Calculating Forcing Moves: Defensive Idea 5 - Counterattack to DRAW (material)

In this series of posts we are looking at “counterattacking to DRAW”, which is using Equal or Greater Threats to force three types of drawn positions:

• Draw by stalemate;
• Material draw (equal material, fortresses, etc); and,
• Draw by repetition.

In the last post we looked at a position where there was a clear checkmate threat on the board, and we created an EGT that allowed us to force stalemate.   In this post we’ll use an EGT to force a trade of material so that the resulting position is a material/technical draw.

White just played 1. Rb8.  Black to move.

qR6/p7/3Q1nk1/5p2/r1P1pP2/4P1K1/P7/8 b - - 0 1

Let's evaluate the position, and then find and prioritize all of white's threats.

Evaluation:  Black is up two points (one white pawn vs black knight), but white’s passed pawn could offer white some opportunities and his pieces are more active than their black counterparts.

White’s advantage in activity is temporary and can easily slip away.  Black’s material advantage is significant and more durable.  This material/activity imbalance is similar to our earlier “counterattack to WIN” position.  There we were black and, like in this position, had a two point material advantage (a white bishop vs a black rook).  We won by using an EGT to force equal trades that lead to a winning position.  The same basic plan holds true in this position.  If black can force equal trades of material he will have a winning material advantage.

Threats:  White’s threat is to capture black’s queen, and if the black queen leaves the back rank white could have some play against the black king and pinned knight.  So 2. Rxa8 is the priority threat for calculations.

Let's look at the five defensive ideas to see what candidate moves we can find for black to reply to the threat.

Idea 1 – do something to the attacking piece (the b8 rook).  We can capture it (1…Qxb8), we cannot pin it to anything of greater value, and we cannot deflect it.  So Idea 1 has generated one specific candidate move.

Idea 2 – block the attacking piece (the b8 rook).  Not possible because there are no squares between the rook and queen. I call this an “in your face” attack.

Idea 3 – move the piece being attacked (the black queen).  The queen can move to three other squares (b7, c6, and d5), but they all appear unsafe and a quick calculation does not reveal anything good for black (ie, no tactical tricks after the captures).

Idea 4 – reinforce/defend the attacked square or piece (the black queen).  There are no legal ways to defend the queen.

Idea 5 – counterattack with an equal or greater threat (of winning the queen).  Looking at the EGT chart from earlier we can see that against a threat to your queen, you have one equal target (the enemy queen) and two greater (check and a mate threat).  In this position we have one move that creates an equal threat (1…Ra6), but we have zero checks and cannot create any mate threats.

This process has generated two specific candidate moves:

The next step is to calculate both of those candidates.  How to pick which one to calculate first?  We can either start with the most forcing, or the easiest to refute.  Let’s start with the most forcing, the capture 1…Qxb8:

After the natural 2. Qxb8 Rb3 (2…Rxc4 3. Qxa7) 3. Kf2 Rxa2+  white has an advantage in material and activity.  White now has a one point material advantage (Queen vs Rook and Knight), and white’s passed pawn is making good progress while black’s pieces are rather passively placed.  The white king is slightly encircled but there are no real threats because black’s pieces aren’t coordinated and the black king is exposed.  The black knight has a check, but it only puts the knight further away from the action.  Black should reject this line.

That only leaves one other candidate move.  At this point you might say, why calculate the other line?  If we only have two candidate moves, and have determined one is bad why calculate the second?  We could certainly do that IF the candidate we calculated first lead to checkmate.  Then there would be no doubt about it, anything must be better than getting mated so just play the second candidate and calculate later.  But the evaluation was not absolute.  Yes it is bad for black, but it wasn't checkmate, and if our second candidate also turns out to be bad for black we might have to pick from the "least bad" candidate.  So we can't completely reject the candidate just yet.

So on to the next candidate move -- the equal counterattack against white’s queen with 1…Ra6:

Here we go with the wild world of counterattacks. Again we need to keep in mind all three goals when moving through these variations – WIN, DRAW, or DEFEND.  I mentioned in the last post I like to start by looking for draws by stalemate first because it is easiest to eliminate.  A quick glance at this position shows black does not have many pawn moves, but his king has plenty of squares.  So stalemate is not a defensive option for black.

