Monday, July 04, 2005

Knightsight

To develop a scan for the Knight I made some pictures which I didn't want to deny you.


It is remarkable that every square of the same color can be reached within two moves (except for 5 squares on the diagonals) when the knight is in the center.


Now it becomes clear why a knight on the rim is dim.

Last friday I had an easy win at the club against 1715.
He played the Cunningham variation at my King's Gambit.
(1.e4 e5 2. f4 ef4: 3. Nf3 Be7 4. Bc4 Bh4+)
However theory clearly states that this check isn't good when whites King can go to f1, everybody plays it.
But even with everything going smooth, I missed a Knightfork at King and Queen against me.
It was pure luck I good parry it. I hope a Knightscan can prevent such oversights in the future.

6 comments:

  1. Excellent work, gives folks a whole different understanding of piece traffic patterns. I had never thought of color coding a chess board before.

    I did however do something similar to a guitar fret board back when I was trying to establish a reference point in my mind how the scales were connected. (20 years ago) I had long forgotten about it until I saw your chess board.

    Great job!!
    Keep those ideas flowing.

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  2. Very nice work. When doing a defensive Knight scan, the 4 diagonal Knight shadow squares (2 squares diagonal distance) are most important. It takes a Knight 4 moves to reach these squares. A Knight scan is also a Queen shadow scan, which may be important in escaping a mate.

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  3. Just saw that you marked the Knight shadow square with a 3, must be a typo.

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  4. Great. This can be put in words. Q: What squares can be reached by a Knight in two moves? A: All squares the same color of the Knight within a radius of 4, except shadow squares (shown in green). Such things may help to get tactical shots quicker.

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  5. Super!
    In endgames you can allways keep your king safe for your opponent's knight.
    It is good for me to train this.

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