Making a plan in Chess is one of the key skills you must have. It’s even more important when you are attacking because every move counts. The plan could only come into fruition 10s of moves later, however, I believe that’s the beauty of having a long term plan. Having your moves harmonize towards it and knowing what to do could be priceless.
A lot of times this makes your play more accurate and even makes Chess a lot easier & faster to play.
In my opinion, there’s no better position to illustrate this than the Yugoslav Attack in the Sicilian Defence, so we are going to start with some examples.
Firstly here is an example played by the legend Fischer to illustrate the dangers black could face if not careful after losing the dark square bishop and thus weakening his kingside dark squares.
[Event "North Central Open"]
[Site "Milwaukee, WI USA"]
[Date "1957.11.30"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Robert James Fischer"]
[Black "Tibor Weinberger"]
[ECO "B77"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "69"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6
7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 {[%csl Yd2,Ye3,Yf4,Yg5,Yh6]}
{[#] We line up the Queen and the bishop to make a battery to attempt to later exchange his more valuable dark square bishop for ours. }
Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. h4 a6 11. Bb3 Na5 12. Bh6 {[%cal Ge3h6,Rc6a5] [%csl Yh6,Yc6]}
{[#] Because black moved his knight on the previous move, there’s no tactic so now it’s safe to follow through with the mentioned plan. The opponent is trying to go after our light square bishop with his knight which would seem favorable as an exchange. However better would probably have been pushing his pawns to attack the bishop instead, thus gaining tempo. }
e5 13. Nde2 Nxb3 14. axb3 Bxh6 15. Qxh6 d5 16. exd5 b5 17. Ng3
e4 18. Ncxe4 {[%cal Gc3e4, Rh4h5, Rh5g6]}
{[#] Notice Fischer’s intention & plan to exchange black’s f6 knight, which is a very important piece to white’s defense. So same thing we did with his great dark square bishop, get it off the board! Without it, black’s H file will be very vulnerable. Our main threat and plan are to march our H pawn up one more square and threaten to open the H file. }
Rc8 19. O-O-O Nxe4 20. Nxe4 f6 {[%cal Rf7f6]}
{[#] Now without the f6 knight defending, black plays f6 here to stop our knight going to g5 and threatening checkmate. But this weakens his kingside even more and f6 pawn could be a target very soon. }
21. Qd2 {[%cal Gh6d2]}
{[#] It’s tempting to play h5 and continue with our plan, and it’s not too bad. I believe Fischer didn’t because he thought that: if we play h5 now the opponent could respond with g5 now since he supports the pawn now with his previous move f6. While it is very hard for the opponent to try and take our Queen with a lesser piece, our Queen could run of squares and be kind of stuck. It’s a great move to retreat the Queen but more accurate was just playing d6 here first to open up more squares and keeping options available. <br/><br/>
That being said, I love the idea Fischer employed to switch plans and not stay on one when things look dicey.
}
a5 22. Kb1 {[%cal Gc1b1,Rc8c1]}
{[#] A very important prophylactic move to note. It’s a race and the enemy does have counterplay of his own if we are not careful. So we need to spend some moves to be safe to proceed with the attack. With the C file being open and the black’s rook having control of the file, it is very dangerous to remain there while black pawns are coming towards our king. }
b4 23. Qd4 {[%cal Gd2d4] [%csl Rh6,Rh8,Rg7,Rf7,Re6,Re7,Re8]}
{[#] Since there are no more dark square bishop and f6 knight, now the Queen is very dominant on the dark squares and is a huge threat for black. Also, note the number of holes in the enemy king position. }
a4 24. bxa4 f5 25. Ng5 Bxa4 26. b3 Qa5 27. bxa4 Rc3
28. d6 {[%cal Gd5d6] [%csl Rd5,Re6,Rf7]}
{[#] Very good pawn move! This opens up an additional square for our Queen to deliver the check, while simultaneously threatening promotion coming very soon. }
Qxa4 {[%cal Ra5a4]}
{[#] Desperate for counterplay, black tries to take our pawn in hopes of creating a perpetual check. However, I believe this move is the final nail in the coffin because he lost control of the very important 5th rank, now available for white to deliver an explosive series of tactics & checks.}
29. Qd5+ Kg7 30. Ne6+ Kf6 31. Qd4+ Kxe6 32. Rhe1+ {[%cal Gh1e1]}
{[#] Here we see that we no longer need to follow through with our plan to break open the H file, and we can instead use our H rook to immediately pressure the black King. Our switcheroo was totally a success! }
Kd7 33. Qg7+ {[%cal Gd4g7]}
{[#] Now check out where our Queen lands! In the same square that the enemy bishop was to deliver a decisive combination. We sacrificed a knight in the last few previous moves to lure the King out, there are not many defenders left so the enemy King is now due to be checkmate in 3 moves, so black resigned. <br/><br/>
All in all an excellent game to demonstrate that you don’t need to always follow through with the plan and you can switch if he has made enough holes in his position. }
Kc6 34. Qc7+ Kb5 35. Qb7+
(35. Qb7+ Ka5 36. Re5+ Rc5 37. Rxc5+ Qb5 38. Qxb5#)
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Next is an example played by the legend Karpov that illustrates the plan of focusing on everything and sacrificing pawns to open up the black king.
