FIDE Surveys – Georg Mohr

1

Georg Mohr:
Strategic prevention

Chess prevention is one of the most
important parts of strategic play in chess.
This doesn’t apply for chess only but also
for life in general. To foresee possible
negative outcomes and to protect ourselves
from them or at least to lower their effects
is simpler than having to deal with the
consequences. It is the same in chess. One
of the first chess players, who started to
think this way and who presented and
explained the concept of chess prophylaxis
to the world was the famous Aaron
Nimzowitsch. He used to say: » Neither
attack nor defense is the essence of
positional play, but prophylaxis. «
The knowledge about preventive play is
wide. Many famous trainers and chess
writers were and are still researching this
field. Preventive play has numerous shapes
and numerous technical approaches. It can
be roughly divided into three major fields
(Mikhalchishin):
a) elementary prevention,
b) foreseeing and preventing tactical
threats,
c) foreseeing and preventing strategic
threats.
The first two are strongly connected and
easier to understand. This time we will
stop at so-called strategic preventive play.
Strategic prevention
There is no doubt that strategic prevention
is the hardest among all. Many great chess
players from the past and present mastered
this element, let me mention just
Nimzowitsch, Petrosian and Karpov, who
were writing whole chapters on this theme
and inspiring whole generations of chess
players.
There are many motifs known and here are
the most important ones:
- restricting the activity of opponent’s
pieces;
- strengthening good squares for our own
pieces;
- preventing unfavorable exchanges or on
the contrary making favorable exchanges;

- play for strong square;
- prevention of weakening a pawn
structure;
- battle with moves, which would free the
opponent;
- preventing the opponent from gaining too
much space;
- prevention of opponent’s pawn mobility
in the center or on the flank;
- blockade of opponent’s pawn structure;
- making opponent’s development
difficult;
- placement of inaccessible position etc.
In the next game Petrosian managed to
combine some small preventive elements
into a magnificent whole. Improving the
position of his own pieces, exchanging his
bad pieces for the opponent’s good pieces
on time, preventing threats in advance –
these are some of the techniques that 9

th

World Champion mastered.

Diez del Corral : Petrosian,
Palma de Mallorca 1969

XIIIIIIIIY
9rsnl+-+k+0
9zp-wq-snrzpp0
9-zp-+p+-+0
9+-+pzPp+-0
9-+-zP-+-+0
9zP-+L+-wQ-0
9-+PvLNzPPzP0
9tR-+-+RmK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

A typical position from The French
Defence, where White attacks on the
kingside and Black searches for his
possibilities on the queenside.
13...La6!
A correct move. White’s central pawns are
placed on the dark squares. That is why the
exchange of the light-squared bishops is
good for Black!
14.h4 Ld3 15.cd3 Sbc6 16.Le3 Dd7
17.Sf4 Sg6!
Petrosjan was known for his simple and
efficient play. He knew exactly which

FIDE Surveys – Georg Mohr

2

pieces to exchange and which ones to leave
on the board.
18.Sg6 hg6 19.Df4
19.Dg6 is bad because of 19...f4 20.Ld2
Sd4 and Black’s position is great.
19...De8 20.g3 Tc7
Black’s position is now perfectly safe.
Now follows an action on the queenside.
21.Kg2 Df7 22.Th1
White is trying with the opening of the h
line. A correct plan.
22...Kf8!
The start of the maneuver, with which
Black will move his king to the safer
queenside.
23.Dg5 Ke8 24.Tac1 Kd7 25.h5 gh5
26.Th5 Tg8 27.Th7 Kc8 28.Dh4 Dg6
29.Th8 Th8 30.Dh8 Kb7 0:1.
Black’s king is safe on b7. White has not
enough material for the attack and he will
be left with a worse endgame. Petrosjan
later on won the game with no troubles.
A great game of Petrosjan! Most likely you
will ask yourselves where White made a
mistake. There was no obvious mistake,
only Black extraordinarily understood the
position. He exchanged only the pieces,
which he needed to exchange and he
slowly took over the control.
We can see this kind of defence only with
the greatest chess masters!
When we play for restriction of the
opponent’s pieces the knight is most of the
time the main target, due to being the least
mobile piece.

