Thomas Engqvist's Study Plan

"Less is more", writes Thomas Engqvist in 300 Most Important Chess Positions: Study Five a Week to be a Better Chess Player (2018). His 300 positions are more positionally oriented than the 300 in Lev Alburt, Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions and Ideas, 2nd. ed. (2000) and also include a larger number of endgame positions. I wrote about the first position in this book the week after I acquired it in 2019 (see "A New Book and a Morphy Game"), but have not been following his recommendation to study five per week. Nor have I followed any other disciplined training regimen. Even so, Engqvist's book has been a frequent reference and valued.

Study by J. Hasek

Although Engqvist asserts, "the less you know the less you'll forget. ... it will be easier to remember 300 positional ideas rather than, let's say, 1000" (7), his 300 series now constitutes a trilogy and contains 900 positions. The motivation to select five per week for serious study has been growing for me.

The fourth endgame position in 300 Most Important Chess Exercises (2022) caught my interest last Friday and again this morning because I set it up incorrectly Saturday morning while trying to show the critical idea to some youth players at a chess tournament.

At first glance, White's task appears hopeless (see photo). Going straight for the a-pawn leads to stalemate. Going after the f-pawn leads to a trebuchet (a position lost for White). The draw is better than a loss, but I had the sense that White should win this with a technique I was missing. After some trial and error playing against Stockfish on the iPad, I found the win, posted on social media the position that arose after two moves, and mentally questioned a response that identified the solution as one of taking the opposition.

The exercise is a study composed by Josef Hasek and published in Deutsche Schachzeitung (1928). Engqvist identifies the themes as "triangulation and corresponding squares" (222). I think it also bears similarity to the famous Reti study in which White draws by attempting simultaneously to accomplish two impossible tasks (see "Endgame Calculation"). Such is the power of the double attack.

Stripes, J -- Stockfish
14.04.2023

1.Kc6 Ke5 2.Kc7 Kd5

White to move

3.Kd7!

Yes, this move seizes the opposition and prepares an outflanking maneuver. But triangulation is a more precise term for White's idea.

3...Ke5

If Black tries 3...Kc5, the diagonal opposition is best because it threatens the f-pawn. 4.Ke7! From the initial position, White cannot imagine going after the f-pawn, but now this threat is what makes it possible to gain the a-pawn without getting trapped on the a-file.

4.Kc6

Because of triangulation, the position that has been reached is the same as after the first move, except that it is Black's move.

4...Kxf5

White to move

5.Kb7

Other moves draw. Black's king is now too far away to trap White's king on the a-file and White's pawn promotes long before Black's can make any progress.

1-0

300 Most Important Chess Exercises is divided into four sections of 75 exercises each. The first two sections are opening and middlegames with tactics emphasized in the second set. The last two sections are endgames, again with tactics emphasized in the final set.

I could see myself developing some consistency with Engqvist's study plan of five positions per week if these five come from all three books, instead of always following only one of them. Coming up soon in Exercises is the following position, the sixth endgame exercise. 

White to move

I have seen this position in other books and have trained with this it on chess.com. I know the idea--corresponding squares. Nonetheless, this is an exercise that I find difficult. The cases of correspondence which must be worked out encompass more than half of the board.

Reti's Checkmate

The checkmate pattern know as Reti's Mate originates in a miniature played against none other than Saviely Tartakower. The game was played sometime in 1910 in Vienna. Both men were in their early 20s. Tartakower studied law in Geneva and Vienna; Reti came to Vienna to study mathematics. They had met in at least two tournament games prior to this game, which was a casual game played for a stake.

The mating combination itself has processors, including Morphy's Opera Game. Edward Winter's article, "Reti vs. Tartakower, Vienna 1910" is worth a look for some of these, as well as what little historical background exists. If Tartakower would have moved his king back to its starting square, the checkmate with rook and bishop would have been the same as Morphy's.

Reti,Richard -- Tartakower,Saviely [B15]
Vienna, 1910

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Qd3

This unusual move has been played a mere eight times in more than 3000 games reaching this position. This game is the earliest in MegaDatabase 2020 to feature this move. The same database contains fifteen games up to and including this one with 4...Nf6. In fact, the Caro-Kann Defense was relatively new at the time. Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann had published their analysis in 1886. Tartakower was born the following year; Reti two years after Tartakower.

