Defensive Technique

     Hello everyone, I am a club player who is familiar with the basic aspects of chess (tactics, positional ideas, basic strategy), and wanting to improve my game (like most people!), I was wondering how a player could improve their defensive technique.

     Of course, I don't just mean the basic "make sure each piece is somewhat protected" and "don't overlook basic combinations" ideas, but some real techniques for a player to improve his defensive skills. Recommendations for books about how to improve defense are welcome, and suggestions are appreciated in advance.

I've always found the topic of defensive technique so interesting because it is rarely touched on, with most players focusing on tactics, openings, and attacking skills, while I've also imagined a position where an opponent can do nothing but passively wait, with no targets to attack, giving me the choice of how to steer the game.

Its all about coordination of your pieces(and pawns). Its also nothing you can learn at this moment, its a very long process which needs lots of play and study. So buy a book about it and study it well. Also always try to play for time. Which means, when your opponent is attacking you should first win time by defending good and close the position on this side and then counter-attack him in the Center or the other side of the board. Attack> Defence>Counter-attack

I played chess long time defensive,often lost.Now I play aggresive and it's much more better.Attack is best defense 

Keep in mind the other guy wants to attack too and will eventually have the initiative.  You gotta know what to do if you're being attacked or the other guy has the initiative.  Lasker and Petrosian knew how to handle these situations. 

There are a few things you have to know : 

- always seek counterplay. Only switch to passive defense if you have no other choice. And when you are defending, always have an eye for opportunities to take the initiative.

- Side attacks are often well met by an attack in the center.

- Try to defend from far away : controlling a rank with a rook which is on the queenside, etc... Look at Carlsen-Caruana in their last tournament to see an exemple of this technique.
The idea is that your rook can perform two tasks : protect your king AND in some case attack something on the other side. Besides, you want to control squares around your king, but you also want to avoid obstructing its emergency exit !

- Avoid pawn weaknesses

- When you are up in material, you may give back a part or all your material advantage to stop the attack. 
For example if you're up a whole rook, then you may sac an exchange to stop the attack. An exchange should be sufficient to win. Of course, be careful. 
Similarly, you can give back your material advantage in order to get a positionnal advantage (to take the initiative, to simplify into a winning endgame...)
And finally if there is no other option, you can try to simplify into an endgame where you are down in material, but can obtain a draw (opposite bishops endgames a pawn down are almost always draw for example) 


 

The best Defense is a good Offense.

One other option, when being attacked, EXCHANGE, take the attackers weapons away.

     Thanks for all the responses guys, and if you know about some material suggestions for this topic, please let me know Yaroslavl.

Thanks again!

You have a diamond membership.

Go to Learn on chess.com website:   http://www.chess.com/videos/

at the bottom of this clickable page is an Attack and Defense category.

There is alot more.  Start with the clickable.  Let me know if those are any good.  Later I will reference more material.  Too much info. all at once is most often overwhelming.

Passive defense is solid defense but you need become careful !

As far as books that I know of, the first one that comes to mind is "How to defend in Chess" by Colin Crouch. Other books that may help are "My System" by Nimzowitsch and "The Art of the Middlegame" by Kotov and Keres. There are books out there that focus on defensive technique.