Change my mind if I'm wrong

Sort:
DarkMist994

Well, really tell me if I'm wrong. I am not a pro but I have certain thoughts and I want to see if these thoughts are 'correct' or not. Anyway, let's start.

.

.

1.  Simplifying games are mostly very good under material advantage / in equal material without giving up too much positional advantage.

Well, I tend to trade pieces quickly. I don't want to get squeezed by an attack that comes out of nowhere. Fewer pieces mean less danger to me. That's good, is that?

.

.

2. Middlegames and Endgames are more important than Openings to beginners.

Middlegames and endgames are probably the longest part before the results. We have to trade carefully and build attacks or a solid position for a win / a draw. Endgames are important as promotion is often involved when a pawn is the difference between two sides. Openings are usually less fatal (although there can be opening traps like Halloween gambit etc.). Did I misunderstand the importance of opening or this is actually on the right track to me?

.

.

3. Castling early is better than not castling at an early stage under most circumstances, provided that the pawn structures are not damaged. 

By early stage, I mean around move 5 to move 10. If there is nothing emergency with things in the middle of the board, I guess castling makes sense? 

.

.

4. In general, kingside castle is better than queenside castle.

I come to this thought, and there are some reasons behind this.

  • My win rate is much higher when I make kingside castle.
  • Queenside castle makes the a-pawn a bit vulnerable to attack. An additional king move is needed to further protect this pawn. Or, my opponent may sacrifice a bishop for two pawns and expose my king, threatening king safety.

.

.
5. To prevent loss in opposite castling battles, I should take the initiative to attack the opponent king.

Recently quite some games I played involved opposite castling battles. I tried to use a defensive approach to deal with the incoming attack, and find it almost impossible to lose pawns / a piece, not to say holding a draw. Then, I realized that attacking quickly may be a good way for me to win, which is true for most opposite castling games I played in the past weeks.

Let's assume it is something similar to the above. To attack queenside quickly, I usually first push for b2-b4, followed by b4-b5 / a2-a4 / c2-c4 (Ne2 before c4 in the above position). Is that the correct way to attack? If inaccurate, what are the improvements in the attack?

.

.
6. If you have knights and your opponent have bishops, simplify it into an endgame, or vice versa.

Well, the bishop pair can do really a lot in the middlegame once it finds a hole in your pawn structure. On the other hand, knights are very versatile that can attack quickly, especially when there aren't many pieces left. Knights may find many good moves in endgames, so it is better to trade off the opponent's knights before entering endgames. Of course, the bishop pair is strong in endgames, but it is weaker than the knight pairs (or not I'm not sure?).

 .

.

7. Castling when both sides don't have many pieces (without queens) is still meaningful.

What I think is that king safety is always the most important thing. It is probably not a good idea to let my opponent develop with tempo like king checks, especially when my opponents have annoying knights. Is this correct, or something more helpful (eg. pawn push, piece development) should be done?

.

.

Please give me an idea of these thoughts, whether there are flaws that are not negligible, or how these thoughts should be more deeply enforced in my mind. I would be very grateful if you could spend a few minutes answering one / two of my thoughts on chess. Trophies will be sent if you could provide useful answers or replies. Thank you for your time reading the post and thanks for your reply in advance!

.

.

EDIT: COMPULSORY QUESTION

This is a question, not a theory or a thought I generated.

I find myself in constant trouble facing the Queen's Pawn Opening. Can anyone recommend a book opening for me to deal with Queen's Pawn Opening? I don't want to get +1.5 as black in just 10 moves. Its too much pressure for me. QGD then what? Or other openings you think are 'better'? Or openings with a bit less theory? Thanks.

silicon4oxide

1. Simplifying isn't always good. Important to trade the right pieces to prevent counterplay.  be careful esp when there are imbalances. suppose you have a knight for two pawns, if you trade down to N vs 2 p you can't win

2. idk but I guess tactics are the most important

3, 4. Depends on the opening.  Sometimes your opponent is in an aggressive mood and wants opposite sides castling, then you may want a calm game, sometimes delaying castling is better.

