Knight Rider

Reading books about the game of chess are a challenge…especially on the train. I find it damn near impossible to envision a chess board in my head. When the author rattles off a series of moves without a corresponding diagram, I’m expected to know exactly what he is talking about? Sheesh. I’m lucky if I can see an angle in real life, let alone in my head.

I’ve had the linked book since 1997 and this is the 3rd or 4th attempt to read and actually absorb the lessons. Perhaps regurgitating what I read will help some of the lessons stick and help you get better.

A passage I read today discussed the power of the Knight. The ability to move to open squares around the board without having to worry about being blocked make it a versatile and therefore valuable piece. The main point of the passage was that a Knight has more value when it’s positioned away from an edge. As you can see in the board above, my lone White Knight sits trapped on the right side. Any of the spaces available to it leave it unprotected from capture. So as it stands on the set-up, my knight is pretty useless beyond offering protection to the Queen.

As for the game, you’ll see that my opponent advanced pawns deep inside my territory and is on the verge of gaining a second queen. Having to shift my focus from attacking Black’s king, I backed my Queen to a more defensive position so as to apply pressure on the pawns (Qc2). My opponent saw my threat on the trailing pawn and moved its Queen accordingly (Qd4).

A favorable situation unfolded as I was able to move my Knight (Nf5+) to a center position. This illustrates what the book was trying to teach me. From that position, I have seven of eight possible moves. Out of those seven, four would net me valuable pieces (this is called a ‘Fork’). That’s a much better place to be than on the edge where I had only 4 undesirable options.

My move put my opponent in check. Black can do nothing to protect its powerful rook and queen. After the King was moved to safety (Kd5), I was able to capture the opponents most valuable piece (Nxd4). Though the capture sacrificed my knight (Kxd4), it was a trade happily made.