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Little Lesson 3: Tempo Moves


The idea of a tempo move is simple: There are times when a player would be very happy with his position, if only it weren't his turn to move; a tempo move is a move made simply to make it the opponent's move.



In the position above, Black to move would have to play 1 ... Kd7, after which White would play 2 Kf7 and queen his e7-pawn. But it's White to move, and 1 Ke6 would be stalemate. What does White do? He plays the tempo move 1 e4, winning: 1 ... Kd7 2 Kf7 and queens next.


Black to move
Position after 6 ... Bc8
Position after 8 ... Ke7

The leftmost position is number 136 from Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess (a good book). It actually illustrates a few themes: Good knight vs. bad bishop (and, inherently, piece activity), walls, and tempo moves. As things stand, Black's king is shut out of the White position, but White's king has a path into the Black position via f4 and either e5 or g5. As Black's bishop can only control light-colored squares, it cannot stop the White king from penetrating, so that task will fall to the Black king. White will, however, win, by posting his knight on c5, forcing the bishop to sit on c8, defending the Black a-pawn; by walking his king to f4; by using a tempo move to force Black's king to give way and allow penetration on e5 or g5; and by using another tempo move to force Black's king to give way again and allow White's king to reach d6 or f6. White will not push his c-pawn to c3 until he needs to--he saves it, holding it in reserve, so that it will be available later to serve as a tempo move, as will be seen.

Play continued 1 ... Kd6 2 Ke2 Ke6 3 Ke3 Kf6 4 Kf4 Be6 5 Nb3 Bd7 6 Nc5 Bc8 (Black's bishop is now stuck on c8). (See middle diagram.) If it were Black to move, his bishop would have no move, so his king would have to retreat, permitting White's king access to e5. But it's White's move. What does he do? White plays the tempo move 7 c3, which does nothing at all of any consequence except make it Black's move. It's the chessic equivalent of passing. Now it's Black's move, and the Black king must give way, permitting White's king to reach e5: 7 ... Kf7 8 Ke5 Ke7 (See rightmost diagram.) Again, White would like it to be Black's move, and he plays a second tempo move: 9 f4. After 9 ... Kf7 10 Kd6, White wins.

Black's bishop in this position is horrible--completely hemmed in by its own pawns and reduced to sitting on c8 and defending the a-pawn. In the original position (in the leftmost diagram), Black might try 1 ... f4; it should still lose, but if White plays 2 gxf4, Black's bishop springs to life with 2 ... Bf5, and White's path into Black's position via f4 is blocked. As a practical matter, this is a good try, as White might not find a winning continuation. He might even trade his knight for Black's bishop on f5, leaving a dead draw, with each king walled out from its opponent's position. (White would not be obligated to take the sacrificed pawn on f4, but if he did, the winning strategy would consist of putting his knight on c5, forcing Black's king to sit on a7, and then making a king move [another tempo move!], forcing Black to move his bishop away from f5, permitting White to give the pawn back by playing f5 himself. That would open up the f4-e5/g5 route into Black's position again. See Outflanking for one possible variation.)

In the leftmost position, White deliberately holds c3 in reserve, so that if he needs a tempo move, he'll have one available. The position below gives another example of saving a tempo move:



If White plays 1 h4, Black will play 1 ... Kd7, taking the distant opposition, and then 2 Kd4 will be met by 2 ... Kd6 3 Ke4 Ke6 4 Kd4 Kd6, etc., and 2 Ke4 will be met by 2 ... Ke6 3 Kd4 Kd6 4 Ke4 Ke6, etc., with a dead draw in either case. However, if White holds h4 in reserve, he can play an immediate 1 Kd4, forcing 1 ... Kd6 (1 ... Ke6 2 Kc5 Kf5 3 h4 [so that Black will queen on h1, which will be controlled by White's new queen on a8] Kg4 4 Kb6 Kxh4 5 Kxa6 Kxg5 6 Kxb5/Kb6 [not 6 Kb7, blocking the a8-h1 diagonal] h4 7 a6 h3 8 a7 h2 9 a8=Q wins for White), and then White gets the opposition, forcing the Black king to give way, by playing the tempo move 2 h4! (not 2 h3 h5! and Black wins after 3 Ke4 Ke6 4 Kd4 Kf5 or 4 Kf4 Kd5 5 Kg4 Kc4 6 Kxh4 Kxb4 7 Kg3 Kxa5 8 h4 b4 9 h5 b3 10 h6 b2 11 h7 b1=Q 12 h8=Q Qg1+ 13 Kf4 [13 Kh4? Qh7/h8+ and 14 ... Qxh8] Qf2+ 14 Kg4 Qf5+ 15 Kh4 Qf4+ 16 Kh3 Qxg5, and Black wins). Black's king must then give way: 2 ... Ke6 3 Kc5 Kf5 4 Kb6 Kg4 5 Kxa6 Kxh5 6 Kxb5 Kxg5, and White queens on a8, controlling Black's queening square h1.

The idea of a tempo move also arises in an analysis variation from Hermans-Johnson (see here):


After 35 ... a4
After 41 Kc2 (analysis)
Pawns locked (analysis)


The leftmost position occurred after 35 ... a4. Play might have continued 36 Kd2 Kc4 37 Kc2 d3+ 38 Kd2 Kb3? (better is 38 ... Kd4, with the idea of forcing the White king to its first rank and moving ... Kc3-b3-xa3, in time to escape the h-file again) 39 Kxd3 Kxa3 40 Kc3 Ka2 41 Kc2 (see middle position). Now, if the kingside pawns were already locked, as in the rightmost diagram, Black would win, because the move 41 ... a3, while advancing the a-pawn, would also serve as a tempo move, forcing White's king to either c1 or c3, either of which would lose: 42 Kc3 Kb1 and the pawn queens, or 42 Kc1 Kb3 43 Kb1 a2+ 44 Ka1 Kc3, and Black's king will devour White's kingside pawns for the win. (Even better is 43 Kb1 Kc3, when the White king has to take two moves to capture the a-pawn, giving the White king even more of a lead in getting to the kingside; but either way wins.)

In the middle diagram, however, Black's use of ... a3 as a tempo move doesn't help, because White has even more offsetting kingside pawn moves to make--tempo moves of his own. So, for example, the game might continue (from the middle diagram) 41 ... g5 42 g3 a3 43 h3 Ka1 44 Kc1 Ka2 (not 44 ... a2?? 45 Kc2 h5 46 gxh5 g4 47 h6 gxh3 48 h7 h2 49 h8=Q [or B!] mate) 45 Kc2 Ka1, etc. (on h4, Black simply doesn't capture, making a king move instead).

Sometimes, saving a move so as to have a tempo move later is what wins (or draws) a game!

(© 2008 by Keith Brian Johnson)

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