- King safety is the most important thing on the chessboard -- ignore it and you will get mated!
- Kings are unsafe if they are stuck:
- uncastled in the centre (Wojciechowski-Weiss, Alekhin-Nimzowitsch)
- castled but exposed or in a weakened position (Liubarski-Soultanbieff)
- castled but outnumbered (Kasparov-Marjanovic)
- Ian Nepomniachtchi's success in the 2022 Candidate's Tournament was marked by a few games where his opponents got distracted and overlooked the safety of their King
Click [...] to see list of games
[Event "Munich Schach-Olympia (No FIDE event)"]
[Site "Munich"]
[Date "1936.08.31"]
[Round "20"]
[White "Wojciechowski, Antoni1"]
[Black "Weiss, Heinrich1"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C15"]
[Annotator "attack: K in centre"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[EventDate "1936.08.17"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "21"]
[EventCountry "GER"]
[WhiteTeam "Poland"]
[BlackTeam "Austria"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "POL"]
[BlackTeamCountry "AUT"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nge2 dxe4 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Nxc3 f5 {Regis,Dave:
'[#] ?! The only way to hang on to the pawn, but it would have been safer to
let it go. (Black players do know this, but must have thought themselves
capable of the defence.)'} 7. f3 exf3 8. Qxf3 Qh4+ (8... Qxd4 9. Qg3 Nf6 10.
Qxg7 Qe5+ 11. Be2 Rg8 12. Qh6 Rg6 13. Qh4 Bd7 14. Bg5 Bc6 15. O-O-O Bxg2 16.
Rhe1 Be4 17. Bh5 Nxh5 18. Rd8+ Kf7 19. Qxh5 Kg7 20. Nxe4 fxe4 21. Bh6+ Kf6 22.
Rf8+ {1-0 Alekhine Alexander-Nimzowitsch Aaron/Bled 1931}) 9. g3 Qxd4 10. Be3
Qg4 11. Qg2 {Regis,Dave: '[#] White must preserve the Q having sacrificed two
pawns'} Nf6 12. Be2 Qg6 13. O-O-O Nc6 14. Nb5 Qf7 15. Bc5 a6 16. Bf3 Nd8 17.
Qd2 Nd5 18. Bxd5 axb5 (18... exd5 19. Rhe1+ Ne6 20. Qxd5 Qd7 21. Rxe6+ Qxe6 22.
Nxc7+) 19. Rhe1 {Regis,Dave: '[#] White's major pieces are the main artillery
in the attack against the uncastled King'} Bd7 20. g4 Nc6 21. gxf5 Qxf5 22.
Bxe6 Bxe6 23. Qd7# 1-0
[Event "Liege"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1928.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Liubarski"]
[Black "Soultanbeieff, Victor Ivanovich"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C53"]
[Annotator "attack: a weakened K-side=chan"]
[PlyCount "32"]
[EventDate "1928.??.??"]
[EventType "rapid"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Bb6 5. d4 Qe7 6. O-O Nf6 7. d5 Nb8 8. Bd3
d6 9. h3 {a weakening, defensive move (cf. sacrifices on h6)} h6 {[#] a strong
attacking move!} 10. Qe2 g5 11. Nh2 g4 {Black levers open the K-side} 12. hxg4
Rg8 13. Bxh6 Nxg4 14. Be3 (14. Nxg4 Bxg4 15. Qc2 Bf3 16. g3 Qh4) 14... Nxh2 15.
