Setting up
Conditions for Tactical Combinations
by
Andres D. Hortillosa
 In
my recent book [Improve
Your Chess At Any Age]
I wrote about the amateur’s need to hone the essential chess skill of
setting up conditions for tactical combinations. I am not altogether
against the sharpening of tactical skills by means of solving canned
puzzles. By canned puzzles, I mean the kind that similarly goes “White
to play and win in so many moves.”
In the
book I argue that navigating to a position, which becomes the starting or
staging point of a puzzle, is a more important skill to labor on than the
tactical skill to solve the puzzles. The average player, when given
enough time plus the customary hint as to which side has the win and by how
many moves, usually will be able to solve even complex puzzles. But
the skill to arrive to the puzzle position on purpose or by design is a
skill easily attributed to masters.
To
explain what I mean, let’s consider these three examples.
The
first one is a game I recently played online on the Internet Chess Club (ICC).
The time control is 10 10, meaning ten minutes for each side and 10 seconds
increment per move from the first move, for the entire game. I am
playing White and we both go by our respective handles.
Example 1
adh2050-kokings
Internet Chess Club 2009
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3
0–0 9 h3 Nb8 10 d4 Nbd7 11 Nbd2 Bb7 12 Bc2 Ne8 13 Nf1 g6 14 Bh6 Ng7 15
Ng3 Re8 16 Qd2 Ne6 17 Rad1 Bf6 18 dxe5 Nxe5 19 Nxe5 dxe5 20 Qe3 Qe7 21
Bb3 Bg7 22 Bxe6 Qxe6 23 h4
Position after 23 h4
My crude idea is to shove my h-pawn all the way to h5. But a more
insidious idea is lurking behind the a-pawn bait. Can Black really
afford to capture the a-pawn?
This is what I am talking about when I speak of setting up the stage for
a tactical event. I wanted to deflect the black queen away from
critical g6-square. Some forms of deflection are passive in the
sense that they are not forced.
23...Qxa2 24 Nf5
My idea was correct but the execution sequence was inaccurate. I
should have taken on g7 first before playing the text move because now
Black has the option of playing either 24...Bh8 or 24...Bf6. But
Black was unusually charitable that day and gave me the position I was
aiming for with his next move anyway.
24...Bxh6 25 Qxh6
I am sure Black did not anticipate this capture threatening mate-in-one.
This was the position I had in mind when I passively deflected the black
queen away from e6. With the black queen on e6, the idea would
just not work.
25...gxf5 26 exf5
It is amazing that in some positions non-threatening moves like this one
are just as potent. In fact, this is necessary to prevent the
black queen from returning to the sixth rank. Now, Black is
helpless against the threat of a rook-lift.
26...Kh8 27 Qf6+
This is a motif that should be etched in your tactical playbook.
Never allow the defender to place a rook on the half-open file unless
you are ready to exploit the pin.
27...Kg8 28 Re3
I was too low on time to examine other possibilities. The tactical
setup starting with 28 Qg5+ instead of the text move yields an even
prettier finish. Play might continue as follows: 28...Kh8 29 Re3
Rg8 30 Qf6+ Rg7 31 Rg3 and because of the right placements of the
attacking pieces, the stage for a winning tactical combination is made
possible.
After the forced 31...Rag8, the tactical stage is set ready for
exploitation. And most puzzle exercises usually come in this form.
About here, the cue "White to move and mate in three" is given. Of
course, the solver usually finds the solution and is duly rewarded with
the satisfaction that comes with the effort of finding it.
However, the tactical skill that is learnt and reinforced is only the
solving skill. The staging aspect of the tactical skill, which is
the crucial skill one needs to learn even more than the solving skill,
is taken away from the solver.
Of course, the solution begins with the shocking but thematic 32 Qxg7+
Rxg7 33 Rd8+.
Analysis diagram after 33 Rd8+
This is the part of the solving process that wows, and draws us fondly
to chess. Every improving player dreams of having one of these
masterful strokes in his games at sundry times. After 33...Rg8,
there follows 34 Rdxg8 and Black is mated.
