chess lessons 
by vladimir popov 

Chess Lessons
By
Vladimir Popov
Quality Chess
www.qualitychess.co.uk
Contents
Key to Symbols used 4
Foreword by Nadezhda Kosintseva 5
Kosintseva Biography 6
Preface 7
Introduction 9
Chapter 1 – Errors Due to Lack of Knowledge 11
Chapter 2 – Evaluating the Position 19
Chapter 3 – Planning 27
Chapter 4 – Piece Play 39
Chapter 5 – Pawn Play 49
Chapter 6 – Co-ordination of Pieces and Pawns 59
Chapter 7 – Arranging and Altering the Pawn Structure 69
Chapter 8 – Exchanging 79
Chapter 9 – Transition to the Endgame 95
Chapter 10 – Asymmetrical Exchanges 103
Chapter 11 – Prophylaxis 113
Chapter 12 – Monitoring Counter-Threats 127
Chapter 13 – Too Much Calculation 143
Chapter 14 – Calculation Neglected or Cut Short 155
Chapter 15 – Spotting Aggressive Sorties 165
Chapter 16 – Detecting Ideas 175
Chapter 17 – Blow and Counter-Blow 191
Chapter 18 – Obvious Moves and Reflex Answers 203
Chapter 19 – Deep Calculation 213
Chapter 20 – Enterprise 225
Chapter 21 – Hard Work Pays Off! 235
Appendix – Examples from Classic Games 253
Key to symbols used
² White is slightly better
³ Black is slightly better
± White is better
µ Black is better
+– White has a decisive advantage
–+ Black has a decisive advantage
= equality
© with compensation
„ with counterplay
÷ unclear
? a weak move
?? a blunder
! a good move
!! an excellent move
!? a move worth considering
?! a move of doubtful value
# mate
Kosintseva Biography
Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva are rising stars of women’s chess. The sisters, known familiarly
as Tania and Nadia, are ranked, respectively, 4th and 6th in the world. They were born in
Arkhangelsk, a city in the extreme north of western Russia and they share more in common than
chess, as they are both studying law at Pomor University in their hometown.
In the 2010 Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, the Kosintsevas played on the top two boards
for the Russian Women’s team, pushing World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk down to Board
3. The pressure on the Russian top seeds must have been intense but they delivered in style,
winning all eleven matches to take the team gold. Individually, Tatiana won the gold medal for
the best score on Board 1 and Nadezhda matched this feat on Board 2. A dream result!
Nadia is the elder sister by a year, being born in 1985. As a junior Nadia won a hatful of gold
medals including being European Youth Champion three times and World Under-14 Champion.
Now an established star, Nadia was Russian Women’s Champion in 2008 and is an International
Master and Woman Grandmaster. The full Grandmaster title must surely arrive soon as her rating
of 2576 far exceeds the minimum requirements. Nadia’s résumé is already impressive but her
greatest victories still lie ahead.
Tania Kosintseva, born in 1986, is a Grandmaster with a rating of 2581. Like her sister, she was a
highly successful junior player with a highlight being winning the European Under-10 title. Even
greater triumphs have followed as an adult including becoming Russian Women’s Champion in
2002, 2004 and 2007, and Women’s European Champion in 2007 and 2009. In 2010 she won
the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Nalchik with a performance rating of 2735. It is clear that
Tania is still improving...
Preface
In the last few years the finals of the Russian Junior Championships have traditionally been held
in the Dagomys health resort. Hundreds of young chess players, their coaches and their parents
