DOCSLIB.ORG

Pawns: the Knobs of the Chessboard

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Pawns: the Knobs of the Chessboard Chess Club: Pawns Pawn Movement The Pawn can only move one space forward Except on the first turn when it can move 2 spaces forward. Pawns: The Pawn attacks one The Knobs of the Chessboard space diagonally. September 21, 2015 En Passant Rule If a pawn moves 2 spaces forward Promotion to the same rank as an enemy If a Pawn reaches the opponent's back row (8th rank), pawn in an adjacent file, the the Pawn can become a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or enemy pawn may capture that Knight. pawn on the next turn as if the We almost always pick a Queen (queening) . pawn had only move 1 space. That's why chess sets come with an extra Queen. If An en passant capture must be you queen more than once, it's common to use an made on the very next turn after upside-down rook as a Queen token. the pawn was moved. So moving 2 spaces forward does not avoid capture. It is rare to pick a non-queen piece ( underpromotion ). Some players say "en passant" aloud when it is used, but it We may promote Bishop or Rook to avoid a stalemate. is not required. The Lasker Trap promotes to Knight. Protected Pawn Isolated Pawn A pawn is protected by another An isolated pawn has no friendly pawns in adjacent pawn if it has a pawn diagonally files. behind it. An isolated pawn cannot be If an enemy captures a protected by other pawns and cannot move forward if protected pawn, the protector an enemy is directly in front. will capture the enemy. Isolated pawns should be Which pawns are protected by attacked. another pawn in this picture? Where is the isolated pawn in this picture? 1 Chess Club: Pawns Passed Pawn Protected Passed Pawn A passed pawn is a pawn that If your pawns work as a pair, has made it past the pawns in adjacent files. it is possible to get a protected passed pawn. Enemy pawns cannot prevent a passed pawn from making it to promotion. This helps ensure you will get a promotion. If your opponent has a passed pawn, make it the focus of your attack. Where is the protected passed pawn in this picture? Where is the passed pawn in this picture? Doubled Pawn United We Stand, Divided We Fall After a pawn attacks, you may end up with two pawns in the same file. The Pawn is the weakest piece on the chess board. Pawns cannot move backwards. Pawns in the same file are called Pawns cannot attack a piece directly in front. doubled pawns. Doubled pawns are substantially But Pawns are the most numerous piece on the board. weaker than pawns that are side- So it helps to think of the Pawns as a team. by-side. Doubled pawns cannot protect each other and can block The configuration of Pawns on the board is called the progression. pawn structure (sometimes called the pawn skeleton ). Where are the doubled pawns in this picture? Pawn Structure Pawn Structure Discuss the pawn structures below (weak or strong). Basic : Watch the Youtube video: "How to Understand Pawn Structure" A B C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_ZLnKU4f7g Advanced : Grandmaster Andrew Soltis classified the 16 major pawn structures. Wikepedia: "Pawn Structure" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_structure 2 Chess Club: Pawns Relative Value Activity: Pawn-Only Chess We often judge the value of a piece relative to a fixed number of pawns. Let's practice moving pawns as a team! e.g. 1 Rook is worth 5 Pawns Of course it depends on position, but just in terms of movement strength the relative value of the pieces is Find an opponent and set shown below. up the board with only pawns. The winner is the first person to get a pawn promoted. 3.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Combinatorial Game Theoretic Analysis of Chess Endgames
    A COMBINATORIAL GAME THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF CHESS ENDGAMES QINGYUN WU, FRANK YU,¨ MICHAEL LANDRY 1. Abstract In this paper, we attempt to analyze Chess endgames using combinatorial game theory. This is a challenge, because much of combinatorial game theory applies only to games under normal play, in which players move according to a set of rules that define the game, and the last player to move wins. A game of Chess ends either in a draw (as in the game above) or when one of the players achieves checkmate. As such, the game of chess does not immediately lend itself to this type of analysis. However, we found that when we redefined certain aspects of chess, there were useful applications of the theory. (Note: We assume the reader has a knowledge of the rules of Chess prior to reading. Also, we will associate Left with white and Right with black). We first look at positions of chess involving only pawns and no kings. We treat these as combinatorial games under normal play, but with the modification that creating a passed pawn is also a win; the assumption is that promoting a pawn will ultimately lead to checkmate. Just using pawns, we have found chess positions that are equal to the games 0, 1, 2, ?, ", #, and Tiny 1. Next, we bring kings onto the chessboard and construct positions that act as game sums of the numbers and infinitesimals we found. The point is that these carefully constructed positions are games of chess played according to the rules of chess that act like sums of combinatorial games under normal play.
