What to do after pieces are developed?

After considering this for a bit I think it would be better to play the bishop to c4 instead of b5. So this would be an example scenario...

 Do you see any mistakes by white or black in the above example?

the second opening is better in my opinion

Yeah I pretty much always open with d4 since that's the opening I've studied the most. But here recently I've started focussing on the e4 opening. I've played a bunch of games with myself and the positions I've posted are a common theme I ran into.

This looks like a typical middle game position reached through a Ruy Lopez (I don't play R. Lopez, so I may be wrong).  

Anyway, I recommend finding a famous player who plays this opening.  Then search online and find a data base of games (pgns) There are free data bases out there, not to mention Chess.com' data base.  

You should  then sort by opening and player and download 100 or so pgns which probably reach a similar position.  Then start to play through the games until you get a few moves beyond this point, to see what approach grandmaster's use. 

I'm paraphrasing J. Silman's advice here.  I tried it, and it works for me.

He meant move 4 would be better if you played 4.d4 not starting out with d4 instead of e4.

I think he is talking about the opening you listed

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 3.Bc4 Nf6 and then 4.d4 instead of 4.d3

Perhaps he is talking about something else though...

I don't normally play either system very often (i try to avoid symetrical set ups) but thats a preferance not a mistake. likewise I wouldn't have played d3 (at least not when you did in game 2) instead Nc3 first now your opponet has to figure out how to develop their bishop 

black has a lot of good moves though I don't want to suggest it is simple by any means. opening files for your rooks to eventually use and delaying (just a little) to castle aren't always mentioned in opening guidelines in fact the castling thing is a little confuseing because you want your king safe but when you castle before theyve devoloped thier pieces they could set them up to target the king.

I recommend the book by Jermey Silman: Reasess your chess, for more general advice on the middle game.  Or you could pony up for a chess.com membership, diamond, and watch unlimited vidoes on your favorite postions, which would probably improve your game dramatically.  Either way, you need more input.  Good luck!

KenBrace wrote:

"When opening the game with e4 I often reach a position similar to the one displayed below. The only problem is that I'm not entirely sure what to do next (I'm playing white). ..."

I have this sort of problem a LOT myself and I am not really qualified to authoritatively tell you what to do, but I think it has somewhat helped me to play through a bunch of sample games in whatever opening I am trying to use. Your opening (to my not-very-authoritative eyes) looks somewhat like a four-knights game, so maybe it would help to read Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro, a book about understanding the opening with sample games and discussion for a number of specific openings, including, if I remember correctly, the four knights game. If you want to concentrate on that one possibility, I imagine that you could find a lot of sample games in The Four Knights Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala. Going in the other direction, you could see more general opening advice (still mostly about 1 e4) in Discovering Chess Openings by John Emms. The title of Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson suggests to me that it might be helpful to you.

stop your bleating  and practise tactics, read books, play many many games, study positional principles, paw over games of a superb GM,just use your common sense and get down to the hard work, unless your bleating how is just troll bait

After 4. d4 black should play Nf6 to block white's bishop from attacking the queen correct? 

To the thread opener: The opening is connected to the middlegame in an organic flow if you know why you're setting pawns and pieces on their squares.The 1st post shows you need to learn 2 points. The pin in the opening and how to punish too early castling. Search the game Dubois - Steinitz with comments and then for further games commented by masters treating pins. Some work, well invested, you will see.

What if white played 5. Bg5?

How on Earth are you a beginner with a 2003 rating?

I don't think there is anything wrong with white's position. As 5oS pointed out correctly, first the Nc6 has to be eliminated: 1.Bxc6 bxc6. Now we take care of the pin: 2.h3 Bh5 (2...Bxf3 3.Qxf3 should be slightly better for white, due to the better structure and the better bishop) 3.g4 Bg6. This weakens the kingside, but forces black's light-squared bishop into a passive position. Next step: Improve pieces and possibly execute pawn-breaks. I would consider 4.Ne2 in order to transfer the knight to g3. Then c3 and d4 might be an idea. If black plays c5, to restrain the central break, another pawn break on the queenside appears: a3, b4.

