What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do

Hi again. I'd like to take a moment to discuss the opening. I've been praised for my opening knowledge here and there, but to be honest I don't consider my opening knowledge to be anything significant. I suppose I am fairly well acquainted with several openings on a superficial level, but beyond that I am only well-versed in my favorite opening lines, like most experienced players. Below are some time-tested tips that have served me well over the years. Unfortunately, I've found in my recent conversations that many people have never been exposed to these tips. What follows is nothing specific about any one opening. These are just common sense guidelines to keep in mind, especially when you're in an opening you have no experience with.

1. There are five "perfect" first moves for white: 1. c4, 1. d4, 1. e4, 1. g3, and 1 Nf3. That's not my advice, that's the late GM Edmar Mednis talking. And by "perfect", he means that they are both safe and relevant to the greater goal of controlling the center. 1. h4 might be a safe move, but it does nothing to address the center. 1. f4 might take control of the e5 square, but it uncovers a dangerous diagonal (1 f4 e6 2 g4?? Qh4, mate). If you play 1. e4 all the time and you want to surprise an opponent who knows you, consider another "perfect" move - 1. c4 is my fallback when I get a little bored with 1. e4.
2. Don't make too many pawn moves in the opening. OK, so how many is too many? Generally, two or three should be it. There are numerous exceptions to this, though: take for example white in the Alekhine defense (1 e4 Nf6 2 e5 Nd5 3 d4 d6 4 c4 Nb6 - nothing but pawns in the first four moves, and two alternatives for move five are either 5 exd6 or 5 f4 (!)) or black in the Morphy Ruy Lopez (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 b5 - three pawn moves in the first five moves). The best way I can clarify this otherwise vague, exception-plagued guideline is like this: In the opening, move only those pawns which open lines for your bishops and/or contest the center and/or chase enemy pieces off of good squares. Avoid moving pawns which weaken your king's position and/or loosen your grip on the center and/or restrict your piece's freedom of movement and/or actually prod your opponent's pieces onto better squares. Whew! Pawns are tricky, aren't they? This guideline makes clear the idea that one should become at least somewhat acquainted with opening systems. Because those considerations are so numerous and circumstantial, it's best just to plan on developing pieces after you've moved a couple of pawns already.
3. Develop knights before bishops. This guideline is so strongly confirmed by centuries of grandmaster practice I'm tempted to call it a rule:

• The English opening: 1 c4 c5 2 Nc3 or 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 or 1 c4 Nf6 2 d4 e6 3 Nc3. Knights before bishops.
• The Queen's gambit declined: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3. Knights before bishops.
• The Nimzo-indian defense: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4. Knights before bishops.
• The Queen's indian defense: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 a3 Bb7 (Ba6). Knights before bishops.
• The King's indian defense: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6. Knights before bishops.
• The Benoni defense: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 g6. Knights before bishops.
• The Caro-Kann defense: 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Bf5 - Aha! An exception. However, 4...Bf5 is very popular, but 4...Nd7 is almost as popular and has been played by no less than former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, amongst many other all-time greats. So let's just say the Caro-Kann is a sort of exception.
• The Sicilian defense: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 - Knights before bishops. Rather play a different 2nd move with black? OK: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 (2...Nc6 proves the near-rule) 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6. Knights before bishops.
• The Pirc defense: 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 - Knights before bishops.
• The Scandanavian defense: 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 (the most mainstream opening around to feature early queen moves) 3 Nc3 Qa4 4 Nf3 Nc6 - Knights before bishops.
• The Ruy Lopez, which I already covered
• The French defense: 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 - undoubtedly the best of the exceptions to the rule. Most French defense experts consider this to be black's best 3rd move. (Although, 3...Nf6 is a popular alternative...)
• The Alekhine defense, which is another exception worth mentioning. White usually plays a lot of pawn moves and opens slowly against it, so frankly I must recommend another approach against the Alekhine - more on that in a later post.

I hope that list confirms the idea - if you don't know what to do in the opening, move knights before bishops. After that too-long digression, let's get back to our list of opening guidelines.

1. Avoid moving a piece more than once. To that I have to add the phrase, "without a very good reason". If the opponent is threatening imminent checkmate, by all means move that knight again. If your bishop is being threatened by a pawn, of course, move it out of the way. If you can win queen for rook, go for it. Move the rook again. If none of those stipulations are in play, then look for around for another piece to develop.
2. Castle early. Castle early. Castle early, castle early, and castle early. Oh and before I forget, castle early.
3. "Patzer sees a check, patzer gives a check!" This quote is attributed to Bobby Fischer. Don't check just because a check exists. Take some time and try to see if it's worth playing the checking move (it usually isn't). Similarly...
4. If your "attack" is a one-move threat, with no follow-up of any kind, it'll probably cost you in the long run. So you play c4-c5, attacking his queen on d6. The opponent simply moves his queen out of the way and you have given up control of the d5 square. The black knight on f6 is much happier, as is the black bishop on b7. In retrospect, attacking the queen wasn't such a good idea. Keep that sort of thing in mind.
5. Your first reaction to your opponent's threat should not be "How do I deal with this?" - it should be "Can I safely ignore this?" Nothing I can add to that.
6. When you are ahead in material, trade pieces. (This is more of a middlegame guideline than an opening guideline, but it's such an important concept I include it here) Think of it this way. Let's say you are Bill Gates and you are in a contest with Warren Buffet to see who has more cash. You (Gates) have 50,020,000 dollars. Buffet's got 50,000,000 dollars. Technically, you've got more money than he does - .04% more money. .04% is something close to nothing. Now, let's say you and Buffet had an agreement to each give away 49,999,999 dollars a piece. Now you've got 20,000% more cash than he does! Chess is the same. If you're a pawn ahead, it's worth so much more when you trade away everything else.
7. "It is better to sacrifice your opponent's pieces" - GM Savielly Tartakower. We all want to sacrifice material and brilliantly checkmate our opponent. Try to put those thoughts aside and just play as simply as possible.
8. "Centrum, centrum, ooh la la!" That phrase actually appears, verbatim, in a book (Grandmaster Meets Chess Amateur, Steve Davis & GM David Norwood) and was attributed to a Soviet chess coach. His point? Play in the center. The most important squares on the board are a square from c3 to c6, c6 to f6, f6 to f3, and f3 to c3. Always fight to control those squares.
9. Do not develop the queen too early. There are exceptions, as in the Scandanavian defense; otherwise, get your minor pieces and rooks developed before the queen.

In my next post - how well did I follow these guidelines?

(Sorry about the numbers - I couldn't crack the HTML code. There are twelve total guidelines listed here.)