Why so eager to trade down?

trading pieces is fun.  it throws off your opponents gameplan.  you can trade pieces to force them to stack pawns.  you can trade 3 point pieces to get the opponent with a knight and a bishop and you still have 2 knights or 2 bishops which is supposedly more powerful as they work together.

I absolutely love queen and rook endings as almost never loose them and often restore the material equality or do sac rook queen draw trick.

I prefer them to endings with light pieces, where the loosing side has only one way - to loose.

Remember, the pieces belong to your opponent.  And he/she can play them however they want.  Good, or Bad.

I've noticed that the better players don't leave their pieces standing around where some opponent can simply swap them off for the sake of simplicity. If the better player is allowing a trade, that trade is probably to the better player's advantage.

When we can delight in our opponents constantly instigating mindless exchanges, we will be better players!

 Now that you have announced to the entire chess.com website that this annoys you, you have just given everyone of your future opponents an edge.  Way to go!  It might not be your opponent that has a "weak" mind.

Usually when a player wants to trade down all the Pieces, it is to break up an attack or because they fear you tactically. Start playing for the Endgame as soon as possible, offer them bad trades that will insure an endgame win!

Yesterday I played an OTB game, where I traded 2 rooks (after declining a draw offer) to get Q+B+N vs. Q+2N ( one of his pawns was isolated d4). I won that game.

If this regularly happens and it feels like you are always powerless to stop it then being honest your game needs some work. As all of our's does of course. I don't think I've heard this particular problem much before though and I don't remember ever having a problem with this either.. It seems strange it's happening regularly. Are you sure you're not helping your opponents simplify? Can you present any specific games?..

well, obviously not all positions and trades are good trades, remember that sometimes trading pieces can be a powerful weapon to get a winning endgame, but sometimes trading pieces can give your opponent the winning edge, make sure to trade only the pieces that benefit you, and don't give your opponent the chance to trade pieces that are better for him.

trading down pieces may seem to simplify the game, but you must always think about the consecuences... wich are often very complex. Some of them to bare in mind:

- Pawn chain dissorder

- New open or semi-open columns

-Square weakness and control! (specially when trading bishops for knights, the game can change drastically)

-King safety (the removal of important defenders by trade is a common strategy to break into the enemy castle)

I believe I have allready posted this before.. but something most beginners don't consider is that NOT ALL TRADES ARE FORCED. You'd be surprised to see how many different responses you can find other than just taking back. Sometimes you can threaten a more valuable piece, attack the king immediately, or set a trap.

Why do so many people immediately try to trade down without evening trying to use their main pieces first? They turn the chess board into a checker board without even trying to combinate attack or even attempt a checkmate. So frustrating and I totally disagree without the end game being the essence of chess. Shouldn't the essence of chess be to utilize the complexity of the pieces. Just trying to force end game is unsportsmanlike to me. 

Good players don't allow the opponent to trade down unless it benefits them in some way. They basically never exchange pieces randomly, only strategically.

It's nothing of the sort. Trading pieces is just as sportsmanlike as avoiding trades.

If you don't like exchanging pieces, why are you giving your opponent the chance to trade down? Why not arrange matters so that any trade he makes is disadvantageous to him?

Post one of your games where your opponent made a series of annoying trades, and we'll offer more specific advice.

What I have been hinted at through watching commentary, is that when a piece is considered, three things are looked at. Of course. is the position the board presents if the move is played. A second is what squares are covered by that piece, either defensively or in a combined attack. And possibily the most important is, where can you use the piece in combination - or rather - where can that piece be relocated "after" the move, in combination with other pieces. When you look at all these things with each piece you begin to formulate combinations, most of which will thwart "greedly appearing" exchanges. A lot of positions have been attained by presenting exchanges while building threats with the presentation.

good points, also one of the hardest things to calculate in chess is visualizing with the squares you leave empty after you move pieces that used to be on them. takes practice to do effectively.

Thanks for the heads up, brianchesscake. I don't think I've included that as part of my methods. I'll have to make it pre-move practice.

You don't have to except the trade

Igor Smirnov says to take is a mistake because it helps your opponent get more activity or something like that.

What's annoying about trading pieces? Typically, the player who initiates a trade will lose a move.

Here's an example:

Black initiated the trade. Now count moves:

White has a Pawn on e4 (one move) and a Knight in the center (two more moves). Total: three moves.

Black has a Pawn on d6, and nothing else. It's now his move. Total: two moves.

Black has lost a move by exchanging.

It's easy to see how this happened: White's d-Pawn moved once (d2-d4) and then disappeared from the board... TAKING THAT ONE MOVE WITH IT.

Blacl's c-Pawn moved twice (c7-c5 and c5xd4) and then disappeared from the board... TAKING THOSE TWO MOVES WITH IT.

So it wasn't just a Pawn-for-Pawn trade... it was a Pawn and one move traded for a Pawn and two moves.

If you are facing an opponent who likes to trade down, just arrange a few of these "time-gaining" trades for him. Pretty soon, you'll be so many moves ahead that you can rip open the position and mate him.

There's another thing to consider. White can maneuver all but one of his pieces, the Queen's Rook. Black only has four choices with his pieces.