Threat in Chess

Hi.. as a chess coach, i teach chess daily and from time to time i develope a new way to explain my understanding in a better way... i decide to put some notes here so that others can benefit from it and for my future reference too and to keep the notes for myself in case i forgot it in the future..

I plan to just make a short topic about Threat in Chess

What is a Threat?

Threat is something that can give u trouble and if you dont handle it properly, u will get into disadvantage situation.

I put down a list of threat that arrise in chess games according to priority.. if u agree with it, please like them and if u want to suggest other kind of threats that i miss, please comment...

1. Checkmate Attempt

- try to find mate in 1, 2 or 3 or any checkmate pattern that u recognise e.g back rank mate, arabian mate etc

2. Win Material Attempt

- Capture hanging piece
- Capture higher value piece
- Attacker more than defender
- Pawn Promotion

3. Tactical Attack Attempt - all the tactical motives we have in chess such as
- Fork
- Pin
- trapped pieces
- decoy
- etc

4. Positional Control
- put pieces actively, safely
- threat to exchange same value piece in advantage positions
- King in safe position or active position in endgames

5. Pawn Structure -

good pawn structure
- pass pawn
- advance pawn
- connected pawns
- less pawn island compare to your opponent

Bad pawn Structure
- double / tripple pawns
- isolated pawns
- backward pawns

Handling a threat

there is 5 ways to handle the threat and u can use the ABCDE formula to remember them

A - Avoid = Move the under attack pieces to safe square
B - Block = Block the attack with other pieces safely
C - Capture = Capture the attacking pieces
D - Defend = Defend the under attack pieces
E - Else = Counter attack with similar weight of threat or more dangerous threat

From this point of view, my strategy of play is very simple. Everytime your turn to move, find a move with a threat to keep your opponent busy handling it so they cannot launch their plan easily.

I always compare my own threat with my opponents threat. If my threat is stronger than the opponent's, i will keep on continue on my plan.

if my opponent's threat is stronger or faster, i will handle the threat first and wait for right time to launch my attack again.

With continuosly threatening ur opponent move by move, i find out opponent will get tired and loose a bit and open up room for mistake and i will take the opportunity to punish their mistakes and win the games.

anyway, if they still defend correctly, they often use more time to think and i will win on time.

thats all for now.. hope this blog will change your style of play like mine!

will keep myself motivated to blog again in the future!

AGM Nik Farouqi @ Carlseng