The Chess Coach by SunilWeeramantry Minor Piece Magic Happy New Year! I hope you have all made the usual resolutions that chess players do this time of year. For my part, I have resolved not to drift into time pressure again! I believe it was Alekhine who commented that invoking time pressure as an excuse is tantamount to telling the judge that you were drunk at the time of the crime. Most players, at some point in their chess careers, have been enthralled by the sheer ingenuity of the Moller Attack in the Giuoco Piano. The idea of jettisoning the e-pawn to pursue a speculative attack on the uncastled black king requires a vivid imagination and a strong heart. It is a shame that such an original idea has now been proven to be inferior for White. But there are many pitfalls that await the unwary Black player and it is not uncommon to see White score many a resounding victory. One such variation arises out of a standard Moeller Attack after the following moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.OO Bxc3 9.d5. The correct move is now 9...Bf6 after which a player who is well versed in the intricacies of this variation should be able to defend Black's position successfully. On the other hand, 9...Ne5 is a dreadful error. This attempt to hold on to the extra piece by counterattacking the bishop is elegantly refuted. 10.bxc3 Nxc4 11.Qd4 Ncd6 12.Qxg7 Qf6. Black forces the trade of queens, in keeping with the general principle that the defender should seek to trade off the attacker's best piece. A trade of queens, however, does not always signify the end of the attack. Observe how the rest of White's pieces pick up the slack, with the dark-square bishop playing the lead role in trapping the black king. 13.Qxf6 Nxf6 14.Re1+ Kf8 15.Bh6+ Kg8. The king is now cornered and Black is unable to create any escape squares. Any good check will suffice. 16.Re5. The rook tries first, but his attempt at check is blocked with 16...Nde4. In the end, it is the knight that deals the final blow. 17.Nd2 d6 18.Nxe4 dxe5 19.Nxf6 mate. I have always found this variation to be aesthetically pleasing, probably due to the manner in which the bishop and knight coordinate their efforts in delivering mate. This month, we shall examine some bishop and knight mating patterns to see how even minor pieces can cause a king plenty of headaches. In the previous example, the defending king had already been trapped in a mating net for several moves while White tried to maneuver the final attacker into position. In such situations, the defender is acutely aware of the danger. At other times, it may appear that the king has an extra flight square with the result that the defender may not fully appreciate the danger in time. It must have been the availability of the h8 square that lulled me into a false sense of security in my game against NM Nick Adams at one of the infamous game/30 tournaments at the Marshall Chess Club in New York late last year. In the game Adams-Weeramantry, a relatively unexplored variation of the Four Pawns Attack in the King's Indian produced this position after Black's 15th move. White: Kg1, Ra1, Rf1, Bc1, Nc3, Nh3; pawns - a2, b2, c4, e4, f4, g2, h2; Black: Kg8, Ra8, Rf8, Bc8, Bh6, Nd4; pawns - a7, b7, c5, d6, e6, h7, h5 White opened the position with 16.e5 dxe5 17.fxe5 Rxf1+ 18.Kxf1. With only a few minutes left on my clock in sudden death, I made a quick decision to go for the rook on a1 with 18...Nc2. After all, how could my king possibly get into any trouble when my opponent had hardly any pieces left? 19.Bxh6! This was not totally unexpected but I was oblivious to the danger. 19...Nxa1 20.Ng5! I was beginning to feel uncomfortable as White's minor pieces started closing in; but that h8 square was still quite reassuring. 