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\begin{document}

\title{Exeter Chess Club: Knight outposts
}

\author{Dr. Dave}

\maketitle
\tableofcontents


\section{Knight outposts}

When looking at openings I often ask players to perform the following
exercise:


{\bf On a bare chessboard, put a knight on a1.  How many squares can it move to?
Just two.  On b1, three.  On c1, four.  On c2, six.  On c3, eight.  From this
you can see that moving from b1 to c3 in the opening makes the knight more than
twice as powerful.}

Now, this is part of the argument about control of the centre, and helps
explain why development towards the centre is so important.  But it is
particularly true of knights, because their step is so small.  A bishop
developed in {\em fianchetto} on b2 or g2 can extend its reach to the other
side of the board, but a knight on b2 can hardly make it to the half-way line.
Knights become much stronger by being moved into the centre, but as a rule are
vulnerable to being swapped off or nudged by pawns.  An {\em outpost} is a
square which a knight can occupy , which is either immune from attack (like d5
in the lower diagram) or the opponent would get into other sorts of trouble by
getting rid of it (like in the Tal game overleaf).  So, one of the key
strategical ideas in chess is the {\em knight outpost}.

[Event ``knight outpost?"][Site "-"][Date ``1945.??.??"][Round "?"]

[White ``smyslov"][Black ``rudakovsky"][Result ``1-0"]

{\bf\protect\begin{chess} 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 c*d4 4.N*d4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6
6.Be2 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.Be3
Nc6 9.f4 Qc7 10.Qe1 N*d4 11.B*d4 e5
12.Be3 Be6 13.f5 Bc4?\protect\end{chess} [{\em\protect\begin{chess} 13.: Bd7\protect\end{chess} was essential}]\protect\begin{chess}
14.B*c4 Q*c4 15.Bg5\protect\end{chess} {!}\protect\begin{chess} 15.: Rfe8
16.B*f6 B*f6 17.Nd5\protect\end{chess} {!} DIAGRAM}


\board{r* * rk*}
{pp* *p*p}
{ * p b *}
{* *NpP* }
{ *q*P* *}
{* * * * }
{PPP* *PP}
{R * QRK }
$$\showboard$$


{\bf\protect\begin{chess} 17.: Bd8\protect\end{chess} }(\protect\begin{chess}17.: Q*c2 18.Rf2 Qc6 19.Rc1 Qd7
20.Nc7\protect\end{chess}){\bf\protect\begin{chess}  18.c3 b5 19.b3 Qc5+ 20.Kh1 Rc8 21.Rf3!\protect\end{chess}  }Black's
pieces are passive;White has enough of a bind to effect a King's side
attack{\bf . }

{\bf\protect\begin{chess} 21.: Kh8 22.f6 g*f6 23.Qh4 Rg8 24.N*f6 Rg7 25.Rg3
B*f6 26.Q*f6 Rcg8 27.Rd1 d5 28.R*g7\protect\end{chess} {!} 1-0
}(\protect\begin{chess}28.R*g7 R*g7 29.R*d5 Qf8 30.Rd8\protect\end{chess}) 

David Norwood describes an exercise given to players in the old USSR where they
were given the position in the diagram 



\board{rnbqkbnr}
{pp* *ppp}
{ * p * *}
{* * p * }
{ * *P* *}
{* * * * }
{PPP* PPP}
{RNBQKBNR}
$$\showboard$$


and asked: 

{\bf remove pairs of pieces of equal value to White's advantage.}



The solution they were looking for was to remove all the Qs,Rs, and
everything else apart from the Kings, one White knight and the Black B
on f8.  Then White's knight could go to d5, dominating the board,
while Black's poor bishop couldn't ever swap it off.  It would be a
pretty miserable bishop anyhow, which is our next idea - the {\em bad
bishop}.  But this exercise also starts to show you how to plan a
game of chess based on the pawn structure: this `remove pairs of
pieces' exercise is what you can try and do by exchanging pieces, and
this is pretty well what Smyslov does in the illustrative game. 


\section{More knight outposts.}


Here's three more, in increasing difficulty.  The Boleslavsky game works on the
same strategical principles as the Smyslov one but is more tense in terms of
tactics.  The Botvinnik game shows an outpost being created rather than given
to you, and the Tal game shows a common Ruy Lopez theme of outpost with
overprotection.

