Practical Lessons from Stockfish - Baiting the Hook

Consider the following position:

White has just played Qd5. Now we can ask ourselves: what is White's plan?

Recapturing the pawn on e4 seems logical. Although, White could have done that already with the bishop on g2.

So what else might be the reason for White moving the queen?

If we think of king safety and future moves, White probably wants to castle queenside.

For example:

Now White has accomplished his goal. Black has also managed to develop his minor pieces, and probably will castle kingside. It's a somewhat even position ... but could Black have gotten something better?

Enter Stockfish and one of its top recommendations here:

Why might the all-seeing engine want us to deliver this seemingly harmless check - especially when it can be blocked by the simple pawn to c3?

The answer, of course, is because pawn to c3 creates a slight weakness if White plans to castle queenside. We call this a "hook" - a forward-advanced pawn that will, in the future, allow the other player to pry open a file with his own pawns or pieces.

In this case, pawn c3 would allow Black greater opportunities to pry open a file on White's queenside - making his queenside castle a more risky maneuver.

So now we come to this:

White has managed to castle queenside, and he has managed to defend his a2 pawn. However, now he has created a second "hook" around his castled king.

Let's continue with a demonstrative example to see how White might go wrong and how Black might take advantage of this:

White is trying to crash through on the f-file. Black is trying to attack the pawn hooks around White's queenside. It's a race between both players to execute their individual plans. Let's see how it pans out:

Black offers a pretty sacrifice of his bishop, to draw the king out into incoming enemy fire!

Let's see how this might play out:

Black crashes through and traps White's king in a fatal mating net.

Handshake, good game.

So what can we take away from this?

1) If you know your opponent is planning to castle to a certain side, see if you can "entice" your opponent to move a pawn where he plans to castle - creating a future "hook" that you might be able to attack. Often, a bishop check can help to accomplish this.

2) If your opponent does have a pawn hook near his castled king, try to use your pawns (or your pieces) to attack that pawn hook - with the goal of opening attacking lines around your opponent's king.

Hope you learned something from this! Until next time - keep playing and keep learning.

I like this move:

"Black offers a pretty sacrifice of his bishop, to draw the king out into incoming enemy fire!"

oh, really nice looking mate!