I think the better question is:

How is this account still open?

"Sugma Diagg": I trust I am pronouncing that correctly.

The question isn't how to make a plan now that you're developed, but how to develope your pieces earlier so that a logical plan emerges.

For instance, it is usually simpler to play d4 and open things up rather than playing d3 and being passive. Now your opponent is already the aggressor as black.

KenBrace,

I see why you are having so much trouble.

The Ruy Lopez is one of the strongest most complex lines in all of chess.

Even Advance 2000+ players can have trouble understanding it.

My first instinctive advice would be to tell you maybe you should consider playing the Ruy Lopez little brother opening until you can get more understanding of the big brother opening.

The Italian Game I believe is the Ruy Lopez little brother opening which plays 3.Bc4.

It has some of the same ideas as the Ruy Lopez it just is alot more simpler to understand as a beginner.

Maybe that is something to think about. The Italian Game is great and it is easy for beginners. Once you gain more understanding of it than later on you can try and press on with the Ruy Lopez etc.

Meanwhile, Since you have asked about this Ruy Lopez position I will say what the problem is with it.

The line your opponent is playing is not considered that good.

Your opponent might be a beginner and he might not know he is playing a bad opening.

An since you are a beginner you might not know how to punish him for playing this opening badly lol.

I will show you how.

I will start off at the beginning.

Move 1.e4 - You gain some center space which is very good. If your opponent does a dumb move like a6 or h6 something completely stupid. Than you can play 2.d4 next and have 2 center pawns which is very strong.

If your opponent is not a complete idiot. They will try to stop you from having 2 pawns in the center side by side.

One of the most classical way of doing that is with the pawn:

Move 1...e5 - This move hits the d4 square so if you play 2.d4 now he will take your pawn and than you lost your chance of having 2 pawns in the center.

Move 2.Nf3 - This move has a purpose.

The purpose of this move is to hit the undefended e5 pawn which your opponent just played.

Bascially they stopped you from playing 2.d4. In retaliation/revenge you decide to attack there e5 pawn for stopping you.

If they play a stupid move like a6 or what ever. Than you can take the e5 pawn with your knight.

Most players will try to defend the pawn usually.

Popular lines which are played to defend the e5 pawn are the moves.

2...Nc6 Kings knight Opening  < This is considered the best defensive move to defend e5

2...d6 - Philidor Defense < not considered that good in higher level. However, in lower level chess it seems to be doing pretty good.

Move 2...Nc6 - Lets give example of your opponent playing one of the best moves. This move defends the e5 pawn with his knight.

At this point white has a major decision to make. They have close to 4 different lines they can play.

The below lines with bullets are used alot in chess at every level.

• Move 3.Bb5 - Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game)

• Move 3.Bc4 - Italian Game < This line is usually recommended to beginners.

• Move 3.d4 - Scotch Opening

Move 3.c3 - Ponziani Opening < This line is playable;however, not used alot in high level chess.

I will show you why the Italian Game is recommended to beginners instead of the Ruy Lopez after I show you blacks 3rd move

Ok so lets show white playing the:

Move 3.Bb5 - The logical reasoning behind this move flows with some of whites previous moves here. If you remember at move 1.e4 and 2.Nf3

1.e4 try to make way for 2.d4 black stopped the idea of 2.d4 with the pawn move 1...e5.

White tryed to get revenge by attacking the e5 pawn with 2.Nf3

Black defended it with 2.Nc6

This move 3.Bb5 is a way of trying to indirectly attack the e5 pawn.

White attacks the knight on c6 which is defending the e5 pawn.

One day white has a hope of taking the knight on c6 with his bishop than taking the e5 pawn with his knight on f3.

