Knight Vision - Part One
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The problem with this analysis is that in your second diagram the Queen can be taken by the knight. That is even more of an immediate threat than a fork.
ricardo,
doh! you're right, i fixed that, sorry. was trying to just show the .. . . nevermind, it's fixed =)
...ryan
White to move in first diagram obviously wins the knight with 1 Qc4. But if black was to play and were to fork the two pieces (1...b4), 2. Qc4+ would still win the knight.
In fact, the only move that does not lose the knight immediately is 1...Ne7.
right right, again, try to ignore the game context for these demonstrations. i'm really just showing the behavior of knights and what situations they can pose at any stage in the game.
sorry for the confusing diagramzzzz. hope my point comes across still.
...ryan
Haha, okay sorry. It's just instinct at this point to analyze the ---- out of any diagram placed in front of me.
Yes, it is the very beginning of visualization, but an important step to better chess.
It is a simple concept(same color or opposite color squares) but... during a game this becomes more complex! And, defending against bishops is maybe easier.
Pieces working together can complicate things. So, this simplicity transforms into a complexity.
Sorry if this has already been covered, but I wanted to share a little trick I use when trying to quickly assess the threat of my enemy's knights, to avoid discovered maneuvers or forks.
What I've found is that if any nearby knight is on a square matching the color of the piece of mine I am checking on, then he usually can pressure that piece with his next move. More importantly, if his color square does NOT match my piece in question, then I am safe from his moving of said knight.
This might be super obvious, and sounds simple, but it really has made my vision of the board a bit better lately, to where I don't get forked by the knights nearly as much (now I just need a better strategy to defend against bishops!).
Here's a demonstration of what I mean, in case my words are really muddled....
In the following example, the queen and rook are about to be forked. Both of their squares they reside on are white, as is the knight, which is an immediate sign of danger....