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Chessville
From the
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The Initiative Winter is setting
in. Snow flakes are falling. The Great Pawn Hunter is looking out through
the glass and drawing something on the window with his finger. "What's that
you are drawing?" said the Restless Knight. "You'll see...I'm not finished
yet," said the Great Pawn Hunter. "I bet I can guess," said Restless. But,
before he could finish, the librarian interrupted them. "Your chess coach is
here...all of you go to the chess area." Well, the chess players almost
jumped out of their shoes and ran towards the chess room.
The above diagram has a Black Rook attacking the weak a2 pawn. The player with the White pieces has to defend the pawn. Look at how little space the White rook has to move around in. It is stuck on the a1 square defending the pawn with nowhere to go. However, the Black Rook can move all the way down the a-file to attack the a2 pawn or it can move sideways across the 8th rank. It could also move to the 5th, 4th, or third ranks and attack horizontally. When you are on the attack you have something called, "The initiative". This is a fancy word for having the move that steers the game where you want it to go. Once you go on the defense, you lose that move...You lose the "initiative". When you force your opponent onto the defense, your opponent will have less space to run around in...and his pieces will get in the way of each other! The opponent will be more likely to make a mistake! So, attack these weak pawns and force your opponent on the defense...and keep the initiative! Well, this struck a chord with the Great Pawn Hunter. But, the lesson was over all too soon and they had to leave. It was as they were leaving that the Great Pawn Hunter remembered his unfinished drawing on the window. He raced over only to discover...it had already been completed! He stared in disbelief...but there it was...just as he had imagined it.
He shouted out to the Restless Knight "Did you finish my drawing Restless?" The Knight running towards the window said "Yup, but who drew that?" "Who drew what?", said the Great Pawn Hunter. "Who drew the smile on the pawn?" said the Restless Knight. The Great Pawn Hunter stared at the drawing and through the glass he could see the snow settling on the ground and on an old man making his way up the street to turn the corner... it was Old Maestro...and the chess players whispered Old Maestro's words... "It's all about space!" Copyright © Manus Patrick Fealy 1994-2002 I truly want you to become a better chess player.Please let me know what you really think about this web page. I hope it entertained you. Click on this line to send mail to Manus Patrick Fealy
Direct link to The Great Pawn Hunter
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