Attacking the Strongpoint: The Philosophy of Chess

By Igor Zaitsev and Garry Kasparov

A Remarkable Book by One of the Game’s Most Creative Minds

Grandmaster Igor Zaitsev ranks as one of the most creative chess minds ever in the history of the royal game. This is his book of secrets and methods, his remarkable life’s work.

Zaitsev unearthed astonishing ideas which even giants of the game had overlooked. World champions Tigran Petrosian and Anatoly Karpov insisted on Zaitsev’s analytical help in their matches, wanting to be first to play his profound discoveries, such as the famous Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez.

Zaitsev was himself a tournament champion. With his sharp, combinative style, he won dozens of “Most Beautiful Game” awards. Many of these games provide context for his lessons.
But Zaitsev is even more than a renowned coach and competitor. Part analyst, part champion, part chess philosopher, and part chess poet, he reveals the underlying logic and beauty of chess in a way no one else has ever done.

In his eye-opening title chapter, “Attacking the Strongpoint,” Zaitsev makes explicitly clear a common strategic element never formalized until this book. Often overlooked by amateurs and even GMs, the idea can lead to winning tactics in many games!

Backed up by top-level games, Zaitsev also provides deep-level explanations about:

• Combinations and Piece Harmony
• Strategy and Structure
• Learning from the Cycle of Chess Epochs
• The Role of Reason and Judgment
• The Chess Law of Conservation of Energy
• Strategy: Evolution vs. Revolution, Recognizing a Favorable Structure

As you read Zaitsev, you’ll often find yourself thinking, “Ah, now I get it!”

The volume is topped off by supplemental games, a complete autobiography by Zaitsev, a special foreword by world champion Garry Kasparov, as well as tributes and memories from world champion Anatoly Karpov and famed coach Mark Dvoretsky.

A signed and numbered limited hardcover edition will be simultaneously released. Each book is signed by Igor Zaitsev. There will be only 200 of these unique collectors’ editions. Reserve your copy now from you favorite chess book dealer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781949859140

Igor Zaitsev

Russian grandmaster Igor Zaitsev is a legendary coach and trainer. He was specifically chosen by world champions Tigran Petrosian and Anatoly Karpov to help guide them on their journey to the top. Zaitsev is one of the most creative opening theoreticians of all time, leaving his brilliant stamp on the Ruy Lopez, the English, the Caro-Kann, to name but a few. Although he has contributed dozens of articles during his illustrious career, this is the first book he has ever written.

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Bibliography

Foreword

Garry Kasparov

13th World Champion

Igor Zaitsev, a grandmaster from Moscow, is definitely one of the most paradoxical chess thinkers of our time, which is evident even from the title of this book.

An outstanding tactician and analyst, he has worked with Tigran Petrosian and Lev Polugaevsky, and later became the leading trainer of Anatoly Karpov’s team, accompanying him through seven world championship matches!

He has left his brilliant stamp on many openings, from the Ruy Lopez (the Zaitsev System, 11.Ng5!? in the Open Variation, etc.) to the Caro-Kann Defense (the variation with 4...Nd7 5.Ng5!?) and the English Opening (11...dxc4! Timman-Karpov, Montreal 1979; 9...e3!? Kasparov-Karpov, Sevilla (m/2) 1987)... too many to name.

Zaitsev was always famous for his unorthodox chess vision. He was able to see what no one else noticed. Unfortunately, chess moves cannot be patented, for Igor Alexandrovich definitely deserves a reward – other than the gratitude of chessplayers all over the world who have benefited from his ideas.

We met each other in spring of 1980 at an international tournament in Baku. I was seventeen years old then, preparing for my school graduation exams, but could not miss my chance to earn the grandmaster title. According to my trainer Alexander Nikitin, Those days Garry was under close surveillance in the shadow of a worried world champion: Karpov’s trainer, grandmaster Igor Zaitsev, was among the participants in the tournament.

I played easily, in a relaxed manner – it must be true that the walls at home are your friends. However, before round seven, when I was to play Zaitsev, the sporting intrigue was still very high.

Garry Kasparov – Igor Zaitsev

Baku 1980

Queen’s Gambit Declined

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 h6 7.Bh4 b6 8.Qc2

In those days, the most popular move in the struggle against the Tartakower-Makogonov-Bondarevsky Variation was 8.Qb3, but I liked the double-edged plan with castling on oppostie sides much more.

8...Bb7 9.Bxf6 Bxf6 10.cxd5 exd5 11.0-0-0 c5 12.dxc5

12...Nd7!

A beautiful pawn sacrifice.

