When to Throw The Kitchen Sink
How to play when your back is up against the wall
Your position has gone downhill, your opponent is objectively winning and things look really bleak. What do you do? You throw the kitchen sink at them!
The phrase "throw the kitchen sink" is an expression that means to include every possible option or resource, even ones that might seem excessive or unnecessary, in an attempt to resolve a situation or achieve a goal. It implies using all available means to address a problem, often in a desperate or intense manner. The phrase is derived from the idea of someone literally throwing everything, including even a heavy kitchen sink, during a confrontation or a move.
In chess, this especially applies to situations where our position is objectively losing but we can make a last ditch attempt to complicate the game and turn things in our favor if our opponent messes up. Let’s see an example of this in action:
This position comes from a game that one of my students played at the 1800 rapid rating level on Chess.com. We are down the exchange and two pawns while White is also attacking our rook and c6-pawn. It ends up that White has a +7 advantage according to Stockfish. Should we just give up and resign? No! We can try to throw the kitchen sink at our opponent and hope that something works:
1…Nxh3+! The exclamation point might be too strong but this is definitely our best practical chance. We sacrifice a piece in order to open up white’s king and complicate the position. If we had instead played 1…Re8 or some kind of defensive move then White would play 2. Rxc6 followed by Rc8 and trade pieces with nothing to worry about.
2. Kf1!? In the game White decided to not accept the sacrifice and instead wanted to keep their king safer by not capturing on h3. Objectively White should capture the knight but to a human it can definitely look dangerous, especially if they let emotions into the thinking process and don’t calculate the resulting position well. If White had played 2. gxh3 Qxh3 3. Rxc6 Qg4+ 4. Kf1 Qh3+ 5. Ke1 Qh1+ 6. Kd2 Ne4+ 7. Kc2 Rxc6+ 8. Qxc6 then Black runs out of checks while White is ahead a rook.
2…Re8 Keeping the rook safe and there may be situations where the rook is useful on the e-file.
3. Qxc6 Stockfish still wants White to capture the knight on h3 but if they weren’t going to do it a move ago, it looks even more dangerous to do it now!
3…Nf4! A great move that now puts White into “only move” territory. This is exactly where Black wants the game to go. There is only one move in the position that is good for White to play and if they don’t play it then the game will turn in black’s favor. When you’re in an objectively lost position then complicating things and putting your opponent into as many of these “only move” positions as possible is our main goal. The immediate threat is 4…Qh1# and White cannot capture the knight since that would open the e-file (remember the rook on e8?) and still allow checkmate on h1.
4. Kg1 White finds the only move and goes back to the g1-square. This is already a bit of a psychological blow for them though since their king has not fully escaped the problems yet.
4…Nh3+ White is put back into only move territory. They have to capture the knight or else repeat the position with Kf1 Nf4.
5. gxh3 White finally captures the knight but this results in their king being very exposed.
5…Qxh3 Now Black has ideas of playing …Re6 or …Re4, …Ng4 and creating more trouble around white’s king. White is still winning but with some emotions setting in here I think that it is very easy for them to go wrong.
6. Re1? A big mistake. This move doesn’t really accomplish anything aside from defending the e3-pawn a bit more in case White was trying to play f4 at some point. Instead, White should have played 6. Qc7 to bring the queen back to g3. If Black then tries to play 6…Re4 then White can respond with 7. Qc8+ which would force a queen trade.
6…Re6! Black is fully back in the game at this point! White’s queen is hit and a knight move will open up the sixth rank for a check on g6 soon.
7. Qa8+ White keeps the queen safe with a check.
7…Kh7 Now it ends up that White is in only move territory again. Can they figure out the best way to play?
8. Rc8?? No they can’t! White had to play 8. Nc5! hitting the rook. After 8…Rb6 9. Qd8! (hitting the rook again) Nd7! (opening up …Rg6+) 10. Qg5! Rg6 11. Qxg6+ Kxg6 12. Nxd7 Qxd7 it ends up that White has some advantage with their extra pawn and rook coordination on the c-file. However, this is a very hard sequence of moves for the player in white’s shoes to find. This is because they were already thrown off psychologically and it is really difficult to adjust to the new changes on the board. White was completely winning 8 moves ago and then Black threw the kitchen sink at them. White had probably thought they would easily win the game earlier but now they are fighting for their life! At this point though, they probably thought they were still doing okay since there is an immediate threat of Rh8+ skewering the king to the queen. Black is able to answer this threat with a counter-threat of their own. Should Black play 8…Ng8 or 8…Ne8? Both moves open up the sixth rank for a deadly …Rg6+. Is there a difference between the two moves?
This is a nice calculation puzzle focusing on comparison. It ends up that the best move is 8…Ne8! and this is based on the potential defense that White has. If Black plays 8…Ng8? instead then White can play 9. Rc6! fighting for control of the sixth rank and stopping Black from playing …Rg6+. In comparison, if Black plays 8…Ne8! instead then after 9. Rc6 Black can respond with 9…Nd6! blocking off the sixth rank and leaving White with no good way to deal with the upcoming …Rg6+ threat. White would be completely lost there. In the game my student played…
8…Ng8? Miscalculating and playing the incorrect move! However, this was followed by…
White resigns(??) His opponent couldn’t find the only move defense (9. Rc6) and ended up resigning! If White had played 9. Rc6 then after 9…Re4 (keeping the rook alive and threatening …Rg4#) 10. f4! (another only move!) 10…Qg3+ followed by a perpetual check then the game would have been drawn.
This game ended up being a great example of a never-give-up resilience that is very important for chess players to have. Even if we’re in a really bad looking position, you want to have a glass-half-full mentality and try to find ways to complicate the game and keep it going. Keep in mind that your opponent is not a computer and will not always find the best moves! Because we’re playing against another human there is the psychological and emotional side of things. An opponent who thinks they’re winning the game easily but then is put under a lot of pressure is more likely to crack compared to us never pushing back against our opponent in a bad position.
Keep up the fight and hopefully these tips will help you out in your own games! Let me know in the comments what you thought of this blog post. Finally, if you enjoyed this post then feel free to subscribe to the blog below and share it with your friends :-)