if you have an outpost available seek to trade off any possible defenders of that square so whichever piece you land on it will become a monster.
Positional Chess for Dummies!
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If you are in a cramped position, trading pieces will generally favour you.
Determine if the assets of your position are static or dynamic. Dynamic assets demand dynamic play. Static assets are best exploited slowly and methodically.
Nov 15, 2012
0
#5
I forget the exact phrase, but it goes something like this: improve your weakest piece. I was given this tip/hint from member Ziryab, who was my teacher in a training game, and I could not come up with a plan in the middle game. The piece I improved was my a8 rook, which had yet to move from its starting square.
Nov 15, 2012
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#8
DrSpudnik wrote:
If you have no good plan, whatever you do, don't move a pawn.
+1
'To take is a mistake'.
Watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmJcUI_wSy8
Usually, exchanging pieces helps your opponent be more active, so the best thing to do is to find a way to avoid it while you keep the tension.
Nov 15, 2012
0
#11
Prophylaxis. Seek to destroy your opponent's plan while improving your own position and constricting their pieces.
Look for targets or what you can move now to set up an attack on a target/weakness in a few moves.
Guard accessible pawn weaknesses in your position.
Nov 16, 2012
0
#13
trysts wrote:
A knight for two center pawns is a fair trade.
That is very clever. I have not heard of that one before!
I once heard (on youtube) Anatoly Karpov comment on his first match against the young Magnus Carlsen, when he was a kid. Karpov said something like this: "All of his (Magnus) moves were productive".
That comment is one of the driving forces behind this topic. Don't we all wish to make each move count, make each move a productive one?
I had a USCF Expert rated player go over one of my OTB games with me, after I finished playing a casual game against someone of similar strength. The expert would say something like, "well, that move doesn't do anything".
So, again, I want more of my moves to do something, and after the first few moves of the opening, when the position appears quiet, with no knock out tactic in sight, I want lots of clever ideas to pull from when pretty much any move looks o.k., and no single move is crying out to be played.
Nov 16, 2012
0
#14
I am currently at work, where many game sites are blocked. If I forget, could someone please google this - (what chess move to play when you don't know what to play)? You will get a hit on the top of page one, with the site, the chessworld.com. I have never been to that site, but it may have some good positional tips. Thank you.
Nov 16, 2012
0
#15
I found a topic, created 21 months ago on this site titled, What do you do when you don't know what to do?
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/what-do-you-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do
Post #4 by Estragon gets me thinking about pawn structures. I wish I understood them! 
I own, Understanding Chess, Move by Move - by John Nunn, and it is finally not too hard for me to understand, now that my tactics are a bit stronger, and a few other things have clicked.
Not that I get to, or even know how to play the first ten moves in the Sicilian Defense - Taimanov Variation, BUT, I can understand the strategy behind each move, as explained by John Nunn, which is pretty cool.
Here is a taste, from the game I am playing through, A. Shirov - D. Reinderman, 1999, which gives some ideas about pawn moves. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Be2 Nge7 7.f4 -
"White has tried several moves in this position, but Shirov's is one of the most logical. The reason is that, now that the f2-square is cleared, the manoeuvre ...Nxd4 and ...Nc6 can be met by Qf2. The queen is very well posted on f2, partly because after a subsequent Be3 White is able to exert considerable pressure on Black's queenside dark squares. Moreover, from f2 the queen is able to participate in a possible kingside attack, for example after f5." - John Nunn
I simply found it quite clever that White found a plan for Black to not gain time by attacking White's queen with Nc6, because she has both an excellent post and retreat square prepared after f2-f4. That's cool stuff.
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Back to Estragon -
"In most cases, the rational plans are determined by the pawn structure, so if you learn the structures which usually arise from your openings, that will be the best guide.
I own Pawn Structure Chess by Andrew Soltis, but found it of no use, maybe becasue of my rating. Mr. Soltis does not spell it out in real simple terms, i.e., in the Sicilian pawn structure, White's goals are this, and Black's goals are that. It just doesn't read that way.
Still, sometimes the concrete details of a position means implementing the indicated plans is impossible, at least in the short term, and sometimes there is no plan which is evidently good.
1. When you can't come up with a plan, use the move to improve the position of one of your pieces. Start with those least well placed. Once most of your pieces are on good squares, finding a sound plan becomes much easier." - Estragon
1. I mentioned this tip from my training partner Ziryab in post one.
Pawns are a huge mystery to me. I know to push the center pawns in the beginning, and to push passed pawns in the end, but that is about it, except for maybe a few other things, like paying close attention to holes, especially the ones where my knight, for example, can be placed, and better yet, where no enemy pawn can attack it. I think this is called an outpost square.
