Happy Thanksgiving

Well, he leaned in close like a crazy person so yeah, it was a single square.

Yeah, most authors don't explain the basics very well.

The progression of a game is something like development -> open lines -> infiltration.

Why is infiltration useful? Well of course, if your pieces are on the opponent's side of the board, it's easier / more likely that they're in contact with targets in the opponent's camp, including the king.

A weak square is useful because once occupied, it attacks the surrounding squares.

And in the same way that even an isolated pawn is not called weak if nothing can attack it, a square wont be called weak if occupying it (or using it to infiltrate) is not useful.

And when I say targets other than the king... this is another thing I haven't seen authors mention that I think is very useful... what are the biggest strategic targets? The answer is pawns and king.

Why? Because those pieces are slow. If they're weak now, they'll probably be weak 5, 10, 20 moves from now, so a long term plan can be to maneuver many pieces to come into contact with them.

So to tie this into the weak square thing... what is the quintessential example? IMO it's rooks on the 7th rank. Every pawn on the 7th rank is weak because it's impossible for them to be defended by a pawn. On the 7th rank you'll also usually be influencing squares near the enemy king.

So you plop a rook on d7 and you're pressuring stuff. Maybe you were able to do it because d7 was "weak."

Hope that makes a lot more sense now

I had to do that when playing 1 min Vs 5 mins with wife, she considered it beyond rude, but I had no choice!

Tactics can be boiled down to threats, captures, and checks. Some elements that make them possible are undefended pieces and open kings.

Strategy can be boiled down to piece activity. Activity being a combination of mobility and being in contact with weak pawns or the king.

So something complex like a Tal combination? You can break it down by looking at what the threat is on each move.

Something complex like a weak color complex? You can break it down by looking at which player has the active pieces.

Linked game is famous example of weak light squares

Anyway, sorry for rant... I feel like books often talk glibly of "harmonizing" your pieces but they never actually explain it from first principles.

In Washington Square Park people may go expecting to see chess and may thus expect intimidation.  When somebody unexpectedly comes across a person playing casual pickup games then they probably don't expect intimidation tactics and would find that off-putting.

When my club would do the occasional take-on-all-comers public events (at festivals featuring a large number of community groups) we would have players of various skill levels manning the tables so that not every newcomer would get destroyed.  That promoted the club as a place where potential members might enjoy playing.

Let's not get off track: the beauty of this holiday is that Americans can honour a long storied tradition by coming together as a family and community. There's a reason the Fall season carries with it such legend and myth - keep it civil. 

Maybe I will come to America someday and see what the fuss is, I've never understood Thanksgiving. In Napoli we have things such as Bastille and St. Oliver's day; coincidentally these CAN take place in the Fall season, though any day of any year may be selected. 

A tradition started by separatists from GB and not an officially proclaimed day of Thanksgiving until more than six years after the Treaty of Paris.  It wasn't permanently official until the latter part of the 1800s.

Implying that GB started Thanksgiving is similar to saying GB has a Fourth of July (granted it does have a date of the fourth of July between the third of July and the fifth of July, but it is not a British Fourth of July holiday)

llama, thanks!

using all of your information, and because i am such a slow study, i might just gain eight or nine rating points!

But is it too late for you to become a master?

i don't know, bunny. i might need to read all the topics about it before i come to any conclusions. as you are well aware, those topics about becoming a master have some of the most compelling and intelligent comments.

Omg same I sometimes do that

No

Heh