Playing Technique

Lesson 1

When looking over annotated games, very often we see phrases like “the rest is a matter
of technique“. This usually means that one of the players accumulated a long-term
advantage that should be now transformed into victory during the endgame.

From the beginning of our course, we told what we have to do when our strategical
advantage cannot be grown anymore. To clarify this situation: when you have a certain
advantage (like for example the opponent has weak pawn structure) and when you cannot
improve anymore the position of your pieces, it is time for:
a) an attack against the opponent king, or
b) simplifications which lead to a technically won endgame. After this, it follows the
phase of the game often referred as “the rest is a matter of technique”.

However, in this stage of the game which might be simple for a master, the most un-
experimented players lose their advantage. How many of you didn’t lose a “technically
won position” or, at least, lost the thread of the game in the second part of it?
So, your question is probably “How can I improve my playing technique?”

The difference between poor, good, or excellent playing technique is a matter of poor,
good, or excellent knowledge of strategy AND knowledge of endgame. This does not
mean only theory, but also the knowledge accumulated from the own experience and from
the study of masters’ games.

So, although, the theory is essential, the playing technique cannot be improved without:
- playing many games – your own practice and brain challenge is of first importance;
- studying various games. There are many good books annotated by World Champions
like Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Karpov and many other great players. Also, an excellent
book that we recommend is “Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953” by David
Bronstein. Unfortunately, you will still often meet the phrases “the rest is a matter of
technique” or large sequences of un-annotated moves. However, you have the moves
played by a strong player in front of you and you only need to discover their sense.

In this section of our training (“Playing Technique”), we will present to you various and
instructive examples where technique is in the forefront. The majority of the positions are
from the endgame, but not only.

In order to support the theory more knowledge = better technique, we start with an
example from Botvinnik’s practice and his comments:

1
 XHGFEDCBAY
1K+-+-+-tR!
2zPPsN-+-zPP"
3-+-tR-zPL+#
4+-zP-+-+-$
5-+-+-+lsn%
6+-+p+-+-&
7pzpp+-+pzp'
8+k+-tr-+r(
xhgfedcbay
Plater – Botvinnik, 1947

Referring to this position, Botvinnik said: “Everything is clear. Black firmly holds the d-
file and his bishop will be stronger than opponent knight especially because of the
kingside weaknesses”.
For Botvinnik, a master of the endgame, the rest of the game will be “just a matter of
technique”. He went on a well known path to the victory:
1.Ne4-h6 2.Rae1-Nb3 3.ab3-a5!
This move fixes White’s queenside pawns and now we can say that Black is a pawn up
(because of his mobile majority on the kingside).
4.h3-Rac8 5.Kg1-Kf8 6.Kh2-Rc7 7.Kg3-b6 8.Kh2-Rcd7 9.Kg1-Rd1 10.c4-Bc6
11.Nc3-Re1
Botvinnik: “After Black will improve his king’s position, he will trade the rooks.
Rubinstein demonstrated many times the superiority of the bishop against the knight in
this type of positions”. So, Botvinnik knew very well the games played by Rubinstein, an
expert of the endgames of that time.

12.Re1-Ke7 13.Re2-f6 34.Kf2- Rd3

Botvinnik: “The game is over, after trading rooks White can do nothing against e6-e5
collaborated with king invasion on b4“. After some moves, black won.
As you can see, all Botvinnik did was to apply the knowledge he gathered. So, in order to
improve your technique you have to pay particular attention to this phase of the game
when studying various games.

Now, we present a general principle that is present in all examples about technique.
Generally, there are 2 types of advantages (speaking about positions with equal material):
1. Permanent. In this case, the opponent is completely tied down. He has no chance for
activity and even if we play passive moves, intending nothing, opponent is not able to get
rid of his weaknesses.
2. Volatile. Here any inaccurate move will lose a part of the advantage. Therefore an
exact play is necessary in order to maintain the advantage.

2
Position 1

XABCDEFGHY
8-+n+-+-+(
7+-+k+-+p'
6-zp-+-+-+&
5+Pzp-zPp+-%
4P+K+psN-+$
3+-+-+-+-#
2-+-+-+PzP"
1+-+-+-+-!
xabcdefghy
Moldovan D, 2445 – Parligras M, 2375, 1998
White to move

White has a clear and permanent advantage. How can we draw this conclusion? The
easiest way is to analyze what Black can do if White does nothing (for example Kc4-c3-
c4-c3 and so on). Will Black be able to get some activity or to improve his position? If he
tries trading the knights, he will lose the king’s endgame (after a4-a5, the white pawns
cannot be stopped). To activate the king via g5 is also not possible because after a4-a5
Black will lose the knight.

After we clarified that White has a permanent advantage and Black is tied down, White
has to find the best and most secure way to convert his advantage (TO DO list):

1. First he has to determine the weaknesses in his opponent’s camp. It is easy to

identify that now there is only one: the b6-pawn.
2. Then, White has to ask himself if he can make another weakness. In order to
determine this he imagines a position that will force his opponent to make another
weakness. There is no need to calculate variations, just to imagine the position.
Because he lacks mobility, Black will not be able to oppose any resistance. Of
course, this imagined position has to be an obtainable position not an utopist one
(for example it is not possible for the white king to arrive on b7). As a general rule:
one weakness is not enough for a win, but two are. On this step, White spotted
that with his king on e3 he is threatening h2-h3 followed by g2-g4 winning a pawn.
This will force Black to make another weakness by moving h7-h5 in order to stop
g2-g4.
3. After obtaining maximum of weaknesses possible, it is time for the next step.
Imagine some obtainable positions which are winning. In this case there are two
and we will present them in the annotations of the game.
4. The last step is to accurately calculating the winning position and decide about the
best moves.

3
Now let’s see what happened in the game.

1.h3! White has identified the weakness that already exists in Black’s camp (step 1). He
also discovered the way to make another weakness in opponent’s position and goes for it.
1… -Ne7 sadly for Black, there is nothing to do but only wait.
2.Kc3 as you can see, White’s king is heading to e3 in order to reach the position he
imagined at step 2. Knowing what to do, the moves are logical and simple.
2…-h5 Black prevents White’s threat immediately. He could wait for 2 more moves
(until Ke3) but this wouldn’t help him.
3.g3! There is another important principle: any weakness must be fixed. This way, the
weakness is made permanent.
3…-Nc8 4.h4 The h5-pawn is indirectly defended as after 4.Nxh5 Ke6, Black will
capture the e5-pawn complicating the game. In a winning position, complications must be
avoided.
4…Ne7 5.Kc4
After creating the second weakness in his opponent’s camp (step 2), White returns to the
starting position threatening Kd5.
5…Nc8. It is clear that the black king must stay on d7 in order to stop the decisive Kd5-
c6 so his only option is to move his knight.
Now it’s time for step 3. White has to decide which position is a winning one: this
position or the same one but with the black knight on e7. Only now an accurate
calculation is required. If neither of the 2 setups wins, it is necessary to find other
possibilities and evaluate them.
6. Kb3! White correctly decides that he should go for the position with the black knight
on e7 and makes a typical maneuver of 3 moves to change who is to move.
6…- Ne7 7.Kc3-Nc8 8.Kc4 zugzwang
8…-Ne7 9.Nxh5! Finally, grabbing the h5-pawn collecting the fruits of a well conducted
endgame. For this, White calculated precisely all the possible variations (step 4).
9…-Ke6 9…Ng6 10.e6-Ke7 (10….-Ke6 11.Nf4 easily winning the pawn endgame)
11.Nf4-Ne5 12.Kc3 followed by h5 and a5 at some point, then white pawns will be
unstoppable.
10. a5! The most precise way to victory although 10.Nf4-Ke5 11.a5-ba5 12.Kc5 is also
winning but there Black can still put some resistance. Now Black is hopeless against
white free pawns.
10…-ba5 11.b6-a4 If 11…-Nc6 12.Kc5-Nb8 13.Nf4-Ke5 14.Kb5. White will take the
a5-pawn and then he wins the knight with his b-pawn.
12. Nf4-Kd7 12…-Ke5 13.Kc5-a3 14.b7 transforming with check.
13… Kd7 14.h5-e3 15.h6-Ng6 16.e6! There is no good square for the black king.
16…- Kc6 17.Ng6 The last trick.
17…-e2 18.Ne5 followed by Nf3 (d3). Black resigned 1-0