My students this week are seeing a series of positions in which White has a decisive advantage. Before suggesting moves, or seeing those that were played, I ask them to assess the position. What features account for White's substantial advantage?
The intent is for them to grow in their understanding that a player must use all their pieces in coordination. They should notice that in each position, White's pieces are more mobile, offer concrete threats, and work together. Students are also asked to understand the difference between the pieces on the board and the pieces in the battle. This dynamic imbalance is temporary unless the player wit the advantage acts with vigor.
I spent about an hour gathering 16 positions for these lessons, but no student so far has seen more than eight. The first two are from famous games that many of the students have seen before.
The first is from
Paul Morphy's Opera Game.
White to move
The second is from Gioachino Greco's best known use of the Greco Attack (see "
Cultivating Error"). I have had this position myself in at least 17 games, winning 16. The one loss was a bullet game where I inexplicably put a horse on a square earmarked for an elephant.
White to move
The third position highlights the relationship between space and mobility. It comes from a game that I played on
Chess.com a few days ago.
White to move
Number four was presented at "
Desperation". It highlights concrete checkmate threats. Number five is a textbook endgame exercise.
White to move
The sixth proves difficult for students to assess. It comes from a cyborg game played in a match organized by the
International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCF). In this game, White used his intuition and a great deal of time on moves 13-15 to acquire mobile center pawns that confer a dynamic advantage.
White to move
Thomas Engqvist's analysis of Morphy,P. -- Morphy,A., New Orleans 1849 in
300 Most Important Chess Positions (2018) guided my selection of the seventh position (14-15).
White to move
No comments:
Post a Comment