20...Bd7 21.Ne4. At this point, the only chance for survival was 21...Rf8+, giving back the ill-gotten gains. However, after 22.Bxf8 Kxf8 23.Nxc5 Ke7 24.Nf6 Bc6 25.Nxh7, White should win with ease. Still convinced that the magical h8 square would ensure the safety of my king, I blundered with 21...Be8? and watched helplessly as White tightened the noose with 22.Nxe6, setting up an unstoppable mate on g7. The examples shown above are somewhat unusual in that the bishop takes up position on the short diagonal. It is more common in bishop and knight mating patterns to have the bishop positioned on the long diagonal leading into the castled position, as shown in the diagram fragment below. (See Diagram) White: Be5, Nf5. Black: Kg8; pawns f7, g6, h7. White mates with either Ne7 or Nh6. Such positions are rarely created without the help of other pieces. Typically, the attacker must find a sacrifice to force open the important diagonal. The next example is from the game Kotronias King, New York 1990. This game can be found in its entirety in "Attack" by GM Julian Hodgson, (Hodgson Enterprises, 1997), a most instructive and entertaining book by the popular English GM. (See Diagram) White: Kg1, Qh3, Rd1, Re1, Be5, Nd4; pawns - a6, b2, c2, f2, g2, h2; Black: Kg8, Qc5, Ra8, Rf8, Be7, Ng6; pawns - a7, b6, f7, g7, h7 This is the position after Black's 23rd move. Black has withstood a vicious attack along the center files and has just escaped into what he hopes will be the relative safety of a castled position. But this is only an illusion. GM Kotronias, a skillful attacker, has a most unpleasant surprise in mind. 24.b4. A clever move which draws the black queen off the fifth rank and prepares the winning combination. If Black were to capture the pawn with 24...Qxb4, he would lose material to 25.Nc6 followed by 26.Nxe7+ and 27. Bd6. 24...Qc4 25.Nf5 Bxb4. White's next move is likely to send anyone into cardiac arrest. 26.Qh6!! Black resigns as mate is inevitable. A more complex example of forcing open the long diagonal so as to utilize the threat of a bishop/knight mate to good advantage is found in Dzindzichasvili Tseshkovsky, Tbilisi 1974. The game is analyzed in detail in "Secrets of Chess Tactics" by the renowned chess trainer, IM Mark Dvoretsky (Henry Holt 1992). (See Diagram) White: Kh1, Qe6, Rf3, Rg1, Bb2, Ne5; pawns - a2, d3, f4, h2; Black: Kh8, Qb7, Rd8, Rf8, Na7, Nf5; pawns - b5, c5, g7, h7 This is the position after Black's 30th move. A bishop/knight mate appears to be a far cry from reality. Black's king position looks quite secure and his pin of the white rook along the b7-h1 diagonal is taking that piece out of the attack for the present. But GM Dzindzichasvili finds a remarkable continuation: 31.Rxg7! Nxg7 32.Kg1!! This unpins the rook on f3 thereby threatening 33.Ng6+ followed by 34.Rh3 mate. And if Black captures the white queen with 32...Nxe6, he would open the diagonal for White's bishop on b2, setting the stage for a bishop/knight mate with 33.Nf7+ Kg8 34.Nh6 mate. Incredible! Tseshkovsky avoided this trap with 32...Rd4, but nevertheless went down to defeat ten moves later. One of the most unusual games I have seen with "minor piece magic" is Suba-Pasman, Beersheva, 1984, where all four of White's minor pieces took aim at the king. This time , the king was not cornered but had plenty of open space around him. (See Diagram) White: Kg1, Rd1, Bf4, Bh3, Nd6, Nf3; pawns - a2, e4, f2, g3, h2; Black: Ke6, Ra8, Rh8, Bd4, Be2, Nb8; pawns - c5, d7, f5, g6, h7 This is the position after Black's 19th move. 20.exf5+ Kf6 21.Bg5+ Kg7 22.Nxd4. Having driven the black king back towards the corner, White removes the only effective defender and ensures that the king cannot find shelter on the dark squares. The rook cannot be touched as 22...Bxd1 will be met by 23.f6+ Kg8 24.Bh6 which threatens an unstoppable mate on f7. Black must therefore create more escape squares for his king. 22...h6 23.f6+ Kg8 24.Nxe2 hxg5 25.Bg2. The bishop steps out of danger and prepares to re-enter the game from the other side. 25...Ra6 26.Nc3 g4 27.Nce4 Rh5 28.f7+ Kg7 29.Nf6 Rh8 30.Nxg4 Rxa2 31.Ne5 Ra4 32.Be4. Black might have been able to put up better resistance but failed to find an effective use for his rooks. White has now re-deployed his pieces and created another mating net. 32...Nc6 33.Ne8+ Kh6 34.Ng4+ Kg5 35.f4+ Kxg4 36.Nf6+ Kh3 37.Bg2 mate. Note that White's rook did not play an active role and was content to lend his minor pieces moral support. And the minor pieces proved quite capable of orchestrating the checkmate on their own. Copyright 1999 Sunil Weeramantry. All Rights Reserved.