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Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 3 of 5

KevinSmithIdiot

Updated: Feb 18, 2024, 5:25 PM | 4

I'll presume everyone has played enough to have trapped a Bishop with pawns, or had a Bishop trapped by pawns. But there is quite a variety of traps that Bishops can fall into--and the defender may have ways to make those traps partially or fully ineffective.

"Some General Observations" were presented in Part 1. I won't repeat that material here for the sake of brevity, merely point to it. Secrets of Trapping Pieces--Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 1 - Chess.com

CRITICAL POINT that bears repeating: Just because a piece is trapped, does not mean you are necessarily winning or losing. It's just one feature of the game.

Below are the configurations presented in Part 3 of the five part series on Pawns trapping Bishops...or at least trying to trap a Bishop.

RIGHT-HAND SIDE

The White Bishop is hard-trapped. Unless there is a White pawn on e3, which does happen in this configuration and is equally important. But we are ignoring all those pesky pawns and pieces that 'might' be on the board to focus on this more general situation.

How might this configuration happen--some sample scenarios:

A. White pinned a Knight on f6 (or c6; for Black f3 or c3) and got chased by the opponent's pawns, ending up on g3 (b3, g6 and b6 for the other quadrants) .

B. White's Bishop was on f5, Black pushed a pawn to g5 (or to e5 is also plausible) and the Bishop's only available flight square was g3.

Some possible outcomes:

A. The Bishop sacrifices itself on f4 (the corresponding Bishop sacs in the other quadrants would be c4 for a White Bishop trapped on b3, c5 for a Black Bishop trapped on b6, and f5 for a Black Bishop trapped on g6) . This could be particularly powerful for the Bishop on g3 (or the Black Bishop on g6) if the enemy King is still on the original square or is castled Queenside. The reason is that the White Queen could then take advantage of the h5 square.

B. White allows the Bishop to be captured on g3 and recaptures with the h-pawn, opening the h-file. This can unleash quite the attack if the Black King is castled Kingside, and particularly if He has moved to the h-file for some reason.

C. The Bishop is captured and Black goes on to win smoothly, simply a piece up.

LEFT-HAND SIDE

Critical Difference: This is a soft trap, partial confinement if you will. It offers the possibility of going around Black's own fence of pawns to other quadrants of the board. In the meantime, the opponent may have a virtual advantage somewhere else on the board. Or Black may find that their Bishop is inopportunely placed for some opportunity that suddenly appears elsewhere on the board. Shades of, 'For want of a nail, a horseshoe was lost. For lack of a horseshoe, a horse was unavailable.' And so forth, to the point where a battle and then a war are lost, and a kingdom crumbles. Sounds like the butterfly effect to me.

As with any trapped Bishop Black might choose to sacrifice the Bishop in place on a3, or one of the other squares in that corner, if some form of compensation is available.

Key squares: a3, b2, b4 and c1.

a3, b2 and c1: Perhaps the most critical factor is whether White pieces attack these squares. And whether Black might have to expend effort to protect one of these three squares in order to immediately or in the future effect an extraction of the cleric currently shown in repose on a3.

b4: Unless White had doubled c-pawns or a pawn still on a2, the b4 square is a 'safe' square for the Bishop.

How might this configuration happen--some sample scenarios:

A. Black might have tracked down an enemy piece on one of those squares. Or been recapturing after a friendly had been captured by the opponent. And then been unable to retreat or chose not to retreat. Whether that is for good, bad or indifferent is determined over the board and then adjudicated by the chess celestials.

B. With the Bishop already on a3 Black might have decided to play his c-pawn to c5 in order to seek a trade of a White pawn on d4 or possibly to secure a Black piece on d5 (not shown per the usual notion of simplifying these configurations to the simplest aspects) . If it was a White pawn on d4 White would have the usual three options: trade on c5; push to d5; leave the pawn on d4 and await events.

IT'S PUZZLIN' TIME

In the game Black responded to White's threatening gesture 19.f4, attacking Black's Knight on e5, with the quisling ...Nc6. Apparently buying into the chant, "Feel the heat, Beat a retreat."

How should White respond? No hints deemed necessary.

Outcome of this entrapment: White's Kingside looks a bit overextended. But Black's Bishop pair is held at bay for the moment by Black's d-pawn and those perhaps overextended White pawns. After further back and forth, Black won on move 33.

Black just played 5...f4, a move seen in 54 games in the online database I checked on 25.05.2023. It clearly traps White's Bishop.
But it's a mistake! How should White respond?

Outcome: White regains his piece AND is a pawn up while Black's King can expect to suffer. Tragically for the butter-fingered handler of the White pieces they went on to defeat, resigning before their 29th move.

Lessons learned:

A. Pushing pawns early in the opening to trap a Bishop can rebound to disadvantage if doing so leaves the King vulnerable.

B. A trapped piece is not necessarily so!! Of course, that assumes the side whose Bishop is being chased remains alert to tactical opportunities.

Black's Bishop faces being buried alive...and losing time as well while White's pawns advance towards the King shivering in the corner. How should Black proceed?

Lesson learned: Open a porthole! The Bishop so recently stranded on h5 has gained new wings for flight.

