Optimal sqaures in terms of how much ground a piece can cover. Queens, bishops and knights in the center of the board. Rooks doesnt really matter since they cover the same number of squares regardless of there position.
optimal squares
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tonydal wrote:
I sorta hope you're kidding...it's kind of like asking is there one move that's always good (besides checkmate of course!).
I believe he is referring to how much space each indivual piece can affect. Nt he optimal move in any given position.
ok, you got me. poor wording. let me try to find the question I really want to ask, and I'll try again.
Yeah but what's the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?
42
I think the question is pretty fair.
For Knights, you want them to be far advanced and away from opposing pawns. Based on the opponent's pawn structure, a well-placed Knight on c5, d5, e5, or f5 is really great (from White's perspective). Because it attacks 4 squares in the opponent's territory, threatens to capture a more valuable piece, and can retreat with no trouble, if you can get one of these really ideal
situations going, this Knight will be like the best piece in the game. Something like this, I guess (White's Knight is the best piece in the game with premium attacking points on c5 and d6 causing all sorts of trouble for Black):
I think the Knight is the trickiest piece to place well, well except maybe for the King in my opinion. But the other pieces are relatively easy. The Knight you want far advanced because he's so slow, but the other pieces have no problems in mobility, so you just want open lines.
Rooks want to be on open files. And if you can get a Rook to the 7th rank (2nd if you're Black), then you can probably cause all sorts of problems for your opponent's pawn structure.
Bishops just want open diagonals as well. They want to be free to roam across the board, unhindered by your pawns and your opponent's pawns. For example, if you have a light Bishop, you should try to put all your pawns on dark squares if possible, so the Bishop increases in mobility and power.
The Queen is relatively easy to place effectively somewhere because its range is so great. The hardest part about using the Queen well is to delay its use. Often times, for the opening and middle game, if perfectly fine for the Queen to sit at the ready on a square like c1 or c2 (like in my last post) because it can quickly zip into the action when the minor pieces have been cleared off, and she is ready to do some damage to the castled King or snipe off enemy pawns.
I hope this helps perp124
An important thing is to maximize the difference between your pieces proximity to optimal performance and the opponents corresponding pieces.
It doesn't mean much if your rook can reach 14 squares and their rook can reach 13. It's likely to be more significant if your rook can reach 8 squares while theirs can only reach 2.
Is there one optimal square for each piece? If so, what are they?