The Soul of Chess

After dropping a couple of pieces in a ten-minute game, my position was near hopeless. My only chance was the difficulty my opponent faced in finding the correct defense.

White to move

34.Rg1!

The only move to preserve the win.

34.Re1, which looks reasonable on the surface, fails. 34...d2! 35.Rfxe2 Rc1 36.Kg1 Rxe1+ 37.Kf2 d1Q 38.Rxe1 Qd4+ picks up the knight and leaves queen vs. rook with pawns on both sides.

34...Rc1

A desperate gamble.

35.Rxc1 d2 36.Rff1

Black to move

Black can take either rook, but not both. White wins.

In the game, White, with 4 1/2 minutes remaining, spent half a minute and did not find the critical Rg1. He took my rook and then resigned after 34...e1Q+.

One of my students who also did not find 34.Rg1, did find 36.Rff1 after my 34...Rc1?? 34...d2! would have won for Black.

My pawns rolling down the center of the board were inspired by many historic games. My students are seeing the well-known game McDonnell,A. De Labourdonnais, L. 1834

White to move

After 31...Bd8

32.Qc4 Qe1 33.Rc1 d2 34.Qc5 Rg8 35.Rd1 e3 36.Qc3

Black to move

36...Qxd1 37.Rxd1 e2 0-1

I am also showing students the end of  Petrosian,T. -- Fischer,R. 1958

Black to move

63...Kd2 64.Rxc2+ Kxc2 65.Kg5 c4 66.f6 c3 67.f7

Here Fischer offered a draw and Petrosian agreed, but with my students, we carry the game further to assure than they understand why the resulting queen vs. c-pawn endgame is a draw.

Of course, François-André Danican Philidor's analysis in Analyse du jeu des Échecs (1849) also inspired my play. It was in this book that Philidor offered his famous line, "pawns are the soul of chess."

White to move

38.f7 Rf8 39.Nf4+ Kg7 40.Bh5 and White's pawns cannot be stopped.

Attack with Simple Moves

The past two days I have been going through games and analysis in Mihail Marin's column in Chess Informant 136, "Attack with Simple Moves" (47-58). The 1967 game Portisch -- Petrosian, in particular, captured my interest.

Portisch,Lajos -- Petrosian,Tigran V [D13]
Moscow 3/584, 1967

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bf4 e6 7.e3 Bd6 8.Bg3 0–0 9.Bd3 Re8 10.Ne5 Bxe5 11.dxe5 Nd7 12.f4

Black to move

12...Qb6

Mikhail Yudovich, who annotated the game for Informant 3, gave this move a question mark. Marin adds, "A curious 'pawn grabbing based' plan with incomplete development" (53). Curiously, the diagram position has occurred in at least 18 games (Portisch -- Petrosian was the second) and 12...Qb6 has been played in 13 of these.

In the one previous game, Max Euwe won from the Black side in 20 moves after 13.Qe2. But White has a healthy 65% score over the 13 game batch.

13.0–0 Qxe3+

Yudovich recommends 13...Nc5, which still remains unplayed in subsequent games.

14.Kh1 Qb6

After 14...a6, Black went on to win in Stobik,D. -- Hoffmann,H., Germany 1977, and also in Pira,D. -- Van Rompu,A., France 2008.

White to move

15.Qh5

15.Nb5 was played in the only other game to reach this position, and Black won, Dreyer,M. -- Mohammad,S., Yerevan 1996.

15...Nf8

Marin offers two alternatives: 15...h6 and 15...g6. My computer suggests that 15...g6 is Black's only hope for eqauality.

16.Rf3 Ng6 17.Bf2 Qd8 18.Nb5

Marin notes Black's "chronic weaknesses" (54). This position is the sort that I am always in search of to present to my students for illustrating the consequences of pieces that are mere spectators. All of White's pieces are in the battle on the kingside, or will be soon. Most of Black's pieces are doing nothing.

18...Nce7 19.Nd6 Bd7

White to move

20.Bh4

20.Nxe8 wins the exchange, but gives Black time to bring the rest of his pieces into the game. It is a grave error to exchange a strong attacking piece for a spectator.