congregate every year in the popular Black Sea holiday destination. The scale of this chess festival is
impressive. For all the difficulties, chess in Russia is alive and has a future!
After making one of these trips, the thought of a book occurred to me. I had collected some
ideas which I think should be of interest, whether the reader is a youth trainer or a player who has
reached a reasonable standard and wishes to improve further.
There is no disputing that in order to improve your quality of play, the quantity of errors has
to be reduced. An experienced teacher, going over a game with beginners, will point out the weak
moves; afterwards there is a chance that in a similar situation the child will get it right. For a player
who has reached a certain level, work on his own mistakes ought to have become a systematic
process. A coach involved with talented children on a one-to-one basis should understand this very
well.
Take the case of the Kosintseva sisters, Nadezhda (Nadia) and Tatiana (Tania). There was a time
when a problem with their play, for all its great promise, was a large number of blunders. I had to
choose suitable exercise positions for what was then their chief fault, and organize various solving
contests followed up by serious critical discussion. As a result we basically succeeded in solving the
problem – see the chapter on “Monitoring Counter-Threats”.
It is well said that “you learn from your mistakes.” And you can also learn from the mistakes of
others. In this book you are shown many notable cases of inaccurate play by young chess players.
However, the classification and description of the most frequently seen errors is not the author’s
sole aim. The main task of this book is to help the reader to minimize the quantity of errors in his
games through studying the material and solving the exercises.
The layout of the book is as follows.
(1) Theoretical section. Each chapter contains introductory material or a lesson on a particular
theme; extracts from games illustrating that theme are given, and generalizations and conclusions
are stated.
It is logical that coaches teach children using models of ideal play by World Champions and other
stars. In our case we are speaking of a different approach. The idea of training inexperienced players
by studying the mistakes of grandmasters seems inappropriate – in grandmaster play you can hardly
find those obvious faults which characterize people to whom this book is addressed. Therefore in
the theoretical part of my work I generally utilize extracts from games by young players.
An author writing about players’ mistakes needs to have a good grasp of the reasons behind
each poor decision. Otherwise he may draw the wrong conclusions. For that reason, most of my
examples are based on the negative experiences of my own pupils. In some chapters, I give examples
of bad decisions they took during training sessions. I think this will be of interest to the reader.
Chapter 3
Planning
M. Taimanov – A. Kotov
Zurich 1953
 t+ +n+l+
+ + J +   +o+w+oO +o+oHo+   P P + +
+ +bPq+   + + PpP
+r+ + K  
1.h4?
In coaching sessions with beginners, I offer a simple definition: a plan is a sequence of moves
united by a single aim.
When speaking of planning, you need to bear in mind that situations where the opponent has no
logical sequences of his own are very rare – they mostly occur in endgames. The following is an
instructive example which I have always liked for its simplicity and logic.
28 Chess Lessons
Baslavsky – Kondratiev
Soviet Union 1947
                                
White to move: Find a plan to
improve his position
To understand what forced Kondratiev to
construct a cage for his own bishop would be
a complicated matter. Black’s lot is to defend
passively – White’s plan is obvious. He has to
bring his king to the queenside, attempting
to penetrate via b6. His opponent in turn
may reach c7 in time, while guarding the g6-
weakness with his bishop. White then has the
resource of advancing his queenside pawns. In
the position we are starting from, does it make
sense to figure out the winning plan right to
the end?
I don’t think so, considering that in the
diagram position White simply has no other
way of playing. 1.¢e3 ¢f7 2.¢d4 ¥e8
3.¢c3 ¢e7 4.¢b3 ¢d8 5.¢a4 ¢c7 6.¢a5
¥f7 7.¥c4! ¥g8 White has achieved what he
wanted, but there is no zugzwang – Black can
move his bishop to and fro between f7 and g8.
White can now have a think about what to do
next.
                                 
White to move: Find the winning plan
The task isn’t complicated. Black is forced to
mark time, so after a3-a4 and b4-b5 White
pushes his pawn to b6, fixing a new weakness.
Then the black monarch will be unable to
switch to the kingside, in view of the threat of
¥a6. White wins by centralizing his king, after
which he can break through via the f4-square
by means of the sacrifice f4-f5. All this actually
happened in the game.
8.a4 ¥f7 9.b5 axb5 10.axb5 ¥g8 (10...cxb5
11.¥xb5 ¥g8 12.¥e8 ¥h7 13.¥f7+–) 11.b6†!
¢d8 12.¢b4 ¥f7 13.¢c3 ¢d7 14.¢d4
¢d8 15.¢e3 ¢d7 16.f5! gxf5 17.¢f4 ¥g6
18.¢g5 ¥e8 19.¢f6 f4 20.¥e2 1–0
In reality it is very hard for a practical player to
obtain such comfortable conditions as White
enjoyed in the ending we have just examined.
When planning your game you are usually
faced with the hostile designs of the other side
– and scope for mistakes is opened up!
Often the actions you have in mind
will quickly need adjustment – after your
opponent’s first move in reply. This means
that when we talk about planning, it is really
a case of determining the rough direction of
the play from the position under scrutiny
– for instance by identifying the part of the
board where you need to take action, deciding
Chapter 3 – Planning 29
which regroupings of pieces, pawn thrusts or
exchanges are sensible to aim for; and so on.
The ability to plan the game correctly is
a valuable quality, and it can and must be
developed. For work in this area, there are
some positions for you to solve at the end of
the chapter, and more positions for you to try
playing.
But first let’s look at some examples of
wrong decisions. The theme of the next two
positions is a confrontation between plans. To
avoid errors, the player had to try to fathom
the opponent’s intentions.
M. Botvinnik – L. Stein
Moscow 1963
                               
White to move
White has seized the open file with his major
pieces and has a tangible plus.
In the game, Botvinnik continued with
1.£e2. The idea of this move is to place the
rook in front of the queen with 2.¦d3 and
then 3.£d2. In the process, the illustrious
player missed his opponent’s counter-measure:
1...£e7 2.¦d3 ¦c8 “This move – the only
one, but fairly straightforward – is what White
overlooked (when playing 1.£e2). He forgot
that the d8-square would now be defended
twice, and he would lose control of the file.”
(Botvinnik) As a result Black equalized, and
the game concluded peacefully: 3.¦d5 ¦c5
4.¦d2 ¥g5 5.¦d1 ¦c8 6.g3 ¦d8 7.¥d5 £c5
8.¦d3 ¦f8 9.¢g2 ¥d8 ½–½
White should have gone into an ending with:
1.£d7†! £xd7 2.¦xd7† ¢h8 3.g3± In his
notes to the game, Botvinnik writes: “The
pawn weaknesses and the bad position of the
black king would have given White realistic
winning chances.”
In fact, Black should prefer 2...¢h6 but he
would still face an awkward defence.
Hoang Thanh Trang – T. Kosintseva
Women’s World Championship, Elista 2004
                                   
Black to move
Black is a pawn up in the endgame. How
should she improve her position? Tatiana
decided to bring her king nearer the centre
with 1...¥f6 and 2...¢e7. However, White
too has her own obvious plan, and her young
opponent clearly underrated it. 1...¥f6 2.¥d4
¢e7 3.¢c2 White has got in first – all she
needs to do now is play 4.¢c3 and 5.¤xc4.
Black was therefore obliged to go into a drawn
ending with: 3...¥xe5 4.¥xe5 ¢f7 5.¢c3
30 Chess Lessons
¢g6 6.¢d4 ¢f5 7.¥xg7 ¢xf4 8.¥e5† ¢f3
9.¢c5=
Let’s go back to the initial position. Young
Tatiana needed to adjust her plan by taking her
opponent’s possibilities into account. It was
worth thinking about the prophylactic moves
1...c3 or 1...¥d8 2.¢c2 ¥a5, before bringing
up the king with ...¢e7-f6-f5.
There was also another way, an aggressive
one. Black could bring her bishop to g3 with
the idea of ...g7-g5. Thus, 1...¥h4! 2.¢c2 ¥g3
3.¢c3 g5 4.¤xc4 gxf4 with winning chances.
Let’s now look at some examples of faulty play
where an outwardly attractive plan is chosen
but has no chance of success in view of the
opponent’s straightforward counter-action.
R. Farakhov – N. Kosintseva
Russian u20 Championship, Essentuki 2003
1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6
g6 6.¤c3 ¥xa6 7.g3 ¥g7 8.¥g2 0–0 9.¤f3
d6 10.0–0 ¤bd7 11.¦b1 ¤e8 12.£c2 ¤c7
13.¤h4? ¤b5 14.¤xb5 ¥xb5 15.b3 £b6
16.a4 ¥a6 17.¤f3 ¦ab8 18.¦d1 ¦b7 19.e4
¦fb8 20.¥e3
                         