After White's best response, 19.Bxf5, Black could seek active counterplay by sacrificing the Exchange by capturing White's Bishop on f5. Considering that Black is in trouble even after saving the Bishop, perhaps stirring things up on the board would be the most practical move.

Black just played 16...Bd6 putting pressure on the Knight lurking dangerously on e5, eyeing the f7 square. 16...Kh8 was a better plan, preparing to play 17...f6 to kick the White Knight and offer breathing room to the Black Bishop.

How should White respond to Black's threat to capture on e5.

Lessons learned:

A. A simple pawn move can serve both defensive and offensive purposes. And thereby deserve recognition as a great move.

B. Black calculated rather poorly in believing that a retreat of the Bishop to g6 could safely be coupled with advancing the f-pawn one square to create a seemingly equal threat.

C. White realized that the trapped Bishop was not the real prize. Instead, White leveraged a spatial advantage to create a threat that was transformed into a decisive advantage in the form of the disadvantaged King stuck in the corner.

In the game Black played 18...Bg6? instead of the better 18...f5. How should White continue?

Lessons repeated to double down on creating memory traces:

A. Black calculated rather poorly in believing that a retreat of the Bishop to g6 could safely be coupled with advancing the f-pawn one square to create a seemingly equal threat.

B. White realized that the trapped Bishop was not the real prize. Instead, White leveraged a spatial advantage to create a threat that was transformed into a decisive advantage in the form of the disadvantaged King stuck in the corner.

Alekhine just captured a Bishop on g6 after trapping it. Should Black resign, or play on?

Well, it was a simultaneous exhibition, possibly this individual's only chance to play the World Champion. So, play on as though you were winning!

Lessons Learned:

A. Just because a piece can be trapped and won does not mean the side executing the trap is winning. They might even be worse.

B. Reinforcement of the tactical notion that open h-files can support a devastating attack. Or the a-file in similar circumstances on the far side of the board. Or as I call it, "The Gary Larson Memorial Side" of the board.

C. Even World Champions can overestimate the ease with which they are solving problems on the board. I always thought simuls robbed one of the mental equivalents of several hundred rating points.

White just played 12.gxf5. How should Black respond?

Lessons learned:

A. A trapped does not mean the game is over. BOTH sides need to remain aware of the other factors on the board.

B. The phrase, "the worm has turned" regains currency in this setting. Unfortunately for Black, the worm had another turn left.

White just played 11.f5 spoiling a good position.
How SHOULD Black have responded? The best move is slightly better than the placement of material that was seen the board in a prior puzzle. DIFFICULT!

Lessons reinforced:

A. Ok, several times we have now looked at variations the flawed trap of a Bishop by pawns. But punishing the flaws in the trap requires examining other attributes of the position and taking advantage of them.

B. Activity rules!! My coach, IM Attila Turzo, and I talk about that all the time.

Black just played 10...Bg6, fleeing before White's advancing pawns.

In the game White played the inferior 11.f5 trapping the Bishop. What was the correct move?

Lessons learned: Impatience to close the trap around the g6 Bishop placed White at risk of losing this game. Temperance and patience are often crucial to extracting the greatest amount of good from a superior position.

Black just played 36...f5, a self-trap! Admittedly, it does create the threat of 37... Bd4+ when Black would be winning. And possibly part of the idea was to forestall White from playing 37.g4 when the Bishop on h3 would be too loose, Toulouse. A safer alternative was 36...h5, but one can certainly understand avoiding that ungainly looking pawn structure. And why not seek activity for the g7 BIshop?

Let's answer that last question. How should White have proceeded?

Observation: Capturing on a8 on move 37 would be incredibly hard to resist, particularly when a hard fought game was approaching the time control. The rest of the line looks quite easy, merely responding in the most natural way to Black's moves.

Time to take a look at the situation where Black decides to activate their sidelined Bishop, trapped in that small space, and play 37...Bg4.

Should White's major pieces fight, take flight, or play dead?

Observation: As always, accuracy in move order is important.

We previously examined the correct 37.Re2! Now let's look at the game line. White captured the Rook on a8.

How should Black respond? Are there any useful intermezzos or blockades of the d7 pawn?

Observation: At last, a "standard" puzzle! Capture, capture, capture!!! Though it is important to reject an early check on d5, as pointed out in the notes. And blockades clearly fail.

Black could have played it safe with 16...Bf8 but chose to create imbalances with ..c5 instead. White had to choose between two alternatives. We look at both as they offer insights into how White might best choose to play this.

Observation: Black's Bishop is sidelined. White maintained a slight pull for some time but the game eventually decayed into a draw.

Lesson learned: Not all traps change the game decisively. They do, however, change the nature of the game. Just as changing pawn structures changes how best play varies depending on those changes.

Observation: Black's Bishop is offside and will have difficulty reentering the game as there are no timeouts on the chess board. Still, White only has a slight edge. But at the super-GM level that is often all it takes.

This would have been a position similar to that seen on move 19 of Carlsen-Mamedyarov 20.04.2014. One assumes both players were familiar with that game.

Lesson learned: Deciding between the two viable, almost equally good alternatives is difficult.

Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 3 of 5

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