Compensation (chess)
Template:Short description In chess, compensation is the typically short-term positional advantages a player gains in exchange for typically Template:Chessgloss disadvantage. Short-term advantages involve initiative and Template:Chessgloss. Template:AN chess
Forms
Compensation can include:
- Better pawn structure.
- The "two bishops", or "bishop pair", which refers to having bishops of both colors while your opponent does not. Almost all modern players consider having both bishops as an advantage, although historically there has been great debate as to how much of an advantage they constitute. The two bishops are most likely to show their power in the endgame.
- Better piece Template:Chessgloss and/or better Template:Chessgloss (common in gambits).
- Having the enemy king exposed to future attack, either due to a loss of pawn cover or being trapped in the center of the board, is often excellent compensation.
- Passed pawns are often decisive in the endgame. Connected and/or protected passed pawns are even more deadly.
- Control over key squares, Template:Chessgloss, Template:Chessgloss, or Template:Chessgloss.
Examples
Polugaevsky versus Evans
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Spassky versus Fischer
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A famous 1960 game between future world champions Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer began with a King's Gambit opening.[2] White sacrifices a pawn on his second move:
- 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. h4 g4 5. Ne5
reaching the position shown (first diagram). Fischer examines an alternate fifth move for Black:
- 5... h5 6. Bc4 Rh7 7. d4 d6 8. Nd3 f3 9. gxf3 Be7 10. Be3 Bxh4+ 11. Kd2 Bg5 12. f4 Bh6 13. Nc3
reaching the position shown (second diagram), where Fischer explains "White has more than enough compensation for the pawn." Template:Harvcol
The bishop pair
Possession of the Template:Chessgloss often yields long-term compensation for sacrificed material.
Berthelot versus Flear
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Balashov versus Quinteros
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Bishops of opposite colors
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See also
References
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Bibliography
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