Databases are incomplete. For example, we do not have all the games from the Second Trebitsch Memorial, played in Vienna in 1909-1910, which Reti won ahead of Tartakower. I have spent enough time reading old chess magazines from the last few decades of the nineteenth century to be confident that even published games played between those recognized as masters are more likely absent from databases than found there. 

Using the database as our point of reference, 5.Qd3 would be a novelty. But, there is a very good chance that Reti had seen it before.

5.Nxf6+ is played almost every time. 5.Ng3 is a distant second.

Black to move

5...e5?

Tartakower finds a clever idea that fails.

5...Nxe4 6.Qxd4 Qd5 appears equal.

5...Nbd7 6.Bd2 Nxe4 7.Qxe4 Nf6 8.Qd3 Bg4 9.f3 Be6 10.0-0-0 Qd6 11.Kb1 0-0-0 is given in an article on Chess.com by AksanAkhmad.

6.dxe5 Qa5+

6...Qxd3 seems reasonable, but is not the reason Tartakower played 5...e5. Perhaps he should have reassessed his plan. 7.Bxd3 Nxe4 (7...Ng4) 8.Bxe4 and White seems slightly better.

7.Bd2 Qxe5

It would seem that this was Tartakower's idea.

White to move

Reti's pinned knight is attacked twice.

8.0-0-0 Nxe4??

Tartakower has won a whole piece, but Reti saw further.

8...Be7 9.Nxf6+ Qxf6 (9...Bxf6 10.Re1) 10.Nf3 and White seems slightly better.

White to move

9.Qd8+! Kxd8 10.Bg5+

Tartakower resigned here, according to some accounts. Later, in his A Breviary of Chess (1937), he stated, "nothing could better illustrate the power of a double check" (as quoted by Winter, referenced above).

10...Kc7 11.Bd8# 1-0

If 10...Ke7, 11.Rd8#

The game is worthy of memorization, especially by chess teachers. It pairs nicely with the Opera Game.

Textbook Ending

 In today's Morning Membership tournament on Chess.com, two players found themselves in a difficult pawn ending with under a minute remaining. The time control was game in five minutes with a two second increment (5+2). White had 18.5 seconds and Black had 38 when Chris started showing the game on Twitch. Chris Bird is the tournament director and streams these weekly events.

Both players shuffled their kings back and forth until a repetition occurred. When players are premoving, as they seemed to be doing, draw offers are often refused even as they are made. It was not clear from Chris's discussion whether he knew that White had a winning position.

In the screenshot, White has just played 51.Kd4.

There was an alternative.

51.Kb5 wins.

After 51.Kb5!

This move can be frightening with less than twenty seconds left, but it is the correct move. White has stepped out of the square of Black's pawn. If White fails to promote first, or set up a checkmate, Black will also promote.

After 51...Kc8, White has two ways to proceed.

52. Kc6, or 52.a6. I played the latter against Stockfish 11, which replied 52...e3.

White to move

Now, only one move wins for White. All others lose.

After 53.b6+, 53...Kc7! leaves White lost. However, 53...Kb8 allows 54.Kb6 and 55.a7#. In one of the textbook lines beginning with 51...Kb8, Black promotes the pawn just before getting checkmated.

53.a6 allows 53...Kb7 and White can make no further progress, while Black's e-pawn cannot be stopped.

53.Kc6! e2 54.b7+

Black to move

54...Kb8 55.Kb6 e1Q Black promotes first, but White checkmates with pawns. Stockfish chose a longer checkmate.

54...Kd8 55.b8Q+ Ke7 56.Qe5+ and White wins.

While watching the Twitch stream, I saw a familiar pattern. After the tournament, I out that my belief that White was winning was indeed correct. Although as a practical matter, with less that twenty seconds remaining, I, too, might have taken the draw.

The textbook position appears in Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. Consequently, it is a position that I have played out several times with my students (see "Pawn Ending Flash Cards").