David Pruess once said that he knows every position where advancing a center pawn, i.e., e4-e5 and d4-d5, is good, and when it is bad. I wish there were some simple rule of thumb for that decision! Is there one? I mess that one up often.
when you don't know what to do, go for an all out attack against the enemy's king.
Just kidding :)
Good thread. Here's another tip:
in an unbalanced position you should try to play in the area of the board where you're strong (e.g. pawn majority, or more space, or better pieces). In the area where you're weak you should try to make less moves as possible or lock things down if this can be done easily/quickly.
Very helpful information. Thanks for the ideas.
I do not like positional ''one liners'' that do not even point to a specific position. You would have to be fairly experienced to know when the rule actually applies. This defeats the purpose. That being said, I know a few rules that can be used, with caution. I realize some of my examples are more rules than plans, but, do what you want with it.
1) Do not play with backwards pawns on halfopen files if you don't have a reason for it.
2) Attack on the wing where you have more pieces.
3) The pawn structure is like an arrow that points to the wing you need to attack. (Pawns c3 and d4 naturally point to the castled king on g8) Deviating from such a plan always leads to a structual weakness. (c3,d4 and f4 would weaken the light squares, though it does grab e5)
4) The move of a centre pawn denotes the move of a neighbouring pawn. After all we all like centre duos or trios. (c4/d4 or c4/d4/e4) An opening featuring e4 and then b4? often does not make sense positionally. A related point is, we like to keep dark and light squares covered with the pawns next to each other. Knowing this can help you where to organize the assault. It also tells you what the opponent may do.
5) Bishops are best on neighouring diagonals. (Consider again c3/d4 and then Bd3 and Bc1 as in point 3.) This is also why the fianchetto of 1 bishop is often good. Double fianchetto is often bad or not needed.
6) If you sac an exchange then your last rook is often a key defender of the bottom row while it attacks from a distance. Don't exchange it. To a lesser degree this can apply to being up the small exchange. (When not to exchange pieces.) Related is: Exchange double pieces, do not exchange unique pieces.
7) If a doubled pawn is directly facing an enemy pawn, then the offensive value of the pawn is (N - 1) In other words, you cannot make a passer against a minority. That is all things being equal. The defensive value is the same. (When not to allow doubled pawns. When to inflict doubled pawns. How to win a better endgame.)
*Note that there is some danger if the opposer of the doubled pawn is not the spearhead of the formation.
8) If there are only pawns left on one wing, a knight is a fine piece. Possibly it is better than a bishop. I take you know the other obvious rules about bishops and knights. (When not to exchange knights for bishops.)
9) And last but not least: When in doubt, bulldozer the enemy king with a pawn storm.
Personally, I never exchange pieces unless it is absolutely necessary, because I suck at playing king and pawn endgames (and because I think a lot of exchanges are pointless).
Nov 17, 2012
0
#20
macer75 wrote:
" Personally, I never exchange pieces unless it is absolutely necessary, because I suck at playing king and pawn endgames (and because I think a lot of exchanges are pointless)."
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If I win just one minor or major piece, I will always look for ways to force trades (simplification) to a very easy to win King and Rook vs. King endgame. This is how most of my games are won, either by resignation because my opponent is down one or two pieces, or by check mating the enemy king with my king and rook. I know this endgame far better than any king and pawn vs. king endgame, as I believe it is the easiest endgame to learn.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course, from beginner to master, by Jeremy Silman, is probably the best book on endgames on the planet, for everyone except maybe those that need something harder... to reach IM or GM.
His book is organized by rating (Part One/Endgames for Beginners - Unrated to 999). Part Three (Class D 1200 to 1399) is much harder, for me. I am happy to go over just part one and part two from time to time.
So, king and pawn endings require much more study than king and rook vs. king endgames.
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Below is a game where I was happy to force a trade of queens (39.Qa4+ Ke5 40.QxQf4+ KxQf4) with a tactic (skewer) to simplify the position to a king and rook vs. king endgame. There were a few pawns left on the board, but that is usually not a problem when I am the one with the only rook on the board.
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Here is an example of a simple K+R vs. K endgame.
Please post tips on what to play when the position appears quiet, several moves look o.k., and there is no winning tactical shot. I'll start.
Exchange your inactive piece with a similar but active piece of the opponent.