The Power of the Pieces In his ground-breaking series, The Power of the Pieces, Belorussian grandmaster Sergey Kasparov examines the strengths, weaknesses and overall characteristics of each piece on the chessboard. This second volume in the series is about the knight. Its role in the opening, middlegame and endgame is discussed in detail, amply supported by almost 140 complete games from tournament praxis. Topics include: The Knight in the Endgame; The Knight in the French Defense; The Knight in the Rossolimo System; The Knight in the Benko Gambit; The “Spanish” Knight; The Knight on the Attack; The Knight in Defense; The Cavalry Retreats; The Knight on an Outpost; A Knight on the Rim; The Kamikaze Knight; Knight versus Pawns; Knight versus Bishop; and Knight against Rook. Popular chess author Sergey Kasparov is known for his entertaining writing style. His books are always instructive and insightful. Books previously published by Russell Enterprises include The Exchange Sacrifice, Doubled Pawns and The Bishop: Danger on the Diagonal. Popular chess author Sergey Kasparov is known for his entertaining writing style. His books are always instructive and insightful. Books previously published by Russell Enterprises include The Exchange Sacrifice, The Bishop: Danger on the Diagonal and Doubled Pawns. He lives with his family in Belarus Chapter 2 The Knight in the French Defense In this chapter we will examine typical actions of a knight in openings. Of course, we are not going to embrace all the openings, but only some of them; otherwise the volume of our book would be enormous. In this particular opening, a knight often fights for domination over the commanding point е5. Sometimes it occupies this square itself. Ideally, White would like to obtain such a knight versus his opponent's “blunted” light-square bishop. (18) Kasparov S – Astengo Soazza 2009 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.0-0 Bd6 11.Nf3 DIAGRAM As early as that, a picture of the future battle starts to emerge. The backward e6-pawn would like to advance in order to “clear the view” for the bishop on с8. In his turn, White is doing all he can to prevent this. 11...Qc7 12.g3 0-0 13.Bf4 The struggle for the e5-square continues; it is favorable for White to exchange dark-square bishops. 13...Bd7 14.Rc1 Bxf4 15.Nxf4 Qd6 Or 15...Qb6 16.Qd2 Rae8 17.Rfe1 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 e5 19.Nxd5 Nxd5 20.Nf3! Rxf3 21.Be4 DIAGRAM 21...Rf6 22.Bxd5+r, Kveinys- Djurhuus, Oslo 2005. 16.Re1 Rae8?! 17.Ne5y Our protagonist has occupied the commanding point; it is difficult to exchange it as d4xe5 runs into a fork. 17...Nxd4?! 18.Bxh7+ A typical shot in the French: the d4-pawn is often indirectly defended in this manner. 18...Nxh7 19.Qxd4i DIAGRAM Now White's position is already overwhelming. The difference in strength between the e5-knight and the bishop is tremendous. 19...Rf5 20.Qc5 20.g4i 20...Qxc5 21.Rxc5 b6 21...Ng5 22.Kg2y 22.Rc7 Bb5 23.Nfg6! Ng5 23...Rf6 24.Rxa7i 24.f4 1-0 DIAGRAM There is a threat of Ng6-e7, so Astendo stopped torturing himself and resigned.