How to Beat Me, Lesson #6: Don't Trade With Trader Sam

Intro for new readers: All the experts tell you how to beat other people. I'm not great at chess, but I'm the only one telling you how to beat me.

Chess has too many pieces.

Imagine playing basketball with 16 players on each team and you'll have some idea how I feel trying to make an opening move. Puzzles are the same. If the next one comes up and there are two kings and a pawn, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances.

Too many choices leave me paralyzed. So, all other things being equal, I like to trade. To beat me, don't trade unless there is a clear advantage to doing so.

Here's a position I reached in a game where I made a lot of trades, but was still in bad shape.

The computer says White is +8.3 here. But he wasn't sure which move would break through. Even though this was daily (see Lesson #4), he got impatient and allowed me to trade queens and rooks. This left me down only a pawn, but he also didn't know about me being sneaky in the endgame (see Lesson #3).

In this position, I thought I'd be lucky to get a draw, but I tried a trap and played b4+.

I was hoping he wouldn't look too closely and take what looks to be a free pawn with Rxb4. He did. But Nb5+ wins the rook for the knight. Although we were even in material, the passed a-pawn was decisive and I came away with the win.

You always want to get equal value in a trade, otherwise it's a sacrifice. But when you play me, you should aim to get more value than what you've given up, in terms of position, tempo or attacking opportunities. Otherwise, keep those pieces in your pocket. You may need them later.

Previous entries in the "How to Beat Me" series:

There's No Secret to Beating Me - Here's How
How to Beat Me, Lesson #2: Never Resign
How to Beat Me, Lesson #3: Lock Your Back Door
How to Beat Me, Lesson #4: It's Daily, Not Bullet
How to Beat Me, Lesson #5: Slam Shut My Openings