Blockade & Restriction - Principles of Chess Middle Games

“Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game”

- Siegbert Tarrasch

With great support on my," Weak Square & Outpost - Principles of Chess Middle games" blog, I have decided to make a second blog in this series with the concept of,

- Restriction.

- Blockade.

These concepts are very crucial in the middle part of the game. Most of the time, It goes unnoticed that some of the opponent pieces are about to be trapped. Small things like this make a major difference in positional plays. Similarly to this, sometimes restricting the mobility of opponent pieces is the way to go. To understand this concept better and when to use it. We will study the GM's matches for our analysis.

 Blockade 

A blockade is a term for interrupting the attacking ray of a sliding piece, such as blocking a distant check by interposing a pawn or piece. The Blockage (blockade) refers to pawn, piece and king placement, typically in late Endgames or pawn endgames, which prevent the enemy king or pieces to attack us.

In easy words, It can be any piece or the king or pawn, which is blockaded from further movement.

When is it useful?

The blockade is a chess tactic used to block your opponent from pushing pawns up the board. The pawn’s true value comes from the threat of promotion to a more powerful piece. When one side gets an isolated or a passed pawn, it’s common for them to push that pawn up the board. This forces the opponent to respond and play defensively.

The best piece to block your opponent’s pawns with is the knight. It can easily hop over material to reach the optimal square. If you see your opponent pushing forward with a pawn, try to manoeuvre your knight to block the pawn from advancing.

The above position is a simple and very common example as seen in our regular matches. As you see here, The bishop's vision is blocked by its own pawn and knight. Generally, this is bad for us if we are black in this position.

As we have seen the definition part, let's begin with the Physical approach part in GM-level puzzles.

Match 1-

Match one is the matchup between,

Tony Miles and Vasily Smyslov  (1986 )

Here we have to find a move such that the opponent piece will be blockaded.

Step 1-
I start asking myself the question. As in the series, I mentioned weak square and outpost first so is there any visible here? 
"No, not that is clearly visible." So let's ask another question, what is the move, Your mind is most attracted to play in this position?
"The obvious trade that is visible, Nxe6." 

Step 2- 
Does Nxe6 do something or is it a simple trade of a knight for a bishop?
"For now, It seems it only damages the structure."

Step 3-
What moves my opponent want to play if it was his move now?
"Oh, he would want to make space for a bishop."

Step 4-
So I see his bishop is blocked for now. How can I permanently block it? Let's fix one end by taking Nxe6 so bishop will never get from this side.

Step 5- 
Now that Nxe6-fxe6, is done. What is the move my opponent wants to play? 
"He wants to play g6 or g5." 
How can I stop it, "Yes, h4 clears all the problems."
The opponent plays g6, and now, we end by playing the final move f4.

Match 2-

This match is a matchup between,

Vasily Yemelin and Yury Shulman ( 1994 )

This one is special since it involves an understanding of both blogs. 

Step 1 -

Here position does not seem to be clear. So let us ask ourselves the questions. Which square do you want to exploit here? 

"Of course, the easily visible b6 square. I want my knight to be there."

Step 2 -

Is that square directly accessible? 

"No, Queen will take it." So can we create an outpost by moving our c4 to c5? 

"Yes, It is possible. Although we have to calculate a line."

"Okay, this line favours us."

Here e5 was also the move. After e5-Nh7, we have the same idea here, so why lose tempo?

(After the c5 opponent plays Ng4 trying to create his own attack.)

Step 3 - 

As planned, we create an outpost by playing Nb6.

Rb8 is the obvious move that is played now.

Here I see my pawn, which is supporting my knight is hanging. So I protect it by moving my Ndb3. 

a5-a3, is played now, Which is only a move to create some tempo.

Here there is nothing but just a trade now,

a4, axb4-acb3.

In this position, Our outpost Knight is blocking two opponent pieces from moving in the game.

Match 3 -

Now in this third game, I will not tell you the step you have to ask yourself and then see whether the same move occurs or not.

Movsa Feigin and Mario Monticelli ( 1936 )

This is an example where not Knight but the Bishop is the outpost piece.

The continuation was,

 Restriction 

The Meaning of restriction is quite simple, to restrict the opponent's pieces. Maybe it's a king or even a knight and bishop or rook and queen.
This can be seen in the Middle game and also in the End game.

In working principles, it works the same as a blockade. The pieces that are blockaded are called restricted pieces.

Few Examles can be,

Here, As you see the entry of the King and Bishop is restricted by the pawn structure.

This is example where bishop has restricted the Knight movement.

I hope you love this short content which contains very critical information about the middle games. With this blog, even if in some position or puzzle, You get stuck. You will have a physical approach formula towards the solution. My goal here is to give you information on theoretical knowledge with a physical approach.
With this, we stop today's blog like always, As we say
"Till then, Let us grow together at chess."

...The End...