OVERLOOKING TACTICAL POTENTIAL AND POSSIBILITIES IN CHESS

Teichmann said that the Game of Chess is 90% tactics. The middle game is rife with tactical opportunities which only one player sees! The middle game is where observation becomes most important, where the player sees the potentials and possibilities overlooked by his opponent. Tactical moves and combinations are even overlooked by strong players as well as average players. When more than one tactical move is made in the same series, it becomes a combination. We must see the tactic before we can see the combination.

In the following examples, we will benefit from setting the position on a board, and examining our ability to see the potential and derive the tactics.

Some combinations are simply the use of the same tactic more than once in the series. Here is an example of a simple combination played by a young man against one of the strongest chessplayers in the world!



White to move. Observe: The black queen and rook are on the same color. White cannot take advantage with a knight fork, however, because the forking square (c5) is protected with a pawn. If the Black King were on d7, the pawn would be pinned. The White Queen, however, can fork the Black King and rook from c4, and the king cannot save the rook by moving to d7, because the protecting pawn is pinned! So the combination is straight forward. However it requires the observation right now, not in the postgame analysis!! Black must see this on the previous move, he did not. And, Black was one of the strongest Grandmasters in the world! His youthful opponent, named Michael, does see it!! Here are the moves he made:

1. Qc4+ … This fork leaves black only one move to protect his rook. It results in a self-pin:
1. … Kd4 Now, the defending pawn cannot capture. This move which ‘saves’ the rook also loses the Queen!
2. Nc5+ Resigns. This second fork wins the queen. The knight cannot be captured because the pawn is pinned.

Three tactics in two moves: fork, pin, fork. You could see as much as Tal saw, if you looked at the board and not at the pieces. Tals’ opponent, Konstantin Klaman, a Grand Master, and one of the strongest players in the world, did not fully observe the position! Yet, you will observe it in any game you play; if you take your time and observe it now!! Don’t just look at it. Don’t just make the moves. Do not look for moves! Look for piece positioning. Look at the board, and the placement of the pieces thereon. Then, look for critical squares. You should see the square that beckons to the knight, you should see the square that beckons to the queen. When you see a good move, keep your hand off of the piece and find a better move! You should see the immediate Queen fork, which also pins the pawn!! You should see the problem you must solve, the neutralization of the pawn on d6! Note that no pin is possible on the pawn from a diagonal because all squares available and leading to it on diagonals are protected. Now, see that an attack on the rook may lure the king to the file, where the pawn will be pinned, and your opponent may not see the possibility. Note that pieces can only be forked by a knight when they are on squares of the same color. Also note that the defender may actually move his king into the pin! Let’s look at how you can help your opponent walk into a pin:

This is from the game #6145807 here on Chessmaniac. I played Black, my opponent is my friend Mark, playing as Boogiepants. Here is the position after 21 moves:



White to play.

Observe:
1.Black’s position relative to white:
Black has a backward pawn on the half-open c-file (c6), which is a prime target for White! Blacks’ rooks are both posted offensively on files that harbor white backward pawns. Blacks’ bishop is on a good diagonal and, supported by the Black Queen, key squares are in his line of fire: c1, d2, e3, f4! The a-file is open and portends a rook confrontation, but one of the Black rooks is temporarily blocked from that file by the backward pawn on c6. The h-file is also open, but only one of Black’s rooks can utilize it at the moment. Black is currently vulnerable to a back-rank threat.
2.White’s position relative to black:
Whites’ rooks are connected. But they are both defending backward pawns! His pawn weaknesses include: two backward pawns on half opened files, d3 and f3, an isolated pawn on b2, and doubled pawns on the g-file. His King and Queen are on the same line (Second rank!) His knight has limited mobility! His isolated pawn is protected only by his Queen! Whites’ Queen is vulnerable to overload, she is currently needed to protect the b and d pawns. His knight blocks the Black Queens’ attack on b2.

Reasoning (Open the door in the back of my head and walk inside for a moment – Al):
Knights are strong in defensive mode. Bishops and rooks are strong in offensive modes. The imbalance in the position is that Black has the Bishop vs. White’s Knight. The knight is the piece that can replace a white rook in defense of a backward or isolated pawn. If the pawns can be protected by Queen and Knight, the White rooks can double on an open file! Opening the pawn position is dangerous for White, but he can use an open file, if he can free up his rooks.

