Art of Defense in Chess

This is the second game in this series: We learnt that it is not just the counterattacking side who may go wrong. In the following game between Taimanov and Larsen we will study that without great risk of being wrong we can name the factors by which Larsen was guided. Firstly, after 1.. g5 he slightly assumed that such a turn of events would be extremely unexpected for white. Secondly, from the calm waters of positional pressure in the centre, White has to plunge into deep complications where the probability of mistake increases many times. Play Online Chess [Event "?"] [Site "Vinkovci"] [Date "1970.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Taimanov"] [Black "Larsen"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteELO "?"] [BlackELO "?"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r1b2rk1/pp2bppp/2n5/q2p4/5B2/PQN1PN2/1P3PPP/2R1K2R b KQkq - 0 1"] %Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor 1... g5 2. Bg3 g4 3. Nd4 Nxd4 4. e...

This saying, which does not apply only to chess, is considered universal.  Now if there is a choice between playing for equality and playing for a counterattack, the latter will normally bring greater dividends. Provided,of course, that the player launching the counterattack is not afraid of complications and is ready to take risks. It is not possible to list all the motifs for such a decision: it may be to attack the opponent's king, to disrupt the co-ordination of the enemy pieces which are ready to attack. The following game is between Mikhail-Tal and Vassily Smyslov in 1959 Candidates Tournament Play Online Chess [Event "Candidates Tournament"] [Site "Yugoslavia"] [Date "1959.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Mikhail Tal"] [Black "Vassily Smyslov"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteELO "?"] [BlackELO "?"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r1bq1rk1/pp1nbppp/2pN1n2/6B1/3Q4/5N2/PPP2PPP/2KR...