Sports & Gaming
Double Attacks - Part 2
Lesson time 16:18 min
Garry offers an in-depth study of the double attack to help you expand your practical portfolio.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: The Purity of Patterns • A Miraculous Escape • A Study to Make You Happy • Challenge: A Double Attack Study
Teaches Chess
Garry Kasparov teaches you advanced strategy, tactics, and theory in 29 exclusive video lessons.
Sign UpPreview
What I like about studies is that it has very few pieces and all pieces are active-- all pieces are engaged. So that helps us to understand the purity of the idea of the pattern behind it. So while in a practical game you have many other pieces, and I don't want any distraction, so we just move to the studies. And we'll start with a very, very simple one. So the old one, classical one-- and I apologize if some of the advanced players were watching our lessons, they're familiar with that. Don't worry, there will be other things that are more complicated. So everybody will have positions and tasks up to their level. It's a simple position and we start with the very end of the study. The white king is on c2, the black king is in the corner, on a1, white pawn is on c7, and black rook is on d4. Actually, the last move was rook from d3 went to d4. Now white pawn is just one move away from the promotion. And what could be more natural by taking the queen and promoting the queen-- putting the queen on c8? But here's a trick. Always remember, as we discussed, watch for your opponents tactics. Black is desperate but it has the great way of saving the game. Rc4+ -- it's a double attack, attacking the queen-- king and the queen. Queen takes rook and you can see it's stalemate, black king is blocked in the corner, no moves, draw. So let's go back and see whether we can improve, and what's the next logical move if we promote the rook. Now two rooks, no pawns, empty board, normally it's a draw. But that's not easy because black king is in the really dangerous situation, it's in the corner. And by promoting the rook, we're creating this threat. Ra8 mate. The only way black can protect is just they put rook on a4 to close the a-file. And here is the classical case of double attack. In this case, it's a deadly double attack. Because white king moves on b3, it attacks the rook. But it also creates a threat, Rc1#. And Black is toast. If we look at this position and it looks very, very simple, but it contains two elements of double attack. Double attack as a defensive mechanism-- stalemate combination-- and double attack as an attacking mechanism-- promoting the rook and creating an imminent mating threat-- while attacking the opponent's piece, the only remaining piece. We move to more complicated cases. And again, we stick with an endgame. White king is on b3, black king is on a5, there are two bishops-- black bishop on e3, white bishop on f4-- and white has two extra knights. One is there on a8, and one is on c7. Now what do we see in this situation? Black king is at the corner and it's stalemated. So if we take this bishop, that's a stalemate. Again, black uses this mechanism. It attacks the bishop and tries to force the exchange of the bishops. So how white can avoid this stalemating motifs? For instance, you can ...
About the Instructor
At age 22, Garry Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion. After beating Bobby Fischer’s peak rating, he outranked his fiercest competitors for over twenty years. Now, Garry is ready to share the chess strategy that made him a six-time world champion. Through detailed lessons, including his favorite openings and advanced tactics, you will develop the instincts and philosophy to become a stronger player.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov teaches you advanced strategy, tactics, and theory in 29 exclusive video lessons.
Explore the Class