I recently got a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, by Patrick Wolff and have found it very good.  There is on example in his book though which I would like to ask for help on from the chess.com community.  It is a spacial question.

 

  Wolff says, "White controls only four squares in Black's territory, whereas Black controls seven in White's territory (Plus, Black controls the d4 square four times.)"

 

My questions is, which squares is he speaking about?  My count never comes out right, so I was wondering if the chess.com could help me a little.

 

 

 

Cited Sources:

Wolff, Patrick. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. New York: Marie Butler-Knight, 2005.

i don't understand it either, but i t doesn't seem like a helpful way to decide who has the better position. what is "territory"?

I suppose it depends on how he's defining "control," but here's what I see:

 

Squares Black is "controlling" in White territory:

b4 (from pawn on c5)

c3 (from pawn on d4)

d4 (from several sources)

e3 (from pawn on d4) 

f4 (from pawn on e5)

g4 (from Bishop on c8)

and h3 (also from Bishop on c8)

 

Squares White is "controlling" in Black territory: 

b5 (from pawn on c4)

d5 (from pawn on c4)

g5 (from Knight on f3)

and h5 (discovery from White Bishop on e2 or Queen on d1)

 

Now, this is given a looser definition of control than I would use.  This is more along the lines of what I would call influence rather than control. 

He's dividing the board in half.  So black's territory is a5-8 to h5-8.  White's territory is a1-4 to h1-4.  Knowing this, it should make sense for you now, yeah?  By "control" he means set up to attack.  So black is set up to attack seven squares on white's half of the board and white is set up to attack 4 squares on black's half of the board. 

So, for example, black controls d4 as any piece that white moves there can be attacked by black with four different pieces (two pawns, knight, and queen).  Black also controls c3 and e3 with one pawn, b4 and d4 with a pawn, f4 with a third pawn (so that's 5 squares), plus the queen's bishop controls g4 and h3 (that's 2 more to equal 7).