Analyze with KIMPLODES! O = Officers

KIMPLODES! is an acronym to guide you through the process of analyzing a chess game.

O = Officers. The minor pieces. Is the position open or closed; is it an endgame with pawns on both sides of the board; is the side with the Bishops ahead or behind in development and is the position stable or unstable--and do you know what constitutes stability or a lack thereof? Do the Knights have unassailable outposts? Was everything you ever learned about the relative value of minor pieces based on ludicrous propositions, such as a good Knight versus a Bishop that is not only bad, but locked forever behind its own pawns, with no compensating features anywhere else on the board?

I highly recommend IM John Watson's Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances since Nimzowitsch. He illuminates very important ideas such as whether or not the owner of the Bishop pair should really try to open the position immediately. IM Watson also explores, and by using statistical analyses often debunks, common myths such as whether certain minor pieces fare better in the endgame when paired with Rook(s) or the Queen. It's important to remember that the evaluation of Officers is frequently tied directly to Pawn Structure, and who has better access to and/or control of key Lines and Squares. Not to mention the fact that additional Space often makes it easier for the player with that spatial advantage to maneuver pieces freely. Which can get wildly complex in openings such as the King's Indian Defense where Black often has a spatial advantage on the Kingside while White has an advantage on the Queenside.

Basic Building Blocks

Hear ye, hear ye, here are nostrums/rules/inherently flawed belief systems and Mythconceptions that one should memorize, and then forget...they are useful up to a point, it's just that every concept listed has exceptions...and I won't be talking about those exceptions as this is a blog, not a full series of volumes that would be required to pontificate on the encyclopedic subject of how the use and perceptions of Bishops and Knights have altered over time. 

 Knights like: 

1. Early development
2. Closed positions
3. Endgames with the pawns on one side
4. Pairing with a Queen in the endgame
5. Forks 
6. Outposts
7. Blockading passed pawns (and attacking any pawns that defend the passer)

Bishops like:

1. Action from a distance
2. Open positions
3. Endgames with pawns on both sides
4. The Bishop pair versus a Bishop and Knight or two Knights
5. Pins
6. Long, lovely diagonals, unopposed by pawns (except as targets)
7. Enemy pawns trapped on the Bishop's color in an endgame

There are occasions in both the middle game and the endgame when a Bishop is able to dominate a Knight. Eliminating the Knight's ability to move to a safe Square unless another piece can defend the Knight on one of those Squares. Below is a simple diagram depicting a pair of dominated Knights, one on the rim and one stranded in a corner.

Good Bishop versus bad Bishop 

In the blitz game below, IM Nazi Paikidze - GM Bassem Amin, Black attempts to stir up some Kingside action with ...h7-h5 but misses a tactical point that allows White to gain a dominating position for her Officers, a Knight and good Bishop, versus a pair of Bishops, one of which is VERY bad indeed. Shortly after the White mini-tactic, Black is effectively forced to hand over his good Bishop because White's Knight was able to reach a dominating Square on e5. From there, it's all about a good Officer (Bishop) dominating a very bad one. Wonderful positional chess for a blitz game.

The Endgame
One horrible Bishop

A Jan 25, 2013 Tata Steel game Naiditsch - Rapport shows even top players can be crushed if they mishandle their Officers. This is a clinical dissection of Black's game as he burdens himself with a bad Bishop. White then bends all his energies towards making that Bishop as bad as possible. This starts by placing some of White's pawns on the same color as Black's bad Bishop to keep it trapped on its side of the board. Next, Black's pawns are drawn forward via threats that can only be answered with a pawn move, but those pawn moves place Black's pawns on the same color squares as his unfortunate Bishop. Eventually the poor Officer is nearly entombed. And then the malaise even reaches out to ensnare Black's Knight, which spends the latter portion of the game sitting on a square from where it exerts no influence while Black's King awaits execution. White commences the coup de grace smoothly with a standard sacrifice that generates unstoppable passed pawns on the Queenside. Black resigns rather than suffer further ignominy.

Opposite color Bishops--Game of the Day analysis by GM Leitao

For this subtle issue I am going to provide you with GM Leitao's analysis of a very recent game. This was chess.com's Game of the Day on 01.16.2024. And a wonderful learning lesson. Both from the game itself and GM Leitao's analysis. A key point here is that when King Safety is a factor then opposite color Bishops can doom the side with the unsafe game to an almost unending defense where even objective equality is often just a mirage because of our human frailties.

Bishop pair versus Knight pair

All fine and good, but those are top-level GMs. What about at the amateur level? Ah, fortunately I happen to have an example that shows even an amateur, such as myself, can make hay with better Officers. The overall quality of the game is low, and I like to think that is because the game was played over 11 years ago. Despite the question of quality, there are lessons to be learned regarding the value of the Bishop pair versus a Knight pair in an endgame with pawns on both sides of the board in a relatively open position.

What Have We Learned
So many questions, so many cliches, so much truth in the phrase, "It depends." Would that I could offer some blinding epiphany here. Instead, if there is one generality that I think hews closest to truth, it is the either mundane or extraordinary observation, or perhaps oversimplification, that Pawn Structures determine much of the value of the Officers. Without ever overlooking King Safety.

Analyze with KIMPLODES! L = Lines