Chess and Checkers: The Way to Mastership by Edward Lasker (reading fiction .txt) 📖

King in such a manner that he has only one square to go to until he is finally driven to the first rank, all White pieces participating in the chase.

 

(3) Kte5-g4+

In answer to Ktf6-g4+ Black would play K-h5; (4) B-g6+, K-h4; (5) P-g3+, K-h3 and there is no mate.

 

(3) … K-g5

(4) P-h4+ K-f4

(5) P-g3+ K-f3

(6) B-e2+ K-g2

(7) R-h2+ K-g1

(8) K-d2 mate.

White could have forced the mate in seven instead of eight moves by playing (6) K-f1, or (6) o-o, for there was no protection against (7) Kt-h2.

 

III

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHESS STRATEGY

 

In reading the chapter on “Elementary Tactics” the beginner will have obtained a fair idea of the value of the different pieces and he will have gained an insight into the possibilities of their cooperation. However, the fundamental principle of Chess strategy, the method of developing the inherent powers of the men so that they may be able to do all the work possible for them, will still be a secret to him.

At the beginning of the game the Knights are the only pieces which are able to move, and consequently the other pieces are worthless until openings have been created for them by Pawn moves. Now, the first thing the beginner should try to keep in mind is that only such Pawn moves can be good as open lines for their fellow pieces or obstruct lines of opposing men. The reason is this:

In any hand to hand fight evidently that player will get the better of it who has more pieces ready for action on the battlefield. When examining the typical positions discussed in the previous chapter the fact will strike the observant reader that the winning player always has a decided superiority of forces at his disposal where the actual fight is going on, so that in some cases he can even sacrifice a great amount of them and still have enough left for the final onslaught against the King. The same holds good in combinations where lesser objects than the King are fought for; the player who has more pieces ready to take part in the struggle will emerge victorious; the player who attacks with less pieces than the opponent has on the spot for defense, cannot hope to succeed.

The important point, therefore, is to place the pieces so that they will be in readiness for concentration on whatever part of the board they are needed.

Moreover, it will be important to place the pieces on such favorable squares in the shortest possible time—meaning with the smallest number of moves—as wasting moves on maneuvers which do not further the mobilization of the troops will give the opponent an opportunity to gather a superior force somewhere on the board and make an attack with the best chance in the world to succeed before reinforcements can be brought up.

With this aim in mind the beginner will readily see that it is by no means immaterial which Pawn moves are made in the opening. The fact that a Pawn move opens an outlet for a piece is not sufficient. If possible Pawn moves will have to be found which enable the development of more than one piece for they will lead to an advantage in the mobilization unless the opponent, too, hastens the development of his pieces by equally good Pawn moves.

The only Pawn moves which fit this description are moves with the King’s or Queen’s Pawns as they open lines for Queen and Bishop— apart from an additional square for the Knight—while the other Pawns cannot free the way for more than one piece. Whether the move with the King’s Pawn or the Queen’s Pawn is better when beginning the game is impossible to say. In neither case can it be proved that White can obtain an advantage which is sufficient to win the game. With correct play on both sides it can be only White who gains an advantage, for he has the first move and so he is one move ahead of Black in the development as long as he does not waste any time on maneuvers which do not increase the mobility of his pieces.

By the mobility of a piece is meant the number of squares accessible to it. A Bishop or a Rook which stands in an unobstructed file is obviously worth more than one whose sphere of action is limited on account of his way being blocked. This does not mean, however, that a Bishop or a Knight to whom, at a certain moment, three or four squares are accessible, is more valuable than a Rook who at the same moment can go only to one or two squares; for a few moves later the Rook might be in possession of his full freedom while the action of the Bishop or the Knight might be hampered. It is, therefore, best to value the pieces according to their latent strength, that is, the strength which is likely to show in the ending after all temporary obstructions have been removed. The comparative values given for the different men on page 42 will serve as good guide in most cases. It is not advisable though to give up a minor piece for three Pawns or two minor pieces for a Rook and one Pawn as long as Queens and minor pieces are on the board, as with a piece ahead the opponent mostly succeeds in winning through a direct attack against the King before the superiority of Pawns becomes dangerous.

