Chess960: Watch out for the Chivalry Knights!

The chivalry knights are the name I've given to the many Chess960 positions that have two knights one square apart (or three as a variant).

They are one of the biggest threats in the opening phase of Chess960 creating many opportunities especially in blitz.

The key thing to remember about them is that they potentially hit two weak spots ahead of their position. Here is an example.

Black thinks that d6 might be a good idea to limit the forward scope of the chivalry knight pair. Good idea right? 

Well no. 

Firstly it breaks opening principals by wasting a tempo releasing the light bishop which already is released via e1-h5. Secondly, now e6 is a huge hole in black's position for the chivalry knights to exploit via the red lines indicated. There is a potential fork on e6 which would force the loss of the bishop pair and prevent castling. 

A would be disaster!

The chivalry knights can move forward to the square that separates them shifted three ranks up  - in only two moves - and they can get there from different directions. Two knights that coordinate with each other are like an octopus piece with tentacles that stretch all over the board.

Next time you see the chivalry knights in a Chess960 opening, have this pattern etched into your brain:

Enjoy 960

Chess960: How to see the power of the chivalry knights

The chivalry knights in Chess960 are amazingly strong attackers that can leap forward and pounce on the opponent if they are unaware. They tend to tread on each other toes since they compete for the same color squares, but that can also work in their advantage. Here is an example position:

SP110: White creates a weak d3 square on the third rank

that either one or both chivalry knight's can leap into

If black could exchange off white's light square bishop, white would have almost no hope of preventing the chivalry knights coming forward and sitting on the d3 square. The square is so weak it can virtually be considered an outpost square for a knight already. Notice that neither of white's chivalry knights can do anything about the d3 square.

Key point: So the chivalry knights are powerless against the enemies equivalent knights!

White's idea of playing c3 with the plan of breaking with d4 and opening up the c-file for the rook, is completely flawed because white has failed to grasp the power of black's chivalry knights.

So I thought it would be a good idea, to help players visualize the outpost squares that exist for the chivalry knights, without needing to do any calculation.

The threatened outposts squares of the chivalry knights

exist on the the enemies third rank

Compare the two diagrams above. You will see that the green squares are threatening to become outpost squares for the chivalry knights if the enemy were to leave them weakened.

Key point: No calculation is needed, just remember the pattern above (it is very simple). The squares are on the same file as the knights, always on the sixth rank.

and be open to the possibility that you or your opponent can fall for the trap of letting the chivalry knights come forward and rule the position.

Good luck

Enjoy 960.

Chess960: Anand's dubious opening in the Chess960 World Championship 2007

In the last moments of the 2014 candidates tournament featuring Anand and Aronian, I thought I would look at a game played by these two greats in the 2007 Mainz world Chess960 championship.

What I found slightly shocked me I have to be honest!

In a rapid game of Chess960 where there is still plenty of time to play a reasonable opening, Anand started out in a dubious fashion, giving a lot of hope to all us Chess960 patzers out there!!

SP535: Anand (white) first move - Wch. Mainz Rapid 2007

1.c4 ... g6. A dubious first move by white, since it slightly weakens king safety, and black can apply pressure immediately with 1...g6 (with d5 to come). White probably didn't want to play d4 or e4, since the former comes under fire after g6, and the latter blocks white's own bishop on h1. However, d4 and e4 still seem like better moves, since they are centralizing and allow a more rapid development (develop more pieces at once), without compromising king safety at all.

SP535: Anand (white) second move - Wch. Mainz Rapid 2007

2. d3 ... d5. A dubious second move by white, since it is passive, giving black the chance to play aggressively with d5/Qa4+. A better move would have been 2.Nc3 which takes control of d5 and prevents what black now tries...

SP535: Anand (white) third move - Wch. Mainz Rapid 2007

3. cxd5... Qa4+. White seems to accept that Qa4+ is coming, but there were alternatives. One energetic but dubious alternative was 3.Qa5...dxc4, 4.Qd5+...Nbd7, 5.Qxc4 ... Nb6.

SP535: Anand (white) fourth move - Wch. Mainz Rapid 2007

4.Kd2 (forced). White will never castle, will have to move his king again to free the c1 bishop and the only compensation is that black cannot easily develop his knights to c6 and e6

If one of the greatest players of all time can play a Chess960 opening like this, there is still hope for all us patzers out there! 

I do have to say in Anand's defense, he actually won the game despite this opening! 

Another point in Anand's favour is that incredibly, Houdini-4 evaluates this position at 0.00 even at depth 22!

Enjoy 960
PS) if you want the PGN for this game, download the database of all Chess960 games here.

Chess960: Knights out early

Got into another drama with the Chivalry Knights the other day. In the diagram below, see if you can predict where black can stuff up here because of white's early developed Chivalry Knights. If you don't know what they are check out Naming The Knight Pairs.

Basically, the problem is that I neglected the reality that not only can the Chivalry Knights quickly move forward and attack a weak seventh rank square if the opponent is not wary, they can also quickly move forward and switch to attack a weak sixth rank square! Notice that in the diagram below, the knights actually have powerful forks if they can get to the highlighted red and yellow squares and black has fallen asleep:

SP603 black to move: be a bit careful to avoid a trap on the 6th rank

I know a few people have said that the chivalry knights are a problem because they can't easily move forward being on the same colour squares and thus blocked more efficiently by a single pawn. But boy can they come to life when the opponent is not watching out for them.

