THE ROYAL CHESS COUPLE IN ACTION by Hans Böhm and Yochanan Afek www.thinkerspublishing.com Managing Editor Romain Edouard Assistant Editor Daniel Vanheirzeele English translation Yochanan Afek Proofreading Bob Holliman Graphic Artist Philippe Tonnard Cover design Mieke Mertens Typesetting i-Press ‹www.i-press.pl› Translated from the original Dutch edition 2014: Wij presenteren De KONING en De KONINGIN. First edition 2019 by Th inkers Publishing Th e Royal Chess Couple in Action Copyright © 2019 Hans Böhm and Yochanan Afek All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. ISBN 978-94-9251-057-0 D/2019/13730/10 All sales or enquiries should be directed to Th inkers Publishing, 9850 Landegem, Belgium. e-mail: [email protected] website: www.thinkerspublishing.com TABLE OF CONTENTS KEY TO SYMBOLS 7 FOREWORD 9 A BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW 11 First period: estimated precursors: 4000–400 BC 11 Second period: Chaturanga for two people 400 BC–750 13 Th ird period: Europe in the Middle Ages 750–1475 14 Fourth period: From 1475 to the present — modern chess 15 Special rules: castling, mate and stalemate 24 PART I. THE KING 27 Shouldering 27 Opposition 29 Bypass 33 Wrong king moves 35 Sophisticated king moves 37 Stalemates in pawn endings 40 Short, powerful and instructive 43 Shouldering in practice 45 Self confi nement 48 Facing a queen 51 A bishop under control 54 Combative kings 56 Remain cautious! 60 Stalemating Black! 62 Surprises in the opening 64 Weaving a mating net 67 Just one is right! 70 Th e paradox prevails 72 Defensive mechanisms 74 Th e queen is tamed 77 Reti maneuver 80 4 THE ROYAL CHESS COUPLE IN ACTION Asymmetry 83 Th e hand of the king 85 King vs. bishop & knight 89 Batteries 92 Positional draw or stalemate! 96 Vive la petite diff érence! 99 Perpetual attack 102 Only one tempo 105 Taming a knight 108 Th e bishop is tamed 111 Taming a rook 115 Defying the bombardment 118 Reti’s manoeuvre in practice 122 Castling 125 Open attacking lines 128 Pinning and unpinning 131 Th e fearless kings of Nigel Short 134 Forks 137 Mutual zugzwang 140 Corner play 144 Sacrifi cial castling 148 Deliberate self-blocking 152 Chameleon echo 155 Dismantling a knight 158 On the edge 162 Systematic movements 166 Prophylactic moves 170 Building a fortress 172 Surprising king moves 176 Dutch miniatures 180 Th e king of puzzles 184 Kasparov’s subtleties 187 Th e runaway king 190 Th e hand of the world champion 193 Across the chessboard 195 Coping with an imprisoned rook 199 King moves only 202 Smiling kings 205 Th e hand of the authors 207 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 PART II. THE QUEEN 211 Mate 211 Stalemate in practice 213 Staircase 215 Smothered mate 219 Th e back rank 223 Queen and bishop against queen 225 Perpetual check 228 Queen and knight against queen 230 Th e hand of the fi rst lady 233 A queen for a double check 236 Surprises in the opening 238 Th e overloaded piece 241 Winning exchanges 243 Winning exchanges in practice 246 Removing a defender 249 Pinning and unpinning 252 King hunt 254 Repeating sacrifi ces 256 Mutual queen sacrifi ces 260 Queen against pawns 264 Cross pin 267 Queen facing rook and bishop 270 Queen against two rooks 273 Off ensive retreat 275 Zugzwang 278 Defl ections 282 Mitrofanov’s defl ection 286 Th e hand of the world champion 289 Th e hand of world champions (2) 291 A whole queen for a square 293 Queen and bishop battery 295 Th e royal couple in action 298 Triangulation 300 Queen and pawn battery 303 Queens and an unexpected guest 306 More decisive underpromotions 309 Multiple queens 312 Corner play 316 6 THE ROYAL CHESS COUPLE IN ACTION A queen for a knight fork! 318 Chameleon echo 322 On the skewer 325 Big names lose in grand style 329 Positional draw 331 Th e king of queen sacrifi ces 334 Bristol and Turton 337 Th e most remarkable queen moves 339 Heavy artillery 342 Th e phoenix 345 Quiet queen sacrifi ces 348 Systematic movements 351 World Championship matches 354 Know your classics 357 Missed opportunities 359 Dutch sacrifi ces 362 Miniatures 364 Sweets 368 Th e all mighty queen 371 Artistic stalemate 374 Joint queen sacrifi ces 377 Th e hand of the authors 382 KEY TO SYMBOLS ! a good move ?a weak move !! an excellent move ?? a blunder !? an interesing move ?! a dubious move only move =equality unclear position with compensation for the sacrifi ced material White stands slightly better Black stands slightly better White has a serious advantage Black has a serious advantage +- White has a decisive advantage -+ Black has a decisive advantage with an attack with initiative with counterplay with the idea of better is worse is Nnovelty +check #mate FOREWORD Th e Royal Chess Couple is a combined attempt to introduce the various traits of the most signifi cant piece with the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Following a short historic review of the development and metamorphoses of each piece over time, the reader is off ered 240 positions (480 in total) from tournament practice as well as from the magic world of chess composition. In each position a royal piece plays either a crucial off ensive or defensive role. Th ese positions are subdivided into 60 themes, four positions per theme, ar- ranged by their increasing diffi culty. Th e reader may use the positions as train- ing challenges to improve his understanding and playing skills or just to enjoy playing through them. In either case he will learn to appreciate the charac- teristic qualities of each piece alone and in collaboration with other pieces. Special thanks are due to those without whom this book could not have its unique approach. We thank chess historian Leo Diepstraten for his important cooperation. We thank May and Ine Kloprogge for the special photos from their collection. We thank Dr. Harold van der Heijden, who used his database of around 80,000 studies to check the positions for accuracy, source and pro- vided valuable advice. We thank all the chess players and composers for use of these examples to support this ode to the Royal Chess Couple. Hans Böhm and Yochanan Afek A BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW Raya! Mantri! Hasti! Asva! Ratha! Padati! Excuse me? Th ese are the names of the chess pieces from the now virtually extinct Sanskrit, the mother tongue of most Indo-European languages. How and where did the game of chess begin? With this question before them four- teen chess historians from diff erent countries met in Königstein (Germany) in 1991. In view of the gratifying fl ood of insights, the Max Euwe Center in Amsterdam organized a follow-up conference in 1993. Th ese meetings were then repeated every couple of years with the last one taking place in 2005. First it was decided that chess would be defi ned as a board game consist- ing of sixty-four squares on an eight by eight fi eld with an equal number of pieces on both sides. Th e pieces have distinctive designs as well as their own characteristic movements. Th e main goal is to trap the main piece, the king, without capturing it. Th is is a broad defi nition that goes for chess as known today but also for its predecessing versions. According to the historians, the history of chess can be divided into roughly four periods: (1) 4000–400 BC, the forerunners, (2) 400 BC–750 India, Iran, Arabia, (3) 750–1475 Europe in the Middle Ages, (4) 1475–today. FIRST PERIOD: ESTIMATED PRECURSORS: 4000–400 BC Th e fi rst period is characterized by the requirement that the pieces would come from one side to the other side of the board. In that period the move was oft en determined by dice and the player who fi rst brought all his piec- es to the other side was the winner. Just like in checkers captured pieces could no longer remain on the board. Chess historian and composer Ger- hard Josten (born 1938 in Duisburg) found the origin of the promotion in a ring game of the Sumerians. He points to the Gilgamesh epic of about 2300 BC, in which a man seeks his self-destination in relation to the gods. 12 THE ROYAL CHESS COUPLE IN ACTION Th e pieces at the bottom row represent the gods and the pawns represent man. By bringing his pieces to the other side of the board man could be- come equal to God thus fulfi lling the urge for immortality. Philosopher chess players have sought meanings in the pieces across man’s history and will continue to do so into the future across all cultures. We may attach as much value to these spiritual references in our chess culture as we wish, or we may attach no hidden meaning to the pieces at all. THE DIRECT PRECURSOR Th e direct predecessor of chess is the so-called ‘Chaturanga for four people’. Chaturanga, a word in Sanskrit which means four-part, was a war game played on an ‘ashtapada board’, i.e. a game board of eight by eight squares. Th e moves were determined with the help of dice and therefore Chaturanga must be regarded as a game of luck. It is known that in 326 BC Alexander the Great was facing an army of 50,000 infantry soldiers, 1000 chariots, 130 elephants and 3,000 horses, the four-part Indian army.