Tag Archives: chess sacrifice

Chess Sacrifice as a Chess Tactics: to gain time to promote a passed pawn

6
Posted by ChessMaster on June 23, 2009 – 4:35 pm
Filed under Attacking tactics, Chess lessons, Chess tactics
Tagged as attacking chess tactics, Attacking tactics, chess sacrifice, Chess tactics

Among the most common uses of a sacrifice described in Chess Sacrifice as Chess Tactics, one was to gain time in promoting a passed pawn. This type of chess tactics to gain time is most likely to arise in the end game, particularly where both players are left with King and pawns. The preventive action against promotion become incumbent on the King only and the ability of the King to do so is dependent on the principle of the Square as was discussed in 4 endgame situations.

In the race to push the pawn to the last rank, if your own King is too far away to provide the support and the opponent King is ‘within the Square’, what is your only chance towards success? If you can throw something (meaning a pawn, in the situation under discussion) in the path of the opponent’s King such that it is unable to disregard it and has to take an action (meaning capture), the resultant delay of one move may force the enemy King to step out of the Square and your pawn laughs all the way to become a Queen!

The illustrative game was played between Aron Nimzowitsch and Siegbert Tarrasch, two stalwarts of their times, in the San Sebastian tournament of 1911.

Aron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935) was a Latvian hailing from Riga and was a challenger to Capablanca in 1925 for World Championship, but unfortunately for him this could not take place for want of adequate sponsorship. He had a quite revolutionary thinking about the theories on chess, running against prevailing concepts, and became a proponent of what came to be known at that time as the hypermodern school. Besides being a great theoretician, he was also a talented writer and his book titled My System published in 1925 is still regarded as one of the most important books on chess. His ideas on openings led to a good number of variations that go under his name, the most well-known being Nimzo-Indian Defense which has been very successfully used by Victor Korchnoi when playing as Black.

Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934) was born in Breslau, Germany and was a highly regarded positional player of his time. He also failed to secure a match in 1903 against Lasker, the World Champion at that time, due to a failure in negotiations. Unlike Nimzowitsch, his ideas were more in line with the classical approach of previous World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz but refined to an extent. He also contributed to opening theories with variations that bear his name. His ideas on positional play are still followed by players at all levels.

These two players had a running feud on what constituted the proper style of play as can be guessed from what has been said above and their rivalry was quite famous. Though we have not yet shown you any game by Tarrasch, you have seen a beautiful endgame from Nimzowitsch in the first game discussed in Endgame tactics: learn from master play.

However, in the diagram position at the end of 35 moves, you will see that Tarrasch had something to show to his younger rival.

gaining time to promote pawn

36. Kh5 Rb5
37. Kg4 Rxf5 White avoided 37. Rxb5 as after 37. … axb5 the pawn cannot be stopped. So White tried first to bring his King closer to Black’s RP
38. Kxf5 a5 Now White thinks of stepping inside the Square to stop the pawn and Black has to think on how to gain time to promote his pawn!
39. Ke4 f5+! White resigned as he is unable to guard against both the Black pawns

You see how Black gains time by throwing the BP at White King!

If 40. Kxf5, the White King has to step outside the square and Black plays 40. … a4 to get it promoted.

If White disregards the Black BP and plays 40. Kd4, Black will first play 40. … f4 to stop White’s NP from advancing and then maneuvers his King to capture both the White pawns to promote his BP.

If you have doubt, you can count that White King needs 7 moves from its d4 square to be able to capture the RP and return to e2 square to guard against promotion of Black’s BP at f8.

But Black’s King needs 5 moves to capture both White pawns to stand at g2 square and 2 moves for the BP to move from f4 to f2 square, total 7 moves. As the Black King at g2 guards both the promotion square f1 and the BP at f2, the White King at e2 is helpless!

Watch the Game

Chess Sacrifice as a Chess Tactics: promoting a passed pawn

4
Posted by ChessMaster on June 21, 2009 – 7:59 pm
Filed under Attacking tactics, Chess lessons, Chess tactics
Tagged as attacking chess tactics, Attacking tactics, chess sacrifice, Chess tactics

We have already shown you how the power of the passed pawn can be used as a chess tactics in the middle game. The strength of this potent weapon cannot be overstressed. There are plenty of examples in master games where major pieces have been sacrificed to clear the path of a pawn to its promotion square.

A question may naturally arise as to the point in giving up a Queen (assuming that was the piece sacrificed) to promote a pawn to get back the Queen! The benefit may come in several ways.

We consider it a sacrifice when a Queen is exchanged with a few pawns or a minor piece or even a Rook. When you get back the Queen, your opponent does not get back his lost material. So you become a gainer to that extent.

Even when the Queen is given up without compensation, it may at least draw key offensive or defensive pieces away from their vantage points. The promoted Queen starts its life behind the enemy lines, so to say, and in the absence of the key pieces that have been diverted, it may attack the enemy position more effectively than the original Queen. That gives added advantage to you.

Sometimes a key square at opponent’s base line may not be directly accessible to your Queen and even when possible, the maneuvering you have to make may take considerable time. A passed pawn headed for that key square creates a Queen ready at the right position once the pawn gets promoted; all you need is to keep pushing it forward by removing the obstacles through timely sacrifices.

