Chess Tactics: Secret tips - awareness of subtle threats and how to handle them

Hi all

Being aware of Tactical threats when analysing Grandmaster games or your own games!

How best to handle tactical threats in a live current game

In a live current game, you may easily miss threats from the opponent, and for example blunder your queen. So the first thing in an actual game is "Awareness of threats".

Maybe ask sometimes "What is the opponent threatening or subtly threatening?".

However, the next bit is very important. DONT rush to defend the threat. Doing so, will make sure you never leave the Bunny Kingdom and will play passive chess for the rest of your life. So yes, the next bit is very very important :

"Threats" do not always need to be passively parried. The key thing is "awareness of the threat". And not to become a ridiculously passive player by over-emphasising this awareness. In fact, I have generally given the following advice on my courses or coachees when faced with a "threat" :

1. Check all your forcing moves and combinations to see if you can mate the opponent instead of parrying the threat! Checkmate does end the game.
2. See if you can make a bigger threat!
3. See if the opponent's threat actually backfires (have they really "put themselves beyond defeat". Maybe their King is still in the center and their "threat" really has a flaw based on that issue
4. Ignore the threat - maybe the position gets more complex if, for example, the opponent wins a pawn but maybe has an offside Queen. Some threats which are just to win material can often be used as sacrifices. If there are any "controversies" surrounding a win of material, then these should be factored in. Emanuel Lasker often famously gave up Queenside pawns, and then shortly after got strong attacks when the Opponent's Queen was far away "in Siberia" from the King.
5. Parry the threat (LAST RESORT!) In general, you don't want to be pushed around on the chessboard if you can help it :) And btw how did you get to this position? Were you greedy in the opening? Maybe check out Morphy games or my course on Morphy (
   https://kingscrusher.tv/paulmorphy ) not be reduced to having to play a "respond to threats game". Rethink your chess openings!

Awareness of threats in post-mortem analysis of own games or Grandmaster games

There is a secret "X" button that lets you be aware of what a move is potentially threatening. It essentially makes the side the same again!. You might ask "Hold on Kingscrusher, chess is a turn based game - how can you get two moves in a row?" - I would answer YES - Chess is a turn-based game, but what if you wanted a computer to check all the weird stuff lurking with a seemingly innocent move?

Quite often this reveals subtle threats in the position which help gain much greater empathy for why Grandmasters played in a certain way. They were often all too aware of such subtle threats, and as a result, had to choose "least worst" options to avoid those subtle dangers.

Example Grandmaster game for awareness subtle tactical threats
Magnus Carlsen vs. Wesley So

Here is a game that particularly emphasised to me the importance of the X button and being aware of the threats which give a greater "empathy" for the players :

https://youtu.be/8KW6Wq0s5pE

(Check out my Magnus Carlsen playlist here - https://kingscrusher.tv/carlsen )

When I started analysing the game the normal way, without checking out the threats, i did find it mysterious why Wesley so was playing so strangely. Why is it that Wesley so didn't even castle when he seemed to have a chance to castle? Let's look at key moments:

What has just played Nc4 - what is White threatening?

Bf8 is a major concession - delaying casting rights:

But what would have happened if black had castled?

How is it that Wesley so is playing so "strangely". Is it possible that Wesley So shortly before the game thought it was a good idea to have a large Chicken Kebab, and he has forgotten it is a good idea to castle? Or was this game played in Gibraltar and Wesley So was mugged by a resident gang of hungry monkeys after his bananas en-route to the tournament venue? Maybe he missed being able to make notes on his scoresheet?

Well, the mysteries can unravel if one does analysis and checking the subtle threats in the position. if black castled, then we take on a4 then play Bh6:

E.g. this happens:

Or if g6 then Nf5xd6 followed by Bxf8 winning the exchange.

Where do Subtle threat generators come from?

It seems we have a major "subtle threat generator" in this game - the Knight on f5. In fact, I might have mentioned that knight on f5 one or two times in the video :) Perhaps it is the case that in games where there are aggressive knight outposts or piece outposts in general, there is a greater wealth of subtle threats to have to at least be aware of.

Can we take the X button further?

What I would absolutely love is the auto annotation feature maybe highlighting key threats where appropriate as suggested here:

https://lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/computer-analysis-idea-for-future-with-the-threat-of-

Some games might have hundreds of moves, and it would be good if just the key threats were highlighted automatically with auto-annotations. I hope one day this is implemented.

What does an understanding of subtle threats in Grandmaster games give you?

Sometimes we seem to think Grandmasters like to play in a certain way to get a good-looking knight on f5. If you see the subtle threats, you start to see they are not just aiming for "pretty knights" - there is an underlying functionality to these plans. Outposts mean something.

Function follows form

Tactics flow from superior positions. If you can substantiate more outpost knights like a knight on f5, and the support it gives for subtle resources, then this creates a greater motivation to positionally outplay opponents. You want to be in such "dynamic positions" and then be able to celebrate them with specific tactics.

Key Takeaway points

• The analysis tool of Lichess has an "X" button which basically lets the same side play again revealing the hidden threats of a position
• In a real game you are playing, the AWARENESS of threats is key. Quite often there are a number of options for handling that awareness and for me personally, at the bottom of the list is passively responding to the threat!
• Threat awareness when checking out even Grandmaster games can help explain why certain moves were played. As Grandmaster Gormally mentioned in a classic interview, quite often super-strong Grandmasters are looking at all sorts of weird and wonderful moves, and often not looking that "deeply" as you might expect. Sometimes a chess position has very weird and wonderful subtle threats. So being aware of key threats - or very subtle threats can help make sure no major disaster awaits if your analysis is too deep but perhaps falling at the first fence where you didn't see an unexpected move.
• Don't allow the opponent to have a Knight on f5 unless you want to test your awareness of many subtle threats to which you could fall victim to!
• It is good to create "Subtle threat generators" through positional play and active pieces like getting a knight to f5 - which is a common theme in the classic Ruy Lopez

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K