The 6 Elements of Chess Pt 11

By NM Steven Colding

The Conclusion of Meek vs Morphy

     So here we have the position where Black has just played the strong 7...Be6! White now has a decision to make, should he exchange or move? (Actually he has a 3rd possibility, complicate, but we are not dealing with that here.) Meek  chose to move the Bishop to b5. This might seem and actually is a waste of time but he does have an idea, an idea that would work against a lesser player. Morphy plays 8...Ng-e7 and now Meeks idea becomes clear with the move 9.Ng5 leaving us with this position.

     Now White's plan becomes clear if Black castles White will play Qh5 forcing h6 where upon he can begin with a flank attack based on a Pawn storm on the Kingside. This is a very sound and well reasoned idea, except that it is wrong! The position is an open one and the rules for open positions apply. If the position was a closed position Meek would be totally justified, furthermore he has lost further time with his Knight. So after close analysis Morphy castled!

    Meek played 10.Qh5 and after 10...h6 he moved the Knight for a third time leaving this position:

     Now let's assess: White has a lot of piece aimed at Black's King. If he succeeds in playing g4 and g5 he might be able to get at the Black King. Black has better development and White's King is in the center. White definitely wants to attack the King so what should Black do? He should trade! if White has less pieces to attack with then his chances of success against the Black King diminishes. Well how could he trade? He must put his pieces in such strong positions that Black must trade. Where must the pieces go...why to the center of course!

     Keep these ideas in mind while you play through the next moves in the game snippet below:

  So there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this game about flank attacks and exploiting a force advantage. Study the ebb and flow and I am sure it will add at least a couple of points to your rating.

Next Article: Harmony

Previous Articles: