No Knights?

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therealraggs

I seem to lose my knights very quickly in most games. Is this normal for new players? I'll find myself ten moves in and both knights are gone. I seem to always see "knights before bishops" but that seems to just mean for me "no knights." Does anyone else experience this? Any recommendations for how to effectively use knights?

XequeYourself

Do you have a particular game you're thinking of that you can link to? None of your most recent games seem to match that description.

Just from looking at a few games it feels like you're throwing your attack forward without much of a plan behind you and then as soon as the attack has been refuted, you end up with the attacking piece out on the other side of the board without protection or much of an idea what to do next. Or you're launching an attack with half your minor pieces still hanging out on the back row.

I think perhaps you could spend more time developing your pieces, perhaps having a little more patience before launching your attack with some better support behind you.

Look at what happened to your dark bishop here... That check gave you no advantage at all as it was easily solved with a pawn move that *then* threatened and boxed in your bishop while your opponent could bully you backwards with pawns.

When you're formulating an attack, try to think about how your opponent will stop you (e.g. blocking with a pawn) and ask yourself.... What do you have at your disposal to follow up that attack and refutation? If you haven't finished developing your pieces then the answer will probably be "nothing" and then eventually that piece will be lost or blocked in.

 

 

TarasShulyk

Sureeeee

therealraggs

Ashtondayrider, thanks for that. It is helpful advice. I do notice the pattern of getting stuck to the side. I'll try to focus on getting all my pieces developed before launching forward and see if that helps.