Geller : Mikhalchishin, Tbilisi 1978

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9r+-+-trk+0
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9pzpn+p+p+0
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9+-+R+R+K0
xiiiiiiiiy

1.Nc6! Bc6 2.Qc4! Rfc8

All other moves would lose immediately:
2...Rac8 3.Qa6 or 2...Bc5 3.Bc6 Be3 4.Rd7
Qc8 5.Ne4.
3.Qc6 Qc6 4.Bc6 Rc6 5.Rd7 Re8 6.g4!±
A classical move against the »fianchetto«
knight (or b2-b4 against the b7). Until the
end of the game black’s knight will only be
a helpless observer and white will direct all
his energy into this element.
6…h5 7.h3 hg4 8.hg4 b5
Black is searching for counter play with his
only active piece. Geller was very precise
in calculation.
9.ab5 ab5 10.Ne4! Rc2 11.Nf6 Bf6 12.ef6
The knight is lost and with it also the
game.
12…Rb2 13.fg7 f5 14.Rf3
With idea Rh3.
14...fg4
Or 14...Ra8 15.Ba7.
15.Rf4 Re2 16.Bc5 1:0.
Some years ago the world was fascinated
by the idea of World Champion Garry
Kasparov:

Kasparov : Shirov, Horgen 1994

XIIIIIIIIY
9r+-wqk+-tr0
9+l+n+pzpp0
9p+-zp-vl-+0
9+-+Nzp-+-0
9R+-+P+-+0
9+-zP-+-+-0
9-zPN+-zPPzP0
9+-+QmKL+R0
xiiiiiiiiy

16.Rb4! Nc5 17.Rb7! Nb7 18.b4
The idea behind this positional sacrifice is
simple: a play for restriction of the
»fianchetto« knight!
18…Bg5 19.Na3 0–0 20.Nc4 a5 21.Bd3!
ab4 22.cb4 Qb8 23.h4 Bh6 24.Ncb6

Later on white converted his positional
advantage into a whole point.
In some positions a player can also play for
restriction of a much more mobile bishop.

FIDE Surveys – Georg Mohr

3

Instructive example:

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9-+-tr-+k+0
9zpp+q+pzpp0
9-+-+-snl+0
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9zP-+-+P+-0
9-vLQ+LzP-zP0
9+R+-+-+K0
xiiiiiiiiy

1.Bf6! gf6 2.Rd1 Qe7 3.Rd8 Qd8 4.f4! h6
5.f5 Bh7
And the bishop will not get out from the
hole until the end of the game.
How great Grandmasters deal with this
kind of situations was shown to us many
years ago by the 3

rd

World Champion Jose

Raul Capablanca.

Winter : Capablanca, Hastings 1919

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9r+lwq-trk+0
9zppzp-+pzp-0
9-+-vl-sn-zp0
9+-zpNzp-+-0
9-+-+P+-vL0
9+-+P+N+-0
9PzPP+-zPPzP0
9tR-+Q+RmK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

Who would have thought that white is
already lost in this seemingly simple
position!
10…g5! 11.Nf6 Qf6 12.Bg3 Bg4! 13.h3
Bf3 14.Qf3 Qf3 15.gf3
And the dark-squared bishop was
helplessly observing the situation on the
other flank until the end of the game.
Sometimes, though rarely, we can also
play for restriction of the most powerful
piece, the queen.

Grigorian : Sakharov, Voronez 1969

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9-tr-+ntrk+0
9+-+lwqpvlp0
9-+-zp-+pvL0
9zpn+Pzp-+P0
9-zp-+P+P+0
9+-+L+PsN-0
9PzP-wQN+-+0
9mK-+R+-+R0
xiiiiiiiiy

20…Bh6! 21.Qh6 g5!
Black will not win the queen, but he will
exclude her from the play.
22.Bb5 Rb5!
The bishop is protecting the f5 square: if
23.Nf5 Bf5 24.gf5 f6!
23.Rc1 f6 24.Nf5 Bf5 25.gf5 Rc5
White is basically playing without the
queen and black needs to be careful not to
let the queen out of the trap.
26.Rh1 Qa7 27.Rc5 Qc5
Not 27…dc5 28.d6.
28.f4 Qc2!
28…ef4 29.Nd4.
29.Rg1 Qe2 30.fg5 Qe3! 0:1.
Play for blockade of the whole flank can
be very effective. Usually we try to block
the opponent on one side of the board and
in the meantime prepare some action on
the other side.

