Saturday, September 17, 2005
Attacking too soon
Why is it usually important to complete development of your chess pieces before going on the attack? For one reason, consider the following hypothetical sequence of moves:
1. e4 Nf6
2. d3 Ng4
3. Be3 Nxe3
4. fxe3
What is the single most obvious fact about the state of the board? Black has no development (other than being one empty space closer to castling), while white has a strong presence in the center. Black may have thought he was making an even trade swapping a knight for a bishop. But it's important to consider that black also gave away his first three moves in exchange for one of white's moves (or two, if you count fxe3).
This is really just a variation on the idea that you generally don't want to give away an active piece for a passive one. However, this rule is all the more important during the opening, when losing one's active pieces gives your opponent a tremendous amount of freedom to roam and control the open space on the board.
While you should be aware of opportunites to capitalize on your opponent's mistakes at any point in the game, attacking is generally best left till after you've accomplished some development and are prepared to use attacks to create material or positional advantages.
(3) comments
1. e4 Nf6
2. d3 Ng4
3. Be3 Nxe3
4. fxe3
What is the single most obvious fact about the state of the board? Black has no development (other than being one empty space closer to castling), while white has a strong presence in the center. Black may have thought he was making an even trade swapping a knight for a bishop. But it's important to consider that black also gave away his first three moves in exchange for one of white's moves (or two, if you count fxe3).
This is really just a variation on the idea that you generally don't want to give away an active piece for a passive one. However, this rule is all the more important during the opening, when losing one's active pieces gives your opponent a tremendous amount of freedom to roam and control the open space on the board.
While you should be aware of opportunites to capitalize on your opponent's mistakes at any point in the game, attacking is generally best left till after you've accomplished some development and are prepared to use attacks to create material or positional advantages.
(3) comments
