sometimes, one may think one understands chess now. We see Magnus win everything and we say, why not me ?
ok I may lose a blitz or bullet game here and there but if I have to think and I am not stressed by the clock or by the rating, I can figure things out. well, I wish this would ring true but it is not.
it doesnt matter which rating I have, or which title I have or how much time I have.
The issue is that many positions don't require lots of thinking and we know what to do very quickly, but soon enough we encounter positions which require all our focus. the easy positions make us believe we understand chess. We become complacent and/or master procastinators.
Let's go with the EASY stuff first
ok in this position, we know we can play Bb5 the Spanish or Ruy Lopez. and we can also play Bc4 the Italian Game. or we can try 3Nc3 and 3..Nf6 the 4 knights game. some of you may like scotch ( on the board and off the board) so then 3.d4 comes to mind. Most likely Black will take back.
Either way we are in familiar territory, and many positions are like this.
_________________________
Lets move to the middle game and tactics
Ok we have seen this pattern thousands of times. Black has a weak back rank. 1Rd8+ and we have checkmate. We don't have to really "think" but simply remember the pattern or spot that Black is weak on the 8th rank.
here's what you should remember
Lets do another one, White to play, as a puzzle ( click ? for solution or try your luck playing a move on the board).
White to play
.
Ok the second position is easy IF you have seen this before.
Once you have come across this motif, you will remember the smothered mate. You give up the queen and then with Nf7 you have a nice checkmate
..
..
the smothered checkmate summed up in a VISUAL way !
ok so we know openings and we practiced our tactics. We got chess right ?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Well lets now put this in practice in a real game. I will show a position on move 9. It is still in the opening and it BLACK to PLAY. I think TACTICS are important in these kind of positions so hopefully you are warmed up so to SPEAK.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
DIFFICULT, TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED, NO CLOCK
BLACK TO PLAY
...
What would you play here with Black ?
..
..
..
Hint below
..
..
..
..
There's only 1 move which Black should play. and a GM with Black couldn't find it in classical chess!
You are on move 9 and the white queen is attacking two pieces, your knight on c6 and your bishop on d3. Should you move one of the attacked pieces ? or should you take the bishop on a4 ?
Well the answer is none of the above.
the "right" move is Qd7 and here's the variation the engine gives.
In the game Black moved the bishop to f5 and lost. but that's another story for another time.
next time someone tells you " chess is easy" , " I know chess", dont show them the tactics I had before. Show them the position on move 9 say its an opening position, what should I play as Black ?
and if they dont use any assistance and find the right path, say " CONGRATS !!"
and here are why any other move outside 9..Qd7 wont be good for Black
