Climbing

Climbing means playing a series of forcing moves by which a player gains significant distance across the board and potentially connects to the opposite edge, by repeatedly threatening to connect to the player's nearby pieces.

Here is an idealized example. Red to move.

Red wins by climbing from e8.

Note that every single one of Blue's moves is forced. Although Blue could intrude into some of Red's bridges or other templates, this does not help.

Note that climbing was possible even though Blue seemed to have more strength on the right side of the board than Red. What makes climbing work is the exposed "flank" of unprotected Red pieces that Red can repeatedly threaten to connect to. The potential for climbing is often difficult for beginners to spot, and can lead to swift and unexpected defeat. It is therefore a good idea to try to deny the opponent opportunities to climb.

Example

Climbing does not always have to proceed by bridges. A combination of bridges and adjacent moves is common. Here is an example from an actual game. Red to move.

Red starts a 3rd row ladder, then immediately jumps and climbs.

At this point, Red is connected by an interior ziggurat, marked "*", to edge template IV2d. Blue resigns.

Zipper

Zippering is a special case of climbing where the player's threatened connections are all on one side, and the attacker mostly proceeds by bridges. This is called a "zipper" because it vaguely looks like an actual zipper (see the illustration on the right). For example, consider the following position, with Red to move:

Red pushes the ladder, jumps, and zippers all the way to the opposite edge.

Move 1 was actually unnecessary; we have shown it to make it more obvious why 3 was forcing. Red could have immediately started with 3.