One of the most crucial skills that club-strength players must develop to improve their game is pattern-recognition. This not only applies to tactical play, but also to positional themes; 're-inventing the wheel' is an unnecessary task when experts have shown already how such things work!
So, the more of these patterns we can assimilate into our practical chess knowledge, the easier it becomes to play for example, middle-game positions. Hopefully the following encounter will illustrate this important aspect of chess more vividly. A very useful little game in my opinion, highlighting some of the ideas we need to incorporate into our play and also some of the dangers we might face if we forget that our opponents' ideas have a right to exist too! Take your time and don't imagine they haven't seen what you think you have seen! The main idea we can take from this though, is that many if not most of the patterns of play we come across in our chess games have been seen many times before-it is to our advantage if we can secrete as many of them as possible in our memory banks to be brought out again as and when necessary. Now of course we are all limited to varying degrees as to
a) how many of these patterns we have the time to encounter let alone assimilate
b) how accurately we can reproduce them if the occasion arises
but as a starting point we should aim to be aware of the most common tactical and positional patterns/themes which occur frequently in our favourite openings.
My favourite opening is the Dragon Variation as we have seen, and one of the best books on this opening is Winning With the Dragon by GM Chris Ward, so have a look at the following game taken from the 2nd edition and see if it looks familiar! I hope you have enjoyed this little article.
About Me
Bobby Fischer
Alot has been written about his chess and possibly even more about the rest of his life. The impression given by the literature (and by comments he has made in interviews) is that he's just an unpleasant person. Of course, that's not a good reason for putting him so far down the list. However, there is also something lacking in his chess. His play is often brutal and he's always forcing things. Much of his chess, though tactically brilliant and strategically powerful, lacks any kind of subtlety (not to be confused with depth or vision - the fact that Fischer's opponents didn't know what was going on does not make his play subtle, just too deep for them to appreciate). Subtlety is a sign of a player's calibre and of his positional feeling. Fischer's game relies heavily on opening preparation and I think that without it, his results would have been far less impressive. I think that this is less true of the players above him on this list (with the possible exception of Kasparov, though I still feel that Kasparov is fundamentally a stronger player than Fischer).
Garry Kasparov
World champion for 15 years and perhaps the greatest tactician of all time. He held the title of world champion from 1985 until 2000 (When he was beaten somewhat unconvincingly by Kramnik) and dominated major tournaments from the beginning of his reign (challenged only briefly by Anand) until 2001. His results do not fully reveal his talents and only by playing through some of his games can his true genius be seen. He was sometimes described as a ten eyed monster who saw everything in all positions (this quotation has been repeated with different numbers of eyes by different people - ten seems reasonable). He was exuberant and showy and had a photographic memory. He was, of all players, the most computer-like in tactical ability with incredible tactical vision and yet he possessed a profound positional understanding and had the deepest opening preparation in history.
José Raúl Capablanca
Certainly the greatest natural talent of all time, he was sometimes extremely lazy and refused to "waste" time reading chess textbooks. However, he did make considerable contributions to opening theory so it is probable that he did spend some time on his openings. He had a score of 318 wins, 249 draws, and only 34 losses in match and tournament play between 1909 and 1939 1 2. No other master has sustained so few losses over such a period of time. When asked how many moves he looked ahead his reply was "One move, the best move", and this probably holds more than a grain of truth. Capablanca was renowned for his ability to instantly and accurately evaluate chess positions. Perhaps, of all the chess players through history only he had such an accurate evaluation function. Capablanca liked to control the position and to focus only on elements he felt were necessary to achieve victory. His endgame technique was legendary. It is often said that you can discover the true strength of a player by looking at how he handles endgames. If this is the case then Capablanca was the strongest player of all time.
Chess in Star Trek
Spock is enjoying a fun game of chess while Captain Kirk is in court.
Chess in Twilight
Bella and Edward love chess.
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