White to move

I know the technique through training with positions from Dvoretsky. Likely other books have the position as well, and it appears in Harold van der Heiden's Endgame Study Database. Heiden credits Reuben Fine, Basic Chess Endings (1941), while Dvoretsky credits the nineteenth century composers J. Kling and B. Horwitz.*

In any case, the first critical position is reached after the moves:

1.Kd4 Kg4 2.h4 Kh5 3.Ke3 Kg4 4.Ke4 Kh5 5.Kf4 Kg6 6.g4 Kg7

White to move

7.g5 is a mistake. White can move the king, but the way forward is 7.h5!

7...Kh6 8.Kf3

Heiden has 8.Ke4 here. Dvoretsky's solution is three moves longer, so seems to offer better defense by Black. Both 8.Kf3 and 8.Ke4 have the same number of moves to mate, according to my chess engine.

Dvoretsky points out the importance of triangulation for White.

8...Kg5 9.Ke4 Kh6 10.Kf4 Kh7 11.g5 Kg7 12.g6 (12.h6 loses) 12...Kf6 13.Ke4 Kg7 14.Kf3 Kf6 15.Kf4 Kg7

White to move

Now, White's confidence comes into play, as it is time to leave the square of Black's passed pawn.

16.Kg5 c3 17.h6+ Kg8 18.Kf6 (see the critical Kc6 in my analysis of what might have been above).

18...c2 (so close to becoming a queen!)

19.h7+ Kh8 

White to move

20.Kf7 c1Q

Black promotes, but White will promote with check.

21.g7+ Kxh7 22.g8Q+ Kh6 23.Qg6# 

This ending is worthy of study. Perhaps if your nerves are calm, you can win with a quarter minute and a two second increment should you find yourself is a comparable position.


*Fine, on my reading presents a similar position that is a draw. He does mention winning chances, though, if the pawns on the left are another row to the right of the position illustrated here. There seems some room for some historical research.

One by Reti

This endgame composition by Richard Reti employs the same idea as his most famous one.

White to move

Black to Move

I failed this problem on Chess.com tactics trainer, but found the first two moves.

Black to move

Solve This

Round two of the Spokane Chess Club Winter Championship brought me another victory, but only because my opponent miscalculated at the critical moment. I was objectively lost, but when he misplayed the attack, my fortunes turned in a hurry. A few moves later, I was up a piece and he graciously resigned.

White to move

He saw the correct move here, but missed the second move of the combination. As a consequence, he did not play the correct move. I showed him the solution during postgame analysis, although I, too, missed the shot during the game.

Discovery!

White played the strongest move in this position from Marovic -- Pomar Salamanca, Espana 1969, Chess Informant 7/505.

White to move

I will respond to solutions left in the comments section below.

The Crooked Path

Most chess players are familiar with a famous pawn ending composed by Richard Reti in 1921. The Black king is in the square of White's pawn, but White's king is not in the square of Black's h-pawn. Nonetheless, White is able to draw by moving the king in a manner than both chases the enemy pawn and threatens to assist his own.

White to move

1.Kg7 h4 2.Kf6 Kb6 3.Ke5

If Black pushes the pawn, then White plays Kd6, supporting promotion of the c-pawn. If Black captures the pawn, then the White king enters the square of the pawn.

A similar idea is presented from a 1947 study by Ladislav Prokeš in Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (2003).

White to move

White's actions towards support of the a-pawn creates threats that permit the king to reach c6 before Black plays h7-h5. Both pawns are stopped. Here Black has less choice because White queens first and the queen controls Black's promotion square.

1.Kc8 Kc6 2.Kb8 Kb5 3.Kb7 Kxa5 4.Kc6

The third position comes about from play against a computer from an ending that occurred in a game played by Paul Morphy.

White to move

1.Kxf4 draws easily. However, a single careless move here produces another instance of a king able to both support its passed pawn and deal with threats on the other side of the board.

1.Kxh4?? Ke5 2.Kg4 Ke4 49.a3 f3-+

If 2.Kh3 Kd4 49.Kg2 Kc3 and White will stop the f-pawn, but Black's a-pawn will promote.

