A Surprising Study

This is the starting position in the study composed by national master Dennis Monokroussos at chessvideos.tv. White is a pawn up, but things aren't as clearcut as they may seem.

Which would you rather be, White or Black?

Be Cautious About b-pawn Advances!

IM Igor Khmelnitsky talks about "The b-pawn: Responsibilities and Possibilities" in his recent Chessville column. For example, he presents the following position:


Khmelnitsky asks, "Black just played 1...b7-b6. What is your assessment of this move?"

Read his brief but informative column to find out why this was a mistake.

Don't Read Chess Books!

Well, not exactly.

But if your goal is to improve your ability to win more chess games, you have to jump in and play some games. This is certainly nothing new, but a couple simple events drove this point home to me recently.

Event #1: For a variety of reasons, I haven't played in an OTB tournament in many years, much as I enjoy chess. But I'd like to get back into it to whatever degree my schedule permits, so I've been studying some basic openings so I'm not already lost by move eight. I chose a line to follow, read the relevant portion of an opening book covering this line, and then reviewed a number of games from my database that followed this line. I then went online to try it out, and in my very first game, my opponent chose moves different enough that I felt completely out of my element.

Event #2: I attended a lecture recently, given by a very bright individual, not related to chess at all. He was talking about life experiences, and he noted that in a number of areas, he has found that had he not failed in his initial attempts at understanding a concept or taking a desired action, he would never have grown to become competent in later understanding the concept, or successfully completing the given action. In other words, studying something is important (and necessary if one hopes to gain competence in the subject matter), but you've got to put things into action in some manner to really gauge your understanding.

I couldn't help but put these two events together and I came to the realization that, despite so much I've heard from top chess coaches that playing improvement doesn't necessarily come from increased knowledge, I was guilty of relying excessively on trying to read my way to opening success.

A more correct way would be to study, then practice, then study some more (including analyzing what went right and what went wrong in this practice), then practice some more. In this manner, the information sinks in much more effectively. To paraphrase the speaker I heard a few days ago, I needed to fail at my attempt at opening competence before (hopefully) later succeeding.

Josh Waitzkin discusses this in his remarkable book The Art of Learning, but I guess I had to experience a taste of it firsthand in order to begin understanding this idea.

Understanding the Lucena Position

This is a typical Lucena position. Let's address two questions right off the bat:

1) Who was Lucena?

2) Why is this position important to me?

Answer to #1: Luis Ramirez de Lucena was a Spanish author credited with discovering the secrets of the Lucena position, although it apparently does not appear in the book he published in 1497.

Answer to #2: Rook endings are very common, and a proper understanding of the Lucena position can turn a draw into a victory, or a loss into a draw. Jeremy Silman, in his Silman's Complete Endgame Course, calls the Lucena position "The Sacred Key to All Rook Endings" and Efstratios Grivas, in his Practical Endgame Play - mastering the basics, says it is "the most important theoretical position for the conversion of an extra pawn."

The bottom line: If you want to gain a basic understanding of endgame play, you must clearly understand the Lucena position. Don't be frightened off - it's not hard at all!

First, we need to specifically define the Lucena position. It consists of the following characteristics (with White having the pawn):

1) White has one rook and one pawn, and Black has one rook.
2) The white pawn is on the 7th rank, on any of files b through g (in other words, it's not a rook pawn).
3) The white king is directly in front of the pawn, on the 8th rank.
4) The black king is nearby, typically two files away.
5) The black rook is positioned on a file adjacent to the king and pawn.
6) The white rook is positioned on a file between the white king and the black king.

That's a lot of definitions, but glance again at the diagram at the top of this post - any analogous position is called a Lucena position.

Next questions: If White is to move, can he win? If Black is to move, can he draw?