As noted above black has a material lead of two points black and would WIN if white allows equal trades, which means white wants to avoid:

2. Rxa8 Rxd6 3. Rxa7 Rd2!? Even though black’s material advantage is now only one point (two white pawns vs a black knight) and white has two passed pawns, black’s rook and knight are positioned well to capture them, and white’s king is out of play.  For a beginner this might be a tough position to win as black, but black is indeed winning and white is hoping for a draw.  So white would reject the equal trade of queens starting with 2. Rxa8.  White should also reject the equal trade of rooks:

2. Qxa6 Qxb8 which is even worse for white than the equal trade of queens!

We have looked at both piece captures to prove they are bad for white (since black WINs), but what other candidate moves does white have?  We have to keep in mind the material/activity balance.   If he pursues equal trades, he will lose.  If white allows the material balance to remain the same he will lose for example, any move by white’s queen to escape from black’s rook will allow the black queen to also escape from a8.  All of this is good for black, but bad for white.

White does have another capture, which also happens to be the most forcing move on the board -- the capture check:

2. Qxf6+! Kxf6 (Rxf6?! and the rook is now passive) 3. Rxa8 Ra3!?4. Kf2 Rxa2+ and as Tarrasch said “all rook endgames are drawn.”  Black’s rook is more active than white’s, but it is only a tiny edge and this is a draw.  For white, this appears to be his best option and I see no other candidate moves that are better for white (all others lose!).

Here is our final chart:

Conclusion.  This process has shown us that black has only two candidate moves to consider in the initial position -- one of them leads to a loss if white plays properly, and the other leads to a drawn endgame.  So black's best choice is to try for the draw.

This is the process you should be able to do mentally:  prioritize the threats, use the five defensive ideas to search for specific candidate moves, calculate each one completely, and then pick the best variation based on the final evaluation.

In the next post we will look at positions where the best defense is draw by repetition.

Calculating Forcing Moves: Defensive Idea 5 - Counterattack to DRAW (stalemate)

In the last post we looked at positions where there was a clear threat on the board, and we defended by creating an equal or greater threat (EGT).  In that position we used two checks to force an equal trade of one of the pieces threatening mate, which, since we were up material, resulted in a winning position.

As noted in the last post, when we find we can create an equal or greater threat, it is often unclear where it will lead and the variations can become quite sharp and complicated.  To maintain focus through those complicated variations, I recommend looking for all three possible outcomes with your counterattack:  win, draw, or defend.

Last post we looked at positions where we were able to use an EGT to force a winning position.  In this next series of posts we’ll look at positions were we use an EGT to force positions that are draws.  So let's get started!

When it comes to drawing there are three types of positions you can try to reach:
• Draw by stalemate;
• Material draw (equal material, fortresses, etc); and,
• Draw by repetition.

I personally start my search for draws by looking for stalemates, then for material draws.  This is because the analysis for stalemate/material draws can often be done quickly based on a material evaluation, and maybe some short calculations to see if you can forcibly trade off pieces.  Draw by repetition is often more dynamic and can involve some pretty cool positions with lots of material still left on the board.

For this post I am going to follow the same process I’ve used in previous posts for analyzing the position -- evaluate the material, identify/prioritize threats, and search for specific moves using the five defensive ideas.  But -- based on feedback from Tomasz -- I am going to try out another format for presenting the analysis.  Let me know what you think!

 Black just played 1…d2.  White to move.

8/8/8/2p5/2P5/kr6/1r1p4/K1Q5 w - - 0 1

Let's evaluate the position, and then find and prioritize all of white's threats.

Evaluation:  White is down two points (Queen vs two Rooks and a Pawn), and all of black’s pieces are very active compared to white’s.  Black is playing for a win, and white is fighting for a draw.

