Chess Tips

by Al Lawrence, © 2001

The Middlegame: Strategy and Tactics

Last month, among other things, we learned that a complete game can be divided into:

1. The Opening
2. The Middlegame
3. The Endgame

We saw that in the opening, we should move one or two pawns to control the center of the board and develop our pieces (get them off the back rank and into play) so that they also bear on the center. And we want to castle, whisking our king into safety and one of our rooks into play.

We're not really making detailed plans during the opening. We haven't seen our opponent's moves yet-so how could we? If he's smart, our opponent is doing the same things we are in the opening. Of course, he may do something foolish, like trying an unjustified attack with one or two pieces. We have to pay close attention to his moves and adjust to direct threats.

The middlegame

In 10-15 moves, we enter the middlegame. The middlegame is where most games are won or lost. It's the most complicated part of the game. To play the middlegame effectively, a player has to use two basic chess-thinking tools:

1. Strategy
2. Tactics

Strategy is long-term planning. Tactics are short-term tools and tricks.

Let's compare chess to a football game for a moment. A good team comes in with a game plan. Perhaps the home team has a quarterback who's a good passer and its pass receivers are faster than the visitor's linebackers. The offensive game plan might be to pass on key downs. Indeed, in this case, this may be an excellent strategy.

But the coach knows that to make the plan work, his team must perform the basics well-blocking, tackling, kicking, passing, and all the rest that coaches call "execution." These are tactics. One block is very short-term, but it is key. Hundreds and hundreds of individual tactics must work well for any plan to succeed.

It's much the same in chess. Strategy is the game plan. Tactics are the equivalent of blocks and tackles. And no plan will work without sound tactics. In fact, the best plan in the world can go down to defeat with one major tactical slip.

Here, in the form of a player thinking to himself, is an example of a game plan in chess:

My opponent has an isolated, weak d-pawn that I can blockade from advancing with a knight until I trade off queens and most of the other pieces to get to a winning endgame. Then my king and remaining pieces can attack the weak pawn more times than it can be defended. I will win it and queen my extra pawn by advancing it to the opponent's back rank. Then mating him will be easy.

This is long-range strategy! It's actually not that unusual. I've played a dozen tournament games or more with this plan. But lots can happen between the idea for a plan and its implementation. Tactics can happen!

Tactics to practice

We've all heard and read that chess is a game of deep strategy and planning. Indeed, it can be. But the overwhelming majority of chess games-nearly all of them, really, are won by much simpler means-tactics. One of the greatest attacking players of all time, Richard Teichmann, said that "Chess is 99% tactics." Since that's the case, it makes sense to look at tactics right away! Here are half a dozen basic blocks, tackles, passes and handoffs of chess. Practicing these tactics will improve your results like no other exercise. And your Excalibur chess computer is the perfect practice field.

1. The Pin

Pinning is the most common tactic. "Pin it and win it," chess players say. Pinning involves three pieces, two of your opponent's and one of yours, all arranged in a straight line. A pinned piece is likely to be immobilized.

Here White's queen on a4 pins the black knight to the black king on e8. Because black can't make a move that puts his king in check, this pin is ABSOLUTE. It's not legal for the knight to move.

Here the Black bishop pins the white knight to the white queen. This is a RELATIVE pin. White could move his knight, but he would lose his most valuable piece. Notice once again, the pieces are in a straight line.

Why is a pin a dangerous weapon? Take a look at the next two diagrams. In each one, the attacked piece is pinned, so it cannot be saved from capture by the attacking pawn.

Now let's take a look at a position with more pieces.

Black has just made a terrible blunder 4. … h5??. (Chess players denote a weak move with a question mark, and a real clunker with two.) Black's knight on f6 is pinned to his queen on d8. White wins a piece with the simple e4-e5. Moving the knight would lose the even more valuable queen.

2. The fork

A fork is an attack on two pieces at the same time. Another word chess players use for a fork is DOUBLE ATTACK. One of the most common and annoying (if you're on the wrong side of the fork!) form of the double attack is the pawn fork. Here's one:

Every piece can attack two pieces at once under the right circumstances. The bishop is a frequent double attacker.

