FIDE Surveys – Jacob Aagard

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Jacob Aagard:

Intuition – Three building
Blocks

Let us start with three small exercises.

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Whether I work with small children who
cannot see that the pieces can be taken
(occasionally this includes the king) or if I
work with top 100 grandmasters, I have
found that there is always a basic
component that can be improved – and this
is our basic intuition about what is required
in a position. In this article I will try to
present the method I use for strengthening
the intuition of these players by directing
their focus. I wrote a whole book on this:
Grandmaster Preparation – Positional
Play, which contains a number of
examples and 222 positional exercises.
But first I want to define narrowly what I
mean by intuition here – or to be precise, I
want to make clear that I do not talk about
pattern recognition. Obviously pattern
recognition is a great part of our intuitive
arsenal and a study of chess history is
essential for anyone wanting to achieve
mastery in chess. But here I am simply
talking about intuitive focus.
In my observation there are three factors
that are at play in almost all positions:
which is weaknesses, piece activity and the
opponent’s ideas and threats. Basically
weaknesses represent the static aspect of
chess, the pieces represent dynamics and
the opponent makes every second move.
Though chess is obviously far more
complicated, the value of the students learn
to look at these factors cannot be
understood. And as with riding a bicycle,
we need to start with doing it consciously
again and again, before it becomes second
nature and happens in a less forced way or
almost automatic.
So, in order to train intuition, I developed a
method of asking three simple questions,
inspired by psychological processes I had
read about. The basic proposition is that
we have far more answers inside us than
we can usually access. The problem is to
know what the question is. But in order for
a training method to be useful, the
questions need to be unchanged. Therefore
I ended up with:
1. Where are the weaknesses?
2. Which is the worst placed piece?

FIDE Surveys – Jacob Aagard

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3. What is your opponent’s idea?
While working with my students, I ask
these questions again and again, as well as
request them to do so when they work with
their homework. When we then look at the
training positions together (or their games
for that sake), we have a good chance of
discussing what weaknesses are, the
creating of them, fixing them and so on.
The same with piece activity and dynamic
principles, such as expand a lead in
development or lose it, give all the pieces a
function and so on. These are so basic that
we at times forget to talk about them with
our students, but because they are so basic,
they are very important. (I am a deep
believer in importing principles and
lessons from other sports or fields into
chess training, as well as exporting them,
and in many sports you find a recurring
focus on getting the basics absolutely right.
In chess I think Magnus Carlsen has
mastered this, though how he got there is
not public knowledge).
Finally there is prophylactic thinking. We
all teach this to our students, so I will not
push it here.
Let’s take a look at the three exercises:

Potkin V. : Andreikin D.
Moscow 2012

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Most strong players would find the best
move here very quickly; probably see it
without really knowing why. Because I
have gone through these three questions
more than 10,000 times, I am quite

onscious of the weakness I immediately
feel on the dark squares, because of how
the white knights are positioned. From
there it takes only seconds before the
combination has been discovered.
White’s idea of Nd2-c4 and the fact that
Black has not developed his queenside
comes in as less important information. It
is good to know, but makes little difference
for our choice of move.
9...Ng4! 10.Bxg4
10.d5 with a slight edge for White is the
curious computer suggestion. This is
nonsense. After 10...Nxe3 11.fxe3 a5
Black is at least slightly better! At least the
computer chooses the right moves; here for
once, it got it wrong...
10...Bxg4 11.Qxg4 exd4 12.Bf4
Potkin decides to use his lead in
development before it disappears.
However, his position cannot bear it. Still
it is an understandable gamble.
12.Bxd4 Bxd4 13.Nc4 Nd7 14.Rad1 Bc5 is
nice for Black as well.
12...dxc3 13.Nc4?!
13.bxc3 Nd7 14.Qg3 Ne5 is slightly better
for Black.
13...cxb2 14.Rab1 Qd7 15.Qxd7 Nxd7
16.Bxd6 Rfe8
Black has a clear edge, but failed to win
the endgame, which was eventually drawn
on move 70.