13.Nxd5 Nxc5 14.Bc4 b5 15.Nxf6+ Qxf6 16.Bd5 Rac8 17.Kb1 Na4 18.Qe2 Bxd5 19.Rxd5

The formidable a4-knight, in combination with the shaky position of the white king, promises Black counterplay. However, he has to hurry with it, otherwise White will manage to consolidate his position in a couple of moves.

19...Rc4!

A brilliant move that changes the battle picture immediately. Black not only strengthens the threat of Qg6+, but also creates two other ones – Rfc8, and particularly Rb4. I saw this and became sad...

20.Rd4 (a forced reply) 20...Rfc8

Instead of 20...Qg6+!? and Qxg2, Zaitsev was content with good compensation for his sacrificed pawn. However, there were only twenty minutes left on his clock. Apparently, the previous part of the game demanded too much energy from my opponent, and soon he made a fateful error.

This game was an important lesson for me. It demonstrated that my youthful opening preparation was not quite on a par with the level of adult tournaments.

All his life Zaitsev was enthusiastic about searching for novel ways of handling openings. Just like many other genuine chess innovators, he used to lend his experience and creative genius to stronger players, providing an original impetus for them, just like bobsled brakemen who impart a necessary acceleration to their sleds.

To crown it all, he has long been a witty poet and a distinctive writer. This is what they say about his publications: As a rule, they combine unique generalizations, which rise to the level of chess philosophy, with insights into the subtleties of positions which have slipped everyone’s attention.

To my mind, such is his book Attacking the Strongpoint.

– Garry Kasparov

A Tribute*

Anatoly Karpov

12th World Champion

I have known Igor Arkadyevich a long time – more than 50 years. When we were first acquainted, he was already quite an interesting, promising chessplayer, who participated in many international tournaments. He was always distinguished by his thoughtfulness and non-standard approach to the game. We became friends, literally, at our first meeting. But working together started much later and lasted for many years. Igor Arkadyevich loves chess unstintingly. He is prepared to work on it day and night. He is an original, full of the most interesting ideas.

One of his ingenious finds was revealed in the tenth game of my world championship match vs. Korchnoi at Baguio, in 1978 – in the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez, when I sacrificed a knight with 11.Ng5!.

Now, this idea had been erroneously attributed to Tal, but that is not true. It was Zaitsev who thought it up, and the three of us analyzed it, together with Vasiukov, during training at Krasnaya Polyana. And afterward I showed it to Tal and Balashov on the plane, as we flew from Tokyo to Manila.

Anatoly Karpov and Igor Zaitsev, May 1998

I could not manage to list all of Igor Arkadyevich’s original ideas (for instance, the Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez). Let me remind you of just one of them: his 9...e3 pawn sacrifice in the English Opening, which I employed in the second game of my 1987 world championship match in Seville against Kasparov. [Analyzed on page 225. – Ed.] It was an idea that came to Igor when we were, as I recall, already in Seville. Naturally, we had had no time to analyze it fully. And here Kasparov quite unexpectedly, in his very first game with White, chose the English Opening. After 9...e3, he sank into deep thought for 40 minutes and, although he found the best reply, he lost in the end.

Igor Arkadyevich is a knowledgeable, seeking sort of person. He also has a fine writing style, writing some notable articles on chess. Perhaps he is a trifle disorganized internally – he has a personality that becomes easily distracted. Otherwise he would have produced a whole stack of books that amateurs, as well as professionals, would enjoy reading.

– Anatoly Karpov

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* This article first appeared in Shakhmatnoe Obozreniye, No.5/2013

Preface*

Mark Dvoretsky

World Renowned Chess Trainer

Emanuel Lasker wrote: Alekhine grew up on the combination; he was in love with it. Everything strategic was, to him, only preparation – practically a necessary evil. The shattering blow, the unexpected tactical trick – that is the Alekhine style.

I am not sure whether these exact words would be applicable to the creative output of the fourth world champion. But as applied to Igor Zaitsev – both as a player and as an analyst – that evaluation would be 100 percent accurate. His spectacular opening discoveries have become the glory of the entire chess world. They have, of course, only gotten there second-hand. The right to play these innovations – acquired for only a token fee – was held by Petrosian first, and then by Karpov. [Zaitsev worked as analyst for these two world champions. – Ed.] (Alas, some of the classic features of Russian intelligentsia – and above all, disorganization, and a peculiar indolence – were also characteristic of Zaitsev.)

But the shining articles by Zaitsev appear even more valuable to me. For they reveal the deepest secrets of middlegame – and sometimes endgame – positions that he has succeeded in analyzing. I have a special folder in which I have kept Zaitsev’s articles. Whenever one of my students needs to work on developing fantasy and creative imagination in a concrete, unbiased approach to a position, he will have access to that folder.

