How to Suck Less at Chess: Never Ever Give Up! (Part 1)

In my previous post, I discussed having Captain Kirk as your chess animal spirit and Drunk Magnus sitting on your shoulder when you are losing games.  I also discussed in my other previous post to spend some time after realizing you're losing to come up with a plan.  So what do you think about?  Where do you go from here?  The next few articles will list some of the strategies you can pursue, and hopefully gives you hope the next time you find yourself in a seemingly impossible situation.

Operation "Kill All Pawns":

Here we have King Leonidas down massive amounts of material, but he's attempting to set up a fortress.  King Xerxes decides to start with a pawn storm.  The first step for the Spartans is to kill them all.

Okay, maybe you're not going be able drive your opponent's pawns off the side of the chessboard quite like King Leonidas.  But to my point, if all your enemy pawns are deceased, your chances of a draw become more likely, even with a material deficit.

For example, all these positions show black with a significant material advantage:

Despite black with a huge material advantage, these positions are draws! (Okay the last two, technically aren't, but if you can win with black, you don't need to be reading my blog.)  The key is to take out your opponent's pawns in the endgame if possible.  The rule is to trade pawns when going for a draw, and trade pieces when going for a win.

Even if your opponent has a pawn, it can still be a problem for the winning side under the correct circumstances:

In this example, black does have a pawn, but the bishop is on the wrong colored square!  If it's on the same color as the queening square (a black square in this case), black wins easily.  Since it is not, all white has to do is get in front of the a-pawn and it's a draw.

In one of my daily games, I was down material until my opponent made a mistake that allowed me to kill all his pawns:

In the end, he only had one pawn left.  Even if I sacrifice a piece to kill it, it is, for all practical purposes, a draw.

Keep the queens on the board during the endgame:

Queen endgames are sort of like this:

This is how queen endgames work.  One side shoots until there's no more bullets, and then the other side does the same.  Now instead, imagine if Neo had unlimited bullets.  Agent Smith would have been forever dodging them never having the opportunity to fire back:  draw.

In the recent Grand Prix tournament, black drew like this:

Hikaru Nakamura, as white, had just promoted his pawn and now has two queens.  It doesn't matter.  Levon Aronian does not run out of bullets.

So when you're down material and your opponent has an exposed king, keep the queens on the board and always be on the lookout for this possibility.  In this example (a rapid game), my opponent, who is down a piece and a pawn, missed his chance for a draw. 

To reiterate, if you're entering the endgame and you're losing, trade pawns.  If you're winning, trade pieces.  But what about if you're playing this kid who just out-hustled you out of one of your pieces with a six move tactic in the middle game?  Chances are you're screwed; but Captain Kirk still believes there's a chance, and Drunk Magnus will tell you to play on.  Look for Part 2 to hear what Drunk Magnus might have to say.

This is part of an ongoing series called, "How to Suck Less at Chess."  It helps to start with this introduction to explain what I mean by sucking at chess and why you should read my blog.  If you like what you read, drop a nice comment.  It will help motivate me to produce more material.