Upgrading The Target Under Attack To Enable A Forking Tactic

Chess position consists for the most part of indicators - which have pretty much the same function as the instrumentation for an airplane. Both provide the pilot with information that sets the basis for the next decision she will make.

For the airplane pilot, this means being capable to discern the Altimeter from the Vertical
Speed Indicator. For the chess player, this means recognizing the prelude to a tactical operation.

But - just what are the chess indicators - and what do they tell us? Just what tactic does a particular indicator point to - and how does it do this?

The answer to the first question can be found in any number of books on chess tactics. Indicators, in chess, resolve to patterns - which YOU are charged with the responsibility to recognize - if ever you plan to play solid chess. Everybody knows that - it's simple enough. BUT - chess is not simple - and never let any book tell you that it is.

The second question: how to recognize the indicators - and what they point to - is a bit more complex. The answer to this question is for you to train your vision - and unfortunately - there is no shortcut to accomplishing this.

In this philosophy - we will resolve ourselves to push further, toward a deeper understanding - to learn - in effect - how to see.

If you think this will be easy - then stop reading right here. If we are going to re-think how we go about chess training - then the very first thing we want to do is to learn to accept right up front - that learning real chess is going to mean some work.

You will read books to familiarize yourself with the game, yes - but from there - we will adopt the practice of training our eyes and our brains so as to must enhance our ability to SEE. We will cultivate the proper habits - and our chess will improve accordingly.

In these training articles (there will be many), we will present a different kind of chess puzzle. Instead of solving problems solely on the chessboard - we will attempt to solve the mystery of what might be wrong with our chess games.

To that end - you should view the puzzles in these articles as training scenarios - a sort of training course on which we hope to learn primarily about ourselves - and maybe we will learn a something about chess as well!

Diagrams will be provided to assist you to follow along - but you won't learn anything about yourself unless you set up these scenarios and play them out. You don't have to reach solution before you can go on. Just study things until you feel satisfied - and then let us meet back here to see where we might have gone wrong.

The positions are diagrammed using the FEN diagramming notation. It is VERY easy to understand, and you can find information on how to read it just about anywhere on the net. Most chess computers understand FEN, so that if you save the FEN string as a .fen file, you can load it into a chess program and the computer will display the position graphically - as pieces on a chess board!

Now, STOP HERE, and study this scenario. Then return to this article and let's take this on together.

GOALS:

1) To demonstrate the value of mastering the skill to observe every check and capture.
2) To demonstrate the value of mastering the skill to observe the position of the chessboard one move after the check or capture is imagined.
3) To demonstrate how to upgrade a certain target for one of higher value by use of the forking concept.

INITIAL POSITION:

4b1kr/5p1p/3N2p1/8/q3N3/5P2/6PP/3RR2K w - - 0 1

With our opening scenario , white begins with an already won game - but that's actually beside the point. The point here is to illustrate that you must play on your opponent's weaknesses if you want to play strong chess. This means - of course - that you have to be able to recognize your OWN weaknesses - AND, you must be willing to deal with them.

In this example we will use a knight fork - but if your scan is up to the task - any forking combination will work just as well. Study forks from a book on chess tactics. You will still need to train your brain to see them though. Should your fork detection scanning skills need work - visit the Chess-Stack Training Gym. The exercises there are specifically designed to help you.

Here, the bishop at E8 might be the first thing to attract the eye - but it is guarded by the black queen, so that amounts to a simple trade.

A better option - and hopefully you did not fail to see this - is a clean knight fork:

Kt (e4) - D6!

...And, you win the bishop outright. The queen can not recapture because of the knight at D6. What could be cleaner?

There is little point to waiting, so we go ahead and execute the fork winning ourselves...

What? You say this would be hasty?

Well, perhaps - since I set a trap for you right from the beginning. You would NOT have fallen into it though if you had strong scanning habits.

Put away the complicated thinking. That simply is NOT what chess is all about. Chess is about the acquisition of specialized skills that must be developed cultivated and learned. You MUST develop these skills if your chess is to be strong.

Here, a simple application of Every Check and Capture (ECC) and One Move After (OMA) would have made it clear that capturing the knight on E8 WAS the correct move after all.

Following through, you see that if the queen should recapture - your target would be upgraded - from a knight - to a whole queen!

Let me point out that - whether or not you saw this solution is unimportant. That's right - it does not matter. We are concerned with habit here. How did you approach the problem?

Specifically, if you failed automatically to make a scan for EVERY check and capture (not just those relating to the puzzle) - and imagining the board one move after the check or capture - then you need more practice at this skill.

It's not about the puzzle. You need to have ingrained in your thinking NEVER to make a move - under ANY circumstances - without performing a full scan from both sides of the chessboard. The habit needs to be there even when your head isn't. Because you don't possess this skill - you let me lead you by the nose. At the chessboard - you need to be thinking for yourself - and you haven't all day to reach your decision.

I don't think it is overstating the case to say that a solid command of ECC ALONE, would likely have resolved this entire scenario.

If this was your first chess-stack training article - then you should now understand very well why it is necessary to set things up and play them through BEFORE reading the entire article. You want to surprise yourself with your failings - and you want to do this in actual practice.

If you determine that you need to develop better chess habits - please be advised that there are exercises specifically designed to improve your skills at the Chess-Stack website. You might find help on other sites as well - but, which ever site you choose to train - TRAIN and get this vital ability under your belt.

If you determine that need to develop this habit - please be advised that there are exercises specifically designed to improve this skill at the Chess-Stack website. You might find help on other sites as well - but, which ever site you choose to train - TRAIN and get this vital ability under your belt.

Now, for completeness, let us complete the scenario...

White has made her scan and she knows the situation. She will win at least a knight in any case - and so has nothing to lose so she goes after the upgrade:

Kt(d6) - e8!

Now, white just has to hope that black bites, but if not - she has already made off with a valuable bishop.

MIDDLE POSITION:

4N1kr/5p1p/6p1/8/q3N3/5P2/6PP/3RR2K b - - 0 1

At this point - black would likely forfeit - as his best move is the kings rooks pawn to gain some running room (he will need it), but that would not illustrate the point of this training scenario - so let us assume that Black is having a bad day:

QxKt???

FINAL POSITION:

4q1kr/5p1p/5Np1/8/8/5P2/6PP/3RR2K b - - 0 1

Yes, lady luck is smiling on you today. The fork is shown executed against the more valuable target - winning a whole queen, instead of a bishop. In chess - NOTHING is a foregone conclusion. You must play every angle and - if it fails - then you can always devise another plan. You've nothing to lose by having tried. Remember that.

Good Luck!