Musings about the center

The ongoing concern

My work for the coming year is exactly defined. Absorbing the mates, the basic tactics and the advanced tactics. I would be very surprised when that doesn't get me beyond a rating of 2000. But I can't help to muse about "what's next?".

Piece activity

 AlphaZero showed the world, that piece activity is the nec plus ultra in chess. My considerations about lines of attack and sitting ducks is an important refinement of that idea. It gives a much more precise definition of what piece activity is. Piece activity must always be considered in relation to a concrete target. No target, no piece activity. What I like about the theory of lines of attack, is that it gives concrete guidance on how to judge a move, by judging its effect on the line of attack.

More about sitting ducks

The slow moving pieces like the king and the pawns are the natural targets of the chess game, I said. They are the potential sitting ducks of the game. They are easy to fixate, in comparison to the fast moving pieces. The art of attack convinced me that going after the king from move one is the most logical thing to do. Pawns are the plan B, when everything else fails. For the time being, I forget the pawns, and will focus on the attack on the king solely.

Manipulating the LoA landscape

The diagrams of the previous post showed me that developing an eye for the LoA landscape is paramount. The art of attack showed me that learning how to attack is learning to manipulate the LoA landscape. What can we say about this?

Seeing the landscape

It starts with developing an eye for the LoA landscape. In the position of the previous post, there were six lines of attack to see for black, against only two for white.

Struggle for domination

Lines of attack are neutral by their very nature. They can be occupied by both sides. So you have a struggle for domination of the lines of attack.

The change of focus

You can't predict beforehand which lines of attack are going to be paramount. So your piece placement relative to the lines of attack must be flexible. How you do that is an area of investigation of itself.

The preconditions for an attack

There are quite a few preconditions that need to be met before you can start a kingside assault. During you preparation of an attack, you can slowly work towards meeting these preconditions.

Creating the LoA landscape

All reflections above form a broad area of investigation. The art of attack iss not a completed work. It is only the incentive for more investigation. At least it gives a clear direction though. When you suppose that there will come a moment in the future that you fully master the yet to develop skills of attack, you can't help yourself asking the following question: "what's next?"

The next step is to prepare for an attack. You know what LoA landscape you need for an attack, but how do you prepare it? How do you create the LoA landscape that you need?

The center

Somehow, we must find a way to describe the center in its relation to its effect on the LoA landscape. The first thing that stands out is the effect of the pawns on the LoA landscape. Somehow that effect seems to be double edged. Or even triple edged, for that matter. The first thing, is that a pawn in the center stands in the way. It blocks the lines of attack that go through it.

This means that pawns have the following concerns: they must be mobile. You must be able to open up the lines of attack at any time when you need them. Moving the pawns forward, opens and closes diagonals. Exchanging pawns opens up files.

This is where My System re-enters the scene. My System is the only book I know that talks systematically about this subject.

Nimzowitsch talks about putting your pieces in the center protected by a pawn, in order to provoke the enemy pieces to exchange them. This way, files are opened. In order to build the LoA landscape, you need to provoke the enemy to open the lines for you.

Nimzowitsch talks about blocking pawns and how to remove blockades.

Summary

My work for the next year is cut out for me. 

• Absorb the basics (mates, basic tactics, advanced tactics).
• Then the focus must be the kingside assault. Plan A, so to speak. This needs a lot of investigation. This can be done alongside the absorption op the basics.
• Only after that, I must re-establish the study of My System.

For plan A, assaulting the king, a thorough ability to see the LoA landscape is the most important skill to develop. Plan B, pawns and endgame, goes necessarily on the backburner.

I'm surprised to see the re-entrance of My System on the scene again so soon. But I can't simply get around it. Hopefully I can find some books that have deciphered My System already, partially.