Enjoy 960

Chess960: The territory of the Chivalry Knights

Now that I have got some name for the knight pairs in Insider information on the Knight pairs, it's really useful to look at them in detail. First came the Territory of the Military Knights and now the Chivalry Knights. Together with the Military Knights, they make up almost 50% of all Chess960 games so if you fundamentally understand these two pairings, you should have a good chance to win half your Chess960 games. Even without considering the Military Knights, the Chivalry's alone cover roughly 33% of all Chess960 games. This is because they exist on their start squares in two forms (NxN and NxxxN).

The Chivalry knights are great gallopers that can quickly confuse and demoralize an enemy. You can imagine that their speed is fantastic but because of it they have blind spots directly adjacent to them. They start on the same color squares and this is what really distinguishes them from the other knight pairs. When developed to the third rank, in just one move they can theoretically cover an exact 50% of the area of the board ((35sq-3sq)/64sq))  in a perfect 7x5 rectangle (except their blind spot squares):

The Chivalry Knights (~33% all games): 7x5 Territory (50% of the board)

The green squares show the squares that they cover straight away. The yellow squares show the squares that can be covered in a single move. The red squares show where the Chivalry Knights have their major blind spot. 

Like all knights, they have trouble really close in but in the case of these knights, the weakness is minor. They are very "bright" high energy knights because of the way they work together on the same colors, rapidly switching from one color to the other cooperatively.

The Chivalry Knights:

1. Cover all of the opposite colored squares to themselves in an area of 7x5 squares (except their blind spots)
2. Cover any same colored square in that area in one move (except their blind spots)
3. Outside of their 7x5 area, in one move they can only cover a same color square
4. Have only only three blind spots between them
5. Have a significant weakness to a pawn fork at their "Chakra" square
6. Can move forward and lock together in one move when needed
7. When "locked" they have pseudo rank and file control (see diagram)
8. Can retreat from being "locked" back to their Chivalry form to cover maximum area
9. They can in one move form a confusing orthogonal Military Knight stance (see diagram below)  that can catch out unsuspecting enemies that do not appreciate how much area they cover in that configuration
10. Cannot comfortably defend any of their pawn protectors ever
11. Work best cooperatively and if they must split apart into independent operation,
     it better be for a good reason

The "Locked" Chivalry Knights area of influence in one move:

The green squares show the squares that are immediately covered. The yellow squares show the squares that can be covered in one move. The red squares can only be covered at the very least by two moves. So their primary area of influence is a bit like a light bulb shape (yellow lines) with some warning "electricity bolt type "zigzags" either side (red lines). When they are locked like this, specific calculation of what they can do is required as well as a general feel for their area of influence.

The "Locked" Chivalry Knights rank and file influence in one move:

You can see that within a single move window, they can actually cover three whole ranks and almost two whole files in an "electricity pole" shape (yellow lines). Since when the knights are locked together the coverage area is not a simple shape, specific calculation is required as well as a general feel for what they can do. As you can see there is a lot of territory that they can cover in one move.

Another particularly confusing arrangement that the Chivalry Knights can quickly posture into is an orthogonal Military Knight stance. When you are looking down the barrel of that stance, it can get optically confusing and can startle the enemy into a tactical error:

Chivalry Knights in Orthogonal Military Knight Position -
a 5x6 "Split Dome of Protection"

Although they are extremely vulnerable to rook attacks because of their severe vertical file weakness, in this orthogonal Military Knight posture they cover the green squares immediately, the yellow in one move and the red in two moves. Therefore their green area is almost a complete 5x6 area dome of protection other than a slice right down the middle. Without knowing this, our human eye tends to think that they have many more weaknesses than this arrangement actually shows them to have (we assume that they have the same incomplete coverage as a single knight). In this posture their adjacent square weakness is only a minor weakness and once again they have trouble getting to their long diagonal squares which is the main similarity with their single knight form.

Here are some practical examples:

Black to move: 5 seconds to find the right move

....Qf7 why? For every move, try to find at least two things that the move accomplishes

1. Qf7 stays out of the 7x5 Chivalry Knight coverage area
2. Qf7 stays off the dark colored squares that the Chivalry knights are on and is therefore immune to a forward attack by the knights. This is because outside of their 7x5 area, the Chivalry knights can only attack the same colored square that they are on.
3. Qf7 attacks f3
4. Qf7 clears the g-pawn

The Orthogonal Military Knights startle the enemy and cause a blunder!

Why am I going to all this trouble? Well with us humans, we both recognize patterns and we calculate. In future generations when kids have grown up playing Chess960, they will instantly see the coverage area of the Chivalry knights and they will instantly see what squares those knights can attack outside of their area. At the same time they will still calculate specific lines. It comes down to efficiency of cognition. Kids of the Chess960 future will build opening concepts, themes and lines around the various opening configurations of the chess pieces. All of the Chess960 openings will be familiar to them conceptually.

Realize this about our old beloved SP518 classic chess position.  If you look at the knight configurations, we do not often see Chivalry or Military knight configurations. Play around with SP518 knight movements and you can see it for yourself. There is a whole tactical set of themes missing in the SP518 setup that we only see if we play Chess960. Realise that Chess960 includes SP518 and other positions that are probably just as beautiful and just as deep.