Transposition

Transposition! I just heard a bunch of beginners say, "Uh, ok? What's that?"

To put it in really simple terms, you're moving, or your opponent is moving, your game play from one line that obviously isn't working, to "something else". Let me tell you, there are lots of them although most are very near to the beginning of a game, and they are worth learning, at least to be able to recognize them.

This is sort of the Chess equivalent of The Wizard of Oz.

No, you're not in Chess Kansas anymore. You're somewhere else.

The key is to see it, understand where you just went, and start dealing with it fast! What better way to show it than with an interactive diagram? I'm playing another from my friends list. To be honest I haven't played against him in a while and saw something in my preparation to challenge him.

I notice his rating hadn't changed much over that time, and is very close to my own. I've gotten a fair bit better and apparently so has he, so I thought to try working with something simple that I know well, if I happened to get assigned Black, which I did. OK, The Scandinavian?

I've played it often, and well, so why not? Because my opponent completely ignored it. That's "Why Not!". I needed to transpose to something else, and quickly. You might like to flip this around to see from the Black point of view that I was playing.