Analyze with KIMPLODES! M = Material

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

M = Material (or Materiel, if you prefer to focus on the military aspects of chess...potato/potatoe, tomato/tomatoe/tomate, it's all lost in the dustbin of meaningless nuance, along with memories of Dan Quayle, George H. W. Bush's Vice President). Material is all about counting points, and then (the critical step) deciding whether or not you or your opponent have compensation for a materiel deficit. Think Paul Morphy at the Opera (though when I hear Opera, I always think Bugs Bunny's What's Opera, Doc?). Even being down several pieces doesn't matter if you deliver mate...unless you run out of time.

Key point: Material is not the be all and end all of existence. If all other factors are equal, then I prefer to be ahead in Material. But often Material can be sacrificed to create imbalances in other KIMPLODES factors that favor the person making the sacrifice. If they calculate correctly. And execute correctly.

Basic Building Blocks

Let's start by oversimplifying with a point scale. Q = 9; R = 5; B = 3; N = 3; Pawn = 1 is a rule of thumb one can use for extremely rough calculations of the Material balance. If everything else is equal and you have more "points" on the board than your opponent, meaning you correctly summed the value of the pieces for each side, then you could be doing well, perhaps even winning.

Unfortunately, the pieces' point values are not so easily established. They fluctuate up and down over time and position. Chess engines might calculate the value of each piece to five or more decimal places following every move, but I'm not sure what good it is to know a Bishop is worth 3.14159625 (π) pawns in a given situation.

So, what might lead one to create or allow a Material imbalance? At one extreme, there are known openings in which one side sacrifices their Queen for two minor pieces in order to gain the Initiative and decrease the safety of the enemy King. And in endgames, many prefer Q+N to Q+B because the Queen and Knight can jointly attack every square on the board, whereas the Queen and Bishop can only combine forces on 32 of the 64 squares. Covering only half the board certainly won't help if none of the opponent's targets are on squares of the Bishop's color, or if the Bishop is blocked at various turns by its own pawns stuck on the same color complex. For the mathematically inclined, there are statistical studies that indicate whether a R+B is better than R+N, and articles on when 2Rs are better or worse than a Queen in the endgame. That said, usually it isn't the Material imbalance itself, but some other set of KIMPLODES factors that determine the outcome in any specific game.

The Opening

Bishop versus Knight

Because Knights can develop faster (it takes two pawn moves before both Bishops can develop), the Knights may be able to actually claim a slight Material point edge over Bishops in the very early stages of the game. This can be important to realize and there is a principle that states if playing with a B+N or two Knights versus two Bishops, then the side with the B+N or 2 Knights should attempt to maximize the value of the Knights early in the middle game. That is because over the long haul a pair of Bishops simply tend to gain in value. Obviously, that is not the case if the position well and truly becomes blocked, with no way to open diagonals for the Bishops barring perhaps a pawn or piece sacrifice. That is, trading Material for Lines (diagonals) to enhance the Bishops (Officers) relative to their enemy counterparts.

Rooks

One could plausibly argue that Rooks have little to no value in the opening and early middle game. It is usually, though not always, some time before they can reach an open or even half-open file. Meanwhile, the minor pieces and Queen may be enmeshed in full-scale warfare.

She who shall not be named (Her Majesty, the Queen)

Bring Her out too early and earn the contempt of your peers, place Her on the wrong square and earn the contempt of the masters. Yet everyone has to respect Her Highness when She takes a stroll, wondering what plans one has in mind for Her, while the player has to be mindful that She does not place Herself in a black hole from whence there is no return (the chess equivalent of the event horizon is when one's Queen is lost while chasing a Rook in the corner that, as previously noted, has only modest value in the opening).

Let's have fun with one quick example of what happens when Her Majesty forgets that it can be dangerous to invade deep into enemy territory without adequate preparation.

The Middle Game

Here we see an example where Black sacrifices a pawn just as the opening phase concludes. And then has to be prepared for additional sacrifices in order to sustain an Initiative that can overwhelm White's defenses. In this example they are relatively fragile defenses as White's Queenside remains largely undeveloped with best play by Black. This is a very detailed analysis, including many game fragments, as there are many false paths both sides can take in this line. It is based on a line that has been explored in a substantial number of games. To get the most out of this you will need to spend some time working through detailed alternative lines and game fragments. You might even want to download it and conduct further research with a database and an engine you are familiar with. Or you could crush it in a couple minutes and just keep on movin' on.

Bottom line: Material doesn't matter if King Safety is the dominant factor. Unless the attacking side runs out of Material, but that is a different matter entirely. 🤣

Let's look at another game where White sacrifices Queen for Bishop and Knight. Plus, an unsafe Black King, lagging Black Development, lots of open Lines for White's remaining pieces, an advanced White passed pawn that sucks the oxygen out of Black's tent, and a blistering Initiative that chases both Black's King and Queen. Enjoy!

I am going to suggest that all those games were quite tactical. Where positional concerns reign supreme, the discussion of material can be much more nuanced...some might even say the dialogue between the players is actually more interesting than a tactical sequence. This is the sporting equivalent of preferring defense in the NBA or NFL, rather than a high-octane offense, although the current rules in both sports emphasize offense in pursuit of greater fan interest. I'll offer a game relevant to this topic in KIMPLODES! P = Pawn Structure, where the topics of Material and Pawn structure overlapped in a long-ago training game versus @AlexanderRoc on another site. But the clearly predominant theme of that game was how Pawn Structure can lead one to sacrifice an exchange in order to take advantage of the aspects of a locked Pawn Structure that favors Knights over almost all other pieces.

The Endgame

Just to make a point, a classic ending showing that Material is not everything in the end game. Many (most?) know or have heard that two passed pawns on the 6th rank can be worth more than a Rook. In the position below only one passed pawn is required, because White demonstrates an Initiative that combines with Black's unsafe King to allow a win for White. All this despite the fact that by strictly quantifiable standards one could argue that a Rook is worth far more than a pawn. But that involves an overly simplistic system that says a Rook = 5 and a Pawn = 1. In this position that quantification is simply immaterial to the result.

Numerous other examples can be found where mere point counting fails to tell the story of who is better. Those examples include cases in which a minor piece and pawns or Rook and pawns form a fortress that allow the defender to hold against a Queen in the ending. And, of course, a Rook sometimes defeats a solo Bishop or Knight. Despite the fact a draw is sometimes the correct result, if the defender knows what they are doing.

In the field of tragicomedy, more than one game between titled players with Bishop + Knight versus a bare king has resulted in a draw because the side with the minor pieces did not know the patterns that lead to a forced mate with this reduced set of Officers. A winning Material advantage doesn't matter if you can't bring the game home.

Next Blog: Analyze with KIMPLODES! P = Pawn Structure Posted 1 Mar 2024