Weaknesses
- With interactive board -
The principle of two weaknesses is basic to
forming a plan in a game of chess. The concept
of a weakness in the broad strategic sense should
be understood as a lasting threat. Examples are
possession of an open file and the consequent
threat to penetrate; a vulnerable king position;
pawn weaknesses; a far-advanced passed pawn;
and so on. Put more briefly, by the word weakness
we understand something that compels the
opponent to defend for quite a long time.
The implementation of a plan according to
the principle of two weaknesses can be divided
into five stages:
1 ) Create the first weakness.
2) Attack this weakness, though not in order
to destroy it (that would of course be a good
thing, but your forces are likely to be insufficient
for it) but to compel the opponent's pieces
to go over to the defence, thus depriving them
of activity and mobility.
3) Create the second weakness.
4) Attack the second weakness.
5) Attack both weaknesses by turns; this
should eventually produce a breach in the opponent's
defence.
The principle of two weaknesses was conceived
as long ago as the 19th century. But the
precise, lucid explanation of this principle must
be credited unreservedly to Aron Nimzowitsch:
"The two weaknesses are in themselves perfectly
defensible, but the attacker relies primarily
on the territorial advantage at his disposal,
the superior state of his lines of communication.
The game is lost because at some point the
defender proves unable to match his opponent
in the swift regrouping of forces."
This last sentence of Nimzowitsch's explains
the possibility of carrying out the fifth and final
stage of a plan based on the principle of two
weaknesses.
Let us now examine this in the
context of some concrete examples.
INTERACTIVE BOARD - COMMENTS ARE ON THE SIDE
I would like to go more deeply into the concept
of a 'weakness ' . For this, let us look at the
following example (see next diagram).
The second stage of the 'two weaknesses'
strategy is over: the first object of attack (the b7-pawn) has been set up, and placed under
pressure. What comes next seems clear - White
must create a second weakness in another sector
of the board.
INTERACTIVE BOARD - COMMENTS ARE ON THE SIDE
child's play for us to make sense of the next example.
to recognize that White has a won position.
He is a pawn up, and the way to exploit his
advantage is clear - provided of course that we
have learnt to plan our play in accordance with
the principle of two weaknesses. The first two
stages are over. White has created a passed apawn
- constituting Black's first 'weakness'and
pushed it sufficiently far. It is now time for
the third stage - the formation of a second
weakness on the opposite side of the board
As mentioned earlier, the 'patent' for the
principle of two weaknesses belongs to Nimzowitsch.
But this principle was, of course, also
utilized by other strong players of his era.
INTERACTIVE BOARD - COMMENTS ARE ON THE SIDE
Again I would like to define more precisely
what we understand by the term weakness. We
shall be ably assisted in this by an extract from
a game by the third World Champion.
All would now seem clear. How to formulate
a plan, we know by now. But don't jump to
conclusions. At the very first stage of implementing
a plan based on the principle of two
weaknesses, we often come up against obstacles
that are hard to surmount. Suppose that
your opponents these days are competent and
recalcitrant; they don't want to give themselves
any weaknesses - so there ! Where, then, are the
weaknesses going to come from?
We'll study this in the next lesson, which will be about Manoeuvring !
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