Gufeld : Damjanovic, Skopje 1971

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9r+-+-trk+0
9+p+-zpp+p0
9-wq-zp-+p+0
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9+P+-+-zP-0
9PwQ-+PzPLzP0
9+-+-+RmK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

In front of us we can see a typical position,
which can emerge out of many openings.

FIDE Surveys – Georg Mohr

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White wants to start with the action against
the king – h2-h4-h5, but he doesn’t like
black’s counter play with Qb4 and a5-a4.
For this reason:
1.Rb1!
Magical move, which deals with the
opponent’s counter play instantly (After
1…Qb4 2.a3). It followed:
1…Rfc8 2.h4! Qd8 3.e4! Qf8 4.e5 de5
5.Qe5 e6 6.Rd2 Qg7 7.Qe3 Rab8 8.Rbd1
Qf6 9.Bf1!
One more prevention: defence of c4
square, white is preparing a3 and b4.
9...h5 10.a3 b6 11.b4 ab4 12.ab4 Na6
13.Qa3 Nc7 14.Bg2 Ne8 15.Qa7!
And for the third and last time, a
preventive move. White is protecting on c4
with the help of tactics and taking over the
control of the 7

th

rank.

15...Ng7 16.Bb7! Rd8 17.c5! bc5 18.bc5
Ne8 19.c6
And white won, 1:0.

Kramnik : Topalov, Novgorod 1997

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In similar positions we first need to ask
ourselves what our opponent wants. The
answer is not too difficult: a7-a5!, with
destruction of pawn structure on the
queenside or with opening of a file for the
rook. Is there some move, which can
prevent the blow a7-a5? Definitely:
20.Rb1!
Is preventing a7-a5 and at the same time
preparing its own pawns to advance,
maybe a3-a4.
20…b6?! 21.c5! b5 22.a4
And white took over the initiative and later
on turned it into whole a point. After the

game Kramnik stated that the move
20.Rb1was extremely difficult, even
though it is, once it is already played, quite
easily understandable.
Let’s also take a look at the game, which
can be found in numerous textbooks about
strategic play!

Tseshkovsky : Dvoretsky, Riga 1975

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9-vlr+r+k+0
9zp-+qsn-zpp0
9-+p+-zp-+0
9+-zPp+-+l0
9QzP-sN-+-+0
9+-+-vLN+P0
9P+-+-zPP+0
9+-tR-tR-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

On the diagram we can see an interesting
position, with which black (Dvorecky) was
comfortable with. It is threatening
21…Nf5, with an active play on the
kingside, which is offered by the bishop
pair. Next followed some wonderful quiet
moves, with which white took away from
black all possibilities of counter play!
21.Bd2!

Wonderful simplicity – 21…Nf5 doesn’t
work, because of 22.Re8 Re8 23.Qc6.
21…Bf3

Dvorecky later suggested 21...Bg6, with
idea Be4, but after 22.b5!? cb5 23.Qb5
Qb5 24.Nb5 and Nd6 white would be
much better.

22.Nf3 Ng6 23.Re8 Re8 24.Nd4 Ne5
With idea Nc4, Rc8, Be5.
25.Rd1!

Next wonderful prevention. Once again the
motif is the unprotected c6 pawn (after
25…Nc4 26.Qc6).
25…Rc8 26.Bf4!

White still doesn’t allow the jump on c4:
26...Nc4 27.Bb8 Rb8 28.Qc6.

26…Qb7
Or 26...Nf3 27.Nf3 Bf4 28.b5!
27.Qb3 a6 28.Re1 g6 29.Bg3 Kf7 30.Qe3
Qd7

FIDE Surveys – Georg Mohr

5

After 30...Qb4 31.f4, like in the game.
31.f4 Nc4 32.Qe6 Qe6 33.Re6 Nb2
34.Rc6 Rc6 35.Nc6 Bc7 36.Kf2
And white won the endgame, 1:0.

Conclusion
Preventive play is one of the most
important parts of strategic play. There is
no quick way of learning it. It requires a lot
of practical play and studying of many
examples. The knowledge about it is not
and can never be final, therefore I kindly
recommend chess players of all categories
and titles, including grandmaster title, to
study it.