Black to play
Have you ever noticed how an unexpected capture can immediately decide the fate of the game.
Even first class masters may underestimate the strength of a capture. Where the capture has a most unlikely look about it, they may miss the possibility of the capture altogether. (D)
Black to play
One of the most drastic examples I know of occurred in the London Tournament of 1951, the most important international tournament of that year. Van Scheltinga, a leading Dutch master, had won a pawn from C.H. O’Donel Alexander, England’s outstanding player.
White’s pieces are somewhat tied up but he seems quite safe. There is an ominous detail, quite overlooked by White, in that his queen is way off to the side instead of playing an active role in the game.
Imagine the shock to White when his opponent plays ...queen takes rook (...Q×f3). (D)
After ...Qe4×f3
White has to resign after this loss of his rook, the point being that if he plays pawn takes queen (g×f3), Black replies ...bishop takes pawn (...B×f3#) mate.
Captures, as you see from this example, can be almost as deadly as many types of checks. So we consider captures – and the threat of captures – among the outstandingly strong moves on the board. Captures like check, decide the fate of many a game.
Captures are of two kinds – even exchanges and all other kinds.
When you capture your opponent’s queen and he captures yours in return we have an even exchange. When your opponent captures one of your pawns, and you capture one of his in return, that is another kind of even exchange. If one player captures a bishop and the other captures a knight, that is still an even exchange. For these pieces have the same value. (See page 26).
However, in this chapter we’re interested in the other kind of captures – the kind that wins material for one player and loses material for the other.
How deeply ingrained capturing is in the mind of a chess master can be seen from this story. Blackburne, the great English nineteenth-century master, often went on tour when he would give a series of simultaneous exhibitions. In the course of these exhibitions he would take on anywhere from twenty to fifty opponents at the same time.
At once such exhibition, one of Blackburne’s hard-pressed opponents ordered a drink for himself to relax a bit. When the drink arrived, he set it at the side of his board. As Blackburne arrived at the table, he saw the drink, assumed that it had been ordered for him, picked it up, and finished it off at one gulp. He won that game very quickly.
Later in the evening someone asked Blackburne what happened at that particular table. “Why, nothing remarkable,” he replied. “My opponent left a glass of whisky en prise; I captured it en passant, and won easily!”
To be “capture-minded” is second nature to the chess master because having an advantage in material is one of the likeliest ways to win a game.
Advantage in material is the chief factor that helps you enforce checkmate or promote a pawn to a queen.
If you do not have the values of the pieces firmly fixed in mind, you ought to refer to them now on page 24 before you go any further in this chapter.
The diagram shows a position in which many a player would fail to see the possibility of winning material: (D)
White to play
The right move for White is bishop takes knight (B×f6). (D)
After Bh4×f6
Black has to capture the bishop, and he has two ways of doing it – with his g7-pawn or with his queen.
If he takes the bishop with his pawn (...g×f6), then White can answer queen takes rook pawn (Q×h6). (In the position of the initial diagram it would have been a frightful blunder for White to have taken the h6-pawn with his queen as his first move. For then Black would have replied ...pawn takes queen [...g×h6].)
On the other hand if Black retakes with his queen instead of his pawn ...queen takes bishop (...Q×f6), White plays queen takes queen (Q×f6) followed by knight to c7 (Nc7) forcing the win of a black rook in return for White’s knight. (D)
After Nb5-c7
This would be a distinct gain of material for White. It is known, you will recall, as winning the Exchange. (See page 28). Note that as his first move White would not play knight to c7 (Nc7) directly, for then the black queen would take the foolhardy knight (...Q×c7).
This points up the fact that the winning technique used here by White is called “removing the defender.” If Black recaptures with his pawn (...g×f6) he loses a pawn. If he recaptures with his queen (...Q×f6) he loses the Exchange.
“Removing the defender” is a valuable winning method that you can use repeatedly once you are familiar with it. You will find that a check or a capture is often the prelude to removing the defender, after which you can win material to your heart’s content. (D)
White to play
Let’s see how the method works in the above diagram.
White to be sure can play bishop takes knight (B×d6). But Black simply recaptures ...rook takes bishop (...R×d6). No profit here. Let’s carry the process a step further: White plays rook takes rook (R×d6) and Black replies ...queen takes rook (...Q×d6). No profit there either: just two even exchanges. (D)
Should we conclude then, that White cannot win material in the position of the diagram? That conclusion would be hasty: what we need is a preparatory threat to drive away a defender.
The right way to start in the position is knight to a4 (Na4). This attacks Black’s queen. (D)
After ...Qb6×d6
After Nc3-a4
Study the position carefully and you will see that the black queen, now under attack, cannot move to a square where it continues to guard the black knight at d6. Thus if Black retreats ...queen to a7 (...Qa7), White simply captures the knight with his rook or bishop, and he has won a whole piece – a winning advantage.
But Black isn’t licked – not yet anyway. He can make a fight of it in this way.
He plays ...queen takes the b5-pawn (....Q×b5). Black thus puts the white queen under attack, and he figures that after White plays queen takes queen (Q×b5), he will reply ...knight takes queen (...N×b5); all danger will be over for him.
It does seem, as we study the diagram, that Black is out of his troubles: (D)
After ...Nd6×b5
However, White can say, “We planned it that way,” for he now proceeds with rook takes rook (R×d8). Black replies ...rook takes rook (...R×d8). He has no choice.
Now White continues with bishop takes knight (B×e7). Black’s miserable knight has no protection; Black has no recapture; White has won a clear piece. (D)
After Ba3×e7
What happened? Black tried the only defense he could find and he did succeed in saving his menaced knight on the d6-square, but unfortunately, in the course of a series of captures, the defense of his other knight became unhinged. Result: Black has lost a piece in return for a mere pawn, and he will lose the game.
Sometimes, as in our next diagram, it is fairly easy to see a chance for a killing capture. This is particularly true when a capture threatens a decisive attack. (D)
Black to play
Black can play ...knight to e2 check (...Ne2+) with a view to forking White’s king a queen. Nice work, until you notice that White can simply capture the knight with his bishop now on the d3-square (B×e2). Too bad!
Instead of dropping the idea, however, let’s look for captures. White’s bishop on the d3-square is the defender. Well, suppose Black removes the defender. How? By playing ...rook takes bishop (...R×d3). (D)
After this capture White is lost. If he captures Black’s rook, then the nasty knight check (...Ne2+) forks White’s king and queen. On the other hand, if White guards against this threat, Black’s rook escapes captures and Black has won a clear piece, with a won game.
After ...Rd8×d3
In the following diagram White does not rely on a check possibility, but his method is forceful all the same. (D)
White to play
Most players would see nothing wrong with Black’s game, but there is a sad flaw in it: His rook on the e8-square guards his bishop and also his other rook.
What of it? Just this: we distrust positions in which one piece has to protect two or more. It makes too much work for the defender. In the diagram position a white rook attacks Black’s bishop; the white queen attacks a black rook. To get the most advantage out of the situation, White plays rook takes bishop (R×e7). (D)
After Rd7×e7
Now the fat is in the fire as far as Black is concerned. If he replies ...rook takes rook (...R×e7), he leaves his other rook in the lurch, allowing queen takes rook check (Q×a8+) and White has won a clear piece.
Thus, after White captures the bishop he forces the win of a piece no matter what Black does. Again and again you see in these examples the profitable ways of winning material which are generally overlooked by most players. (D)
White to play
In the diagram position the winning method is tantalizingly difficult – or tantalizingly simple, depending on how you look at it:
White’s queen attacks Black’s bishop, which is defended by Black’s queen. Of course, it would be a huge blunder on White’s part to capture the bishop (Q×g5) losing his queen (...Q×g5) for only a bishop. But it’s just at this point, where you mutter. “No dice!” that you really have to apply yourself.
If Black’s bishop were guarded by a pawn, that would be solid protection and you could forget about trying to capture the bishop. But when the bishop is defended by a piece, the defense may turn out to be unstable.
And in fact the defense is unstable, if you turn your glance to the queenside and see the explosive power unleashed by the quiet pawn to b4. Why this move? (D)
After b2-b4
Black’s knight is attacked by the white pawn and must move. Once the black knight moves, probably ...knight to c4 (...Nc4), White plays rook takes rook (R×a8) with a winning game! Black to be sure can reply ...queen takes rook (...Q×a8). (D)
After ...Qd8×a8
But in that case his queen no longer defends his bishop, and White can reply queen takes bishop (Q×g5), winning a clear piece. (D)
After Qg4×g5
Thus the advance of White’s b-pawn made it possible for him to remove the defender. But, you may say, “It’s easy for a master to use these possibilities. It’s not so easy to find these moves.”
True; but you have a very important principle to guide you. If you are attacking, as White is attacking in the diagram, you at least have the possibility of a winning capture.
