One Secret Rule Chess Coaches Won't Teach You...
Hint: It's About Situational Awareness!
First, I want to apologize for the delay in posting an article. Winter is always a particularly tough time for me mentally and this year has started off in the most rocky way possible. As you probably know, the LA area fires ravaged the Pacific Palisades where I taught chess for many years. I know at least half a dozen families that have lost homes and it’s still quite hard to process the destruction of an area that gave me so much in terms of chess coaching and community support. I wish everyone a smooth recovery!
Anyway, remembering the good times is important in times of grief so here is a picture of my dog Berty on our favorite beach right across from our favorite restaurant the Reel Inn that was lost in the fires. Good memories!
Secondly, I have been a bit disappointed with my journalistic career in chess and have been spending most of my time producing TV & Film. It’s been quite rewarding so far as we just wrapped filming on a scripted web-series called Influenced. Not only is it a fully self funded project raising over $10,000 but it’s female driven with the core talent and crew all being women. I find this very affirming for my own gender transition! Now, I hope to apply this energy to my chess journalism and ramp up some production! (This means I will be diving back into my documentary, The United States of Chess which is currently in post-production).
Anyway, onto the article with one incredibly important fact about chess that elementary and expert coaches, like me, don’t tell you: CHESS IS SITUATIONAL. There are many basic rules in chess that guide a chess student through their learning. There are opening and endgame rules, techniques that are absolutely necessary to win and save games, patterns that help players win material and positional ideas that help a human mind balance a game and guide it into a safe two result, win or draw, situation (or even unbalance the positional intentionally depending on your style!).
Like in life, EVERY PLAYER needs to be SITUATIONALLY AWARE and avoid blindly following rules. Even when 99% of the time those rules work to keep you safe! There are many times when these so called “rules” fall by the wayside when we are in real game time situations. Situational awareness becomes “King” (Queen in my case) or primary to our decision making process. I have seen the strongest players exhibit this ability almost as if it is fully subconscious. IE - I stood in the press room of the 2018 Candidates Tournament with Grischuk rattling off a 10+ move line from a Kramnik -Aronian position that Kramnik used to win the game!
But, of course this is not where most of us mortals sit… So…
Let’s take this position that I am playing in an Internet Correspondence Chess Federation Game (ICCF). In the ICCF, engine analysis is allowed as along as it is only one player doing the analysis (me). So in my second tournament in the ICCF, I have found it quite interesting to play these games and analyze long computer lines. At times, I will play “natural moves” and have the engine confirm that I am a mere mortal. Here is the game that our example position stems from:
Dahm (2020) - Quercia (1992) (ICCF 2024-25, ongoing)
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 c5 4.O-O Nc6 5.d4 e6 6.c4 dxc4 7.Na3 cxd4 8.Nxc4 Bc5 9.a3 a5 10.b3 O-O 11.Bb2 h6 12.Rc1 Re8 13.Nce5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qe7 15.a4 Rd8 16.Qc2
Here, Black (me) is up a pawn but severely hampered in queenside development. The computer says the position is equal but I find it important to know how to play this position as it would be challenging in a classical game. So now down the rabbit hole we go!
I have analyzed this with a powerful modern engine Stockfish 17, on a slightly less modern but still quite powerful computer with 16 gigabytes of DDR3 memory (Nerd jargon I know but it is important to remember that top players are using 64-120 gigabytes of RAM or more). And, I came to this position here after 16…Ba7 17.Qc4 Qd6 18.Qb5 Nd5 19.Nc4 Qb4 20.Rfd1 and was wondering why the engine didn’t recommend 20.Qxb4 (below)
Then, I absent mindedly played 20…Nxb4 and the engine yelled at me (well the analysis jumped in White’s favor but it felt like the engine was screaming, “you silly human!”). 20…axb4 is the absolutely counterintuitive (in a vacuum) move that my Stockfish overlord suggested. So then I followed the line a bit longer and came to this nice position… 20…axb4 21.Rfd1 e5! 22.Nxe5 Nc3! (below) illuminating, at least in my mind, immediately why the engine preferred axb4!
But, let’s rewind and list a couple ELEMENTARY reasons why 20…axb4 didn’t seem to make sense:
It seems to needlessly stack the a & b pawns. Chess coaches for elementary level students teach that stacked pawns are considered a long term weakness and should be avoided when able.
20…Nxb4 seems like a good move to occupy the OUTPOST on b4. Chess coaches teach that an outpost is a great square for a knight as it is protected by a pawn like the a5 pawn in that situation.
Now, let’s list a a few reasons why with direct calculation like the engine did, that 20…axb4 does in fact make sense and is in fact the very best move!
The knight on c3 makes a mockery of the b2-bishop, gaining tempo and attacking both d1 and e2 simultaneously. I laymen’s terms, creating havoc in the White camp!
And if it’s exchange with 23.Bxc3 (the only good defensive move)… Black UNSTACKS the b-pawns with 23…bxc3 and gains a strong PROTECTED PASSSED PAWN on c3!
BIG NOTE: 21…e5! is a very tough move to see. It looks to throw a pawn away but it is also intuitive. In exchange for the pawn (which we have one to give back) we have opened our light squared position and prepared to play Nc3! It’s also important to note that the “outpost” on b4 would be a bit illusory as a knight on that square doesn’t really aim at much in that specific position!
Anyway, this is the hard bit that we glossed over. Look at the position after 21.Rfd1 and see if you would have played 21.e5!
I am perfectly capable of considering both of these ideas in a game time situation and this is why I hammer into my students the need for STRONG CALCULATION SKILLS above basically everything else in chess. If they can’t calculate effectively, they will never be able to understand this type of nuance that we found above.
Now, why are the strongest players able to do this almost subconsciously? Because they have likely seen very challenging moves like 21.e5! many, many times! Thus, with experience their calculation is that much better than a US Chess Candidate Master like myself. If I’m being honest, I’ve touched greatness a few times in my games but largely because my conceptual ideas have worked out in concrete calculation and I have gotten lucky in a lot of these situations. There are quite a few games where I have told myself, well if my opponent plays this move I could play the correct move or I have a few other options… Then once I get to that position, I realize that the move I “could” play is the move I “must” play. I can remember two games I won this way, one against a US Chess 2100 rated player and one against a 2350 rated US Chess player.
Anyway, this game I am playing illustrates a tricky distinction that might be tough to understand but I feel it is important to my own development as a player entering very soon into my 40th year on this planet! And, I feel that noticing these nuances will make me that much better of a chess coach!
Thanks for going deep into the weeds today with me and I hope that I can bring you all some more content shortly. Life feels quite hard right now but I appreciate the support of everyone that reads my writing!
Much Love,
Summer Dylan
aka Coach Q
PS - My Documentary King Chess is on Streaming and DVD so if you haven’t seen it - go check it out on your favorite platform!
PPS - After writing this article, I explored the position some more with an advanced student of mine. We looked at the potential follow up 24.Rxc3?! Re8 23.Rxc8! Raxc8 26.Nd3 Rxe2 27.Bxb7 Rcc2 28.Ba6 Red2 29.Rxd2 Rxd2 30.Bc4 and White has set up a sort of fortress. This line further illustrates how complicated game time situations would be as none of this would be easy for either side to figure out. I told my student that White may even stop and disregard this line after 24…Re8 attacking both of their pieces but after deep calculation here, it produces a position that White can hold. Perhaps I will write an article on this position!