Best Opening Squares - Chess Forums

Musikamole

Sep 22, 2009

0

#1

My goal is to better understand, in general, what are the best squares to place pawns and pieces on in the opening. I'm familiar with various openings, i.e. Sicilian Defense, but what I am after is fundamental opening theory/principles as to what are the best squares for White to assemble his army if he could place them anywhere before the attack begins.

In a perfect world for White, what squares would the pawns and pieces be placed with the following basic opening principles: 1. rapid developmnet - only one move per pawn/piece 2. develop more pieces than pawns 3. center control 4. king saftey? White's position is open, black's is closed. What are the odds of white to win after this opening?

Scarblac

Sep 23, 2009

0

#2

What the best squares for your pieces are depends entirely on the position of the opponent's pieces.

Here, the bishop on f4 looks weird; it does nothing (if the white queen had been on d2, Bh6 trying to trade off black's Bg7 would have been an option; the bishop isn't really necessary on f4 to support white's e4-e5), and is vulnerable to typical moves like ...e5 and ...Nh5. But of course there are black setups where a bishop on f4 is great.

Don't think of the same squares regardless, think of a PLAN in a given position, and then figure out how you can make the best use of all your pieces to implement that plan.

kunduk

Sep 23, 2009

0

#3

Scarblac wrote:

What the best squares for your pieces are depends entirely on the position of the opponent's pieces.

Here, the bishop on f4 looks weird; it does nothing (if the white queen had been on d2, Bh6 trying to trade off black's Bg7 would have been an option; the bishop isn't really necessary on f4 to support white's e4-e5), and is vulnerable to typical moves like ...e5 and ...Nh5. But of course there are black setups where a bishop on f4 is great.

Don't think of the same squares regardless, think of a PLAN in a given position, and then figure out how you can make the best use of all your pieces to implement that plan.

right..!!!

Musikamole

Sep 23, 2009

0

#4

kunduk wrote:

Scarblac wrote:

What the best squares for your pieces are depends entirely on the position of the opponent's pieces.

Here, the bishop on f4 looks weird; it does nothing (if the white queen had been on d2, Bh6 trying to trade off black's Bg7 would have been an option; the bishop isn't really necessary on f4 to support white's e4-e5), and is vulnerable to typical moves like ...e5 and ...Nh5. But of course there are black setups where a bishop on f4 is great.

Don't think of the same squares regardless, think of a PLAN in a given position, and then figure out how you can make the best use of all your pieces to implement that plan.

right..!!!

Perhaps some logic this time. I wonder if there are any openings where black pushes both the king and queen pawn only one square?

Musikamole

Sep 23, 2009

0

#5

I found one. The rat defense.

Scarblac

Sep 23, 2009

0

#6

Famously, the biggest main lines of the Sicilian (especially the Scheveningen, but also the Najdorf, Classical and Taimanov) feature a so-called "small center" with d6 and e6. But there, Black has at least traded his c-pawn vs white's d-pawn, so that white doesn't have the ideal center.

There's also a line in the Tango, I think 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.a3 d6!?, where Black aims to go into a King's Indian a tempo down (he plays g6, Bg7, 0-0, and e6-e5 at some point, that goes in one move in the KID), hoping to show that white's a2-a3 isn't that useful.

The Hippopotamus combines ...d6 and ...e6 with a double fianchetto. It's even rarer than the Tango.

But in general, it's a bit masochistic to voluntarily give such a space advantage to white.