A Team Effort

Chess is a game of strategy, and one of the most obvious strategies is to have your whole team working together. But it's harder than it sounds.

Players have to constantly decide where their pieces belong on which squares and which to trade off. When making a move, consider not just that single piece, but also how it will affect the rest of your army. Is it blocking another piece? Protecting something important? Working toward a common goal? Is there another piece that would be even more effective on that square?

Here is a game where I had to coordinate a bishop and knight - the most awkward pair of pieces ever - to defeat the enemy rooks.

In the game, I was worried about 14...Be7 15. Qe2, after which Rfd1 follows. White's queen seems much safer than Black's. However, there was no reason to panic: how would you continue?

Instead, I tried to put the queen on e7... a series of positional blunders followed.

Now Black has an advantage. While White is technically up material, his rooks look truly pathetic. Meanwhile, Black's rook is a monster, his knight is on an ideal blockading square, and the bishop breathes fire down the long diagonal. Note how the minor pieces guard the c-file and the king guards the e-file, so that the rooks can't penetrate. Now Black tries to manuever his pieces into even more aggressive posts!

Let's see if you can find the win:

Lessons Learned:

• Always think about piece coordination! In this game Black tried to trade queens to rid himself of his most awkward piece. However, ...a5 would have been more effective.  Black eventually put all the pieces on their very best squares.
• Stop the opponent's coordination. Black's minor pieces controlled the open file entry points, depriving White of counterplay. Then he tied White down to defending the a-pawn, and even played 32...a5 bottling up the rooks. While he was down material, Black was effectively up a piece.
• Seize the initiative! White had to create counterplay with his rooks. Once Black's pieces started invading, they created annoying threats that made White's life very difficult.