10.
OVERLOAD
“The most effective form
of using overload and the
deadliest, is when the mate
is one of the options and
one piece has to watch for
different threats coming
from opposite directions.”
—Garry Kasparov
SU B C HAPTER S
• Too Many Jobs at Once
• Classic Case of Overload
• Mechkarov vs Kaikamdzhozov,
1969
• Botvinnik vs Petrosian, 1966
• Challenge: An Overload Study
LE ARN M ORE
• Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk has been one of the top Grand-
masters in the world since the late 1980s. He won the Linares
supertournament three times and Garry once called him “the
player who has most surprised me over the board.”
AD D ITI ONAL P OSITI ONS
When one piece has two jobs, like defending two pieces, it is
“overloaded” with too much work. Often to take advantage of
this, you need to choose the right move order. If possible, force
the overloaded piece to abandon one of its responsibilities.
Here the white queen is trying to safeguard the back rank against
1...Ra1, and she is also trying to ensure Black can’t invade with
1...Qf3 and then mate on g2.
Black wins with 1...Qf3 2. Qxf3 Ra1+ and it will be mate once White
puts all three pieces in the way. Note that the move order matters
since 1...Ra1 does not work after 2. Qxa1 Qf3 3. Ne1 guarding g2.
GARRY K A SPAROV 39
10. 1 .)
OVERLOAD

PR ACTI CE P OSITI ONS

Now you try!

White to move

2.)

White to move

GARRY K A SPAROV 40
10. 3 .)
OVERLOAD

PR ACTI CE P OSITI ONS

White to move

4 .)

White to move

GARRY K A SPAROV 41
10. 5 .)
OVERLOAD

PR ACTI CE P OSITI ONS

Kasparov-Topalov – Wijk aan Zee, 1999. White to move

GARRY K A SPAROV 42
10.
NOTES

GARRY K A SPAROV 43