    [Show full text]
  • Combinatorics on the Chessboard
    Combinatorics on the Chessboard Interactive game: 1. On regular chessboard a rook is placed on a1 (bottom-left corner). Players A and B take alternating turns by moving the rook upwards or to the right by any distance (no left or down movements allowed). Player A makes the rst move, and the winner is whoever rst reaches h8 (top-right corner). Is there a winning strategy for any of the players? Solution: Player B has a winning strategy by keeping the rook on the diagonal. Knight problems based on invariance principle: A knight on a chessboard has a property that it moves by alternating through black and white squares: if it is on a white square, then after 1 move it will land on a black square, and vice versa. Sometimes this is called the chameleon property of the knight. This is related to invariance principle, and can be used in problems, such as: 2. A knight starts randomly moving from a1, and after n moves returns to a1. Prove that n is even. Solution: Note that a1 is a black square. Based on the chameleon property the knight will be on a white square after odd number of moves, and on a black square after even number of moves. Therefore, it can return to a1 only after even number of moves. 3. Is it possible to move a knight from a1 to h8 by visiting each square on the chessboard exactly once? Solution: Since there are 64 squares on the board, a knight would need 63 moves to get from a1 to h8 by visiting each square exactly once.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Development
    By Natalie & Leon Taylor 1. DEVELOPMENT ID Shelf Title Author Brief Description No. No. 1 1.1 Chess Made Easy C.J.S. Purdy & G. Aimed for beginners, Koshnitsky 1942, 64 pages. 2 1.2 The Game of Chess H.Golombek Advance from beginner, 1945, 255pages 3 1.3 A Guide to Chess Ed.Gerard & C. Advance from beginner Verviers 1969, 156 pages. 4 1.4 My System Aron Nimzovich Theory of chess to improve yourself 1973, 372 pages 5 1.5 Pawn Power in Chess Hans Kmoch Chess strategy using pawns. 1969, 300 pages 6 1.6 The Most Instructive Games Irving Chernev 62 annotated masterpieces of modern chess strat- of Chess Ever Played egy. 1972, 277 pages 7 1.7 The Development of Chess Dr. M. Euwe Annotated games explaining positional play, Style combination & analysis. 1968, 152pgs 8 1.8 Three Steps to Chess MasteryA.S. Suetin Examples of modern Grandmaster play to im- prove your playing strength. 1982, 188pgs 9 1.9 Grandmasters of Chess Harold C. Schonberg A history of modern chess through the lives of these great players. 1973, 302 pages 10 1.10 Grandmaster Preparation L. Polugayevsky How to prepare technically and psychologically for decisive encounters where everything is at stake. 1981, 232 pages 11 1.11 Grandmaster Performance L. Polugayevsky 64 games selected to give a clear impression of how victory is gained. 1984, 174 pages 12 1.12 Learn from the Grandmasters Raymond D. Keene A wide spectrum of games by a no. of players an- notated from different angles. 1975, 120 pgs 13 1.13 The Modern Chess Sacrifice Leonid Shamkovich ‘A thousand paths lead to delusion, but only one to the truth.’ 1980, 214 pages 14 1.14 Blunders & Brilliancies Ian Mullen and Moe Over 250 excellent exercises to asses your apti- Moss tude for brilliancy and blunder.
    [Show full text]
  • A Package to Print Chessboards
    chessboard: A package to print chessboards Ulrike Fischer November 1, 2020 Contents 1 Changes 1 2 Introduction 2 2.1 Bugs and errors.....................................3 2.2 Requirements......................................4 2.3 Installation........................................4 2.4 Robustness: using \chessboard in moving arguments..............4 2.5 Setting the options...................................5 2.6 Saving optionlists....................................7 2.7 Naming the board....................................8 2.8 Naming areas of the board...............................8 2.9 FEN: Forsyth-Edwards Notation...........................9 2.10 The main parts of the board..............................9 3 Setting the contents of the board 10 3.1 The maximum number of fields........................... 10 1 3.2 Filling with the package skak ............................. 11 3.3 Clearing......................................... 12 3.4 Adding single pieces.................................. 12 3.5 Adding FEN-positions................................. 13 3.6 Saving positions..................................... 15 3.7 Getting the positions of pieces............................ 16 3.8 Using saved and stored games............................ 17 3.9 Restoring the running game.............................. 17 3.10 Changing the input language............................. 18 4 The look of the board 19 4.1 Units for lengths..................................... 19 4.2 Some words about box sizes.............................. 19 4.3 Margins.........................................
