Zugzwang is a position in which every move would make the position worse, and the player that has to move would be better off if he could pass and not move at all. But in chess no such thing as skipping a move is allowed. You are forced to move.
In the picture above whoever has to make a move loses.

We have seen some examples of zugzwang before:

• The Trébuchet was in fact a lesson about the mutual zugzwang.
• The game Fischer – Taimanov (1971) contains some zugzwangs.
• Opposition can be seen as an example of Zugzwang.
• And in fact most of the endgames that we have discussed before, like the mating with the rook, make use of this zugzwang concept.

Next lesson: Make a plan.

The following diagram is a nice example of deflection.

White threatens to promote the pawn, but then Black’s rook will capture the queened piece. Even worse: Black is also threatening to capture the pawn.
Happily for White he is able to play 53. Rg5 which prevents that the pawn can be captured (An absolute pin) and Blacks best move will be 53…Rxg5 after which Black will be able to promote 54. d8=Q.

If Black reacts to 53.Rg5 with the move 53…Kc6 then the next moves are 54.Rxd5 Kxd5 55.d8=Q+ wih an easy win for White (See mating with the queen).

In the next lesson we are going to storm the castle.

This word Zugzwang originates from the German and means something like “forced to move”. It is your move and in chess you have to move since you are not allowed to skip a move in chess.
Zugzwang isn’t something that happens to you. The concept can also be used by making a move which puts your opponent in zugzwang.
Getting the opposition is in fact a way to get your opponent in zugzwang. Another famous technique is triangulation in which you reach the same position, but with your opponent to move.

In some positions whoever is to move is in zugzwang. This kind of postions are referred to as mutual zugzwang or reciprocal zugzwang and are often very interesting postions to study, because these are a kind of balanced positions.

A famous example of this reciprocal zugzwang, called trébuchet, is shown in the figure above.
The player that has to move loses the game. The pawn has to be abandoned. The other player will capture this pawn and is also able to occupy a key square.
If you like to view the replayable moves belonging to this diagram you can find these at the end of this article.

In all four diagrams below Black is able to win the game, because he is able to force his opponent in this famous Zugzwang.

Let’s have a look at the last diagram and replay some of the moves.

Trebuchet

Before going to the game I show two positions in which the classical bishop sacrifice enables White to win the game.

Now we will continue with the famous game from Edgard Colle.

Greek_gift

Next lesson: The Rook and pawn vs Rook endgame.

I have added some capture exercises to this site. They are intended for the beginning chess player, but it is assumed that this chess player knows how the pieces move and also knows about the value of these pieces.
The exercises can be seen as a follow-up on this last one and the lesson about taking free pieces.

If White plays Bd5 then Black can just capture the bishop. In this specific case 33.Bd5 will probably be followed by 33…Nh3+ 34.Nxh3 Bxd5. But detecting this kind of alignment of pieces is still very important. Most of the time pieces are attacked and defended in order to create a kind of balance. This often enables us to replace a piece of the opponent with another piece. In the position of the diagram White is able to play 33.Nxe6. After 33…Nxe6 Black’s bishop is replace by a knight and now White is able to pin this knight by 34.Bd5. At first sight it may even seem that Black is able to defend this knight by playing 34…Kf7, but this will meet 35.Rce1.

Another example of such a replacement can be found in the next diagram.


The h-pawn is pinned and White is able to capture the rook, but the target piece is only a bishop. After 24.Qxg4 hxg4 25.Rxh6 White has gained nothing at all. If White first tries to replace the pieces by 24.Bxh6 Qxh6 then he can capture the rook 25.Qxg4 and now the target piece of the pin is a queen. After 24.Bxh6 Black doesn’t have to play 24…Qxh6, but then White still has captured the bishop for free.

Next lesson will be about Weak pawns.

Before I am going to write a lesson about this positioning of the opponent’s pieces I refer you to another site with some very interesting chess lessons, because it contains a lesson about Pushing the Enemy King into Line. The purpose of this lessons seems to be identical:

Our next task is to learn how to create that alignment when it doesn’t already exist. The principal tools we will use here are checks that push the king into a line with one of its fellow pieces, or that require an enemy piece to jump into line with its king to protect it. Or sometimes a capture may require a king to recapture and cause it to walk into a pin.

Therefor I am going to skip this lesson since a similar lesson exists at Chess Tactics Explained. This chess lessons site seems to be very interesting and consists of six chapters. These chapters deal with the following subjects:

1. Introduction
2. Double attack
3. Discovered attack
4. Pin and skewer
5. Removing the guard
6. Mating patterns

In addition to the on-line lessons a hard copy version of this site is available.
We continue with replacing a piece.

1. Remember the difference between an absolute and a relative pin.

An absolute pin

Black is not allowed to move the knight on c6.


A relative pin

Black is allowed to move the knight, but then (in this case) White will capture the queen.

See also the lesson about the pin.

 

2. The simple pin

Winning a piece

White is able to pin the knight by 32.Rd1 and can capture this knight on the next move 33.Rxd4+.

 

3. Attacking a pinned piece

In the diagram on the left White is able to pin the piece, but this piece can be defended by the b-pawn. White is still able to capture this piece, because he is able to attack the piece: 27.Bb4 b6 28.d4 Kg7 29.dxc5

See Attacking a pinned piece

 

4. A pinned piece isn’t a real defender

The knight is pinned.
This allows White to capture the rook: 26.Qxb7

See the A pinned piece cannot be counted as a defender lesson

 

Next we are going to pay some attention to Chess Tactics explained.

I have created some knight fork exercises, but before trying to solve these it may be a good idea to re-read the lessons mentioned above.

If you like some more exercises you may also be interested in the mate in one or mate in two problems.

Before reading further try to figure this out by yourself.

Looking at the candidate move 9.Nxe5 we have to conclude that we only have gained a pawn. The king is defending f7. This prevents the knight fork 10.Nxf7 attacking both the queen as well as the rook. More important: It is now Black’s turn to move and he can prevent our plan by playing 9…Qxd1.

Let’s have a look at the candidate move 9.Qxd8+. This move has to be followed by 9…Kxd8.
After 10.Nxe5 it seems that Black is still able to defend f7 by 10…Be6, but after 11.Bxe6 fxe6 we can play a succesfull 12.Nf7+.
After 10…Ke8 the line 11.Nxf7 Rf8 12.Ng5 is interesting, and we have to look at the possible knight fork at c7 after a move like Nb5.

Try to find this kind of combinations in your own games. If a combination doesn’t seem to work try to rearrange the order of the moves.

The next lesson is about the Evergreen Game.