Minor vs Major Precision

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TheMadPoet
Is it more important to play precisely when you have one or two major pieces (queen or rook) or over 3 minor pieces? (knight or pawn)
I recently played a game wherein I had a queen and two rooks versus two bishops, a queen, and a knight. I was struggling to play accurately, so that is why I thought of the question.. or does it just depend on the game?
llama51

Kinda hard to answer... not sure what you mean.

I'd say in general it's important to be accurate when there are tactical elements (like an open position with undefended pieces, a loose king, etc). It's also important to be accurate when there aren't many pieces left (if you lose a pawn in the opening that's less than 1/10th of your force, but if you lose a pawn in the endgame that's a lot more).

In your game I imagine you were struggling with piece activity more than accuracy. On a crowded board it can be hard to find an active place for your rooks, while knights and bishops tend to fare better. Also since minor pieces can bully major pieces, your opponent was probably able to chase you around without much trouble. Depending on the position you may have had the worse position even though by the basic count you were ahead 1 point.

TheMadPoet
I think I meant, to put it extremely simply, “Will mistakes cost you more if you have a few major pieces, than if you make a mistake with one of several minor pieces”

Sorry for the unclearity🫤
TheMadPoet
But that does sound like a pretty accurate description of my game..
llama51

Hmm, yeah, I'd say it depends.

I mean... obviously if your value to piece ratio is high, then simple oversights where you lose something for free will, on average, tend to cost you more... but that's kind of a silly way of thinking of it IMO happy.png

TheMadPoet
Yea I agree.. but as you said, piece activity or finding the best square for a piece is important, and if you a major piece is inactive, it is a larger waste of resources than a passive minor piece
Wins
JoshDerstine wrote:
Is it more important to play precisely when you have one or two major pieces (queen or rook) or over 3 minor pieces? (knight or pawn)
I recently played a game wherein I had a queen and two rooks versus two bishops, a queen, and a knight. I was struggling to play accurately, so that is why I thought of the question.. or does it just depend on the game?

do you mean you just blunder? or are you missing good moves? what kind of problems?

TheMadPoet
Moves rated ‘good’ or ‘great’ rather than ‘best’