How to Defend a Worse Position

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I don’t have a lot of experience or games to show about defending a worse position. In the first tournament that I had, there was definitely a game when I was backed in a corner and so I had to make a sacrifice and go for a draw. So I know what it feels like and I’m going to share my thoughts about it.

Simplify

One of the things that would help out is to simplify your problem. I don’t mean that you should exchange pieces especially when you’re a piece down.

The general rule of thumb is to exchange or grab pawns when you’re a piece down. Then, when you go into the endgame, you wouldn’t have to worry about promotions. On the other hand, when you’re a pawn down, just keep playing and hope for the best. Conversely, if you’re a pawn up, exchange pieces so that you can simplify to an endgame where you have a chance of pushing your pawn to promotion.

There is also a principle that when you have a cramped position, you exchange pieces to give yourself some breathing space. When you have an open position, you keep your pieces so that you can launch an attack and pile up pressure on your opponent.

In all of these cases, you would want to identify what your problem is and try to calm yourself down so you can think of a way to solve it.

Offense as a means of defense

Often one of the most surprising ways to defend is to attack. Just make sure that it wouldn’t backfire on you. But mostly, going on the offense when you are being forced into submission is a creative way to retaliate.

I have had games when I would ignore the threats against my pieces and just attack. Of course, be mindful that you don’t get checkmated but this could be a good ace in the hole or some sort of last resort, much like a kamikaze attack.

Throw your opponent into confusion

It has been said many times but chess also has a psychological component to it and you can use that to your advantage especially when your opponent isn’t too confident. You can bluff your way out of a pinch though don’t do it against masters, they would probably snuff it out.

Still, this is a good tool in your arsenal. When you don’t know what to do in a time of trouble, maybe you can stir the pot and throw a move that seems menacing hoping that your opponent would buy it and make a mistake.

Build a fortress or find a stalemate

Whenever you are almost completely hopeless, and there’s no other way for you to salvage the position, always think that there might be a stalemate in there somewhere.

This is more advanced than I would care to admit and I have only been lucky a few times being able to draw someone through stalemate. That tournament game that I mentioned earlier is one such example. The final position had my king in the corner standing in front of my opponent’s doubled pawns while his bishop was the wrong color. He had no choice but to accept the draw.

There are cases when you are fighting a queen with only two minor pieces and a few pawns. There is a possibility of building a fortress in that scenario which would be a lot easier if your opponent didn’t have pawns.

In any case, I have seen it done before but I don’t remember having done it myself. Usually it involves trying to cover your king around pawns and securing the squares in the immediate surrounding with the minor pieces. Then you would just simply move your king back and forth.

Don’t make mistakes

In the end, the only reason you would have to defend a worse position is if you made a blunder. So keeping these concepts in mind would be useful when you find yourself in that position but it’s better to avoid it.