The influence of the King
Any pawngame without kings can be evaluated to the end. There are mainly two parameters for a pawn:
When there are two kings on an empty board the result is a draw. This means that the influence of the king is derived from how he effects the parameters of the pawns:
The most famous example of all is of course Reti's position:
Diagram 1.
White to move and draw.
When there would be no kings on the board, this would be a clear win for white. It is very important to take note of this advantage for white (which I hadn't realized before).
When evaluating the kings you must first have a clear picture of the potential targets of both the kings and the pawns.
Black:
White:
The white king has two targets.
Multiple goals add a whole new element to the battle. White has 4 moves at his disposal:
Let's see what happens if we make a quantum leap and extrapolate this conclusion to the whole game.
In the startposition both players have 16 goals each. 8 attacking goals (pawn promotion) and 8 defensive goals (prevent the opponent's pawn promotion). If the game is not decided by accidents, like winning material or mating (winning) the king, one of the pawns will have to do the job. The pieces are circling around the pawns either assisting them or impeding them. Every multi-purpose move that you make (in relation to the 16 goals) while the opponent makes single-purpose moves, will bring you closer to the realization of one of the goals.
The value of each piece movement must be seen against this background. Thus fullfilling the words of Philidor which always seemed incomprehendsible to me until now.
There is more to say about the king and pawn, but I must digest this unsuspected conclusion first.
- What is the distance to the promotion square
- Are there impediments on the road to the promotion square
- Restraint
- Blockade
- Zugzwang
- Sacrifice
When there are two kings on an empty board the result is a draw. This means that the influence of the king is derived from how he effects the parameters of the pawns:
- Attack: can he free the road to promotion of his own pawn?
- Defence: can he impede the road to promotion of the enemy pawn?
The most famous example of all is of course Reti's position:
Diagram 1.
White to move and draw.
When there would be no kings on the board, this would be a clear win for white. It is very important to take note of this advantage for white (which I hadn't realized before).
When evaluating the kings you must first have a clear picture of the potential targets of both the kings and the pawns.
Black:
- Attack: de black pawn can promote on its own.
- Defence: the black king is already in the square of the white pawn and he must keep it that way.
White:
The white king has two targets.
- For attack: the key square d7, where the total path to promotion is protected.
- For defence: the square of the h5 pawn. Notice how big that target area is.
Multiple goals add a whole new element to the battle. White has 4 moves at his disposal:
- c7 (serves 1 goal)
- Kg8 (1 goal)
- Kh7 (1 goal)
- Kg7 (2 goals)
- Ka7 (0 goals)
- Ka5 (0 goals)
- Kb5 (0 goals)
- Kb6 (1 goal)
- h4 (1 goal)
Let's see what happens if we make a quantum leap and extrapolate this conclusion to the whole game.
In the startposition both players have 16 goals each. 8 attacking goals (pawn promotion) and 8 defensive goals (prevent the opponent's pawn promotion). If the game is not decided by accidents, like winning material or mating (winning) the king, one of the pawns will have to do the job. The pieces are circling around the pawns either assisting them or impeding them. Every multi-purpose move that you make (in relation to the 16 goals) while the opponent makes single-purpose moves, will bring you closer to the realization of one of the goals.
The value of each piece movement must be seen against this background. Thus fullfilling the words of Philidor which always seemed incomprehendsible to me until now.
There is more to say about the king and pawn, but I must digest this unsuspected conclusion first.
Comments
Post a Comment