Small Steps 2 Success

By

Sam Shankland

Quality Chess
www.qualitychess.co.uk
 Contents
Key to symbols used 4
Preface 5
Introduction 9

Part I – Passed Pawns in the Middlegame 15

1 Identical Twins 17
2 Unstoppable and Immovable 39
3 Single and Happy 65
4 Single on Valentine’s Day 87
5 Safety and Inevitability 113
6 Divide and Conquer 133

Part II – Passed Pawns in the Endgame 155

7 Inevitable Graduation 157
8 Slowing the Invasion 183
9 Support Your Local Vigilante 213
10 Dealing with the Last Man Standing 239
11 The Rack 263
12 Building a Smaller Home 283
13 My Pawn is Bigger than Yours 309
14 Long Distance Relationships 327

Game Index 352

Name Index 356


 Preface
The year-and-a-half between finishing Small Steps to Giant Improvement and writing Small Steps
2 Success was the most eventful of my career. I won the US Championship, the Capablanca
Memorial and the American Continental back to back to back, and finally smashed through the
2700 barrier after having been stuck in the mid-to-high 2600s for a few years.

Obviously I was ecstatic at making this breakthrough, but also determined to make sure I would
not be a flash in the pan. I analyzed my games closely and reached some conclusions about the
massive difference in the quality of my play between 2017 and 2018.

I found that a surprisingly large number of my games featured topics I had explicitly researched
and written about in Small Steps to Giant Improvement. I even had a nearly identical position in
the 2018 Olympiad, where the work I did helped me understand the position better and score the
critical victory in the USA’s 2½–1½ win over Azerbaijan on the top table. I became more aware
of my opponents’ mishandling of their pawns, and exploited their mistakes more effectively than
before. I followed the book’s guidelines almost every time I could, and they tended to work. There
is no example more illustrative than the encounter that made me US Champion.

Sam Shankland – Awonder Liang

St Louis 2018

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.¥d3 ¤c6 5.c3 ¤f6 6.¥f4 ¥g4 7.£b3 e5 8.h3 exf4 9.hxg4
£e7† 10.¢f1 0–0–0 11.¤d2 g6 12.¦e1 £c7 13.g5 ¤h5 14.¥e2 ¤g7 15.¤gf3 ¤e6 16.¥b5
¥g7 17.£a4 ¦d6

   
 
 
  
   
   
  
  


6 Small Steps 2 Success

18.¤b3!
The idea was to provoke ...b6, which will weaken the light squares around Black’s king.

18...b6?
My opponent obliges me.

19.¤c1 ¤b8 20.¤d3 ¢b7

Once again, I made a move intended to provoke my opponent’s pawn forward.

    
 
  
  
   
  
  
  

21.¤b4!
The knight is superbly placed and White has prevented the threat of ...a6. Black can and
probably should expel the knight by means of ...a5, but this will not save him.

21...a5
In the game, Black tried 21...£d8 but promptly lost material after 22.¤e5! £c7 23.£b3!,
when he could not hold all of the d5-, f7- and h7-pawns. I went on to win with no further
trouble: 23...¦hd8 24.¦xh7 a6 25.¥d3 ¢a7

    
  
 
   
    
  
  
   

26.£a4 a5 27.¥b5 ¢b7 28.¤bd3 ¦g8 29.¤f3 ¦h8 30.¦xh8 ¥xh8 31.a3 ¤c6 32.¥xc6† ¦xc6
33.¤de5 ¥xe5 34.¤xe5 ¦d6 35.£e8 ¦d8 36.£xf7 ¤xg5 37.£xc7† ¢xc7 38.¤xg6 f3 39.¤f4
¢c6 40.gxf3 ¤xf3 41.¦e6† ¢b5 42.¢e2 ¤g1† 43.¢d3 1–0
 Preface 7

22.¤d3

    
 
  
  
   
  
  
  

We have the same position as just a moment ago, except White has played the move ...a5 for his
opponent instead of making a move himself. This pawn advance is horribly detrimental for Black
as it not only allows the bishop to stay on the fantastic b5-square for the rest of the game, but also
creates a hook on the queenside, enabling White to open lines of attack with b2-b4 at a suitable
moment. He should be winning, and the preceding couple of moves would have fit perfectly into
Chapters 7 or 10 of Small Steps to Giant Improvement.

