TV Concept: Rarely Discussed Topic in Chess

There are a lot of concepts in chess about which there is almost no relevant material in chess literature.

Today we’ll speak about one of these important concepts, which occurs in openings like Sicilian Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind, etc.

Let’s look at the board.

This is one of the main positions of Modern Benoni, the g3 line. White has a space advantage, due to his d5 Pawn.

Now, before going ahead, let’s think for a moment, what kind of compensation does Black have?

Well, if you said Pawn majority advantage in the queenside (a7, b7, c5 Pawns are against a2, b2), you are absolutely right. If you answered “e” half-open line, you are right again. If your answer was a good Bishop on g7, here things become tricky.

Bg7 is a much better Bishop than the g2 one, which is limited by his own Pawn on d5. The Bishop on g7 is not limited by any Pawn, but in front of it, there is the Knight on f6.

And these pieces are fighting.

Bishop says to the Knight “Hey man, I am doing a great job on a1-h8 diagonal”, and the Knight answers “Shut up, I am fighting for the e4 square, and I am not placed badly”.

I call this confrontation “TV Concept”. There is a common situation when you are watching TV, and somebody comes and stands in front of you thus obstructing the view.

The same thing happened in our example. On b2 there is a TV, the Bishop is watching it, while the Knight on f6 obstructs the view for him.

What’s the solution? There are 2 ways:

1. Take the Knight to another beneficial square for him, where he will not limit the Bishop.

2. Change the Knight with any of the opponent’s important pieces.
In our example, as Black has a space disadvantage and is already experiencing problems with maneuvering, the best option would be changing the f6 Knight. And for that reason, Black’s main move in the theory is 9...Re8!

Black wants to play Ne4, change that Knight with the opponent’s Knight on c3, solving the TV concept.

I’ll show you one more example.

You may be familiar with the immortal game of Rubinstein against Rotlewi.

Here Rubinstein realized his famous combination: 22...Rc3!! 23.gh Rd2!! and won a very nice game. This strong attack started 7 moves before.

Here Rubinstein played Ne5!

TV concept: Black changes the c6 Knight and activates the Bishop on b7, after which two Bishops become very dangerous for White King.

You can watch the full game in our Classical Commented Games course: Rotlewi G. – Rubinstein A.

The last example will be from the course “Maroczy Bind”.

Black has the TV concept issue. The solution?

9...Nd7 with idea Nc5! Bishop will not be limited anymore and Knight on c5 will not be less happy than he was on f6.

Just remember these 2 tips for solving the “TV concept” issue:

1. Exchange the knight

2. Take him to another beneficial place.

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