We continue this short series on useful pieces of chess advice that could help to improve your results over the board. Today, DAUT, which stands for Don’t Analyse Unnecessary Tactics. Also known as DCUA, or Don’t Create Unnecessary Acronyms. However, who am I to second-guess one of England’s leading players, GM John Nunn, who invented this concept in another excellent strategy book, Secrets of Practical Chess (Gambit 2007).

This is what Nunn says:

“Tactical analysis is an error-prone activity. Overlooking one important finesse can completely change the result of the analysis. If it is possible to decide your move on purely positional considerations then you should do so; it is quicker and more reliable.”

I would add that this applies particularly if you already have a winning position, or you are much stronger than your opponent and want to win in as risk-free a manner as possible. In other words, Keep It Simple. This echoes the advice in yet another chess classic, Chess for Tigers by Simon Webb (Batsford 2005), on how Tigers should get the better of Rabbits.

Nunn follows up the advice with an example from his own games. I think nothing brings the point home better than drawing on your own experience, so here are some examples from games played by Barking. The first of these is from way back when. I was playing for Hackney in an away match against Hampstead.

White: Rodney Barking ( ? ), Black: D.Daniels ( ? ), Middlesex League 1989
B15: Caro-Kann, Tartakower Variation

I was pleased with the game so far. White is clearly winning. There are any number of good continuations here, for example 27.Qe5 / Qf4 / Qd4, winning the rook on a8, or else 27.Bxg2 Nxf6 28.Bxf8, also winning the rook. However, I analysed a variation which I thought resulted in a quick mate.
27.Bxh7+
Nothing wrong with this, it also wins if followed up correctly.
27…Kxh7 28.Qxf7+ Kh6
And now the simple 29.Qxd7 is good enough. White is only a pawn up, but Black’s king is completely exposed and he will have to give up queen for rook to avoid being mated. However, I carried on with the line I had previously analysed and immediately played…
29.Qf6+??
The idea is that both king moves (to h7 and h5) allow a rook check on e7 or e5 and mate follows very quickly. I had also previously seen that interposing the queen with 29…Qg6 allowed 30.Rh1+ and mate next move. So imagine my surprise when my opponent played…
29…Qg6+!
…and said “CHECK!” in a very loud voice. I had completely overlooked that this interposition came with a check, and dealing with the check took priority over delivering mate in two. I had no choice but to exchange queens, resulting in a lost endgame which I resigned immediately. The strong Hackney player Tim Kett published an analysis of the game later on, commenting that this was “…a sad end to an otherwise fine game.”

The second example is much more recent. I was positionally better and should not have chosen a tactical continuation.

White: Elliot Macneil (1905), Black: Rodney Barking (2052), London League Summer Tournament 2022
D78: QP Neo-Grünfeld

The opening had gone well for me. My pieces are actively placed, and White’s two bishops in particular are ineffective. I should now have continued with a sensible move such as 17…Nf6, strengthening my control over the important e4 square. Instead I was beguiled by his dark-squared bishop having no escape squares (he had just played 17.e3, blocking it in), so I played the aggressive…
17…g5
However, this doesn’t win a piece since White can bring out his queen with a counter-attack on my knight on f5 which is now undefended. I had seen this idea but didn’t take it seriously.
18.Qg4 gxf4 19.Qxf5 fxe3 20.fxe3
…when objectively I am still OK but the position is much more random. White can prepare e4, or bring his knight into the attack on e5 or g5, or play down the half-open f-file. By this stage I was no longer feeling good about the game and this psychological factor may have influenced my later moves. My opponent didn’t always find the best continuation, but I still managed to lose the game.

Finally, a game from this year, where Barking finally makes the right decision. Maybe the current model Barking is a sadder and wiser version.

White: Alan Palmer (1712), Black: Rodney Barking (2055), Battersea Internal 2023
A03: Bird’s Opening
Alan opened 1.f4 and I made the first correct decision of the game by avoiding my favourite From’s Gambit (the tactical 1…e5), which Alan later said he had been hoping for, instead choosing the more positional and objectively best move 1…d5. As the game developed, I put my pieces on active squares and he put his on passive squares, with the large rating differential no doubt influencing his decision to park the bus. We eventually reached this position:

White is completely tied down to the defence of his weak queenside structure. I had just played my queen from c4 to b3, attacking the undefended knight on b1. Now, knight moves would allow me to capture the pawn on c3, as would shifting the rook on c2 to the kingside, and bishop moves would allow me to capture the pawn on d4, so he had continued by moving the rook leftwards from c2 to b2, a move which was so ugly that I had not even considered it.

Although this seems to defend everything, I now saw the possibility of sacrificing my queen to achieve a breakthrough on the queenside. I spent a long time looking at 27…Nxc3 28.Rxb3 Nxd1 when White has a number of continuations:
A: 29.Bd2 axb3 30.Qxb3 Bxd4+ 31.Kf1 Rc2
B: 29.Bb2 axb3 30.Qxd1 Rc2 31.Bc3 R8xc3 32.Nxcd3 Rxc3
C: 29.Qxd1 Rxc1
D: 29.Be3 axb3 30.Qxd1 Rc2.

Lines A to C are winning for Black. Line D is White’s best when Black still has a very strong position but there is no immediate win. I saw all that in the analysis and concluded that the outcome was not clear enough to justify entering the complications. So I made like Captain Sensible and played…
27…Qc4
…going back where I had come from. I knew that White had nothing positive to do, so I decided to continue increasing the positional pressure in the hope of achieving a breakthrough in another part of the board.
28.Rc2 Bf6 29.Kg2 Qxd3 30.Rxd3 Rc4 31.Be3 g5
White has defended against the queenside tactics, but has no response to the plan of taking on f4 and invading with the rooks down the g-file. And in fact the game ended a few moves later when he blundered and lost a piece.

So the Good Doctor was right all along. If you want to improve your results, don’t indulge in unnecessary grandstanding.