    [Show full text]
  • Little Chess Evaluation Compendium by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, Sofia, Bulgaria
    Little Chess Evaluation Compendium By Lyudmil Tsvetkov, Sofia, Bulgaria Version from 2012, an update to an original version first released in 2010 The purpose will be to give a fairly precise evaluation for all the most important terms. Some authors might find some interesting ideas. For abbreviations, p will mean pawns, cp – centipawns, if the number is not indicated it will be centipawns, mps - millipawns; b – bishop, n – knight, k- king, q – queen and r –rook. Also b will mean black and w – white. We will assume that the bishop value is 3ps, knight value – 3ps, rook value – 4.5 ps and queen value – 9ps. In brackets I will be giving purely speculative numbers for possible Elo increase if a specific function is implemented (only for the functions that might not be generally implemented). The exposition will be split in 3 parts, reflecting that opening, middlegame and endgame are very different from one another. The essence of chess in two words Chess is a game of capturing. This is the single most important thing worth considering. But in order to be able to capture well, you should consider a variety of other specific rules. The more rules you consider, the better you will be able to capture. If you consider 10 rules, you will be able to capture. If you consider 100 rules, you will be able to capture in a sufficiently good way. If you consider 1000 rules, you will be able to capture in an excellent way. The philosophy of chess Chess is a game of correlation, and not a game of fixed values.
    [Show full text]
  • Ebook Download Chess for Everyone: a Complete Guide for the Beginner
    CHESS FOR EVERYONE: A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR THE BEGINNER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Robert M Snyder | 205 pages | 30 Dec 2008 | iUniverse | 9780595482061 | English | Bloomington IN, United States Chess for Everyone: A Complete Guide for the Beginner PDF Book The antithesis of the defensive principle: strive to separate the King and Knight, know the winning maneuvers. White to play wins, whereas black to play is a draw This is in accordance to the principle of Rook passiveness. In some cases, on-site registration might not be offered at all! About Simon Pavlenko. Another complicated maneuver which requires white to make the best of his Knight-Bishop duo. Doubled pawns are a liability, but when your opponent has none, they can be a good thing. Balance action with reflection. Return to Book Page. Design Co. Once you learn the game you can move on to playing chess online. If you're buying a used kiln, check for obvious damage, such as cracks in the metal broken fire- bricks and damage to the heating elements. We list them for you and discuss their success. Before you move into those specialized techniques and strategies, however, you do need to have a complete understanding of the opening phase. You are basically trusting some anonymous VPN company not to impliment a man-in-the-middle attack on you. Kiln size is another consideration. How many other guides explain the actually playing environment? Not only does it give you the basic tactics and strategy but it also outlines the rules you need to win. Filed to: VPN Services.
    [Show full text]
  • CONTENTS Contents
    CONTENTS Contents Symbols 5 Preface 6 Introduction 9 1 Glossary of Attacking and Strategic Terms 11 2 Double Attack 23 2.1: Double Attacks with Queens and Rooks 24 2.2: Bishop Forks 31 2.3: Knight Forks 34 2.4: The Í+Ì Connection 44 2.5: Pawn Forks 45 2.6: The Discovered Double Attack 46 2.7: Another Type of Double Attack 53 Exercises 55 Solutions 61 3 The Role of the Pawns 65 3.1: Pawn Promotion 65 3.2: The Far-Advanced Passed Pawn 71 3.3: Connected Passed Pawns 85 3.4: The Pawn-Wedge 89 3.5: Passive Sacrifices 91 3.6: The Kamikaze Pawn 92 Exercises 99 Solutions 103 4 Attacking the Castled Position 106 4.1: Weakness in the Castled Position 106 4.2: Rooks and Files 112 4.3: The Greek Gift 128 4.4: Other Bishop Sacrifices 133 4.5: Panic on the Long Diagonal 143 4.6: The Knight Sacrifice 150 4.7: The Exchange Sacrifice 162 4.8: The Queen Sacrifice 172 Exercises 176 Solutions 181 5 Drawing Combinations 186 5.1: Perpetual Check 186 5.2: Repetition of Position 194 5.3: Stalemate 197 5.4: Fortress and Blockade 202 5.5: Positional Draws 204 Exercises 207 Solutions 210 6 Combined Tactical Themes 213 6.1: Material, Endings, Zugzwang 214 6.2: One Sacrifice after Another 232 6.3: Extraordinary Combinations 242 6.4: A Diabolical Position 257 Exercises 260 Solutions 264 7 Opening Disasters 268 7.1: Open Games 268 7.2: Semi-Open Games 274 7.3: Closed Games 288 8 Tactical Examination 304 Test 1 306 Test 2 308 Test 3 310 Test 4 312 Test 5 314 Test 6 316 Hints 318 Solutions 320 Index of Names 331 Index of Openings 335 THE ROLE OF THE PAWNS 3 The Role of the Pawns Ever since the distant days of the 18th century 3.1: Pawn Promotion (let us call it the time of the French Revolution, or of François-André Danican Philidor) we have known that “pawns are the soul of chess”.
