Welcome to a new Hivechess lecture and we will be looking at a new lesson that talks about improving your worse piece. Our game study will be coming from the Round 4 of the Czech Chess Championship, between Grandmaster David Navara, a well known chess grandmaster with an understanding of what it takes to play on the elite level of chess, against a fellow Czech Chess grandmaster of 2495 rating, Krejci Jan.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6
The game was a product of the Ruy Lopez: Closed, Breyer Defense, Zaitsev Hybrid, which has an attribute of no capture on the f6 square. This usually leads to a closed position style of play in the game, which I anticipate will happen in this game between Navara and Jan.
5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Nb8 10. d4 Nbd7 11. Nbd2 Bb7 12. Bc2 Re8 13. Nf1 Bf8 14. Ng3 g6
From the choice of the opening, you can tell that it is going to be a product of positioning where both sides will be looking for opportunities through the maneuvers of their pieces. You can see it is already taking place through the movement of white knight. The white knight has moved from b1 to d2, down to f1 and now g3. While black is doing the same thing with his king side by bring his pieces to that angle as well. Also, you can see that through the bishop going to f8 and then trying to go on to g7 since the pawn has moved to g6.
14. Ng3 g6 15. b3 Bg7 16. d5 Nb6 17. Rb1 c6 18. c4 Qc7 19. Bd3 Nfd7 20. Be3 Nc5
Things got interesting when the kingside was locked and now the game play shifted towards the queenside, now looking for breaks.
21. Bf1 bxc4 22. bxc4 Nbd7 23. Qd2 Reb8 24. Bh6 f6 25. h4 Bxh6 26. Qxh6 Nf8 27. h5 cxd5 28. cxd5 Bc8 29. Nd2
This is the point where it gets more interesting for the lesson. In the launch of the king side attack through the movement of the queen towards the black king's position, which is why Qh4 is on board, inorder to attack the king. The only piece that is misplaced is the knight on f3 because of the limited sqaures the knight can move to and then Navara goes for Nd2, for the purpose of Nc4. This move is the highlight of today's lesson. Navara did not rush his kingside attack, rather he went ahead to improve the position of his knight, thereby all his pieces are on good squares serving a purpose.
Now the position has become way better for white and thanks to the knight improvement, Navara gets a tactical blow that improves his chances of winning the game. This is what you can get when you improve the position of your pieces.
Here is the game link:
And here is the PGN game:
[Event "Round 4: Navara, David - Krejci, Jan"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2026-czech-championship--men/round-4/NZ912nWZ/BGp0vTVr"]
[Date "2026.05.11"]
[Round "4.3"]
[White "Navara, David"]
[Black "Krejci, Jan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2624"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[WhiteFideId "309095"]
[BlackElo "2495"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[BlackFideId "322156"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "C95"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Closed, Breyer Defense, Zaitsev Hybrid"]
[UTCDate "2026.05.11"]
[UTCTime "11:15:32"]
[BroadcastName "2026 Czech Championship | Men"]
[BroadcastURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2026-czech-championship--men/round-4/NZ912nWZ"]
[GameURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2026-czech-championship--men/round-4/NZ912nWZ/BGp0vTVr"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Nb8 10. d4 Nbd7 11. Nbd2 Bb7 12. Bc2 Re8 13. Nf1 Bf8 14. Ng3 g6 15. b3 Bg7 16. d5 Nb6 17. Rb1 c6 18. c4 Qc7 19. Bd3 Nfd7 20. Be3 Nc5 21. Bf1 bxc4 22. bxc4 Nbd7 23. Qd2 Reb8 24. Bh6 f6 25. h4 Bxh6 26. Qxh6 Nf8 27. h5 cxd5 28. cxd5 Bc8 29. Nd2 Rxb1 30. Rxb1 Rb8 31. Rc1 Qe7 32. Nc4 Bd7 33. Rc3 Rb1 34. Qe3 gxh5 35. Nxh5 f5 36. exf5 Bxf5 37. Nxd6 Qxd6 38. Rxc5 Bg6 39. Rc6 Qb8 40. Nf6+ Kf7 41. Ng4 Nd7 42. Qf3+ Kg7 43. Qa3 1-0