Thursday 7 March 2013

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! - by Junior Tay

The following games in local praxis show how a Knight outpost on e4 can often be a decisive factor, especially when the opponent fails to effect useful exchanges on the square, dislodge the Knight or play around it. In King's Indian type structures, if a Knight is left on e4 blockading the Black e5 pawn, the KID Bishop is frequently rendered impotent as in both games.

 At the 1975 World Junior Championships, Lim Seng Hoo, despite having fallen ill in Tjentiste, Yugoslavia, managed to score 8/13 to finish in a tie for 7th-8th positions behind Valery Chekov (10/13), Larry Christiansen (9.5/13) and Jonathan Mestel (9/13). All these players later became Grandmasters - as did two of Seng Hoo's victims, Praveen Thipsay and Murray Chandler. Seng Hoo, by establishing his Knight on e4, slowly but surely increased his space advantage calmly. Chandler tried trading heavy pieces but this only resulted in making Seng Hoo's Knight get stronger and stronger as the game progressed.
The following game helped me to get a point to earn my final ICCF Senior International Master norm. The whole White strategy revolves round the creation on the e4 outpost for the Knight by threatening the win of material and thus forcing unfavourable exchanges for Black. By the time the Knight got onto e4, the game was almost over and my opponent preferred to resign than let me finish with a flourish.

2 comments:

  1. This is why I never play the bishop to square g7.

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  2. Sigh..you're missing a lot not doing that

    ReplyDelete