Table Of ContentFind the Right Plan with
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
and Anatoly Matsukevich
Translated by Sarah Hurst
BATSFORD
First published in the United Kingdom in 2008 by
Batsford
Old West London Magistrates Court
10 Southcombe Street
London
W140RA
An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd
Copyright © B T Batsford 2008
Text copyright © Anatoly Karpov, Anatoly Matsukevich
Translation copyright © Sarah Hurst
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright
owner.
ISBN 9781906388683
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
10987654321
Reproduction by Spectrum Colour Ltd, Ipswich
Printed and bound by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow
This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at the website:
www.anovabooks.com
Or try your local bookshop
2
Contents
A correct plan is the route to success 5
Chapter One. With the sources 7
Chapter Two. Evaluating a position. Reference points 21
Chapter Three. The attractiveness of a concrete goal 35
Chapter Four. Reference point - Open lines 51
Breakthrough in the centre 51
Between the centre and the flank 56
Attack on the edge of the board 59
Dangerous diagonals 65
Chapter Five. Pawn structure. Weak and strong squares 68
Chapter Six. The centre and space 97
Closed centre 98
Mobile centre 105
Open centre 108
Static centre 114
Dynamic centre 118
3
COlltellts
Chapter Seven. The most important law of chess 122
Seven bases for restriction 123
A lasso for the knight 127
'Club-12'
'A golden dozen of studies' 135
The bishop hunt 141
'Club-12' 154
, A golden dozen of studies' 158
How difficult it is to be a rook 160
'Club-12' 174
'A golden dozen of studies' 177
The queen: thorns and roses 179
'Club-12' 196
'A golden dozen of studies' 202
The obstinate pawn 204
'Club-12' 206
'A golden dozen of studies' 209
Kings under arrest 211
'Club-12' 214
'A golden dozen of studies' 217
Zugzwang 220
A page of studies 232
Solutions 234
A lasso for the knight 234
The bishop hunt 237
How difficult it is to be a rook 239
The queen: thorns and roses 242
The obstinate pawn 244
Kings under arrest 247
4
A correct plan is the route
to success
In chess, as in life, a plan is a are completely unfamiliar, and
general concept that unifies a how can you choose the correct
series of moves and actions order of actions to accomplish the
directed towards achieving the main task? How can you learn to
main aim. As Emanuel Lasker distinguish important features
justifiably remarked, it's better to from secondary ones, and if
play according to a flawed plan you've managed to do this, what
than with no plan at all. do you do next? Our book is
about all of this.
At the dawn of the development
of chess theory the first great How the book is organised.
masters beheved in only one
The first chapter is history. The
principle of battle - a direct attack
story of how human thought
on the king. Attacks on a castled
gradually progressed from one
position were the bread and
landmark to the next, becoming
butter of games in those days.
acquainted with the positions that
Only with the arrival of Wilhelm
arose on the chess board under
Steinitz were clear laws
the fingers of the great masters.
established, according to which
the creation of a plan was The second chapter is the key.
exclusively based on an objective In it we layout seven basic
evaluation of the position. A principles that will enable you to
robust plan must take into evaluate any position. This
consideration the opportunities chapter and the subsequent ones
for both sides. An optimistic are generously illustrated with
overestimation of your own examples from practical play by
position leads to the creation of top grandmasters.
headlong attacking plans that are
doomed to failure from the very Chapters three through six
outset. interpret these principles in detail.
Careful study of them will help
How can you find your way in you to re-examine your usual
every situation, even those that plans and learn to find new
5
A correct plal1 IS the route to success
opportunities in positions that great pleasure to the chess player
previously seemed dull and and will impress the experts far
uninteresting. more than a win as a result of a
beautiful combination that arose
The seventh and last chapter
by accident.
defines what, in our opinion, is
the most important rule in chess - We hope that for every reader,
the rule of domination, the even the most demanding ones,
superiority of your pieces over this book will bring pleasure and
your opponent's, and, as a natural help you to understand our
consequence of that, the rule of ancient game more deeply.
restraining the enemy pieces.
Anatoly Karpov
A game that is played on a
deeply strategic basis will bring Anatoly Matsukevich
6
Chapter One
With the sources
.. Tile 1I0vice's reflex - a strategy for eellturies .. Wallderillg ill the fog ..
Phi/ldor - 100 years ahead of his time" Comet Morplty ..
The great Stelllltz -lillk through the ages ..
Half an hour is enough to By the 13th century, according to
explain the rules of chess to the historical literature, chess had
anyone, teach them to set up the entered the list of the seven
pieces on the board, describe how knightly virtues along with
those pieces move, and what riding, archery, fencing, hunting,
check and checkmate are in chess. swimming, hawking and writing
If you suggest to the novice that poetry.
you play a game after this
preparation, then nine times out Chaturanga, chatrang, shatranj ...
of ten they'll immediately move
their bishop out to c4, their queen A slow, hypnotic game. The
to f3 and try to dispose of you rook was the strongest piece. The
with the help of Scholar's Mate. queen moved diagonally only to
adjoining squares, and the bishop
However, a few days will pass,
a little further, two squares away.
perhaps a week, then two or three
There was no castling.
months, and while associating
with you, your pupil will start to
The opening was very
understand that it isn't all that
uninteresting. The players
simple and that such primitive
manoeuvred for almost 20 moves
methods won't achieve their
in their own camps. To speed up
goals.
the game the masters of shatranj
It took centuries for chess developed opening positions -
players all over the world to tabiyat with equal chances for the
understand this truth at the dawn players. They then started from
of the development of chess ... these.
7
With the sources
that positional methods were
completely unknown to them, but
these methods were used purely
intuitively and accidentally.
The plans that the chess
romantics created were chaotic,
disjointed and almost never
adhered to a unified logical
theme. But the early Italian school
'Double Mujannah' - the most accomplished its task in the
popular tabiya history of chess.
Chess reforms (at the end of the The fantastic combinational
15th century) led to the enlivening inspiration of Leonardo,
of the game and a flourishing of Domenico, Polerio, Salvio and
romantic tendencies. The games especially Greco brought to light
of that era were full of sharp the dynamism of the chess pieces,
sacrifices and attacks, subtle traps demonstrated a huge variety of
and bold ideas. Sacrificing and tactical ideas, and provided
accepting sacrifices was examples of the most effective
considered a matter of chess mating attacks.
honour.
Gioachino Greco (1600-1634)
The masters of the Italian school
was born in Calabria in southern
always saw only the enemy king
Italy. At the age of 25
clearly. It was as if the entire
he produced his wonderful
remainder of the board was in a
manuscript collections, which
fog for them. That's why the
waited a long time for their
majority of tactical operations
moment (they were published in
more often than not weren't
England only in 1656) and then
positionaIly prepared, and
were disseminated in almost all
impressive wins were the result of
the European languages.
a weak defence.
Choosing open piece play as Greco's own contemporaries
their weapon, the masters of the commented that the games he
Italian school looked at each collected were "rich in subtly
concrete position on the board placed traps and, despite the
only through the prism of forced sparseness of the notes, include a
variations. We can't claim multitude of easily-understood
8