22. Nb1 b4! The knight is restrained, he has only one square available, and he will block his queen from the b-pawn at that one square! White probably envisions b3, Nd2, Nc4, which will improve the position of the knight. But the knight is subject to pin on d2, so it must make the maneuver before Black can adequately respond. However, the knight is now blocking the rook access to the a-file! Better for White may have been f4 now, attacking on the kingside, opening the board with a latent hope of getting king or queen off of the second rank, bringing the knight to the kingside, and playing to get Black on the defensive..
23. b3 Ra8 This seems to be loss of a tempo. White did not need to move the b2 pawn, it is as weak on b3 as it is on b2. The kingside attack was still available. White can try to exchange Queens, attempting to reposition the Black Queen to support the kingside attack.
24. Nd2 Ra2 The Knight is pinned. Moving the Knight results in disaster. Whites’ d-pawn loses one defender; the defending rook is blocked!
25. Rh1 Qc3 Attacking the pinned knight and holding a rook to the defense!
26. f4 … This is probably best. The game continues with White attempting to find play on the Kingside.

The position has changed dramatically! Black has a strong attack, and Whites’ pieces have limited scope and mobility. White’s pawn weaknesses are being exploited.


Sometimes both players see the tactic, but only one sees the combination!! This is from ERNST-LOOSE, Hamburg, 1946. Black to move:



Black to move.
Observe!: There is a potential fork, which Black sees as winning.
1. … Rxb2 Removing support of the white knight, to be followed by Bxc3, pinning the White Queen.
2. Qxb2 Bxc3+ Did you see this as the reason for Black playing Rxb2?
3. Bd2! … Interposing a counter-pin! Black missed this move, maybe White saw the position one move further!.
3. … Resigns.


A combination sometimes arises when an obstruction must be removed. Here is a case in point:



White to move.
Observe: White sees that if it were not for the blocking pawn on b7 he would mate with Ra8++. This results in a four-move, forcing combination, removing the pawn from b7 and mating without giving Black any discretionary moves:

1. Nc7+ Ka7 Forced.
2. Qxa6+ bxa6 Forced. The queen “sacrifice” removes the pawn from b7!
3. Nb5+ Ka8 Forced. This discovery returns to the starting position minus the blocking pawn!
4. Ra7++ Voila!

What can we, Chessmaniac players, not being Grandmasters, hope to see on the board?
Actually we can see as much as anyone, if we train ourselves to look at the board and not at the pieces. Here is an example from a game I played in 2006, as Black: The opening was a Queens Indian. This is the position after White has made his 26th move:



Black to move.
Observe: The White queen cannot easily get to the defense of the kingside. She can serve best by attacking from the queenside or exchanging for the opposing queen. If black needs more force in the attack, it can only come from the c file rook, which must enter by way of the 4th or 5th rank. The rook cannot leave the 8th rank, however, as long as the White queen is attacking the e1 rook. The queen will have to be deflected to keep her from the kingside and to allow the c rook to attack. The white queen is currently unprotected, if not for the white bishop on c3, Black could capture Nxf6 and the white bishop on e4 would be pinned. However, now the c3 bishop could capture Bxe5, attacking the queen and if Qxe5 the pin is gone and Bxf3 is possible. The rook cannot take c3 to eliminate that possibility until the diagonal is blocked.

The way is clear, first before moving the knight, which currently guards b5, we must block the queen’s attack on the rook. The attack will deflect her from the fourth rank. Then the knight can begin the attack:


26. … b5! The beginning of a long combination. First, the queen will move from the fourth rank. (First tactic, piece deflection.)

27. Qxa5 Nxf3 (Second tactic, Discovered attack.)

28. Bxf3 Qg5+ (Third tactic, Zwischenzug.)

29. Kh3 Bxc3 (Fourth tactic, Fork.) The reason for the zwischenzug now becomes apparent: b5 is defended!

30. Qb6 Rc4 If Qxb5 had been permitted, this move would not be possible.
White resigns.

This combination was made possible by one inaccuracy by White. The deflection, 26. b5 makes little sense unless the player sees the tactical potential.

Many tactical opportunities are lost because of lack of observation. To improve our own powers of observation, we begin by observing each new position on the board. Whenever a piece moves, we have a new position! Keep in mind that whenever we play, we and our opponent both miss possibilities due to a form of ‘blindness.”

Here is what Tony miles said of one of his games: “I thought I was playing the World Champion, not some 27-eyed monster who sees everything in all positions.” First, we must become a two-eyed monster, then we keep increasing our vision until Tony can say that about each of us!
Al
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