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Part I
Hi,
Today, however, you are in luck as this is exactly the topic of this
lesson. Today we will be discussing powerful techniques for finding
strong moves!
Naturally I cannot cover everything in just one lesson. Nevertheless, I
will give you a couple of practical and powerful recommendations
that youll be able to implement and improve your results with right
after this lesson.
1
TO TAKE IS A MISTAKE
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Im pretty sure that most players would just take Blacks queen on e5.
Generally, when you have a material advantage it is good to
exchange pieces. However, in this position it is not the best move
because if White takes Blacks queen on e5, he will only have
succeeded in helping Black to activate his knight and bring it to a
good central square.
is far better that you maintain the tension and let your opponent be
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So now you know one secret of strong players: they understand the
rule that to take is a mistake. It may sound rather simple but most
players do not follow this rule or do not know about it. What they
actually do is the opposite thing and they take whenever they can.
Why do so many players make this mistake? Its actually quite easy
to explain. Consider for a moment the following example:
Diagram 2
Black to move
Now, imagine that you are playing Black and you are considering
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the move 10d5. Which variations do you need to check before you
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If after Black plays 10d5 White responds with 11. cxd5, then of
course Black must recapture. If he does not he will lose material and
so there is nothing to think about. He has no other option but to take.
However, in the subsequent position after 11Nxd5 (see Diagram 3
below) White should not take on d5. This would be a mistake and
White should refrain from making this move because of the rule: to
take is a mistake.
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White to move
Now that you know the rule that to automatically take is a mistake,
and that you should always try to maintain the tension, lets move on
a little.
OFFENSE IS THE BEST DEFENSE
Okay. Lets continue our exploration of the way strong players think
with another example. Below is a theoretical position from the Sicilian
defense, Najdorf variation.
Diagram 4
5
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White to move
Okay? Now, here is a question for you. How would you play here as
White?
Ill be very glad if you decided not to take the d5 pawn. You know
already that to take is a mistake and in this position it is indeed not
the best option. After 15.exd5 Black will recapture with 16Nxd5.
With this move Black brings the knight into the centre, attacks
Whites bishop on e3 and gains more activity. As a result White needs
to find something better.
Although we know that we should try to keep the tension and avoid
moves like exd5, here it is not so easy to find a suitable way to keep
the tension and somehow protect the e4-pawn:
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If White tries a move like 15.Qd3, a rather awkward idea, then Black
can play 15Ne5 or 15Nc5 and gain extra tempi. Again, this is
certainly not something that White would want.
Perhaps now you are thinking that if you dont have a good way to
defend the e4-pawn then maybe you just have to take on d5. This is
certainly how most chess players think in such situations. However,
this way of thinking has one major drawback: everything that weve
been considering so far in this position has been focused on an
opponents threats and we completely forgot about our own plans.
Let me give you a quick analogy. It is rather like a tug-of-war
competition. Each side is trying to pull the rope in their own direction
and the side who does it stronger will win the competition. A similar
thing happens in chess. Each player is trying to pull the game in the
direction that he wants, and the one who does it more insistently will
win the game.
Having said that, let us take this new approach and apply it in the
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above position. Our task is to see what other resources we can find
White could play 15.Bh3 and cover the h-file. Then after 15dxe4
White can push g5 successfully. Also, the bishop on h3 attacks Blacks
e6-pawn. Maybe White will sacrifice a piece there or he could push
g6 and undermine this e6-pawn. All in all this position looks very
promising for White. So thats one interesting idea.
At the very least White can remove the rook from danger by playing
15.Rg1 with similar ideas of pushing g5 and then g6 and developing
an attack on the king-side. Thats another alternative.
In the actual game, White found another move with a similar idea.
He played 15.Bf4 (attacking Blacks queen) and after Black played
15e5 White played 16.Bh2. With this maneuver White has covered
the h-file with his dark-squared bishop and he is ready to push g5. Of
course Black cannot take the knight on d4 because the pawn is
pinned and so he took on e4 (16dxe4). After that, White pushed
17.g5 (see Diagram below).
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Black to move
As you can see, White is developing his attack. Of course it is still a
very complicated position but White has good chances to develop
a successful attack and Black should be really careful. For example,
if after 17hxg5, 18.hxg5 Black makes the natural move 18Nd5 he
is losing immediately as White can take with 19.Bxc5 (attacking
Blacks queen and unleashing a discovered attack on Blacks h8-
rook).
Okay, so lets now go back to the critical position (Diagram 5). The
important thing for you to take from this is that after we adopted a
new approach, we were able to find a lot of interesting and
powerful possibilities for White. This is a key difference between the
way strong players and weak players think.
We can summarize these ideas by stating the rule: offense is the best
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defense. While Im sure youve heard this several times in the past,
REVIEW
In this lesson we have been discussing the secrets of strong players.
You now know two powerful secrets of these strong players. Let us
review them quickly.
To take is mistake:
A major difference between strong and not-so-strong players is that
when there is the possibility for an exchange, weaker players will
usually just take automatically. Unlike them, strong players know that
to take is a mistake and that you should therefore look for a way to
keep the tension.
Of course if you can win an opponents material, then you can and
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should take.
Offense is the best defense:
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I will end this here for now, but let me say in closing that when you
know the secrets of strong players, everything becomes pretty
simple. If you adopt these rules you may not become a
Grandmaster overnight but your game will improve dramatically.