but what if the pawn move on the 5th or 6th makes you undevelop a piece and leaves you with no good place to put it
Playing against aggressive beginners
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#2 There are a myriad of permutation where this aggressive play pays off [I recently got caught by one such attack], but this, generally speaking, only works against novice players who don't recognize certain dangerous patterns.
Who wants to keep playing against mistake- and blunder-prone novice players?
Who wants to keep playing against mistake- and blunder-prone novice players?
It appears many of the lessons offered for beginners like myself on this website go completely unheeded by some aggressive "attack, attack, attack!" players. Instead of "develop, develop, develop", these players push their pawn to 5th and 6th rank within the first four moves.
Initially, when faced with such aggressive, if not unconventional style, I tend to freeze up, as I don't quite understand what the opponent is doing. And I learned from several games like this that the best response - the response that will almost guarantee a victory for me - is to stay calm and stick with basics - develop my pieces first. Even if I am down a pawn or two in the opening, I tend to more than make up for my initial disadvantage later in the game, after having completely stopped the aggressive pawn push, which leads nowhere, and then having started dominating the board and picking off vulnerable minor pieces due to a clever, albeit accidental on my part, game of "zugzwang" [my chess term for the day], where I leave the opponent with no good moves.
So, an advice from a beginner to other beginners: listen to those GM and/or experienced players and take stock of their suggestions, tips, and their message of focusing on the basic fundamentals of the game. It may not make sense right away; however, it does start paying off as the game progresses.