Chess : A game of Space and Time

Chess, which is played by millions worldwide is one of the most followed sport globally. Set up over 64 squares with 32 pieces and 2 players, this game is a battle of ideas, tactics and strategies, with the ultimate objective of checkmating the opposite colored king.

Although it doesn’t seem really obvious in the first sight, the entire dynamics of the game can be broken down in the sense of space and time. At the very heart of every strategy that is devised, every move that is played, it is only these two aspects of the game that change. Therefore, understanding these are vital in order to gain a substantial understanding of the game.

To put things in a better perspective, let’s consider the act of performing a checkmate. We know that a checkmate implies, the opposite colored king has no safe square to move to. To simply put things into our context, a checkmate happens when a player maneuvers his pieces to positions such that he is able to alter the dynamics of the game to a state where the opposite colored king has no safe space around it to move to.

Well, if the ultimate objective of the game- “checkmate” involves only the aspect of space, why is ‘time’ of the essence here?

When we look closely, the game of chess, like most other board games is played between 2 players who make their moves in a sequential manner. To win the game, the player must not only alter the space around the opposite colored king, he must also be able to do this before his opponent does. This is where ‘time’ comes into the picture. The very necessity of wanting to occupy the space around the opposite colored king before the opponent does the same to your own makes ‘time’ a very essential aspect to win the game!

To understand this better, let’s look at the position below:

In the sense of ‘Space’, there are forced checkmate combinations in this position for both black and white. But, the outcome of the game is determined by whose turn it is to move. Therefore, time plays a crucial role in determining the outcome of this game! Its evident that whoever was able to reach this position first would have the opportunity to execute their checkmate sequence, thereby winning the game.

The stages in the game of chess can be broadly classified into the Opening, the Middlegame and the Endgame. In all these stages, the intent of almost every move that is played can be explained in the context of space and time. A good move gains space or time or both, while a bad move results in the loss of the same. The tactical ideas to win the game simply arise when the opponent has lost either too much time or too much space. Let’s cut to the chase and observe how these ideas look on a chess board.

#1….The Outpost!

‘The Outpost’ in chess is typically is square which cannot be attacked by a pawn of the opposite color. So why is this important?

Any piece that is going to reside in this square is going to fetch us a permanent gain of space in the game. In the above position, the Knight on the square d5 (which is an outpost), helps white gain a permanent space advantage over the squares b4,b6,c7,e7,f6,f4,e3,c3 provided if white is able to protect the pawn on e4 which has created the outpost for the knight(And of course, if black tries to eliminate this knight with his rook, the game would continue with white having a material advantage). After a few favorable exchanges, white could launch an attack from any of the squares controlled by this knight to win the game!

#2….Tempos!

Tempos are typically the time gaining moves in chess!

In the above position, if black captures the pawn on g7, then white recaptures it with his bishop. Although white would be down by two pawns, he gains a tempo(Time!) when he recaptures with his bishop. The consequence of this is that white would have more development of his pieces and attacking possibilities on the h7-b1 diagonal and the a1-b8 diagonal.

So why do I call it as a time gaining move?

If we observe closely, for black to survive in this position, the subsequent moves that black plays should be focused on securing the squares on his kingside. In the meanwhile, white could get his time to move his other pieces in gaining decisive space advantages without facing much threats from black as it would be busy securing its kingside squares.

#3….Discovered Attack!

Discovered Attacks are one of the most powerful moves that could be played in the game of chess to gain a decisive advantage. These are very powerful because such moves help us in gaining both space and time in a single move.

In the above position, the black queen resides in d4 and this square is protected only by the black queen. If we are able to gain that space on d4 as well as exploit the same without giving black the time to protect it further, we would simply win the black queen. A discovered attack in this position achieves the same. The move Bb5 attacks the black king and this leaves black with no opportunity to protect d4 further ,as it also comes under the attack of the white queen simultaneously. This gain of space and time with just one move of white, gives it a decisive advantage to win the game!

In a game of chess ,white is at an advantage with respect to time at the beginning of the game as it gets to make the first move!

Almost all openings in chess also revolve around this idea of space and time. In one of the most famous openings in chess ,“The Nimzo Indian Defense”, these two aspects can be evidently seen.

One of the key ideas in the strategy of black in this opening is to exchange its black bishop for the white’s knight and the above picture shows the typical moves that black intends to play out of the opening. If we look closely, almost these moves are towards gaining a space advantage over the black squares in order to restrict the mobility of the black bishop of white thereby leaving it paralyzed! Then black tries to slowly use this to neutralize the initial time advantage of white as the game progresses and push for a win towards the end.

The game of chess has also been a subject of the cinematic universe with movies such as “Pawn Sacrifice” and one of the recent worldwide hit TV series “Queen’s Gambit”. With sixty four pieces and a over a trillion combinations of possible positions, chess truly is a beautiful game indeed!

I hope this article was informative! Cheers!