[Event "Karpov - Korchnoi Candidates Final"]
[Site "Moscow URS"]
[Date "1974.09.18"]
[EventDate "1974.09.16"]
[Round "2"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Anatoly Karpov"]
[Black "Viktor Korchnoi"]
[ECO "B77"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "53"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 {[%cal Gf2f3]}
{[#] Note that f3 is a very important preparation move in these kinds of positions. Restricting the enemy knight from harassing your dark square bishop and prepares a pawn storm with g4, h4.}
Nc6 8. Qd2 O-O 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. h4 {[%cal Gh2h4]}
{[#] We start the offensive kingside pawn push early in this position as our King is still feeling pretty safe from attacks. But soon we will need to castle queenside and give him more safety. }
Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5
12. O-O-O {[%csl Yd1,Yc1]}
{[#] In these positions it’s typical to castle queenside so we can fully attack the enemy king without leaving our king exposed. The downside is that black can also counterattack our King just as easily in some cases with a pawn storm of his own. So it will come down to a race in a lot of games. }
Nc4 13. Bxc4 Rxc4 14. h5 {[%cal Gh4h5]}
{[#] h5! We sacrifice a pawn to open up the file for our Rook. This sacrifice usually only makes sense if the enemy king is kingside castled. It especially makes sense because of our next move g4 to gain a tempo on the black knight.
Our plan indeed is to attack the enemy king with everything we got, trading off their bishop defending the king and controlling the critical open H file with two major pieces. }
Nxh5 15. g4 Nf6 16. Nde2
Qa5 17. Bh6 {[%cal Ge3h6]}
{[#] Note the delay in finally making this Bh6 move. It’s perfectly fine to do this later on in the game such as this, even after we had marched our H pawn twice and sacrificed it. Sometimes black can choose to avoid the exchange of dark square bishops by moving his rook aside for the bishop to move towards the h8 square. However, this also weakens his f6 pawn and kingside dark squares and we could also switch our plan to adapt. }
Bxh6 18. Qxh6 {[%cal Gd2h6, Rh1h7]}
{[#] Sometimes black would try to capture your bishop in these kinds of positions to argue that your Queen is misplaced. But here it somehow is very dangerous to do so because the H file is open and we have two attackers on the enemy kingside H pawn. The only defender is the enemy knight. So perhaps we can remove the defender somehow… so yes indeed we should have a new plan in mind. }
Rfc8 19. Rd3 {[%cal Gd1d3]}
{[#] The enemy now has a triple attack on our knight. So your danger senses should go off right now! Therefore, we move the rook to defend against a potential rook sack on our knights, threatening some kind of perpetual if not careful. Also playable was Rd5, as the enemy knight cannot move from the defense of the H pawn. }
R4c5 {[%cal Rc4c5, ] [%csl Rc5,Rd5,Re5,Rf5,Rg5,Rh5]}
{[#] Black attempts to cover the critical 5th rank with his rook, trying to avoid the exchange of knights. Now that you know your opponent’s idea, try to find a plan of your own to counter that. If you haven’t seen this game before, take a moment to pause and find the best move in this position. What would you play as Karpov? <br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>}
20. g5 {[%cal Gg4g5]}
{[#] g5!! Brilliant move. An additional sacrifice to force a trade of rooks, after which our knight can safely exchange the defending knight and thus win the game. Below is another line to illustrate what could happen if he tries to move his knight instead of taking the g pawn. }
(20. g5 Nh5 21. Nf4 Rxc3 22. bxc3 Qe5 23. Nxh5 gxh5 24. Rxh5 Qg7 25. f4 Qxh6 26. Rxh6 Rc4 27. e5 Bf5 28. exd6 exd6 29. Rdxd6 Rxc3 30. Rhf6)
Rxg5 21. Rd5 Rxd5 22. Nxd5 Re8 23. Nef4 {[%cal Ge2f4]}
{[#] We are not in a rush to exchange his knight! We can take our time to build up more ways to add pressure and improve our position. In fact, if we took his knight now and deliver some checks, it wouldn’t be too much as the king can safely make an escape. When you have time to improve the position and not commit to anything, this is usually the right approach.}
Bc6 24. e5 {[%cal Ge4e5, Rf4h5, Re5f6, Rd5f6]}
{[#] Another very amazing move. The whole point is that not only it adds another attacker to the fray, but it also blocks the enemy Queen from defending the 5th rank, which was very critical to black’s defense. }
Bxd5 {[%cal Rc6d5]}
{[#] And this bishop captures move allows something terrible, well he had no choice at this point! If black took our E pawn instead, we can simply capture the defender knight and we had checkmate in 7 with the following variation below. }
(24...dxe5 25. Nxf6+ exf6 26. Nh5 Qd2+ 27. Kxd2 Rd8+ 28. Kc3 Rd3+ 29. cxd3 gxh5 30. Rg1+ Kh8 31. Qg7# ) 25. exf6 exf6 {[%cal Ye7f6, Rf4d5, Rh1e1, Rh6h8]}
{[#] And now we finally see the disaster of what happens if black opens the E file. Do you see it? It left his rook very vulnerable. While it is not immediate that you can win his rook with a double attack with your rook, after a series of checks, you can decoy black’s Queen with knight takes bishop first so that you can make the Re1 move to win his rook with an easy endgame win.}
( 25... exf6 26. Qxh7+ Kf8 27. Qh8+ Ke7 28. Nxd5 Qxd5 29. Re1+ )
26. Qxh7+ Kf8 27. Qh8+ 1-0
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This was an absolutely amazing game by the legend Karpov. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. All the moves he made were very harmonious and catered towards filling his plan of ripping open files and removing the king’s defenders with brilliant pawn sacrifices that made everything just work.
