The Strategy of Chess. Edward Lasker
Supposing, however, Black plays 2. … B-B4; should White now think mechanically, "I will take his centre pawn and consequently have the better game," his deduction would be wrong. For after exchanging his Bishop for the Knight, which otherwise would drive his Queen away, Black brings the latter into a dominating square in the centre.
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8 | #R | #Kt| | #Q | #K | #B | #Kt| #R |
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7 | #P | #P | #P | | #P | #P | #P | #P |
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6 | | | | | | | | |
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5 | | | | #P | | #B | | |
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4 | | | ^P | ^P | | | | |
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3 | | | | | | | | |
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2 | ^P | ^P | | | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P |
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1 | ^R | ^Kt| ^B | ^Q | ^K | ^B | ^Kt| ^R |
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A B C D E F G H
Diag. 17.
3. PxP BxKt 4. RxB QxP
Black's Queen cannot easily be driven away from her commanding position, particularly as White must lose a move to save his QRP. Meanwhile Black gains time for concentrating his forces for an attack which wins the Queen's Pawn.
5. P-QKt3 Kt-QB3 6. P-K3 Castles QR 7. Kt-B3 P-K4
and wins the QP, or
5. P-QR3 Kt-QB3 6. P-K3 Castles QR
and P-K4 is again a threat hard for white to meet.
This position shows, that to bring one's opponent's centre pawn away and to keep one's own, does not under all circumstances mean the command of the centre, but that the opening up of files and diagonals for one's pieces towards the centre is an important moment in the fight for positional advantage.
Considerations of this kind will help to improve our judgment in many of the various openings treated in the following pages.
We will class the openings in this way:
A. White 1. P-K4.
(a) Black 1. P-K4 (b) Black 1. Any other move
B. White 1. P-Q4.
(a) Black 1. P-Q4 (b) Black 1. Any other move
C. White 1. Any other move
We shall find that openings classed under C generally lead to positions treated under A and B.
A. We have already come to the conclusion that after 1. P-K4, P- K4 White does well to try to force the exchange of Black's centre pawn on Q4 or KB4, and that Black will try to counteract this, unless by allowing the exchange he gets a chance of exerting pressure in the centre by means of his pieces.
We will first see what happens when White undertakes the advance in question on his second move. Superficially the difference between 2. PQ4 and 2. P-KB4 is that in the first case the pawn thus advanced is covered, while in the second it is not. An opening in which a pawn sacrifice is offered, is called a "gambit"; 2. P-KB4 is therefore a gambit.
2. P-Q4 is only a gambit if after 2. … PxP White does not recapture the pawn. Nevertheless this opening has been called the "centre gambit," and though the denomination is not correct we will adhere to it, as it is in general use.
A very considerable difference between the centre gambit and the King's gambit lies in the fact that in the former acceptance is compulsory, whilst in the second it may be declined.
For: 2. P-Q4 threatens to take the King's Pawn. To defend it by means of 2. … P-Q3 is unwise, since White exchanges pawns and then Queens, by which Black loses his chance of castling and impedes the development of his Rooks. 2. … Kt-QB3 is also bad, since after 3. PxP, KtxP; 4 P-KB4, White drives the Knight away, gaining a strong hold on the centre, and Black has no compensation for giving up his centre pawn. It may be mentioned here that after 2. … Kt-QB3, 3. P-Q5 would be a useless move, as to begin with it would be inconsequent, since P-Q4 was played in order to clear the centre, and moreover it would block up a diagonal which could be most useful to the King's Bishop.
We conclude now that Black cannot hold his pawn at K4. He must relinquish the centre by 2. … PxP. He will now either attempt to bring away White's King's Pawn by advancing his own QP to Q4, or try to utilise the King's file, which was opened by his second move, and operate against White's KP. The Rooks are indicated for this task. We shall refer to the execution of these plans later on.
In the King's gambit, White's attempt to bring away Black's
King's Pawn may be safely ignored.
The move 2. P-KB4 does not threaten to take the King's Pawn, as Black would win White's KP by Q-R5ch. Black can therefore develop in security with 2. … B-B4, and if then White prevents the Q check by Kt-KB3, there is no objection to Black protecting his King's Pawn with P-Q3, as the King's Bishop is already developed. After 4. B-B4, Black has still no need to protect his KP with Kt- QB3, but can play Kt-KB3 first, because after 5. PxP, PxP; 6. KtxP would be answered by 6. … Q-Q5 winning a piece. Black keeps the upper hand in these early encounters because he has made a developing move with a piece, whilst White has played a pawn move which is useless for the purpose of development.
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8 | #R | | | #Q | #K | | | #R |
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7 | #P | #P | #P | | | #P | #P | #P |
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6 | | | #Kt| #P | | #Kt| | |
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5 | | | #B | | #P | | | |
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4 | | | ^B | | ^P | ^P | #B | |
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3 | | | ^Kt| ^P | | ^Kt| | |
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2 | ^P | ^P | ^P | | | | ^P | ^P |
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1 | ^R | | ^B | ^Q | ^K | | | ^R |
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A B C D E F G H
Diag. 18.
Diagram 18 shows the position which results from the following plausible moves:
2. P-KB4 B-B4 3. Kt-KB3 P-Q3 4. B-B4 Kt-KB3 5. P-Q3 Kt-B3 6. Kt-B3 B-KKt5
If White wishes to castle on the K side, which must have been his intention when playing 2. P-KB4, he will have to play Kt-QR4 and KtxB.