Chapter 2
Finished chapter 2 of "Art of the Checkmate" last week. So far I am really enjoying the book. One of the great thing about seeing these games in their entirety is I understand why some of the opening moves are played.
On the flip-side, I see how weak moves can lead to mate. For example, as a beginner I wrestled with the Knight pin. It was uncomfortable for me to have my KN pinned to the Queen, and for some reason it is a favorite of players rated under 1200. I spent some time trying to figure out a defense to this pin until a Master pointed out that I don't need to worry about it most of the time unless the opponent is threatening something, like winning the QP for example. With the examples of games where Legal's Mate was used I can clearly see the potential weakness of this move. The author even spends a whole page explaining the reasons why this pin can be bad.
4 Comments:
I got my copy of the art of checkmate in a used books store. It's a very good book. I understood checkmate patterns from there more deeply than I expected.
Me too. My spider senses for checkmate patters is much more accute during the opening now. I've read other checkmate books but this one has been the best so far.
PS
I often welcome that pin as you and often win a pawn and your opponents right to castle with Bxf7(2), Kx, move the Knight to check the King and win the Bishop with the Queen or the Knight.
Here here! Especially in slow time controls where you can analyze the position a little deeper for any possible counters. I suspect those types of moves are more effective in blitz where the possibility of your opponent forgetting that the Knight was pinned is greater.
PS
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