h6 move explanation...

I was analyzing a game against the computer (I'm black) and had a question about the best move being h6 for move 5.

Not sure if this will work, but:

Here's a pic, JIC:

My guess is that by using h6, should white's dsb choose to attack on h7, it would capture that pawn and clear the file for the rook to activate and protect h. Otherwise, I'm forced to double up my pawns on the h-file and would need 2 moves to activate my rook. Is that the idea?

Ah, I see! it protects against 6. bg5. Makes total sense now! I'll have to start keeping an eye out for that. Thanks!

I'd say you're falling in a well known trap: don't try to learn proper chess by looking at computer variations. A computer looks at a chess position very different than a human would. A human looks at positions in methodical ways, trying to compare it to known ideas and patterns, while a computer will just calculate the best move in this exact position. So when you say that you will keep an eye out for this move, you're basically saying you'll look for an opportunity to play this move in different positions too expecting it will be a good move. 

As a human, I'd say ...h6 is a bad move. Why is that? In the opening, you'll want to play as efficiently as possible. Play all of your pieces once, get your king to safety and get a hold of the center. ...h6 doesn't do that. It almost always loses an important move that you could have used better by developing a piece or castling. 

In this position, I can see that ...h6 could be a nice move. The loss of tempo is not such a big deal here, because white has played so many bad moves already. I can also kind of appreciate how ...h6 will make it harder for white to develop. It's not necessarily that Bg5 is a threatening move, it's more that white has problems where to develop the bishop. If it goes to e3, we can play ...d4. If it goes to d2, it's just in the way. I think ...h6 is basically designed to make it hard for white to exchange his bishop for our knight, because white is so dangerously cramped and already in trouble with his development that it would make sense for him to at least try and exchange a pair of pieces. As I see it, it's about just so much more than just preventing the pin. 

That being said, I don't think I'd play ...h6 in a real game. I'd just develop yet another piece. I wouldn't consider playing a move like Bg4 or Bc5 that much worse at all than ...h6 and I would think it'd be a nice and natural move to play. So in fact, I'd say, disregard the computer suggestion in this instance. In fact, playing moves like ...h6 just to prevent a pin is one of the most prevalent opening mistakes that lower rated players make because of the waste of time that I wrote about above.

^^^

This guy usually nails it, and does again. Wish I could articulate that well.

I probably wouldn't play h6 here either (and it may be proven to be the best move). My reasons might be:

• It really isn't urgent (maybe play later before or even after Bg5)
• If White wants to spend 2 moves to develop a piece and trade (while behind), I probably welcome it. I might look into if recapturing benefits my development.

Now, if I thought I could use the knight (on f6) somewhere else to coordinate an attack (once prepared)...I might look into more seriously. But for prophylaxis only, now I wouldn't consider it highly.

So, "keep an eye out", but don't necessarily "look to play" (in similar situations).

And on the "engine trap"...

Look at the moves the engine is using afterward (helps sometimes to use "show lines" feature). This is the engine's reasons.

Play with other moves and see what the engine says about them. Then compare to what it recommended. Many times the engine changes it's "mind".

h6 is a perfectly human move. In the pirc defense, you see early h3 all the time. The reason being in cramped positions like those, limiting one of the bishop's only good squares is a positional advantage.

Hmm

Yes, moves like h3/h6 are human moves. I don't think that was the point. The "point" perhaps being is

I played 5...Be6 (nothing special, no immediate threats, not helping to castle), then 6.Bg5 (it wasn't the preferred move by the engine). Then I played 6...a6 (another prophylaxis move). Bxf6 not the priority move (3rd choice). I'm using 7 lines, it's not a clear "winner".

Excuse the low depth (it's higher than 18...all I can say)

First of all, thanks for the compliment PerpetuallyPinned! That's nice of you to say.

Let me get back to 2 things mentioned above. I think you're trying to troll RedN13, but just to make sure for the people reading it, white doesn't have any attack, as the pawns are well stopped. But even if white did have an attack and somehow we had (foolishly?) decided to castle kingside, ...h6 would weaken our position. Don't move pawns on the side where you are attacked is a general rule (which has exceptions of course). 

To the point made by darkunorthodox88: yes, h3/h6 is a perfectly human move and there are definitely situations where you'd play the move. In the Ruy Lopez and the Italian game you see h3 all the time. And I agree with you that h3 in a certain setup in the Pirc is done for similar reasons as that would seem to apply to the game by OP.

What I'm always trying to keep in mind, however, is that this is the beginner's forum. The way I see it is that there are very good guiding principles in chess that will work in a great number of cases and then there are exceptions in specific positions, because chess is complicated like that. When lower level players get stronger, those exceptions will have to be learned about too. But I strongly believe that it's much more valuable to get the fundamentals right first, because they can help you make the right decision in 80-90% of the cases. But also because of the fact that you need more chess knowledge to figure out which position is actually an exception to the rule and which isn't. When you don't really know what a space advantage is or whether you are currently having it, or when you don't know what your strategy should be when you do have a space advantage, you also can't understand why the h3 move would be good in the Pirc setup. When you don't know how dangerous a dynamic advantage for your opponent can be, you also don't know that it's really not ok to waste a move with h3/h6 in another position.

My point about h3/h6, a3 and a6 is actually founded in my own observations. I've been a chess trainer for over 25 years and have seen many games played by players in the 1100-1400 range. I've always been surprised how many inefficient moves get played in the opening, with the h3/h6/a3/a6 moves absolutely standing out. Lower level players have a certain tendency to not be so strict to themselves when it comes to developing as fast as possible in the opening. Especially a3/a6/h3/h6 get played all the time for little to no reason other than that the pin is scary. And playing those moves when it's not needed, does hurt your opening and consequently your middlegame, cause, like I said before, you could've used it to develop a piece and you'll always be one step behind afterwards if you waste the move. I think there's value in remarking that to lower level players. And I also think that there's value in simplifying matters for lower level players. I mean, sure, there's 1 setup in the Pirc where white likes to play h3, but if you start doing that in the Austrian Attack, it's terrible and much more costly than not play h3 in the line were it would be nice. Even more so when your opponent isn't as good either and might leave you unpunished for not having played h3 at the right time in those exceptions. 

So, in short, my point was that h3/h6/a3/a6 sure are natural moves, but they get played way too often by lower level players and it is costly to play such moves too often.

Something I play around with now and then...

Giving your opponent additional moves

"...does have somewhat of a strong attack" to "doesn't quite have an attack" isn't "failing to mention". And changing it to "has a potential attack" for what reason?

You're playing word games

Does White (in your opinion) have an attack or not? Is it a good attack or not? Does Black need to play inferior moves for it to work?

And can you show me (with a board) instead of just telling me? Because I don't understand what you're trying say

Thanks for clearing all that up for us

From now on I won't assume what you say is what I think you say because you might not say it.

Yeah, that sounds quite reasonable. It wouldn't be good for it to happen, but at that playing strength it might. Sorry for assuming you were trolling. You can never be sure on the forums these days.

Lmao also