The book helped a lot more players than just me. It sold extremely well, and I never saw a rating
other than five stars. Despite the overwhelmingly positive feedback, I took some constructive
criticism to heart and made some minor changes in the second volume. There is a little less text
and significantly more (and sometimes harder) exercises. The chapters are a little longer and more
detailed, but there are only fourteen of them instead of sixteen. I have largely refrained from
reciprocal guidelines when dealing with the same topic from the other side of the board. This
book reads a little less like a manual – but overall, the structure remains the same.

In the Introduction to the first volume, I wrote “If Small Steps to Giant Improvement proves to be
a successful book, I will write a second volume on some of the other pawn-related topics.” My
word is my bond, but I never cited a timeline in which this had to happen. I could have chosen
to write the follow-up many years in the future, after my playing career is over and when I would
have more time to write, without having to worry about studying or training. Yet instead, I chose
to write the second volume at more or less the first opportunity.

The reason for this is, once again, largely selfish. I wrote Small Steps to Giant Improvement not
because I longed to write a book, but because I wanted to investigate a topic that I did not
understand as well as I should have. I strongly believe that the study and process of writing
Small Steps to Giant Improvement improved my understanding dramatically, and was one of the
biggest reasons for my recent meteoric rise. I wrote Small Steps 2 Success as a means of continuing
to investigate a topic that I would like to understand better, in the hope that my studies would
help me become a better player. I made another set of guidelines that I believe have improved my
8 Small Steps 2 Success

understanding; and although only time will tell, I am confident that the improved understanding
I came to by writing Small Steps 2 Success will help me further along in my quest to become the
best chess player I can be.

Just like last time, I’m hopeful that the fruits of my studies will not only be a catalyst to my own
future improvement, but will also be of benefit to other aspiring chess players. It is my sincere
hope that Small Steps 2 Success will help the readers improve their chess-playing abilities.

Sam Shankland
Walnut Creek, USA
August 2019
Chapter 3
Single and Happy
Thus far, we have seen that connected passed pawns can often cruise straight to the finish line,
even in middlegames where a lot of pieces remain on the board. If they are not firmly blockaded,
they tend to be a winning unit. While queening a pawn in the middlegame is much, much easier
when it has a colleague next to it, singleton passers can be dangerous as well.
Obviously connected passers constitute a more potent force than a singleton. If the existence
of connected passed pawns for one side is the only imbalance in the position, the game is usually
over already. If the existence of a single dangerous passer is the only imbalance, there can still be
plenty of fight left, even if that side is clearly superior. On the other hand, part of the appeal of a
lone passer relative to connected passers is that it is easier to come by, and can often be obtained
with no material investment or major positional concession.

A lone passer’s ability to become a queen rests almost entirely on the ability of its supporting
pieces to fight for control of the squares in front of it. Let’s look at a game I played last year as
an example.
Sam Shankland – Aleksandr Rakhmanov
Havana 2018

1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.¥g2 g6 4.¤f3 ¥g7 5.d4 ¤c6 6.0–0 ¤ge7 7.e3 0–0 8.¤c3 b6 9.£e2 ¥a6
10.b3 dxc4 11.¥a3 ¦e8 12.¦ac1 £d7 13.¦fd1 ¦ad8 14.bxc4 £c8

 
  

    
   
   
 
   