The answer is that with correct play, White wins regardless of whose turn it is to move. Let's take a look how it's done. Here's the starting position again:


Let's say it is White to move. He begins with 1.Rf3+. The purpose of this move is to drive the black king one more file away from the white pawn. This will prove important later. In the main line, Black responds 1...Kg7. We'll examine other options later. We now have the following position:


The next move separates the Lucena understanders from the Lucena pretenders. White now moves 2.Rf4!. Why? In the words of Aron Nimzovitch in his classic My System, it is "bridge building" time. Mark Dvoretsky (Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual) shortens it to just "bridging." To me, it looks more like an offensive tackle preparing to block for his running back. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Let's say Black answers with 2...Kg6. We now have the following:


Now it's time for the white king to move out so his pawn is free to queen. 3.Ke7. Black could now play 3...Rd1 so that he can respond to 4.d8/Q with 4...Rxd8, but then after 5.Kxd8, White has an easy king and rook vs. king ending. So instead, Black plays 3...Re1+ and the white king's march continues. 4.Kd6 Rd1+ and now we have:


5.Ke6 White must, of course, protect his pawn. 5...Re1+ 6.Kd5!. Can you see what's coming next? 6...Rd1+ brings us to this position:


And the bridge is built with 7.Rd4! . Black can no longer stop the pawn from queening. The white rook is the massive offensive tackle clearing the road for his spunky running back (the pawn at d7) to reach the endzone.


To understand why it was important to start with 1.Rf3+, moving the black king one more file away, let's play out the game a couple more moves: 7...Rxd4+ 8.Kxd4:


Black is now too far away to catch the pawn: 8...Kf7 9.d8/Q. And that was accomplished with that initial 1.Rf3+ move. If the black king was still only two files away, as in the starting position, he would be able to catch the pawn just as it promotes.

This is the basic Lucena pattern. You should get out a physical board and set and play it out until it is perfectly clear to you. Black does have some other options, but with correct play, White will still win.

For example, let's go back to the position after 1.Rf3+:


If Black tries to avoid being driven away with 1...Ke6, White simply plays 2.Ke8, and the black king blocks his own rook from giving check on e1, and either the white pawn will queen, or the black rook will have to sacrifice itself to prevent this from happening.

Instead, let's say Black answers 1.Rf3+ with 1...Kg6, so that after 2.Rf4, he attacks the white rook with 2...Kg5:


White can avoid the bridge building and simply play 3.Rf7, after which play might continue 3...Kg6 4.Ke8 Re1+:


White has to be careful here. He wins easily with 5.Re7, but if he instead plays 5.Kf8, he has to be careful for 5...Rh1:


White is still okay if he plays 6.Rg7+ Kf5 7.d8/Q, but if blunders with 6.d8/Q??, Black saves the day with 6...Rh8+:


See what has now happened: 7.Ke7 Rxd8 8.Kxd8 Kxf7 and the game is drawn!

Remember that in our definition of the Lucena position, we said that the white pawn could not be a rook pawn. In this case, if the white pawn is on the a-file or the h-file, Black can draw the game. Here is one of several YouTube videos explaining the Lucena position and why it is only a draw with a rook pawn:



And here is another YouTube Lucena video:



One more Lucena video still:

Chess Endgame Lesson: Lucena Position



Also available online is a good Wikipedia explanation as well as a nice Chessville presentation.

You can also find at least a little commentary in the following books:

• Basic Chess Endings, diagram 307 in the original version
  
• Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, 2nd edition, p.143
  
• My System (21st Century Edition), p.60
  
• Practical Endgame Play - mastering the basics, p.50
  
• Silman's Complete Endgame Course, p.121

With a little work, you can completely master the Lucena position. Then, when you're in one of those rook endgames and the pawns are vanishing, you'll know how to handle this kind of position. Furthermore, you'll know whether or not you want to steer into a Lucena position (depending on whether you're the one with the extra pawn!).

Instructive Endgame Video

The Saavedra Position, with White to move and win
ChessVideos.tv presents an entertaining and instructive four-minute endgame analysis of the "Saavedra Position." The ChessVideos.tv home page is well worth exploring for a wide variety of videos, all completely free of charge.

IM Igor Khmelnitsky on Back Rank Mates

Chessville has published a brief article from IM Igor Khmelnitsky warning of the dangers of back rank mates.

He provides four relevant examples. It might take only five minutes to read the article, but it will be five minutes well spent.

Free Video Lecture

ChessLecture.com has made available a free audiovisual lecture, entitled "Tactical Motifs 105: In-Between Moves (Zwischenzugs)." To download the lecture, go to the Free Internet Chess Server - the download link is on their home page.

