COMBINED ATTACK
Автор: Юрий Авербах, на английском языке.

Second lecture of the education program «Improve your chess now!» is about the combined attack.

In the course of a game the warring sides endeavour to inflict material losses on each other, and with this aim they make attacks with their pieces and pawns on the pieces and pawns of the opponent.

But a simple attack on an enemy piece rarely proves effective. For this happen it has to be incapable of being defended or covered by its own pieces, or and of moving out of the attack.

Quite a different matter is a combined attack, normally carried out by several pieces or pawns, when one of them attacks the opponent’s piece, and the others prevent it from moving or being defended. In such situations it often happens that the withdrawal squares of the piece are cut by its own pieces or pawns.

This position occurred in a game Averbakh-Boudi-Bueno (Polanica Zdroi, 1975).

I played 1.f4! Q:e4 2.Re1, and the black queen was trapped. After 2...e6 3.N:f6 Black resigned.

Next position is taken from a game Nimzowitsch-Alekhine (Bled, 1931).

Here all White’s hopes rest on his attack at the rook a8, but Alekhine found a refutation of his plan:

1...Nd5+ 2.Bd2 Qb6! 3.Q:a8+ Kd7, and the white queen is trapped. After 4. 0-0-0 Nc7 5.Ba5 N:a8 6.B:b6 N:b6 Black won.

In this position, the conclusion to a study by L.Kubbel (1940) Black does not look to be in any particular danger.

But White to move and after 1.Qa8! Kb2 2.Nd5 he managed to deprive the queen of all eight free squares.

Note the negative role played here by the black pawns, which significantly restrict the freedom of their own queen.

This position occurred in a game Andersson-E.Torre (Biel, 1977).

White played 1.Rb3, reckoning on regaining his pawn, but after 1...b4! 2.R:b4 b5 3.h5 Bd6 4.Rb3 b4 his rook was trapped. By continuing 5...Re8 followed by taking his king to c4, Black won.

Next position is taken from a game Matulovic-Cvetkovic (Varna, 1965).

Here White’s first move 1.Qc1 looks incomprehensible, and Black decided to win the opponent’s central pawns by 1...N:d4+ 2.Kd3 Q:e5. But White had calculated accura-tely: 3.Qc8+ Kg7 4.Qh8!+ Q:h8 5.N:f7+ Kg7 6.N:e5, and the black knight had to retreat.

In one of the variations of the Ruy Lopez after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.d4 b5 6.Bb3 N:d4 7.N:d4 ed the following position is reached:

Here 8.Q:d4 would be a mistake on account of 8...c5 9.Qd5 Be6 10.Qc6+ Bd7 11.Qd5 c4, when the white bishop is trapped.

In this examples considered the targets of the combined attack were the queen, rook, knight and bishop.

But a king can also be subjected to a combined attack. I will give several typical instances of an attack on the king, where the decisive blow is landed by various pieces.

Of course, the most dangerous piece in the attack on the king is the queen.

This position occurred in a game Tarjan-Karpov (Scopje, 1976).

White has created the threat of mate in two moves, but it is Black to play, and he wins by 1...Re3+! 2.fg Q:g3 mate.

In this position, taken from a game Soultanbiev-Colle (Liege, 1926), by pinning the rook at f3 Black assumed that he defended against all the threats.

But after 1.Rg2! it transpired that the rook could not be taken on account of 2.Q:f8 mate and meanwhile 2.Q:h7+ K:h7 3.Rh3 mate was threatened.

Following position occurred in a blindfold exhibition of Pillsbury (1899).

Here Black (Pillsbury) gives mate with a lone bishop, only first he has to restrict the enemy king: 1...Qf1+ 2.Bg1, and now 2...Qf3+! 3.B:f3 B:f3 mate.

As we can see, in the final mating position the task of restricting the king is fulfilled by pieces of the same color. Picturesquely speaking, they as though go over to the opponent’s side, by hindering their king.

A similant situation arises when mate is given by a lone knight. A classic example is so-called «smothered» mate, which has been known since the late 13th century.

This position was given in a book of Lucena (1497), White to play gives mate in five moves: 1.Qe6+ Kh8 2.Nf7+ Kg8 3.Nh6++ Kh8 4.Qg8+! N:g8 5.Nf7 mate.

Mate by a pawn occurs most often in the endgame. Here is one of the rare examples of a mate of this type in the middlegame, which occurred in a game Georgadze-Kuindzhi (Tbilisi, 1973).

In this unusual position both kings are in danger, but it is Black to play, and he is the first to give mate: 1…Qf2+! 2.Q:f2 Rh5+! 3.B:h5 g5 mate.

At the last lecture I gave you a study to solve.


Can anybody from you show us a solution of it?
   
As a homework I would like to give you following problem to solve.

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