Understanding before Moving 17: The Panno knight

by ChessBase
3/7/2021 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 17th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows a particular instance in which a knight on the rim is not dim — the ‘Panno knight’ in the King’s Indian Defence. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra
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The Panno knight

Two weeks ago, we talked about the problems that can arise when a knight is on the edge of the board. Yet, a ‘knight on the rim’ does not necessarily have to be bad. In fact, there is a variation in the King’s Indian Defence in which a knight on a5 is even affectionately called the ‘Panno knight’, named after Argentine grandmaster Oscar Panno.

Said knight appears in the Fianchetto Variation after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.d5 and Na5. Panno demonstrates that the knight does play an important role in the upcoming middlegame.

In the diagram, which comes from this variation, we see that Black plays on two wings. White has just captured a knight on g4 with Bf3xg4. Which nice intermediate move did he miss?

 

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