Blocking the king's escape
Blocking the king's escape
This tactical procedure involves blocking the square on which the king could escape.
In the next game White has more
valuable pieces than his opponent. But, Black compensates that by having
the possibility of a good move. If Black were to check his opponent's king
by moving the queen at a1 then the king could escape to b5
and then perform a powerful counterattack which would lead to White's defeat
(the Black king is under serious pressure from both rooks and the knight).
The Right move Black should do is 1...b6-b5+. This move blocked
the white king's escape. Now White has no possibility of defending himself;
even if he captures the pawn c4:b6 the escape square the king still
remains blocked and Black can still perform the checkmate: Qe5-a1
What follows is a classic example
of using blocking. White has his turn to move. He will force Black to block
his own king by moving 1. Qg8! R:g8 (the only possible move) and
now that the king is blocked he can be easily checkmated Nf7 .
This type of checkmate is called etouffe; the term 'etouffe' is french and
it means suffocated. It's called this way because the king is stopped from
moving by its own pieces (he is suffocated).