If you see some examples from master play, the concept will become quite clear. The illustrative game was played between Ludwig Engels and Geza Maroczy at the Dresden tournament of 1936.

Ludwig Engels (1905-1967) was an IM and one of the leading German players in the 1930’s. In the tournament where the present game was played, he came out second behind Alekhine. He was at Buenos Aires in 1939 as part of German team for the Chess Olympiad but got stranded due to the start of Second World War. He later moved to Brazil and settled in Sau Paolo as a trainer in Sao Paolo Chess Club.

We have introduced you to Maroczy in connection with another use of sacrifice in Chess Sacrifice as a Chess Tactics: breaking the walls of the castle! As luck would have it, in that example also Maroczy happened to be at the receiving end!

The diagram shows the position after 24 moves have been completed and White is now aware of the potential of the passed QP that is now in his possession. His subsequent play is all aimed at promoting this passed pawn.

sacrifices to carry a passed pawn through

25. Qd1 Rc8
26. d6 Nd7 Black has thrown a lot of obstacles in the pawn’s path, but White has seen the way around those
27. Qg4 Nb6 Black is also ready to counter the pawn’s advance
28. Rxb2! Qxb2 The first surprise salvo by White, giving up the Rook for a Bishop
29. Qxc8+ Nxc8 The second salvo, sacrificing the Queen for a Rook. If Black tries to move the King away instead of capturing the Queen, White becomes the gainer of a full Rook! But once the Queen is taken, the pawn’s path is clear!
30. d7 Resigns The problem for Black is that the Pawn has got two promotion squares, 31. dxc8=Q or 31. d8=Q! No way Black can guard both the squares. And with the White Queen at the backyard with a check and the Rook and Bishop ready to come out in support, Black’s two passed pawns have no time to pose any threat.

Watch the Game

Chess Sacrifice as a Chess Tactics: to gain tempo

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Posted by ChessMaster on June 20, 2009 – 1:54 pm
Filed under Attacking tactics, Chess lessons, Chess tactics
Tagged as attacking chess tactics, chess sacrifice, Chess tactics

Chess Sacrifice as Chess Tactics identified sacrifice as a tactics to gain tempo. Gaining a tempo is an important chess tactics that provides you with an initiative (see Chess Sacrifice as a Chess Tactics: to seize initiative) whereby you take a lead forcing the opponent to passively follow what your moves dictate! You achieve a tempo by threatening to capture a piece, or to gain substantial material, or to deliver a check – any of which will need the opponent to attend to these immediate threats, shelving for the time being the plans he wanted to pursue. Diverting the opponent’s plan, you get enough time to continue with your attack to a successful end.

In our recent posting of some Chess Trivia on current list of Grandmasters, we referred to Andre Lilienthal, the oldest living Grandmaster at 98! While fervently wishing him to complete his century, we thought that the best tribute we could pay is to use one of his brilliant games against a player no less than the great Capablanca.

The game hardly needs any comment and we use it to show the use of sacrifice as a chess tactics to gain tempo and how a tempo can continue to be maintained.

You have already been introduced to Lilienthal (b. 1911), and Capablanca (1888-1942) certainly does not need it, and if we were to start on those lines, this article could never be completed within bounds of reasonable space and time!

This game was played at Hastings tournament in 1935. Seeing that it is a short game of 26 moves and because of the way the game was played, we are reproducing the full game here.

1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 e6
3. Nc3 Bb4
4. a3 Bxc3+
5. bxc3 b6
6. f3 d5
7. Bg5 h6
8. Bh4 Ba6
9. e4 Bxc4
10. Bxc4 dxc4
11. Qa4+ Qd7
12. Qxc4 Qc6
13. Qd3 Nbd7
14. Ne2 Rd8
15. 0-0 a5
16. Qc2 Qc4
17. f4 Rc8
18. f5 e5
19. dxe5 Qxe4

 
(Capablanca)

A queen sacrifice to gain tempo

(Lilienthal)

20. exf6 Qxc2 White gains tempo by capturing the Knight that was providing support to the Queen. Now White was threatening to capture the unsupported Black Queen. That the reverse was also true was the point on which White made his Queen sacrifice! If Black captured the f6 pawn with his Knight to support his Queen, White could initiate Queen exchange leaving Black with a Knight short!
 
21. fxg7 Rg8 White continued to maintain tempo by threatening to capture the Rook, in the process promoting his pawn to Queen and delivering check to Black King – all in one move! So Black had to guard against this threat.
 
22. Nd4 Qe4 White still maintains tempo by shifting focus to other end to threaten the Black Queen. But there was a deadlier threat of quick mate starting with 23. Rae1+. Black had to give up his Queen to meet the multiple threats!
 
23. Rae1 Nc5 23. … Qxe1 24. Rxe1+ Ne5 25. Rxe5+
24. Rxe4+ Nxe4
25. Re1 Rxg7
26. Rxe4+ Kd7 and Black resigned with this. White’s 27. Bf6 followed by 28. Nb5 would pose problems too much to handle for Black.

It can be said that Lilienthal played a perfect game reminiscent of Capablanca in his prime!

Watch Actual Game