Prophylaxis in chess refers to the strategic use of moves by a player to forestall their opponent’s potential actions. These moves, commonly known as prophylactic moves, are not only intended to enhance one’s own position, but also to limit the opponent’s ability to enhance theirs.
Month: August 2023
Boris Spassky vs. David Bronstein: From Russia With Love
This game was featured in the James Bond film From Russia With Love (1963). One of the antagonists, the Number Five in SPECTRE, named Kronsteen, beat his opponent in the Spassky style, and received an enthusiastic ovation from the audience before descending into a secret hideout to report to Blofeld, the criminal mastermind.
What is the Grimshaw Device?
The Grimshaw, named after the chess problem composer Walter Grimshaw, is a popular technique used in directmates, especially in “checkmate in two or three moves” kind of problems. It involves two pieces interfering with each other upon reaching a specific square, and can be found frequently in chess problems.
Capablanca Random Chess: Eight files are not enough
Capablanca Random Chess is a variation of the former Capablanca’s Chess, created by Reinhard Scharnagl. The most significant feature of this variant is the random starting position for each game. This rule is very similar to Fischer Random Chess.
Advanced: Queen vs. rook and pawn
We have already seen that the queen is clearly stronger than the rook. But often a single pawn is enough to force a draw against the queen together with the rook. However, it is necessary to prevent the king of the attacking side from getting close to the defensive formation. Let’s look at both basic situations.
Ruy López, Mortimer Trap: Fork and win
The Mortimer Trap, which bears the name of James Mortimer, is an opening trap in the game of chess played in the Ruy López. It is considered a genuine trap because Black intentionally makes a suboptimal move to entice White into committing an error.
Learn to play Smith-Morra Gambit: Open and attack
The gambit is characterized by White sacrificing a pawn on move three in exchange for rapid development and an open position. The idea behind the gambit is to seize control of the center and create attacking chances against Black’s king.
Fortress and Defensive Perimeter: Draw by jamming
Another intriguing usage of a fortress is called the Defensive Perimeter. A Defense Perimeter is distinct from other fortification techniques in that it can be established during the middlegame, even when numerous pieces are still present on the board.
Bogolyubov Variation against the King’s Gambit
The variant can also be found in various sources under the name Jänisch-Bogolyubov Defense, and sometimes Cozio is also mixed in among the names used. It is pretty solid, as the pawn blocks the knight advance to b5 or d5, and prepares to fight for the center with the d-pawn.
Is this the most complex zugzwang problem ever created?
Zugzwang has been a frequent topic of discussion on this blog. When I searched for this term in the search box while writing this article, seven previous articles appeared in the results, and I anticipate that more will be added in the future.