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Master a single pattern with lots of variations

gejimayu

Updated: Jun 2, 2020, 7:08 AM | 9

Namasté.

Over the last year I have trained puzzle rush and puzzle battle intensively. Now it is a pleasure for me to give back to the community of chess.com, especially to beginners.

Do you know this situation? You could not solve a puzzle, no idea about it, then you look up the solution. You instantly understand it because you already know the pattern. You just did not recognize it. How could I miss that?!

To gain a deeper understanding of a pattern,

I recommend to collect many different variations of it.

Please remember the time when you were a child, happy to explore the world around you. Small children learn already when they simply play around, being curious, seeing what happens when they do this and that. That is a wonderful attitude [1].

Now, let’s take a look at a very basic pattern in chess: back rank mate. Too easy for you? Wait for it.

Here is the prototype example of a back rank mate.

The opponent’s king is placed on his back rank. He is in check by a rook or a queen on the back rank. Moreover, there is no defence against the check, therefore it’s checkmate. That’s the quintessence every beginner learns. There are hundreds of ways to vary this basic pattern.

1. We can exchange a pawn by another piece that is unable to prevent the checkmate.

In the last diagram, white’s king can’t escape because of the presence of a black pawn that controls the g2-square. In the other diagrams, the knight on f2, the bishop on h2, the rook on g2 can’t stop the black rook from delivering checkmate at e1. However a bishop, a rook or a queen on f2 could defend.

Let us vary more. But first have a little optical break with another variation.

Lots of variation, also off the board

2. A potential defender is pinned.

White is checkmate because Rf2 can't move.

3. There isn’t only a back rank, there are also sides of the board.

Blacks gives checkmate at the h-file.

Here you already see the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of variations of this basic pattern. Let us now analyse realistic examples from games.

www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/603336/practice

Black to move. If you are not aware of the basic shape with the knight that can’t defend, you may not find the solution, esp. when you are going to panic because of white’s threats. This is the crux of the matter. To check your solution, just right click on the link below the diagram.

In the next position black can’t force a checkmate at the back rank but he can exploit its weakness. Interestingly, black faces herself the threat of a back rank mate. Please note: White’s rook on d1 must defend the c1-square. Otherwise Black’s queen would deliver the back rank mate there.

www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/549130/practice

Do you see black’s first move? To check your solution, just right click on the link below the diagram.

Let us look at a defending problem, white to move and win:

www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/765110/practice

White is facing black’s threat of Qxf1+ with back rank mate. Capturing the queen doesn’t help because then black’s rook at d5 delivers the checkmate at d1. Moreover, white is two pawns down, so she must take serious actions. White could give a free check at c8.

Sometimes, it doesn’t look that a back rank mate is possible, white to move and win:

www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/982420/practice

Black’s rook at f6 defends the back rank. But he also has to take care of his brother on f6 because the white queen on d4 is attacking it. So the rook on f6 has two tasks to fulfil at the same time – that’s a classical overload and white can exploit this.

We only touched the surface of this basic pattern and you see that you can fill a book with more examples.

Summary

Open your mind.

Don’t look down on basic patterns.

Master a single pattern with lots of variations!

Take a real board and set up as many examples as possible. Practice!

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.[3]

Here are more examples as an excercise.

1. www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/504418/practice

2. www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/765588/practice

3. www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/497438/practice

4. www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/764278/practice