The weakness of the last rank is notorious. The King can and should castle, but then it is behind a wall of pawns, unable to move forward, and vulnerable to a back rank mate. (Regis-Springall, Bernstein-Capablanca) Even if the King escapes, the enemy pieces can get behind the defences using the last rank. (Bartlett-Regis, Sunye…
Even if your position looks OK, you may be worse because your opponent has the initiative. The initiative is the ability to create threats. You can’t get settled and finish developing if your opponent uses the initiative well, and you won’t get your position sorted out and equalise if you are constantly bothered with threats….
This is an attack on the King’s-side, usually aiming at a castled King’s position A successful King’s-side attack needs: An advantage in numbers, space or mobility At some point, open lines against the King Speed, energy, and a willingness to sacrifice Kasparov shows all of these! Click […] to see list of games
A Knight outpost is a nice fairly central square for a Knight that the opponent cannot, or dare not, swap off or drive away. Teichmann Pegararo and Smyslov show how to use such outposts: Click […] to see list of games
A minority attack is where you advance pawns on the wing where you have fewer pawns. This works if your opponent’s extra pawn on that side is backward on a half-open file. The furthest square on a half-open file is an outpost for you, and if your opponent attacks your piece on that square with…
If an enemy piece is stranded on one wing, finding it difficult or impossible to get across the board, then start a fight on the other wing. There you will be a piece ahead. (Winter-Capablanca) Click […] to see list of games
We are often told to get at least a stake in the centre in the opening. Without this, you might get pushed off the board (Boleslavsky-Scitov, Hage-Nimzowitsch) With less space, swap pieces if you can. You might find the home of your pawn structure now fits. If you have more space, it might not be…
The ability to move If your pieces lose mobility, they will find it hard to organise a defence to new threats. Pieces can lack space or just find themselves in each other’s way with nothing much they can do . Pawns can also show notable power when mobile (Korchnoi-Szabo, Bronstein-Rojahn), and appear as weak targets…
You can sometimes give up material and come out with an advantage. You often see a sacrifice as part of a combination — a sacrificial combination, in Botvinnik’s language. Spielmann didn’t think these were real sacrifices. The advantage you get from sacrificing might be a mating attack (like the Greek gift) or just a very…