Threat of attack is the key to winning captures; for the player on the defensive there is no immediate capturing opportunity. But an existing attack, even if your opponent has apparently parried it, still holds out the hope that you can make the attack irresistible.
Another way of almost infallibly guaranteeing winning captures is the “double attack.” The following diagram is a good example: (D)
White to play
Here the double attack is pawn to e5 (e5). We call this kind of move a “pawn fork,” as the pawn threatens to capture the black queen and also the black knight at f6. (All “forks” are double attacks.) (D)
After e4-e5
Of course Black cannot dream of capturing this cocky pawn, as it is guarded by the white queen. So Black has no choice: he must save his queen by retreating that piece, looking on helplessly while White captures the knight.
Double attacks are among the most frequent attacks in chess, and among the most effective. For here one unit attacks two hostile units at the same time. What could be more devastating – and economical? The same idea turns up in our next diagram in somewhat more elaborate form: (D)
Black to play
Black’s queen attacks White’s knight at the e4-square, but the knight is amply guarded by White’s queen at the e2-square. Does that mean that Black can accomplish nothing at all here? By no means.
As we saw previously, while there’s attack there’s hope. Black’s attack is parried for the time being; but isn’t there some way he can strengthen that attack and make it work? Yes: ...rook to f4 (...Rf4). (D)
After ...Rf8-f4
This attacks White’s knight a second time. It also attacks White’s bishop, which is unguarded.
This double attack is too much for White. He can save his knight, but only at the cost of losing his bishop. He can save the bishop at the cost of losing his knight. But he cannot save the bishop and the knight! There you see the cruel effectiveness of the double attack.
The crushing effectiveness of the double attack has still another virtue: it enables you to calculate a whole series of moves in advance. Our next diagram is a good example: (D)
Black to play
Black attacks the bishop twice (with queen and rook). White defends this bishop twice (also with queen and rook). But somewhere along the line the powerful fork ...knight to e2 check (...Ne2+) can play a role.
Actually, Black can win in this position in a number of ways. We shall choose the simplest method.
Black starts off with ...rook takes bishop (...R×c1). White replies with queen takes rook (Q×c1). Black now plays ...queen takes queen (...Q×c1) and White replies rook takes queen, (R×c1) giving us the position in our next diagram. (D)
After Re1×c1
What has Black accomplished? He has lost the Exchange by giving up his rook for White’s bishop. Is that all there is to it?
But now comes the stinger, which Black foresaw all along: ...knight to e2 check (...Ne2+). White must move his king, whereupon Black captures the white rook.
The result of the wholesale captures is that Black has won a whole piece. Count up the remaining pieces on the board to make sure you follow this.
Black was able to calculate three moves deep because White’s moves were forced. That is one of the virtues of captures. Since your opponent must recapture in order to maintain material equality, you can foresee his reply and thus calculate a forced line of play.
Of course, it was the forking check at the end that made Black’s calculation sound. This is the way Black’s mind worked in the position of the diagram: first he saw the possibility of the knight check and then he searched for a sequence of moves that would make the check work. This type of thinking is very common in chess.
In cases like this one you might compare a chess player to the author of a whodunit who starts his work by figuring out the solution which will come at the end of the book. In our position the knight’s forking check is the “solution.” Black’s task, once he sees the check, is to search for the moves that make the check meaningful.
The next diagram illustrates a method of winning material based on a pin. We say that a chess unit is pinned when it is unable to move off the line on which it is placed. (D)
White to play
Thus in the diagram, when White plays pawn to b4. (D)
After b2-b4
Black must not reply ...pawn takes pawn (...c×b4), for this would lose his queen.
Black’s c5-pawn, then, is pinned: it dare not move off the c-line. But Black’s knight is attacked. No matter where he moves it will be captured. Thus Black must lose a piece because of the pin. (In Chapter 10 we will find many striking examples of the power of the pin.)
From what you have now learned about captures and capturing threats, you can see why captures are among the strongest moves on the board.
Look out for capturing possibilities: see how you can combine them with checks; watch out for enemy units that have to protect other enemy units; look for possibilities of double attack; note opportunities for forking and pinning.
These are the moves that win games. To be familiar with them, to be able to pick them out of an otherwise meaningless position, to use them, to crush your opponent – these are the marks of a winning player.
You still need to learn about the third type of strong move – the transformation of the “measly” pawn into a queen that gives you an overwhelming material advantage. The subject is treated in the next chapter.