Topic 26 (Intermediate)
– The Opening: Weak Pawns and Flank Attacks
In this Topic I’ll be
explaining some ideas behind common/popular opening positions. I am not aiming to give you specific variations
or positions to memorize because I think that is counterproductive and
boring. Instead, I will explain the
general ideas behind the moves so that you can apply this knowledge to any
given opening position. Hopefully, after reading this and future opening
Topics, you will never again play your opening moves and then immediately find
yourself floundering around like a Roman General trying to defend against a
Carthaginian elephant charge.
To gain full value from this
Topic, you need to be familiar with the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT opening
principles that I WROTE ABOUT in Topic 3.
The first opening topic I
will cover is
Taking Advantage of your Opponent’s Weak Pawns
For example, let’s consider
the opening from game 5 of my Masters Cup Championship Semifinal match against ShadowReaper.
Devilant v. ShadowReaper
Masters Cup Championship Semifinals
Game 5
7/30/2007
I was white, playing my solid
flanked center, and I got my pawn to f4 straight away. ShadowReaper
countered by attacking it with a pawn on g5.
As is usually the case with the flanked center, white really can’t go
wrong; pushing to f5, capturing the pawn, and sitting tight are all fine
plans. Due to ShadowReaper’s
pawn formation, pushing the pawn is probably best, so I’ll examine that first
to show you why.
White closes things up, opting for a favorable
positional struggle.
The idea is simple. White gains space, cramping black’s position,
and traps black’s bishop in the corner.
The pawn on f6 (a mistaken move by ShadowReaper)
can no longer move, and black’s bishop has no moves!
Black’s bishop can do nothing but beat his head against
a wall of his own pawns. Watch out for this in your openings. If you fianchetto your bishop, don’t block it in with your own
pawns. White’s bishops are far better than black’s in this position.
The second important idea
here is that playing e4 is a mistake:
NOOO! A common mistake. This
pawn needs to remain on e3—it can always move to e4 later in 1 second if
you decide you need it there.
Now white’s bishop is trapped
behind his own pawns too, eliminating any advantage gained by trapping black’s
bishop! Furthermore, black gets to stick
his knights into the holes created by the V pawn structure!
Black’s position is ok. Two central squares are
unassailable by white pawns, free for black to occupy. You haven’t played
like this since reading Topic 3, right?
So pawn to e4 is simply
wrong. It must remain on e3 to control the d4 square, keeping black’s knight
away. White also needs to use the e4
square for his other pieces! (See Topic 8b)
White uses the e4 square for his bishop and later his
knight. Meanwhile, the pawn sits on
e3, stopping black from invading with knight to d4.
White’s plan now is simple
but effective: when black captures the f pawn, he’ll recapture with the bishop
and build up an attack against black’s weak, immobile pawns. You don’t want to
recapture with the g pawn because you want the path open for your rooks to
attack f6:
Black doesn’t really have any good options for his e
pawn. If he pushes it, he gives white control of the d5 square for a knight
or bishop. If he does nothing, white will just capture it with the f pawn
and continue as shown, the same way as if black
captured the f pawn himself.
White creates a small threat to black’s weak f pawn.
White could press the attack
now with pawn to h4, and black is going to lose. The a
and h pawns are often the key to breaking through your opponent’s defenses. See
Topics 9, 20, and 22 for examples of exactly this kind of flank pawn attack.
Lastly, you may be thinking
black has a nice square for his knight on e5, but you are wrong!
So much for that knight outpost! White just kicks the
knight back out and black obtains an isolated pawn in the center!
By keeping his pawns flexible
(ie. not playing e4), white prevents black from
jumping into the center with a knight. Black’s position is worse than an
airplane middle seat.
So that’s pushing the pawn.
It’s perhaps the best option in this case because it freezes black’s pawns onto
inconvenient squares, ripe for attacking, while still allowing white to control
the key squares in the center with his pawns. Specifically, that pawn on f6 is
a major opening mistake by black. It’s unsupported by neighboring pawns and it
blocks the path for black’s bishop. White takes complete advantage of black’s
poor opening to obtain a dominating position immediately.
Now we’ll consider capturing
on g5, which is the move I actually played in the game:
There are two ideas behind
these pawn moves:
1)
I’m opening the
file for my rook on f1—this is the reason I played Rf1 in the opening rather
than Re1 (see Topic 8a).
2)
I’m setting up a
central outpost for my knight on the highlighted e4 square—see Topics 3 and 8b
for more on knight positioning.
This opening formation is extremely common in high-level
kung fu chess because both sides secure a knight outpost in the center and
open lines for the bishops and rooks to exploit, leading to a wide-open,
tactical battle. Do not be intimidated! I am about to explain how to play
it.
