How to Excel at Prophylaxis

Today’s post is devoted to prophylaxis in chess! Every now and then, we ordinary players, face positions in which we need to prevent the opponent’s threats and do that effectively. In that kind of positions, no counter attack or active play would get us out of trouble and that’s why it’s so important to know the principles of prophylaxis in chess. In this lecture, I am talking about the secrets of successful prophylaxis and by secrets I mean all of these relevant techniques that may sound ineffective and counter-intuitive to the average player. Here, I am trying to explain why the small, quiet moves may sometimes be very useful and how we can find the most precise moves to defend our opponent’s threats successfully. For this lecture, I have selected a very instructive example, a game by the great positional player, Anatoly Karpov, who managed to defend and exploit his opponent’s desire to attack when all his attacking chances were suddenly eliminated. Enjoy!