Threats:  Black is threatening to capture white’s queen and promote to a rook/queen giving checkmate.  If the white queen moves and unpins black’s b2 rook, black can checkmate with …Ra2#, and if the white queen leaves the defense of the first rank (b1 in particular) black will checkmate with …Rb1#.  If we skip white’s move we would quickly see that the most immediate checkmate threat is 2…dxc1=Q/R#, which is our priority for calculations.

Now that we have found black’s greatest threat, let's now look at the five defensive ideas to see what candidate moves we find, calculate each one, and then pick the best move. I am going to try this chart format to support the verbal analysis.  Hopefully this helps convey the ideas a bit better, but let me know what you think.  Take a look at this chart:

The five defensive Ideas are in the column on the left.  Then there are columns for specific moves, space to calculate those moves, enter the evaluation, and then track your King of The Hill rating.  This follows the general process of calculation – use ideas to generate specific candidate moves, calculate each one completely, then pick the best move.

We will start the process by searching for specific moves to put in the “moves” column next to each of the five ideas.

Idea 1 – do something to the attacking piece (the d2 pawn).  We can capture it (2. Qxd2), we cannot pin it to anything of greater value, and we cannot deflect it.  So Idea 1 has generated one specific candidate move.  We enter it, and move on to defensive Idea 2 to search for more candidates.

Idea 2 – block the attacking piece (the d2 pawn).  It is not possible because there are no squares between the pawn and queen. It is in fact never possible to block a pawn, knight, or king.

Idea 3 – move the piece being attacked (the white queen).  There is only square the queen can move to that keeps an eye on all three key squares (a2, b1, and d1) – that gives us 2. Qc2.  The queen has several other squares she can escape to, but they can all be refuted by black with an immediate mate in one (either Ra2#, Rb1# or d1=R/Q#).  So Idea 3 has helped us find our second specific candidate move (2. Qc2).

Idea 4 – reinforce/defend the attacked square or piece (the white queen).  There are no legal ways to defend the queen.

Idea 5 – counterattack with an equal or greater threat (of checkmate in one).  Looking at the EGT chart from earlier we can see that against a mate in one threat, the only EGT possible must begin with a check.  In this position there is only one, and that’s the capture-check on b2 (2. Qxb2+).

This process has generated three specific candidate moves that we can enter in our chart:

The next step is to calculate each of those three (and ONLY those three!!) candidate moves.  How to pick which one to calculate first?

We can either start with the most forcing, or the easiest to refute.  I think I’ll start with the most forcing this time, which is the capture-check 2. Qxb2+:

This greater threat allows us to change the position, but it is not yet clear if it will lead to a WIN, DRAW, or new possibilities to DEFEND…or if it leads to a loss and the move is just plain bad!

As mentioned above I personally like to start by looking for draws by stalemate first because it is the easiest to eliminate.  In most positions you’ll have multiple pawn moves or your pieces will enjoy freedom of movement around the board, and you can very easily see if stalemate is an option.  A quick glance at this position shows white has very limited moves, which is an indication that stalemate IS in fact a defensive option for white.  White's only pawn has no move or captures, and the king is in the corner and cannot move.  If we can force the queen off of the board then white will have no legal moves...we would just have to make sure that it is white's turn to move and not black's, which would turn a stalemate position into a checkmate position!!  Stalemate positions are often very easy to recognize.  The tricky part is to remember to consciously search for it!

Back to the check.  Black now has one capture, and two king moves in response.  Let’s see which of the three variations is best for black starting with the most forcing (the capture):

(1) 1…d2 2. Qxb2+ Rxb2  Stalemate.  Since our initial assessment was that white should be fighting for a draw, this should be good for white.  But before making this our KOTH, we need to see if there are any replies black has that are better for him than a draw?  Let’s see.

(2) 1…d2 2. Qxb2+ Kb4 3. Qxd2+ Kxc4  Endgame tablebases will say this is a win for white in like 50 moves.  The general process is to get the king active, win the black pawn, then the Queen vs Rook endgame is a technical win.  Practically speaking this endgame is very hard to actually win, but black is at a disadvantage because his king is already on the edge of the board.  Although the outcome OTB would most likely be a draw, it is only white that has any winning chances.  So black should reject this line in favor of the forced draw by stalemate.  There is only one other option for black after the capture check.

(3) 1…d2 2. Qxb2+ Ka4 3. Qxd2  This is almost identical to the variation above, except this time white has an extra pawn, so the evaluation would be slightly better for white – most likely a draw, but winning chances for white.  Black should reject this line, too, in favor of the stalemate since a draw is better than a loss!

We can now say that the mainline for this variation is the first one, leading to stalemate.  Here is an updated chart showing our variations, evaluations, and current KOTH:

White’s current KOTH is stalemate, which is pretty good considering he was fighting for a draw in our initial evaluation.  But let’s check to see if either of white’s other candidate moves offer him anything better than a draw, starting with the most forcing (the capture) 2. Qxd2:

1…d2 2. Qxd2 (unpinning the b2 rook) Rb1#  A clear refutation of white's candidate!  Here’s our updated chart showing this line:

White’s current KOTH is still stalemate, but let’s quickly check his last candidate move 2. Qc2:

This candidate is also easily refuted by black with the simple promotion -- 1…d2 2. Qc2 d1=Q+ 3. Qxd1 Ra2# (3. Qc1/Qb1 QxQ#)

Here again is an updated chart showing this final candidate move:

So this process has shown us that white has only three candidate moves to consider -- one of them leads to a stalemate by force (since all other black replies lead to winning chances for white), and the other two candidates lead directly to white being checkmated.  In conclusion, white's best move is to go for the stalemate.

This is the process you should be able to do mentally:  use ideas to search for specific candidate moves, calculate each one completely, and then pick the best variation based on the final evaluation.

In the next post we'll look at positions where we use an equal or greater threat to force a position with equal material.

Calculating Forcing Moves: Defensive Idea 5 - Counterattack to WIN!

We have finally come to the most exciting part of this defensive calculation blog series -- counterattacking to WIN!  The ideas in the next few posts generate the kinds of moves that annotators like to give one or two exclamation marks.  You'll see that the thought process and logic for finding these double-exclam moves is rather simple.  The hard part is calculating the actual lines.  That is because what you're doing is dangerous.   You're leaving one threat and creating a brand new one -- threats will be spreading across the board like wildfire.  There can be many branches of variations that run several ply deep.

Can you manage the chaos?  Will you get overwhelmed by the variations and the greater risks of miscalculating your idea (possibly even checkmate), and simply avoid counterattacking completely?  It is very simple to defend or move a piece that is being attacked.  The variations are short and easy to calculate, and there's often no major change to the status quo on the board.  There is little to no risk in making those moves, and they rarely ever get (or deserve) an exclam.

Counterattacking can be very upsetting to your opponent.  They expect you to defend or move, but you just ignore their threat!?  If you dare to venture into the wild lands of counterattacks, searching for those single or double exclam moves, then read on!

I titled this post "counterattack to WIN", however, when you begin calculating a counterattack you don't know where it is going to lead.  You will never know at the outset that you are calculating to win.  That said, you will always have some sort of expectation.  An easy example is when you have a big material advantage but your opponent has a strong threat.  If you can stop the threat, you'll win easily.  You might begin to falter if you fail to find a move that allows you to keep your material, and you just don't search (well enough) for defensive moves, or fail to find the forced draw.  The opposite situation can also be unsettling -- you're already down material and think you're losing, and are desperately seeking a way to survive the threat.  You may unintentionally exclude certain candidate moves that actually win.  The outcome of your calculations don't meet your expectations.

To avoid losing your way inside the counterattack variations, set your expectations aside going into the variations and always search for all three possible outcomes:  win, draw, or defend.

In the next few positions we'll look at counterattacks that result in a win.  In subsequent posts we'll look at counterattacking to draw, and counterattacking to defend.

As noted in previous posts every counterattack begins with an equal or greater threat.  That is the idea we'll use to generate specific candidate moves.  So let's get started.

White just played Rb7.  Black to move.

3r1k1r/pR4p1/6Q1/4pp2/P1Pq3P/8/5PB1/6K1 b - - 0 0

Let's evaluate the position and then find all of white's threats.  Black is up the exchange, and has a better pawn structure (three islands compared to white's four).  Black is playing for a win and has the simple plan of making equal piece trades, picking off white's weak pawns and promoting to a new queen, while white is playing for a draw and has OK drawing chances.

White is threatening mate four ways: 2. Qf7#; 2. Qxg7+ Ke8 (only) and then 3. Re7#, 3 Qf7#, or 3. Qe7#  He is also threatening black's pawns on f5 and a7.  The mate in one is white's greatest threat, so let's now look at the five defensive ideas to see what candidate moves we find, calculate each one, and then pick the best move.

Idea 1 (capture, pin, deflect):  none.
Idea 2 (block):  1...Qd7 (fails to 2. Rxd7).  1...Rd7
Idea 3 (move):  there are no escape squares for the king, and black can't create any.
Idea 4 (defend):  black can defend the g7 pawn with 1...Rg8, but that does nothing to defend against the mate in 1 so we won't calculate it.
Idea 5 (counterattack with an equal or greater threat to WIN, DRAW, DEFEND):  We begin by looking for equal or greater threats (EGT), which give us time to control the board for a while.  Look back at the EGT chart, and you will see that in response to mate in one threat there are zero equal threats, and greater threats must begin with a check, of which black has three:  1...Qxf2+, 1...Qd1+, and 1...Qa1+.

So that gives us four candidate moves to calculate (one block, and three checks): 1...Rd7, 1...Qxf2+, 1...Qd1+, and 1...Qa1+.  Let's start with the most forcing move, the capture-check 1...Qxf2+:

White has three replies -- one capture and two moves.  The most forcing (and likely refutation) is the capture 2. Kxf2.  Now white is still threatening mate, and black is running out of defensive options.  He must check!  So 2...Rd2+ 3. Kg1 Rd1+ 4. Bf1 (not 4. Kh2 because that allows black to bring in another piece with 4...Rxh4+), and now black is completely lost.  He can only block the checkmate with the now useless block (because it is undefended) 4...Rd7, or he can again try his last check 4...Rxf1+, but after 5. Kxf1 black has zero options to defend against checkmate.

This path was worth exploring to search for drawing resources.  In this position stalemate would not be an option because of black's multiple pawn moves, so repetition would be the only option.  If there was a forced draw, we would have made that variation our King of The Hill (KOTH), and then continued our search to look something better than a draw (wins).  But unfortunately for black, he can't force a draw with this capture check, and 1...Qxf2+ is easily refuted.  Next up is 1...Qd1+:

White has two replies -- one block, and one move: 2. Bf1 and 2. Kh2.  Neither are particularly forcing, so let's start with the block 2. Bf1.

Now white is still threatening mate and black's next move must address that threat.  The first check has not given black any new defensive options (Idea 1 - capture/pin, Idea 2 - block the attackers, Idea 3 - move the king, or Idea 4 - defend f7), but using Idea 5 we do have new checks to look at 2. Qxf1+ and 2. Qg4+.  The capture check is the most forcing but the other check also attacks white's queen, which is threatening mate so let's check that one out:  2...Qg4+:

White has four replies -- one capture, one block, and two moves -- but since white's queen is hanging 3. Qxg4 is forced.  After the simple recapture 3...fxg4 black is now winning!  He was able to use the time gained from the check to force an equal trade, which since he was up the exchange this was his basic plan to win the game.

But white had another defensive reply that might be better for him.  So let's back up and look what happens after 1...Qd1+ 2. Kh2:

2...Rxh4+ and white has one block and one move.  If he moves with 3. Kg3 Rg4+ wins the queen for the rook.  If he blocks instead 3. Bh3 Rxh3 4. Kxh3 (forced; if 4. Kg2 Qh1#) Qh1+ 5. Kg3 (only) Rd3+ 6. f3 (only) Rxf3#.  So 2. Kh2 is certainly not better for black!!

That means our current KOTH variation is 1...Qd1+ 2. Bf1 Qg4+ 3. Qxg4 fxg4, which leaves black with a winning material advantage.

Before making the move we need to calculate black's other two defenses (1...Qa1+ and 1...Rd7) to see if they are better than our KOTH.  First is the more forcing 1...Qa1+:

Here white has two blocks (2. Rb1 and 2. Bf1) and one move (2. Kh2), but 2. Rb1 just loses a rook for no compensation, and 2. Kh2 allows black's rook to join the attack with check.  After 2. Bf1, white is still threatening mate, has only one check that just loses the queen, and now has no options to defend against the mate in one (the block 2...Rd7 fails because it is undefended).  So we can reject 1...Qa1+ since it is not better for black than our KOTH.  Next up is the block 1...Rd7:

Due to the activity of white's pieces, he has lots of good options here.  If black can make equal trades (rook for rook, or queen for queen) then he should win.  I think easiest and most convincing for white begins with the forcing capture-check 2. Qxf5+:

Black has zero captures, one block (which leads to mate in one after 3. Qxf7#), and three king moves (2...Kg8, 2...Ke8, and 2...Ke7).  Since there isn't a most forcing variation, let's start with moves we can easily "trim".  Now 2...Kg8 appears to be the worst for black because of 3. Rb8+ Rd8 (only) 4. Rxd8+ Qxd8 (only) 5. Bd5+ Qxd5 (only) 6. cxd5 wins for white.  That leaves us with the two king moves and I think we can also trim 2...Ke8 because if 1...Rd7 2. Qxf5+ Ke8:

3. Qe6+ wins one of black's rook, because again black cannot capture the queen and his one block (3...Re7) leads to another mate in one.  If the black king moves away from defending the e7 rook (with 3...Kg8), then white simply takes black's e7 rook, and if the black king tries to guard the rook (with 3...Kd8) then the simple skewer 4. Rb8+ picks up black's h8 rook.  So we can reject 2...Ke8.

Those two replies were easy to trim, and leaves us with 1...Rd7 2. Qxf5+ Ke7:

Here I like 3. Qf5+.  If possible white would like to push the black king to a light colored square so his bishop can join the fun, so checking with the queen on dark squares helps that while also controlling the d8 square.  Black cannot capture the queen and has no blocks.  The king has five moves.  Since none are particularly forcing, lets again trim the bad ones first.

Both king moves to the back rank fail to 4. Rb8+ -- if 3...Kf8 4. Rb8+ and since the queen is now covering d8 the block (4...Rd8) is simply not safe (two attackers to one defender), and if 3...Ke8 4. Rb8+ Rd8 and now the bishop gets to join with 5. Bc6+ Kf7 (only) 6. Rb7+, and now black has no captures, two blocks, and three moves.  Let's start by trimming:

if 6...Kg8 7. Qxg7#
if 6...Kf8 7. Qxg7#
if 6...Ke6 7. Qg6#
if 6...Rd7 7. Rxd7+ Qxd7 8. Bxd7 is winning for white, and
if 6...Qd7 7. Rxd7+ Rxd7 (forced, any king move leads to mate in 1) 8. Bxd7 is winning for white.

Was this line any better for black? Our KOTH is1...Qd1+ and then 2...Qg4+, leaves black up the exchange.  All other move one alternatives were worse for black because they were losing.  Not much of a comparison!

To recap, in this position we used our search for greater threats to discover defensive resources that allowed us to force an equal exchange of one of the pieces threatening mate.  Because black was already ahead material equal trades will result in a win for black...but he'll have to fight for it in the endgame.  If material was somehow equal in the beginning position than this post could have been called counterattacking to defend!

One of my favorite examples of counterattacking to WIN was included in an earlier post.  Counterattacking should not be something you only consider out of sheer desperation.  No, you should force yourself to use all five defensive ideas when dealing with a threat, and train yourself to use Idea 5 in particular and search for all equal or greater threats you can create.  You'll be finding some amazing resources once you do!

In the next blog we'll look at counterattacks using EGTs that allow the defender to force a draw by perpetual check or stalemate.