Returning to the game, we have:
28...Bd5 29 Rg3+ Kf8 30 h5
The attack is so strong that even this slower approach is hard to meet.
I was looking at 30.Rg7 followed by 31.Rxh7 and 32.Rh8 but having 1
minute and 22 seconds left on the clock, I deferred to one of the mating
nets I saw earlier.
And the game concluded shortly with:
30...Rad8 31 h6 Rd6 32 Rg8+
Black resigns.
Example 2
J.Pamatmat,-I.Figler
Foxwoods Open, Mashantucket 2009
1 d4 e6 2 c4 Bb4+ 3 Bd2 Qe7 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 g3 Ne4 6 a3 Bxd2+ 7 Nbxd2 Nxd2 8
Qxd2 a5 9 Bg2 a4 10 0–0 d6 11 e4 e5 12 d5 Na6 13 Qc3 Nc5 14 Nd2 f5 15 f4
exf4 16 Rae1 0–0 17 exf5 Qg5 18 Rxf4 Bxf5 19 Nf3 Qh6 20 Nd4 Bd7 21 Rxf8+
Rxf8 22 Ne6 Bxe6 23 dxe6 Re8 24 e7
Position after 24 e7
After 24 moves, we have this position between a rapidly improving junior
player from Houston and the experienced FM Ilye Filger who plays for the
New York Queens in the US Chess League.
I met Filger and chatted with him casually at the 2008 edition of the
Pan-American Continental Championship in Boca Raton, Florida.
I am also acquainted with Jarod Pamatmat and his father, who is a
medical doctor practicing in Texas. This family, hailing from the
Philippines, has a rich chess tradition.
While the young Pamatmat’s FIDE rating is just over 2000, his USCF
rating has been rising rapidly in the last two years. He
transitioned from Class A player to almost-master during this period,
which drew my interest in his games at the Foxwoods Open.
24...c6
It is unfortunate that Black had to resort to this anti-positional move
as it weakens d6 but it was necessary to protect the light squares and
render specifically d5 inhospitable to the white bishop.
The unrestrained check on d5 gives the bishop access to f7 which will
effectively end the game shortly. So we can deduce from the move
that Black understood the perils to his king if White's bishop gets to
f7.
Let's see what happens if Black offers to exchange queens on f6 without
first protecting d5 with 24...Qf6.
Analysis diagram after 34…Qf6
White continues with 25 Bd5+ Kh8 26 Qxf6 gxf6 27 Bf7 and Black is forced
to give up his rook for the pawn.
25 Qf3
Black will easily hold this position despite the scary white passed pawn
on e7 as long as Black does not acquiesce to panic.
Staying calm and collected is a hard thing to do, particularly when the
bias about the danger of protected passed pawn bears down heavily on the
defender's psyche.
Does Black think White has a big threat with Rf1 threatening mate on f8?
Can White afford to abandon the protection of the pawn on e7 so he can
play Rf1?
25...Qf6
Knowing the answers to the preceding questions would leave Black
concluding that his best continuation is to attack the pawn on e7 with
25...Qg5. The idea is to capture on e7 if White abandons the
defense of the e-pawn with the queen, which simultaneously defends f7
and f8.
The idea to reroute the knight to e5 via d7 looks plausible but will
come short as shown by the line 25...Nd7 26 Qf5 Ne5 culminating in the
brutal undermining of d6 with 27 c5!
Analysis diagram after 27 c5!
White is clearly winning.
But what happens if Black allows Rf1? Let's give White an extra
move by yielding the turn to White. The game may continue as in
25...-- 26.Rf1 Qf6! 27.Qxf6 gxf6 28.Rxf6 Rxe7
Analysis diagram after 28…Rxe7
It's clear the threat was false, as this line proves the game to be
defensible.
So Black chooses this safe-looking move with the idea of forcing the
exchange of queens on f6. Black reasons that when the pawn
recaptures, it will provide a natural cover for the king on its way to
win the pawn on e7.
Is he correct? Let’s find out.
Play continued:
26 Qxf6 gxf6
The position is now a White-to-play-and-win quiz. It is possible
that when Black was looking at the static position after 25...Qf6, he
saw that the bishop on g2 could not get on the critical h5-e8 diagonal
in one move, which would give his king time to play ...Kf7.
The oversight was indirectly caused by the optical block courtesy of the
white queen sitting on f3. With the queen still on f3, the bishop
needs two moves to get access to h4 with Bh3 and Bg4, one move more than
Black needs.
27 Bf3
I am not sure if White foresaw this possibility when he played 25 Qf3.
If he did see the line, then the move was cunningly designed to exploit
Black's discomfort precipitated by the threats along the open f-file.
The real and dangerous threat is the one hiding behind Black's solution
to the intermediate threat. The trap is simple yet hard to see
because of the queen blocking the mind's eye.
It is only now that Black saw the consequence of the exchange on f6, so
he resigned. Black will have to give up his rook for the daring
pawn because 27...Kf7 is impermissible as it loses to 28.Bh5+.
What can we take away from this example? If you have pressure and have
the turn to make a threat, actively search for trap ideas which you can
combine with the threats.
The best traps are the ones you can set in response to your opponent's
likely response to your threats. The threat in this regard functions
as a decoy.
If you are the one facing a threat, ensure that your intended response does
not trigger a trap scenario. This is just another application of the
principle of idea falsification discussed closely in my book.
Focus your refutation efforts of the intended response on the area where a
weakness, either piece or square, resides. In the above game, the
weakness or critical problem is the successful defense of the queening
square on e8, which White purposely or fortuitously exploited.
Example 3
E.Cooke-A.Hortillosa
Pan-American Continental Championship
Boca Raton 2008
I met Eric Cooke in round six of the Pan-American Continental Championship
held in sunny Boca Raton. He is an avid player whose contagious
enthusiasm for the game is scarcely suppressible. He has played
extensively in Europe specifically in the First Saturday series in Hungary
and has earned one IM norm in the said event.
I squandered an opening advantage and was now battling a pawn disadvantage
when my opponent slipped, allowing me to restore material balance with his
inexplicable 32 Bd4.
Position after 32.Bd4
Surprised by his generosity, I immediately gobbled the proffered pawn.
And then play continued with:
32...Bxe5 33 Nxe4 Bxd4 34 Qxd4 Qxb5
Seeing the draw within my grasp, I offered my opponent one here, which
he quickly rebuffed with a broad smile behind his obviously irked
demeanor, brought about by his reckless squander of a big edge.
After some thought, he quietly steered his king toward the center with
this toothless move. My lazy reaction to his centralizing move led
to this blunder.
35 Kf2 Qd7?
Preferable is 35...Kg6 36 g4 Qd7 37 Qe5 keeping the balance.
I rejected 35...c6 because it would close the queen's route back to my
king. I thought she was needed on the kingside to defend my barely
covered king. Before my queen could get acquainted with the new
vista on d7, she got hit with the shocking reply.
36 Qxd5!
She fell to a tactical motif I describe simply as dragging your
opponent’s piece to a vulnerable square. I immediately understood
the point of White’s 35th move.
This happened because I got complacent and was lulled by the drawn
nature of the position. Had I remained suspicious of my opponent’s
intentions, I would have investigated more closely the point of his king
shuffle. A quick reconnaissance of the position would have tipped
me off to the knight fork trick.
Notice the commonality of the color squares the pieces were sitting on.
The target pieces (black king and queen) and the attacking piece (white
knight) sat on light squares, which is a pre-condition for a knight
fork.
The reason the wily Cooke moved his king was to get it off the h1-a8
upon my recapture on d5. With his king still on g2, he could not
deliver the killer Nf6 fork as the knight is pinned to the king.
36…Qxh3 37 Qd7+
I
dejectedly resigned as the same motif could not be avoided.
This
tells you that simply knowing the preconditions for knight forks is not
enough in preventing a knight fork. A more structured chess thinking
process is rather needed to avert this category of blunders.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, the somewhat humorous conclusion of this
game could not hold back a dry smile off my forlorn face.
Return to The Whites of Their Eyes
index page
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Tactics!
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