    [Show full text]
  • 53Rd WORLD CONGRESS of CHESS COMPOSITION Crete, Greece, 16-23 October 2010
    53rd WORLD CONGRESS OF CHESS COMPOSITION Crete, Greece, 16-23 October 2010 53rd World Congress of Chess Composition 34th World Chess Solving Championship Crete, Greece, 16–23 October 2010 Congress Programme Sat 16.10 Sun 17.10 Mon 18.10 Tue 19.10 Wed 20.10 Thu 21.10 Fri 22.10 Sat 23.10 ICCU Open WCSC WCSC Excursion Registration Closing Morning Solving 1st day 2nd day and Free time Session 09.30 09.30 09.30 free time 09.30 ICCU ICCU ICCU ICCU Opening Sub- Prize Giving Afternoon Session Session Elections Session committees 14.00 15.00 15.00 17.00 Arrival 14.00 Departure Captains' meeting Open Quick Open 18.00 Solving Solving Closing Lectures Fairy Evening "Machine Show Banquet 20.30 Solving Quick Gun" 21.00 19.30 20.30 Composing 21.00 20.30 WCCC 2010 website: http://www.chessfed.gr/wccc2010 CONGRESS PARTICIPANTS Ilham Aliev Azerbaijan Stephen Rothwell Germany Araz Almammadov Azerbaijan Rainer Staudte Germany Ramil Javadov Azerbaijan Axel Steinbrink Germany Agshin Masimov Azerbaijan Boris Tummes Germany Lutfiyar Rustamov Azerbaijan Arno Zude Germany Aleksandr Bulavka Belarus Paul Bancroft Great Britain Liubou Sihnevich Belarus Fiona Crow Great Britain Mikalai Sihnevich Belarus Stewart Crow Great Britain Viktor Zaitsev Belarus David Friedgood Great Britain Eddy van Beers Belgium Isabel Hardie Great Britain Marcel van Herck Belgium Sally Lewis Great Britain Andy Ooms Belgium Tony Lewis Great Britain Luc Palmans Belgium Michael McDowell Great Britain Ward Stoffelen Belgium Colin McNab Great Britain Fadil Abdurahmanović Bosnia-Hercegovina Jonathan
    [Show full text]
  • Parallel Chess Searching and Bitboards
    Parallel Chess Searching and Bitboards David Ravn Rasmussen August 2004 Abstract In order to make chess programs faster and thus stronger, the two approaches of parallelizing the search and of using clever data structures have been suc- cessful in the past. In this project it is examined how the use of a specific data structure called a bitboard affects the performance of parallel search. For this, a realistic bitboard chess program with important modern enhance- ments is implemented, and several experiments are done to evaluate the performance of the implementation. A maximum speedup of 9.2 on 22 pro- cessors is achieved in one experiment and a maximum speedup of 9.4 on 12 processors is achieved in another experiment. These results indicate that bitboards are a realistic choice of data structure in a parallel chess program, although the considerable difference in the two results suggests that more research could be done to clarify what factors affect such an implementation, and how. I II Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 The Game Of Chess 5 2.1 TheBoard............................. 6 2.2 TheArmies ............................ 6 2.3 TheMoves............................. 6 2.3.1 TheBishop ........................ 7 2.3.2 TheRook ......................... 7 2.3.3 TheQueen ........................ 8 2.3.4 TheKnight ........................ 8 2.3.5 TheKing ......................... 8 2.3.6 ThePawn ......................... 10 2.4 TheEnd.............................. 11 3 Game Trees and Searching 13 3.1 GameTrees ............................ 13 3.2 SearchAlgorithms ........................ 15 3.2.1 Minimax.......................... 16 3.2.2 Negamax ......................... 18 3.2.3 Evaluation......................... 18 3.2.4 Alpha-BetaSearch . 20 4 Search Algorithm Improvements 25 4.1 AspirationWindows .