5. yeah usually

6. bishop pair is definitely better than knight pair in endgame, when position is open

7. when it enters endgame phase then probably should activate king

Fisikhad
1.)Partially agreed.Only trade your useless pieces for the opponent’s important ones.You can tell a piece’s activity by seeing the squares they control
Fisikhad
2.)Disagreed.The three phases are equally important.Some aggressive openings such as the danish gambit can set up many traps that a beginner might fall for it
Fisikhad
3.)Agreed.King safety is #1 priority.I recommend castling in move 6-11
Fisikhad
4.)Disagreed.Both castling have different results.Queenside castling leads to attacking positions while kingside leads to a bit passive ones
Fisikhad
5.)Agreed.I recommend you to pawnstorm the opponent’s king
Fisikhad
6.)Agreed.Bishop pair is stronger than knights.
Morfizera
MatthewLiu09 wrote:

Well, really tell me if I'm wrong. I am not a pro but I have certain thoughts and I want to see if these thoughts are 'correct' or not. Anyway, let's start.

.

.

1.  Simplifying games are 99% good under material advantage / in equal material without giving up too much positional advantage.

You're half right there. It's tough putting a number like "99%" but yes, in the vast majority of cases, if you have material advantage, simplifying the position and trading down should be beneficial to you. With equal material is very debatable. Sure, there are less chances of you being attacked, but that doesn't mean that you're going to win. You don't want to trade say an active knight for a bad bishop just for the sake of trading. Technically speaking, if material is equal the less pieces on the board, the higher chances of a draw... so it depends - among other factors - on whether your fear of losing is greater than your desire of winning.

.

2. Middlegames and Endgames are more important than Openings to beginners.

Openings are not that important for beginners because chances are whatever advantage you or your opponent manage to get out of the opening will be blundered later in the middlegame or endgame. And that advantage is likely to be blundered as well. Some important chess player that I don't recall who said a long time a go that "The game is won by the person who makes the next to last mistake" . Endgames are important for beginners when it comes down to converting an advantage. Rarely beginners games will reach a drawn endgame and even more rarely is that both players will know how to play it properly. In most cases whenever beginners reach an endgame there's already an advantage to one of the sides. So I would say that for beginners, after the very basic endgame studies, the middlegame, especially tactics tactics tactics will decide most of the games. Actually, just not hanging pieces will decide most of the games. 

.

3. Castling early is 99% better than not castling at an early stage, provided that the pawn structures are not damaged. 

Sort of.... 99% means 99 times out of 100. Once again, using percentages like this is not the best way to reach a conclusion. As a general rule of thumb, castling early should be better than not castling, but like every other concept in chess, it depends on the position. For example, if you castle too early, depending on your opponents position, you might be simply inviting an attack/pawn storm.

.

.

4. In general, kingside castle is better than queenside castle. 

Your opponent can sacrifice a bishop for two pawns and an attack if you castle king side as well. That's not exclusive to queen side castling. An additional move to get your king safer to the b square may be a tempo loss, but sometimes in chess making a "waiting/safe/useful" move so that your opponent has to make a decision can be beneficial, but that might be a somewhat more advanced concept. Like pretty much every decision in chess, it depends on the position. It's hard to talk in general terms like this. But if your win rate is higher on kingside castles then maybe you're just more comfortable/familiar with positions where your king is castled kingside, and you are going to want to play positions that you're more familiar and comfortable with so that might be true to you..

.
5. To prevent loss in opposite castling battles, I should take the initiative to attack the opponent king.

As a general rule absolutely. That doesn't mean you won't have to pay attention to the side you castled to prevent threats. But if you can have the initiative to pawnstorm and/or attack your opponents king you should definitely do that. Funnily enough, because it's chess, there will be a few instances where even though castles are opposite sides, your play will be on the side you castled, but that's an exception and a case by case scenario which shouldn't be your main worry.

