Get stuck when all pieces are developed/

Ok, looking for weak squares might be the next big paradigm shift I need to explore.  Thanks!

I agree with chessmicky to a certain extent. A big part of the intent of plans and positional play is to reach positions where you finally win material or finally peform a checkmate, both of which sometimes arise only through tricky combinations. If you don't see opportunities for free material or forced checkmates when they arise, then all that planning and positional play have been wasted.

However, to be more practical, let me throw out these ideas:

(1) As a quick approximation, follow these steps in this order: (a) develop all your pieces and castle; (b) advance your 4th rank pawns to the 5th rank. In your game above, you performed step (b) via the move 9. d5 before you completed step (a), which meant you had a premature attack.

(2) Against a nearly equal opponent, come up with "mini-plans," which are simple goals like: placing a knight at a good outpost, trading off your bad bishop, doubling the other guy's pawns, seizing control or at least contesting an open file or semi-open file, getting a passed pawn, getting the bishop pair, reducing the mobility of one of your opponent's pieces (especially bishops), attacking the QR2 pawn if your opponent failed to play K-QN1 after O-O-O, trading off pawns to give your bishop pair more space, shifting your knight to the other side to a better square, trading down for more space, trading down because you're ahead in material, trading off a bishop for a knight in a closed position, centralizing your queen, gaining tempi by chasing off valuable pieces, trapping a nearly trapped piece. Bigger plans are things like a pawnstorm against the castled king, a minority attack, slowly advancing a pawn chain of 2-4 pawns square-by-square starting with the rearmost pawn, moving your king out along a certain route to aid in an early endgame.

(3) In all the above, *at every move*, watch for mistakes, especially opportunity to win material or opportunity to exploit positional weaknesses, whereupon tactics usually prevail over positional considerations or plans. In such cases, plans can be immediately set aside or changed or modified, based on the sudden appearance of winning tactics.

I've found that these three guidelines work extremely well in practice, both against man and machine. I could give a lot of examples but it would take a lot of time and would be like teaching a whole course.

----------

(p. 72)
16
AILMENT:
Attacking prematurely.

Everything has its place and time. Attack the wrong
thing or at the wrong time and you'll achieve noth-
ing, out of position and in sad confusion, prone to
a killing counterattack. The most frequent occur-
rence of this malady is undercooked sorties with
the queen, which are usually rebuffed by computers
and other sentient beings.

Rx
1. Don't begin an attack unless your forces are de-
veloped adequately.
2. Arm yourself with the proper backup firepower.
3. Try to attack with a number of pieces, not just
one or two.
4. Don't begin every anaysis by "reaching" for
the queen.
5. When you analyze, shift perspective.
6. Pretend you are your opponent, trying to answer
your own threats.
7. If you can answer your own attacks, don't play
them.
8. Resist making unsupportable pawn attacks.
9. Don't advance without having a definite target.
10. Do the right thing, but do it at the right time.

Pandolfini, Bruce. 1995. The Chess Doctor. New York: Simon & Schuster.

reply to Sqod:see this game id. of minehttp://www.chess.com/echess/download_pgn?id=102491650.below intermediate class players often make this mistake.

I very much like your AILMENT:..uncooked sorties with queen.I won on time but it gives a lesson how carelessness can cost u ..I was having 8 on line games that is why was less careful but watch for the sorties of queen and the consequence which even a player of my understanding make and rue later.

Here is another game where I simply had no idea how to proceed b/c the board seemed locked up.  Ran out of time before middle game.  Do you just start pushing pawns here?

Castled.  All pieces developed.  Rooks Connected.  Rooks on open files.  Now what?? White seemed smart to push pawns, had this gone to end game.

Out of one ailment and into another: you blocked your c-pawn with your (queen's) knight in a d-pawn opening.

----------

(p. 109)
31
AILMENT:
Blocking the c-pawn in certain openings.

In order to get play against the opponent's center in
d-pawn games and flank openings, it's often nec-
cessary to advance the c-pawn, releasing your queen
and attacking the opponent's Q4 square. Without
this thrust, it's practically impossible to soften up
the opponent's central formation. The problems set
in when you develop the queen-knight to QB3 be-
fore moving the c-pawn, preventing the pawn from
moving at all.