Anish Giri – Levon Aronian
Istanbul (ol) 2012

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The pawn on d4 is weak and the pawns on

FIDE Surveys – Jacob Aagard

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b2 and c5 are potential weaknesses later
on. White is intending Nc3-e4-d6. Black's
worst piece by far is the bishop on c8 (and
White's the knight on b1).
All of this inspires Black to strike at the
main weakness with a pawn sacrifice that
opens up the position before White has
managed to get his pieces out. From
looking passive and about to be behind in
development, Black becomes very active
and solves his structural problems (the
pawns were making the c8-bishop bad).
The pawn is regained soon enough.
18...e5!! 19.d5
19.dxe5 Qe7 20.f4 (20.Nc3 is possible
better, but Black has solved all his
problems and should be looking for a way
to play for an advantage.) 20...Rd8!
19...f5?!
19...cxd5 followed by ...Qe7, when White
would find the c5-pawn and the b2-pawn
to be unpleasantly weak.
20.dxc6 e4 21.cxb7 Bxb7 22.c6 Ba6

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23.Qb3?!
Passive play is not a good idea in a
position like this, where your opponent
seems to be holding all the trumps.
23.c7!? was better it seems. After 23...Qe7
24.Qc6 e3 25.Kh1 exf2 26.Nc3 the
position is desperately unclear.
23...Rc8 24.Nc3 Rxc6 25.Nd5 Bc5!
26.Bf1 f4 27.Nxf4 Bxf2+ 28.Kh1 Rb6
29.Qc2 e3
Black's advantage is colossal and lead to a
victory on move 48.

This example is taken from the book. One
critic did not fully understand why the c8-
bishop and the b1-knight were worse
placed that the rooks in the corner.
Elsewhere in the book this is explained,
but most reviewers never read the whole
thing... The knight and bishop are not only
without a function (as are the rooks), they
are also in the way! For this reason it is
practical to get the minor pieces out first.
The critic also disliked that the d4-pawn is
weak, but not won. This is typical for those
who believe only in variations to apply a
limited point of view to those who talk
about ideas. I see it again and again: they
say that we are dogmatic and stupid and
afterwards criticise us for it.
The ...e5 break works because d4 is weak.
Black’s reward is dynamic, using a static
feature.

Hou Yifan – Ruan Lufei
Jermuk 2012

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For some reason all my students are
attracted to advancing the h-pawn. I really
cannot understand it, as this pawn can only
become a weakness, while at the moment it
beautifully supports the g2-g4 advance, for
which White's pieces are ideally placed.
Still this is also what the World Champion
played, so my lack of understanding might
be a general weakness with me, even if the
move is no good here?
26.h4?

FIDE Surveys – Jacob Aagard

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The correct move was 26.f4!, where White
is on a roll after either 26...Nf7 27.Ne3 g6
28.g4!

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with the idea 28...fxg4 29.f5! and White
wins.
Or 26...Ne4 27.Bxe4! (Maybe it was
giving up this bishop that distressed my
students, now the f5-pawn is so weak?
Well, exchanges should historically be
judged by which pieces remains and not
which are exchanged. Looking at it like
this, hopefully all would like the
blockading knight over the bad bishop?)
27...fxe4 28.Ne3 Rf8 29.Rf1 g6 30.g4

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White's advantage is devastating.
26...Ne4 27.Qh3 Bd7 28.Rbc1 Qf7
29.Qe3
From this point Hou Yifan outplays her
opponent brutally.

29...Nf6?!
Black would have done better with 29...a5!
when after 30.bxa5 Ra8 31.f3 f4 32.Qe2
Nd6! the position is unbalanced and even.
30.Qf3 Ng4?
30...Ne4 31.Qf4 a5 32.bxa5 c5 33.dxc5
Nxc5 34.Ne3.
31.Qf4 h5 32.Ng3
32.Nd2!? Re7 33.Nf3 Rf8 34.Ng5 Qg6
35.Nh3±.
32...Rf8?
32...Rb6! 33.Ne2 Rf8 34.g3 Rg6 35.f3 Nh6
36.Qd2 Re8 37.Nf4±.
33.f3 Nh6 34.Qg5+- Be8 35.e6 Qg6
36.Re5 c6

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37.Ne2!
37.Bxf5 Nxf5 38.Nxf5 Kh7±.
37...Kh7?! 38.Nf4 Qxg5 39.hxg5 Ng8
40.e7 1:0.

As with all training methods, the three
questions are limited. My idea is limited: I
want to have a tool to talk about essentials,
to train the understanding of essentials and
to systematically direct their focus. It has
helped quite a number of players to
progress and I warmly recommend this as a
training system for other trainers. But
please do not teach your students to ask
these questions 50 times during a game.
They will be locked up within a month and
you will have lost a source of income!