Black to move
In the Benko Gambit the 18-year-old Nadia
has gained adequate compensation for the
pawn. The best move here was 20...£b4!
with the idea of 21...£c3, putting pressure
on the weakness on b3. But the Kosintseva
sisters always play for a win, and in this
uncompromising spirit Nadia was put off by the
possible draw after 21.¥d2 £a3 22.¥c1 £b4
23.¥d2.
She therefore decided to increase the pressure
on the backward pawn by other means – by
placing the queen behind the rook with
20...£d8, then ...¦b6 and ...£c8-b7.
Was Nadezhda right?
There followed: 21.h3 ¦b6 22.¥d2! Alas,
22...£c8 is now useless on account of 23.¥a5.
So the rook has to go back again. In other words,
Black’s plan was unrealistic. After 22...¦6b7
23.¥f1 ¥xf1 24.¦xf1 £c8 25.¦fc1 White
had the better position.
S. Novikov – N. Kosintseva
Russian u18 Championship, Dagomys 2003
                           
Black to move: find a way
of improving her position.
Chapter 3 – Planning 31
What counts for more in this position – the
weak pawns on the e-file or the activity of
Black’s pieces? The first-mentioned factor is
a long-term one, whereas the initiative may
quickly evaporate if the play is steered in the
wrong direction.
That is what happened in the game.
Nadezhda decided to attack with her kingside
pawns, but only weakened her own position:
1...h5? 2.b3 h4? 3.h3 g5?
                           
White to move: how can he exploit
his opponent’s ill-judged play?
The answer to this question is fairly simple:
4.¤d4! ¥a8 5.£e2!+– The queen now breaks
into the enemy camp via the weakened squares;
Black is defenceless.
Instead, Nadia could have played something like
1...¥d5!? 2.b3 b5 3.c5 b4 with counterplay.
         +   Pv    O   p    +    
I gave the girls the following example as an
exercise to solve.
V. Mikenas – V. Smyslov
Soviet Championship 1944
                             
Black to move: Find a plan
to improve his position
In this ending the fairly obvious point is that
Black holds the advantage of the two bishops –
although one of them is not participating. The
indicated plan, therefore, is to bring this badly
placed piece into play with: 1...g5! 2.¢e2 f6
3.¤e1 ¥g6 4.¤c2 ¥g1
        +    Ov    O  +     nk     V  
5.h3 ¢d6–+ That is how the game went.
32 Chess Lessons
On the other hand 1...f6, the move chosen
by young Nadia, doesn’t work because of the
following riposte:
           O                   
2.h4! ¥g6 (2...g5 3.h5!) 3.¤f4 Now the bishop
can’t be preserved from exchange, as if 3...¥e8?
then 4.¤e6. This means that White’s problems
disappear.
Let’s state the conclusion that emerges: in
devising your game plan, don’t forget about your
opponent’s possibilities!
Indeed, in the following game Black formulated
his plan in a more sophisticated way.
A. Malkov – Z. Levin
Arkhangelsk 2001
                              
