Chess

THE OLD tale of a man who was left a fortune on the sole condition that he never captured a b-pawn with his queen is purely apocryphal. Yet dozens of games, if not fortunes, continue to be lost by unjustifiable pawn hunts. Once White's bishop has wandered away from c1, the temptation to play Qb6 and Qxb2 can be hard to resist.

Over 200 years ago, Philidor proposed an exchange rate of three useful developing moves for one pawn to cover cases of pawn-grabbing. So when Black plays Qb6 and Qxb2, then has to take another two moves to get his queen back in play, he oversteps Philidor's bounds.

So why did Fischer spend so many years profitably picking poisoned pawns in the Najdorf Sicilian? After 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4, how could he get away with 7 . . . Qb6 8. Qd2 Qxb2? The answer requires a higher level of understanding of the principles of pawn pinching.

With 7 . . . Qb6, Black asserts that White's 6. Bg5 and 7. f4 comprise a positional mistake. By moving his bishop from c1, then cutting off its retreat, White has left his Q-side black squares without their most important defender. In playing Qb6 and Qxb2, Black undermines the knight on c3 and prepares a quick counter-attack on the a5-e1 diagonal. Black's play is dictated by sound positional principles as well as mere greed.

In the following miniature, from last month's Manhattan international, Black killed himself with two doses of the poison. 9 . . . Qxb2 might have been playable, but 12 . . . Nxe4 definitely was not. At the end 14 . . . Rc8 15. Nb6 or 14 . . . 0-0-0 15. Rc7+ both lose a piece.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: A Soltis ----------------------------------------------------------------- Black: N Vulicevic ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 e4 c5 8 Ba4 Bd7 2 Nf3 d6 9 Be3 Qxb2 3 d4 cxd4 10 Nde2 Qb4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 11 Rb1 Qa5 5 Nc3 Nc6 12 Rxb7 Nxe4 6 Bc4 Qb6 13 Qd5] Qxd5 7 Bb5 a6 14 Nxd5 1-0 -----------------------------------------------------------------