But for the great majority of players, Zaitsev’s articles have been unattainable. Many of them were written decades ago, and digging through old journalistic archives is a difficult and thankless task – and where would you get them, anyway? Now, if only they could all be gathered together in a book… !

______________

* This article first appeared in Shakhmatnoe Obozreniye, No.5/1998. Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016) was considered the premier chess trainer of his era.

About the Author

Eduard Shekhtman*

Chess Trainer

Igor Arkadyevich Zaitsev was born on May 27, 1938, in the Moscow suburb of Ramenskoye, where he was an honor student in elementary school. His college years were spent within the walls of Moscow’s Institute for Transport Engineers. In 1963, he moved to Moscow and began his active employment with Shakhmatnaya Moskva, Shakhmaty v SSSR, and the weekly 64. This was also the period when his intensive tournament appearances peaked: Within a few years, Zaitsev became an international master; and in 1976, an international grandmaster, as well as a USSR Grandmaster.

The combination of a gift for analysis and of practical experience also brought him success in the field of coaching. From 1971-1977, he worked as trainer to Lev Polugaevsky and former world champion Tigran Petrosian. His work with them included their candidates’ contests. During the period 1978-1991, Zaitsev was continually employed as trainer and second to the 12th world champion, Anatoly Karpov. In 1978, after the world championship match in Baguio, he was awarded the title of Honored Trainer of the USSR and Russia.

For his successful labors as senior trainer of the USSR Team at the world chess Olympiads and the world and European (team) championships, Zaitsev was awarded the Order of the Peoples’ Friendship in 1981.

Zaitsev has won round-robin grandmaster events on more than one occasion: Moscow 1968, Quito 1977, Dubna 1979, Bucharest 1992, and Orel 1993. He won more than 30 events in Russia. He has been champion of Moscow State University and Lokomotiv (the club that he has remained a member of for more than 50 years) more than once. He was silver medalist in the 1973 Russian Championship and was 1973 Moscow Champion.

Zaitsev is a player with a sharp and combinative style. Many of his efforts won awards for the most beautiful game of the tournament. Here is one example:

Zaitsev – Dementyev

USSR Championship, Riga 1970

Sicilian Defense

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.Bb3 Qc7 9.f4 b4 10.Na4 Nbd7 11.f5 e5

12.Ne6!? fxe6 13.fxe6 Nc5 14.Nxc5 dxc5 15.0-0 c4 16.Rxf6! gxf6 17.Qh5+ Ke7 18.Qf7+ Kd6 19.e7! Qxe7 20.Qxc4 Black resigned.

Zaitsev has gained unparalleled recognition in the world of chess as a chess researcher and analyst. He has come up with many clever opening novelties and entire systems in various areas of theory. His contributions in working out the theory of such classical openings as the Ruy Lopez are great indeed.

In the Closed Variation of the Ruy Lopez, the Zaitsev System – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 – has been one of its most popular systems for more than 30 years.

And in the Open Variation – 5...Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 d4 – his sensational discovery in 1978 – 11.Nf3-g5!! – was crowned Novelty of the Century by the chess press of those days.

Finally, beginning in 1967, in the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez – 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 – the original defense that Zaitsev introduced – 5...Ne7!? 6.Nxe5 Qd4 7.Qh5 g6 8.Qg5 Bg7 9.Nd3 f5!? – is undergoing its trial by fire. [9...f5!? is the most-played move in the position to this day. – Ed.]

Igor Zaitsev is an experienced chess writer. His numerous articles, written in a lively, picturesque style, are usually aimed at seeking the philosophical common ground among a number of chess positions he is studying. The book now being offered is devoted to exactly the examination of these matters.

– Eduard Shekhtman

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* Eduard Shekhtman (1940-2007) produced the first edition of this book.

Author’s Foreword

A chance visit to me by Hugh Verrier, a Canadian attorney who offered to sponsor the project, led to the possibility of your author publishing his first book, which would be dedicated to the nature of chess combinations. It is hoped that the author’s philosophical judgments, as well as numerous examples taken from his praxis and analyses, could offer invaluable assistance to a wide variety of readers.

Before submitting the title for this manuscript, your author hesitated a long time, mulling over whether to replace it with one of two weightier ones: The Philosophy of the Combination or The Geometry of Strategy. After all, sometimes it comes down to the nature of chess combination and to the particular nature of key points on the board, where the strategic interests of both sides meet. Nevertheless, ultimately both those candidate-titles took a back seat to the priority of formulating structures.