Kxh2 Qh4+ 16. Kg1 Qh3 (16... Qh3 {[#]} 17. g3 Rh8 {now 18. f3 Bxe3+ 19. Rf2
Qxg3#} 18. f3 Bxe3+ 19. Qxe3 Qh2#) 0-1
[Event "Olympiad-24"]
[Site "Valetta"]
[Date "1980.11.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Black "Marjanovic, Slavoljub"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E17"]
[WhiteElo "2595"]
[BlackElo "2505"]
[Annotator "attack: teamwork"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "1980.11.20"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "14"]
[EventCountry "MLT"]
[WhiteTeam "Soviet Union"]
[BlackTeam "Yugoslavia"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "URS"]
[BlackTeamCountry "YUG"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. d5 exd5 8. Nh4
{A powerful new move which has revitalised this gambit line. Garry Kasparov
has invested his chess with great energy and attacking flair, and has come up
with a stream of new opening moves and re-assessments.} c6 9. cxd5 Nxd5 10. Nf5
Nc7 11. Nc3 d5 12. e4 {the attack needs open lines} Bf6 13. exd5 cxd5 14. Bf4
Nba6 15. Re1 Qd7 16. Bh3 Kh8 {[#] Black's pieces on the Queen's side are too
far from the King. White feeds his last minor piece across:} 17. Ne4 Bxb2 {
he must have thought he might as well grab a pawn, but the White formation is
menacing} 18. Ng5 Qc6 {[#] White probably has more than one way to win this
position. It's a striking example of the notion that every successful attack
is based on the idea of superior concentration of force against a relatively
immobile target.} 19. Ne7 Qf6 20. Nxh7 Qd4 21. Qh5 {the last straw} g6 22. Qh4
Bxa1 23. Nf6+ {[#] Every White piece but the King is playing a part in the
attack; no piece but the Black Queen is doing anything to defend.} Kg7 24. Qh6+
Kxf6 25. Bg5# 1-0
[Event "FIDE Candidates 2022"]
[Site "Madrid ESP"]
[Date "2022.06.23"]
[EventDate "2022.06.16"]
[Round "6"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "I Nepomniachtchi"]
[Black "J Duda"]
[ECO "A07"]
[WhiteElo "2766"]
[BlackElo "2750"]
[PlyCount "69"]
1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Bg4 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Nd7 5. h3 Bh5 6. d4 Ngf6 7. c4 c6 8.
cxd5 exd5 9. Ne5 Nxe5 10. dxe5 Ne4 11. Nd2 Nxd2 12. Bxd2 Bc5 13. Rc1 Qe7
14. Kh2 O-O 15. g4 Bg6 16. f4 h6 17. Qe1 Rfe8 18. Qg3 Bh7 19. h4 Rad8 20.
g5 hxg5 21. hxg5 Bb4 22. Bxb4 Qxb4 23. f5 Qxb2 24. e6 fxe6 25. g6 exf5
26. gxh7+ Kh8 27. Rb1 Qf6 28. Rxb7 Rxe2 29. Rxf5 Qh6+ 30. Kg1 Rxa2 31. Rbf7
Ra1+ 32. Bf1 d4 33. Rg5 Qd6 34. Qf2 Qa3 35. Rg3 1-0
[Event "FIDE Candidates"]
[Site "Madrid ESP"]
[Date "2022.06.17"]
[EventDate "2022.06.17"]
[Round "1.2"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Liren Ding"]
[Black "Ian Nepomniachtchi"]
[ECO "A20"]
[WhiteElo "2806"]
[BlackElo "2766"]
[Source "Lichess"]
[PlyCount "64"]
1. c4 e5 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Nd4 d5 5. cxd5 Qxd5 6. Nc2 Nf6 7. Nc3 Qe5 8. Bg2 Na6 9. O-O Be7 10. Ne3 O-O 11. a3 Re8 12. b4 Ng4 13. Bb2 Qh5 14. h4 Bf6 15. Qc2 Nxe3 16. dxe3 Bf5 17. Na4 Bxb2 18. Nxb2 Nc7 19. Nc4 Re6 20. Rfd1 Nd5 21. Rd4 h6 22. Qd2 Rae8 23. Kh2 Bg4 24. Na5 Rf6 25. Kg1 g5 26. Nxb7 gxh4 27. Nc5 h3 28. Rxe4 hxg2 29. Rxe8+ Kg7 30. f4 Qh1+ 31. Kf2 Qxa1 32. Kxg2 Bh3+ 0-1