66 Part I – Passed Pawns in the Middlegame

15.¤b5 ¤a5 16.¤d2 £d7 17.¤b3 ¤xb3 30...£xd8

18.axb3 ¤c8 19.d5 e5 20.¤c3 ¤d6 21.£a2 30...¦xd8 is the move Black would have
¥c8 22.b4 a6 23.c5 ¤b5 24.¤xb5 £xb5 liked to play but 31.£xe4! gobbles up an
25.£c2 e4 26.¥f1 £d7 27.d6 bxc5 28.bxc5 important center pawn, after which White
cxd6 should win without much discussion.
 White’s c-pawn is obviously menacing, but
  he should take care to maintain control of the
  key squares ahead of it. If Black can set up a
blockade, the win will become much harder, if
   it’s still possible at all.
     
     
       
      
       
    
White has an excellent position thanks to his
superior pieces and his progress in the center,     
while Black’s passed pawn on a6 hardly terrifies    
anyone. However, White now has to make a
critical decision. Clearly he will recapture on
   
d6 – but with which piece? 
31.£a4!
29.¦xd6! A very important move. White would like to
Correctly choosing the c-file for the passed advance his c-pawn but doing so prematurely
pawn. It will easily get to c6, and then would enable the black queen to sit on c7.
advancing to c7 is far easier than advancing to Before this happens, White increases his
d7 would have been. activity to the maximum by improving his
queen, jailing Black’s queen to the defense of
29.cxd6? is far less effective. True, White is the e8-rook and threatening ¦d1.
clearly better here as well, but he will have a
hard time advancing his pawn any further, as It is much less effective to advance the pawn
Black simply has too many pieces controlling immediately: 31.c6?! £c7!
the d7-square. By contrast, in the game White
was easily able to reach the seventh rank.

29...£c7 30.¦xd8
Other moves are possible but I saw no reason
not to exchange rooks – especially as it affects
Black’s coordination, as will soon become clear.
 Chapter 3 – Single and Happy 67

 
   
      
 
       
       
       
        
        

White will have to work hard to boot the    
black queen off her perch. The computer insists 
White is still winning with slow moves such as 32.¦d1!
32.¥g2, 32.¥c4 or 32.£d1, but none of them White hits the black queen, which cannot go
looks that terrifying and it will take patience to the ideal blockading square on c7 due to the
and accurate play to break the blockade on hanging rook on e8. Her only move is:
the c7-square. Much like we saw in my game
with Zherebukh from the previous chapter 32...£e7
(page 43), the first mistake is the one that But now White is ready to advance under
makes the win harder to achieve. optimal conditions.

31...h5? 33.c6!
Black was losing no matter how he The queen is hit again, as White’s passed
proceeded; but for our purposes, it’s nice that pawn advances with gain of tempo. The key
he chose a move that allowed White to execute difference is that the blockading square is no
his threat. longer secure.

The computer claims the best way to offer 33...£c7

resistance is 31...¥f8 32.¦d1 £e7, pointing
out that the c5-c6 advance is no longer possible.

Still, 33.¦d6 should win easily enough: White  
will pick off the a6-pawn next, and perhaps
follow up with a relocation of the queen and
   
dark-squared bishop to the long diagonal.  
   
We have reached another instructive moment.
Again, White does not rush to push the pawn,   
but instead brings his pieces to the best possible     
squares to make the pawn advance as effective
as possible.
    
  

68 Part I – Passed Pawns in the Middlegame

Compare this position with that after


31.c6?! £c7! in the notes above. Since White    
has prioritized activating his pieces, while  
conveniently gaining time by attacking the  
queen, he now has the d6-square available to    
the bishop, which in turn enables him to force
the pawn all the way to c7.
 
