An unexamined life is not worth living.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Improving position of pieces – play like Mikhail Botvinnik

Riumin – Botvinnik, 1935
image  Black to move.

The 6th World Chess Champion was a great annotator, and his notes to his games tend to get to the heart of the position in very simple words. Mikhail Botvinnik’s explained his reasoning in this position as follows: “to ensure a successful attack Black must post his Bishop at h5. This can be achieved only with the Queen's cooperation. But the Queen is burdened by defence of the Queen pawn; hence” …

For the solution, and brief overview of the entire game - watch the YouTube video:

The whole game is an illustration of great piece coordination and strategic planning.

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