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Coaches Corner

Permanent Advantages

  1. Material advantage
  2. Poor opponents King position
  3. Control of a file
  4. Control of a rank
  5. Control of a diagonal
  6. The advantage of two Bishops
  7. Passed pawns
  8. Strong pawn center
  9. Weak pawns of opponent
  10. Fewer pawn islands
  11. Weak squares of opponent
  12. Weak color complex

Material advantage

To win an opponents piece is to gain a material advantage. The more valuable the piece, the greater the material advantage. Remember, chess is a friendly game of war. It is easier to win a game if your army of pieces is greater than your opponents. Most of the other advantages we will discuss are recognized as a win only when they have resulted in a material advantage or to checkmate.

It is easy to understand the relative values of the pieces if you place the pieces in the middle of an empty board. To compare bishops to rooks, for example, place a bishop on e5 and a rook on d3.

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The bishop can go to 13 squares, the rook to 14. What's more, the rook can eventually reach any square on the board, while the bishop on e5 can go to the dark squares only! Now, if you place another bishop on the board at c6, you can see the difference.
 

The two bishops combined can reach all squares on the board, so we say that the two bishops are worth more than twice the value of a lone bishop.

Winning Technique

Once you have a winning material advantage you must be able to convert that advantage to checkmate. Many beginning players have trouble doing this, even with the most extreme advantages. Winning a game when you have a clear material advantage is called technique, or method. In the simple endgames, you must learn regular methods for delivering checkmate quickly. What if you have just seconds on your clock and you have to deliver mate with king and queen versus king?. There is no time to choose between moves - you must know exactly what you are doing. Coach Jim teaches a simple method for delivering this mate. You drive your opponent's king toward the edge of the board, and toward the shortest corner you can drive him to. You do this by continually moving your queen a knight's move away from the opposing king! This is called "taking the knight's opposition." Here's how it works:

Follow the play on the Java Chessboard


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With 1...Qg4, the queen takes the knight's opposition.

The play proceeds 2.Kd3 Qf4 3.Kc3 Qe4 4.Kb3 Qd4 5.Kc2 Qe3 [Not 5...Qb4, which wastes time by letting the king come back toward the center with 6.Kd3.] 6.Kb2 Qd3 [or 6.Kd1 Qf2] 7.Ka2 Qc3 8.Kb1 Qd2 9.Ka1

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The opposing king has been herded into the corner.

Now you do not play 9...Qc2??
- it's stalemate!

It is now that you bring in your king: 9...Kc6 10.Kb1 Kb5 11.Ka1 Kb4 12.Kb1 Kb3 13.Ka1 Qc1 mate.

Endgame manuals may tell you this mate can always be delivered in 10 moves or less. This usually involves bringing your king close to the opposing king sooner, leaving you with more choices to make and more chances to stalemate. To be sure and fast, use the method shown here. Practice it with your friends, using a clock. Remember to stick with the method - don't get cute.





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