1100-level player Questions

1. In the opening when should I stop developing pieces and instead start taking pieces?

2. When should one launch a pawn storm, and how?

3. When should one break open the center?

4. Under what circumbstances is it OK to break opening principles?

I don't know if these questions can be answered in a straight forward manner of if they are too situational, but I think about them a lot.

I can probably answer your first one. it's all about the right moment, before trading pieces, look to see if it will put you in a better spot than your enemy. And when trading is there any other move after which you can pin or fork to cause you to win another piece. sometimes trading pieces to cause your opponent to double his pawns is good too. also at our level of ratings. there will be a point in the battle where one piece is the target and he double his rooks or knights and bishops to take it. focus your pieces to counter it and stick to it. let him make a mistake by focusing on something else then capitalize on it.

1
It's not incorrect to make early captures... just don't be the one to initiate almost all the captures in the first 10 moves because you'll fall far behind in development (when they recapture, they can often bring a piece off their back rank or at least closer to the center).

So maybe the best advice for #1 is to simply not be attack minded in the opening. Exchange to remove their better pieces (or remove your difficult pieces) not to try to attack in general. (An easy example of a "difficult" piece would be your light square bishop if you're opening up with a pawn formation with many pawns on light squares). Or exchange to create some kind of defect (like doubled pawns) that you'll attack later.

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2
In general, the main purpose of pawn advances is to gain space for your pieces (pieces being non-pawns) and of course this also means the opponent has less space at the same time. In a pawn storm, it has the added goal of opening lines (i.e. clearing pawns off of files, diagonals) for your pieces.

So in general you want to pawn storm on the side of the board where you have more pieces than the opponent, and you have some pieces ready to make use of the lines to be opened. Since this often involves accepting serious pawn weaknesses or pawn sacrifices, it's more often done against the enemy king's castled position.

You do it by advancing pawns until they're in contact with enemy pawns. Then you either exchange right away, or, if you want them to initiate the exchange, then continue to build pressure on their pawn until they're forced to. (Sometimes you want them to exchange so it opens the particular file or diagonal you need to be opened.)

This is all very general of course.

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3
As mentioned in #2, opening lines are for the benefit of your pieces. Opening the center when you're ahead in development (especially if their king is still in the center) is a great way to take advantage of that lead. Now the fighting starts and you have more fighters!

The other classic example is when your opponent is attacking on a flank. If you open the center, then you have counter pressure. Direct or passive defense is (generally speaking) inferior because your opponent has unlimited time to re-organize his forces and attack in different patterns and places.

If neither player has a lead in development, then it's safest to wait until development is complete before trying to open the center. Then the question of whether it's correct or not is often answered by who has better placed pieces to make use of the newly opened lines.

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4
Development and king safety aren't as critical when the center is closed.

If you have an attack / initiative, pretty much nothing matters except concrete variations (or at least continuing the initiative). This of course includes opening principals.

So for example sometimes a player will castle early, and you have enough development that you can attack their king. You may leave your king in the center to both save time, and the fact that your rook (still on the rook file) is already ideally placed.

About #1. Any opportunity to take a peice should be carefully considered.

remember, if you can take it- keep it and survive any counterplay the opponent's long-range chances dwindle.

the critical thing is to Take the Peice, survive and press it into an attack or a massive exchange into the endgame.  of course there's no easy answers to this.

Kinda in a nutshell answers, and there are many others scenarios that can apply.

1. In the opening when should I stop developing pieces and instead start taking pieces?

When your opponent hangs a piece, or when you gain a significant advantage.

2. When should one launch a pawn storm, and how?

When you castle opposite of your opponent.

You push the pawns that oppose the pawns protecting your opponents king.

3. When should one break open the center?

When you have a cramped position and trying to increase your piece activity.

When oyur opponents king hasnt castled and is still in the middle of the board.  You want to open lines of attack.

4. Under what circumstances is it OK to break opening principles?

When you can win material, and or gain some kind of advantage.  

OK I got another one for ya. Can you pawn storm in a game where both kings have castled to the same side of the board, or does it sacrifice too much safety?

