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39-580: The Najdorf begins: Black's 5...a6 aims to deny the b5-square to White's knights and light-square bishop while maintaining flexible development . If Black plays 5...e5 ?! immediately, then after 6.Bb5+ ! Bd7 (or 6...Nbd7 7.Nf5) 7.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 (or Qxd7) 8.Nf5, the knight on f5 is difficult to dislodge without concessions. Games in the Najdorf frequently feature opposite-side castling, where White castles long and both sides launch simultaneous attacks on their opponents' kings. Black usually plans

78-466: A queenside minority attack to pressure White's e4-pawn. This is often carried out by means of ...b5, ...Bb7, and placing a knight on d5, or c4 via b6. Players began experimenting with 5...a6 in the 1920s, often transposing to the Scheveningen after a subsequent ...e6. The Czech chess master Karel Opočenský was among the first to combine 5...a6 with ...e5, and in an attempt to have

117-424: A bishop, a knight is often not as good in an endgame. A knight can exert control over only one part of the board at a time and often takes multiple moves to reposition to a new location, which often makes it less suitable in endgames with pawns on both sides of the board. This limitation is less important, however, in endgames with pawns on only one side of the board. Knights are superior to bishops in an endgame if all

156-514: A king, the game is a draw since a checkmate is impossible. When a lone king faces a king and two knights, a checkmate can never be forced ; checkmate can occur only if the opponent commits a blunder by moving their king to a square where it can be checkmated on the next move. Checkmate can be forced with a bishop and knight , however, or with two bishops, even though the bishop and knight are in general about equal in value. Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if

195-410: A queen and a knight is usually a better combination than a queen and a bishop. However, Glenn Flear found no game of Capablanca's that supported his statement; statistics do not support the statement, either. In an endgame without other pieces or pawns, two knights generally have a better chance of forming a drawing fortress against a queen than do two bishops or a bishop and a knight. Compared to

234-438: A simultaneous pawn storm on opposite sides of the board. This approach has become the modern mainline and is seen regularly at the highest level. The main move. In the early days of the Najdorf 7.Qf3 was popular, but the reply 7...h6 did not allow White to obtain any advantage. Nowadays, White players almost universally respond with the move: 7.f4. White threatens 8.e5, but Black has several options: Historically speaking, this

273-418: Is on a white square and it is White's turn to move, White cannot win. Similarly, if the knight were on a black square and it were Black's turn to move, White cannot win. In the other two cases, White would win. If instead of the knight, White had a bishop on either color of square, White would win with either side to move. In an endgame where one side has only a king and a knight while the other side has only

312-699: Is relevant in some mathematical problems . For example, the knight's tour problem is the problem of finding a series of moves by a knight on a chessboard in which every square is visited exactly once. Even among sets of the standard Staunton pattern, the style of the pieces varies. The knights vary considerably. Here are some examples. Unicode defines three codepoints for a knight: ♘ U+2658 White Chess Knight ♞ U+265E Black Chess Knight 🨄 U+1FA04 Neutral Chess Knight Veniamin Sozin Veniamin Innokentevich Sozin ( Russian : Вениамин Иннокентьевич Созин , 1896–1956)

351-452: Is sometimes referred to as the "Sozin–Najdorf". While this line may transpose into a classical Sozin Attack, Black has other options, for example he may choose to develop the queen's knight to d7. This line was also favoured by Fischer, who frequently followed it up with an immediate 7.Bb3. In 1925, Sozin published analysis of the move 11...Nxe5 (rather than the previously played 11...axb5) in

390-399: Is the keima of shogi , which moves like a knight but can move only two squares forward followed by one square sideways, restricting its movement to two possible squares. The knight is colloquially sometimes referred to as a "horse", which is also the translation of the piece's name in several languages: Spanish caballo , Italian cavallo , Russian конь , etc. Some languages refer to it as

429-401: The center of the board, where they have up to eight moves, and weakest in a corner, where they have only two. Enemy pawns are effective at harassing knights because a pawn attacking a knight is not itself attacked by the knight and, because a pawn is worth less than a knight, it does not matter if the knight is defended. For this reason, a knight is effective when placed in a weakness in

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468-548: The Sicilian Defence, Classical Variation . Sozin was not the first to play this move – examples can be found dating back to the 19th century; however, he was one of the first to develop the plan of advancing the f-pawn to f5 to put pressure on Black's e6-square after the usual response 6...e6. Sozin played this line during the 1930s, and it became popular from the 1950s, when it was frequently employed by Bobby Fischer . Fischer refined and advanced its theory, leading to

507-531: The "jumper", reflecting the knight's ability to move over pieces in its path: Polish skoczek , Danish/Norwegian springer , Swedish springare , German Springer , Luxembourgish Sprénger , Slovene skakač . In Sicilian it is called sceccu , a slang term for a donkey , derived from the Arabic sheikh , who during the Islamic period rode from village to village on donkeys collecting taxes. The knight

