Sunday, August 14, 2011

Defending - strategy

There is an old word saying "to attack is easier than to defend". It really makes sense in a psychological point of view since most of the players prefer to attack than to defend. In addition we are thought by our masters that the best method of defense is to counter attack. When a player start to attack, he knows what he wants and where the target is. On the other hand a defender must be

1. Alert
2. Calculate accurately
3. Stay calm
4. React accordingly
5. Find what the attacker wants
6. Know the consequences
7. Choose the correct path, etc

which make many chess players hate defending. In the diagram below, black is defending a very difficult position. Find the first correct move and tell us what is your plan? Black to move ..



Good luck!
... Luth Mikael

OK lets continue...

White is threatening a)Qxd5 b)BxB with the idea of Nfg5 and the deadly Qh5+ to follow and c)Qd3 with the idea of discovered check.

The only way to defend is 1..f6 with the idea to stop all the threats mentioned above. If 2.exf6 then black can take the pawn with his Knight and stops the attack on the king side.

1..f5 is an interesting try but may not be the best defense. After the correct 2.Qxd5 fxe4 white can make a draw with perpetual check on c4 and h4

Now that after 1..f6 white cannot play 2.exf6 as mentioned because Nxf6 but white can complicate the game further.

Find the tricky move for white ..


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