As far as attacking it also depends. Your general idea looks sort of right, but it's chess so it depends on what your opponent does... going back with the knight to e2 (unless you need it for defensive purposes) looks wrong. You have a beautiful outpost on d5 for your knight that makes it extremely powerful (if your opponent leaves it there it can do a lot of damage and even potentially be sacrificed) which will force black to either give up a defensive piece to get rid of it or play c6, which weakens their king and creates a contact point or "hook". Contact points/hooks is something you should always be aware of on opposite side castling whether you're attacking or defending. If you can open lines in front of your opponent's king it's good for you. For example, you shouldn't let them close the position in front of their king. While pawnstorms tend to be good when attacking, you don't necessarily have to advance all your pawns. Sometimes it would be better to play a4 then Ra3, then Rb3 or Rc3 and have your rook not blocked by any pawn. Similarly if you're attacking on the kingside with h4 Rh3 Rg3... So once again, like most of the things here, it depends lol..... As a general rule, an attack tends to be succesful when there are more pieces attacking the king than there are pieces defending him

.

.
6. If you have knights and your opponent have bishops, simplify it into an endgame, or vice versa.

Couldn't really follow what you meant but regardless of middlegame or endgame, in an open position the bishop pair is  superior. In a single bishop vs single knight endgame, as a general rule, the bishop is superior to the knight when there are pawns on both the king and the queenside, since it can move faster from one side of the board to another when compared to the knight. If all the pawns are on the same side of the board then the knight might be superior because the bishop is limited to one color. But it depends on others factors such as how close or open the position is as well. There are many many many exceptions to the generalizations you made in #6

.

7. Castling when both sides have less than three pieces (without queens) is still meaningful.

The most important is to have fun (and/or get paid lol). After that the most important is checkmating your opponent. I get what you're trying to say when you don't want your opponent to develop with tempo, but if you were already planning on moving your king to a specific square it will not be the end of the world (or game) if you let your opponent give you a check, even if it means they get to develop a piece while doing so. I said it many times and I will say it again. It depends on the position.  Kings are very important in the endgame (some people give it a symbolical value of 4, which means more powerful than bishop or knight, less powerful than a rook, but it's chess, so it's a relative and it depends) so if your king is castled it might be too far away from the action, for example, defending an important pawn or escorting one to promotion. It's hard to explain without examples but if your king is not under heavy fire, castling will likely not be a priority when there are no queens on the board. But sometimes it can be. I think I might have said it depends on the position.

.

Please give me an idea of these thoughts, whether there are flaws that are not negligible, or how these thoughts should be more deeply enforced in my mind. I would be very grateful if you could spend a few minutes answering one / two of my thoughts on chess. Trophies will be sent if you could provide useful answers or replies. Thank you for your time reading the post and thanks for your reply in advance!

 

It seems to me you're too focused on generalizations ( "3 pieces" , "99%" etc etc) and trying to play chess based on "general rules" instead of evaluating the position and calculating the best move. So while there is some truth to what you said, I tried "criticizing"  and "finding flaws" in what you said because chess is a game of exceptions and you can't rely only on concepts and general rules, so while concepts are important, they are nothing more than a basic guide to give you an IDEA on how to treat the position. So if you get too specific with it like "3 pieces" or "always trade bishops for knight in endgames" or "castle in move 5-10" it will only harm instead of help you. I don't really care for trophies, just thought I'd share my views on what you said because you seem very interested in learning and improving. Long story short, it always depends on the position. 1-5 are somewhat ok. forget about 6 and 7. 

Good luck with your chess and most importantly have fun

 

 

DarkMist994
Morfizera wrote:

It seems to me you're too focused on generalizations ( "3 pieces" , "99%" etc etc) and trying to play chess based on "general rules" instead of evaluating the position and calculating the best move. So while there is some truth to what you said, I tried "criticizing"  and "finding flaws" in what you said because chess is a game of exceptions and you can't rely only on concepts and general rules, so while concepts are important, they are nothing more than a basic guide to give you an IDEA on how to treat the position. So if you get too specific with it like "3 pieces" or "always trade bishops for knight in endgames" or "castle in move 5-10" it will only harm instead of help you. I don't really care for trophies, just thought I'd share my views on what you said because you seem very interested in learning and improving. Long story short, it always depends on the position. 1-5 are somewhat ok. forget about 6 and 7. 

