Think like a Master |
| Written by Administrator | ||||
| Thursday, 02 May 2013 | ||||
 by IM Vladislav Akselrod  How do masters approach a chess position? In what way does their thinking process work? How does one become a master? IM Vladislav Akselrod shares some of his thoughts on this topic by analyzing a recent game between Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian. So, you want to become an IM rated 2400+? Are you sure you really need that? Ok, to the point. Age only affects calculation skills. Those who haven't started playing early enough blunder more often. As to the rest... I am not saying there is one and only one true methodology. Still, I have a concept that needs tweaking, but is working rather efficiently already. It is based on an anecdote: A writer, a physicist, a mathematician and a chess player are traveling by train. The train enters Switzerland, and on top of a mountain the fours guys notice a black sheep. Writer: "I didn't know that all the sheep in Switzerland are black!" Physicist: "You are wrong. We can only say that some sheep in Switzerland are black". Mathematician: "No. We can state there there is one black sheep in Switzerland. We don't know anything about the rest". Chess player: "Not really. We can say that one sheep in Switzerland looks Black when being observed from a trespassing train by the four of us!". If you find the story boring, then this methodology is probably not suited for you :) Now let's consider a chess example.  Photo from the official website Aronian (2809) - Carlsen (2872), Candidates Tournament, 2013 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Bd2 5.Qd2 d5  For White this position screams "STOP!". The Black pawns are on d5, e6 while the bishop is still on c8. This setup is clearly disharmonious. Something is wrong. With dark-squared bishops on the board it is quite plausible. But with light-squared bishops on board one must aim for d6 and e5. A necessary digression. Being rated 2400+, I am not the person to mentor Carlsen, Aronian and all the other top guys who are higher-rated and, more importantly, understand the game better. Nevertheless, I have my personal opinion about chess and have the right to express my views, even if someone finds them ridiculous. Also, I will often be employing my own chess terms, but I hope that their meaning will be intuitively clear. Why "STOP"? The dark-squared bishops have been traded off. Black has determined the pawn structure in the center. The Black pieces might potentially get cramped. Usually any of these conditions is enough for me to take a break and re-evaluate the position. The "beacon" is the pawn structure of the Queen's gambit (Vlad calls well-known and important typical positions "beacons" - Pogonina.com). The difference is that the dark-squared bishops are missing. How does it affect the position? Verbal evaluation of the position (general reasoning): The starting position is evaluated as +/= or = (White is a tad better). Trading dark-squared bishops while fixing the pawns on light squares is an inaccuracy at most, so White can't expect more than +/= here. The number of tempi in White's disposal - 1, because Black is ready to castle. Any tactical motifs? After cd Black must play ed (after cd Nd5 e4 White has a clear advantage due to having the prospects of launching a promising kingside attack). Chess evaluation: First for the opponent, i.e., for Black. In the absence of dark-squared bishops the queen has a great outpost on e7. The light-squared bishop will be developed via b7 after dc and c7-c5:d4. The setup Qe7, Rc8, Bb7, Nf6, Nc6 is very attractive and guarantees at least equality for Black. The perfect setup is not a7 and b6, but a6 and b5, making the Nc6-a5-c4 maneuver possible. Now we can formulate the first requirements towards White's move. We should not allow Bb7 and should make the "c7-c5 and dc" plan unattractive for Black. This encourages us to play cd. A Carlsbad pawn structure will occur then. The standard plans of this system are: White is preparing a minority attack (b2-b4-b5:c6) and putting pressure on the pawn on c6. Black is attacking on the kingside (Nf6-e4, Rf8-e8-e6-g6). Generally speaking, a Carlsbad structure without dark-squared bishops favors White. White would be happy about trading queens, thus weakening Black's kingside attack. Let's compare White's position with the "beacon". Ideally, we want all our moves to be useful and all the opponent's attemps to be futile. In this case the queen on d2 is only good for Black (the knight can appear on e4, winning a tempo). It will have to leave. The perfect square for it is probably c2. Now we need to formulate the final question. How can we exploit Black's disharmony (Bc8, d5, e6; which can be corrected by playing dc, b6, c7-c5:cd) in just one move? Also, we need to keep in mind that there are no dark-squared bishops on the board; the queen is idling on d2; Black hasn't castled yet. Let's try to prevent dc. This can be achieved by playing cd. Black has to respond with ed. Carlsbad structure now. How can we trade queens? There are two ways of doing it. One is to trade pieces explicitly, the other is to place your piece so well that the opponent will be forced into exchanging it. The obvious answer is Qb4. The queen is preventing Black's castling, the absence of dark-squred bishops is exploited, Black has to trade queens. BUT! We don't want to give Black extra tempi (Nb8-c6!). Let's improve the idea. After cd ed White can also play Qd2-e3+ and meet Be6 (Qe7 Qe7! is ok for White) with Qe3-a3! The queen is safe on a3. Let's evaluate the position. White has taken advantage of the fact that the dark-squared bishops have been traded. Without queens on the board Black will have trouble playing 0-0 (Nb8-c6-e7 takes a lot of time; the knight will be misplaced if Black decides to go for c5. It belongs to c6, hence, Black will lose at least two tempi (Nc6-e7-c6)). Furthermore, the bishop is slacking on e6. Black will have to relocate it, granting White even more free tempi. Summary: without losing any tempi, White can transfer the queen from d2 to a3, where Black will have to trade it. Be6 will be "dumb", because c5 leads to an isolated pawn-structure without queens. Giving it up for one of the White knights will potentially lead to a favorable B vs. K endgame. So, the game should have been continuted (from the point of view of an IM rated 2400+): 6.cd ed 7.Qe3+ Be6 8.Qa3 Qe7 9. Qe7 Ke7.  Turn on your chess engines and check!  By the way, take a look at how finely Black played and how gracefully White escaped in the original game. Aronian (2809) - Carlsen (2872), 1/2-1/2 How much time does it take? All these considerations require 15-20 minutes in classical time control chess, 1-2 minutes in blitz (for masters) and 1-2 hours for a candidate master. BUT! Before learning how to crawl, one doesn't start walking and, especially, running. And, finally, let me ask you once again: do you really need it? Other columns by IM Vlad Akselrod: Searching for Caissa's favor Love for Chess or Sex with the Pieces? Winning against Nakamura
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