Dead Pieces

In my first blog post I wrote about one of my games which I thought was a perfect example of zero development.

This article we will see how poor development can result in bad positions which eventually costs the game.

In the following position, black just played B5, threating the white bishop.What is a good reply by white in this position?

Well, there are few good replies by white in this position. Before we go into what I played in this position, we need to understand that the B5 move by black is highly inaccurate (if not a blunder). One can notice, the number of pieces on the board are  the same for both black and white, but white practically a piece or two up in the position.

Well, lets look at how

• 1. blacks two knights (They are still not developed) white has both knights out in the game.

• 2.The black knights are not going to develop anytime soon either. (coz the most of the squres are taken by its own pieces.

• 3. Both the blak rooks are not in the game. Especially the H8 Rook, which is going to remain like that for quite sometime (Thanks to the knights blocking their way.

• 4.Black King is caught in the middle, cant castle anytime soon.

On the contrary white is way ahead in development, white king is ready to castle on either side.However to convert this positional advantage white needs to act quickly and try to win as soon as posible with out giving black time to develop.

In the game I played NxB5 sacking my knight to open up the queen side.

The following is how the game went from there.

White can take different path to victory here, the following is just what I played. It may not be the absolute best, but it does its job to win the game.

Note that it was a blitz game (5 mins). The url to the actual game on chess.com is here. The idea behind this example is to understand that cramped pieces are some times as good as dead. And how violating basic opening principles can be futile.

If you notice the first 6/7 moves in the game above black violated basic opening principles.

1. Black bought the queen  out early

2. Black did not develop the knight(s) before the bishops.

3. Black only played with pawns without focusing on developing pieces.

I think the opening   is called "Greco defence" and is not considered very good for black.

I hope you liked the post. Thanks for reading. :)