Dear Chess Friends,
I haven't posted in a long time due to time constraints and due to the holidays. However, I managed to find some time today to cover an advanced theme that is often not well known at the lower levels.
You will probably know about the differences between strategy and tactics. Strategy is often slow manuevering, the accumulation of small advantages, attack of weak pawns, and so on. Tactics is an immediate win of material or forced checkmate.
However, let's go deeper to learn about Dynamics and Statics.
Statics is where you can play very slowly. You can take all the time in the world to capitalize on small advantages, such as a weak pawn. You do not have to rush. Dynamics are where you have to play fast, or your advantage will deteriorate. Take this position from a well-known gambit:
We can see that white has a lead in development, but he is down two pawns.This is a static disadvantage--it will not go away. His lead in development is a Dynamic advantage. If he does not make use of it, his advantage will go away.
Here is a small test for you to make sure you understand the difference between Statics and Dynamics:
This position (black to move) is a game by Kharlov versus Nisipenau. In this test, you will have to say
1). Whetever white should play Statically or Dynamically, and why.
Scroll down for the answer: Answer:
White has an isolated pawn on d4, which is weak. According to Nimzowtisch, the way to beat such pawns is the Restrain them, Blockade them, and then Destroy them. Black has already done the first two of these.
This is a static weakness--it will not go away. Thus, black can sit quietly and chop away at this pawn.
However, white has a dynamic advantage--his pieces are more active. But if he does not make use of it immediately, this advantage will go away.
Let's see how Kharlov goes on to win this brilliant game:
(Annotations are by Tsesarsky, who annotated this game for Chessbase):
As we can see, white realized his dynamic advantage with some very nice tactics.
Now let us see the other side of this battle, in a game by GM Anatoly Karpov against GM Boris Spassky.
This time, black has an isolated pawn, but black's dynamic advantage is neutralized and Karpov takes all the time in the world to slowly improve his position before crushing the black position:
What a nice game!
Hopefully, both of these games have given you a good grounding of what Statics and Dynamics are. I look forward to continuing this subject next time!