546-424: The 1930s, this received little attention until Fischer regularly adopted it, and it was a frequent guest at the top level through the 1970s. White plays 6.Bc4 with the idea of playing against f7, so Black usually counters with 6...e6 7.Bb3 b5. The Sozin has become less popular because of 7...Nbd7 where Black intends to follow up with ...Nc5 later. It is possible to avoid the 7...Nbd7 option with 7.0-0, but this cuts out

585-491: The Amsterdam Variation, leading to a more defensive kingside pawn structure. The idea is to eventually counterattack on the g1–a7 diagonal with a move like ...Qb6, preventing White from castling. An example line would be 6...g6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.a4 Nc6 (note 8...Nc6 as opposed to the usual Najdorf ...Nbd7, as c6 is a more flexible square for the knight with a queen on b6) 9.Bd3 Qb6. Introduced by Weaver Adams during

624-721: The Black's move 6...e5. Garry Kasparov would often transpose to the Scheveningen (6...e6) to avoid this problem when the two competed for the World Championships. In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of English players ( John Nunn , Nigel Short, and Murray Chandler ) began using an approach previously tried against other Sicilian variations, such as the Dragon. The English Attack, named for them, involves 6.Be3, and often leads to opposite-side castling with both sides launching

663-490: The Lipnitzky/Fischer Attack (6.Bc4) for much of his career. He won numerous games with it as White, though in the following years counterattacking approaches were found for Black that led to its decline, though a modern variation (7...Nbd7) caused a resurgence and it appeared in the 1993 PCA World Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short . Anatoly Karpov faced the Najdorf many times with

702-438: The aggressive possibility of castling long. Because of the success of various players with these variations, White often plays 6.Be2 and goes for a quieter, more positional game, whereupon Black has the option of transposing into a Scheveningen Variation by playing 6...e6 or keeping the game in Najdorf lines by playing 6...e5. Another option is to play 6...Nbd7. Some lines include: GM Daniel King recommends 6...g6 against

741-488: The alternative name "Fischer–Sozin Attack". While the classic Sozin involves kingside castling, another important continuation called the Velimirovic Attack involves the setup 7.Be3, 8.Qe2, 9.0-0-0 with a view to initiating a sharp attack on Black's kingside. A similar line may be played against the Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation , in which Black plays 5...a6 rather than 5...Nc6; in this case 6.Bc4

780-527: The chess starting position. Knights and bishops, also known as minor pieces , have a value of about three pawns . Bishops utilize a longer range, but they can move only to squares of one color. The knight's value increases in closed positions since it can jump over blockades. Knights and bishops are stronger when supported by other pieces (such as pawns) to create outposts and become more powerful when they advance, as long as they remain active . Generally, knights are strongest in

819-453: The e4-pawn, since ...b4 is a threat. It was not until early 2008 that an answer to Black was finally found. After 9.0-0 b4, White has the positional sacrifice 10.Nd5!, which gives Black long-term weaknesses and an open e-file for White to play on. Since then, it has been popular on all levels of play. A notable feature of the Najdorf is the sheer amount of potential white replies - Grandmasters have played 22 different responses to 5...a6. Beside

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858-527: The game of chess , represented by a horse's head and neck. It moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically, jumping over other pieces. Each player starts the game with two knights on the b- and g- files , each located between a rook and a bishop . Compared to other chess pieces, the knight's movement is unique: it moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically (with both forming

897-490: The hands of the Najdorf Variation." So from then on he played something else. A Ruy Lopez as Black, something classic in which the other had to know how to play chess to beat him. 6.Bg5 is an aggressive attempt by White to refute the opening and was regarded as the main line until the 1980s when its use began to decline. Bobby Fischer, who called the Najdorf "one of the greatest creations in chess theory", favoured

936-460: The king); in descriptive chess notation , Kt is sometimes used instead, mainly in older literature. In chess problems and endgame studies , the letter S , standing for Springer , the German name for the piece, is often used (and in some variants of fairy chess , N is used for the nightrider , a popular fairy chess piece ). The knight has the oldest defined movement of any chess piece. It

975-474: The main lines mentioned above, 6.f3, 6.g3, and 6.a4 are also respected responses to the Najdorf. Moves such as 6.Bd3, 6.Qf3, 6.Rg1 (the Petronic Attack), 6.Nb3, 6.a3, 6.h4, 6.Qe2, 6.Qf3, and 6.Qd3 are rarely played, but are not considered bad and may be used for surprise value. Other very rare moves include 6.g4, 6.Nf3, 6.b3, 6.Qd2, and 6.Bd2. Knight (chess) The knight (♘, ♞) is a piece in

1014-485: The middle of the twentieth century, this odd-looking pawn move has mostly been used as a surprise weapon to combat the Najdorf. Should Black continue with 6...e5 anyway, White can respond with 7.Nde2 following up with g4 and Ng3, fighting for the weak light squares by playing g5. It is thus recommended that Black prevents g4 altogether with 7...h5. Black can also employ a Scheveningen set-up with 6...e6 followed by 7.g4 b5 8.Bg2 Bb7, forcing White to lose more time by defending

