Status of the LoA

I'm not so happy with the term PoP (point of pressure) since it describes two things at the same time. For reasons of clarity that is not very expedient. First there is the role of pivot point in the line of attack. The line of attack changes from direction towards the target. Second there is the state of the square. Do we have the upperhand or not. Point of pressure indicates that we have not the upperhand on the pivot square YET, but we might get it in the near future.

I like to separate these two elements.

Besides that, I like two talk about the status definition. When we talk about pieces, we talk about B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended) pieces. This term is coined by Dan Heisman, if I'm not mistaken. When we talk about pieces, we must not only see their status as being B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended), but as being en prise as well, and we must see pieces that are not under attack and not defended LPDO (Loose Pieces Drop Off). So when the status of a piece is:

• attacked x times and defended x times (B.A.D. Barely Adequate Defended)
• attacked once and not defended (en prise)
• not attacked and not defended (LPDO)

we have the upperhand or we are close to it. I like to call all these pieces bad, for reasons of simplicity. You can check the state of the pieces by just SEEing them.

The same can be said for pivotal squares where we are close to having the upperhand. These are bad squares. It doesn't even contradict the usual explanation of bad squares: the squares in front of a pawn where your pieces can't be chased away by an adjacent pawn.

This way we can limit the vultures eye to SEEing:

• the status of the line of attack (free or not)
• the status of the pivot points (bad or not)
• the status of the target (bad or not)

This simplifies matters. All this can be SEEN.

If a LoA is not free AND/OR a pivot point is bad AND/OR a target is bad, you need preliminary moves to change their status.

For reason of pruning I like to postulate the following ideas: 

• When there is no bad target, there can't be a combination
• When there is a pivot point but it is not bad, there can't be a combination

Maybe this is not absolutely true. But for practical use I'm going to apply it to my games.

After SEEing the lines of attack, the state of the pivotal points and the targets, the next step is to SEE the preliminary moves. Preliminary moves are tempo moves that are designed to:

• get the upperhand on bad target pieces
• get the upperhand on bad pivotal squares
• free a blocked line of attack

Let's see if we can group some preliminary moves together

Line of attack

Entering the LoA:

• putting an attacker on its attacking square with tempo

Freeing the LoA:

• Clearance. Moving your own piece away with tempo
• Deflecting a blockading piece with tempo

Getting the upperhand on the pivotal square:

• add an attacker with tempo
• eliminate a defender of  the pivot square with tempo

End of the LoA:

• chasing the target piece towards the target square with tempo
• eliminate a defender of the target piece with tempo
• exchange (a series of) pieces on the target square in order to get the target piece on the target square

Eliminate a defender

• exchange it
• capture it
• chase it away
• deflect it
• make use of the fact that the defender is overloaded
• make use of the fact that the defender is pinned
• interfere with the line of defense

Adding an attacker

loading a battery with tempo

Summarizing:

• SEE the lines of attack
• SEE the pivot squares
• SEE the status of the lines of attack and the pivot squares
• SEE the defenders and their states

An example:

Diagram 1. White to move

3rkn1R/pp2bp2/8/q2N1B2/3P4/PQ6/1P3P2/1K6 w - - 1 31

Let's examine the first line of attack: Nd5-c7-e8

The pivot square c7 is defended by the black queen, so the square is bad.

Diagram 2. White to move

Let's have a look at the second line of attack: Qb3-b5-d8. The pivot square b5 is protected by the black queen.

Diagram 3. White to move

The pivot square b5 is guarded by the black queen. The black queen has to guard two pivot points: c7 and b5. Both lead to mate. So effectively, the black queen is overloaded. b5 and c7 are not in contact. So when the black queen takes on one square, it must give up the protection of the other square. What move is best, Qb5+ or Nc7+? 

If the black queen takes on c7, it is still in contact with the LoA b3-b5-e8. While when the black queen takes on b5, it is no longer in contact with the LoA d5-c7-e8

The other pieces which might have an influence on the line of attack b3-b5-e8 are the black knight (pinned), the black rook (over powered) and the black pawn b7 (over powered).

An awful lot of words. But easy to SEE.