Chess Strategy

It took us a bit over 9 months to reach the 50,000 visits on Chess Strategy blog. A big thanks to all the loyal readers and fellow webmasters for your support. In the future, I hope to fulfill some of the promises given back in January, and beyond that, to improve the content and navigation.

Top priority for now is to complete the Hanging Pawns E-Book. It will be available in PGN and PDF formats and I really want to hear your feedback.

There is also possibility to publish theoretical material on Sicilian Dragon. That would be some detour, since this blog is mostly dealing with middlegames and endings, but the material is written by an Sicilian Dragon expert and the readers who play this opening might benefit from it.

Finally, I’d love to continue with video lessons, once in a while, but first have to fix my ActiveX controls. GM Alex Finkel is also interested in contributing with videos, we’ll see how it goes.

Download lesson in PGN for your own game viewer.

To clarify right at the start, the title is referring to the process of exchanging good minor piece for opponent’s bad one, in order to gain some other benefits. Rook on the 7th rank, in this particular example. The article is presenting positive transformation of one sort of positional advantage into another.

“Small Exchange” is literal translation from Serbian. English term exchange (in the meaning Rook for minor piece), is translated into qualitat (German), kachestvo (Russian, Bulgarian) or kvalitet (Serbian), all being literally equal to English “quality”. Small exchange should emphasize importance of the operation (good piece for bad) by comparing it with material giveout (Rook for minor piece). I hope that this primitive linguistic digression won’t make you close your browser before even getting to chess.

I don’t know the official history, but Vassily Smyslov might have been the oldest ever World Championship contender. At the age of 63, already 26 years after he lost the rematch to Botvinnik, Smyslov qualified to play Candidate matches. GM Aleksandar Matanovic described one of his previous unsuccessful attempts (1976 I think) in interesting book “Chess is Chess”. In 1983/84 Smyslov first eliminated German GM Robert Huebner, then Hungarian GM Zoltan Ribli in the semifinals and succumbed only to future champion Garry Kasparov in the Candidate Finals.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since the “Hanging Pawns” are very broad and complex field of chess strategy, I will compile an e-book composed of the material posted on the blog and include other examples that are left over. There is still much to be said about the d-pawn movement and undermining on hanging pawns. I hope Bogdan Girmacea, who wrote excellent column on former WorldChessNetwork, will help me make it good.

by Bogdan Girmacea

Download lesson in PGN for your own game viewer.

If in previous lesson we saw how the things could evolve by changing hanging pawns configuration pushing c pawn, in today’s lesson we will analyze what happens after we push d-pawn. And as example I would like to show you the game Korchnoi - Karpov, Merano 1981. The opening was a Queen’s Gambit and after 12 moves we reached the position presented in the diagram:

1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 0-0 7. e3 b6 8. Rc1 Bb7 9. Be2 Nbd7 10. cxd5 exd5 11. 0-0 c5 12. dxc5 bxc5

We have a typical position with hanging pawns for Black. For the moment the situation is still complex because there are still many pieces on board. So White will try to simplify position and Black will try to complicate game and to prolong middle game as long as possible. As we can see, those hanging pawns controlling d4 and e4 central squares leaves White with less space for maneuver, that’s why White is a bit limited in moves. In this game Korchnoi tried a series of maneuvers to double rooks on d-file and to press over pawn d5, but we will see it won’t be enough. The game continued:

Read the rest of this entry »

Finally, the long awaited second part of Hanging Pawns trilogy. We will present another example of counterplay on b-file and plans for undermining on the hanging pawns. The 3rd and final part will display the huge attacking potential that sometimes goes with this kind of pawn structure.

One feature added after readers’ feedback. You can now replay the lesson in your browser or download PGN file for your own game viewer. Enjoy.

Akiba Rubinstein - Aron Nimzovich
Karlsbad 1907

A position very similar to Bertok - Fischer from previous lesson. Again, Black is pushing c4 to nail b2 pawn on its starting position. Possible drawbacks were mentioned before - White gets d4 square for its pieces and Black can be vulnerable to e4 breach. Still, playing c4 here makes perfect sense because White will be busy defending b2 pawn and he won’t be having time to reach d4 with the Knight.