{\em Fighting tactically with an outpost.}

{boleslavsky-lisitsyn, moscow 1953}\protect\begin{chess}

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 c*d4 4. N*d4 Nf6 5.
Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2
Nc6 9. O-O\protect\end{chess}-O Nxd4\protect\begin{chess} 10. B*d4 Qa5 11. Kb1 e5 12.
Be3 Be6 13. a3 Rfd8 14. Nb5 Qa4\protect\end{chess}
{taking the d6 pawn loses a piece, but White has a great pawn sacrifice of his
own} 



\board{r* r *k*}
{pp* *pbp}
{ * pbnp*}
{*N* p * }
{q* *P* *}
{P * BP* }
{ PPQ *PP}
{*K*R*B*R}
$$\showboard$$\protect\begin{chess}


15. c4! B*c4\protect\end{chess} (else White has a bind)\protect\begin{chess} 16. Nc3 Qb3 17.
B*c4 Q*c4 18. Bg5 Qe6 19. B*f6
Q*f6 20. Nd5 Qh4 21. Qe2 Bf8 22. Qf1! Rac8 23.
g3 Qg5 24. h4! Qh6\protect\end{chess} {not ...Qxg3, Rd2!}\protect\begin{chess} 25. g4 g5 26. h*g5 Q*g5 27.
Rh5! Qg6 28. g5! h6 29. R*h6! Q*g5 30. Rh5!\protect\end{chess} and Black resigns:\protect\begin{chess} 30.: 
Qg6 31. Qh1 Qe6 32. Rh8+ Kg7 33. Qh7\#\protect\end{chess}  

{\em Building an outpost.}

[Event "?"][Site ``amsterdam"][Date ``1965.??.??"][Round "?"]

[White ``botvinnik, m."][Black ``donner, jh"][Result ``1-0"]\protect\begin{chess}

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7
5.O-O O-O 6.b3 b6 7.Bb2 Bb7 8.c*d5 N*d5
9.d4 c5 10.d*c5 B*c5\protect\end{chess} 



\board{r* q rk*}
{pb*n*ppp}
{ p *p* *}
{* bn* * }
{ * * * *}
{*P* *NP }
{PB NPPBP}
{R *Q*RK }
$$\showboard$$\protect\begin{chess}



11.Nbd2 Nd7 12.a3\protect\end{chess} N\protect\begin{chess}5f6
13.b4 Be7\protect\end{chess} 
Pretty level-looking?  But Botvinnik has a keen and clear mind, and has spotted
an outpost opportunity.\protect\begin{chess}

14.Nd4 B*g2 15.K*g2 Qc7\protect\end{chess} 


\board{r* * rk*}
{p qnbppp}
{ p *pn *}
{* * * * }
{ P N * *}
{P * * P }
{ B NPPKP}
{R *Q*R* }
$$\showboard$$


Perhaps now you can start to see it too.  The exchange has made Black's white
squares on the Q-side a little weak, and if White can use his extra space to
get in b5, suddenly the N has a dream home built on c6.\protect\begin{chess}
16.Qb3 Rfc8 17.Rfc1 Qb7+ 18.Qf3 Nd5 19.e4\protect\end{chess} N\protect\begin{chess}5f6 20.b5 a6
21.Nc6\protect\end{chess} 
Bingo!  The rest is an effective exercise in realising this advantage.  White
will trade a pair of rooks - so Black can't use his two rooks to fight back
along a file, but leaving White a rook to be a nuisance with.  Black's one rook
just can't dodge well enough to stop this...\protect\begin{chess}

21.: Bf8 22.a4 a*b5 23.a*b5 R*a1 24.R*a1 Ra8 25.Rd1
Ne8 26.Nc4 Nc5 27.e5 Rc8 28.Ra1 Rc7 29.Ra7 Q*a7
30.N*a7 R*a7 31.N*b6\protect\end{chess} 1-0


{\em Outpost with overprotection of supporting pawn} (tal-bronstein)\protect\begin{chess}

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4
Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O
9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Nc6 12.Nbd2 Qb6
13.d*c5 d*c5 14.Nf1 Be6 15.Ne3 Rad8 16.Qe2 g6
17.Ng5 c4\protect\end{chess} {!} (making an outpost out of d3)\protect\begin{chess} 18.a4 Kg7 19.a*b5 a*b5
20.Rb1 Na5 21.Nf3 Qc7\protect\end{chess} 


\board{ * r r *}
{* q bpkp}
{ * *bnp*}
{np* p * }
{ *p*P* *}
{* P NN*P}
{ PB*QPP*}
{*RB R K }
$$\showboard$$\protect\begin{chess}


22.Nd5\protect\end{chess} {!}\protect\begin{chess} 22.: B*d5 23.e*d5\protect\end{chess} 
Unleashing the force built up behind the e-pawn.\protect\begin{chess}

23.: Rfe8 24.Q*e5 Q*e5 25.N*e5 N*d5 26.Ra1 Nb3
27.B*b3 c*b3 28.Bh6+\protect\end{chess} {!}\protect\begin{chess} 28.: Kg8\protect\end{chess} {?!}\protect\begin{chess}
29.Nc6 Rc8 30.Rad1 R*c6 31.R*d5 f6 32.R*b5 g5 33.R*b3 Kf7
34.Rb7 Re6 35.R*e6 K*e6 36.h4 Rg8 37.f4 Bc5+ 38.Kf1
g*h4 39.Rb5 Rc8 40.f5+ Kd6 41.b4 h3 42.R*c5 h2 43.Bf4+\protect\end{chess}
1-0 




\end{document}