Black to move: what plan would you choose to
exploit his positional plus?
At first glance, Black’s line of play is obvious
– he brings his king to b4. Then he plays
...¤d4 or ...¤c5, attacking the weakness on
b3. But it isn’t as simple as that, as White will
not be standing still. His counter-measures
are easy to understand: ¢e3 and f3-f4, to
obtain active play. Black’s kingside pawns are
arranged on the same colour as the bishop,
which means that not everything is so bleak
for Malkov.
Zhenia Levin, the eleven-year-old
Wunderkind from Arkhangelsk, proceeded
very cannily – he modified his plan to allow for
the possibility of counterplay.
The boy reasoned more or less like this: “First
I need to make the kingside safe by playing
...¢e7-f6 and ...g6-g5. My opponent will have
to take on g5, otherwise I’ll exchange on h4
myself and obtain the f4-square for the knight.
After retaking with ...¢f6xg5 I can play ...h5-
h4, getting rid of the pawns on light squares
once and for all, and at the same time securing
f4 for my knight or king. Black should win by
breaking through on one of the wings.”
Let’s see how Zhenia carried out his plan:
1...¢f6! 2.¢e3 g5 3.hxg5† ¢xg5 4.¥c2 h4
5.gxh4† ¢xh4 6.¥d1 ¢g5
        +        L   +
 K+     +      
Having deprived his opponent of any
chances on the kingside, Black can now head
across towards b4! 7.¥c2 ¢f6 (7...¤d4? 8.f4†)
Chapter 3 – Planning 33
8.¥d1 ¢e7 9.¥c2 ¢d6 10.¢d3 ¤d4
11.¥d1 ¢c5 12.¢c3 f6
                                  
Zugzwang! Black wins
With the aid of some sample variations, let’s
test whether a different line could have given
White counterplay: 1...¢d6? 2.¢e3 ¢c5
        +     L      K     +      
3.f4 ¢b4 (3...f6 4.f5 gxf5 5.¥xh5) 4.fxe5
¤c5? 5.g4 hxg4= 6.¥xg4 ¢xb3? 7.h5 gxh5
8.¥xh5, and now White is winning! Naturally,
Black can improve on this line (for example,
by playing ...¢c3 on either move 4 or 6) but
the fact remains that the “obvious” 1...¢d6? is
inaccurate.
For the sake of completeness, note that 1...f6!
was also strong with a similar idea to the main
line: 2.¢e3 g5! So in this case, there were two
good answers, but they rely on the same process
– anticipate and prevent White’s counterplay.
In this chapter we have done no more than
touch on a vast topic. The planning process will
be discussed further – its elements, essentially,
are those positional operations (piece play,
pawn play, exchanging) which we shall treat in
the next chapters.
34 Chess Lessons
                             
(1) White to move
                           
(2) White to move
                               
(3) Black to move
                           
(4) White to move
Errors in planning are no rarity. A young player must work on rectifying this defect. Finding the
solution or continuation in specially selected positions is helpful; the player should analyse his solutions
and draw appropriate conclusions.
Below I offer six positions to solve, as examples of the theme we are studying. You must:
(a) Find the outline plan for improving the position (2 points)
(b) Make the first move in accordance with this plan (1 point)
There are also four endgames for you to practise playing with your sparring partner or trainer. In
the initial position you need to find the right plan.
Positions for Solving
35
                            
(5) Black to move
Positions for Practice                              
(1) White to move
                                 
