Deep strategy: prophylaxis and restriction
In short
At the top, many games are won by restriction: limiting the opponent’s active options until a small advantage becomes decisive. This combines prophylactic thinking with precise technique.
By the end you can
- Restrict the opponent’s counterplay completely
- Convert small advantages
The lesson
At the top, many games are won by restriction: limiting the opponent’s active options until a small advantage becomes decisive. This combines prophylactic thinking with precise technique.
Study the games of positional masters and note how often the winning plan begins with preventing counterplay.
Key points to remember
- Restrict before attacking
- Small advantages grow when counterplay is gone
- Learn from positional masters
Examples
Homework
Two guess-the-move games from Karpov; note every restricting move.
More strategy lessons
- Reading a position: the imbalances (Class D)
- Good and bad pieces (Class D)
- Outposts and open files (Class D)
- The isolated queen’s pawn (IQP) (Class C)
- Carlsbad structure and the minority attack (Class C)
- Hanging pawns and pawn breaks (Class C)