The Crazy Rook, Part 1

Dear Readers!

In today's game we are going to see a strange phenomenon. A rook waltzing along the seventh rank, under attack but unable to be captured. How could this happen? Tactics...tactics.

This game was played by the first world champion of chess, Wilhelm Steinitz. Steinitz was a philosopher who came up with such ideas as "you can only win if your opponent makes a mistake." It seems pretty obvious now, but back then they thought you won by being a genius.

Curt Von Bardeleben was a master who was having the tournament of his life. Up until this point he had seven and a half points out of nine. But then he ran into Steinitz, who waved his magic wand...

Here is the position after sixteen moves:

What is going on here? A lot of pieces have been traded, but the players have exactly the same pieces - material is equal. The black king is still in the center, and White seems to have a lead in development. His rooks are already occupying the open files, while Black's rooks are still at home.

But this is not enough for a chess master to evaluate the position. If you look very closely, you will see that Black has an advantage in pawn structure. All of his pawns can protect each other, while White has an isolated pawn on d4. That was what Von Bardeleben was putting his hopes on. If he could get his king into safety and develop his rooks, he would have a long-term advantage.

This means that Steinitz has to use his development advantage right away, to start an attack before Black has time to take control.

If you look very carefully, you will see that all of White's pieces are well-placed, except that the knight has no good way to get into the attack. So Steinitz cleared a way for the knight to enter. He also got rid of his isolated pawn and opened up a file at the same time!

Steinitz's positional sacrifice cleared d4 for the knight and blocked the d5 square which Black wanted to use as a defensive base. Now the threat is 19.Nf5, ganging up on the pinned e7-knight. Black is under a strong attack, but Von Bardeleben had some tricks of his own. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion next week.