Temposchlucker

 I have the feeling that I'm standing at a crossroads when it comes to opening play. I made a lot of progress in positional play lately, and my middlegame play has benefited greatly, but I still suck at the opening. If they play within my league, I'm doing great, but when they deviate, I soon find myself in trouble. The reason is that I don't really understand the openings I play. So I'm in doubt whether I should try to learn the openings based on the books I have, or that I better can learn to think for myself in this specific area. Black to play 2bq1rk1/1pb2ppp/1np2n2/2PppP2/1P2P3/2NP2P1/1B2N1BP/Q4RK1 b - - 0 16 I played black here, and I wasn't happy at all. My knight was under attack, and after 16. ... Nbd7, my position would be very cramped. I had the feeling that I misplayed the opening because my opponent played a move order which got me on the wrong foot. I screwed up the variations myself voluntarily because I was out of a plan. Luckily I decided here to op

 After the adage of Philidor "the pawns are the soul of chess" I used to add in my mind "yada, yada, yada". But finally I understand what he was talking about. The pawns determine what the scope of the the pieces is. They restrict both your opponents and your own pieces. This means, that the battle of the pawns decide which pieces are going to get more scope, and which pieces are getting restricted. Now the goal is clarified, it is time to get more insight in how that mechanism works. Since Lucas Chess don't let me create boards without kings, I cut the board in half, so we are not being distracted by irrelevant variations that accidently emerge. Diagram 1. White at bottom In diagram 1, white wants the juicy outposts e5 and g5 for his knight. By pushing g4-g5, he undermines the black pawn on f6. Black has 3 options: f5 fxg5 do nothing In all 3 scenarios, white gets the upperhand on e5 and g5. Diagram 2. Black at bottom. Black to move Instead of directly attackin

 Capablanca: Start with e4 or d4 Anchor at least one pawn in the center and give it support Knights before bishops to f3 and c3 Moves with threat first Move each piece only once Max two pawn moves Let bishops and knights control the center Keep the queen close to home sot it cannot be kicked away No pawn grabbing Castle early on the kingside There are quite a few caveats with these rules, to the extent that these rules are close to useless in practice. In the diagram in the previous post I violated rule 6 by playing 5 pawn moves instead of 2. Of course my opponent violated a few rules too, like 5 and 2. Which might be the reason why I could come away with my own violations. The rules in themselves contain a core of truth, ofcourse. But without the necessary stipulations you can't make use of them. This means that the rules are too coarse to be of much practical value. I need a coherent logical framework to judge the moves instead. At least I have a begin now: The center contains th

 It is not easy to get the hang of what is going on in the opening. There are a lot of things that play a role, building a logical framework from there is no sinecure. Currently I'm working on the book about development from IM Andras Toth (in general IM's and CM's seems to be better in explaining stuff than GM's). Generally, the advice for a speedy development is to limit the amount of pawns moves to two in the opening, in order to get you pieces out. From a statistical point of view, there seems to be something to say for building the LoA landscape first (LoA = line of attack). The pawns decide where the LoA's will come, and you keep your opponent guessing which LoAs your pieces are going to utilize. Pawn moves create space, and space = room to manoeuver for you and lack of space for your opponents pieces. Giving them less room to adapt to your final piece placement. Your pieces are safer behind your pawns, hence it is more difficult to gain a tempo for your oppon

 We are familiar with the static piece count. But for an attack, you need the dynamic piece count. Which pieces can contribute to the attack? The following game demonstrates this. [Event "Voronezh op"] [Site "Voronezh"] [Date "1998.06.17"] [Round "6"] [White "Abashev, Denis"] [Black "Chernyshov, Konstantin"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "2485"] [ECO "B48"] [Opening "Sicilian"] [Variation "Taimanov, 6.Be3 a6 7.Bd3 Nf6 8.O-O Bd6"] [WhiteElo "2365"] [TimeControl "300"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "51"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 e6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 {White is ahead in development already. Look at the bishop at c8 which in turn blocks rook a8. White has more space. The price white paid for this is that in the long term he has a minority in the center. Black has a minority a

 It starts with the LoA (line of attack). You have to decide which LoA you want to use. Then you sculpt it. And then you put your attacker on it.  Don't start with putting your attacker on the LoA! In doing that, you show your hand, and give your opponent the chance to oppose your idea. White to move If, for some reason, you decide that invading with your rook to c7 is the LoA you want to work on, you can act in two ways. If you place your rook on 1.Rc1, you show your hand, and give your opponent the chance to block your idea by 1. ... b5 After 1.Rc1 b5 In fact, you might have simple wasted a tempo. Pawns are the slow moving sculptors of the LoAs. Look at the difference: After 1.c4 Dependent on how your opponent reacts, you can decide whether you place your rook on c1 or not.

 My openings play is usually pretty bad. That coincides with little understanding of what I'm doing. Hence you will notice that my approach will be a wee bit chaotic. Please bear with me. Alas, Lucas Chess doesn't accept positions without a king. But the position is about the pawns, not the kings. Diagram 1. White to move When there is tension in the center, white has three options: trade the e-pawn advance the e-pawn protect the e-pawn Trading the e-pawn Diagram 2. exd5 The pawn trades 1.exd5 exd5 has the following consequences for the LoA landscape (line of attack): For white: e-file opens diagonal b1/h7 opens For black: e-file opens diagonal c8/h3 opens Whether to exchange the pawns or not depends from the question: who's pieces are going to benefit the most from the opening of the position? And that depends on the piece placement on both sides. Advancing the e-pawn Diagram 3. e5 This has the following consequences. White: diagonal b1/h7 opens up e6 becomes the base of t