Understanding before Moving 45: Cooperation between the pieces (1)

by ChessBase
9/22/2021 – 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 45th instalment of his ChessBase show “Understanding before Moving”, Herman talks about the "Cooperation of the Pieces" and illustrates this topic with a beautiful study. | Photo: Tommy Grooten
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Chess is very much a team effort: the cooperation between the pieces is essential to achieve good results. But what does "cooperation between the pieces" mean?

You could say that pieces that cooperate help each other to control important squares. Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian almost always strived to arrange the pieces in a harmonious way and he was a master of exploiting a lack of harmony in the camp.

Tournament players can learn a lot from endgame studies where a few pieces work beautifully together to take advantage of lack of harmony in the enemy position. Many studies have been composed in which a rook and a knight fight against a queen, and in the position below the white rook and knight cooperate so well that White can win the queen. Do you see the most important lines?

 
White to move and win

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