That’s Not a Knife
- Whimsnickal
- Feb 17
- 5 min read
“That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife.
That’s not a knife, that’s a spoon.
Alright alright, you win. I see you’ve played ‘Knifey Spoony’ before” – The Simpsons, “Bart vs Australia”
Many years ago I practiced Kyokushin karate under the tutelage of noted sensei “Hanshi” Steve Arneil. It was tough. It was challenging. It was fun.
Part of what made it tough was that the Kyokushin style centres around the three things – “kihon” (fundamentals), “kata” (forms), and “kumite” (fighting), so training focussed on strength, technique, endurance, and attacking your opponent with all the force you could muster as often as you could muster it. I loved it and hated that I had to stop – sometimes life proves too much of a distraction.
Controlled respectful violence was always the way. Between the punches, kicks, and kiai there is a beautiful zen – both the noun and the adjective – to martial arts that I found incredibly fulfilling (probably Mr Miyagi’s influence during my formative childhood years). It was truly an honour to learn from what amounted to a karate Grandmaster who himself had learned the style from its originator, Mas Oyama.
As you can no doubt tell, that love never truly faded, and with that zen in mind I recently took my son to the same dojo, and now, prodigal karateka that I am, I’ve picked it up once more. The people are different (Hanshi sadly died in 2021), but the place is no less special.
On Wednesdays we wear angry white pyjamas.
Anyway. Chess.
Fight, Flight… or Something Else
In the same way that karate is a physical war, chess is a mental one – both require strategising your opponent’s complete annihilation, but at least chess players have the courtesy to be sitting down while they do so.
And so, finally, we arrive at the central problem. You’re trying to crush your opponent, but they are trying to do the same to you. So what do you do when a chunch (chess punch) comes your way?
To my mind, there are three things that can be done:
Ignore it and carry on with your own stuff
React to it
Create a bigger threat
A Spoon
The first of these is very common in the open Sicilian, especially in the English/Yugoslav attack variations of the Najdorf/Dragon respectively.
White and black castle in opposite directions (white OOOs while black merely OOs), shove their pawns down the board, and it’s a race to see whose attack will break through first.
It’s obviously not quite so simple as that, but you get the general idea. The positions are sharp and stressful but ultimately fun and instructive. If you’re looking for something to play I wholeheartedly recommend these variations against the Silly Defence.
Another example is an early pin of a developed knight by an enemy bishop. Depending on the situation, this can – and often should – be ignored.
Why? Because the tempo spent responding can usually be used for something better – e.g. developing another piece/castling – but mostly because for the price of a (not necessarily) weak doubled pawn you gain the (very advantageous) bishop pair. Juicy.
A Knife
Next we deal with what, unfortunately for my chess, is my natural response to a threat – block/defend against it. Again the situation will ultimately be the guide, but in my own practice I have found that protecting against one threat usually introduces a different weakness somewhere else, as from a recent game below:
From the Classical variation of the Ruy Lopez. Black is threatening my rook with their bishop, and since three minus five equals negative fun I need to do something about it. I looked at a few moves and spent a little bit of time here, because as far as I could see each move had its drawbacks.
Re2 – the simplest response, moving away from the threat… but leaves the e4 pawn hanging (or does it?)
Bd2 – fighting fire with fire, and if captured I can hop the b1-pony to recapture
Nc3 – certainly the most active response, but introduces a disharmonious pin to my future development, and the problem of the e4 pawn persists (or does it?)
Nbd2 – covers the e4 pawn (hooray) but means a different pin (boo) and causes developmental issues for the c1 bishop (boo-erns)
I played Nbd2, which is fine, but not great. The engine calls it an inaccuracy which was obvious to me even at the time, and prefers either Nc3 (the most active square for the knight) or Re2, since the e4 pawn is tactically defended. Ultimately it didn’t prove to be as big of an issue as it first seemed and I won the game quite smoothly, but as you see from my thought process above, each candidate move was an exercise in pros/cons rather than a clear “this is the only way”.
Sidenote: It’s a subtle point, but one to bear in mind in your own games. Pieces have optimal squares in various openings and disrupting that harmony causes problems – both immediately and down the line, specifically in the endgame. As below:
Material is dead equal, but the engine evaluation is +3. The difference is that the black pieces are misplaced and passive (the king can’t protect the queenside and the g8 rook is tied down to the g7 pawn). Both Re5 and Re7+ are crushing.
Sidenote over.
An Even Bigger Knife
Which brings me onto the last and, more often than not, best response – make a bigger threat.
You may be familiar with Crocodile Dundee. If not, he’s an only slightly xenophobic pastiche of the Australian outdoorsman (played by Paul Hogan) that became popular in the mid-to-late-80s. The most famous bit of the film is when he visits New York and someone tries to mug him, to which he usurps their diminutive knife with a much larger one of his own. The muggers duly run away.
The same philosophy applies to your own games, as in this example from an OTB game of mine a few months ago.
I’m up material but my opponent is going for the jugular. As in the earlier example, three minus five equals negative fun, but here I have other, better, options open to me than simply moving or protecting my attacked piece. Nxe5!
This move accomplishes many things because it is based on several chinciples (chess principles).
When ahead, trade off pieces
When defending, trade off the opponent’s attackers
In a complicated position give your opponent as many problems to deal with as possible
Free candy!
I can afford to let them take the rook because I’ll win theirs right back, and I get a pawn too. Smart. The right term for lovely knight hop into the centre of the board is the intermezzo/zwischenzug, both of which are fun words to say – another little added bonus.
The Biggest Knife
But best of all, the biggest of big knives, is the situation where you can turn your enemy’s knife on them. My metaphors are getting well and truly mangled now, so for the avoidance of doubt I’m talking about tactics.
Let’s take a look at this position from Nepomniachtchi-Karpov. The queen is attacked! What to do?
Wham! 30. Qxd6+
The rest of the line goes 30… Kxd6 31. exf7+ Kc5 32. f8=Q and Karpov has to give up his queen and has lost a bishop into the bargain.
So there we have it. When your opponent attacks you, raise an eyebrow and turn the tables right back on them. You call that a knife? THIS is a knife.
You could be a black belt in chess sooner than you think. Osu!