16… c4 17. Be2
It takes away desired e2 square for Nc3, but White wants to organize counter-pressure against backward d5. 17. Bc2 with idea Ne2-d4 Rab8 18. Rb1 a5 19. Ne2 Qb4 20. Nd4 Rb6 with Ne4 and Rfb8

Read the rest of this entry »

Hanging pawns are, alongside with isolated d-pawn and Karlsbad, one of the most complex pawn structures that demands careful study. In this post, we will see some basic examples. For deeper exploration, I suggest reading “Pawn Structure Chess” by GM Andrew Soltis and “Understanding Pawn Play in Chess” by GM Drazen Marovic.

Let’s mention some of the main characteristics of hanging pawns. The pawns are standing on c4 and d4 (or c5 and d5 for Black), without friendly pawns on adjacent files and without opponent’s pawns on the “c” and “d” files.

The advantage of having hanging pawns is the control over large number of important central squares and certain limitation of opponent’s pieces. They give wonderful e5 (e4) outpost and ability to create strong heavy pieces’ pressure along the “b” file. The hanging pawns’ advance can carry huge energy and rip off the opponent’s center and castle after opening of files and diagonals. But be careful, the pawns’ advance can be double-edge (next paragraph).

The main problem with having hanging pawns is that they have no support from the other pawns and the pieces might be tied for constant defence, which is seriously limiting mobility. Moving any of the hanging pawns might create serious weaknesses in the center, by giving good outposts for opponent’s pieces and allowing him to block the pawns. In addition, the backward pawn can be vulnerable to attack. Very often, opponent doesn’t have to wait for pawns’ advance, he can provoke it by pushing and even sacrificing “b” or “e” pawn. This plan is usually connected with the wonderful pieces’ play over the freshly available squares.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear readers, I apologize for the hibernation over the past two weeks. I was preparing for my trip to Bulgaria, and here I am now, typing from downtown Sofia. The city is really nice, people are very friendly and I’m enjoying the stay. The 2007 Mtel Masters is starting in few days, I will be working with the Chessdom team.

Once the tournament starts, the pace will be incredibly fast, as we will try to present as much info as possible. I’m hoping to spare some hour here and there to update the Chess Strategy blog. Please have patience with me

Update: Here is the handshake with Mamedyarov (english subtitles soon)

In unbalanced positions when one of the players has a Queen, simple evaluation by counting material is mostly useless. Factors that are more important are Queen’s activity and how well can other player coordinate his Rooks and/or pieces.

Chiburdanidze - Dudkova, USSR 1976

Material units are giving slight advantage to White. On the other hand, Black has passed pawn threatening to promote soon and active King - something that would be counted as very important in dynamic evaluation. Some authors even tend to count active King in the endgame as 5 units, or equal to the Rook!

Still, White Rook and minor pieces are coordinating extremely well. Not only that this coordination is dramatically increasing their battle power, but follow-up will prove that seemingly active Black King and Queen and actually very clumsy.

Offtopic: Unrelated to this example, but it can be useful in different situations - Knight is King’s best defender when it comes to declining direct attacks. Nf1-Kg1 (or Nf8-Kg8) is strong resisting setup where Knight is controlling large number of important squares.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have mentioned zugzwang as one of three methods for winning problem endings (according to GM Nikolai Krogius). Let’s see some examples.

Flohr - Loevenfish

In Bishop vs Knight endings, Bishop can be used for both protecting our own weaknesses and support King’s breach by controlling large number of key squares. The diagram sees pawns on both flanks, which usually favors Bishop. One of the important advantages in this position is that Black King or Knight will be tied for f6 pawn. Straightforward elimination of the weakness with 1. Ke3 f5 2. Kd4 Kd6 3. Bb4 is letting White King in.

Read the rest of this entry »

Chess for Zebras: Thinking Differently about Black and White by GM Jonathan Rowson

Zebra Clan is the name of the unofficial “Chess For Zebras” fan club, consisting of my friends whom I have persuaded to buy this book. After seeing the reviews, some will be quoted bellow, I decided to “see what’s this all about”. While still in the reading, my friend GM-elect Mihajlo Stojanovic visited me for training session and we discussed the book. Mihajlo actually played Jonathan Rowson few months earlier at Verona Open (and won), and I was happy to hear some first-hand impressions about my already-favorite author. We have agreed in the conclusion that Jonathan offers new and refreshing (I added “shocking” too, but Mihajlo is already too strong to feel that way) ideas for average player’s improvement.

For me, this is not just a chess book; it is a literature that I enjoy reading, repeatedly going back through the pages and giving a lot of thought on what I have seen. I don’t know how to write an review, so I will quote smarter people bellow.

Read the rest of this entry »