withthe"Smotheredking" Chapter Five: More about aesthetics. About the Pseudo-Sacrifice.

Chapter Four Ideas and Technique in Combinations with the "Smothered King".

The concept of motives and themes can probably be related to theoretical concepts. Undoubtedly quite a lot of creative accent falls on them, but all the same no more than an accent. Meanwhile the aesthetic -this essentially is the sum of artistic creative forms, impresses itself upon the thoughts and feelings of man. It is clear that in combinations, which appear as one of the basic sources of artistic creation in chess, apart from motives and themes there exists a further kind of element, containing exactly that creative oas;� where harmony of operation is perfected and its dynamic and intended, of course, concrete method takes shape, which conveys thoughts from an approximate landmark -a motive, to a clearly outlined objective -a theme. The method which helps us to seek a basic motive and achieve a theme represents a concrete intention, in other words an idea. Idea! This is what, consequently, is the main product of creative imagination in the thoughts of man. This is where a storehouse of aesthetic values is concealed and humdrum, accrued small advantages become transformed into a dashing combinational process, allowing an artistic path for all the pangs and doubts of an artist.

The next diagram position was reached on the 27th move of an exhibition game, Bemstein .. Capablanca (Moscow, January 1914).

White's position is unsatisfactory. His knight is under attack and if it retreats to a3 or d4, Black consolidates his passed faradvanced pawn by ... Rdc8 (with the threat ... Nb4), and White cannot hold on for long under the very strong pressure. It is natural that White does not see any other way out apart from taking the dangerous pawn, the more so that it is attacked by him three times and defended only twice by Black pieces.

Moreover, into his thoughts

looms the variation 27 Nxc3 Nxc3 28 Rxc3 Rxc3 29 Rxc3 Qb1 + 30 Qf1 Qxa2, which, taking into account the material equality, gives him good chances of a draw. Up to a certain point the game proceeded according to the above variation. It continued like this: 27 Nxc3 Nxc3 28 Rxc3 Rxc3 29 Rxc3

Now, however, follows not 29 ... Qb1 +, but 29 ... Qb2!! This double attack on the rook and queen leads immediately to a win, since White now loses a rook. Indeed, on 30 Qe 1 follows 30 Qxc3, while on 30 Rc2, 30 ... Qb1+.

I t is not difficult to see that the possibility of carrying out the theme of double attack is based on the unfortunate position of the White king, which has no flight squares after the threatened invasion of the Black rook. if White had made the move h3 or g3, then Black's combination would have not been possible. Thus the main motive of the combination is the locked-in position of the White king, its movement restricted by its pawns.

However, it should not be thought that the motive -the locked-in position of the king -by itself testifies to the combinational nature of the position. One superficial structural arrangement of pieces and pawns is a long way from being sufficient for such a conclusion. Ofcourse, to a certain extent, the thoughts of a chess layer spurn structural features in search of a combinational decision, but only spurn, not more. One and the same position of the king (for example, locked-in, as in the example looked at) could also be a combinational motive, it might also not be. This depends on the creative tension of the position, on a number of details characterising this tension.

Exposing the position of the king also might serve as a combinational motive, but only in that case when, although only potentially, the king could be made an object of attack. In the majority of endgames, only in rare cases can the open position of the king be seen as a combinational motive.

Summarising, it is possible to say that the characteristic features of a position can only acquire the significance of a combinational motive when this feature is accompanied by other circumstances, which in total are able to produce serious creative potential. Returning to the combination in the game Bernstein-Capablanca, we point to the additional circumstance which

allows the locked-in position of the White king (incidentally Black's is also restricted!) to be seen as a combinational motive. This circumstance is the presence on the board of heavy pieces and open files, which might obviously serve as paths for the penetration of the Black queen and rook to the first rank.

What, however, is the idea of Capablanca's combination, i.e. what task did he set himself, by sacrificing the main trump of his positional pressure, the pawn on c3? Of course Black's idea is the penetration of the queen and rook to the first rank. In order for such a penetration to become possible, it is necessary to deflect the White rook and queen from defence of the d 1 and b 1 points. He manages to deflect the rook by the sacrifice of the pawn on c3, and the queen by carrying out the powerful theme ... Qb2.