(2) White to move
                                  
(3) White to move
                                 
(4) White to move
                              
(6) Black to move
36 Chess Lessons
Positions for Solving
(1) V. Popov – Shipov (1982)
The right idea is to carry out b2-b4. White therefore needs to play 1.a5 (1 point), as otherwise
...a6-a5 would follow. The game continued: 1...¤e8 2.¦b1 ¤g6 3.b4 (2 points) 3...¦c7 4.bxc5
dxc5 5.¤a4+–
(2) N.V. Pedersen – M. Notkin (1995)
When planning your play it is essential to take account of your opponent’s possibilities. In the
game White failed to do so: 1.g3? d5 2.exd5 ¤xd5 3.¦xe5 ¤xc3 4.£e1 cxd4 5.¤xd4 ¦xd4
6.¥b2 ¦xa4 7.¥xc3 ¦xa1 8.¥xa1 ¥d7µ
He had to play differently with 1.d5! (1 point) 1...¤f8 2.¤d2, aiming for ¤d2-c4 and then
f2-f4 (2 points).
(3) W. Schmidt – R. Kuczynski (1988)
Black has a weakness on b6; the correct plan is to free the rook on b8 from defending it:
1...¥c3! (1 point), with the idea of ...¥a5 or ...¥b4-c5 (2 points). The continuation was: 2.¢g2
¥a5 (or 2...¥b4!? with ...¥c5 in view) 3.¦c1 hxg3 4.hxg3 ¤e5 5.¦h1 ¢g7 6.¦c2 ¤d3 7.¦c7
¤xf2! 8.¢xf2 ¦e8=
(4) M. Botvinnik – V. Smyslov (1954)
Black’s knight has to be exchanged off: 1.¤c1 ¥g7 2.¤d3! (3 points) 2...f5 3.¤xc5 dxc5
4.¥f3 Preparing g3-g4. 4...£d6 5.g4 f4 6.g5! ¢f7 7.¢h1²
(5) V. Kramnik – A. Karpov (2002)
By playing 1...¤e8! (1 point) and then ...f7-f6 and ...e6-e5 (2 points), Black curbs the activity
of the enemy pieces (in particular the b2-bishop and the queen). The knight can be transferred
to an active post on d6. In the game there followed: 2.b5 f6! 3.a4 a5 4.bxa6 ¦xa6 5.a5 ¦ca8
With counterplay.
(6) E. Bareev – P. Leko (1995)
Black has to prepare the advance ...e6-e5, but it doesn’t pay to be hasty: 1...e5? 2.d5 ¤a5
3.¤b3±
The Hungarian grandmaster made the preparatory move 1...¢a8! (1 point) and equalized
after: 2.¤b3 e5 3.d5 ¤b8 (2 points) 4.a4 a5=
More than 14 points – “excellent”; 12-14 – “good”; under 9 – failure.
Chapter 3 – Planning 37
Positions for Practice
(1) A. Karpov – M. Gurevich (1991)
By means of the regrouping 1.¤e1!, with a view to 2.¢f3 and then ¤e1-d3(g2), White should
win the weak pawn on f4. The game went: 1...a5 2.¢f3 a4 3.¦d7† ¦8e7 4.¦xe7† ¦xe7 5.¤d3
axb3 6.axb3 1–0
(2) V. Faibisovich – H. Westerinen (1969)
White’s plan is to bring his rook over to d3, after which the pawn on a5 will fall: 1.¦d5! ¥e1
2.¦d3 ¢f6 3.c3 ¦e7 4.¥b7 ¦e2 5.¢xa5 ¦c2 6.¢b5 ¥xc3 7.a5+–
(3) I. Boleslavsky – B. Goldenov (1952)
Here White’s plan is to attack the weak pawn on a4. To this end he needs to bring his bishop to
d1 and move his king away. He must play accurately to limit his opponent’s counterplay. 1.¥g4
¦a8 (1...¢d5 2.¦e5† ¢d6 3.¢c1) 2.¢c1! ¦a7 3.¥d1 The aim is achieved – the pawn falls.
3...¤b5 4.¥xa4 ¤d4 5.¥d1 ¤f5 6.¥g4 ¦b7 7.¥xf5 exf5 8.¦e3+–
(4) N. Kosintseva – T. Kosintseva
White’s plan should be to rid herself of the weak pawn on a3 – but not at once! In the
coaching session, the play went 1.a4? bxa4 2.¤xa4 (better 2.¦a3!) 2...¦b1, and Black’s rook
was activated.
The advance a3-a4 had to be prepared: 1.¥f1! ¦a8 (1...¤c8? 2.¤d7+–) 2.¥d3 ¦a7 (2...¤c8?
3.¥xf5+–) 3.¥c2 ¦a8 4.a4 bxa4 (4...b4 5.¦b3 ¦b8 6.¤d3+–) 5.¥xa4 With advantage.
Menorca 1996