or else
With the assault of the king, you need a standard plan. You must have a clear picture of the standard scenarios. That way, you prune the tree of scenarios and the tree of analysis beforehand. You calculate the main line, and when you are happy, you calculate the alternatives (or else), when the opponent doesn't want to cooperate. When all alternatives are worse, you are good to go.
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| White to move |
3r2k1/p3b2p/3pbpp1/7R/1r2P3/1P1B2Q1/q5PP/B4R1K w - - 0 25
The standard plan of the assault contains two elements:
- breach the wall of the killzone
- invade
What does the breach Rxh7 accomplish?
- it attacks Be7
- it undermines g6
- it allows the white queen to attack the invasion square f6 with tempo
Black cannot afford to ignore the rook . He must take the rook (or else).
The next move is 2.Qh4+, which is a double attack on the king and the invasion square f6. Another way to say that it is, the white Queen attacks f6 with an additional tempo (the check).
The essence being, learn to think along the lines of the standard scenarios. Don't let the tactics distract you. Keep an eye on the price.
ReplyDeletePART I:
ReplyDeleteA ‘surface’ look at the position reveals:
Black is mopping up queenside pawns with his Queen and one Rook. The other Rook, along with the black-square Bishop, is apparently ‘overprotecting’ [1:2] the d6-pawn. The white-square Bishop is the only Black piece ‘protecting’ one square on the corner of the killbox (the f7-square).
All of White’s pieces are aimed at the Black King. Certainly the “three piece” rule is in effect. Conditions are ripe for a direct assault on the Black King.
The h7-pawn defends the g6-pawn. The BBe7 defends the f6-pawn, which is ‘attacked’ by WBd3 and WRf1. The WRh5 causes the h7-pawn to be B.A.D. – the key aspect of that is that is is barely adequately defended. Because it is considered to be a defender, it must be destroyed!
This is the starting point of looking for the principal variation. Either the h7-square or the f6-square can be selected as the initial targets. The WRh5 is potentially hanging and so can be used to crack open the killzone (weakening the g6-square for the White Queen), whereas capturing on f6 does loosen up the killbox (somewhat) but no clear-cut entry of two major pieces into the killzone. On this basis, capturing on h7 looks more ‘interesting’ as a first move; the BPf6 is not going anywhere.
After 25. Rxh7, White threatens the BBe7 and capturing on the g6-square with check, IAW the attack motif: when you knock down one opponent, hit another one! Double attacks are always promising indications that this could be the proper principal variation.
Since Black has nothing but his King to defend all the killzone squares (except for the BBe6 defending f7), he can either take the Rook or try to flee to f8 (which does nothing to prevent the White Queen from adding to the attack by capturing on g6). By process of elimination, take the Rook 25… Kxh7.
This is a stepping stone position—now what?
PART II:
ReplyDeleteSince the first vulnerability has been exploited, shift to the next one on the f6-square. White already has superiority on f6 [2:1] but it never hurts to add an attacker with tempo: 26. Qh4+ [3:1]. This also targets the BRd8 after the exchange of the BBe7 on the f6-square.
Black will probably want to maintain contact with the g6-square to prevent entry of the White Queen into the killzone, and also to try to reinforce the f6-square. Unfortunately, that added support is useless: 26… Kg7. An alternative is to move away from the f6-square, hoping that a tempo move might prove to be useful for the defense: 26… Kg8. Note that after exchanging the dark-square Bishops, White still has two major pieces striking inside the killzone; that is usually more than sufficient when the Black King is so inadequately defended.
27. Bxf6+ Bxf6 28. Qxf6+ and the path into the killzone is secured. Additionally, the BRd8 is now LPDO. 28… Kh6 29. Qxd8 and it’s time to evaluate this position. White is inside the killzone and can wreak havoc with his Queen and Rook. The WBd3 is somewhat of a spectator at the moment, but might become active against the King in some circumstances. The rest is a mopping up exercise, depending on how Black responds to the checks. White is likely able to win the BBe6 in some lines.
I found the moves leading up to the given position to be very “interesting.” It appears to me that Black began playing it “safe” from move 11 or 12, and then switched to pawn-grabbing using his Queen. This was probably not an optimum strategy against a world class grandmaster!
Here’s the game score.
[Event "CSR Ch"]
[Site "Jablonec"]
[Round "3"]
[Date "1962.??.??"]
[White "Hort, Vlastimil"]
[Black "Hybl, Jaroslav"]
[WhiteElo "2590"]
[BlackElo "2310"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Qd3 Be7 9.Qg3 O-O 10.O-O Nd7 11.Be3 Qc7 12.Rad1 Rb8 13.b3 Rd8 14.f4 Qa5 15.Bd2 Qc5+ 16.Kh1 exf4 17.Bxf4 Ne5 18.Nd5 cxd5 19.Rxd5 Qxc2 20.Bxe5 g6 21.Bd3 Qxa2 22.Bd4 Be6 23.Rh5 Rb4 24.Ba1 f6 25.Rxh7 Kxh7 26.Qh4+ Kg8 27.Bxf6 Bxf6 28.Qxf6 Qxb3 29.Qxg6+ Kh8 30.Qf6+ Kh7 31.Qe7+ Kh8 32.Qxd8+ Bg8 33.Qxd6 Rb7 34.Qd4+ Rg7 35.e5 1-0
A curious question: did you intend to say "Keep an eye on the prize" in your comment? If not, I like your alternative; it makes sense too!
That was meant to be pirize indeed. In Dutch we have only one word for that ("prijs"). All these darn peasant dialects!
Delete