Pandolfini’s Ultimate Guide to Chess

by Bruce Pandolfini

  LESSON 13

  STRATEGY AND TACTICS, THE IMPORTANCE OF MATERIAL, AVOIDING ERRORS

  Student: We’re beyond the beginning and not yet at the ending. Is there a way to define what it is that a middlegame demands?

  Teacher: The middlegame requires both step-by-step implementation and future planning, so strategy and tactics must go hand-in-hand. These two terms are virtual opposites, but they are also counterparts, which is why chessplayers may confuse them. Don’t forget what we learned in Lesson 2: A strategy is a plan, and usually long-term. Sometimes a strategy is confined to a particular phase—opening, middlegame, or endgame—and sometimes it overlaps from one phase to the other. Less often, a specific strategy may dominate throughout an entire game. But strategies can go with the wind, and a player must adapt to the vicissitudes of move-to-move combat.

  Student: If I remember correctly, you told me that tactics tend to be short-term, immediate, specific, and concrete. Is there a neat way to put the difference between strategy and tactics so that I can remember it?

  Teacher: How about this: You could say that strategy is what you plan to do, while tactics are how you’ll do it.

  Student: Is one of the two easier to study than the other?

  Teacher: Since tactical operations play a role throughout a game, it’s easier to study them because you tend to get more practice seeing them work for—or against—you. You get lots of opportunities to seek out forks, pins, and skewers. But strategy requires the ability to see the big picture, so most of us need experience to understand the larger chessic context. Since strategy simply takes longer to learn, newcomers naturally focus on tactics rather early in their apprenticeship. As students consider these little nuggets of specific tactical truth, one after the other, they correspondingly develop a feeling for strategic understanding as well. Over a period of time, they come to assimilate and appreciate how and when to apply strategy.

  Student: I guess we should get back to the game. What should White play now?

  Teacher: How about 10. Bg5?

  Student: Why?

  Diagram 257. After 10. Bg5.

  Teacher: For one thing, this move attacks and pins the f6-knight. But it’s not really the knight that White has focused on. This doesn’t mean that White won’t pile up on the pinned f6-knight if given the opportunity. But White’s main concern is the Black d-pawn. White would like to remove some of its protection. Once again, with 10. Bg5 (diagram 257), we see that a dark-square bishop can indirectly attack a light square by threatening to capture the piece that guards that square. So the bishop attacks f6 directly and therefore d5 indirectly.

  Student: Could Black now make a pesky bishop move of his own, 10 … Bg4 (diagram 258)?

  Diagram 258. After the possible 10 … Bg4.

  Teacher: You’ve obviously noticed that 10 … Bg4 is potentially annoying, issuing as it does a direct attack to the White queen. Moreover, the bishop is protected by the knight at f6, so White can’t win the bishop by 11. Qxg4 because of 11 … Nxg4.

  Student: Wait a second. Couldn’t White then continue by taking Black’s queen, 12. Bxd8?

  Teacher: Yes, but Black would take the bishop back and the overall result would be a set of trades, queen for queen and light-square bishop for dark-square bishop, as echoed in some aspects of a subsequent variation to be seen shortly. Nevertheless, it’s true that Black’s g4-bishop’s protection isn’t really so solid in diagram 258. White could win a piece by playing a zwischenzug. As you know, such a stratagem is also called an in-between move. The idea is that instead of White dealing with the attack to his queen, he could delay saving his queen for a move, stopping to first capture the piece that defends the g4-bishop.

  Student: That means playing 11. Bxf6 (diagram 259).

  Diagram 259. A winning zwischenzug.

  Teacher: Correct. At this point, White would be ahead by a knight. Black hopes this is only a temporary advantage, but White knows it’s a permanent one. White recognizes that his queen remains attacked, but he also realizes that Black’s queen is now equally menaced.

  Student: Couldn’t Black just take the White queen, 11 … Bxd1 (diagram 260)?

  Diagram 260. If the variation continued with 11 … Bxd1.