In trying to place the pieces on squares where they have as much mobility as possible individual thought is required with each new game as it depends altogether upon the moves of the opponent which lines can be opened for Bishops, Rooks and Queen and where a good field of action can be secured for the Knights. However, it is possible to give a few rules which common sense tells us must hold good in the majority of games if both players play well. Of course, if a player makes bad moves in the opening, that is, moves which do not aim at a speedy mobilization of all pieces, then the opponent may soon have a chance to win the game with moves which are not in accordance with those common sense rules either but which force an immediate issue in a maneuver of a kind that ordinarily does not occur in an opening but is characteristic of the middle game. This is a point which the majority of Chess players overlook. They argue that—granted the value of general principles of strategy, which will greatly help to build up a safe position—cases occur in which a move may win which is not according to principles, and that, therefore, following the trend of a certain combination which seems profitable, is advisable even if the general principles are violated.

Even a Chess master once said, that generalities are of no use in Chess and that it is necessary to figure out every move in all variations to which it may lead to make sure that the move is good. As an example he offered the following opening: (1) P-f3, P-e5; (2) P-g4. Now, he asks, should Black omit to give the checkmate with Q-h4 because it is against the general principles to bring out the Queen at an early stage of the game?

The shallowness of this argument is obvious. The reason for the general rule that the Queen should not come out too soon is that she is liable to be attacked by the minor pieces of the opponent so that she has to move again and again and time is lost which could be used for the development of other pieces. Of course, if the opponent does not develop his pieces, the Queen may often come out without danger and she may do a lot of harm before she can be driven away.

In formulating general strategical principles it is, then, assumed that both players will follow them, and it is taken for granted that if one player deviates from these principles and thereby weakens himself at some point, the other player is expected to exact the full penalty for this deviation with any means at his disposal. It will always be found that these means are also indicated by the general principles if only their meaning is intelligently applied to the position in question.

As was stated before, the point of greatest importance in the opening is to develop the pieces without loss of time, that is, to place them on squares where they have as much mobility as possible without making any move which retards this development. There are different ways in which the development may be retarded, and which consequently must be avoided. For instance, no Pawn move should be made which is not absolutely necessary to open a line for a piece; or, no piece should move twice as long as there are pieces which have not yet moved at all; or, no piece should be developed to a square from which the opponent can drive it away at the same time furthering his own development; or, the right of castling should not be foregone by moving the King or by any other way, as castling develops a Rook and places the King in safety with one move while more moves are required to the same end if castling is not possible, and so on.

The beginner who makes this great principle of development quite clear to himself has made the most difficult step on the way to mastership. The grasp of the far reaching influence of the mobility of the pieces in the opening upon the further development of the whole game is really what distinguishes the master from the average player.

Of course, it would be too difficult for the beginner to find out for himself what squares are the most favorable for the different pieces; at any rate, it would take him a long time to gain that knowledge by experience. Fortunately, the experience of the masters of several generations is accessible to us and so it is possible to expedite considerably the process by which the mind of the student is adapted to the tactics required in every game of Chess to carry out the principle of speedy development. To a great extent these tactics, too, can be simply explained from the point of view of giving the pieces their utmost mobility so that they will be readily understood by the reader who has followed the arguments given in the foregoing pages.

There is a considerable difference in the constellation of the pieces depending on whether the game is opened with (1) P-e4, P-e5 or (1) P-d4, P-d5. These two openings shall therefore be treated separately. All other openings are related to one of the above main branches and need little additional discussion.

 

KING’S PAWN OPENINGS

 

After (1) P-e4, P-e5 the only Pawn which both players have to move to enable the development of all pieces is the Queen’s Pawn, which obstructs the Queen’s Bishop. Of course, it would also be possible to secure an outlet for the Queen’s Bishop by advancing the Queen’s Knight’s Pawn one step; but in the long diagonal the Bishop is ordinarily not so well posted as the development of the Queen’s Knight to his most natural square, that is c3 or c6 respectively, would block the way of the Bishop. The Queen’s Knight is best placed in the c-file because on the edge of the board, in the a-file, he has less mobility; less squares are accessible to him. In order to place him in the d-file it would be necessary to move the d-Pawn, and as this would also give an opening to the Queen’s Bishop the move of the Queen’s Knight’s Pawn is superfluous.

Before moving the