However, this threat is not possible yet. White has to wait until his e4 pawn is defended before he can do this. So in a way whites move is a future threat.

Black has to try and address this threat later on. The moves he plays next usually have that in mind.

An here is one of the big differences between the Ruy Lopez and the Italian Game.

Black has 9 different ways of handling this threat lol.

Some are better than others. However, in total there is about 9 different moves here.

As a beginner you have to know them all HA HA!

You have to know them all by heart HA HA!

Move 3...Nf6

Move 3...a6

Move 3...f5

Move 3...Bc5

Move 3...g6

Move 3...Nge7

Move 3...Nd4

Move 3...d6

Move 3...Bb4

Yeah the Ruy Lopez ROCKS!!

In the Italian Game

Move 3.Bc4 - The logical reasoning behind this move is bascially white fights for the center in another way.

Instead of trying to attack the knight and indirectly attacking e5.

White decides to just play his bishop to c4  and hit d5 which is another key center square. It also indirectly hits the f7 pawn which is one of the weakest pawns on the board since only the black king defends it.

It is another way of playing the position.

Against 3.Bc4 black has 3 responses against it lol.

Only 3 they are respectible lines as black but over all it is less lines to worry about studying.

Move 3...Bc5

Move 3...Nf6

Move 3...Be7

Skipping to your game now.

After the Move 3.Bb5

Black responded with:

Move 3...d6 - Steinitz Defense - This line is not considered that great any more. However, sometimes players play it to confuse people or if they are beginners and don't know what they are doing they might play it etc.

This d6 move defends the e5 pawn if you remember. The future e5 pawn threat. It is being defends directly by d6 now.

In most Ruy Lopez games usually black plays other 3rd move lines

Which as someone previously mentioned this is more of an offbeat line which you do not see alot.

The main line move black usually plays is:

3...a6 < This move hits the whites light square bishop they often call it putting the question to the bishop to see what it will do.

Either backing way with the bishop, maintaining the pin with the bishop, or trade the bishop off for the knight on c6.

Instead of 3...d6 and white often has to play moves like c3 than d4 later on.

However, in this position black has played 3...d6.

Now the move 3...d6 does what?

It defends e5 with its d6 pawn. However, it makes the knight on c6 lose its defense. Do you notice that? Take a look at the position below again!

By playing d6 the knight on c6 has now became pinned to the black king by your bishop on b5.

Which means the move d6 as increased 1 defensive resource to the e5 pawn. However, at the same time it has also decreased 1 defensive resource

+1 for the d6 pawn defending e5

-1 for the knight on c6 being pinned. A pin piece is a useless piece because it can not respond. It is illegal for it to move.

Now after 3...d6. What do you believe is the strongest 4th move by white is?

Does it surpise you at all that the strongest 4th move by white is:

Move 4.d4 - What is this move doing!

This move is hitting the e5 square/pawn another time!

You are piling on the pressure on the e5 pawn/square. You are a dog chewing on a bone and that bone is e5.

All whites pieces are working in harmony playing a song here. We are in an orchestra and we are dancing all over this e5 square.

Now in one of your diagrams you showed black playing:

Move 4...Nf6 - This move has nothing to do with the e5 pawn.

You might wonder well if this move has nothing to do with the e5 pawn than why is black playing it?

The reason they are playing it is because in chess when you start losing and you can not support your position any more.

Sometimes all you can hope for is to try and counter attack!

It is a move of desperation trying to cause chaos in the position. He is bascially giving up on the defense of e5 and is trying to counter attack your undefended e4 pawn.

Now you showed a variation which had the move 5.Bg5 being played.

Now by playing Bg5 you do stop black from taking on e4 otherwise he would lose his queen.

However, What is the problem with this move?

Lets figure out why this Bishop move is not that great.

Everything we have been doing so far has been attacking e5.

Than black gives us 1 sucker punch threat.