In our day, when chess praxis and its dedicated literature obscure from us more and more the internal workings of chess itself, I submit for your judgment notes on a completely different plane. I shall undertake an attempt to combine some significant and characteristic phenomena on the chessboard into an integrated whole. Therefore, I invite my readers to have patience and, as far as possible, to read all the author’s reflections about various elements of chess strategy to the very end. It will be in the second part of this book that I shall be applying the basic conclusions I recommend in the first part, both in analysis and in practical play.

Every chessplayer will find it useful someday to decide on those objective processes that occur on the chessboard – either to adjust to them, making concrete decisions on how to play a variation – or to act solely on one’s own calculations and emotions. A lot will depend on the approach we take – for on the one hand, we acquire a reliable ally in the shape of the army we command; while on the other, by contrast, we will experience an undoubted material resistance in carrying out our plans. Based upon this, it is necessary from time to time to think about the nature of chess, comparing one’s views with those of other researchers.

In the pages of this work, we intend to carry on a conversation about many chess concepts that may seem very abstract and far removed from players’ real needs. But this would only be at first glance. A more careful understanding of all these terminological problems for practical players will open up additional perspectives and horizons.

Igor Zaitsev, shown here in September 2019 signing the frontispiece signature page for the limited, numbered, hardcover edition of this book.

For example, let’s consider for a moment just one question advanced by your author – the working hypothesis about the discrete chess advantage, and of the need to verify both its static and its dynamic forms. Such an alchemy directly determines the moment when the combination ought to begin, and as the attacker seizes the advantage, the defending side must direct all his efforts to searching out the existing means of salvation – which he must believe exists somewhere.

Owing to the latitude – and mostly to the novelty – of the problems we shall cover, your author found it difficult to follow a straight line of presentation for his material. My calculations intentionally left the bulk of the questions presented herein in need of both critical thinking and further development.

– Igor Zaitsev

Moscow 2020

Chapter One

Combinations

What do we really know about this thing called chess? Every time we start thinking about it generally, as a philosophical subject, it manages to seduce us, right from the start, with its entertaining playing side. But it is not just because of this temptation that this whole unchanging world of pure abstractions, with its inner laws – of which chess is a part – remains surprising and mysterious and, from the start, is open only to human reason.

This inhabitant, the creative Spirit, is unusual. A few well-thought-out piece movements, and the chessboard’s previously motionless space comes to life on our side, filled with active power. Thus, it puts in motion all sorts of chess mechanisms, many of which have acquired specific appellations, well known to all: the Légal’s Mate, the desperado rook, famous windmill, and so on.

From what source is this energy constantly scooped up? And why are some positions literally overflowing with it, while others – well, they are clearly lacking, are they not? In this section, we shall try to examine this important question through the prism of our main theme.

It is obvious enough that the function of this kind of perpetuum-mobile – securing a constant energy supply within the confines of the playing area – ensures the cumulative cooperation of the chess pieces. However, experience makes us doubt the infinite resources of this storehouse – every position sort of works out its own store from the reserves accessed.

But nevertheless, the matter turns out to be quite reparable, and an energy crisis can be avoided in time if we raise the level of piece cooperation to a higher level. The degree of cooperation in turn wavers and depends upon the player’s knowledge of how to wrest the optimal spaces for his own pieces. The well-placed piece, displaying maximum sociability, takes part as well in a greater number of chess operations, offering the player a greater choice of possibilities.

Piece Deployment and Harmony

Practically the entire process of a player’s training comes down, in large part, to perfecting his skill in piece deployment. This – the sense of harmony – is innate in the great masters of this ancient game, and in the world champions. It is as though it was installed in them at birth.

Ideally, the level of cooperation among one’s pieces will reach an extreme level – and then (it happens very rarely) total harmony comes about. Illustrations of such occurrences happen far more often in the treasures created in the composition of studies.

In a state of harmonious cooperation, the energy of a position is on a very high level, allowing us to create just about any idea corresponding to the present – strictly chess – reality. The major lever to elevate the level of piece cooperation, in our view, is the mechanism of structural improvement of the position – the transformative path that can lead to combinations on the chessboard.

Since the basic and distinguishing organic feature of the combination is the sacrifice of a portion of one’s chess material, then one should bear in mind that in apparently difficult positions (considering the numbers of fighting units involved), the combinations themselves might be correspondingly multi-leveled.

Paraphrasing the lofty expression that every piece of marble contains within itself a beautiful sculpture, one can say with no less confidence that every chess position – even the most nondescript one – potentially contains the seed of a beautiful combination. The difficult part is discovering it and extracting this brilliant pearl from its shell.

Thus, the master who executes a chess combination can rival the actions of the navigators of those first balloon