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Najdorf Sicilian Focus on the Critical D5 Squar One the Most Common Openings in the Past 50 Years Is the Najdorf Variation Of
    1 Najdorf Sicilian will try to keep full control over the d5 Focus on the Critical d5 Squar square, and try to maintain the possibility of placing and keeping a piece One the most common openings in the on d5. Fully controlling the d5 square past 50 years is the Najdorf variation of allows white to affect both sides of the the Sicilian Defense. The Najdorf offers board. In order to assure that control, many different possibilities, starting from white wants to trade off black pieces extremely sharp, poison pawn variation that can control d5. For example, he (1. e4, c5 2. nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 wants to play with Bg5, in order to trade Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 8. off the Knight on f6. He also will Qd2 Qxb2! ) to extremely positional lines increase the number of his own pieces (1. e4, c5 2. nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 that can control d5, with maneuvers like Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 ... ) bishop to c4, then b3, and the knight on Somewhere between those two lines is f3 going to d2-c4-e3. It seems that white the following position, which I will try to has full control of the situation. So why explain. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 does black choose to create this pawn 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 structure? The answer is because this is Diagram one of the rare Sicilian pawn structures abcdef gh that gives the black side a slight space advantage.
    [Show full text]
  • Fundamental Endings CYRUS LAKDAWALA
    First Steps : Fundamental Endings CYRUS LAKDAWALA www.everymanchess.com About the Author Cyrus Lakdawala is an International Master, a former National Open and American Open Cham- pion, and a six-time State Champion. He has been teaching chess for over 30 years, and coaches some of the top junior players in the U.S. Also by the Author: Play the London System A Ferocious Opening Repertoire The Slav: Move by Move 1...d6: Move by Move The Caro-Kann: Move by Move The Four Knights: Move by Move Capablanca: Move by Move The Modern Defence: Move by Move Kramnik: Move by Move The Colle: Move by Move The Scandinavian: Move by Move Botvinnik: Move by Move The Nimzo-Larsen Attack: Move by Move Korchnoi: Move by Move The Alekhine Defence: Move by Move The Trompowsky Attack: Move by Move Carlsen: Move by Move The Classical French: Move by Move Larsen: Move by Move 1...b6: Move by Move Bird’s Opening: Move by Move Petroff Defence: Move by Move Fischer: Move by Move Anti-Sicilians: Move by Move Opening Repertoire ... c6 First Steps: the Modern 3 Contents About the Author 3 Bibliography 5 Introduction 7 1 Essential Knowledge 9 2 Pawn Endings 23 3 Rook Endings 63 4 Queen Endings 119 5 Bishop Endings 144 6 Knight Endings 172 7 Minor Piece Endings 184 8 Rooks and Minor Pieces 206 9 Queen and Other Pieces 243 4 Introduction Why Study Chess at its Cellular Level? A chess battle is no less intense for its lack of brevity. Because my messianic mission in life is to make the chess board a safer place for students and readers, I break the seal of confessional and tell you that some students consider the idea of enjoyable endgame study an oxymoron.
    [Show full text]
  • The Oldest Books on Modern Chess
    The Oldest Books on Modern Chess By Jon Crumiller © 2016 Worldchess.com Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. But when players respond to 1. e4 with 1. … e5, they can often be subjected to the Spanish Torture. That’s a well-known nickname for the Ruy López, one of the oldest and most commonly used openings in chess. The nickname is possibly not a coincidence; the Inquisition was active in Spain in 1561, the same year that the Spanish priest named Ruy López de Segura published his celebrated work, Libro de la Invencion liberal y Arte del juego del Axedrez. The book contained the analysis from which the chess opening received its eponymous name. Jonathan Crumiller The passage highlighted above can roughly be translated: White king’s pawn goes to the fourth. If black plays the king’s pawn to the fourth: white plays the king’s knight to the king’s bishop third, over the pawn. If black plays the queen’s knight to queen’s bishop third: white plays the king’s bishop to the fourth square of the contrary queen’s knight, opposed to that knight. Or in our modern chess language: 1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, Nc6 3. Bb5. Jonathan Crumiller On the right is how the Ruy López opening would have looked four centuries ago with a standard chess set and board in Spain. This Spanish chess set is one of my oldest complete sets (along with a companion wooden set of the same era). Jonathan Crumiller Here is the Ruy López as seen with that companion set displayed on a Spanish chessboard, also from the 1600’s.
    [Show full text]