Mating the Castled King By Danny Gormally Quality Chess www.qualitychess.co.uk First edition 2014 by Quality Chess UK Ltd Copyright 2014 Danny Gormally © Mating the Castled King All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any fo rm or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. Paperback ISBN 978-1 -907982-71-2 Hardcover ISBN 978-1 -907982-72-9 All sales or enquiries should be directed to Quality Chess UK Ltd, 20 Balvie Road, Milngavie, Glasgow G62 7TA, United Kingdom Phone +44 141 204 2073 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.qualitychess.co.uk Distributed in North America by Globe Pequot Press, P.O. Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480, US www.globepequot.com Distributed in Rest of the Wo rld by Quality Chess UK Ltd through Sunrise Handicrafts, ul. Skromna 3, 20-704 Lublin, Poland Ty peset by Jacob Aagaard Proofreading by Andrew Greet Edited by Colin McNab Cover design by Carole Dunlop and www.adamsondesign.com Cover Photo by capture365.com Photo page 174 by Harald Fietz Printed in Estonia by Tallinna Raamatutriikikoja LLC Contents Key to Symbols used 4 Preface 5 Chapter 1 - A Few Helpful Ideas 7 Chapter 2 - 160 Mating Finishes 16 Bishop Clearance 17 Back-rank Mate 22 Bishop and Knight 30 Breakthrough on the g-file 40 Breakthrough on the b-file 49 Destroying a Defensive Knight 54 Breakthrough on the h-file 63 Dragging out the King 79 Exposing the King 97 Greek Gift Sacrifice 102 Queen and Bishop 116 Queen Breakthrough to h7 126 Rook and Bishop 136 Kingside Fianchetto 145 Rook and Knight 158 Mate in the Corner 167 Mate on the h-file 169 Queen and Knight 175 Smothered Mate 181 Tw o Rooks 185 Chapter 3 - Pawns and Pieces 189 Chapter 4 - Breakthrough with Pieces 205 Chapter 5 - Breakthrough with Pawns 259 Chapter 6 - Ty pical Pawn Breakthroughs 301 Chapter 7 - Conclusion and Exercises 320 Name Index 330 Key to symbols used White is slightly better Black is slightly better White is better ± Black is better + +- White has a decisive advantage -+ Black has a decisive advantage equality with compensation iiii with counterplay ? Cl> unclear a weak move ?? a blunder a good move !! an excellent move !? a move worth considering ?! a move of doubtful value mate # Preface Right from when we firststart to play chess, we are taught quick knock-out ways of checkmating our opponent's king. We quickly learn Scholar's mate and other speedy methods of scoring an easy win. At that point, the more difficultand sophisticated job of trying to break down a castled king is only a vague outline in our mind. Eventually we develop various slapdash methods of attacking the king that has fledto safety. However, it seems to me that the topic of attacking the castled king is poorly represented in chess literature, and as a consequence, very few of us are true masters of this tricky subject. While writing this book, it occurred to me that attacking the castled king can be broken down into three different methods: 1) A blitzkrieg attack. This is the kind of attack that comes out of nothing. A good example of this is when a hook can be attacked with ii.xh6, which we will look at in detail in this book. From seemingly little danger, the enemy king comes under a terrible assault. 2) Playing directly fo r the attack. Typically White (though sometimes Black, of course) plays fo r an attack right from the opening. Pawn storm in the Sicilian are typical of this, or the Wel -h4 method of trying to break down a kingside fianchetto. In this book we'll examine many examples of this type of attack. 3) Theattack is an indirect consequence of the previous play. This type of attack tends to arise as a consequence of general play, and is the most common. Only once we have achieved strategic dominance do we launch an assault. Karpov was a master of this, only choosing to attack when everything was in his favour. I learned a lot from writing this book. I've always been a very intuitive player rather than having a great mastery of the theory of the game. As I consider myself a natural attacking player, I was surprised during the process of writing this book to discover how little I knew about the specifics of attacking a castled king. It seems to me that we spend more time studying the finer points of the game, like positional strategy and pawn structures, and fo rget about what