The Knight: The Cunning Cavalry

by Sergey Kasparov

Overview

In his ground-breaking series, The Power of the Pieces, Belorussian grandmaster Sergey Kasparov examines the strengths, weaknesses and overall characteristics of each piece on the chessboard. This second volume in the series is about the knight. Its role in the opening, middlegame and endgame is discussed in detail, amply supported by almost 140 complete games from tournament praxis. Topics include: The Knight in the Endgame; The Knight in the French Defense; The Knight in the Rossolimo System; The Knight in the Benkö Gambit; The “Spanish” Knight; The Knight on the Attack; The Knight in Defense; The Cavalry Retreats; The Knight on an Outpost; A Knight on the Rim; The Kamikaze Knight; Knight versus Pawns; Knight versus Bishop; and Knight against Rook. Popular chess author Sergey Kasparov is known for his entertaining writing style. His books are always instructive and insightful. Books previously published by Russell Enterprises include The Exchange Sacrifice and Doubled Pawns.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949859034
Publisher:	Russell Enterprises, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/18/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Popular chess author Sergey Kasparov is known for his entertaining writing style. His books are always instructive and insightful. Books previously published by Russell Enterprises include The Exchange Sacrifice, The Bishop: Danger on the Diagonal and Doubled Pawns. He lives with his family in Belarus

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 2
The Knight in the French Defense

In this chapter we will examine typical actions of a knight in openings. Of course, we are not going to embrace all the openings, but only some of them; otherwise the volume of our book would be enormous.

In this particular opening, a knight often fights for domination over the commanding point е5. Sometimes it occupies this square itself. Ideally, White would like to obtain such a knight versus his opponent's “blunted” light-square bishop.

(18) Kasparov S – Astengo
Soazza 2009

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.0-0 Bd6 11.Nf3
DIAGRAM
As early as that, a picture of the future battle starts to emerge. The backward e6-pawn would like to advance in order to “clear the view” for the bishop on с8. In his turn, White is doing all he can to prevent this. 11...Qc7 12.g3 0-0 13.Bf4 The struggle for the e5-square continues; it is favorable for White to exchange dark-square bishops. 13...Bd7 14.Rc1 Bxf4 15.Nxf4 Qd6 Or 15...Qb6 16.Qd2 Rae8 17.Rfe1 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 e5 19.Nxd5 Nxd5 20.Nf3! Rxf3 21.Be4
DIAGRAM
21...Rf6 22.Bxd5+r, Kveinys- Djurhuus, Oslo 2005. 16.Re1 Rae8?! 17.Ne5y Our protagonist has occupied the commanding point; it is difficult to exchange it as d4xe5 runs into a fork. 17...Nxd4?! 18.Bxh7+ A typical shot in the French: the d4-pawn is often indirectly defended in this manner. 18...Nxh7 19.Qxd4i
DIAGRAM
Now White's position is already overwhelming. The difference in strength between the e5-knight and the bishop is tremendous. 19...Rf5 20.Qc5 20.g4i 20...Qxc5 21.Rxc5 b6 21...Ng5 22.Kg2y 22.Rc7 Bb5 23.Nfg6! Ng5 23...Rf6 24.Rxa7i 24.f4 1-0
DIAGRAM
There is a threat of Ng6-e7, so Astendo stopped torturing himself and resigned.

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Part I The Endgame

Chapter 1 The Knight in the Endgame 7

Part II The Opening

Chapter 2 The Knight in the French Defense 28

Section 1 The Knight Advances to h6 30

Section 2 The Knight in the Panov-Botvinnik Attack 34

Chapter 3 The Knight in the Rossolimo System 38

Chapter 4 The Knight in the Benkö Gambit 41

Chapter 5 The "Spanish" Knight 44

Part III Middlegame

Chapter 6 The Knight on the Attack 48

Chapter 7 The Knight in Defense 61

Chapter 8 The Cavalry Retreats 70

Chapter 9 The Knight on an Outpost 83

Chapter 10 A Knight on the Rim 98

Chapter 11 The Kamikaze Knight 110

Chapter 12 Knight versus Pawns 125

Chapter 13 Knight versus Bishop 143

Section 1 The Knight is Stronger than the Bishop 143

Section 2 The Bishop is Stronger than the Knight 156

Section 3 Equivocal Situations 165

Chapter 14 Knight against Rook 173

Postscript 190

Game Index 191