In the previous posts, we saw several tools that might help us to decide which move to play in a complicated position. It would be a mistake not to mention calculation as a tool to select moves, as our ability to calculate variations is a requirement to play chess. However, calculation is not everything and in several complicate positions, we must rely on an evaluation of positional elements, or just on our intuition.
In this post, I am going to show you how calculation, intuition, and evaluation can (and should) act synergistically. You will probably need a chessboard, but I am going to provide many diagrams to help you following my analyses.
In the position above, White is clearly better. All his pieces are active and Black’s castle is falling apart. White is already winning if he does not spoil the attack. One way to spoil the attack could be, for example, to play immediately 1.Nxg6, which is what White would really like to do at some point - but not now. The reason is that after 1…fxg6 2.Qd3, Black can defend with Qf4+ followed by Qf5. Notice the process: we start evaluating the position and spotting Nxg6, and then we use our calculation to check how realistic it is to go for a quick attack. Then, we reject Nxg6, and we consider instead Qd3 - as this move is consistent with our initial assessment of the position (i.e., Qd3 supports the attack on Black’s castle that is falling apart). The difference between Nxg6 and Qd3 is that the latter is slower (less forcing), so you have to think prophylactically (what I would do to defend my position if I were Black) and you may see that Black’s only move is Rd8 attacking the queen. Now White has to move his queen and can find a useful place in f3, from where she controls the f4 square (avoiding Black’s queen to come into the game). Now the f7-pawn is under attack, and Black has only one way to defend it, which is to go back with his rook to f8.
Here is the position after 1.Qd3 Rd8, 2.Qf3 Rf8.
We made great progress! The position is exactly the same as the initial position but with a queen in f3 instead of d1 - and it is still our turn to play. Repeating the positional evaluation is unnecessary - what was true before it still holds - the difference is that Black cannot defend himself with Qf4+, which means that now White can look for a sacrifice. You may want to start again with Nxg6 fxg6, but then how can we attack the weak pawn g6? There are two ways: again Qd3, but we know already that Black will be able to defend himself after Qf4+, or Qg2. Qg2 does not look threatening at all (we want the queen in front of the rook in this attack - not vice versa). In fact, after Qg2 Rg8, White does not have anything. So we reject Nxg6. Our evaluation assessment tells us that the position is dynamic. We should look for forcing moves such as checks, captures, attacks…It makes sense to consider 3.Nxf7 because it is a forcing move that aims at dismantling Black’s defences. Black has to capture the knight. In fact, 3…Nh5 (with the idea to prepare the obnoxious check Qf4+) does not work for the beautiful 4.Rxg6! Qf4+ 5.Qxf4 Nxf4 and 6.Rg7# what a wonderful checkmate, isn’t it?
Of course, we should consider also 4.Rxg6 Kxg6. Here geometric patterns, one of the most beautiful aspects of chess, can help. White wins checking on the white squares with 5.Qg4+ and if:
5…Kh7 6.Qe4+ Kg8 7.Qg6+ Ng7 and if you want another checkmate with the pawn here you are! 5…Kxf7 6.Qh5+ Kg8 7.Qg6# 5…Bg5+!? this makes sense because it frees the square e7. Unfortunately for Black, it is not enough to save the same. 6.Qxg5+ Kxf7 7.Qxh5+ Ke7 8.Bb4! and White wins the rook after 8…Kd7 9.Bxf8.
Against 8…c5 I was planning the simply 9.Qxc5+ Qxc5 10.Bxc5 Kf7 11.Bxf8 Kxf8 and the pawn endgame is easily won.
As you can see, evaluation helped us to find potential moves, and calculation is helping us to navigate through variations. In this particular situation, calculation has just confirmed that Black seems to have nothing better than 3…Rxf7. We managed to weaken Black’s castle, and we should now continue targeting the g6 pawn with all our forces: 4.h5! threatening a fork in g6. A pretty strong threat considering that now the knight f6 is pinned.
[Now prophylactic thinking] What would you do if you were Black? 4…gxh5, capture the pawn opening the g-column looks a suicide. White wins with 5.Qd3+ Kh8 6.Qg6. We are threatening a deadly Qg8# checkmate - remember that the knight f6 is pinned!
4…g5 looks a bit more cautious, although White still wins with 5.Qd3+ and now:
5…Kg8 6.Qg6+ Kf8 and the beautiful and simple 7.Rf3 is fatal because the knight is pinned. 5…Kh8 6.Qg6 Qf4+ (finally comes but it is late) 7.Re3! Rh7 [if 7…Qxf2 8.Re1, White is safe and all his fatal threats remain] 8.Qe8+ Bf8 9.Qxf8# this was what happened in the game.
A beautiful game, I hope you are thinking now - but where is the intuition? Well, I haven’t told you the entire story. This was just the evaluation-calculation part. Let’s go back to the position at 3…Nh5 4.Rxg6 Kxg6 5.Qg4+ Bg5+ 6.Qxg5+
Black is not forced to capture the knight and we cannot avoid considering 6…Kh7!? as we have sacrificed one piece. I saw that the game should continue with 7.Ne5 Nf4 and probably 8.Bd2 Rf5, and I stopped. It would be a lie telling you that I figured out beforehand, how to solve the problem of the double attack to queen and knight. Despite this possibility, I played the variation I showed you and not because I was “gambling”. My intuition told me that White should be still better here, but I could not find a rational (calculation) justification. You saw how many lines I was calculating already, and how long some of those were. Sometimes we cannot calculate everything because a position may be just too complicated and we have to follow our intuition. In the analysis post-mortem, it turned out that White can indeed win with a brilliant queen sacrifice: 9.Bxf4! Rxg5 10.hxg5 Rg8 11.g6 and even if Black has the queen, the two pawns working together with the knight and the bishop are just too strong. What a wonderful proof of concept!
Today, I showed you one of my most beautiful chess games. I was honoured to have the opportunity to analyse it in person with GM Nils Grandelius, who was in Valby (Denmark) that day. He told me that he expects to see this game again in a book - and therefore, I included it in my book [still looking for a publisher, sigh] to not break GM expectations.
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