Weakness - A perspective
"The experienced player will learn to distinguish which weaknesses to avoid and which to endure" - William Lombardy
......yet, we find even top players get into committing some serious weakness, time and again!
When Tenjiku was asked about the incident of Tanka burning the statue, he replied, "When it is cold we gather around the hearth by the fire"
"Was he wrong or not?" persisted the monk.
"When it is hot we sit in a bamboo forest in the valley," said Tenjiku
Chess ideally should be played like this, your opponent should not understand what you play! And for this to happen, you should also have no or less clarity on what is happening! The act of creation should be consigned to tacit integration. Mikhael Polanyi wrote, "Since particulars are more tangible, their knowledge offers a true conception of things is fundamentally mistaken". In chess, moves or more precisely sequence of moves calculated in advance gives an illusion of knowledge and comprehension and this at times lead one to get into doing mode.
Deliberate act of doing something is the chief reason for conceding serious weakness and at times serious tactical errors.
Paul Benko - Lev Psakhis, Aruba - 1992
6.b3 would have sparred White with this weakening move as White's Bishop never got to go to g2 in this game!
6.....Be6!
Anand played 6.....g6!? here against Petursson in Manila Interzonal, 1990 and won a fine game which was remniscent of Zita - Bronstein in the aspect of total domination of the dark squares - over White's Queen side in particular!
7.e4
If 7.Nd5 Ne5! 8.b3 (8.Nf6? Qf6 and the c4 pawn is lost, for, if 9.Qb4? d5! 10.Qb7 Bc5!! with a winning attack on White King) 8.....Ne4 9.Qe3 Nc5! followed by .....c6; .......Be7 or even .....Ng4 on occasions and Black has the clear initiative.
And if 7.b3? d5! 8.ed5 Nd5 9.Bg2 Bb4 10.Bb2 Qf6! 11.Rc1 OOO and Black is already winning
7.....Be7; 8.b3?
As the adage goes, "mistakes never come singly"! Bareev played 8.f3 in this position against Mokry, Tirnavia, 1989 and managed to survive, though Black may have played a little differently in the game to put more pressure on White's cramped space and the dark squares.
Possibly White has to reconcile with 8.Be2 admitting the dubious nature of 6.g3?!
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8.....Ne4!
A temporary piece sacrifice which exposes White's weakness and lack of development.
9.Ne4 d5! 10.cd5
In an earlier game, played in 1990 (Franco Ocampos vs Romero Holmes) White played 10.Bg2 and ran into 10......Bb4! (10.......de4!?) 11.Nc3 d4 12.Bb2 Qf6 13.Nge2 OOO and went on to win the game.
10.Nc3 d4!
10....Bb4
Possible is 10.....Bd5! 11.Qe2 OO! with a very strong initiative. But the game continuation lead to demolishing White quickly. Rest of the game does not require any commentary.
11.Nc3 Bd5; 12.f3 Qf6; 13.Bb2 OOO; 14.Be2 Bf3; 15.Nf3 Rd2; 16.Kd2 Rd8; 17.Kc2 Qg6; 18.Kc1 Bc5!; 19.Nd1 Qe4; 20.Re1 Nb4!
White Resigned
Lautier, Joel - Vaganian, Rafael, Aeroflot, 2004
1.d4 d5; 2.c4 e6; 3.Nc3 Be7; 4.cd5 ed5; 5.Bf4 c6; 6.e3 Bf5; 7.Nge2 Nd7 8.f3?!
8.Ng3 is most common.
A game between Duda vs Harikrishna in 2020 went, 8.Ng3 Bg6 9.h4!? h5? (here, as Duda mentioned 9.....Bh4! 10.Qb3 Bg3 11.Bg3 Qb6! -/+) 10.Bd3! Bd3 11.Qd3 g6 12.e4! and white obtained a clear advantage
Duda had intended 8.h4! (instead of Ng3) when .....Bh4?! leads to 9.Qb3 b6 10.Nd5!! cd5 11.Rh4 Qh4 12.Qd5! with initiative
Aagaard rightly observed, then: "This creates a lot of weaknesses and has no long-term advantages. Moves like this certainly need to be eliminated from Lautier's play, if he is to break the 2700-barrier and join the absolute chess elite – a stated ambition of his"
What Aagaard expressed above is what Bronstein said decades back: "The greatest advantage in Chess is to have the next move" - which means, your next move should flow naturally out of the richness in the position on board and one should not strive to arrive at the move through laborious calculations. Lombardy, in his great book "Understanding Chess", even went to the extent of saying, "Analysis is not Chess. Analysis in Chess is an emergency condition by which we solve immediate problems during a game of chess"
Let us delve a little deeper about weakness!
In Chess, weakness (and strength!) is almost always associated with Pawns! We need to move pawns in order to get our pieces which cannot jump - hence the old school of thought emphasised "Knights first out"! Some of the finest games played in Chess has 6 pawns: a,b,c and f,g and h on their original squares and allowed the major pieces, especially the Rook to freely move on the third rank! You may search for the games by Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Karpov and Carlsen in particular.