The threat we are dealing with so to speak is him attacking the e4 pawn.

Now when you think about it. All we have to do is defend e4 pawn in some way.

Once we do that Black is right back in a huge problem dealing with us hitting e5 don't you think?

So it seems logical for us to simply defend the e4 pawn and make black stress himself out on how to defend his e5 pawn.

How should we defend the e4 pawn that is the question.

We have several options lets look over out candiate moves.

We have:

5.Qd3

5.Qe2

5.Bg5

5.Nc3

Those are ways of us defending e4.

Now do we want our queen which is considered most powerful piece on the board defending our e4 pawn?

Queens usually worth 9 points in value defending a 1 point pawn.

We really don't want to do these queen moves.

So lets scratch those off the list.

Well that leaves us with 2 options left.

5.Bg5 which was your move

and the move

5.Nc3

Now think about this for a min. Which move do we want to do and why do we want to do this move.

Its not about just making a move because we can.

We want to have a reason! Why are we making this move!

Understand why you are doing something.

Well when you think about it. What have we been doing this whole game?

We have been attacking the e5 square.

Well ask yourself what color is the e5 square.

The e5 square is a dark square. What does that mean?

Well can the knight on b1 attack the e5 square one day?

What about the dark square bishop on c1?

When you think about it. It does seem like the dark square bishop might be able to attack the e5 square since it is a dark square.

Which makes you have to wonder if we play Bg5.

There is a good chance we will not be able to move him away from g5. If the dark bishop goes to g5 he will have to stay there defending our e4 pawn.

What about our knight on b1. How will it help contribute to the e5 square?

Seems almost impossible doesn't it.

Further more lets think further. If we play 5.Bg5 what will black do?

What if black plays 5...Be7

It would break the pin on the knight which means the knight will than be threating the e4 pawn again.

Do you see we have a plan of attacking e5. We want to continue attacking it or putting more pressure on it.

At the same time we want to defend our weak pawns and we want to do so in a way which doesn't take us alot of time.

If we play 5.Bg5 we defend the e4 pawn 1 round than if black plays 5.Be7 we have to defend the e4 pawn again.

Do you see how he is getting counter play here?

We don't want to keep addressing his threats. We want him to deal with our threats.

Now what is wrong with 5.Nc3

Maybe this is a bad move did we even go over it?

Well lets look at it. If we play 5.Nc3 it defends e4. What will black do next. Does black have a way of getting rid of our knight or breaking the knights defense of e4 like in the Bg5 example.

It doesn't seem like black has a way of doing that does it?

Well by playing Nc3 we also give ourselves the option of playing our bishop to f4 one day putting pressure on e5. Obviously we can not play the bishop to f4 right now because there is a black pawn on e5. However, if we take on e5 one day with our pawn and black doesn't recapture back for what ever reason we than will have the move Bf4. 

I'll give an example:

So we have ways of maybe one day playing Bf4 to attack e5.

What other bishop moves do we have. Well we might be able to play Bb2 one day to help attack e5 as well.

Do you see how we are slowly doing good here? We are defending our weaknesses and giving ourselves options for long term preparations.

Isn't that amazing?

We slowly went thru this line and everything we did had a reason behind it. We knew what we was doing the whole time!

We even had chances of castle before taking on e5 with our pawn just to get king safety than we can began to be savages and start attacking viciously lol.

Again this is just something to think about.

Chess does not have to be that complicated. Your middle game doesn't have to be totally confusing. You don't have to be stumped on what to do next after developing your pieces. We never had a problem we had a clear focus the whole game.

We did not develop pieces just to develop them.

WE HAD A PURPOSE!

We didn't follow chess princples and develop everything because some dead chess players 250 years ago said so!

No we followed our opening understanding that we learned step by step playing moves which only helped our position. An gave the least amount of counter play as possible.

I think I might stop here lol just realized I been rambling on for 3 hours lol. Well there was alot to talk about that is for sure.