  Teacher: Yes, but it wouldn’t be getting the White queen for free, because Black’s own queen would go via 12. Bxd8 (diagram 261). It doesn’t help Black to capture White’s queen if he in turn loses his own queen.

  Diagram 261. Queens are traded.

  Student: So it’s a trade of queens. What’s so bad about that?

  Teacher: You’re right. Neither side has won or lost a queen. They’ve traded queens, though White is still ahead by a minor piece, the knight that was captured on f6.

  Student: But couldn’t Black then tie up the score, so to speak, by taking the bishop on d8, say 12 … Raxd8 (diagram 262)?

  Diagram 262. After 12 … Raxd8.

  Teacher: Right again, but White would once again go ahead by a piece when he captures Black’s bishop at d1, taking back with the queen-rook, 13. Raxd1 (diagram 263).

  Diagram 263. White winds up a piece ahead.

  Student: Okay, but I think we’re missing something in this discussion. Can we go back to the position where the knight was captured on f6 (diagram 259)? Instead of now taking White’s queen, 11 … Bxd1 (diagram 260), why doesn’t Black simply take back the bishop on f6, 11 … Qxf6 (diagram 264), so that his queen never gets taken at all?

  Diagram 264. If Black instead plays 11 … Qxf6.

  Teacher: Yes, that’s possible too. But then White has the time to save his own queen, which he could do most intelligently by capturing the bishop on g4 for free, 12. Qxg4 (diagram 265).

  Diagram 265. White still winds up ahead by a piece.

  Student: You’re right. White’s won a piece with, I hope I’m pronouncing this right, a zwischenzug?

  Teacher: Right. White’s zwischenzug, or in-between move, illustrates a broader class of tactic, that of removing the defender or removing the guard, and both of those are also called undermining. It’s these unexpected turns that can make a chess game so interesting for the observer, so exciting for the winning tactician, and so thoroughly depressing and wretched for the losing player. But lose now, and you can still win later.

  Student: Maybe. I’m still pondering the notion that a particular move, namely 11. Bxf6 (diagram 259), could be called so many different things, depending on what we’ve read about it and how we choose to classify it. Rather than having to decide whether I should call it a capture, zwischenzug, in-between move, removing the guard, removing the defender, undermining, or who knows what else, how about if we avoid having to call it anything by having Black play a different tenth move? Instead of 10 … Bg4 (diagram 258), what about 10 … h6 (diagram 266), attacking the g5-bishop?

  Diagram 266. After the possibility of 10 … h6.

  Teacher: It’s possible that Black, in playing the move 10 … h6, might be thinking that White would try to maintain the pin, retreating the dark-square bishop back one square, 11. Bh4.

  Diagram 267. After responding with a possible 11. Bh4.

  Student: But Black could then break the pin with the pawn-block 11 … g5, compelling White to retreat the bishop further, 12. Bg3 (diagram 268).

  Diagram 268. After the pin is broken by 11 … g5.

  Teacher: But White doesn’t have to fall in with Black’s plans. Real chessplayers don’t tend to cooperate with their opponents. Instead of retreating the bishop to h4, White could take the knight on f6, 11. Bxf6 (diagram 269). In fact, this is the move that Black should expect White to play, because it’s the most direct and natural. Why would White go to g5 with his bishop if he weren’t prepared to capture the knight on f6? As a rule you should always consider the moves that are self-evident first, because the other player is likely to see them too. Once you understand what obviously exists, it may be unnecessary to look for anything more fanciful, for that which isn’t likely ever to exist. Why bother to look be
yond checkmate?

  Diagram 269. After the better response, 11. Bxf6.

  Student: I think Black has two responses to this capture, both of which are recaptures on the square f6. It seems he could take back with his g-pawn, 11 … gxf6 (diagram 270), or with his queen, 11 … Qxf6 (diagram 281). Suppose he takes back with his g-pawn.

