Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Wrong Breakthrough
Pattern recognition is a necessary aspect for improving in chess and applies to all parts of the game (opening, middle, and end-game)
In endgames, that ability becomes particularly useful because it reduces the calculation time. Thanks to many years of chess practice, experts have established methods for winning or drawing in endgames with few pieces on the board. In fact, there are endgame tablebases that show the best sequence of moves for winning or drawing with up to 7 pieces on the board. Knowing and recognizing those patterns is a great help.
And that leads us to one of the hard parts of mastering this game: memorization. However, that is not a particular handicap of chess. Many human activities require memorization. Do you remember when in school you needed to learn multiplication tables by heart?
The good news is that there are simple but important patterns that show up frequently. For example, “Shouldering”, “Opposition”, or the “Rule of the Square” in Pawn Endings.
Today’s endgame is an example where some of them apply. The game corresponds to the Tournament of Kiev, 1978. Both contenders, Hans Ree and Lubomir Ftacnik were titled players. However, despite having a winning position, Lubomir Ftacnik didn’t know, didn’t recognize or mixed up the plans choosing an initial wrong “Breakthrough”.
Finding similarities seen in previous games or positions previously studied, helps the player to quickly grasp the main ideas and/or patterns in a particular position.
It happens many times that in a hurry for playing moves, players don’t recognize familiar motifs.
Dear readers, don’t underestimate how useful is the training in pattern recognition.
Maybe you play chess but are unable to attend a local club. If that is your case, then join our virtual Chess.com club. On our site, we regularly play online tournaments and team matches. More than 1000 members enjoy that chance and new players join every week. We have new tournaments scheduled for the coming months waiting for players! Join now! Additionally, we have a puzzle section and we have recently started to practice the variant of ‘Vote Chess’. Although not very popular, ‘Vote Chess’ is an effective educational tool for learning together.
