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Material advantage
A beginner's folly

Material advantage

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Strong_amateur_scientist
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Hello there. Many beginners want to have material advantage but why?

Whether you want to have a surplus queen, rook, bishop, Knight or even pawn, it can prove useless if you do not use them.

The original immortal game is a good example. Anderssen did lose a light-squared bishop, both rooks and a queen but guess what? Anderssen won the game! Kieseritzky did not use his pieces well: 

  • The light-squared Bishop was undeveloped 
  • Both rooks were tucked in the wings
  • The queen stood in a corner with no use at the end of the game.

So, material advantage is only one pillar of winning a game. Other factors to be considered are :

  • King safety
  • Pieces movability
  • Time advantage