Hello!
My name is Carlito Agner, and I would like to welcome you all to my first blog. Thanks to this great website and to its authors and administrators, chess is waking up in West Michigan!
Today, I would like to talk to you about outposts. An outpost is a square on the opponent's side of the board, protected by one or two of your own pawns, and is immune from attack by enemy pawns. To illustrate, consider the diagram below showing a typical pawn formation:
The highlighted squares d6 and f6 are potential outposts for White. The pawn at e5 is supporting the squares d6 and f6. At the same time, note that no black pawn can challenge the same squares. That is actually the defining moment of when the outpost becomes one. If we imagine for a moment that black had just made the move, and that the last move was pawn to g6 arriving at the position above, then we can say that the f6 square just became an outpost for White.
In such a pawn formation, if you have the white pieces, a very good plan for you would be to try to maneuver a Knight or a Bishop into one or both of the outposts. The constricting effect of the outpost will, almost always, give you a big advantage, if not a winning attack. Following up with that plan, let’s imagine that your Knight successfully made it to d6 as shown in the diagram below:
The squares b5, b7, c8, e8, f7, and f5 are now controlled by your Knight. Two black pawns (b7 and f7) are already under attack while they are still in their home squares! Indeed, you now have a very BIG KNIGHT.
Consider now other outpost, f6. Imagine for a moment, that you are the defending side and you have castled on kingside. Now, your opponent, who happened to have a previous lesson from me on outposts, puts a bishop on f6 as shown on the following diagram. Your king is now under severe pressure as the White Queen can go to h6 (another hole opened by the g6 move), and you are would actually get checkmated on the next move.
If you are the defending side, keeping you Black-squared Bishop stationed on e7 would keep the outpost guarded. In some cases, you can play a Knight to e8, again, to keep an eye on the outposts when White is ready to jump. The downside of this idea is that, the Knight at e8 hampers coordination of rooks in the 8th rank where they normally are stationed especially in the middlegame.
The game below illustrates the concept I just talked about. We pick-up the game after black’s last move, 17. … c5 as shown in the diagram below.
Manor – Kosashvili, 2006.
Position after 17. . . . c5?
Black’s last move is easy to criticize. He just gave white an outpost on d6. The game, thus continued:
18. Nd6.
Threatening the bishop at b7.
18. . . . Nf8.
19. dxc5 bxc5
20. Rfb1!
White combines the reach of his Knight with the long-range power of his rook to start penetrating now the queenside. Note the logic of the maneuver: Knight jumps to d6, open the b-file, rook occupies the opened file. You may have also noticed the alignment of the bishop on c4 and the Queen on e2 hitting a6. Once the bishop on b7 is eliminated, the queenside will completely fall. Simple, and effective plan, started off with the Knight on d6 outpost.
20. . . . Bc6
21. a5!
Not at all in a hurry, the a6 pawn is going to fall, while his own pawn is one square closer to promotion.
21. . . . Qc7
Black wants to move his Knight back to d7, to be able to help in defence. But that would leave his own Queen stranded in e7, so he moved it over to the queenside first.
22. Bxa6 Bxg2
Black recovers the a6 pawn for the one on g2. The downside is that the a pawn for white is now a very strong passed pawn, and the exchange of bishops leave the b7 square undefended for the white rook invasion.
23. Qxg2 Rxa6
24. Rb7
The penetration of the 7th rank is now possible.
24. . . . Qc6
25. Qxc6 Rc6
26. a6 1-0.
Black resigned as the a-pawn will only be stopped from promotion at the cost of a piece. You will note that it did not take long for the game to conclude beginning from the time the outpost was occupied in d6. I should also add that the outpost itself did not deliver the win, it was the a-pawn, but what the outpost did was pave the way for the invasion. That is the power an outpost gives to your game.
That’s it for today, good luck on your next game, and keep your eye out for those outposts!