  Teacher: The capture 11 … gxf6 may not lose material on the surface, but it still looks terrible. Black’s kingside is thoroughly ripped open, and White’s direct 12. Qh5 (diagram 271), simultaneously attacking the h-pawn and the d-pawn, which is also attacked by the c3-knight, appears sufficient to gain an advantage.

  Diagram 270. Black’s kingside is busted up.

  Diagram 271. After 12. Qh5.

  Student: But couldn’t Black save himself with a zwischenzug, 12 … Bxc3 (diagram 272), removing a d5-threatener, before having to guard h6?

  Diagram 272, After Black tries his own zwischenzug, 12 … Bxc3.

  Teacher: He most definitely could. But then White has a counter zwischenzug, a more serious one because it threatens immediate mate, 13. Qxh6 (diagram 273).

  Diagram 273. White threatens mate with 13. Qxh6.

  Student: That’s no problem. Black could stop the mate by interposing his f-pawn, 13 … f5 (diagram 274).

  Diagram 274. Black stops the mate with 13 … f5.

  Teacher: True enough. But then White just takes back the bishop hanging on c3 (diagram 275), and he’s a pawn ahead, with a much better position because of Black’s battered kingside.

  Diagram 275. White stands better.

  Student: So after 11. Bxf6 gxf6, White should just play 12. Qh5 (diagram 271), with a winning game.

  Teacher: He could do that—that is, 12. Qh5. But what’s wrong with the immediate 12. Nxd5 (diagram 276)? Why prepare to do what you could do at once?

  Diagram 276. After 12. Nxd5 instead of 12. Qh5.

  Student: Wait a millisecond. If White plays 12. Nxd5, couldn’t Black win the knight for free, 12 … Qxd5 (diagram 277)?

  Diagram 277. After the possible response 12 … Qxd5.

  Teacher: Not exactly. After 12 … Qxd5, look at the alignment of White and Black pieces on the d-file. If White’s bishop were not on d3, White’s queen would be able to take Black’s queen for nothing.

  Student: Are you suggesting that the White bishop move out of the way, to a square like e2, so that White’s queen would then be in position to take Black’s?

  Teacher: No, withdrawing the bishop to e2 would be too slow. It would then be Black’s move, not White’s, and Black would have the time to save his queen, say by moving it away, protecting it, or trading it for White’s queen. The trick is to make a bishop move that prevents Black from responding to save his queen. In a sense, White has to move and freeze the action, and 13. Be2 (diagram 278) doesn’t do that.

  Diagram 278. After the possibility of 13. Be2, which is too slow.

  Student: But there’s really only one type of move that can stop everything in its tracks. That’s a check. Wait another small time segment, please. I think I have it! White could play 13. Bh7+ (diagram 279)!

  Diagram 279. After 13. Bh7+, freezing the action.

  Student: Sure, it loses the bishop to 13 … Kxh7. But then it’s White’s turn and Black’s queen is still sitting out there like a dead duck. I can then take it for free, 14. Qxd5 (diagram 280).

  Diagram 280. After 13 … Kxh7 14. Qxd5.

  Teacher: Very, very good. Note that when White checks, 13. Bh7+ (diagram 279), he unleashes a discovered attack uncovering an attacking line to the opposing queen by moving away an intervening piece, the bishop. For further reinforcement, you might want to go back to Lesson 2, when we first talked about this tactical idea.

  Student: So if Black dares to take White’s knight at d5 with his queen, he will pay a massive price for neglecting to check out plausible time-gaining checks. You’re right. White, as we have seen, doesn’t have to prepare to take on d5 by first moving his queen to h5. He can just take the d5-pawn without setting up any additional support. The support is already there in the form of a hidden tactic, a discovery.

  Teacher: So the first lesson here has taught you not to prepare the unnecessary. There’s something else to be learned about the process we used to come to the right decision. We did that by understanding what the problem was and then asking questions about the problem. When we realized that the d3-bishop was in the way, preventing White’s queen from taking Black’s, we asked something like: How can I get the bishop out of the way with a gain of time so that I can capture the queen? The question practically gave the answer away. So we see that a large part of analysis has to do with asking leading questions—questions that practically give us the next move, or at least point the way. The most precise formulation of a question practically contains its answer.