The Kindergarten Attack

Gary Lane has an interesting article at ChessCafe entitled "The Kindergarten Attack." The name was inspired by George Gasparakis from Greece, who writes:

"I have been teaching children how to play chess and their initial plan is usually something like a4, Ra3 or h4, Rh3. While I try to teach them the ‘correct’ way to develop, I also try to learn from them. In this, I was also inspired by Deep Fritz’s rook manoeuvre vs. Kramnik.

My idea is rather childish, but it can be also very aggressive. In the Benko Gambit Accepted, after 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 Bxa6, why not try 6 h4!? with three possible plans, all designed to keep the initiative, and maybe the pawn:

• If Black continues normally, the plan is Rh3, Ra3, simplifying the position and keeping the pawn, which gives a very pleasant Benko (just remove a pair of rooks and the position is much easier to defend).
  
  
• If Black plays ...e6, then after the pawn exchanges Rh3, Re3 with an attack (since Black cannot sacrifice on the queenside, open the center, and finish kingside development).
  
  
• Simply attacking on the kingside, with h5 or g4.

I would like to propose the name ‘the kindergarten attack,’ since my young pupils were the source of this inspiration."

Novice Nook Quiz

National Master Dan Heisman is out with his latest Novice Nook column at ChessCafe. In it, he includes a 45-question multiple-choice quiz which tests the reader's grasp of the general principles that Dan has been teaching in this very helpful column.

Here is one of Dan's questions:

Your opponent has blundered a pawn in the opening for no compensation; everything else being equal, where should you castle?

a. On the kingside.

b. On the queenside.

c. On the same side as your opponent.

d. On the opposite side of your opponent.


His suggested answer? (c) - on the same side as your opponent. If I may attempt to explain his rationale, it would be that castling on the opposite side will have a tendency to get into positions with greater complexity (and risk). You're already in a superior situation - don't help your opponent achieve complications that might cause you to lose your advantage.

He Triple-Jumped Me!

This position is presented in Efstratios Grivas' latest "A Chess Odyssey" column at ChessCafe.

Watch how White wins: 4.Qa8+!! Kxa8 5.Nxb6+ Kb8 6.Nxd7+ Kc7 7.Nxf8 1–0

Is this the closest thing to a checkers triple-jump that you'll see in chess?

Grivas provides a number of similar examples where the winning side executes a beautiful combination after first driving the enemy king to an "ideal" square.

Jonathan Hilton: Part III of "How Wojo Won"

The third and final installment of Jonathan Hilton's analysis of the opening repertoire of the late GM Alex Wojtkiewicz now appears at Chess Life Online. Hilton deeply annotates a King's Indian game and two Grunfeld games.

How Well Can You Count?

NM Dan Heisman is out with his latest Novice Nook column at ChessCafe. He presents several examples of simple counting problems.

One problem Dan illustrates is rather straightforward, but he notes that "Quite a few intermediate players that I showed it to could not find the correct idea in a reasonable amount of time. This surprising lack of 'tactical vision' once again shows that, even for intermediate players, it greatly pays to improve your tactical vision by studying simple counting problems – along with 'single motif' problems such as removal of the guard, double attack, pins, etc."

Endgame Technique from Fred Reinfeld

This instruction comes from Fred Reinfeld's 1953 book The Complete Chessplayer. In this starting position, White has a rook and five pawns to Black's bishop and six pawns.

Reinfeld explains that the task for White "is to give the rook mobility, and increase that mobility." He continues, "What will be achieved thereby? The goal will be: weakening Black's pawns to the point where they can no longer be guarded adequately. Once this happens, White will win one or more pawns. It will then become possible for him to obtain passed pawns."

Reinfeld notes the following about the starting position:

(1) Black has three weak pawns - his king pawn [e6] and knight pawns [b6 and g7]. They are weak because they cannot be guarded by pawns. They must be guarded by the Black king. This obligation imposes severe limits on the Black king's freedom of action.

(2) White's rook has at present three [semi-]open files. Nevertheless, he will strive to put even more open lines at the rook's disposal.

