Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Battle of Ideas
Most club players wonder how GMs can foresee many moves in advance. In fact foreseeing moves in advance is not their most important activity when playing. Top chess players’ process of thinking relies on patterns. Thanks to their extensive experience, study and thousands of games played during their careers, they quickly recognize patterns and imbalances.
Something like seeing the opponent’s king in the center is an indication that an attack should be carried out. Once the pattern is detected, the next step is to find a way to exploit it. Here is where the process of calculating moves comes into play. In most cases it doesn’t mean calculating many moves in advance. Two or three are enough and an accurate assessment of the resulting position.
The previous introduction is only the theory. In practice doesn’t mean that the execution always succeeds because the opponent also has the ability to think. The opponent also sees and assesses the position (presumably with similar dexterity) and can come to analogous conclusions. It’s not the end of the world if your opponent prevents you from accomplishing your plan. It only means that the game can continue. That is what happens in today’s example, which starts from the following position.
On the queenside, White has a majority of pawns while Black has the same in the kingside. Those are assets for the future (for the endgame). Black has the option of trading pawns on f4. Doing so, the game can develop towards controlling the open e-column. Moreover, with the trade on f4, Black’s knight will have an excellent post on e5. But at the same time, the d4-square will be available for White’s knight.
To avoid both Black’s good post on e5 and the fight for an open e-file, White decided to play 13.f4 and obtain some benefit only for him. 13.f4 indeed leaves Black with a passed e-pawn. But it gives White the chance to use the square e4 for his knight. The following step should be trading Black’s knight for one bishop and White’s knight on e4 would be a dominant piece.
That was White’s plan in the game Li Chao vs Areshchenko, 2015. However, Black perfectly understood his opponent’s main intention and played the defense accordingly.
Chess is a battle of ideas between two players. The better ideas a player has, the better his/her chances of winning the game.
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