Sunday, September 10, 2006

An Introduction to Chess Strategy for the Novice Player

One of the more engaging debates that rage between chess players revolves around chess strategy versus chess tactics. Chess is one of those games that takes a few days to learn and the rest of your life to master, and most new players, whether they be adults or scholastic players, learn very early on that losing a significant amount of material is a sure path to disaster. Since many authorities equate losing material with chess tactics, many books that teach beginners emphasize learning tactics over strategy. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to have the strategic advantage of a strong knight posted on d6 if you lose your Queen on the next move. You will find that most of your opponents can overcome this "strategic" disadvantage with the extra material.

Once you move beyond the "dropped material" stage though, understanding strategy becomes much more important. I want to emphasize here that chess is a mixture of strategy and tactics. Whether you favor or one or the other depends on your skill level, your personality to some extent, and the current stage of your development

This article is intended to help a new player develop a "chess style". To stronger players, the idea of a "class" player developing a "chess style" may seem somewhat premature. It is important to remember though that you must be comfortable with your style of play, no matter what your playing strength. If your favorite opening is "The Wilkes Barre Variation" of the Two Knights Defense, you aren't going to be comfortable trying to play like the late Tigran Petrosian. Things are completely different if you enjoy chess as a slow steady buildup of your forces, marshalling your pieces as if you were on a two year plan for the invasion of Normandy and then gradually grinding your opponent into a king and pawn ending. For you, the ultimate compliment will be the complete befuddlement of your opponent to the point where he doesn't even know why he lost.

The argument of positional vs. tactical style has probably been going on since the days of Greco and Ruy Lopez and the invention of Western chess in the 15th century. The powerful new Queen opened up all kinds of tactical possibilities and tactics ruled until the age of Philidor who was probably the first Master to truly understand positional play as we define it today. He certainly understood pawn play and his positional knowledge of the game made him the most formidable player of his day.

Philidor stood in stark contrast to the Romantic school of chess, which had held sway since this, the 17th century. (Wasn't the Romantic School primarily after Philidor, holding sway until Steinitz?) (no, it starts with Greco..Philidor was largely ignored since no one really grasped what he was writing about..) The Romantics lived for the attack and in an era of poorly understood defensive techniques, their slashing attacks and brilliant sacrifices often succeeded. Greco, La Bourdannais and Anderrsen are examples of this school of play.

Morphy, as a player, and later Steinitz, as both a player and a theoretician, began to write finis to the Romantic school of chess by establishing certain positional principles that needed to be in place if attacks were to succeed. Steinitz took the concepts farther and laid out the principles for defending a position. Siegbert Tarrasch synthesized these ideas into the "Classical" school of chess and the battle over a "positional" style versus a "tactical" style has been raging ever since.

Now all this is very interesting, but it really doesn't address the reason you are reading this article in the first place. The reason you seek to develop a style is to get better at the game. In order to get better at the game, you have to co-ordinate four elements, which are space, time, force, and pawn structure. The difficulty is that all these elements shift like the sands of the Arabian Desert. In order to take advantage of them, it becomes necessary to evaluate the position, come up with a plan, carry out the plan and win the game. The first step to accomplishing this is to learn tactics and learn them well. Tactics are a combination of pattern recognition and calculation. The more familiar you are with the pattern of a particular tactic, the more likely you are to recognize it over the board.

Pattern recognition is an acquired skill. Some people may have it to a much greater degree than others, but unless you are planning to contend for the World Championship, you probably have enough innate pattern recognition ability to bring your rating up two hundred points or so in well under a year if you want to take the time to work at it. Rapid Chess Improvement by Michael De la Maza outlines a complete player improvement program for club players interested in improving their ratings by 200 points or more, using only tactical improvement as the basis. While this may strike some people as radical, most club players or "class" players lose most of their games because of tactical oversights. This having been said, they end up making the tactical oversight because of a failure to understand their position.

Force or material is a pretty straightforward concept. If I have an extra piece, this additional force should allow me to win. You usually acquire this superior force through the mistake of an opponent or through a brilliant tactical device of your own. Tactics involve elements such as skewers, forks, x-ray attacks, and sacrifices. Mastering these tactical motifs thoroughly will add hundreds of points to your rating and is the reason that many players go through large jumps in strengths before hitting a plateau. The inability to master tactics probably stalls more players in the lower classes than anything relating to positional play or the opening. Over the last thirty years there has been an increasing emphasis on opening books. More recently, several excellent books detailing positional play have come out. This is a great thing although it is something of a let down to have achieved a won game and then lose because you overlooked a mate in one. Mastering an opening without adequate tactical ability usually means that you will find yourself in a complicated position that your opponent may very understand better than you do. Tactical players love situations like this one, since it simplifies their main objective of putting you at a significant disadvantage.

A key element in raising your rating is to be play in tournaments. Of course, not playing in tournaments can preserve your rating so this tournament business is something of a two edged sword. Tournaments, whether they are Over-the-Board (OTB) tournaments or online or correspondence tournaments, have the advantage of forcing stronger players to play you. Losing to stronger players is not completely a bad thing as long as you rigorously analyze your games afterwards, either with your opponent, your coach, or just your friends at the local chess club. Losing to weaker players has no discernible advantages, other than as a lesson in humility.