(3) White's king must operate more aggresively and find some way of penetrating into Black's position.

This steady increase of one's mobility and command of terrain is standard position in any ending…Hence White must rely on the simultaneous increase of his own mobility and the cutting down of Black's command of the board.

Reinfeld further notes that although White's pawns "are useless for fashioning a passed pawn," nevertheless "they can play an important role in creating new open lines for White: by playing c4 and f5 at the right moment, White will enormously increase his mobility." Here is how Reinfeld accomplishes these goals:

1.c4 Kc6

2.Rb5 Be7



3.f5 dxc4+

4.Kxc4 exf5



5.Rxf5 Bf6

6.f4 Kd6



7.Rb5 Kc6

8.f5 Bg5



9.Re5 Bf6

10.Re6+ Kc7



11.Kb5 Bd4

12.Rc6+ Kd7



13.Rc4 Bc5

14.Rg4 Ke7



15.Rxg7+ Kf6

16.Rg6+ Kxf5



17.Rxh6 and Black resigns, since White can then play 18.Rxb6, sacrificing the exchange for an easily won ending.

Four-Dimensional Chess

I always enjoy reading Michael Goeller's original articles over at The Kenilworthian. His recent piece entitled "Chess in the Fourth Dimension" covers some interesting thoughts from Kasparov, Huebner and Rowson, among others.

Goeller writes: "It was in R.N. Coles's book Dynamic Chess where I first came upon the idea that chess is a game of four dimensions: material (based on the relative value of the pieces), time (development and initiative), space (control of the board), and position (meaning structural or dynamic weaknesses and strengths in your pieces, pawns, coordination, or king safety). Players typically understand them in that order."

Simple Example of "The Opposition"

At Chess Life Online, GM Joel Benjamin answers a reader's question that involves the most basic case of how a game can be won or drawn with a proper understanding of the opposition.

There are two parts to the question:
1) In the position below with White to move, who wins?
2) In the position below with Black to move, who wins?

How Can I Improve, Bruce?

Bruce Pandolfini has written another "Q & A" column at ChessCafe and he's a bit toned down this month. Several questions revolve around the classic issue, "How can I best improve my chess?" and Bruce offers a number of helpful suggestions.

The Value of the Bishop Pair

This video from the www.teachmechess.com folks covers the importance of the bishop pair:

Can You Make Critical Decisions?

In this month's Novice Nook column at ChessCafe, Dan Heisman notes the importance of spending more time on critical positions. But can you correctly identify which positions are critical and which are not? Read Dan's column and find out!

Learn From This Mistake

GM Susan Polgar writes in her blog about one of her chess students who "Finally broke through and won the National 2nd Grade Championship in December. He also became the #1 ranked 7 year old in the country. This was the beginning of the downfall."

The problem? "He resisted solving puzzles. He resisted working on his endgame. He resisted practicing, learning and improving. He thought he was the King of the Hill! This happens to a lot of young players with early strong results."

The player she writes about is her own son Tommy, who then encountered major difficulties in subsequent tournaments. As hard as it was for her to watch, she notes that "As a Chess Coach, this was the best thing that could have happened to Tommy. It was a real wake up call to him."

Polgar continues: "As my father used to say, every day that you do not practice chess, you lose the knowledge of 10 days. Practice makes perfect and it has to be done on a consistent basis. 15-30 minutes a day on busy days is still better than nothing."

Most of us have to actually experience this kind of over-confidence (in any arena of activity) to really take it to heart. My advice: save yourself the trouble. Susan Polgar's father understood the importance of repetition and it applies to any field of learning. There is no standing still - any day you don't progress, you regress.

Rook and Pawn Endgame Analysis

In Mark Dvoretsky's latest ChessCafe column, he deeply annotates a complex rook and pawn ending.

Dvoretsky writes as an introduction to his column:

Some time ago, I gave a chess seminar in Arizona, USA, where one of the participants showed me an endgame he had played. After the class, I analyzed the endgame with the aid of my computer program, and saw that it contained some difficult and instructive tasks. In trying to solve them, a player can train his calculating technique, and also practice and expand his knowledge of rook endings.