really wins the game - mating the guy's king. I think it's a common misconception that when you become a grandmaster, all the secrets of chess knowledge are revealed to you. Like some secret freemasons' ceremony, where as well as learning about the shape-shifting lizards who control the world government and who faked the moon landings, you also learn about the deep mysteries of chess strategy. Sadly it isn't true, and like everyone else I have to work at it. (Certainly writing this book helped immensely in that regard.) A chess brain is like a muscle which has to be continually exercised. I've tried to emphasize throughout this book how important it is to keep looking at lots of chess puzzles in magazines, etc. Chess is all about pattern recognition, it's all about knowing past situations and putting that knowledge into practice, and you have to keep working on that ability. Mating the Castled Kin 6 g Even so, I hope the reader enjoys this book, and remember fo lks, it's only a game. Anyone who knows me will be aware I struggle to take anything too seriously, and I've tried to reflect that. As well as the serious theory, you'll also learn about: TheTo wer of Terror - a satanic monument to evil which has the power to destroy an enemy army on its own. TheTw ins of Evil - dreaded harbingers of doom that have often been known to hang out at Terror Tower. TheSho tgun - not to be confused with the Sniper, this is an extremely dangerous weapon that comes in very useful in close encounters. Enjoy. Danny Gormally Alnwick, March 2014 Chapter 1 A Few Helpful Ideas First of all, I'd like to establish some common ideas and themes in the reader's mind. Theseideas will come up time and again throughout the book, so it's worth becoming acquainted with them now, in order to make the subsequent chapters easier to understand. I would like to look at the fo llowing ideas: 1) The least-defended square. Where is the attack most likely to succeed? What points in the enemy position are vulnerable? 2) What constitutes a weakness in the king's position? How can it be exploited? 3) Under which circumstances is playing fo r mate most likely to succeed? 4) Opening filesaro und the king, drawing the enemy king out into the open. 5) Elimination of defenders, overloading of pieces. 6) Entrapping the enemy king. 1) Theleast-defended square How does an attack break through? We have to find a weakness to latch onto, an Achilles heel in the opponents armour. When we first learn chess we are taught to concentrate on attacking the f7-square, because that square is defended only by the king. The problem of the f7-square is often solved by castling, but then other weak squares and vulnerable points may arise, which the astute attacking player can target. For example, White frequently launches an attack aimed at the h7 -square, as that square is fu rthest from the protection of the black pieces. Sometimes several squares become vulnerable, as in the fo llowing game where Black suffers a dire fa te when the weakened squares around his king are ruthlessly invaded. Mating the Castled King 8 Leonid Yurtaev - Denis Lopushnoy 16... fXe6 17.Wh7t mf8 IB.ltJe5! IS completely destructive. To msk 1998 16... �xe6 attempts to stem the tide by at least getting the bishop out, but the attack is too strong: 17.Wh7t <±>fB IB.E\xe6! and White wins. 17.ex£1t<±>f B IB.Wg6! ltJf6 a bede f g h 14. .txgS!! Thisshuddering blow rips the black kingside a e bed f g h asunder. There is no real choice but to take the 19.E\xe7! impudent cleric; White would simply have an One of the keys when attacking is to keep extra pawn if the sacrificeis declined. throwing power moves at the opponent, not giving him time to breathe. 14... hxgS lS.tiJxgS f5 19... �f5 When attacking we should always consider 19... <±>xe7 loses to 20.E\el t mfB 21.ltJh7t the consequences of the king fleeing, but in ltJxh7 22.E\eBtand mate next move. this case the king cannot escape: 19... Wxc4 20.E\ael is no fun either, fo r 15.. J:%d8 example 20 ...�g4 21.ltJh7t ltJxh7 22.E\eBt fo llowed by mate. 20.E\eBt! When you have a strong attacking set-up, such moves floweasily . 20 ...E\xeB 21.fXeB=Wt Followed by mate on £1. 16.'1Wh4gd8 17.�h7t cj;lfS18 .e6! Cruelly closing the net around the black king. a e bed f g h 18... �f 4 16.e6! IB... ltJf 6 doesn't survive fo r long either: A crucial blow.