Here it should be noted that the theme in the present combination turns out to be in an unusual and beautiful form, and, as it were, flowing into a basic creative plan an idea. The realisation of an idea often requires great imagination, the application of many methods, which in total make up the technical side of fulfilling a plan. As also in any business, technique has paramount importance in chess. Technical methods might at times be very complicated� The technique of combinations has a direct creative connection with ideas and to a considerable extent promotes the correct implementation of them (in the given positional circumstances! )

We list a number of combinational ideas: removal of a barrier (obstacle), blockading, pinning (pieces), intercepting (lines on which pieces are moving), deflection of pieces from defensive functions, decoying of pieces to squares marked for attack, and others. All these methods are so closely connected with the creative, planned side of combination, in other words with the idea it rests upon, that it is even possible, if we want to, to attempt to classify combinational ideas.

The technical method, you see, also contains its own sort of plan, the details of the general idea, which as a whole is characterised by a combination. Thus it is not possible to divorce the technique of a combination from its creative side, to give it secondary importance.

The importance of technique in combinational creativity is so great, that only upon the correct and well-timed application of its methods can creative thought in combination find its full expression. One slovenly method might make a correctly conceived plan impossible.

To conclude the present chapter we dwell on one brilliant combinational idea, a combination where as

the theme we come across none other than the downfall of a king, "smothered" by its own comrades. Essentially we discuss an idea close to the one we have just looked at of the mate of a king, locked in by its own pawns. This idea has passed along a great historical path and apparently entered into the history of combinations as long ago as the time of Greco (1600-1634). The question here is of a king getting mated as a consequence of the fact that the surrounding pieces and pawns (of the same colour), totally deprive it of the possibility of moving.

In an instructive game, presented in his "Self-Teacher", Schiffers, without indicating the names of the opponents, demonstrated this mate in the following form.

I e4 e5 2 d4 c5 3 dxc5

Black's pawn sacrifice is unfounded, and White can quietly take the pawn on e5. 3 ••• Bxc5 4 Nf3 Nf65 Bc4 0 .. 0 6 Nxe5 Nxe4 7 Qd5 Nxf2 S Nxf7 Qh4 9 Nh6+ KhS 10 QgS+ 15 ... Nf2+ 16 Kel Nd3+ 17 Kdl Qel + IS Nxel Nf2 mate

Here the White king is bricked up with two pawns and three minor pieces.

It is not difficult to see that there is much in common between the ideas of both the combination and the technique of carrying it out. At the basis of the combination lies two checks with the queen and knight, in the first case by Nh6+, in the second by Nd3 +. The idea of the combination is reflected in the sacrifice of the queen, made in order to blockade, to make inaccessible the last square to which the king might still move (in compositions, such an idea is called the bricked-up king).

RxgS II Nf7 mate

Such a mate with the rook (or knight) and pawns locking in the king is called smothered mate.

From Greco we find the following example of smothered mate in the finale of one of the gamevariations given in his manuscripts.

The smothered mate is met in games also as a threat that might even bring to the active side (the initiator) a decisive achievement. Out of several casual games with the idea of such a mate, which we have at our disposal, we present the following example.

In this pOSlUon, where White has a small advantage, the struggle might still go on for a long time, were it not for a combinational possibility, connected with the idea of smothered mate which White has at his disposal here.

There followed 24 Nd6! and Black resigned, since he suffers new material loss ater 24 ... cxd6 25 Bxd5 + etc. The main direction, however, of the combination lies in 25 ... Bxg2 (otherwise he cannot avoid serious material loss) 26 Qa2+ Kh8 27 Nf7+ Kg8 28 Nh6+ Kh8 29 Qg8+ Rxg8 30 Nf7 mate.

A complicated combination was carried out in the game Romanovsky .. Botvinnik played at Leningrad in 1927. There followed 20 Nd6! On 20 ... Bxg2, there is obviously the inevitable smothered mate after 21 Qa2+.

Naturally Black prefers to suffer material loss, by replying 20 •.. Bb3 21 Qc1 cxd6 22 Bxc6 Re6 23 cxd6 etc.

Morphy also succeeded in twice giving smothered mate to his opponents -these games are generally well known and have appeared in many publications.

All that remains for us is to say a few more words about the idea of a combination ending in smothered mate. It consists of bringing the enemy king into a state of total immobility, due to the close encirclement of its own pieces and pawns.

To carry out this idea, which is the result of a joint (harmonious) attack of the queen and knight, the following operation is necessary and obligatory: a diagonal check with the queen, double check with queen and knight, and finally a queen sacrifice leading to a total locking in of the king with pieces

ofits owncolour. Afterthisthe knightgives mateonthecritical square, uponwhichitappearsfor thesecondtime.

Todaythiscombinationismore of purely historical significance, but,irrespectiveofthis,itsartistry, the queensacrifice, and outward structureofmate,evennowmakes a great aesthetic impression on chessenthusiasts.