The Nimzo-Indian Defense

For my final blog, I've decided to look at the different kinds of defenses. Since I've been looking on how to attack my opponents and being able to achieve victory. Now I'm looking at the types of defenses to protect my king from being lost. There are many types of defenses for ex: Nimzo-Indian Defense, Queen's Indian Defense, and etc.

1st 

For the Nimzo-Indian Defense, the black side will have the upper hand due to the fact that it's protected at the end. However everything has a weak point, the king will have limited space to move around which means it would be much easier to get cornered and be checkmated much easier and faster. But with each protecting pieces played correctly it will be easy to defend and protect the king from danger. First up white will play its most second common move for white which is c4. Which then leads to Nc3, where the Knight on the white side will move towards the center in order to threaten the black side. Then the black side will have to move the king in order to be safe, which means the king will have to castle. So because the king is now in the corner its more protected because there are other pieces surrounding it to protect itself. This is shown in the text when it said "The Nimzo-Indian Defense is a very active defense for Black.  

2nd

3rd 

Which then finally leads to the whites king to castle himself so it can protect its king from danger also. Now since there's nothing much left for black to do since this is basically the end of the defense. However according to the book it could continue like this, " 8 a3 Bxc3 9 bxc3 dxc4 10 Bxc4 Qc7"

Work Cited 

Snyder, Robert Michael. “Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner.” Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner, David McKay Co, 1991, pp. 179-184.

Question: Whether you play chess or not how would you defend your king from getting captured? 

Use of Pawns

As I continued my book Chess for Juniors I had came across a chapter where it had talked about how you can be able to achieve checkmate just by using a king and a pawn. Now I had came across a chapter that show different uses of a pawn, the first three different uses of pawns are doubled pawn,

backward pawns, and pawn chain. So if your opponent does any of these pawn moves your able to take advantage of them and beat their opening/ defend against them. 

First is the doubled pawn, which are pawns that are more difficult to defend and be able to move more than the pawns that aren't doubled. Which shows that if they're in this position they make really easy targets. this is because the doubled pawns can't protect one and other except waiting to get captured. This is shown when it said, "As a general rule of thumb: Doubled Pawns are more difficult  to defend and less mobile ( able to move) than pawns that aren't doubled... Doubled Pawns can't protect one another, so they make easy targets." 

Next is the Backwards Pawns, which means there would be another pawn diagonally behind the first pawn. This is a weak move that you can take advantage of because its on an open file which just means that since its open it wont be able to be defended by other pawns that's on the same color, that lags behind. This is described when they said, "A "backward Pawn" is a pawn that lags behind other Pawns of the same color. It is just as weak as an isolated Pawn, because it also can't be defended by other Pawns.

Last but not least, The Pawn Chain, which are pawns that is a diagonal row of Pawns, with each pawn are defended by the one behind it, without the pawn that's at the very bottom, in other words base. If your opponent does this move there's advantages like all the pawns being protected. However there are major disadvantages like all of the pawns being on the same colored square, which means that they will have a harder time to cover the opposite colored squares. An example that describes this would be when, "The major advantage of a Pawn chain is that the Pawns are protected. It's hard for your opponent to attack a Pawn chain with anything other than Pawns. But one drawback of a Pawn chain is that all of those Pawns are on the same color squares." 

By knowing all of these uses your able to think ahead to know how to respond against their strategies, to be able to win towards the end of the game. 

WORK CITED  

Snyder, Robert Michael. “Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner.” Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner, David McKay Co, 1991, pp. 190-193.

Question: How much have you learned about your subject? 

Checkmate with Rook and King

Previously when I continued reading my book Chess for Juniors, I was learning how I could result the match in a stalemate (in other words a tie). However I was curious if I would be able to achieve a checkmate, by just using 2 pieces. I was in luck, on chapter 15 it showed exactly that. As I went into the chapter it showed me how I could win by just using 2 pieces, a Rook and my King. However there was a catch, even though it showed me how to win it also showed me how I could result the match in a stalemate (losing my chance to win). So this mean I would have to pay close attention to my following moves and avoiding the moves that the book had listed not to do, and also to take out all of the other pieces.

