Art of Defense in Chess

The win for White lies through the exchange of queens, and if need be,even with the sacrfice of one of his queenside pawns.And when in Chigorin-Schlechter,Ostende,1905,(above position),Black gave a so-called spite check 44...Qc7+,White did not see anything tricky in it.He offered the exchange-45.Qb6+?? but after 45...Ka8!he was forced to agree to a draw in view of either stalemate(46.Qxc7) or perpetual attack(46.Ka6 Qc8+ 47.Ka5 Qc7).The simple 45.b6 Qe7 46.Qc4 would have immediately won,since the check on c7 with the desired exchange can merely be delayed by Black,but not averted. Here we come to another trustworthy and eternal weapon of the defending side.An extensive and truly inexhaustible theme for traps is provided by the somewhat paradoxical chess rule of stalemate.In life and in other logica games it has no analogy.But in chess...The absence of any move for the weaker side gives him life-and many pitfalls and mined squares have been constructed by defending side in search of

Masters often claim that one should consider every reasonable candidate moves, analyze each of them once and only once and make a final decision about which move to play only after you are absolutely certain of its consequences. But in their own games masters often ignore all of this advice.They recognize a move that is so evidently good that to them it really is "obvious." In the position below, Black has just played Bc7. White immediately recognizes the simplest move: His rook is attacked and he can capture Black's rook with 1.Rxf8+. He also sees that 1.. Kxf8 would enable him to attack the h-pawn with 2.Qh5. And on 1..Bxf8 there may be something like 2.Qg4+. Every strong player would see this fairly quickly,regardless of whether they are "combinational" or "positional" or strategic" or whatever stereotype terms are used. They  all have the vision. 1.Ra7 White also noticed how this move would create at least three new tactical possibilities

Masters The upper two percent of tournament players employ so shortcuts that they can play good moves at a glance,as they do in simultaneous exhibitions. They rely much more than other players on an intuitive sense of what the right move looks like and they are able to recognize the important elements in a position- when doubling a pawn matters and when it does not, for example. Moreover, masters are able to detect when they need to calculate and  when they need to calculate and when they can and should avoid it. They trust their level of expectation to tell them when they should look for a superior, second candidate or even a third. And they know how to balance subjective factors, such as the degree of risk in deciding what move to make. This is the introductory article of the masters section. Now you come to know why are these certain group of people are called "masters". Hope you liked the article. Keep reading and please share. Thank you!

Experienced Tournament Players- These players have mastered many of the basic techniques of move selection. They can spot a candidate that violates general principles. There are acquiring some intuition. They have also developed shortcuts in the second stage of the process. They know that in some positions they can safely halt their calculation after looking only two moves into the future, whereas in other positions they may have to look much further to be reasonably sure of a candidate's soundness. And in the third stage, their ability to evaluate goes far beyond that of lower-rated players. They will rarely conclude that a position is plus-over-minus when it is really equal. In the position below, White has just played 1. Ne5 and seems to be threatening 2. Nxc6. Black played 1...Nfd7!? Black knows it was not a threat eliminating the e5 knight is more important than granting White the two-bishop advantage and rupturing Black's queenside pawns. He stood well after 2. Qd

In the following position, Black says to himself,"If I play Bxb3, he has to retake or he'll be a knight down. He will recapture towards the center,axb3. Then I reply Nb4 and I have a strong attack with Qa5 coming up." Black's tactical vision cant be faulted. After 1... Bxb3 2.axb3 Nb4 he would have a serious initiative, e.g. 3. Kb1 Qa5 followed by Rxc3 and Qa2+. The problem is not visualization but sloppy optimism. Black has not reached the level of sophistication to say "If I play Bxb3, I stand well if he recaputres with the a-pawn. But maybe that's not the best reply.What happens on cxb3?Hmm, if I paly Bc4 then he just moves his king to b1 and he is quite safe so maybe Bxb3 is not my best move." I think in this article I have got the thinkings of the intermediate chess players. After working hard on it, I have got the limitations of the intermediate chess players. My next article will be on how does an Experienced Tournament Player think and how can

In the position below, White played 1.d4. A post-beginner sitting in Black's hair would likely overlook his opponent's possibilities, such as the threat of the pawn fork(2.d5). The novice might see the fork buy not the second threat(1..Bd7 2.d5 Na5 3.b4!). Instead, he spends a lot of time focused on his own candidates, such as 1...Nxe4. And he rarely considers the consequences of his moves. Improving Amateurs- Players in the next level avoid the mistakes of their past. They rarely put pieces en prise and they recognize most enemy threats. They can recognize a candidate as being "obvious." They look for a second candidate, even if the first one seems to be good. But the most important attribute of the improving amateur is that he has advanced to the second and third stages of move selection. He does not just pick candidates but also tries to analyze and evaluate the consequences of a candidate: " If I go there, what happens if he goes there?" He can calcul