The Art of Defense
We’ve all seen the games. White castles queenside, throws his pawns down the board in an intense kingside attack, brings the rooks over, and delivers an emphatic mate in 20 moves.
While it would be great if we had the opportunity to win every game like this, the reality is that we do not. We have all heard the old adage, “A win is a win.” This holds true in chess. In order to truly improve as a player, one must find different ways to win.
In fact, often times we find ourselves in rather difficult (or even lost) positions that we must defend. It’s easy to wilt as soon things go wrong but by putting up resistance many half points or sometimes even full points can be saved. Again, this is one of the main things that distinguishes good players from really great players.
As an example of what not to do, take this recent game I played against IM Denys Shmelov. I caught him in a line of the dragon he was not prepared in, and had actually a winning position (albeit there is a lot of work to convert). I mixed up my own preparation, and almost instantly blundered after I squandered all of my advantage.
One of the most important things to recognize as a defender is that the onus is on our opponents’ to prove their advantage in the position. We want to make life as difficult as possible for them, and I think keeping a few general principles in mind can help us do this. Obviously, each position is different from the next, so these principles aren’t hard and fast rules, but rather general guidelines.
First, it is important to have patience. This sounds easy, but in my opinion it is the single biggest thing that dooms most defenders. Our opponents’ likely have many strong continuations to decide between and this is often what causes mistakes to be made. We should restrain the urge to “do something” just for the sake of it in the position. Sometimes the best thing to do is actually “nothing.”
In the following game between my fellow WashU STL teammates in the Midwest Collegiate Championship, Philip Keisler recognized this, and actually was able to win a quite tough position against Nicholas Bartochowski, who over-pressed.
Second, we should make sure we understand whether trades will help or hurt us as the defender. For example, if we are defending a rook endgame a pawn down, we likely want to trade pawns. But on the other hand, if we are down a piece in a complicated position, we probably don’t want to make trades.
In the following game between Luke McShane and Fabiano Caruana, Caruana does a good job keeping pieces on the board until finding a neat defense in a bishop vs rook ending.
Last but not least, it is important to seize a chance to complicate the game when possible. By creating counter-play we can distract our opponent from his/her plan and give him/her more ways to go wrong. Of course this is also in contradiction of the first guideline which is to do nothing, which is why it is important to treat each position as its own case and judge what method of defense will be most effective.
In the aforementioned game between Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Kovalev, Carlsen actually used a combination of all three guidelines to defend. He created counter-play to distract his opponent on the queenside with b5, then offered a queen trade to play a likely holdable rook ending, but then stood pat when his opponent was repeating moves. And right before the time control, he secured the draw.
The moral of the story is that, no matter the level, there is an art to defense, and it can help you save many games that you otherwise would not. So, the next time you’re in a tough position, don’t fold, but instead think about how to put up the most resistance, and you just might be rewarded.