Now its time to try this method out, of course I have to take all of the other pieces out and set the pieces up the same way as the book did. Then I started to follow the books directions, "As the Rook moves up one rank at a time, the Black King will have fewer and fewer squares available." So after following the books direction I became closer to checkmate. Then I followed their continuing steps "4, Kd3 Kd5, step 5 Ra5+ Kd6." by following steps you are able to reduce the amount of steps that black is able to move and being one step closer to winning. So by then following the third to last step, "6 . . . Ke6 7 Ra6+ Kd7 8 Ke5 Ke7" I was reducing the Black king to only 4 squares to move. Moving on to the next step which is the second to last move, "11 Kd6 Kb8 12 Rc7" so by doing this the Black king is even more limited to move because it would only have 2 squares left to move, which means it can only move back and fourth. Last but not least the most important move, to finally end the match, "12 . . . Ka8 13 Kc6 Kb8 14 Kb6 Ka8 15 Rc8++." However, before the match ending move the book said a move that you shouldn't do or else the match would become a stalemate, " Rb7" and you would lose your chance to win. So because I avoided the that move I was able to win with just two pieces a Rook and a King.

Starting Point 

Step 4 

Step 5 

Step 6 

Step 7 

Checkmate

Work Cited 

Snyder, Robert Michael. “Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner.” Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner, David McKay Co, 1991, pp. 173–178.

Question: Have you guys ever tried to win with just 2 pieces left? If you tried using only a rook and a king to win before, did you win or made the mistake of resulting it into a stalemate?


                                      

The Road to Stalemate

Work cited 

Snyder, Robert Michael. “Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner.” Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner, David McKay Co, 1991, pp. 132–133.

As I continued reading Chess for Juniors I was able to learn how to not lose in the game of chess, by resulting it into a stalemate. By placing white into a certain position called Zugzwang ( a situation in which the obligation to make a move in one's turn, often decisive). By knowing this in the back of my head I was able to get out of many sticky situation, in other words its like playing a video game where you get to revive yourself every time (Infinite lives)                                  

When I tried this tip out, I forgot that I would have to take out all of the other pieces first before being able to use this tip . So the match took a lot longer than it had to. However, after I was able to take out other pieces out besides the pawn because that white pawn took out my last pawn. Since I was in this situation I used the tip from the book so I could result the match into a draw. "Black can force the White King to stay in front of his own  Pawn with 1 . . .  Kc7 2 Ka8 Kc8 3 a7 Kc7: stalemate. White has stalemated himself!" By using these exact moves, I was able to foresee whites moves ahead of time and was able to stalemate the match.

                                       Forced the white king to stay in front of his pawn

Match resulting in a draw 

Question: Do any of you know any other techniques to result the match into a stalemate, besides putting your opponents into the Zugzwang position after taking all of their other pieces?

Chess: The End Game

Anh Ha
Chess For Juniors
By: Robert M. Snyder

Before I even started the book Chess For Juniors by Robert M. Snyder, I had no idea about the techniques or how to play greatly. Of course I knew how the pieces move from playing at lunch sometimes. However without knowing what my strategy would be, I would just move pieces randomly but sometimes I would get lucky and beat my opponent.


After reading the first 7 chapters of this book, I learned more things about chess, like castling. During my reading in chapter 8, one of the tips caught my eye, "From Diagram 101 you will see that: the King on a1 can move to only three squares, the King on e8 can move to five squares, and the King on e2 can move to eight squares. Limiting the number of squares that the enemy King can move to will make it much easier to checkmate it. Often the enemy King must be driven to the edge of the board before you can checkmate it." If the king was pushed to the corner it would be easier to checkmate it.


With this helpful tip I proceeded to try it out, when the king is into that position (the corner) I was able to achieve victory fairly quickly. When I saw the 3 pawns that haven't moved a single space, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to push the king into the corner and have him trapped there. So by using my remaining queen, bishop and horse I decided to take out as many of his pieces as I can, like his queen, rook, bishop and horse, not to mention his pawns also. Then by using my rook I was able to pin the king behind the 3 pawns so I could corner it, and by doing that I was able to achieved victory.


Question: So far what tips about your subjects have you learned? Do you think the tips will benefit you for later? 

Work Cited 

Snyder, Robert Michael. “Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner.” Chess for Juniors: a Complete Guide for the Beginner, David McKay Co, 1991, pp. 132–133.