Denker V Schwartz 1930
no. 108. White to move
Denker v. Schwartz 1930
no. 108. White to move
In No. 108, the preliminary maneuver is brief and simple.
Mission accomplished. That the Black king is seriously compromised may be judged from the following circumstances: (a) The hole at KB3 is an outpost station, due to White's king pawn. Its occupation by knight (or pawn) would be murderous, (b) White's queen bishop is available to exploit the holes. (c) White has four minor pieces and the queen readily available to assault the king-side. (The king bishop serves where it stands, by threat of removing the defensive knight at Q4.) Black has only three minor pieces for defense. (The king rook is more hindrance than help, since KB1 could better be occupied by the queen knight or king bishop.)
3 QN-K4
B-K2
The threat is 5 Q-KR3, P-R4; 6 P-KN4. There is no adequate defense.
5 NxKP!
6 BxP and wins
P-KR3 PxN
In No. 109, White counts points for the half-open king bishop file and the broken Black queen-side. But Black's queen has good scope, and his half-open queen knight file is not to be despised. If all heavy pieces were swapped off, the bishops of opposite colors would probably assure Black an easy draw. White therefore bends his energies to direct attack on the king, in which the first step is to force an impairment of his pawns.
Tarrasch v. Bird 1898 no. 109. White to move
4 P-KR3
The game is still full of fight, but White has the upper hand. The bishops of opposite color are now a detriment to Black, for he cannot adequately defend the king-side holes.
A whole book might be written about the move P — KR3. The question of when this move is weak and when it is strong is one of the most difficult in chess. All that we can do here is to indicate the factors to be weighed.
First let us examine the dangers to the pawn itself. It is under fire of the adverse queen bishop; if it is or can be attacked a second time, the sacrifice of the bishop for two pawns—plus exposure of the king—may be a good investment.
Bronstein v. Keres 1955
no. 110. White to move
Bronstein v. Keres 1955
no. 110. White to move
. No. 110 shows the sort of thing that has happened in a thousand guises. White has let go of two pawns to set the stage for
2 BxP! PxB
The pawn cannot be held; if K — N2, then N — B5ch.
4 NxBP RxN
5 BxR
Black has had to return more than the sacrificed piece to avoid mate, and his king is still in trouble.
A pawn at KR3 is under fire of an outpost knight at its KB5. The outpost is all the harder to dislodge after P —KR3 because P - KN3 leaves the rook pawn loose, unless time has been taken to guard it by K-R2 or B-KB1. Even if the knight can be repelled in this way, the rook pawn becomes dangerously weak because deprived of pawn protection. A classical demonstration of these facts was given by Capablanca in No. 111.
Capablanca v. O. Bernstein 1911 no. 111. Black to move
3 BxB QxB
Black seems to have a good game, because of the half-open files and the centralization of his queen. The fact is, however, that he lacks effective posts for his minor pieces and his queen will be chased away. White threatens 8 P —KB4; this move can be delayed but not prevented.
Since Black can no longer prevent P — KB4, he goes on a looting expedition.
The outpost is secure and constantly menaces the king, besides exerting collateral threats such as 11 N-K7ch and 12 NxQBP. White won by a combined attack of queen and knight on Black's KN2.
The Pin of the King Knight
In the days of Anderssen, Morphy et al., it was quite the custom to move P - KR3 early so that the opponent could not— Heaven forbid!—move B-KN5, pinning the king knight. The later view of this custom is expressed by the two queries in this quotation from a book of Morphy's games (No. 112):
no. 112. White to move
Anderssen v. Morphy 1858
no. 112. White to move
These queries are not interpolated from hindsight: neither move, in fact, had detrimental consequences. (White lost through the weakness of his backward queen pawn, which became an isolani after P — Q4 and soon was captured.) But the pendulum has swung back a little way. We now regard it as rather arbitrary to query the moves in this position. Chess is not so easy! White takes a calculated risk in a good cause: he must move P —Q4 sooner or later but cannot well do so if his king knight can be pinned and destroyed. The Black P - KR3 seems less purposeful, and in fact Black had to take defensive measures against a possible sacrifice BxKRP. Yet, had the game taken a different course, it might have turned out to be useful preparation for a general king-side pawn advance.
