I think the system should be easy and digestible for initial stage, and later one can improve upon it. Like me, I can always find a descent move in any position just asking myself 3 questions.
- What are the weaknesses present on the board? (Black and White).
- What are the worst placed pieces on the board? (Black and White).
- What is my opponent's idea in the given position?
These are the 3 questions always guide me what do. Let us examine how it works for me.
- Question #1: Where are the weaknesses? What move might we consider that would revolve around this? Answer: Black doesn’t have any big weaknesses. Potentially the b7-pawn is undefended, and the f7-pawn is a target in front of black’s king. A move we might consider is 1. Rb1 hitting b7 or 1. Rh3-f3 with the plan to attack f7.
- Question #2: Which is the worst-placed piece? What move might we consider that would revolve around this? Answer: Our rooks are both pretty passive and our f1-bishop hasn’t developed yet. Also, the bishop on d2 isn’t terribly active. Pretty much every piece of ours is bad except the queen! Moves we might consider are 1. Rb1, 1. Rh3, 1. Bd3 or 1. Bb4.
- Question #3: What is your opponent’s idea? What move might we consider that would prevent this idea? Answer: I think Black may want to play 1…Bb5 to trade off their bad light-square bishop for our good light-square bishop. To prevent this, we may consider the move 1. Rb1 to prevent …Bb5 from happening. Another idea they could play is 1…Rc8 to attack our c2-pawn. However, we don’t really have a way to prevent them from playing …Rc8.
I think we can conclude that the move 1…Bf6 makes a ton of sense here. It’s a very nice multi-purpose move that checks all the boxes and goes along with all three of these questions. The computer gives this move an evaluation of -1.3 and the second-best move (1…Re8) is given as -0.4.
In the game Black did indeed play 1…Bf6! attacking the d4-pawn. White ended up blundering immediately with 2. Bc3?? Nxc3 3. bxc3 Rxc3! winning material due to the …Bxd4+ fork coming next.
- Question #1: Where are the weaknesses? What move might we consider that would revolve around this? Answer: Black doesn’t have any big weaknesses. Potentially the b7-pawn is undefended, and the f7-pawn is a target in front of black’s king. A move we might consider is 1. Rb1 hitting b7 or 1. Rh3-f3 with the plan to attack f7.
- Question #2: Which is the worst-placed piece? What move might we consider that would revolve around this? Answer: Our rooks are both pretty passive and our f1-bishop hasn’t developed yet. Also, the bishop on d2 isn’t terribly active. Pretty much every piece of ours is bad except the queen! Moves we might consider are 1. Rb1, 1. Rh3, 1. Bd3 or 1. Bb4.
- Question #3: What is your opponent’s idea? What move might we consider that would prevent this idea? Answer: I think Black may want to play 1…Bb5 to trade off their bad light-square bishop for our good light-square bishop. To prevent this, we may consider the move 1. Rb1 to prevent …Bb5 from happening. Another idea they could play is 1…Rc8 to attack our c2-pawn. However, we don’t really have a way to prevent them from playing …Rc8.
Which move checkmarks multiple boxes?
To my eyes it looks like 1. Rb1 does the most work in the position. It attacks the b7-pawn, activates an inactive piece and prevents …Bb5 at the same time. Indeed, 1. Rb1! is the best move in the position with an engine evaluation of +2.5 compared to the second-best move (1. Rh3) being +0.75. Notice though, that both of these moves are multi-purpose and pretty good. 1. Rh3 was improving a badly placed piece with the goal of playing Rf3 and attacking the f7-pawn target. The only downside of Rh3 is that it didn’t prevent …Bb5 and this is the main reason that 1. Rb1 is better than 1. Rh3.
All this being said, White sadly did not play 1. Rb1 and actually did play 1. Rh3!? Which allowed 1…Ng6 2. Qe3 Bb5 and Black escaped with a draw later.
- Question #1: Where are the weaknesses? What move might we consider that would revolve around this? Answer: Black’s c7-pawn is backwards and has a lot of pieces stuck defending it (all three heavy pieces are tied down to it right now). Unfortunately for White, we don’t have a way of attacking it an additional time from the current position.
- Question #2: Which is the worst-placed piece? What move might we consider that would revolve around this? Answer: Our knight on e1 is clearly our worst-placed piece. While it’s true that the knight on b1 and rook on a1 haven’t moved yet, the knight on e1 has moved a few times to reach that square and needs to be improved. A move White might consider is 1. Nd3 to improve the knight. Another option is 1. Nd2 or 1. Nc3 to develop the queenside knight.
- Question #3: What is your opponent’s idea? What move might we consider that would prevent this idea? Answer: I think Black would love to play 1…c5 next move in order to trade off their weak backwards c7-pawn. If the c-pawn gets traded off, then Black wouldn’t have a weakness anymore and would be able to develop the rest of their pieces a bit easier. A move White might consider against this is 1. Nd3 or 1. b4 to gain more control over the c5-square.
All things considered, it looks like 1. Nd3 does a good job of improving a poorly placed piece and preventing the opponent’s idea of …c5 at the same time. And it does end up being the case that 1. Nd3 is one of the two best moves in the position. Objectively, 1. b4 is a tad bit stronger according to the computer (0.65) compared to 1. Nd3 (0.60) but it is such a small difference that I would really think that 1. Nd3 is the more logical move of the two since its checkmark's multiple boxes.
In the game White did indeed play 1. Nd3! but went on to draw the game later despite having a more pleasant position in the first place.
Notice that by asking these three questions in each position, we were able to come up with logical and strong moves. I think it could be very helpful if you try putting these questions to use yourself when you are stuck in a middle game and don’t know what to do.
Yo bro