Lesson of the Week

Preparing for State

My students this week are seeing a position from a game played by Irina Krush. Advanced students are seeing the entire game, and many get to try their hand at playing the attack that she used to finish the game. I found the game on a video put on YouTube to advertise Krushing Attacks by U.S.. Women's Champion Irina Krush, sold by OnlineChessLessons.net. I bought the video.

I have been going through Krush's games looking for positions from which to create chess problems for a contest that will take place during the 2015 Washington State Elementary Chess Championship, for which I am the Event Director. Irina Krush will there. She will run a chess camp the day before the championship, and play a simul. During the championship, she will offer game analysis all day. Then she will play a a blindfold vote chess game against youth players at a reception that evening.

Krush,Irina -- Liete [E12]
New York Open, 1996

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 b6 5.Nf3

Krush points out in the video that she could have played 5.e4 here.

5...Bb7 6.Bg5 0–0 7.e3 d6 8.Bd3 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 h6 10.Bh4 Nbd7 11.0–0 e5 12.Bf5 Qe8 13.Nd2 g6 14.Bd3

14.Bh3? g5 15.Bg3 g4 would be terrible for White.

14...Kg7 15.Rae1 Nh5 16.f4 f5 17.h3 e4

Krush suggests that 17...Qf7 is probably better.

18.Be2 Qe6 19.Kh2 Kh8 20.g4 Nhf6 21.gxf5 gxf5 22.Rg1 Rg8 23.Nb3 a5

23...c5 was worth considering.

24.d5 Qf7 25.Nd4 Nh7

25...Ne8 26.Ne6 Nc5 27.Qd1 Nxe6 28.Bh5 Qd7 29.Rxg8+ Kxg8 30.dxe6 Qxe6 31.Rg1++-.

26.Ne6 Nc5

White to move

This is the position that I present to all students. Some of them have found the correct move with a guidance.

27.Qd1!

Krush threatens both Bh5 and Qd4. Her move is clearly the strongest in the position.

27...Nf8

27...Nxe6 28.dxe6 Qxe6 29.Qd4+.

28.Bh5 Qd7 29.Qd4+ Kh7 30.Rxg8 Nfxe6

30...Kxg8 Some of my students have faltered playing from this position. 31.Rg1+ Kh7 32.Nxf8+ Rxf8 33.Bg6+ Kg8+-.

31.Qh8# 1–0

Hidden Threats

Taking issue with Emanuel Lasker's assertion that combinations are rare, Yasser Seirawan asserts:

Combinations of some sort can be found in the majority of master games, sometimes in the moves actually played and often in the variations hidden behind those moves.
Yasser Seirawan, with Jeremy Silman, Winning Chess Tactics (2003), 5.

Seirawan's assertion may be illustrated in a position from last year's European Individual Championship. Erwin L'Ami, playing the Black side of a French Tarrasch where queens were exchanged early, stepped his king towards the middle. This move seems to have left a pawn undefended, but it is well protected by a threatened combination.

White to move

After 21...Kf7

Had White taken the h-pawn, Black would have responded with 22...g6. The effort to rescue the trapped bishop with 23.Nf4 leads to a double attack. 23...Kg7 attacks the knight with a discovery while the king threatens the bishop directly. After 24.Nxg6 Rfe8, Black gains the bishop for two pawns and there remains the additional latent threat of Nxd4 followed by Ne2+ forking king and rook.

Hence, White's best choice after 23...Kg7 seems to be 24.Rxc6 Rxc6, and then 25.Nxg6 Rfc8 26.Ne7 Kxh7.

White to move

After the White knight captures one of the rooks, Black will have a bishop and pawn for three pawns--a clear advantage. Wisely, Pawel Jaracz played 22.Rfd1 and the game was eventually drawn after many moves.

Black wins a Pawn

Sometimes in the French Defense, White blunders away a pawn to a simple tactic. I have had Black in the first diagram position no less than 54 times in online play, winning 33 games. In the most recent game, I lost on time in a rook ending in which I still had a one pawn advantage.

Black to move

This tactic may present itself in other openings, too. A strange Sicilian led to the next position on Saturday.

Black to move

The third position occurred in a tournament two months ago. It is the most complicated, as it appears at first glance that White can recover the pawn.