Rx
1. In most queen-pawn games and flank openings,
avoid prematurely blocking the c-pawn.
2. Determine if it could be a weapon against the
enemy center.
3. Consider advancing it without direct protection.
4. Don't be afraid to rely on indirect defenses.
5. In your home analyses, acquaint yourself with the
typical ways to win back captured c-pawns.
6. For example, remember the moves Q-QR4, N-
QR3, N-K5, and P-QR4 to undermine the enemy's
protective b-pawn.
7. If your c-pawn is taken, aim to gain control of the
center, especially your K4.
8. Play practice games where you offer the c-pawn
soundly. Then try to get it back.

Pandolfini, Bruce. 1995. The Chess Doctor. New York: Simon & Schuster.

----------

P-QB4 in QP openings is the analogous move to N-KB3 in KP openings. It's the standard attacking/freeing opening move for both players, typically on the second move or shortly thereafter. Since White neglected to play that move (2. c4) you could jump at the opportunity and play it yourself (2...c5).

In the game you posted you lost some tempi by attacking fruitlessly, then getting driven back:

13...Bh4+ then 14...Bg5 then 15...Be7.

21...Bxe3?? just throws away a bishop for no reason.

22...Qb3?? is insane: did you make a notational error?

On the good side, you started getting a nice queenside attack going with ...c5 then ...c4. On the negative side, you castled into a pawn storm on the kingside.

I don't think I can give very accurate advice for a plan in this game since it's not a normal (or good) opening, and the d-pawn openings I use are very different. It looks to me like you should attack on the queenside since you have more space there and the center is too locked up to make progress there. I think I would send my a-pawn and b-pawn down the queenside and hope to open up a line on which to send (or double) my rooks. White is at a disadvantage since he hasn't castled, although his kingside attack on your king is so strong (due to your lost tempi from having to retreat your bishop) he would probably win in this case. If you could lock up those kingside pawns, though, like responding to h6 with ...g6, then with the reduced number of pieces on the board combined with you having control of the only open side of the board (the queenside), combined with his not having castled, you'd probably have a nice attack, possibly winning attack.

----------

(p. 1)
      IMBALANCES

   The heart of my system of training is based on an understanding of
the dynamic and static differences (known as imbalances) that exist
in every position. By recognizing the different imbalances in a given
situation, a player of virtually any strength can understand what his
responsibilities are towards that position with relative ease.
   Note that I used the word "responsibilities." A player can't do
anything he wishes to do. For example, if you love to attack, you
can't go after the enemy King in any and all situations. Instead,
you have to learn to read the board and obey its dictates. If the
board wants you to attack the King, then attack it. If the board
wants you to play in a quiet positional vein, then you must follow
that advice to the letter.

Silman, Jeremy. 1999. The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery, 2nd Edition/Expanded. Los Angeles, CA: Siles Press.

I_Am_Second, thanks, your game analysis is always exactly at my level.  You are a very good teacher.   

I am not sure how to become more mindful of not blocking my C pawn with my knight.  I am so used to bringing both Knights into default position.  I do recognize that the c5 pawn move attacks center pawn, and as white, f4 possibly opens that file for my rook (if i were white).

I am totally conditioned to always trade off opponent's center piece.  Like if if has a center knight, I will always trade it off, since his is more powerful.  I have never questioned this until now.  You're saying it might be smarter to keep developing and  leverage that tempo.  BUT, I will prob. trade that off later, right?  Once I have a dev/tempo lead.

9. Bg6.  For some reason, I try to keep my pieces closer to center when retreating.  I now see why I should have gone all the way back.  I need to be more mindful of being pushed out of that center anyway, and losing a tempo.   These little pawn push tempos will add up in a real game.  I am developing bad habits playing 5 min blitz since most games never get to endgame.  I NEED TO STOP 5. mins games!  

I agree the bishop check was stupid.  That was just a move from habit.  It was pointless in this game.

Can you explain what you mean by 13.g4 "weakens the dark squares" ??

