A guidebook How I look at the chessboard in order not to leave my pieces hanging

Problem

When it comes to playing a game of chess everybody will face the problem of how not to overlook their opponent’s move or a sequence of moves leading to the unintentional loss of their piece or pieces – a situation when the sacrificing of a piece does not take place or the annihilation of one’s own piece(s) does not involve a sufficient positional compensation to equalize or gain an advantage. There are many recipes to achieve this but none of them is flawless. Most solutions of the problem are based on determining the critical features one should pay special attention to. These features are called weaknesses in chess terminology. The weaknesses, by definition, demonstrate a dual nature. On the one hand, they refer to the weaknesses of squares (positions on the chessboard). On the other hand, they are understood as material weaknesses of one player’s pieces (or shortages of a relative value of White’s or Black’s chessmen), including pawns. In this method, you should rely only on the second type of weakness, assuming a simple arithmetic definition of weaknesses.

Weakness

A piece, in other words a chessman or a pawn, is a weakness if a difference
between the number of attacks and defences is greater than or equals to zero.

Additional factors:

1) The King is not considered a weakness because it cannot be captured.
2) A “completely pinned” piece, that is a piece covering the King and, thereby, unable to move, is not taken into account as an attacker or a defender. Therefore, a piece can be understood as a weakness if:
1) It is neither attacked nor defended;
-attack 0 / defence 0
2) It is both under a single attack and defence;
-attack 1 / defence 1
3) It is both under a double attack and defence;
-attack 2 / defence 2
And so on ...
Configurations:
-attack 1 / defence 0
-attack 2 / defence 1
-attack 3 / defence 2

They bring a risk of the loss of a given piece, therefore I have additionally
highlighted them in yellow.

Why one should pay attention to pieces that are attacked and defended to the
same degree (by the same number of White’s and Black’s pieces)? This is true since they may be attacked once more in each single move in the future. Please remember that if a particular chessman has more attackers than defenders, a possibility exists for it to be grabbed by your opponent. Based on that, every new attack involves a risk of losing one’s own given chessman.
Taking a piece may lead to one of the following circumstances:
I. Material losses
- If the piece you offer possesses a greater value compared to the one you
conquer;
II. Trading of pieces
- If the piece you offer possesses the same value as the one you conquer;
III. Material gains
- If the piece you offer possesses a smaller value compared to the one you
conquer;
By looking at weaknesses in your opponent’s position you learn which chessmen you may attack in the easiest way, and you try to achieve this. In turn, by looking at weaknesses in your own position you learn which of your chessmen may be attacked by your opponent, and you try to prepare for such an emergency.

Value of pieces

There are numerous systems to value pieces. Two of them are the commonest.
1)
-Pawn – 1
-Knight – 3
-Bishop – 3
-Rook – 4,5
-Queen – 9
2)
-Pawn – 1
-Knight – 3
-Bishop – 3
-Rook – 5
-Queen – 9
I am personally a supporter of system No. 1 as it is more balanced. In this particular system, the queen’s value (9) is equal to the value of two rooks (2 x 4.5) or three light pieces (3 x 3). However, the differences among various systems are not considerable, and, as a rule, the material value of the pieces itself has no decisive meaning. Notably, a correct assessment of each position should also stem from a series of positional factors, not only material imbalances.

A scanner’s method

A fundamental issue it to answer the question:
How to look at a particular position on the chessboard to see all the inherent
weaknesses? By looking at the chessboard with the use of “a scanner’s method”, that is from column “a” to column “h” (left-right), from row “1” across to row “8” (upwardsdownwards), the probability of perceiving all the weaknesses during a game is the highest. In other words, this method reduces the risk of overlooking one or several weaknesses. The scanner’s method is logical and coherent. Everybody can learn it, irrespective of his or her presented level of the understanding of chess.

Description

Respective portions of the description have been highlighted in the following colours:

1) Moves in the game – green;
2) Changes – blue;
3) General weaknesses – pink
White’s weaknesses – red
Black’s weaknesses – brown

Changes

Since each move may imply changes in the distribution of weaknesses, it is of great importance to perceive these changes. Hence, I have put additional annotations on them. In order to emphasize some of the changes, I have used colours to highlight such situations as:
1) The piece becomes a weakness – in yellow.
2) The piece is no longer a weakness – in green.
3) The piece has been captured – in grey.

Example:

Weaknesses
White
1) Pawn a2 – attack 0 / defence 0
2) Pawn b2 – attack 1 / defence 0
3) Queen d1 – attack 2 / defence 2
4) Knight e5 – attack 1 / defence 1
5) Bishop f4 – attack 0 / defence 0
Black
1) Pawn a6 – attack 0 / defence 0
2) Pawn c6 – attack 2 / defence 0
3) Pawn c7 – attack 0 / defence 0
4) Queen d4 – attack 1 / defence 1
5) Pawn g6 – attack 1 / defence 1
6) Rook h8 – attack 0 / defence 0
At the moment of the game discussed White and Black have 5 and 6 weaknesses, respectively. Two of them, pawn b2 and pawn c6, are directly exposed to annihilation while the remaining weaknesses stay in an equilibrium.