Unnecessary pawn moves takes away the space and manoeuvrability of one's own pieces, hence one has to be frugal in moving their pawns during the opening! Great teacher Tarrasch wrote, "In the opening, you should move only a few pawns, just as many as are necessary for the development of the pieces, for, remember, every pawn move loosens the position. In the middlegame too, nothing so easily ruins a position as pawn moves. I have often expressed this jokingly to my pupils thus: "never move a pawn and you will never lose a game"!
Those who studied classical games, would realise what Tarrasch meant. Every pawn move leaves the squares that are beneath it (especially the adjacent one's below) weak and one should take sufficient care to have those squares, which pawns leave, covered well with one's pieces - after this is what the principle of development means in true sense!
Capablanca simply said, "In the openings, whenever possible, pieces should be moved in preference to pawns"!
Larry Evans wrote, "The opening - roughly the first dozen moves - is a fight for Space, Time and Force". By Space and Time, what Evans implied is the movement of pawn, to that extent it buys space for its pieces - the force - to develop and advance! Svetozar Gligoric wrote, (in the same book: "How to open a Chess Game" a great book which is a complilation of articles on opening play by 7 eminent players of that time: Paul Keres, Tigran Petrosian, Bent Larsen, Svetozar Gligoric, Lajos Portisch, Vlastimil Hort and Larry Evans), "The art of treating the opening stage of the game correctly and without error is basically the art of using time efficiently". Gligoric too essentially alludes to pawn moves here when he speaks about time. Now, this element of Time is very intriguing in Chess! Time can be understood only in combination of Space which the elusive time procures for one's pieces to reach important places first and quickly! Without Space, Time is obscured.
Having said this, there are openings (for eg Alekhine defence 4 pawn attack) where the first 8 or 9 moves are only pawn moves!! And we have Keres attack, Saemisch variation, where one moves the pawns which are supposed to give cover to the King! You name a rule or principle in chess, there are equal number of exceptions to those rules and principles! No rule or principle is sacro-sanct and one has to judiciously apply them to the current situation on the board intuitively.
Therefore, above all, one should learn how and where to apply the principles of chess and judiciously apply them while playing and not allow their desire or emotion to take over and end up committing something serious. Evans wrote, "Concentrate of applying sound general principles - develop rapidly, castle early, centralise your pieces - and you will rarely go wrong. The idea is not to trick your opponent, but to keep on strengthening your position"
......keep on strengthening your position! This is what one should aim to put in action during the course of playing a game, by heeding to little things, nuances, subtlity that lay partially hidden and look to play simple chess, strengthening the position and look for any weakness created by opponent and pounce on it!
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8.....Bg6!
One of my student suggested, 8....g5!? 9.Bg3 h5 here and it is not out of place - despite the fact that it defies all principles of opening play! It is a response to what White committed and the justification for this lies in the aspect which applies only to the current position - a response to f3?!
9.Bg3 Nh6! 10.Bf2
10.Nf4 Nf5 11.Bf2 (11.Ng6 hg6 12.Bf2 Bh4!) Bd6 12.Ng6 hg6 -/+
10.....Bd6! 11.g4?
This is getting serious. Here atleast, White should have been restrained and played 11.Ng3 followed by Bd3 minimising the damage
11.....f5!
A typical strategic response exposing the faulty opening strategy employed by White.
12.h3 OO; 13.Bg2 Qe7!;
Protecting her Bd6 (White had perhaps planned, Qb3!) as well as forestalling e4
14.OO fg4; 15.hg4 Qg5!
Forces getting deployed for final onslaught!
"All men can see these tactics, whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which the victory is evolved" - Sun Tzu (in Art of War)
Rest assured, in Chess, the strategy evolves out of your opponents inaction or inappropriate moves and the targets that it yields to you. That gives the lead and trigger the process of ideation!
16.Qd2
16.e4? de4 17.Ne4 Be4 18.fe4 Ng4 19.Qb3 Kh8 20.Bg3 Nc5! 21.Qc3 Ne4 22.Be4 Ne3 Winning
16....Rae8; 17.Rae1
Perhaps 17.Nf4 would have put up a better fight, though 17....Rf4! 18.ef4 Bf4 would have led to a serious attack on the dark squares around White King
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17.....Rf3!! 18.Bf3 Ng4!! 19.Bg3?
Better was 19.Bg4 Qg4 20.Bg3 Bg3 21.Ng3 Qg3 22.Qg2 and the endgame after Queen exchange is advantageous for Black
19.....Ne3; 20.Kh1 Bh5; 21.Bh5 Qh5; 22.Kg1 Qh3!
White could have sparred himself of the remaining moves.....
23.Rf2 Bg3; 24.Ng3 Qg3; 25.Rg2 Ng2; 26.Re8 Kf7; 27.Rc8 Ne3; 28.Kh1 Nf6
White Resigned
In conclusion, I quote David Bronstein (in his great book: "The modern Chess Self-Tutor"), "In future centuries only the pawns will still always be associated with living people, because it is so desirable that on the Chess board should be sensed not only the breath of war, but also the pulse of human thinking, and the beating of living hearts". This expounds what Philidor said in one sentence, 3 centuries back: "Pawns are the souls of chess"!
....treat them with empathy and atmost care!
I Remain
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