Sports & Gaming

Overload

Lesson time 12:52 min

The most destructive form of overload is when a piece has to watch for threats coming from different directions. Garry’s examples include one move that made his opponent literally jump out of his chair.

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Topics include: Too Many Jobs at Once • Classic Case of Overload • Mechkarov vs Kaikamdzhozov, 1969 • Botvinnik vs Petrosian, 1966 • Challenge: An Overload Study

Garry Kasparov

Teaches Chess

Garry Kasparov teaches you advanced strategy, tactics, and theory in 29 exclusive video lessons.

Preview

Now we'll talk about an overload. It's when one piece cannot complete several functions. It cannot do many things at once. Well, maybe you can, but not at the chess board. So very simple example-- couldn't be simpler. Black rook protects knight. But it also protects this vital square. Because king has no space. That's why appearance of white rook or queen-- in this case, white rook-- on e8 will be mate. So White simply takes its knight. And Black discovers, sadly, that they take bishop back, restoring material balance, then Re8#. So that's the classical case of overloaded piece. So rook had to protect the knight and also watch e8-square. So that's why if Black is not too greedy, they should have to accept that after Bxc6, they should lose a piece. The most effective form of using overload and the deadliest one is when the mate is one of the options, and the piece, one piece, has to watch for different threats coming from opposite directions. And here we have a classical case. Again, we could see that white king is in some kind of danger. But you have to be creative to use this effect. And also, look at this pawn on h3. By the way, remember that advanced pawns, when these pawns can be accompanied by queens, or rooks, or any other pieces, they become very powerful. It looks like a pawn, but actually it's a very, very dangerous piece. Because together with the queen, it creates mating threats. Of course, the f3-square is controlled by white queen. But white queen also has to make sure that black rook doesn't show up on the first rank. Because white king has no moves. Because g2-square is covered by this pawn. So how do we do that? So how do we use this effect of white queen watching both black queen from appearing on f3 and black rook appearing on a1? Simple-- we just push our queen to f3. So we create threat-- Qg2#. We, by the way, attack the queen. And if White takes, then our rook goes on a1. We lost the queen, but we checkmated opponent's king. And now a similar situation-- again, White created very powerful attack. But it seems that black managed to defend against an immediate threat. Rook on f7 blocks our attack, White's attack on f-file, but also on the seventh rank. So how do we go around it? We have the rook. We have a queen. But they can not just push this rook out of f7 immediately. But how about a trick? How about going around, so tiptoeing? And it's even trickier than you can think, because look, rook is hanging. Black can take the rook. Qxe1+, and Kh2. And it seems that only with these three remaining pieces-- queen, rook, and bishop-- White can organize a decisive attack. And even if queen disappears, Rxe7. Then Rf8#. Otherwise, queen still goes to f8. Rxf8, Rxf8#. This mating construction seems to be inevitable. And of course, after ...

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.

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Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov teaches you advanced strategy, tactics, and theory in 29 exclusive video lessons.

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