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My Best
Chess! |
The
Opposition |
About sixty years ago (!) I saw a film which
featured those amazing basketball players, The Harlem
Globetrotters. In one scene, a young man who was
desperate to get into the team waited for the team’s coach to
return to his hotel and then demonstrated his skills by repeatedly
dribbling past him in the narrow hallway.
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That’s what you, as White
(with the move), should be able to do in the diagram on the right.
Force yourself to either the top right or top left corner, with
Black trying his best to stop you.. …….and what if it’s Black’s
move?
OK, so that’s a
pretty simple illustration of something called ‘The Opposition’.
Just as two magnets repel when like poles face each other, so there
is a force between two kings which oppose one another on the
same line (file, rank or diagonal) such that the side with the move
cannot move towards the other king but has to yield ground. It’s
the king without the
move which is said to have the
opposition.
In
the diagram, White can attain the opposition by sidestepping along
the second rank and Black must either move to one side and leave
room for White to move forward on the other wing or else retreat
and allow White to advance up the middle. It’s also clear to see
that, if it were Black to move, White could make no progress as
long as Black won the opposition by moving directly in his
path.
Less obviously, the opposition exists when the kings are further
apart (The Distant Opposition) and, especially in king and pawn
endings, it’s crucially important to win the opposition so as to
either prevent your opponent from queening his pawn or to force
your own through.
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We’ve all been on both
sides of this situation a few times!
If it’s Black to play, can the pawn be forced
through?
The surprising answer is that,
with Black having no other pieces or pawns on the board with which
to lose a tempo, if White plays correctly in this position, the
result will be a draw.
We can’t cover all the possible moves which could be played but
Black will try to march his king up the board ahead of his pawn,
force the White king to one side and watch the pawn stroll between
them to the queening square. He’ll fail in this, however, if White
wins the distant opposition
and maintains it as Black approaches.
White does this by moving to keep an odd number of squares between
the two kings (on the same file) with Black then to
move.
An example might help
to make sense of that:-
Black plays …..Kd6 (with a
view to Ke5 and Ke4).
White plays Kd2(odd
number of squares; same file).
White keeps his eye on the ball, which is the Black king not the
pawn. As the Black king marches forward,
…..Ke5,
so the White king moves to meet him, Ke3,
and maintains the odd number of squares between them.
(Now they’re in direct
opposition.)
Then it might go; …… Kf5,
Kf3 Ke5, Ke3 Kd5, Kd3 e5,
(Black hopes that the pawn will have better
luck!)
After e5 White must not play either Kd2
or Ke2, for then Blackwould seize the opposition (and the game) with Kd4 or
Ke4.
So White plays Ke3
and, after Black’s e4, Ke2……. and, if Black persists, a
draw might just be agreed after ….Kd4, Kd2 e3+, Ke2 Ke4, Ke1 Kd3, Kd1 e2+, Ke1 Ke3
…… because it’s stalemate.
Of course, in the stalemate position the
defending King is standing directly in front of the attacking
pawn but note that, if that could have been
accomplished further up the board, it would have been a draw that
much sooner.
In the position above, play through what happens if the White King
is 3 squares further forward on e5.
No matter whose move it is, it’s a draw.
But what if the Black King gets to e5 first? Whose game is it
then? As
ever, it depends upon who has the move and can seize
the opposition.
If White has the move, White draws with e3; if not, Black
wins with …..e4 when White must yield ground and very soon allow
the pawn through.
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Chess Basics'
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