ShadowReaper’s recapture with the f-pawn accomplishes the same two
goals, as well as opening the way for his bishop. I’ve let him off the hook his opening
mistakes put him on… intending to rope him instead.
The game continues. Both
sides fight for control over the center, trying to take advantage of the
outpost squares (in yellow above).
Devilant v. ShadowReaper 27 seconds
This position brings up
another common idea:
Attacking on the Flanks
When your opponent sets up a
good outpost in the center, you often should free your center pawns to attack
the outpost by launching a flank attack.
Actually, you should always at least consider a flank attack—it’s very
strong in kung fu chess.
Suppose that we had the same
position as above, except there were no c pawns:
Without his c pawn, black is
in a lot of trouble. White can capture the bishop…
And black cannot recapture
with a knight because white can play d4 and catch it!
Oops! Black must either lose
his knight or double his pawns!
The simple threat of playing d4 is enough to force black
to double his pawns! See Topics 5 and 9 for more on the weakness of doubled
pawns.
The game isn’t over, but
white has a dominating position.
This is the idea behind the
flank attack. White wants to get rid of black’s c pawn so he can advance the d
pawn in the center. Back to the real game:
The flank attack! It’s not called the flanked center
opening for nothing!
I attack the c pawn with my
pawn on b4. If ShadowReaper captures on b4, he no longer
has a c pawn and the threat of pawn to d4 will force him to double his pawns in
the center, as we just saw! However, if he refrains from capturing on b4, I
still threaten to push my pawn to d4!
Black’s c pawn no longer defends the d4 square because
white can capture it whenever he wants!
If black tries to capture with a knight, white can catch
it with pawn to d4 since he can capture on c5 at the same time!
So the flank attack succeeds
in forcing ShadowReaper to double his pawns.
The same idea as the example without c
pawns. The flank attack neutralizes black’s c pawn.
And indeed, ShadowReaper doubled his center pawns in the actual game.
When your opponent is caught
by a flank attack like this, he basically must respond by counterattacking (or
he could just resign, I suppose). There are three options:
1. Most common—he accepts the
doubled pawns but tries to win white’s b pawn to compensate. This isn’t
dangerous because black’s own weak b6 pawn prevents his rooks from supporting
the attack. White can bring more pieces to defend the b4 square than black can
bring to attack it.
White isn’t afraid to “sacrifice” a rook for a knight on
b4 if necessary. Positionally, he is in such good shape that it doesn’t
matter.
2. Less common but very
interesting—he elects to sacrifice his knight to avoid the doubled pawns:
Rather than lose his knight on e5 or double his pawns,
black can often sacrifice his knight on b4 instead! Be careful; the
resulting position is good for white, but it can be difficult to defend!
Black gets two pawns (one a protected passed pawn) for
the knight. The 5 pawns against 3 advantage for
black in the center can be very dangerous.
Black keeps his c pawn and prevents white from pushing to
d4 as above. He also threatens to crash through with pawn to b5.
Of course, this doesn’t work
at all in this position because white threatens a combination attack:
Tactical battles are great fun when you position your
pieces well in the opening and your opponent does not. As we’ve seen, white
has a combination to crush black’s hopes and dreams in every variation!
So black still has to double
his pawns or lose a knight! However, this sacrifice is important to consider
prior to playing a flank attack because there are positions where it can be
quite strong for black. This just isn’t one of them.
3. Sometimes the strongest
option—black waits to sacrifice his knight on d4 instead of b4.
White just sprung his trap and caught black’s e5 knight.
When I analyzed this before, I concluded that black has to capture with the
pawn instead of the knight to avoid exactly this scenario. However, in
similar positions black can intentionally go for it, with the idea of the
very dangerous Nxd4!
Black loses the knight on his
terms. (He can also capture on c5 with the b pawn, but that’s
self-explanatorily bad in this position.) This sacrifice doesn’t work here, but
it can often result in a very strong counterattack, just like option #2.
For completeness, I’m showing why this counterattack
fails in this position.
An easy play for a black belt—the rook on e1 is
positioned in advance to defend the e5 knight. (See Topic 8a)
And white is up two knights!
In the actual game, ShadowReaper played counterattack #1, and I got a
completely dominating position. The rest of the game after the opening wasn’t
very instructive, so I won’t bother to analyze it. You can watch the whole game using Epikur's
MPlayer if you download the Masters Cup
Championship movies from the Masters
Cup Website.
And that’s a short and sweet
analysis of flank attacks and weak pawns in Kung Fu Chess Openings. If this is
deemed to be a useful Topic, I’ll probably continue explaining opening
strategies in Topic 27.
Finally, congratulations to Quickbolt for
correctly solving the Topic 25 checkmating puzzles! The prize is immortality—in
the form of this recognition in the Strategy Guide itself!
Devilant’s Strategy Guide: Topic 26 Official
Strategy Puzzle!
White to win!