The case is clearer in No. 113A, which resulted from these opening moves:
2 N-KB3
Journoud v. Morphy (1858?)
2 N-KB3
The query appended by all the editors is here fully deserved. At this juncture, 5 ... B - KN5 would be a poor move. White answers 6 P-KR3, and if B-R4; 7 P-KN4. This unpinning procedure is dangerous after White has moved O-O, but not before, for then he can move O - O - O and continue his pawn storm of the king-side.
no. 113b. White to move
This move looks risky and is risky. White is about to open the king bishop file, after which the rook's attack on the king knight combined with the bishop's attack on the king rook pawn will threaten at least the win of a pawn. We can only conclude that Morphy had calculated the ensuing play to move 20—evidently the editors thought so in omitting the traditional query at move 9!
This center break is what saves Black's king-side. Intent on his wing attack, White sacrifices a pawn to avoid wholesale exchanges.
12 BPxP NxP
14 NxB RPxN
no. 113c. White to move
White wants to prove that 9 . . . P —KR3 was a mistake. Insufficient is 16 BxP, e.g., BxB; 17 BPxB, QxQP- 18 QxQ, NxQ; 19 RxN, PxB; 20 RxRP, K-N2; 21 R-R5, P-KB4. Hence:
16 RxN PxR
17 BxP KR-Q1
20 QxBP QxP and Black wins
The move P-KR3 is often made merely to parry an immediate threat. But it can have solid positional value, as is attested by the fact that it is accepted in a number of opening variations.
For example, if from No. 113A we continue 5 P - Q3, N - KB3, we reach the standard symmetrical position of the Giuoco Piano. The best continuation is no doubt 6 B - K3, but 6 P - KR3 is also a "book" line.
In No. 114, a common position of the Ruy Lopez, White wants to play P - Q4. But it has been found that the reply B - N5, with the immediate threat of doubling the king bishop pawn, gives
Black adequate counterplay. The "book" move is therefore P - KR3, preventing the pin in preparation for P - Q4.
- no. 114. White to move
The "book" does not guarantee you against trouble: you still have a game to play! You must try to direct the course of the game so that the "remote theoretical weakness" of P - KR3 does not become an actuality. No. 115 is a position that arose after the Ruy Lopez P - KR3. White has failed in his task. Black has obtained the strong station KB5 for his knight, in consequence of both P — KR3 and the disappearance of White's queen bishop. Black, too, has moved P - KR3, but this move has turned out to be strong, for it has induced White to play BxN (at KB3), and White has no king-side attack.
Blau v. Van Scheltinga 1947
White dreams of repelling the outpost by P — KN3.
N-B5 P-KN4
Directed against P - N5.
4 P-KN3
5 NxN
and Black wins
White cannot remove the advanced pawn (7 BxP? Q — R4).
SUMMARY
Count a point minus for compromised pawns in front of the castled king. Regard the compromise as serious if the opponent has a lead in development and can quickly work up a king-side attack.
Most perilous is likely to be a doubled king bishop pawn; P - KN3 is less so, but still leaves dangerous holes; P - KR3 is often innocuous or strengthening, but needs watching. The advance of the king bishop pawn is often essential to strengthen center-command or to spearhead an attack, but is compromising if the king pawn is thereby left backward.
As explained in Chapter 6, the king-side pawns may often be advanced away from the castled king to spearhead an attack; the king is not thereby compromised if (a) you have enough pieces in the vicinity to prosecute the attack; these pieces also guard the king; (b) the center is blocked and the opponent cannot break through to get behind your front line.
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