    
34.¥d6! £b6 35.c7!     
White’s pawn now faces a blockade on     
the c8-square, but this can be easily broken 
since Black’s pieces are unstable and can be Black’s rook would love to go back to e7
immediately attacked. The black rook is forced to keep White’s queen off e8; but doing so
off the back rank. would allow the c-pawn to become a queen.
38...¦f6
35...¦e6 36.¥f4! A sad necessity.
Black cannot stop ¦d8†. 38...¦e7 39.¦xc8! £xc8 40.¥xa6 shows why
 the black rook was needed on the sixth rank.
For the moment, Black’s blockade seems to
   hold – but leaving both his queen and bishop
    passive on the queenside means White can
  easily launch a mating attack, despite Black’s
seemingly solid pawn cover around his king.
    39.¥e5 ¦f3 40.¥xg7 ¢xg7 41.£e8
   Black is mated.

     37.¦d8† ¢h7 38.¦xc8 gxf4

     
      
   
36...g5
Black could have tried one last desperate   
attempt to blockade the queening square:    
36...£b7
While he can stop the pawn for now, it
  
requires so much of his resources to keep it     
under lock and key that White simply wins
the game on the other side of the board.
    
37.¦d8† ¢h7    
White is winning every which way, but I 
like deciding the game with a direct mating 39.£d7!
attack. Now ¦b8 is coming, and Black does not
38.¥c4! have enough counterplay to make any trouble.
 Chapter 3 – Single and Happy 69

39...fxe3 40.¦b8 exf2† 41.¢g2 £e3 The final nail in Black’s coffin. The check
42.£xf7! on f3 has been prevented, and Black is facing
 devastating threats such as c8=£, the flashier
¦h8† with mate to follow, and even simple
     ones like £xe6 and £xh5†. He understandably
   resigned.
1–0
  
    This was a pretty straightforward case, and my
    moves were not so difficult. The tougher and
more interesting parts of the game had come
     earlier on, when I played well to reach such a
    strong position. But still, the game allows me
to introduce the first guideline.
   


If you want to queen a lone passed pawn, your pieces need to be ready to fight for
every square that your opponent can potentially blockade.

When applying this guideline retrospectively, Once again, we can apply the guideline
we can see that I did what I was supposed to retrospectively to the 36...£b7 line given in
do. I correctly chose to give myself the c-pawn the notes. White’s easiest winning plan was to
instead of the d-pawn, as Black would have poke the e6-rook, pointing out that it needed
a harder time blockading on the c7-square to go to the undesirable f6-square in order to
than on the d7-square; and then I made sure keep the c-pawn under control. This enabled
my pieces were ready to fight for c7 before I White to deliver mate to Black’s lonely king,
advanced my pawn to c6. as all of his pieces were preoccupied with the
c7-pawn.
This is all easy to understand, but there is a
more subtle undertone to the game that I All of this is relatively easy to understand,
highlighted once the pawn reached c7. While though at times less easy to apply. But what
it was easy to gloss over that phase as White about in a less clear case, when it took some
was obviously winning easily, the principle was investment to get a pawn all the way to the
still clearly on display. brink of promotion?

Often, the best way to clear out a blockade

or promote a far-advanced passed pawn is
to create threats elsewhere to overwork your
opponent’s defensive pieces.
70 Part I – Passed Pawns in the Middlegame

Peter Leko – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave


   
Batumi (ol) 2018
   
   

      
        
     
        
        
   