Good luck with your chess and most importantly have fun

 

 

Yeah I know things should be based on position but there are sth that I need to start with. At least not doing something that is well known for 'incorrect' in most cases without a good reason.  I am still a beginner, precise calculations are very difficult for me. So I need to build some better general concepts and then slowly shift to relying on calculation or a bit of intuition. I believe I have to take more game analysis and review the 'bad' moves to be more able to calculate on a case-by-case basis. It's simply insufficient time for me to calculate in 15|15 or 10 min game (and I don't have enough time for games beyond 15|15). I understand it is difficult but I am shifting. Just in case I even get some basic concepts wrong.

.

Anyway thanks for your detailed explanation. I appreciate your timewink.png

sakkipakki

All power You have is on the table at beginning. You need use it wise way. All periods of the game are important. There is only one target, kill the king. If it is not possible next is draw. If it is not possible, lost with fight. As long as You have one, there is hope. Chess is not all in game. You can eat as much as possible, use time as much as possible, You can make harm and sell You life by as high price as possible. S U!,

tygxc

#1

"1.  Simplifying games are mostly very good under material advantage / in equal material without giving up too much positional advantage."
++ If you have a static advantage, then simplify.
If you have a dynamic advantage then do not simplify.

"2. Middlegames and Endgames are more important than Openings to beginners."
++ Very correct. blunder prevention > tactics > endgames > openings

"3. Castling early is better than not castling at an early stage under most circumstances, provided that the pawn structures are not damaged."
++ Castling early is almost always good, even when the pawn structure is damaged. A king is safer near the corner than in the middle. Rooks are the most powerful pieces after the queen and you must connect them to activate them.

"4. In general, kingside castle is better than queenside castle."
++ Very true. A king is safer on the g-file than on the c-file. Queenside castling needs a queen move, often premature. The exception is when you want to attack h2-h4-h5 supported by Rh1 or g2-g4-g5 supported by Rg1.

"5. To prevent loss in opposite castling battles, I should take the initiative to attack the opponent king."
++ No. You have to find a balance between attack and defence and the right move is often a move in the center.


"6. If you have knights and your opponent have bishops, simplify it into an endgame, or vice versa."
++ No. If you have the bishop's pair against BN or NN, then simplify to an endgame.
BB > BN > NN

"7. Castling when both sides don't have many pieces (without queens) is still meaningful."
++ No. The main advantage of the safe king is less after queens are traded.
In most endgames your king must march to the center.
When queens are traded you can leave your king in the center.

Ancares

I would say 1 and 6 are wrong.

1) If you have positional advantage, don´t simplify unless you retain the advantage. In many cases tension benefits the player with positinal advantage.

6) If you have knights and you opponent bishops, make sure to keep the position as close as posible. Knights need pawns for support and bishops are better in open spaces.

DarkMist994
sakkipakki wrote:

All power You have is on the table at beginning. You need use it wise way. All periods of the game are important. There is only one target, kill the king. If it is not possible next is draw. If it is not possible, lost with fight. As long as You have one, there is hope. Chess is not all in game. You can eat as much as possible, use time as much as possible, You can make harm and sell You life by as high price as possible. S U!,

I don't quite get what you mean. Reads like the never understandable English comprehension in the school examinations. An easier-understanding translation is highly appreciated.  :0

user_656376784678

Don’t simplify if opponent has low time

DarkMist994
krishiv345 wrote:

Don’t simplify if opponent has low time

I agree but most of the time I am the one under time pressure lol

I am the one who forces simplification haha

MisterWindUpBird

Another Maxim for the panel to discuss... If you're ahead in development force open the centre. Agree? Disagree? 

 

sakkipakki
This is just a way to make you read it twice. Play your last games and enjoy. It takes long time to rats and worms to play chess after human is disappeared.
MatthewLiu09 kirjoitti:
sakkipakki wrote:

sell You life by as high price as possible. S U!,

I don't quite get what you mean.