Developing your pieces

Next I want to show you what can happen when you violate the opening guidelines I described earlier. The game is between me (black) and a 1400 player (white).

The game started with:

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 This move is perfectly playable although Nf3 is more common.
2…Nf6 3.f4 An interesting choice by white. Often this opening is used as a surprise weapon. Black has to find the correct move here.
3…d5! Opening the center and for all the pieces to join and also threatening Nxe4.
3.Qe2?! (see diagram below)

Black to move

There are some reasons why you shouldn’t play this early queen sortie.  White violates the fifth opening rule in my article Opening rules to follow for players just starting out: Don’t develop your queen to early. And the reason for this is that the queen can come under attack. Sure, white’s queen maybe protecting e4 but that’s just short-term.

So, okay if we move back to the article I wrote about opening guidelines it says that you should develop your pieces quickly and knights before bishops. Therefore:
3…Nc6! Simply developing a piece and increasing my control over the central squares. Already I think black has at least equalized if he’s not even better.
4.fxe5? Now black’s simply better. It’s essential to develop your pieces as quickly as possible! One might argue that “a pawn is a pawn” but that dosen’t apply to this position as white is much worse now.
4…Nd4! And it’s clear why Qe2 wasn’t the best. Of course black shouldn’t take back the e5 pawn with: 4…Nxe5? Then follows 5.dxe with the idea to take on e5.
5.Qd3? The queen will become exposed here as well. At least after 5.Qe1 Nxe4 white's queen would be safe. But black would be much better because of the two centralized knights.
5…dxe Theartening the queen and protecting d4!
6.Nxe4 Nxe4 7.Qxe4 Bf5 (see diagram below)

White to move

If you compare white’s position to black's you can see some differences. Black has develop two pieces and white has develop just one. And the queen is the one piece that you shouldn’t move in the opening!

6.Qxb7 Taking a pawn but an lonesome queen on attack will not get far.
6…Qh4+! Bringing in another piece to the attack! There is a saying that says “It dosen’t matter what the material balance is when someone is attacking. All that matters is how many pieces are attacking vs defending”. Black has 3 pieces attacking and white hasn’t even one piece defending! All his pieces are on the first rank except of Qb7.
7.g3 Of course 7.Kd1?? is bad because of 7…Bxc2#
7…Qe4+! Swapping white’s only develop piece on the board!
8.Qxe4 Bxe4 (see diagram below)

White to move

Even though white has two more pawns black is wining. The game is practically over after 8 moves! That’s what happens when someone neglects this rules! And now white can’t meet both threats of Nxc2+ and Bxh1.

9.Ne2? Making things even worse. Better was 9.c3 when after 9…Nc2 10.Ke2 Nxa1 11.Nf3 white’s not okay but better than in the game continuation.

9…Nxc2+ 10.Kd1 Nxa1 11.Rg1 Bc5! (see diagram below)

White to move

Developing the bishop in the best way possible threatening g1!

12.d4 An good idea trying to protect g1 and push the bishop away.
12…Rd8! Developing yet another piece at the same time as protecting the bishop.
13.Bg5 Developing a piece. But this should white had thought about 10 moves ago!
13…Rxd4+! Temporary giving away the rook for a knight + pawn but the benefits of this will be good!
14.Nxd4 Bxd4 15.Bb5+ An attempt to save the rook on g1
15…c6 16.Re1 Now after 16…cxb 17.Rxe4 white has some chances of surviving thanks to the bad knight on a1

16…Bc2+! Keeping the bishop pair
17.Kd2 cxb 18.Rxa1 Bxb2 0-1 (see diagram below)

White to move

And now we can clearly see that black has the better position. A bishop and a pawn more! That’s what happened when white didn’t develop his pieces quickly enough!

Opening principles to follow for players just starting out

Opening is the first part of the game and many things later are determined by how you play in this phase. Coming out badly from the opening means you might suffer for the rest of the game. But please note that until you gain around 1700- 1800 in elo there is no need to go further in chess theory. Only some sound principles will be needed to play the opening successfully.

#1 Develop your pieces quickly
This is rule of thumb and applies to most openings. In a training I once was taking part in we were not allowed to use more than 8 moves to develop all pieces. That’s a good rule of thumb to give to your student’s if you’re a trainer. All you’re pieces are fully developed when you’re rooks are connected. Another good rule of thumb is to move your pieces only once in the opening.

#2 Take control over the center with pawns
Taking control over the center means controlling the four central squares d4, e4, d5, e5. Often white tries to do that with placing pawns on d4/e4 and black trying to the same with pawns of e5/d5.

Black to move

A position from a game of mine. I was playing black here and as you can see I was doing quite badly letting white take full control over the center and play the 7 best moves you can play in the opening (e4,d4,Nc3,Nf3,Bf4,Bc4,0-0). And after just 3 more moves I had to resign. The shortest game I ever have played in a real tournament and quite embarrassing as I at that the time considered myself to be a quite decent chess player (I had 1900 in elo).

#3 Put the king in to safety
Many of the classical games from the 19^th century, the Romantic chess area, was decided right from the opening were one side didn’t manage to put the king in to safety in time. A pawn wasn’t worth anything and you gladly sacrificed 1 maybe 2 pawns in order to get ahead in development and then mate your opponent’s king. The game I just showed you is a great example of this, 11 moves and then I had to resign. You know in order put to your king in a safe place you need more than just making 0-0 (even though making 0-0 or 0-0-0 often gets your king out of trouble).

#4 Develop knights before bishops
At least one knight should be developed first. There is a simple reason for this: Depending on where you place your knights and your opponent places his/her knights your bishops belong on different squares.

#5 Don’t develop your queen to early
Many beginners think that because the queen is there most powerful piece (which it is) they have to bring it out and attack their opponent as quick as possible. Often times this strategy will only backfire. Here is an example of when this strategy doesn’t work:

White to move

As we can see the queen is standing in the middle of the board. Now it will reveal itself why the queen is so exposed. 1.Nc3! Developing a pieces and also gaining time because black has to move the queen again. And that breaks the 1th principle of not moving the same piece twice in the opening. 1… Qe5+?!  A bad move because the check is only temporary and white will soon gain extra time developing pieces and hitting the black queen at the same time. 2.Be2 Simply develops the bishop and prepares Nf3. 2…Bg4 Making use of the pin. 3.d4! Again hitting the black queen and making an important developing move (3.Nf3 would have been meet by Bxf3 when white has to compromise the pawn structure with gxf). 3…Bxe2 4.Nxe2 Qa5 5.0-0 (Diagram below)

Black to move

Please, take a moment to compare white’s position to black’s. White has made 3 developing moves and put his king to safety. Black on the other hand has not gone any further than in the last position with the exception of the missing light squared bishop. You’d be surprised if I tell you how many games online I have played white in this position. But the score isn’t surprising at all.