Sunday 19 August 2007

Predict the bad move

IM Gary Lane has a new book out, Improve Your Chess In 7 Days. And a couple of chess magazines I subscribe to already have articles on the book, although they are also written by Gary Lane!
One tip he mentions in the book is predict-a-move. This where you try an predict what your opponent is going to do next, and play a move that sets a trap. In the past I've occasionally done this, and occasionally it has even worked.
But looking back on years of coaching I've realised that most new chess players employ this method, just that they do it in a far worse way than Gary suspects. Instead of predict-a-move, they go for hope-for-a-move or even pray-for-a-move. In this method you choose a move that relies upon your opponent playing the worst possible response for it to work. And I don't mean overlooking a hidden threat. I mean failing to move the Queen to safety after it is attacked by a pawn.
Of course as we improve we move beyond that. But only to what I call (and too often use), ignore-a-move. In this method you choose a move that looks good, but only if you ignore the best reply by your opponent. If you are lucky, you opponent will also ignore their best reply, thereby justifying this strategy.
Here is an example from a game I played last week (I was White).

1.Nc3 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e4 Nf6 The position now reached is a Classical French Defence, although I played the first 3 moves from "left-to-right" rather than the other way around. 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4 Bxg5 7.hxg5 Qxg5 8.Nh3 Qe7 9.Qg4 9.Nf4 is usual, although I can transpose to main lines if I choose. g6 10.0-0-0 Qb4N This artificial move sets a small trap, but one that is easily met. Now the Queen is out of position on this square. 11.f4 c5 (D) Now here is where ignore-a-move kicks in. Realising that the bishop on c8 was undefended I calculated that 12. ... Nxc5 allows me to play 13.Nxd5 winning a pawn. And at this point I stopped thinking and played 12.dxc5. But there are two problems here. Firstly, 12.Nb5 is far stronger than capturing on c5, and secondly, the threat that I prevented with f4, now works again after 12.dxc5 , and Black could play 12. ... Nxe5! But the joint hypnosis that often affects chess players came to my rescue. 12.dxc5 Nxc5 13.Nxd5 Qa5 With the knight landing on f6 it is all over. 14.Nf6+ Ke7 15.Qh4 Kf8 16.Nxh7+ Kg7 17.Qf6+ Kg8 18.Rd8+ Qxd8 19.Qxd8+ Kxh7 20.Ng5+ 1-0

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