How to Beat a Wehrmacht General at Chess

How to Beat a Wehrmacht General at Chess
There's this older British serial about the Channel Islands occupation called Enemy at the Door. (Don't you love the way they add that contrast to their outdoor scenes?) Besides being very relaxing, it offers a useful chess tip in one episode. Many players are intimidated by the elaborate uniform of a Wehrmacht general and its air of military mastery. There's no need for this. They have a weak middle game. Though intelligent, they rely too much on 'by the book' strategies, which makes their play ultimately predictable.

For example, a typical opening for a Wehrmacht general would be 'king-pawn to king-pawn four.' Good, sensible forward thrust. Then he would deploy his knights first, availing of their jumping ability to sustain his defensive line of pawns. Once his two middle pawns are standing shoulder to shoulder, with knights behind them on either side, in perfect symmetry, without even paying attention to your moves, he will deploy one of his bishops, in order to clear a space for castling. On his next move, he is guaranteed to castle. If you're astute, you'll have assigned each of your forward pieces a target by then. Once he castles, he will hesitate, unsure of what to do next. That's when you hit him. They never have any clear strategy beyond that phase, except to arrange their panzers - I mean, rooks - in a column. Watch out for that, too. And when you move in for the final blow, make him think it's only a faint, that the real attack is coming later, against his queen, rather than just his pawns. And don't just let him surrender by laying his king down. Take it from him and crush it with a hammer, so that it can never rise up again.

It's all in this sedate British series. Plus it teaches how to steal a radar installation at night, if you're having any problems with that. It's quite comprehensive. Good show.
  
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© 2007, 2018. Scripts by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.

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