  Student: Do good players always verbalize thoughts to themselves this way?

  Teacher: Sometimes they don’t articulate the thoughts necessarily in words, but a lot of this has to do with practical understanding. They’ve gone through similar operations so often that much can be achieved almost intuitively, without having to spell things out so deliberately. But you’d be surprised at how often thoughts are distinctly and clearly expressed, step by step, in some of their internal analytic monologues, even at advanced degrees of skill. Nevertheless, when they were at your introductory level, most of them did go through these somewhat mechanical processes until they acquired sufficient experience to do virtually the same things without much apparent thought at all.

  Student: Let me ask another general question, if I may. How can I increase my tactical ability?

  Teacher: To increase your ability to find tactics, and to heighten your awareness of them, you might, for example, nurture the habit of scouring the board for useful connections between pieces and squares. To help you in this quest, you might try asking directive and relevant questions, such as: Are there any enemy pieces on the same lines as my pieces? Are there two or more enemy pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal? If not, do several of the opponent’s pieces connect to the same square? Can my queen move to a square that connects to several enemy units?

  Student: It seems that certain tactics are more likely to occur in certain corresponding positions.

  Teacher: Great observation. For that reason you should always be looking for patterns and thinking in terms of schemes and analogies. Notice how certain tactics seem to occur with the same pieces, or under the same type of situations, or out of the same openings. And when the tactics are not presently a factor in the position, think: Is there some way I can play to set up pertinent tactics in the future? Can I do so without giving away my intentions?

  Student: You mean I shouldn’t announce to my opponent what I intend to do?

  Teacher: Not if you can help it. But let me return to your earlier question. Once you’ve learned a tactical idea, or any useful chess concept for that matter, file it away for the next game. Maybe you’ll be able to use it again at some other time and in some other place. Get into the habit of asking yourself: Does this situation remind me of anything I’ve ever seen before? If it does, then you can pursue your analysis further, to see what useful information you can recall—information that might help you navigate through chessically deep and muddy waters.

  Student: Okay. I’m convinced. I won’t play 11 … gxf6 (diagram 270). How about if I were to play the recapture 11 … Qxf6 (diagram 281)? Would that be any better?

  Diagram 281. After taking with the queen instead, 11 … Qxf6.

  Teacher: That would avoid the busting up of Black’s kingside pawn structure. But it leaves d5 totally undefended. White could simply capture the d-pawn for free (diagram 282). Not only that, from d5 the knight would also be threatening the Black queen, b4-bishop, and c7-pawn, a triple fork.

  Diagram 282. Black gets forked.

  Student: I have an answer to that. After 12. Nxd5 (diagram 282), Black could take the pawn on b2 with his queen, 12 … Qxb2 (diagram
283). This gets the pawn back and even defends the b4-bishop.

  Diagram 283. After Black takes the pawn, 12 … Qxb2.

  Teacher: Yes, but you’ve overlooked something. After 12 … Qxb2 (diagram 283), White has the lethal attack 13. Rb1 (diagram 284). This not only threatens Black’s queen, it also threatens what’s behind the queen on the b-file, the b4-bishop. After the queen moves to safety, White’s d5-knight would be able to capture the b4-bishop for free.

  Diagram 284. Black is skewered.

  Student: My goodness. That’s a skewer. The rook attacks the queen and forces it to move to safety, exposing a unit behind the queen to capture.

  Teacher: The skewer wins a piece and, as you probably remember from our earlier discussion, once White is a piece ahead, he’s ready for a systematic set of exchanges. He thereby hopes to reduce counterplay and leave his opponent nothing in the way of resourceful resistance. The extra piece will eventually decide the outcome. Either it will enable White to develop a winning mating attack, or it will win more material, increasing White’s overall advantage. Material makes material.

  Student: To me it seems that many players hope to get through a game taking but never giving, even when giving leads to greater taking.