Hello chess players,
I want to welcome you to a new episode of the Hivechess lecture, and I will teach you all something new in the game of chess. When I am talking about something new, I am not saying it was recently created, but it is something I recently learned, discovered, or I am probably sharing it for the first time. My case study game is from the FIDE World Cup, and it is from the library of grandmaster Erjun Arigasi. I know I used one of his games in the last lecture. It is my favourite chess grandmaster because of his attacking style of play.
In this lecture, we will focus on overextension.
Overextension is when a player pushes a pawn or piece too far, and it is hard to defend with that piece, or defend the piece, or it is too late. It happens mostly with the pawns because you know the pawns move forward ever and backward never. That means when you overstretch a pawn by pushing it too far, you might not recover it.
In other cases, when it happens with a piece, it can occur when the piece is probably playing a defensive role for the king or another piece. It can get overextended, making it hard to return to defend.
In this game, we will examine where Arjun's opponent, with the black pieces, overextended and how Arjun exploits that advantage.
10. Ne4
This is the first point where black overextended his piece with the knight on f6. A suggestion will be that, since the move of the knight to that square will not bring any immediate advantage, it is better to simply continue by developing other pieces, like the bishop to e7 and castling on the next move. Just following the opening principle would not be so bad, coupled with it is only the beginning of the game.
Now, black has run into a problem with the position of his king, and since he has moved his king one step, the king can no longer castle. Probably overextending the knight by moving it more than once in the opening, where developing other pieces was an option.
Nxe5??
Finally, the blunder black went for, which got him into a bad position. His king is in an uncomfortable spot; instead, he goes for a free pawn grab. White is already building his attack, which is why it is probably better than grabbing a pawn.
In all, Arjun stayed close to the principle by developing his piece, then launching his attack on the black pieces, unlike what black did. Started an early incomplete attack, since his pieces were not fully mobilized, and due to late castling, the black king could not castle.
Moral of the lecture: mobilize your pieces first before attack to avoid overextending your pieces by moving them twice or more.
Here is the link to the game:
Game Link
And here is the PGN game
[Event "FIDE World Cup 2025"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-cup-2025--round-3/game-1/14d7M4pI/e6RQvGSC"]
[Date "2025.11.07"]
[Round "20.2"]
[White "Erigaisi Arjun"]
[Black "Vokhidov, Shamsiddin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2769"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[WhiteTeam "India"]
[WhiteFideId "35009192"]
[BlackElo "2640"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[BlackTeam "Uzbekistan"]
[BlackFideId "14204223"]
[TimeControl "90+30"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "D41"]
[Opening "Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch Defense"]
[UTCDate "2025.11.07"]
[UTCTime "08:16:19"]
[BroadcastName "FIDE World Cup 2025 | Round 3"]
[BroadcastURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-cup-2025--round-3/game-1/14d7M4pI"]
[GameURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-cup-2025--round-3/game-1/14d7M4pI/e6RQvGSC"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 cxd4 6. Qa4+ Bd7 7. Qxd4 exd5
8. Nxd5 Qa5+ 9. Nc3 Nc6 10. Qd1 Ne4 11. Bd2 Nxd2 12. Nxd2 Bb4 13. Rc1 Bxc3+
14. Rxc3 Qxa2 15. Nc4 Be6 16. e4 Rd8 17. Nd6+ Kf8 18. Qd2 Qa4 19. f4 Qb4
20. e5 f6 21. Bd3 fxe5 22. fxe5 Nxe5 23. O-O+ Kg8 24. Bf5 Bf7 25. Rc8 Qb6+
26. Rf2 Rxc8 27. Bxc8 h5 28. Nxf7 Nxf7 29. Qd5 Kh7 30. Qxf7 1-0
I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.
♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟
Posted Using INLEO
This is a lovely lesson. I tend to see it beyond just the chess board even. But every chess player should see this as a necessary lesson.
I enjoyed going through this.
A lovely explanation I must say, you made it so clear even for some of us who have little understanding of chess.
"Mobilize first, attack later." That did hit.
Thanks for sharing.
💯❤️💯