Combinations are an essential part of a chess game.Often the result of a very good plan and a positional advantage can only be exploited and converted to a win through a combination.
A chess combination is a forced variation ,usually involving a sacrifice that leads to a material transformation of the position ,revealing the true values and exposing the false ones.
It is important here to talk about the "true values".That is a very big chapter in chess.One of the first things we learned in chess was the following board:
Queen= 9 pawns
rook= 5 pawns
knight and bishop = 3 pawns
But these values are only the starting values.Once the pieces start moving the values immediately change.Some pieces are better than others and there are some elements that increase even further their value.
The next example of the true and the false values is characteristic:
In the above position material is equal but only if we count the starting values of the pieces.The starting values in this case are the false ones.But which are the real values?
Let's examine the position.Black's rook on a7 can't be considered as having the same value with Rf1 but maybe has the same value with Ra1.White's dominating e5 knight certainly is more valuable than Nf8 or Nf6 but other than that it is difficult to see another advantage for white.His hanging pawns(d4 and c4) give him space and good control over the centre but they are a weakness too and Black can pressure them and eventually weaken them or capture them, if he has the chance.
There is though an important element in the above position and that is White's space and attacking chances on k-side.If you try to examine the position even more thoroughly you will easily see that all white pieces target enemy's k-side.Still Black's defense seems solid enough.3 pieces and 4 pawns in front of "him" guarantee that Black should not have any trouble defending any attack , or not?
There is an even more important element in this position.The cooperation of white's pieces is significantly greater from the cooperation of Black's pieces.Black's pieces have no common target(defensive or attacking) while at the same time all white's pieces and even some of his pawns are very aggresively placed for a k-side attack.
With his next moves Botvinnik will prove that Black's king is insufficiently defended against the very well cooperated White's pieces:
The above game clearly shows that elements like , exposed king and good cooperation can significantly increase (or decrease the value of some pieces.
Our goal with the exercises that will follow is to learn to recognise some patterns that are repeated regularly.Patterns that reveal bad placement , weaknesses , good cooperation or bad cooperation , exposed pieces and others.Sometimes even very difficult combinations can be easily spotted if you know what are you looking for and where to look.
Combinations are an essential part of a chess game.Often the result of a very good plan and a positional advantage can only be exploited and converted to a win through a combination.
A chess combination is a forced variation ,usually involving a sacrifice that leads to a material transformation of the position ,revealing the true values and exposing the false ones.
It is important here to talk about the "true values".That is a very big chapter in chess.One of the first things we learned in chess was the following board:
Queen= 9 pawns
rook= 5 pawns
knight and bishop = 3 pawns
But these values are only the starting values.Once the pieces start moving the values immediately change.Some pieces are better than others and there are some elements that increase even further their value.
The next example of the true and the false values is characteristic:
In the above position material is equal but only if we count the starting values of the pieces.The starting values in this case are the false ones.But which are the real values?
Let's examine the position.Black's rook on a7 can't be considered as having the same value with Rf1 but maybe has the same value with Ra1.White's dominating e5 knight certainly is more valuable than Nf8 or Nf6 but other than that it is difficult to see another advantage for white.His hanging pawns(d4 and c4) give him space and good control over the centre but they are a weakness too and Black can pressure them and eventually weaken them or capture them, if he has the chance.
There is though an important element in the above position and that is White's space and attacking chances on k-side.If you try to examine the position even more thoroughly you will easily see that all white pieces target enemy's k-side.Still Black's defense seems solid enough.3 pieces and 4 pawns in front of "him" guarantee that Black should not have any trouble defending any attack , or not?
There is an even more important element in this position.The cooperation of white's pieces is significantly greater from the cooperation of Black's pieces.Black's pieces have no common target(defensive or attacking) while at the same time all white's pieces and even some of his pawns are very aggresively placed for a k-side attack.
With his next moves Botvinnik will prove that Black's king is insufficiently defended against the very well cooperated White's pieces:
The above game clearly shows that elements like , exposed king and good cooperation can significantly increase (or decrease the value of some pieces.
Our goal with the exercises that will follow is to learn to recognise some patterns that are repeated regularly.Patterns that reveal bad placement , weaknesses , good cooperation or bad cooperation , exposed pieces and others.Sometimes even very difficult combinations can be easily spotted if you know what are you looking for and where to look.