Squeeze Play

Cyrus Lakdawala

• Publisher: Popular Chess
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781781946930

How often have you seen a game like this? The hero has no advantage whatsoever but somehow manages to keep setting the opponent problems. Their opponent goes slightly astray and suddenly hero has a tiny advantage. It's not much but now that they have a little something to work with, they are in their element. They play accurately and remorselessly and make life incredibly difficult for their opponent. Suddenly, and almost imperceptibly, their advantage increases. Further tiny inaccuracies follow, hero turns the screw and bags the full point. Their opponent is left shaking their head, wondering where on earth they went wrong. This is the squeeze and the great champions have been capable of squeezing opponents to death. José Capablanca, Tigran Petrosian, Anatoly Karpov and, in the current era, Magnus Carlsen are legendary in this respect. How do they do it? How do they set problems in apparently sterile positions? How can they continuously manage to defeat world class opposition from positions that others would simply give up as drawn? In this book, Cyrus Lakdawala explains the mechanisms commonly used in squeeze plays. Using examples from the world's greatest strategic masters he unpicks the secrets of the squeeze.

Table of contents

• About the author
• Bibliography
• Introduction
• 1 Blood from a Stone: How Magnus Squeezes Wins Out of Nothing
• 2 The Squeeze: Exploiting a Territorial Advantage
• 3 Exploiting Weakness on a Single Colour
• 4 Exploiting a Superior Minor Piece
• 5 Initiative and Superior Piece Activity
• 6 Exploiting a Superior Pawn Structure
• 7 Exploiting Imbalances
• 8 Accumulating Advantages
• 9 Converting Extra Material
• 10 Winning From Less than Nothing
• Index of Complete Games
• Adly.A-Carlsen.M, Dresden Olympiad 2008
• Anand.V-Carlsen.M, World Championship (Game 6), Chennai 2013
• Andersson.U-Fernandez Garcia.J, Las Palmas 1980
• Andersson.U-Gruenfeld.Y, Lucerne Olympiad 1982
• Andersson.U-Larsen.B, Match (Game 8), Stockholm 1975
• Andersson.U-Stean.M, Sao Paulo 1979
• Capablanca.J-Lasker.E, World Championship (Game 11), Havana 1921
• Capablanca.J-Teichmann.R, Exhibition Match (Game 2), Berlin 1913
• Capablanca.J-Treybal.K, Karlsbad 1929
• Capablanca.J-Villegas.B, Buenos Aires (simul) 1914
• Carlsen.M-Adams.M, FIDE World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk 2007
• Carlsen.M-Almasi.Z, European Club Cup, Kemer 2007
• Carlsen.M-Aronian.L, Candidates semi-final (Game 5), Elista 2007
• Carlsen.M-Aronian.L, Nice (rapid) 2010
• Carlsen.M-Bu Xiangzhi, Biel 2007
• Carlsen.M-Cheparinov.I, FIDE World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk 2007
• Carlsen.M-Dreev.A, World Rapid Championship, Warsaw 2021
• Carlsen.M-Eljanov.P, Wijk aan Zee 2008
• Carlsen.M-Gagunashvili.M, World Rapid Championship, Warsaw 2021
• Carlsen.M-Karjakin.S, World Championship (Game 10), New York 2016
• Carlsen.M-Le Quang Liem, Airthings Masters (online rapid) 2022
• Carlsen.M-Morozevich.A, Morelia/Linares 2007
• Carlsen.M-Nakamura.H, Meltwater Tour Final (online rapid) 2021
• Carlsen.M-Nepomniachtchi.I, World Championship (Game 6), Dubai 2021
• Carlsen.M-Short.N, Hoogeveen 2004
• Carlsen.M-Tiviakov.S, European Team Championship, Heraklion 2007
• Carlsen.M-Wojtaszek.R, FIDE World Cup, Krasnaya Polyana 2021
• Caruana.F-Carlsen.M, Wijk aan Zee 2022
• Cheparinov.I-Carlsen.M, FIDE World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk 2005
• Fischer.R-Gheorghiu.F, Buenos Aires 1970
• Fischer.R-Petrosian.T, Candidates Final (Game 7), Buenos Aires 1971
• Fischer.R-Spassky.B, World Championship (Game 10), Reykjavik 1972
• Gurevich.M-Short.N, Manila Interzonal 1990