In the diagram above, the bishop forks the king and rook. Check is a common, and especially devastating, element in the double attack.

The knight is the most surprising piece. Since it jumps and has an L-shaped move, we can easily overlook its next move. Take a look where this black knight landed!

In the diagram above, the knight is actually executing a triple attack, and one of the attacks is check to the White king. When a knight attacks the enemy king and queen simultaneously, chess players jokingly call it the "royal fork."

3. The back-rank mate

There is a mate so common in the middlegame (and sometimes even in the opening and endgame) that it's a tactic you must know. Chess players speak of a "back-rank weakness." Be alert for it.

The Black king above is imprisoned by his own pawns, meant to protect him from a frontal assault! Black has allowed his back rank to empty of defenders. One check on the rank is mate!

How can knowing this come in handy during a game? Take a minute to study the following position. I guarantee you that similar ones will come up in your games. White's bishop attacks the Black knight, but Black's rook defends his horseman. Or does it?

Perhaps you saw that White can play 1. Bxd5-and Black can't recapture with his rook, 1. … Rxd5 because White could play 2. Re8 checkmate! The back-rank mate in action!

4. The discovered check

The name says it all here. A player moves a piece, exposing the threat from another lurking behind it. Since the enemy king's in check, it's a bit like having a free move!

In the diagram above, the knight can go to either of the squares with stars in them, attacking the queen and discovering a check with the White bishop. Black must move his king, leaving the queen at the mercy of the White knight.

Let's look at a game played by Bobby Fischer, as Black, when he was still a teenager in 1960.

Fischer's opponent played 1. d4xc5??. Fischer could simply recapture the pawn with 1. … Bxc5. But look carefully at the position below. Perhaps you can discover something!

Right! Fischer played 1. … Bd6xh2+! (chess players use an exclamation point for good moves). Sure, White can take the bishop with his king, but whatever White plays, Black wins the queen with Qxd3. Black is down too much material, and resigns.

5. The skewer

Ever have a shish kebab? Meat and vegetables are skewered-lined up on a stick. In chess, the skewer is the flip-side of the pin. It's another straight-line tactic. In a pin, a less valuable piece shelters a more valuable piece from an attack. In a skewer, the more valuable piece is attacked and forced to move, exposing a less valuable piece to capture.

White has just played 1. Rb8+. You can see that the Black king must move, and White's rook captures his counterpart. Let's take a look at a more complicated situation. Suppose you're Black in the position below. Can you find a winning skewer?

If you found 1. … Re8, you're right again!

If White's queen captures the rook on e8 with 2. Qxe8+, Black can simply play 2. … Rxe8, and he's gotten a queen for a rook-a winning advantage. If White moves his queen away, say with 2. Qa3, then Black has 2. … Rxe1+, winning a rook-once again, a winning advantage.

6. Double check

This is the atom bomb of chess! It's a form of the discovered check, but the uncovering piece also gives check! In check from two different pieces, the enemy king can't solve his problem with a capture or block. He must move if he can. Let's look at another master game, this time one from 1910, with the great Aaron Nimzovitch playing White. Nimzovitch is said to have been fond of standing on his head before a game, in the hopes that the increased blood to his brain would improve his thinking. On this day, perhaps he had spent some extra time upside-down. What do you think he played in the position below?

"Nimzo," as he was called, could play 1. Bxf3+, with an approximately equal game. But he sees a game stopper-1. Be2-b5++!! checkmate!

Try setting up some of the positions we've just looked at on your Excalibur chess computer to see how quickly it finds the killer moves, or how it tries to defend against them. When you play against your computer, watch for opportunities to use these tactics and notice how often your computer uses them against you!

These aren't all the chess tactics-we'll see more in later articles. But these six crop up very, very often. Chances to use them abound in the middlegame. With a bit of practice, you'll win many games with each of them!