Chess Combinations

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Once again, I've turned to IGM Yasser Seirawan for training and guidance.

To get the most out of this module you'll need to get your mitts on a copy of Yasser's book:

• Winning Chess Combinations
  (ISBN: 978-1-85744-420-9).

I can just picture some of you now, inching your cursor towards your browser's "back" button, at this point, muttering: "urgh, not another sodding book to get!".

"Hold on a sec", is my retort ...

Winning Chess Combinations properly ups the ante, building upon principles learnt in Winning Chess Tactics and Winning Chess Strategies.

While Tactics only requires short stints of pattern-recognition, his Strategies need more dedication to study and practice until they're properly understood.

However, with Winning Chess Combinations, Yasser really cranks up the learning commitment. This module requires far more graft, effort and organization on your part, than was needed with the Strategies and Tactics.

In Yasser's own words:

While all combination books are fun, showing many beautiful classical and modern combinations, the works struck me as artificial. While reading these books I realized, this is 'not' how I played chess!

While most books on chess combinations offer good puzzles and excel at kick-starting my mental alertness, they did not in fact teach me about combinations and how to recognize their possible existence in 'my' games.

Instead of creating yet another artificial construction of a combination book featuring a compendium of endless winning, 'sound' combinations neatly sorted by theme, I've set out to write a work that is a deliberate mixture of sophisticated and elementary. One that is far more realistic and challenging.

You will not be asked merely to find a pretty solution. You'll be asked:

• Does the diagrammed position possess a winning combination?


• What advantages are there that might be enough for a successful combination?


• Is the obvious solution flawed?


• Indeed, would it boomerang against us and lose us the game?

To my way of thinking, such questions are right on the mark, as I ask myself them before sacrificing 'my' pawns or pieces.

What I hope this book will teach is how to set the table for a successful combination. You must learn to recognize the advantages and disadvantages in a given position.

Yasser Seirawan, Winning Chess Combinations

What you're about to learn here won't come easily.

If you're still a relative beginner, your Chess brain is going to be provoked and challenged like never before. In this age of instant gratification, some are going to pussy out, because it takes discipline, organization, effort and commitment to get good at Chess.

To make it easier to explore this module and get maximum benefit from Yasser's analysis, the examples you'll find are all "Fritz-ready " ...

As usual, if you've got the software (e.g. Fritz 12), you'll be able to copy Yasser's examples directly into Fritz - no hassle, no having to set the positions up manually.

Now, in the words of Monty Python ... "Get ON with it!"

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Combinations, in particular those that could bring about Checkmate, don't magically appear - it is up to us to create the required conditions so our proposed Combination(s) can be successfully played.

There are two conditions that'll help improve our chances of pulling off a successful Combination ...

• Combination Condition #1: Have An Advantage
  
  An advantage, such as material superiority, is the first of two conditions that we're after. Naturally, having more Pawns & Pieces than your opponent will allow you to sacrifice material, for the benefit of the post-combination gain(s).
  
  


• Combination Condition #2: Be Ahead In Development
  
  Being ahead in development is the second condition that we need. With superior development, your opponent's army will be overwhelmed by your better-mobilized troops.
  
  Guidelines for successful development include:
  
  
  • Activate Your Troops
    Pawns must be advanced into an organized structure; Pieces must be activated, to more-effective positions, than where they begin each game.
  
  
  • Castle Your King
    Ideally, your King will be Castled, which also frees one of your Rooks from its less-effective corner-square berth.
  
  
  • Connect Your Rooks
    Castling speeds up this procedure. To complete it, your Knights, Bishops and Queen must be moved off the Back Rank (where they start each game).
  
  
  • Control The Center
    From the Center, a player's army can control more space on the Board. If you control the Center, your army will have greater control, thus more options for strategic play, than your opponent.
  
  
  • Obey The Rules Of Strategy
    For instance, not wasting tempi by unnecessarily moving the same Piece twice, during the Opening phase of the game.
  
  

Just to restate, those are "ideal" guidelines for improving your chances of playing successful Chess Combinations ... Circumstances may allow a varying number of advantages, but certainly, the more of the above conditions you can claim, the better your Combinations stand to work!!

Combinations present themselves due to:

• Advantages in force (more material);
• Greater mobility;
• More space;
• Superior pawn structure;
• Safer King;
• A serious weakness in our opponent's position;
• A misplaced piece;
• Occupation of a vital outpost;
• Better coordination of our forces.

For our Combination idea to be justified, there has to be "something" that favors our current position, at any given moment.

Other factors to be aware of, that go beyond the realm of having an advantage or two, include:

• Psychological factors (Mood, Temperament; Tiredness; and Laziness);
• Tournament factors (Time Pressure is a big one!).

Sometimes, whether you play your sacrificial Combination may just come down to a "gut feeling" ... If all reasoning fails to satisfy your dilemma, be guided by instinct, cross your knickers and just go for it.