The Telegraph

Malcolm Pein on…The Bishop’s Absence

Malcolm Pein

February 10, 2021

Malcolm Pein presents two games featuring a weak color-complex in today’s Daily Telegraph column.

All it takes is one piece to be out of place for the opponent to produce a strong attack. In both of today’s games, it is the dark-squared bishop’s absence from the kingside that causes of the problems.

Malcolm Pein on…The Bishop’s Absence

Today we look at the absence of the dark-squared bishop from the black defences on the kingside.

A typical defensive set-up for Black is a castled king with a knight on f6, three pawns on f7, g7 and h7, and a bishop on e7. The bishop may retreat to f8 and even go to g7 if required, if the second player feels the need to create a fianchetto to shore up the defences.

D. Arenas – A. Bachmann
Sants Open, Barcelona 2015
Ruy Lopez Worral Attack

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Qe2 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.c3 d5 9.d3 dxe4 10.dxe4 Bd6 11.Rd1 Qe7 12.Nbd2 Na5 13.Bc2 Be6 14.Nf1 h6 15.h3 c5 16.Ng3 Rfd8 17.Nh4! Bc7? (Black needs his dark bishop near the king. 17…Qc7 18.Nhf5 Bf8 19. Qf3 Rxd1+ 20.Bxd1 Rd8 21.Bc2 Nh7 22.Qg4 Kh8 keeps everything intact) 18.Nhf5
Qf8 19.Rxd8 Rxd8 20.Qf3! (A typical theme. The threat is Nxh6+ gxh6 Qxf6) 20…Ne8 21.Nh5 Kh7

Test Your Strength

White to play and win

D. Khismatullin – I. Khairullin
Russian Championship, Chita 2015
Nimzo-Indian

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0–0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0–0 dxc4 8.Bxc4 Nc6 9.a3 Ba5 10.Qd3 Bb6 11.Rd1 cxd4 12.exd4 h6 (The absence of the dark bishop from the kingside makes this an unfortunate necessity because if 12…Ne7 13.Bg5 Ng6 14.Ne4) 13.Bf4 Bd7 14.Ne5 Rc8 15.Ba2 Ne7 16.Qh3 Re8 (16…Nf5 17.Nxd7 Qxd7 18.d5 exd5 19.Nxd5 wins) 17.Rd3! Ng6 18.Nxg6 fxg6 19.Re1 (A six-piece attack. White feeds more pieces to the kingside than Black can cope with, particularly as his dark bishop is stranded on b6) 19…g5 20.Be5 Qe7 21.Qg3 Rcd8 22.h4 gxh4 23.Qxh4 Nh7 24.Qg4 Bc8 25.Rg3 Ng5 26.Ne4 Bc7 (26…Nxe4 27.Qxe4 followed by Bb1) 27.Nxg5 hxg5 28.Bb1 1-0

If 28…Bxe5 29.Rxe5 Qf6 30.Rxg5 Re7 31.Qh4

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.

22.Nfxg7! Nxg7 23.Nf6+ Kg6 (23…Kh8 24.Bxh6 followed by Qf3-g3-h4: 24…Qe7 25.Bxg7+ Kxg7 26.Qg3+ Kxf6 27.Qh4+ Kg7 28.Qxe7) 24.Qg3+ 1-0 In view of 24…Kxf6 25.Qh4+ Kg6 26.Qxh6#

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes