The Great Pawn Hunter
Chess Tutorial


What to do when you're up or down a piece.


The plan for anyone who is up a piece in most situations is to trade piece for piece until you have an endgame where you have the one piece. Then the plan becomes eating all the enemy pawns with your piece. After that, march down your pawns and get a queen. Then simply checkmate the opposing king with your queen. This is the plan that is followed by most all seasoned tournament players. It is the reason why many games you see played never finish because a player dropped a piece and resigns immediately out of respect for the other player.













1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e3 c6 6.Bd3 Qa5 7.Nge2 dxc4 8.Bxc4 Bxc3+ 9.Nxc3 Qxg5 Black has just won a bishop due to White not protecting his pieces.
10.0-0 Nbd7 11.Rc1 Watch how black tries to offer trades as the game continues.
11...Nd5 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.Bd3 Nf6 14.Qb3 0-0 15.f3 Bh3 16.Rc2 Rab8 17.Re1 Rfe8 18.Kh1 Be6 19.Qc3 Re7 20.b4 White tries a minority attack to create weaknesses on the queenside. He also has in his mind to lesson the amount of pawns that are on the board. Remember, when you are playing down a piece to try to win or trade pawns because your pawns will only get eaten in the endgame and your opponents pawns will promote to queens.
20...Bd7 21.Rce2 Rbe8 22.Qd2 a6 23.a4 Bf5 Black sees a chance to trade bishops so he actively places his bishop on the b1-h7 diagonal.
24.Bxf5 Qxf5 25.Qc3 Nd7 26.b5 White offers pawn trades. Trying to get rid of those unwanted pawns.
26...axb5 27.axb5 Re6 28.bxc6 Rxc6 29.Qb3 Rc7 30.Qb5 Re6 31.Qa5 Rec6 32.Qa8+ Nf8 33.Rb2 White tries with all his might to eat that b pawn. However, his own back rank is very weak.
33...Qc8 The Queens and rooks on the board get traded because of a threatened checkmate on the 1st rank. However, White could have moved his Queen to a1 followed by R(b)b1
34.Qxc8 Rxc8 35.Rxb7 Rc1 36.Rb1 Coming back onto the defense. Which rook should you take? Well don't leave an enemy rook on an open file if you can help it.
36...Rxe1+ 37.Rxe1 Ne6 38.Kg1 Kf8 39.Kf2 Rc2+ 40.Re2 Here White chose to block the enemy rook offering a trade for some activity for his king. However, Kg3 would have been better and kept his last rook on the board.
40...Rxe2+ 41.Kxe2 Now, watch the Knight win the game for Black. However, first Black must centralize his King through the Opposition, another good principle to follow in the endgame.
41...Ke8 42.Kd3 Kd7 43.e4 dxe4+ 44.fxe4 Nf4+ 45.Ke3 Nxg2+ The first pawn falls by a Fork.
46.Kf3 Ne1+ 47.Ke2 Nc2 48.d5 Kd6 49.Kd3 Ne1+ 50.Ke3 f6 51.h3 h5 52.Kf4 g6 53.Ke3 Ke5 54.Kf2 Nd3+ 55.Ke3 Nf4 56.h4 Ng2+ The second pawn falls to a Fork.
57.Kf3 Nxh4+ 58.Ke3 Ng2+ Now the plan for Black is to eat the (e) pawn with his knight.
59.Kf3 Ne1+ 60.Ke2 A very sneaky move by White. White is hoping that Black will take the (e) pawn since it is not protected by the White King anymore, but this would be horrific since the White d pawn would promote to a queen easily.
60...Nc2 61.Kd2 Na3 Heading to the d6 square for a blockade and also to threaten and win the e pawn.
62.Kc3 Nb5+ 63.Kd3 Nd6 64.Ke3 Nxe4 65.d6 Nxd6 The next step for Black is to promote a pawn to a queen since a King and Knight is not enough to checkmate the opponent.
66.Kf3 g5 67.Kg3 f5 68.Kh3 h4 69.Kg2 g4 70.Kf2 f4 71.Kg2 h3+ 72.Kh2 Nf5 73.Kh1 g3 74.Kg1 f3 75.Kh1 Ne3 76.Kg1 f2+ 77.Kh1 f1Q# With the Barriers set up by the Black pawns, the f pawn promotes to a Queen and Wins the day....First the Barriers and then the check wins the day. 0-1


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Copyright © Manus Patrick Fealy 1994-2007

Game

Sample Game, [D50] 04.03.2007
[The Great Pawn Hunter]



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