Advanced King Safety

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
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Dan O'Dowd
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Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:14 am
Location: Carlisle, Cumbria

Advanced King Safety

Post by Dan O'Dowd » Thu May 02, 2013 11:17 pm



I played this 15 minutes each game last night, and when looking it over, got to having some questions that would be suitable for a coach (is it time to get some form of instruction if I have questions of a techn nature more often I wonder), but I thought I'd put this on here and get opinion. I did some analysis (NO ENGINES, as per my training journal promise, so I'd also appreciate any helpers doing the same) afterwards on the opening phase -the middlegame is plainly of little value since White crumbled and both sides were under time trouble.

1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5

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I played 4 ...d5 reasoning that since the same trick works in double e-pawn openings, it had to be good unless there was a direct refutation or reason it should be bad. 5. exf6 dxc4 6. fxg7 Bxg7 7. Qg4 Qd4 8. Qf3 attempts to do precisely that, and my response was inaccuarate. 7...Bd4 8. Ne2 Nc6 would be better, when Black has his powerful d4 square compensating for the white Queen's pivoting control of e4.

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After I'd looked at the game from later points and worked to plan backwards, the critical point in my learning is that I need to gain understanding of the nuances of King safety when a correct looking plan compromises it. I had rejected 8...f5 very quickly in-game: "Oh but he gives check, let's not go there." But why shouldn't I? Since White's pawns are like the static on an analogue television, shouldn't Black push his pawns regardless, since they're central? And therefore shouldn't we play f5 while e5 is not overly weakened or vulnerable?

I looked at 8...f5 9. Qh5+ Ke7 10. Nce2 Qd6 (if instead 10. Nf3, Qf6 is nice) 11. f4 b5

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and wondered whether in this specific line, the weakening of e5 is significant. The main obstacle in my mind here is that the King wants to be on somewhere like f7. So right now, any opening of the e-file (or general file opening) helps White. I can't see a particular scheme to achieve this for White though - perhaps he should start to gambit material.


So we carried on with 8...Qf6 9. Qxf6 Bxf6 10. Nf3 Nc6 11. Ne4 Be7.

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I looked afterwards at White instead playing 11. g4 Rb8 12. a4 and that seems annoying, perhaps I should play 10...h5 to stop it. While we're here, for the latter part of the position without Queens, my intuition is telling me that if Black can avoid making positional concessions, the King being parked on f7 shouldn't be a huge problem. White should also fall in with Black's incorrect plans. If 9. Qe4 Qe5 10. Nf3 Qxe4+ 11. Nxe4, then White is just ahead because of the central inflexibility of my Bishop, and his ability to shift around.

Going through the game, at move 10 it struck me that White could have played to a plan of playing f3/g4, and Nge2-g3-e4, since Nb5 at the time fails to Na6 menacing Nb4. White should also plan to play against my vulnerable c4 pawn, and if he can't make progress on that, liquidate it with b3 and axb3. We got into a curious chicken and egg situation where White wants to play Ne4 as long as Black won't play f5, but Black only wants to wait for Ne4 before playing f5! Black on the other hand would be happy with play down the open g-file, targeting the d4 square for permanent occupation, to force either a c3 push to protect the weak pawn, and thus allowing an outpost on d3, or a beneficial cxd4 exchange that leaves Black ahead in central space. If this doesn't come about, he can push his Queenside pawns: b5, a5, b4, and if White then HAS castled Queenside, he will find it easier to make an attack of his position.

And after a while of looking at plans, White's 12. 0-0 felt wrong! Try 12. b3 f5 13. Bb2

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13... 0-0 14. Neg5 e5 15. 0-0-0

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suddenly seems far more logical! Or is this a case of letting Black get away with too much, since his hanging pawns are now far from weak in and of themselves, if the surrounding pieces correctly rally?

13...e5 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Bxe5 0-0 is inferior

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But, 13...fxe4 14. Bxh8 exf3 15. gxf3

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is beyond the scope of definitive evaluation (as most R+P v N+B are) but we can say that Black has two Bishops, although he ideally wants to swap a pair of Rooks before he can start to press.

The rest of the game is beyond necessary discussion, certainly from 12. 0-0 Black is doing fine and White fails to do anything about the impending threats. But can anyone asides advising on the specific annotations here, give me any pointers as to certain master's games which are known for less castling, or more risky King safety pitched against advancing hanging pawns, say? My intuition is that removing the Queens, the idea is fine, but that line where White bodges f4 in seems annoying.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Advanced King Safety

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri May 03, 2013 12:16 am

The rest of the game is beyond necessary discussion, certainly from 12. 0-0 Black is doing fine and White fails to do anything about the impending threats. But can anyone asides advising on the specific annotations here, give me any pointers as to certain master's games which are known for less castling, or more risky King safety pitched against advancing hanging pawns, say? My intuition is that removing the Queens, the idea is fine, but that line where White bodges f4 in seems annoying.

If you can force the queens off, king safety is usually much less of a concern. It's just a case of what's the best square for it.

Just playing through the game and noticing the comments, the move 13 c3 seems the obvious error, condemning the Bishop on c1 and Rook on a1 to take no immediate part in the game. Shouldn't 13 b3 be played with the idea as in one of the notes of playing the Bishop to b2?


In the opening 3 . .. Nf6 is a bit provocative, it would be worth checking against a database that 4 e5 can be met by 4 .. d5 without adverse consequences.

Dan O'Dowd
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:14 am
Location: Carlisle, Cumbria

Re: Advanced King Safety

Post by Dan O'Dowd » Fri May 03, 2013 1:00 am

Yes, I was very surprised that White (1774, so a low-intermediate club player) played c3 even in time pressure.

The database shows most people playing 3...a6, which I've also been using, and one essaying 3...Nc6 which also seems fine. In the one game I found with 3...Nf6, White (2327) rejected 7. Qg4 in favour of 7. Qe2, but also sees an early exchange sacrifice, so clearly there is some venom here for both sides.


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