"1. In the opening when should I stop developing pieces and instead start taking pieces?

When your opponent hangs a piece, or when you gain a significant advantage."

Make certain further you have a developmental edge as well. Your opponent might just be using the "hung" piece to quicken his own development and get a deadly attack set up. See for instance, Cochrane gambit, Muzzio gambit, and the Halloween gambit. Though in Cochrane gambit, always take knight. But just worry about the principles and take heed of a potential deadly attack.

"2. When should one launch a pawn storm, and how?

When you castle opposite of your opponent.

You push the pawns that oppose the pawns protecting your opponents king."

Not necessarily opposite side castling situations. Pawn storms need first and fore-most to be planned accurately. Pay attention to opponent's pawn storms. Always support the pawns with pieces, etc. However, one can launch a pawn storm in situations of same side castling as well actually.

Absolutely you can, but you have to be more cafreful and it depends on the position.

This happens sometimes. Again, it comes down to who has more pieces ready to make use of the lines to be opened (and able to use those avenues to pressure weaknesses).

One sign of this is space... if you have more space you'll tend to naturally have more and better placed pieces in that area... and an easy indication of space is where your pawn chain "points"

In the structure above, notice how white's central chain "points" to the queenside and black's to the kingside. This is a common scenario in the King's Indian Defense. And even though both players have castled kingside, black will attack on the kingside.

Not with a full out pawn storm (the f, g, and h pawns) but you get the idea.

It's important to note that the center is locked, so that both players focus their attention on the flanks. If the center is open, it's rarely a good idea to move the pawns in front of your king... much less move all of them in a pawn storm.

chess rules are ALWAYS more "guidelines" than rules.   and if you see a solid advantage (something Real)- you should play it.

the problem is me (at least) as I'm far too in love with my own ideas and to quick miss to the bigger picture. 

I don't pawn storm much.  when you move a pawn from side by side to diagonal you open holes, safe spots for your opponent and diagonals for your bishops.

this is particularly dangerous with the king behind it because of the power of the absolute pin, you Can't move that pawn and now suddenly the one spot it seems like its defending it isn't.  but still this is a guideline. and if your opponent has no peices to pin anything- or he can't get the peice into position- it doesn't matter.

you don't get good at chess memorizing a bunch of rules. 

The questions are very easy to answer.

1.When it is the best choice you can think of. Just try to play the best move every move.

2. When it is good.Thats often when the center is closed so your opponent can not punish you for doing a flank attack. A basic rule there is when your opponent attacks you on a flank open the center. So when the center is closed it is saver to attack on a flank, although your opponent might still try to punish you by opening the other flank.

3.When it is good. Thats often when your opponent attacks you on a flank or when you are better developed and want to punish him quickly. Or when you have the bishops... bishops like open positions.

4.when it is good or even winning. 

Chess is somewhat simple when you see it like this. You just try to find the best move possible in every position. Of course that is not easy, indeed it is often very hard but still true. So you can never generalize things and say its good to open the center when... but you can just try to play the best moves every move. 

Here's an entertaining game of mine recently...

lol, are you serious? 
Correct answers are nice, but ideally they're useful to the person asking!

Of course you can... and you did... and it's very useful to generalize. 
 

Of course they're not always true, and that's why they're generalizations.

I dont like to say things that are missleading to people. Its not right to say open the center when you have 2 bishops, because inexperienced players will take that and just open the position when they get the bishop pair even if its bad in that case.

thats just my personal opinion though so dont be mad at me :p

When I was told "doubled pawns are a big weakness" I would open my games by immediately capturing my opponent's pieces in any way I could to give them doubled pawns... often ending up hopelessly behind in development and even sacrificing material to double their pawns lol.

So yeah, it's hard for teachers (of any kind, not just chess) to be both accurate and useful at the same time. To give not too much, or too little information, etc.

Once I taught chess to a kid and told him knights move like the letter "L" and showed him. His next game his moved his knight like a lower case "l" , 3 squares forward in a straight line.

LOL that is funny indeed :D