Chess WHEN beginners open a chess book, they often feel bombarded with contradictory rules. What is praised in the endgame can be a fundamental error in the middlegame.
For example, “Passed pawns must be pushed” makes sense in an endgame queening race. But it often leads to the loss of an overextended pawn when the board is filled with pieces.
Similarly, creating an outside passed pawn often wins endings. But the pawn is usually just a target 20 moves before then.
A key game in last month’s U.S. Championship showed the downside of another much-praised asset, the queenside majority. Thanks to the trades at moves 12-13 and 17, Dmitry Gurevich obtains a 3-to-2 majority of pawns on the queen’s wing.
More than a century ago, Wilhelm Steinitz said that kind of edge can easily be transformed into a winning passed pawn in the endgame. What he underestimated is that the other player obtains a dangerous kingside majority, which counts more in the middlegame.
Alexander Shabalov mobilized that phalanx with moves 18, 21 and 25, and that left Gurevich’s king position in ruin. He resigned in view of 33. Kd3 Qb1+ 34. Qc2 Qf1+ and mates.
Bridge “OF all the unsatisfactory bidding I ever heard . . .” Alice mumbled.
As the bridge game at the Mad Hatter’s continued, the players began to take outrageous chances, hoping to impress the two Red Queens, who were kibitzing intently. When the March Hare, East, opened one diamond, the Hatter, South, startled the table with a leap to five diamonds.
“How can you leap to game in a suit the Hare bid?” Alice, who was North, demanded with asperity.
“The Hare said he could take seven tricks at diamonds,” the Hatter replied meekly, “and I’m contracting for 11. That’s only 18 in all. Sometimes in Wonderland we try for more.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” Alice growled.
“He’ll lose something else if he goes down,” muttered the Queen of Hearts.
West, the Dormouse, led a heart, and the Hare won with the queen as the Queen of Hearts nodded approval.
“Nothing East can do,” she whispered to Alice. “If he leads, say, the queen of spades next, the Hatter takes the ace, ruffs two hearts in dummy and discards one heart on the king of spades. He loses a trump and a heart.”
“Don’t be too sure,” murmured the Queen of Diamonds, giving the Hare a meaningful glance. Getting the message, he tabled the queen of diamonds at Trick Two, and the Hatter had no answer. East’s play had gained two tricks: Declarer could ruff only one heart in dummy, leaving him with a second heart to lose, and since that ruff would come with the jack of trumps, East’s 10 would be revived for the setting trick.
