Adjournment

By Mark Weeks, About.com

Filed In:

1. Chess

Tournament games of chess are usually played within fixed start and stop times. For example, the game must start at 4 PM and play must finish by 11 PM. This way players can plan their personal schedules around the games and organizers know when they will need to reserve the playing area.

The games are always played with a clock where a minimum number of moves must be made by each player within a certain time. It often happens that a game is not finished in the time allowed for play. In our example, the time controls might be 40 moves in 2 hours for each player followed by 20 moves in 1 hour. All parties to the game know that at least 60 moves will be played in 6 hours.

What happens if the game lasts longer than 6 hours? There are at least three possibilities. The game can be

• adjourned,
• adjudicated, or
• played to sudden death.

Adjourned means that the game is suspended and continued at a later time. The Tournament Director (TD) first specifies that one of the players will prepare the next move in secret. The secret move is called 'the sealed move'.

Piece Activity

It is important to make your pieces active. Take a look an the diagram on the left. Black's entire kingside is unuseable, and he has no way to untangle it! But White's army has plenty of space, and is ready to move in. Take his Knight, for instance. It sits on a great square, because Black has no way to uproot it! White's spaitial advantage should lead to a win in itself. Always be on the lookout for a great square to put a Knight, because if you can get it there, it will become a very powerful piece.

Bishops are strongest on open diagonals, because they control a lot of squares there. This diagram is an extreme example of strong Bishops. Black is ahead two Exchanges, yet he is dead in the water. Why? Because he is helpless against the threat of Bb2+ with mate to come. The Bishops are actually much more potent that the Rooks in this position.

Rooks are most potent on open files, and on the 7th rank from their owner's perspectives. In this diagram, White's Rooks are definetly more active than their black counterparts. They threaten to jump to the 7th with Rc7, kicking the enemy Queen off at the same time. After that, they could systematically devour many of Black's Pawns. Black can't challenge the file, because there are two White Rooks on it.

Queens are best when supported by other pieces in their attacks.