A Pattern of Violence

One of the most crucial skills that club-strength players must develop to improve their game is pattern-recognition. This not only applies to tactical play, but also to positional themes; 're-inventing the wheel' is an unnecessary task when experts have shown already how such things work!

So, the more of these patterns we can assimilate into our practical chess knowledge, the easier it becomes to play for example, middle-game positions. Hopefully the following encounter will illustrate this important aspect of chess more vividly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very useful little game in my opinion, highlighting some of the ideas we need to incorporate into our play and also some of the dangers we might face if we forget that our opponents' ideas have a right to exist too! Take your time and don't imagine they haven't seen what you think you have seen! 

The main idea we can take from this though, is that many if not most of the patterns of play we come across in our chess games have been seen many times before-it is to our advantage if we can secrete as many of them as possible in our memory banks to be brought out again as and when necessary.

Now of course we are all limited to varying degrees as to

a) how many of these patterns we have the time to encounter let alone assimilate, and

b) how accurately we can reproduce them if the occasion arises,

but as a starting point we should aim to be aware of the most common tactical and positional patterns/themes which occur frequently in our favourite openings.

My favourite opening is the Dragon Variation as we have seen, and one of the best books on this opening is Winning With the Dragon by GM Chris Ward, so have a look at the following game taken from the 2nd edition and see if it looks familiar!

 I hope you have enjoyed this little article, and feel free to contact me regarding this or any of my other articles. All the best, Andy Burnett andrew@streetfightingchess.com

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