Tempi vs defenders
I'm investigating the preconditions of the Art of Attack in Chess from Vukovic. Simply counting the attackers and the defenders is a bit too simple.
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| White to move |
4r1k1/p3bp1p/1p4p1/3q1p2/8/1P2PR1Q/PBr3PP/R5K1 w - - 1 27
Van Vliet, Louis vs. Passmore, S., London 1900
If white played a straight forward move like 27.Bd4, he would probably lose. Only forceful moves will give white the win. Every move must have an additional punch. It turns out that that must be either a check or a mate in 1 threat.
What are the relevant elements?:
-killbox
-escape route
-#amount of attackers
-#amount of defenders
-tempo battle
-lines of attack
-piece sac to pry the box open
-chasing the king
wall of the killbox:
-own pieces of the enemy
-passive attackers
-active attackers (forming a wall with tempo)
-magnet to draw the king out in the open
-double check
It turns out that counting the attackers vs the defenders isn't very enlightening. Because the defenders need a tempo to execute their task. The black Rc2 needs a tempo to take the white bishop. The black bishop blocks the escape route of the black king. The black pawn f7 needs a tempo to blockade the long diagonal.
When judging the preconditions, the tempi seems to be the most important. Where do these tempi originate? How do you prepare these?
I found the game score in the chessgames.com database. The game score is appended.
ReplyDeleteLINK: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1480820
It appears that both players were following the Romantic strategy of throwing everything at the opposing king and hoping for a quick mate.
White missed a simple tactical shot (9. Nc6 Qe8 10. Nxe7 Qxe7 [+0.38]) gaining the two bishops with a fluid central pawn structure.
By the 12th move, White has already accumulated some of the preconditions for a direct attack on the Black King. His two bishops are aimed at the kingside, and he begins shuffling his other pieces to that side of the board. White’s 15. c3 is incomprehensible, closing the long diagonal for that beautiful Bishop on b2. White’s 17. Qg3 appears to set a simple trap: 17...Qxe5 18.Nxg6 Qd6 19.Qxd6 Bxd6 20.Nxf8 Bxf8 [-2.55], gaining the Exchange.
White should have played 19. Bxd3, keeping an eye on f5 and removing the WBc2 from the eye of the Black Q-R battery on the c-file.
White is losing tempi moving his Knight and Queen back and forth. Given the strong BNf5, Black should have consolidated that Knight’s position by advancing the h-pawn with 20… h5, while also preventing any mating surprises against his King along the h-file.
After 26. Rf3, Black has at least 5 winning lines, evaluated by GM Stockfish at +3.00 or more. Instead, he completely misses the mate threat on the long diagonal. I guess he figured out (after the game) that attacking a loose piece is not as good an idea as protecting his King. Well, there is the remote chance of attacking g2 with Queen and Rook; unfortunately for Black, mate ends the game before that idea could be realized.
White demonstrates the validity of the “three piece” rule when attacking a King: one piece to sacrifice and open the killbox, and the other two to execute the mate.
The tempi are the most important preconditions for getting the required pieces into position for a direct attack. In this game, that appeared to be almost accidental rather than carefully planned.
All’s well that ends well, I guess.
[Event "London"]
[Site "London ENG"]
[Date "1900.05.03"]
[EventDate "1900.04.05"]
[Round "13"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Louis van Vliet"]
[Black "Samuel Passmore"]
[ECO "A02"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "53"]
1.f4 e6 2.e3 d5 3.Nf3 c5 4.b3 Nf6 5.Bb2 Be7 6.Bd3 Nbd7 7.O-O
b6 8.Ne5 O-O 9.Qf3 Bb7 10.Qh3 g6 11.Nc3 Nxe5 12.fxe5 Ne8
13.Ne2 Rc8 14.Nf4 Ng7 15.c3 c4 16.Bc2 Qc7 17.Qg3 Rfe8 18.d4
cxd3 19.Nxd3 Nf5 20.Qh3 Ba6 21.Rf2 Bxd3 22.Bxd3 Qxe5 23.Bxf5
exf5 24.c4 Qe6 25.cxd5 Qxd5 26.Rf3 Rc2 27.Qxh7+ 1-0
The tempi are the most important preconditions for getting the required pieces into position for a direct attack. In this game, that appeared to be almost accidental rather than carefully planned.
ReplyDeleteThat is how it feels indeed. That is what I thought too. But it happens in almost every game that I studied in a dataset of 25. Hence I think that a closer look is justified.
The games themselves are not selected by level, but just for the sake of showing a method. Yet this was a master level game.
ReplyDeleteTactics flow naturally from good positions. Here, black had the good position. Yet it was the tempo awareness of white that decided the game.
ReplyDeleteAt least, that is what it looked like. In an ideal world, you develop both. The skill to build a good position and the tempo awareness.
The combinations usually begin with a piece sac. That sounds like a committal move to me. With tempo.
ReplyDelete