Failing to Guard Against Captures

Few mistakes can be more costly in chess than failing to guard against captures. A capture is often the turning point of a game; it may involve gaining a decisive advantage in material or, in some cases, a vastly superior position.

Sometimes a capture is bound up with a sacrificial combination, in which a piece of great value is given up for one of slight value. Such captures are naturally difficult to foresee. Much more common are those situations in which a capture is quite obvious.

Why are such captures overlooked? Probably because they turn up in positions that seem simple and routine; the player's alertness is lulled; he forgets that almost every position in chess has some element of attack and threat. Positions that are simple on the surface will often turn out, on careful scrutiny, to contain a fantastic wealth of intricate details. If you can acquire the faith that almost every chess position, no matter how simple, has its share of tactical possibilities, you are well on the way to overcoming any tendency to overlook captures.

 

*****************

Discover How To Dramatically Improve Your Chess Playing Skills In
As Little As 7 Days, Guaranteed!

...Check out "Chess Success Secrets" today!

*****************

Getting Pinned

The best advice about getting pinned is: Don't!

Pins occur more frequently on the chessboard than any other type of attack. Yet, strangely enough, pins are rarely defined or explained. A pin is an attack on a piece which screens another piece from attack. A piece that is pinned is tied down...

>> (This section intentionally left out. Read more about getting pinned in "Chess Success Secrets"...available at www.chess-success.com) <<

...The most bearable pins, as far as the defender is concerned, are those where the pinned piece is guarded by a Pawn. In such cases, protection is automatic--and cheap. Where the pinned piece has to be guarded by another piece, you can expect trouble. The pinned piece is tied down; the protecting piece is tied down to the defense of the pinned piece. Thus two units are deprived of much of their mobility and therefore of much of their power.

Another point to remember about the pin is its psychological value. The restraining effect of the pin has a depressing effect on the defender. Pinning and restraining are attacking functions and assure a player the initiative. He has a positive goal--to weaken the pinned piece, to pile up pressure on it, to take advantage of its immobility. The player whose piece is pinned is at a disadvantage. He is at his opponent's mercy, and must often look on helplessly while his pinned piece is being undermined.
It follows, therefore, that you should avoid the pinning of your pieces. Once you are pinned, your freedom of action is restricted, and you are exposed to threats that may cost you the game. Just as it is important not to neglect your development in the opening stage, it is equally vital not to allow your pieces to be pinned later on.

 

*****************

Discover How To Dramatically Improve Your Chess Playing Skills In
As Little As 7 Days, Guaranteed!

...Check out "Chess Success Secrets" today!

*****************

Weakening Your Castled Position

It stands to reason that leaving the King in the center often means exposing the King to a dangerous, very possibly fatal, attack. This leads us to the conclusion that castling is the best way to safeguard the King.

The castled position, then, is the King's safeguard. But, though the King is better protected when castled than when in the center, that does not mean that castling alone assures you complete immunity from attack. If your opponent has  an overwhelmingly superior development, he can concentrate more forces for  attack than you can supply for defense. Sometimes brilliant sacrifices are made  to smash down a defender's barriers.

But we are now concerned mainly with Pawn weaknesses in the castled position.  In the case of castling on the King-side, three Pawns are involved: the King  Rook Pawn, the King Knight Pawn, and the King Bishop Pawn. As long as all three  Pawns are still on their original squares, the castled position remains strong  and difficult to take by storm.

Yet once a single member of the trio advances, the defender is headed for  trouble. For example, suppose the King Knight Pawn advances one square. Then immediately the squares it formerly protected--KR3 and KB3--must receive  protection from pieces.

Worse yet, these squares become targets for enemy occupation. Let a hostile Queen and Knight, or Queen and Bishop, occupy these squares, and you will see the castled position totter  and crumble.

The advance of the King Rook Pawn is also dangerously weakening. Very often  the attacker is able to sacrifice a piece for the Pawn on KR3, in this way  ripping up the castled position and leaving it wide open for large-scale  invasion. The advance of the King Bishop Pawn creates similar problems, and very  often opens up a vital diagonal for the hostile Bishop.

Another serious consequence of any of these Pawn advances is that they enable the attacker to open lines by advancing his own Pawns and forcing Pawn  exchanges. Thus, after Blacks plays . . . P--KN3, White may reply P--KR4 and  P--KR5, exchanging Pawns and thus opening the King Rook file for attack. Or,  after White plays P--KR3, Black may react with . . . P--KN4 and . . . P--KN5,  likewise obtaining an open file for attack.

Once the attacker succeeds in forcing open a line leading to the castled position, he has enormously improved his prospects of taking the hostile King by storm. As long as the Pawns remain on their original squares, they form a road block for the attacking pieces. fter one of the Pawns has advanced, the barrier is much more likely to be breached --by exchanges, by sacrifices, by violent line-opening.

To sum up: you have seen that Pawn advances in front of the castled King can be weakening--even dangerous. ou should therefore avoid such advances. Sometimes you are forced to make such advances--but at least you can  avoid making them needlessly. Avoid such Pawn moves if it is at all possible to  avoid them!

Queen-side castling,which we rarely encounter, presents difficulties for the  inexperienced player. The castled King has a wider area to guard than on the King-side. Hence the temptation to meet threats with Pawn advances is much stronger in the case of Queen-side castling. This makes it more likely for the defense on this broader front to be upset by violent sacrifices.

*****************

Discover How To Dramatically Improve Your Chess Playing Skills In
As Little As 7 Days, Guaranteed!

...Check out "Chess Success Secrets" today!

*****************