1053-445: The opponent's pawn structure , i.e. a square which cannot be attacked by enemy pawns. In the diagram, White's knight on d5 is very powerful – more powerful than Black's bishop on g7. Whereas two bishops cover each other's weaknesses, two knights tend not to cooperate with each other as efficiently. As such, a pair of bishops is usually considered better than a pair of knights. World Champion José Raúl Capablanca considered that

1092-424: The opposing king is trapped in a corner in front of its own pawn, it is possible to force mate with only a king and knight in a pattern known as Stamma 's mate, which has occasionally been seen in practice. In the position below, from Nogueiras –Gongora, Cuban championship 2001, Black played 75...Nxf6 ?? , incorrectly assuming that the ending would be drawn following the capture of the last white pawn on a2. (Correct

1131-406: The pawns are on one side of the board. Furthermore, knights have the advantage of being able to control squares of either color, unlike a lone bishop. Nonetheless, a disadvantage of the knight (compared to the other pieces) is that by itself it cannot lose a move to put the opponent in zugzwang (see triangulation and tempo ), while a bishop can. In the position pictured on the right, if the knight

1170-460: The seventh or the fourteenth. So then, being a practical person, he thought 'if you have to do something at 7:00AM or at 9:00 or at 10:00, better do it as soon as you get up, and get it over with'. Ironically, Najdorf would abandon the variation later when the theory developed to become very sophisticated: "Here comes some kid who's memorized the moves and he kills me. He arrives with his books, he gets me into something I don't know and Najdorf dies at

1209-405: The shape of a capital L ). Consequently, a knight alternates between light and dark squares with each move. When moving, the knight can jump over pieces to reach its destination. Knights capture in the same way, replacing the enemy piece on the square and removing it from the board. A knight can have up to eight available moves at once. Knights and pawns are the only pieces that can be moved in

Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-411: The variation named after him, claimed to have shown it to Miguel Najdorf himself. However, Najdorf was a stronger player and, with the help of other strong Argentine players in the 1950s, deepened the analysis of the opening. He played it as early as 1937. it was Miguel who realized that in this position the move 5...a6 was always useful for Black. If it is not played on the fifth move it will be played on

1287-402: The weaker side has a single extra pawn, but this is a curiosity of little practical value (see two knights endgame ). Pawnless endgames are a rarity, and if the stronger side has even a single pawn, an extra knight should give them an easy win. A bishop can trap (although it cannot then capture) a knight on the rim (see diagram), especially in the endgame. In a few rare endgame positions where

1326-472: The white pieces, and frequently opted for the Classical/Opočenský Variation (6.Be2) (inspired by Efim Geller, who acted as Karpov’s second). The Classical Variation aims to castle kingside for a more positional game, which suited Karpov's style. He contributed both to the theory and the popularity of the variation while at his peak, finding ways to exploit the weakness of the d5-square created by

1365-410: Was 75...Ne3 ! 76.Kg6 Ng4 77.Kg7 and now 77...Nxf6! may be safely played, the king being sufficiently distant). Play continued 76.Nxf6 Ke5 77.Nd7+ Kd4 78.Kf4 Kc3 79.Ke3 Kb2 80.Kd2 Kxa2 81.Kc2 Ka1 82.Nc5 Ka2 83.Nd3 Ka1 84.Nc1 and Black resigned, as 84...a2 85.Nb3 is mate. In algebraic notation, the usual modern way of recording chess games, the letter N stands for the knight ( K is reserved for

1404-423: Was a Soviet chess master , writer, and theoretician. Sozin was an active player during the 1920s and 1930s, competing in four Soviet chess championships . Following the third Soviet Championship in 1924, in which he finished a creditable ninth with a score of 9/17, Sozin was awarded the title of Master of Sport; however, he was unable to maintain this level of performance, and was one of several players whose title

1443-466: Was first introduced in the Indian game of chaturanga around the 6th century; it has not changed since. Pieces similar to the knight are found in almost all games of the chess family. The ma of xiangqi and janggi is slightly more restricted; conceptually, the piece is considered to pass through the adjacent orthogonal point, which must be unoccupied, rather than "jumping". Another related piece

1482-712: Was revoked in 1935. Sozin was a noted chess theorist and writer, contributing many articles to the Moscow magazine Shakhmatny Vestnik and writing two books. Among Sozin's contributions to opening theory , the Sicilian Sozin Attack and Semi-Slav Sozin Variation bear his name. The Sozin Attack (also known as the Sozin Variation or the Fischer–Sozin Attack) consists of the move 6.Bc4 against

1521-715: Was the usual reply until the mid-1960s, when the rejoinder 7.Bc4 put the move "out of business". Recently, however, the line has seen a resurgence in high-level play. The idea for Black is to postpone ...e6 to retain more dynamic options (for example, to play ...e7–e5 in one move). The most important developments include: This has become the modern main line. Since the early 1990s, the English Attack, 6.Be3 followed by f3, g4, Qd2 and 0-0-0 in some order, has become extremely popular and has been intensively analysed. Four lines are then usual for Black: Introduced by Veniamin Sozin in

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