Black to move

Tactical Motifs: A List

What are the tactical ideas that chess writers and teachers use to classify practice positions? Where can the aspiring chess player find a definitive list? In this post, I compile several lists for comparison purposes.

Jonathan Tisdall, Improve Your Chess Now (1997) offers two useful appendices: "Mating Patterns" and "Common Tactical Themes." His words describing "Double Attack/Check" echo a statement that  recall from Yuri Averbakh, Chess Tactics for Advanced Players (1992).

Double Attack is the essence of any successful operation. It would be more accurate to say Multiple Attack, since there is often a presence of, or a need for, more. I imagine the wording has arisen because a double is the limit on checking. Almost all the other themes have some element of multiple attack contained in them.
Tisdall, Improve Your Chess Now, 204.

In his largely successful effort to advance middlegame theory, Averbakh highlights the centrality of the double attack.

If we regard the term "double attack" in a broader sense than has been done up to now by theoreticians, namely not merely as a two-pronged attack, but as a combination of attacks and threats, we notice that the double attack in one form or another in the basis of most intricate tactical operations.
Averbakh, Chess Tactics for Advanced Players, 6.

Averbakh's brilliant discussion of how the elementary checkmate of a lone king through the coordinated actions of a queen and king illustrates the double attack in practice is sufficient reason for paying the price to acquire a copy of this classic text. Averbakh's clear discussion of contacts also informs, it seems to me, the thought-provoking efforts of Momir Radovic to challenge the way chess is ordinarily taught to beginners, and to offer a system grounded in sound pedagogy.

It is almost possible to extract a list from Averbakh's text through examination of subheadings. However, most of his terms are better described as meta-motifs, efforts to make a theoretical contribution in the understanding of types of contacts. It is not Averbakh's central purpose to develop a practical list of motifs. Here's a sample of his headings.

Fork
Discovered check
Double check
Two-fold attack on a defended piece
Two-fold attack on two targets
Two-fold attack in conjunction with a pin
Mutual two-fold attack
Double attack
Zugzwang
Exchange
Sacrifice
Decoy attack
Two-fold double attack

Tisdall offers an abbreviated theoretical discussion in the process of defining the terms in his list.

Double attack/check
Discovered attack/check
Pinning
Skewer
Deflection
Decoying
Interference
Destruction
Clearance
Blocking
Brinkmate
X-Ray
Overloading
Zwischenzug
Pawn promotion
Pursuit (Perpetual)
Stalemate
Demolition of Pawn structure
Trapped pieces

The index to Lev Alburt and Al Lawrence, Chess Training Pocket Book II (2008) offers another list. Some of the motifs are better described as positional, rather than tactical.

Battery
Blockade
Blocking
Decoy
Deflection
Desperado
Discovered attack
Discovered check
Double attack
Double check
In-between move
Interference
Line clearance
Loose piece
Overloading
Pawn promotion
Perpetual check
Pin
Removing the defender
Skewer
Stalemate
X-ray
Zugzwang

The training website Chess Tempo uses a tagging system whereby users identify the motifs in problems, or can vote motifs others have identified up or down. The CT list currently has 34 tactical motif tags.

Advanced Pawn
Attraction
Avoiding Perpetual
Avoiding Stalemate
Back Rank Mate
Blocking
Capturing Defender
Clearance
Coercion
Counting
Defensive Move
Desperado
Discovered Attack
Distraction
Double Check
Exposed King
Fork/Double Attack
Hanging Piece
Interference
Overloading
Mate Threat
Pin
Quiet Move
Sacrifice
Simplification
Skewer
Smother
Trapped Piece
Unpinning
Unsound Sacrifice
Weak Back Rank
X-Ray Attack
Zugzwang
Zwischenzug

I have previously compiled a practical list in the creation of workbooks for my chess summer camps. The list is far from complete, but highlights those that I easily find in historic games from which I extract training positions for youth players to solve.

Pin
Skewer
Fork
Discovery
Double check
Removal of the guard
Deflection
Decoy
Clearance
Interference
Trapped Piece
Zugzwang


Edit 24 June 2014:
This year's camp workbook added zwischenzug, as well as discovered check as a separate entry.