20...Qb6 21.Rh3 h6 22.Bf6 Qxb2 23.Rf1 Nf5 24.Bxf5 1–0

Checkmate comes soon.

Inaccuracy

Working through Practical Chess Exercises: 600 Lessons From Tactics to Strategy (2007) by Ray Cheng,* I came to this position:

Black to move

Two moves occurred to me and I examined both. As it turns out, my two candidate moves are the engine's top choices. After some thought, I selected the second best move. Tigran Petrosian selected the best move and went on to win.

*This position is number 28. John Dill brought Cheng's book to my attention last Wednesday as described in "A Zugzwang Lesson". Cheng's book contains tactics and positional exercises that span all phases of the game--opening, middle, ending. Some solutions are defensive in nature; others offensive. They are neither sequenced by theme, nor by difficulty. Many originate in games between amateurs.

Analyzing Variations

Lesson of the Week

My chess students range from beginners struggling to remember how all the pieces move to several of the top local scholastic competitors. In a club for beginners this week, I worked with most of the students individually on checkmate with queen and king against a lone king (see "Teaching Elementary Checkmates").

My other students--both those receiving individual lessons and those in groups--were presented with a variety of positions that might have occurred in actual games. A few were also shown a portion of a game from the 1969 World Championship between challenger Boris Spassky and Tigran Petrosian.

Many students saw two positions that might have resulted in the first match game between Louis Charles de la Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell (see "Three Fighting Draws" for the whole game).

Black to move

After 46.Nxe7

Could White have preserved the draw after 46.Nxe7 instead of the move he played in the game?

This variation might have led to the following position.

White to move

Can White prevent Black's pawn from becoming a queen?

Several students were shown the entire game Mayet -- Anderssen, London 1851.*

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc4 4.c3 Nf6 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.O-O Bg4 7.h3 h5 8.hxg4 hxg4 9.Nxe5 g3 10.d4 Nxe4 11.Qg4 Bxd4 12.Qxe4 Bxf2+

The game may have ended here, or been played one move longer, or even all the way until checkmate.

White to move

After 12...Bxf2+

Those who were shown this game went through it repeatedly, looking for improvements. First, efforts were made to find where White's position became hopelessly lost and to suggest alternatives. Then, efforts were also made to find improvements for Black.

One group and several individuals were shown the final portion of Spassky -- Petrosian 1969.

Spassky,Boris V -- Petrosian,Tigran V [D41]
World Championship 27th Moscow (5), 23.04.1969

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.d4 c5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 0–0 11.Bc4 Nc6 12.0–0 b6 13.Rad1 Bb7 14.Rfe1 Rc8 15.d5 exd5 16.Bxd5 Na5 17.Qf4 Qc7 18.Qf5 Bxd5 19.exd5 Qc2

White to move

The most important element in this position is White's passed d-pawn. In Chess.com's Chess Mentor, this position is presented with guidelines for handling such pawn. I communicated these ideas to the students.

1) control the square in front of the pawn
2) trade off minor pieces
3) keep the queens on the board to prevent the defending king's activity
4) keep at least one rook

The player defending against such a pawn, of course, hopes to trade queens, blockade the pawn with a minor piece, and activate the king. The Chess Mentor lesson focuses on White's side of things in this struggle and does not elucidate the defensive ideas.

20.Qf4 Qxa2 21.d6 Rcd8 22.d7 Qc4 23.Qf5 h6 24.Rc1 Qa6 25.Rc7 b5 26.Nd4 Qb6 27.Rc8

The Chess Mentor lesson ends here.

27...Nb7 28.Nc6 Nd6 29.Nxd8 Nxf5 30.Nc6 1–0

*The Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games (1981) presents this game as Berlin 1859 with the source as The Chess Monthly (1882). In that publication, however, it is stated that the game was played during the International Chess Tournament, London 1851. Mayet and Anderssen did not play each other in that tournament, but all of the participants played many non-tournament games with one another during the course of the event.