     41...¥f6!!
  R  Black has a decisive attack, and the
b2-pawn is one of the most valuable attacking
 pieces. This might seem strange since a pawn
We join the game long after Black had is a short-range piece that can only influence
sacrificed some material to get a passed squares right in front of it, but the danger
pawn on b2. There is a notable difference of it promoting at any moment renders
between this position and the one I had with White’s heavy pieces unable to fight against
Rakhmanov: White has a ton of extra material the blunt threat of ...¥h4 followed by ...£f2
and is not trying to contain a pawn on the mate. Obviously if the queens were to vanish
seventh rank with the same number of pieces from the board, White would be completely
as his opponent. It looks like Black should be winning; the pawn constitutes no danger on
lost. He is down by a rook for just two pawns, its own, but combined with Black’s other
and while one of his pawns has made it all the pieces it plays a decisive role.
way to b2, it clearly will go no further. White
has three major pieces fighting for control of 42.¦d1
the b1-square, and the dark-squared bishop White could have offered a little more
surely won’t offer any help. But in fact, Black resistance by giving his rook a more active role,
is winning! This is because he has a decisive hitting the pawn from behind, but he still loses
attack against the white king, made possible by against best play.
White’s pieces being overworked.
42.¦e8† ¢h7 43.¦b8 ¥h4
37...¦xe1! 38.¦xe1 £h2†! 39.¢f1 This leads to a similar situation, as White’s
39.¢e3? ¥h6† 40.¢d4 £f2† costs White overworked queen cannot prevent ...£f2
his rook. mate while keeping the b2-pawn in check at
the same time. Still, he can make Black find
39...£h1† 40.¢f2 £h2† 41.¢f1 some moves.
Having now reached the time control, MVL 44.£d4!
can choose whether to continue the game or In the game, the same position was reached,
not. He landed on the right decision. but with White’s rook on d1 instead of b8.
Now White is threatening mate on h8,
 Chapter 3 – Single and Happy 71

meaning Black does not have time to Queening right away is not recommended
safeguard his bishop with ...¥g3. Still, he as the bishop on h4 will hang: 43...b1=£??
wins with direct moves. Always examine 44.¦xb1 £h1† 45.¢e2 £xb1 46.£xh4! and
checks and captures... White wins.

     44.¤b4
44.£g1 is met by 44...£c2! and White
   cannot prevent a second queen from appearing.
  
    44...b1=£! 45.¦xb1 £h1† 46.¢e2
     46.£g1? loses to 46...£xf3† and mate.
   
46...£xb1
    
    
    
44...£h1†! 45.¢e2 £e1†!
Black pushes White’s king to a square where
   
it will be checked by the new queen.    
46.¢d3 b1=£†    
Black wins.
    
42...¥h4 43.£d4    
    
       
    
   Finally, at the end of all that, Black emerged
a clean pawn up and with a safer king. He
    went on to win.
     47.¤d3 £c2† 48.¢f1 £d2 49.£e4 ¥h4
    50.f4 £d1† 51.¢g2 £g4† 52.¢f1 ¢f8
     53.£e3 £f5 54.£f3
  

43...¥g3!
Another excellent move. Black is in no rush.
He simply moves his bishop to a square where
it is no longer attacked before sending the
pawn through.
72 Part I – Passed Pawns in the Middlegame

 Ultimately, the way you clear a path for a

     passed pawn in the middlegame usually has
    more to do with distracting the blockading
pieces than forcefully pushing them aside.
   
  
    
  
    
   

54...g5!
Creating a passed pawn.

55.¢e2 g4 56.£g2 £g6 57.£h1 ¥f6 58.¢e3

¢g7 59.£g2 ¥d8 60.£b2† ¢h7 61.£h2†
¢g8 62.£b2 ¥a5 63.£g2 ¥b6† 64.¢e2
g3 65.¤e1 ¥a5 66.¤d3 ¢f8 67.¢e3 ¥b6†
68.¢d2 £g4 69.¢c3 ¥e3 70.¢c2 ¥xf4
71.¤e1 ¥e5
0–1

When we picked up the game, it seemed like

queening the pawn was a ridiculous concept.
White had the promotion square firmly under
control, and none of Black’s pieces could fight
for b1. But MVL still managed to queen the
pawn! This is because he was able to distract
White’s defending pieces by making threats
that his opponent could not answer while
keeping the b2-pawn under control.

There’s more than one definition of a

middlegame, but in general I would
characterize it as a position with queens, a fair
number of other pieces, and some pawns. It’s
not unheard of for a lone passed pawn to launch
deep into enemy territory and ultimately
reach the final rank simply by fighting for
its advancing squares, as we saw in my game
with Rakhmanov, but a much more common
scenario is the one we saw in Maxime’s game.