Assuming for the moment that you have mastered the tactical intricacies of the game, you are left with other style issues to ponder. We have talked about force or material. The other elements of the game relate to space, time, and pawn structure.

"The seeds of defeat lie in a cramped position" –Siegbert Tarrasch

Wilhelm Steinitz essentially invented most of the positional concepts that are still quoted in chess manuals today. Tarrasch modified these ideas and codified them into instructional manuals that are still somewhat valid today. He didn't understand all of Steinitz's ideas, but he did get most of them. Steinitz created the following positional concepts that are basic to the game. Thousands of pages have been written in chess literature explaining or trying to explain these ideas with various degrees of success. Some of them were not original but it was Steinitz's interpretation and explanation of them that made the difference. Gaining a fundamental understanding of these ideas, combined with a strong amount of effort on the tactical side of your game, will lead to a gradual increase in strength.

Positional concept 1: A lead in development. This relates to time since a lead in development will eventually dissipate with time. The opening phase of the game is concerned with development and an opening where you don't end up developing your pieces properly will usually lead to an attack by your opponent.

Positional concept 2: Superior mobility-Your pieces have free movement and good squares where they can be effectively posted. The bad bishop is the most notorious example of a piece without good squares because of the limitations placed on it by its own pawns.

Positional concept 3: Occupation and control of the center. This is one of the oldest principles of chess and has been subject to a number of interpretations over the years. Because all of your pieces are more effective if they are in the center of the board, controlling the center usually means that you will have control of the game. Resolving the tension in the center is a precondition for an attack.

Positional concept 4: Unsafe king position. If your king is liable to attack, you have a significant positional problem. Steinitz always considered the King to be a strong piece. It is also a juicy target, so beware!

Positional concept 5: Weak squares: Weak squares can be defined as squares where your opponent can safely post his pieces. Weak squares provide an entry point into your territory and are often the precursor to an attack. Naturally, if you can exploit the weak squares of your opponent, then they will work for you.

Positional concept 6: United pawns and isolated pawns. Pawn structure is a key to understanding positional chess because the characteristics of pawn structures determine the nature of the entire game. Connected pawns support one another and control squares. Isolated pawns are unsupported and are subjected to being blockaded by enemy pieces. The actual impact of an isolated pawn depends on the formation in question.

Other positional concepts include the Q-side majority, open files, preponderance of material and the conversion of small advantages into a winning position. As far better writers than your author have addressed these in detail, we will now return to the creation of a personal chess playing style as a way to improve your chess strength.

Positional concept 7: The Queen side Majority. The queen side pawn majority often plays an important role positional because the side that possesses it going into the end game can force a passed pawn on the far side of the board. This can be enough to win a lot of king and pawn endings, assuming you know how to play king and pawn endings which are among the most difficult ending in all of chess.

Positional concept 8: Open files. Open files are vertical lines designed for use by the rook. An open file has no pawns blocking it. Open files are often crucial during the middle game and many games have been decided by which side controls them.

Positional concept 9: The two bishops. This particular concept is severely overrated but the Classical school fell in love with them early on, so it has become part of the positional lore. Modern authors stress that the advantage or disadvantage of the two bishops depends on the position. Personally, my opinion is that the only thing a bishop is good for is killing knights. This may seem a bit extreme but I have an itsy bitsy problem seeing knight moves…

Positional concept 10: Preponderance of material. If I have more material than you do, and I don't blunder into a mate or a draw, I should win, assuming I have decent "technique". We will save a discussion of technique for a later article, since it is beyond the scope of this one.

First and foremost is the development of tactical vision. This means that it is absolutely critical to master tactics. First, you have to quit hanging pieces. This comes with time and experience, but you can speed the process up considerably through the use of chess training programs such as CT-ART or specialized programs from Chessbase. If that is not an option, there are numerous tactical puzzles, preferably from real games that will help you improve that area of the game. For a more formalized approach, check out Michael De La Maza's book "Rapid Chess Improvement" from Everyman.

I am a pragmatist when it comes to the opening. I would suggest that if you are under 1800, play open games starting with e4. Answer 1.e4 with 1.e5 and play tactically with an eye toward developing your tactical vision. Learn to play the open Sicilians as white. You will be pleasantly surprised to find that your opponents with Black may be considerably more inept than you are. Seek to get a playable game out of the opening and don't worry about the latest theory on move 34 of the Najdorf. If your opponent knows it that well, you are probably doomed anyway.

Work on basic positional ideas. Start with pawn structure and king safety and work your way up. Try not to lose tempos in the opening if possible. Make an attempt to understand weak squares and don't view your pawns as hapless victims to be moved when nothing else is available. Above all, play for fun! Whether you win or lose is really not all that important when compared to something really important. I am still trying to figure out what is more important……

In future articles, we will take each concept and illustrate through the use of diagrams and games from the past. These little tutorials will not take the place of a complete book but we will review those for you and include them in a bibliography at the end of the article so you will know which books will provide the most guidance. In addition, I will be reviewing older books that may be out of print but still available at the library. In the long run, hard work and good study habits will help you improve rapidly. I hope this article will help in that endeavor

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