Sqod, thanks.  I will try to not block pawns with knight during QUEEN PAWN openings.  Something new to try.  

I dont understand the following notation:  

For example, remember the moves Q-QR4, N-
QR3, N-K5, and P-QR4 to undermine the enemy's
protective b-pawn.

21...Bxe3?? just throws away a bishop for no reason.

22...Qb3?? is insane: did you make a notational error?

There was like 5 seconds left, these were junk moves.

Youre very welcome Jack.  I try to keep the analysis to where you can understand it, and get something out of it.  This is why i dont overdo it, and go beyoond what is useful to you. 

To answer your question about 13.g4:

Look at the h4-e1 diagonal. 

As far as learning the c5 pawn break:

Study queens gambit, and double queen pawn openings.  This will help explain why you shouldnt block the c-pawn.  Study the Karlsbad Pawn Structure.

Right, so at least I correctly picked up on the diagonal with my subsequent bishop check ( that was easily thwwarted)    Small steps!

Assuming you get your tactics squared away so you don't lose material pointlessly or miss winning material left en pris, your best bet is to read general chess books for your level. Just playing other 700-800 players won't teach you strategy and positional thinking. It's very time-consuming to reinvent the wheels in chess.

When I came back to chess a few years ago I read "Best Lessons of a Chess Coach" by Sunil Weeramantry. It's written in a tutorial form as though the author were conducting a class by asking questions and responding to the answers. It might be a bit of a stretch for you, but it will teach you what comments like "weakens the dark squares" mean.

Oh, you're referring to what Pandolfini wrote in his book. That's descriptive notation. Descriptive notation is probably better than algebraic notation in teaching general opening principles, since the same principles apply to White or Black, and sometimes even to queenside and kingside, so there's no point in writing 2-4 times as many moves surrounded by "or's" when you can just write one. I regard learning both notations as necessary.

Q-QR4 = Qa4 or ...Qa5

N-QR3 = Na3 or ...Na6

N-K5 = Ne4 or ...Ne4

P-QR4 = a4 or ...a5

As for "undermining" the b-pawn, I admit I'm not clear on what that means. Maybe somebody else could answer that question better than I can. Certainly it means weaking the b-pawn, but I don't know if Pandolfini meant through capture of the c-pawn, through preventing the b-pawn advance, through forcing the b-pawn to capture onto the c-file, through direct threat as in a queen fork, or other.

I take it as a given that members here know through repeated condemnation of fast games by more analytical members that speed games will hurt you more than help you. Yes, if you want to play real chess, meaning serious, quality chess, you need to stop playing 5-minute games.

The notation stilll makes no sense.

Q-QR4 will be represented as A-BCD

A = the piece being moved

B = Q or K for the side?

C = R ???

D = ???

There's no mystery here and you can look it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_notation

In descriptive the board rank switches according to color. Thus Q-QR4  means Qa4 if it's White's move and Qa5 if it's Black's move.

Its easy Jack, youre just to young to know Descriptive notation :-)

P-K4 - e4

P-Q4 = d4

N-KB3 = Nf3

N-QB3 = Nc3

B-KN5 = Bg5

B-QN5 = Bb5

The first letter stands for the piece being move:

K = King

Q = Queen

R = Rook

N = Knight

B = Bishop

P = Pawn

The "-" simply seperate the piece being moved to the squre its being moved to.

The next set of letter(s) = the side of the board the piece is being moved to.  For example B-KN5 - the bishop is being moved to the g5 square.  B-QN5 would be the b5 square. 

Q-QR4, N- QR3, N-K5, and P-QR4

Ok, so Pandolfini's advice above just means a massive pile up on the A file?  Seems crazy, b/c I've never seen a game where a player moves 3 pieces to the A file.

And what does N-K5 mean?  Knight on the King side moves to the square 5 on the King file?  Not a legal move.

Maybe this isn't worth the trouble, I guess I got the main point Pandolfifi was making in not blocking my Queen pawn via Nc3.  I will move my knight elsewhere, or move the pawn first to c4 then do Nc3.  

Thanks!