Schematic thinking

Compensation for material?

Mostly, situations of material imbalance are fairly clear. Typically extra material wins: even with an otherwise level position, the extra firepower can make an attack pay, or make the opponent's defences overstretched.

Occasionally, normal material values are overturned. This is most obvious in situations of sacrifice: the mutual possibilities of exchange sacrifices Rh1xNh5 and ...Rc7xNc3 in the Sicilian Dragon are well-known, if not always easy to judge. The sacrifices remove a key defender and open lines against the King.

The secret arts of castling

"Castle because you will or because you must; but not because
you can." -- Pillsbury

Pawn formations

Based on: The Middle Game I by Euwe and Kramer.
[Currently out of print; Batsford's have the publishing rights for this title and I am grateful for their permission to use this material]

Attack and Defence

4th_Aug_09 Attack and Defence

Items from the initial list of areas for improvement:

Tactical surprises

28th_July_09 Tactical surprises

Tactical surprises: a preliminary sketch

the problem:

Let's have a look at an example:

Exchange Sacrifices

Actively sacrificing a Rook depends on you having an open file and something to aim at. So the best-rehearsed exchange sacrifices are ...Rc8xNc3 in the Sicilian, ...Rf8xNf3 in the French and to some extent the Dutch, Rf1xf6 against the Sicilian... You need some compensation for your Rook: either a good central pawn, or the weakening of the opposing King's defences, or all three!

White sacrifices for attack on f6 in the Sicilian

Nezhmetdinov R. - Tal M. [B85]

White sacrifices for attack on h5 in the Sicilian

Fischer R. - Larsen B. [B77]

Ish's Opening Stats

Introduction

This season, I have decided to take Webb's advice from Chess for Tigers and do a statistical analysis of my openings. I have arranged them by opening, written the opening outcome (advantage to white, black or equal), and outcome of the game. I have included some tips for preparing to play me. Unfortunately, I'll be in china next year, so you won't have the chance to use this stuff to thrash me just yet!

White Pieces

Planning

I've written about planning before but mostly from a theoretical point of view; most of the practical planning advice I've come up with went into the books I write with Tim. I did tuck some away some how-to-do-it in an ancient handout about what's wrong with club players, and had a reason recently to dig it out and have another go. Here it is with a worked example:

Classical rocks

I was wondering about 1. e4 e5 and 1.d4 d5 openings - would you recommend exploring some of these? I'm not enjoying being squashed as black any more and thought I'd make a longer term plan to learn a (very) few classical openings instead. I wondered about French (winawer?) but thought I try a complete new tack (why swap an early d6 for an early e6 ?!!)

My first thought was, I don't know how long you've been getting back into the game, but I'd leave the job of taking on two or three whole

Quotes

"The scheme of a game is played on positional lines, the decision of it is, as a rule, effected by combinations. This is how Lasker's pronouncement that positional play is the preparation for combinations is to be understood."

Richard RETI

Exeter Chess Club

A place to enjoy and learn about chess

C

Schematic thinking

Compensation for material?

The secret arts of castling

Pawn formations