Why You Should Be A Control Freak

Last week I wrote about the topic of risk in chess. This week, I want to talk about the related idea of control. Like risk, control is something that’s rarely covered in chess books, but that strong players are very aware of.

What do I mean by control? Essentially, there are two elements:

1. You are aware of what your opponent can do.

2. You are ready to meet it.

When you’re just starting out in chess, the idea of control doesn’t really make sense. It would be like trying to control the first game of paintball you ever play.

“Dude, there’s paint flying at me from all sides, what am I supposed to control?”

But as you advance to more of an intermediate level, the idea of control becomes more important, especially in games you’re winning. When you have the advantage, you want to collect the full point as often as possible, and part of that is not allowing the game to spiral into chaos.

This dynamic came into play in a game that Dan Bock shared in The Chess Gym where he nearly managed to take down a master. Dan is a software engineer who has gone from 1547 to 1900+ in his 40s. His post about how he did it is one of the best things I’ve read about making big strides as an adult with limited time. Definitely give it a read if you find yourself in the same situation.

Dan had outplayed his opponent in the opening and got to this dream position. Let’s break it down, because for less experienced players, it may not be obvious why Black’s position is so bad. There are two major problems with Black’s position:

1. The e6 pawn is backward and weak. A lot of Black’s pieces are tied down defending it.

2. The bishop on c8 is hemmed in by Black’s pawns.

But what makes these issues so dire is that Black has no advantages whatsoever to compensate for them. This type of scenario, where you have long term weaknesses and no counterplay, is something strong players try to avoid at all costs, because it makes you a sitting duck.

As White, I would consider Qe2, threatening to take the e-pawn immediately. If Black wants to defend it, he has to walk his king towards the center with Kf7, which looks dodgy.

But the thing is, I don’t know if I even want to take the pawn on e6. At the moment, it doesn’t seem to be doing anything besides blocking all of Black’s pieces. I might prefer to keep Black tied down to defending it while I gradually improve my position.

In such a position, I’m less concerned with winning – I can do that eventually – than with keeping Black in a state of total passivity. Does Black have any ideas in the position? The only thing I can see, though it’s not threatening at the moment, is to advance the f-pawn. So I would strongly consider playing f4 myself to rule out Black playing it, and clamp down on e5 even more. This isn’t in the computer’s top five moves, but for a human, ruling out the opponent’s only idea makes a lot of sense.

In the game Dan went with Re3, which I don’t love because it means now if Black plays f4 it will come with tempo.

20. R1e3 Bd7 21. Qc4 f4 

Here comes the f-pawn!

22. Re1 b5 23. Qc5 f3 24. g3 Qg4

What a difference four moves makes! We’ve gone from a position where White was in total control to chaos on the board. Black managed to advance the pawn to f3 and is threatening an imminent checkmate with Qh3 and Qg2#. Answering this threat is not a simple matter, in part because White’s queen has drifted over to the queenside.

Yet over these four moves, the engine evaluation has increased from +2 to +3. The engine evaluation is based exclusively on its mainline (what it considers best play for both sides). Other possibilities do not factor in whatsoever, except to the extent that they’ve been judged as inferior to the mainline. So the engine doesn’t care if it has ten moves to keep an advantage, or a narrow path of only moves. From its perspective, it makes no difference. But from a human perspective those scenarios are very different!

This makes the engine a poor tool for understanding the idea of control. When reviewing games with students, I find they tend to focus on the move where the engine evaluation finally swings in their opponent’s favor, but the real mistake often came earlier, when they lost control of the position.

In this position the engine cheerfully points out that White can win with 25. Rxe6!! Bxe6 26. Rxe6! Rxe6 27. Qxc6 when White uses a pin and double attack to get the sacrificed material back with interest. Well, if you saw all of that in advance, that’s cool. But starting from such a dominant position, I would prefer to win without needing to find a spectacular tactic to edge out my opponent’s mating threats.

In the game, Dan answered the threat of Qh3 in a more prosaic way.

25. Rh5 Qg6 26. Rhe5 Qg4 27. Rh5 g5 

It was actually Black who refused a repetition to go for the win with g5, trying to trap White’s rook. (The audacity of these masters!) In his notes, Dan admitted that he had not seen this idea in advance. Remember, the definition of control is that you know what your opponent can do and you’re ready for it, so if your opponent has a dangerous idea you’ve missed – even if you turn out to have a good response – you’ve lost control. At that point, you’re essentially relying on luck to bail you tout.

As it turns out, White still has a good way out, and Dan pulled himself together and played some inspired moves.

28. Qe7! Rf7

White has only one move to keep the advantage, but it’s a banger. Can you find it?

 29. Qxd7!! 

Bam! If Rxd7, Bxe6+ regains the queen.

29… Qxh5 30. Bxe6

White has a huge advantage here because he’s going to get the exchange back, along with a few extra pawns, and Black cannot force a checkmate. The f3 pawn does, however, offer long-term swindling chances. Another area where the engine evaluation is misleading: it doesn’t care if there’s a pawn on f3 as long as it can calculate that Black can’t capitalize on it, but from a human perspective, you always have to watch out for mate threats and it’s easy to slip up. In the game, Black did manage to engineer a draw thanks to that f3 pawn.

Let’s recap what we’ve learned:

• Control means knowing what your opponent can do and being ready for it.

• Maintaining control is extremely important, especially when it comes to winning positions where you’re ahead.

• The engine is often misleading, because it will still show a positive evaluation if you have at least one good line, even if that line is very difficult.

If you’d like to get feedback on your games from me and other members, consider joining The Chess Gym. We’re always having lively discussions about our annotated games.