The Price of Passivity

Many chess players do not like to throw the first punch. Rather, they prefer playing provocative moves encouraging their opponent to attack them. There are animals like hedgehogs and porcupines who are designed by evolution to be master defenders equipped to attack with vengeance if another animal gets too close.



Pawnstar11 of the ICC is an excellent defensive player who is frequently rewarded by pouncing on chess players who are overly aggressive. One of the drawbacks to his style of play is that his defensively placed pieces can sometimes be captured sacrificially leaving weakened squares in their wake.

In the following position, he just played Nf8 in an uncastled position in order to guard the sensitive pawn at g6. White reacted by sacrificing exchange(means to give up ones rook for either a knight or bishop).

After Black recaptures at f8, White recovers the exchange sacrifice with a pawn to boot by capturing at g6 with a fork leaving the Black King exposed in the center. In this particular game Black's defensive play resulted in a hopelessly weak/pasive position, but sometimes good defense results in a better position for the defender if the attacker overextends his position and becomes vulnerable.