Temposchlucker: Invasion

 The problem set I use is based on a few simple conditions:

• two movers
• not mate
• rating about 1700

Despite these straightforward choices, the set is quite diverse. Often it is questionable why it are two movers, since a lot of interesting follow up moves are left out for no apparent reason.

Besides that, the end isn’t always about gaining wood, as I was inclined to think. Sometimes it is about promotion, or a winning endgame, or an invasion. I gave these problems their own tag, so I can have a deeper look at them later on.

I have seen most problems about 30 times, which gave me the possibility to write a narrative for each of them. I have been surprised how rich these simple looking problems turned out to be.

Of the 111 problems, 11 got an extra tag “invasion” by me. I’m especially interested in that, because the study of the Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic showed the importance of that idea. Vukovic made a starting point with his book. It is a pity that nobody has picked up the gauntlet he threw at us.

The Art of Attack in Chess lays an emphasis on the lines of attack that end at or near the opposing King. There is a gap in chess knowledge between the opening and the attack of the King. Between the opening and the attack lies the LoA landscape. That landscape is formed by the pawns and the piece placement.

In the past year I had a closer look at this area. Especially CM Can Kabadayi has written a few books for Chessable that prove to be useful.

The elements of interest are:

• Activate your pieces
• Bury the pieces of your opponents
• Which pieces to exchange

The role of the pawns can be quite ambiguous. Hence it is very difficult to define rules for them. The pawns are important because they move slow and can only move in one direction. That is the reason why they are at the base of any plan.

• They form the lanes for the pieces, the LoA landscape
• They can activitate your pieces by opening lines and diagonals
• They can bury your opponents pieces
• When fixed, they decide which pieces are bad and which are good
• When mobilized, they can act as a wedge
• They can claim space
• They can become targets themselves
• They can determine the outcome of an endgame
• They can protect your king
• They can act as a crowbar

Rules for pawns without a good grasp of the context turn out to become counter productive. And there are quite an amount of different contexts. Yet their specific properties (slow and unidirectional) are so important that we must study them.

But beware of the context! The context is now invasion.

There are three moves that are winning. Why are the pawns so important? Because they aren’t there where they are needed. Can you describe the LoA landscape?

UPDATE part 1

Let me first put a few things straight. I never was very fond of the PoPLoAFun system. It emerged from the analysis of tactical problems, but it never felt universally applicable to every type of tactics problem. If you look at the previous post for instance, the tactic is best described by a concrete chain of logic.

When I studied the Art of Attack in Chess though, the PoPLoAFun system seemed perfectly suited to describe the no men’s land between the opening and the attack on the king. When there is no concrete tactic yet, but the pressure is already building up. The LoA’s (lines of attack) provide a handle for interrogating the position. For practical reasons I limit the scope of a LoA a bit:

Description of the LoA’s

g-file

• attacker Rg3
• blocked by black Knight
• Knight is B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended)
• potential defenders K, Q, R, h7
• focal point g8

f-file

• attacker Rf1
• bonus target Qf6
• invasion square f8
• potential defenders Q, R
• battle for domination
• Rf1 is B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended)

a1/h8 diagonal

• attacker Qd3
• defenders Q, R
• battle for domination
• target K
• a1 = B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended)

Knight jump d6-f7

• attacker Knight
• defenders Q, N
• targets R, K
• discovered attack Nd6
• knight fork f7

e-file

• dominated by black Re8
• target Kh1
• invasion square e1

Intersection c3/h8 diagonal with g-file makes g7 a focal point

Intersection c3/h8 diagonal with e-file makes e5 a PoP (point of pressure)

UPDATE part 2

Let me recap. The first action of the eagle is to get an overview of the position:

• status of the targets (B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended), LPDO)
• status of the defenders (Fun)
• status of the LoA’s (PoPs, invasion, pivotal, blockaders, clearance)
• immanent tactics (discovered attack, pin, fork)

That is seeing every salient cue in the position. This is a task that belongs to system 1, the eagle. The second step is to use your logic, in order to reveal the hidden features of the position. System 1 and system 2 work together in a cyclic process. Neither the frequency nor the order in the cyclic process is important.

Once all salient AND hidden features are known, it is time to build a logical narrative. Which is as sequential as possible, with a clear beginning, order and end.

When I looked for the status of the LoA’s, I completely missed the knight jumps and the diagonal c3/h8.

While fiddling around with the Knight, I asked myself, what is the difference between 1.Ne3 and 1.Nh4? The first move is winning while the second is equal. Why? That revealed that the knight blocks a counter attack along the e-file when placed on e3.

1.Nd6 is a discovered attack against Q and R. Fiddling around showed what happens when the black Queen takes the knight. The black Queen is overloaded. When the black Queen doesn’t take the knight on d6, the knight fork on f7 starts to wink. The black knight on g5 and the black king are on a knight fork’s distance.

So:

• Seeing salient cues
• Revealing hidden cues by logic
• Stitching everything together in a logical narrative

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