Chess tip #8: How to play complicated positions
The last chess tip was about how to play equal positions, those where the position´s valuation does not change drastically and one side can win the game only after many moves, here you can check it https://www.chess.com/blog/GaboSalazar2001/chess-tip-7-how-to-play-equal-positions. Today I would like to talk about the other side of the balance, complicated positions.
First of all, let’s see an example of a complicated position:
We can identify a complicated position when there is much contact between pieces, and there are many options to play. In this example, we could see that there is such contact between pieces, the black queen is creating contact with the white queen, there is a knight on e6 that can capture on g7, a bishop on g5 that also can capture something, and white has a considerable list of moves to consider.
Great! Now we know what is a complicated position, but how should we play in those situations? There are a lot of options and our brain could be in chaos after analyzing for some minutes the position. What to do?
The truth is that complicated positions are always difficult to evaluate, however, here I would like to share with you some useful ideas that you can use to at least not lose your brain in the way and find a good move
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In order to help you in complicated positions, let’s analyze one game of probably the most tactical player in chess history, Mikhail Tal.
This is a game between Tal with the white pieces and Polugaevsky, right now is not a complicated position, there is no chaos on the board and both sides have been developing their pieces normally, it is time to play for Tal and he continued bringing pieces into the game.
10. Rad1 – Nc5 11. Rfe1 – Bd7
It is still a calm position but now is when Tal starts to complicate it, how? Thinking about the generalities of the position before starting to calculate, in the diagram we can see that all the white pieces are already developed which means that it is time to start an attack, there is a queen on a5 and a knight on c5, white can take advantage of this creating a threat of playing b4.
12. a3 – Qc7
Black obviously has to do something against b4 so he moved his queen backward.
Now there are a couple of options for white, he can play b4 following with the idea, f4 to create the threat of playing e5, or maybe move his bishop on c4 backward because black can attack it somehow with the queen, or playing b5. Thinking about the generalities of the position, the black knight on c5 has no many squares, therefore, we should calculate b4 first that was our initial idea, right?
13. b4-Na4
Here I would like to share another important advice to play complicated positions, your opponent also plays! And what I want to explain with this is that you should consider his options too! Na4 was not the only move because he also might have captured the pawn on e4
Nevertheless, this does not work because white can play 14. Nxe4 now again you should consider the options of the opponent black has two possible moves
Yes, probably you must be thinking “calculate that line is pointless” but it is important to remember the idea that your opponent also plays and he as you can have tactical possibilities.
In the game, after 13…Na4
14. Na4 – Ba4
Now we can notice a pattern in the position, a common sacrifice in the Sicilian defense, although this is a typical situation, we should calculate a little bit (we do not know if casually in this position that is a mistake). Can you find it?
15. Bxe6! – fxe6 16. Nxe6 – Qxc2
White should have calculated at least until here and make an evaluation of the position, probably Tal already knew what he was going to play in this position but if that was not the case, we should trust in our intuition. I want to emphasize that in a complicated position it is difficult always to calculate all, know what exactly is happening, and which side is better, that is why you should trust in your intuition. In this position, white has just one pawn for the piece, however, he is attacking the g7 pawn, he has a good knight on e6 and the black rooks are passive because the king can’t castle, because of all these factors we can conclude that the sacrifice is at least not bad for white.
Now we face another problem, what to do in this position? In complicated positions, we should consider candidate moves in every single move, why? Because in those positions a single move can decide the game. There are many ways to find candidate moves, and it will take another post to explain the whole idea behind that concept, for now, I would recommend this article of mine that I wrote some time ago https://www.chess.com/blog/GaboSalazar2001/quick-chess-tip-2-consider-the-moves-of-each-piece
There are a couple of candidate moves in this position: Ng7, Qxc2 (after Bxc2 white can play Nc7 to take the rook on a8), Qf4, and Qd4.
After analyzing those moves Tal decided to play:
17. Qd4
Centralizing the queen. Other options are worse:
Now it is a good moment to consider candidates (actually we should have considered candidates in this position when we calculated the move Qd4 because Kf7 was an obvious move of black) Ng7, Rc1, and Nf4.
18. Rc1
Now white gains control over the c file and black has to play his queen to a bad position
18…Qa2
And here it is another point when we should have calculated the candidate moves (Ng7, e5, Nf4) previously.
19. e5
19. Ng7 would be also an interesting move
19…dxe5 20. Qxe5
And here black took a dubious decision, he played the move 20…Qxf2?! And after the forced moves, the position was materially equal but the black king was weak enough to white take advantage of.
The game continued:
Another interesting thing is that if we analyze the position with the engines, we might notice that the position is “equal” after 20…Qd5 (despite black loses a rook for a minor piece at the end of the line, a good task for you would be analyze that variation) however here we can appreciate how hard is to defend when someone is defending a complicated position he tends to make mistakes.
That was a lot of information! It will be useful to make some conclusions:
- Think about the generalities of the position before starting to calculate: this will help you to find better moves, ask yourself for possible opponent’s moves, and what factors you can take advantage of.
- Consider candidate moves in every single move: in complicated positions, a single move can drastically decide the game, that is why you should be always alert of all the possible moves that you can play.
- Trust in your intuition: sometimes it is very difficult to calculate and evaluate a position, even some Grand Masters have said that they do not calculate everything always, what is the reason? They trust in their strong intuition.
- Your opponent also plays!: and you should calculate his moves as well as yours. Some players excited for their position forget this important fact.
- Relax, do not mess your brain: in complicated positions is easy to lose the brain, there are many things to calculate many things to consider but you will do nothing if you overstress yourself, when you feel like this, calm down, take a deep breath and look away of the board for some seconds, then look again and just try to do your best (do not forget that it is also a complicated position for the opponent).
To end this post, I would like to mention an important young player from Venezuela, my friend and sometimes opponent FM Maicol Benavides who is turning 17 today. He also has an interesting blog https://www.chess.com/blog/maicolbenavides happy birthday!
