc7 Nf6 [28...Nc6 cannot change destiny 29.Nxc6 Nf6 30.Qc1+-] 29.Ng6 [29.Rxa7 Ne4 30.Qe3 Qxf2+ 31.Qxf2 Nxf2 32.Ra8+ Ke7 33.Kxf2 a5+-] 29...Ne4 30.Nxh4 Nxd2 31.Bxd2 [31.Rxa7 might be the shorter path 31...Nc4+-] 31...Nc8 [31...Nc6 does not solve anything 32.Nf3+-] 32.Bh5+ Kd8 33.Bf4 Ne7 34.Ra7 Nc6 [34...Kc8 cannot undo what has already been done 35.Rxa6 Kb7 36.Ra5+-] 35.Rxa6 Nxd4 36.Be5 Bc8 [36...Nc6 does not improve anything 37.Bf6+ Kc7 38.Bg6+-] 37.Rd6+ Kc7 [37...Rd7 doesn't get the bull off the ice 38.Rxd7+ Bxd7 39.Bxd4+-] 38.Rxd5+ Kc6 [38...Kb7 is not much help 39.Rxd4 Rd7 40.Nf3 Rxd4 41.Nxd4+-] 39.Rxd4 Ra7 40.Bf3+ Kb6 41.Rd6+ Kc7 42.Ra6+ [42.Ra6+ Kd8 43.Rxa7 Bd7 44.Bf6+ Kc8 45.Ra8+ Kc7 46.Be5+ Kb6 47.Rb8+ Ka7 48.Bc7 Bc6 49.Bxc6 e5 50.Ra8#] 1-0

Now it is time for some red wine!!

Tasted camembert - now some wine please

2005-08-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Finished the third level, done 617 exercises from CT-art 3.0 with an overall percentage of 85. Up to the next level. I came to the conclusion that my calculation ability seems to hamper sometimes around the 3rd move. No good. (Weakness identified).
I haven't started yet on the pawn endgames but I hope to follow this up in the near future. And by the way the job interview was good but not good enough.Pfff.

Current status: Cycle 1
§ Level 3 - completed - score 85%

Moving around in the cheese room

2005-08-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Finished 503 exercises from CT-art 3.0. I am halfway level 3. For the moment I have an overall percentage of 84% for this level. I would love to see this level finished by the end of the week. I haven't done any exercises during the last two days. What a shame. I had to prepare myself for a job interview. And afterwards I had to fill in some tests.
Che, I am curious what the results will be. I will probably know more tomorrow.

The way ot the chess rat

2005-08-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

This site will be all about chess and the exploits of the chess rat.

I designed for myself a study plan, which consists actually out of 3 main topics for the next six months.

§ Tactics
§ Pawn endgames
§ Game analysis

I decided to work on my great weakness “tactics”. Therefore I will follow MDLM’s suggestion and do the 7 circles program. I do not know how good or how complete this program ‘CT-ART 3.0’ is. Time will tell.

I guess it will indeed improve my calculation ability and pattern recognition over the board. The question will be how to implement this latter during OTB play? A chessboard on the computer or in a magazine is not the same as a large board in front of you. This is a point that is to my opinion not enough stressed throughout the chess world.

This brings me to another topic: the relation of pieces to the board. I have chessmaster 8000 and I think it is a great program. It has an option that it can show for a certain piece the squares that it attacks or covers. If you put 2 knights on the board for instance Nc3 and Nf3, you will soon discover that they cover together the small center d4e4d5e5 with additional lines at the edge of the board and produces the geometrical figure ‘the square’ in the center. If you move up the knights along the rank at the same distance from each other, you will see a symmetrical figure consisting of 2 squares and 4 lines with a symmetry point. Chess is about field covering that pieces produce or can produce directly or indirectly.
Let’s say 2 Bishops aside each other in an open field forms a fence and I hear Gandalf saying: ‘you shall not pass’. I bet you haven’t met the chess rat yet. The point is once you have drawn the lines or colored the squares on a paperboard (in my case chessmaster 8000 is a very handy tool for this purpose) you will not forget it. It could be a useful addition to the chess vision drills.

In addition to strengthening the tactics muscles I will also complement it with studies on the endgame. The main focus will be on pawn endgames. As a red thread through this part I will follow the manual written by M. Euwe. The goal will be to learn all positions with both sides up to 2 pawns. I believe that it can be summarized to a small amount of key positions. Eventually this will be very useful and helpful when I’m in time need again during play. My dearest queen will be happy that I will play this time only with the King.

The last part will be focusing on the games of the classical great players. (Lasker, Capablanca, Steinitz, etc.). I mainly focus on e4 games because I am an e4 player in heart and soul. You will rarely see me playing 1.d4 or I must have drunk too much. And that can happen a lot.
I will annotate the games for myself with a primary focus on tactics. Through their games I can check my tactical muscle and see how they exploit weaknesses. Later I can check other annotator’s ideas or complement it with interesting facts that I missed.

You must be sober to see reality, drunk to taste the illusion and addicted to play chess.
-chess rat-.

Current status: Cycle 1
§ Level 1 – completed – score 99%
§ Level 2 – completed – score 92%