i would keep the d, e, and f pawns back to protect your king. other than that, it looks fine. all of your pieces will be able to get out and you will have a giant hole in the center for them to move freely through.
oh, and my pieces can't dance, either, so all i can do is attempt to provide humor.
Piece mobility is a factor which initially arises from the choice of opening,your plans, etc. However, it isn't too hard to understand. Basically, the first most basic thing is that pieces are more mobile toward the center when theres nothing around.
I feel its something that just comes to you as you get stronger which is why you see IMs and GMs effortlessly putting pieces onto more active squares. The best I can offer is that you start looking for weak squares,open files, open diagonals.
Using a plan, get your pieces to control these factors (e.g. bishops controlling a weak color complex, rooks controlling a key file. Not only does this increase piece activity, it can also grant you the initiative if your opponent has to respond to your threats.
An example is with the QGA IQP positions. White has the possibility to get nice mobility/activity that translates into initiative and bam d5!! a shock in the dark which begins to undermine Black's position.
Also look at master games in the opening you play to see what squares are good for your pieces :)
i would keep the d, e, and f pawns back to protect your king. other than that, it looks fine. all of your pieces will be able to get out and you will have a giant hole in the center for them to move freely through.
oh, and my pieces can't dance, either, so all i can do is attempt to provide humor.
So that's the secret! Push the wing pawns and park the center pawns at home.
Did White hang any pawns or pieces this time? 
Piece mobility is a factor which initially arises from the choice of opening,your plans, etc. However, it isn't too hard to understand. Basically, the first most basic thing is that pieces are more mobile toward the center when theres nothing around.
I feel its something that just comes to you as you get stronger which is why you see IMs and GMs effortlessly putting pieces onto more active squares. The best I can offer is that you start looking for weak squares,open files, open diagonals.
Using a plan, get your pieces to control these factors (e.g. bishops controlling a weak color complex, rooks controlling a key file. Not only does this increase piece activity, it can also grant you the initiative if your opponent has to respond to your threats.
An example is with the QGA IQP positions. White has the possibility to get nice mobility/activity that translates into initiative and bam d5!! a shock in the dark which begins to undermine Black's position.
Also look at master games in the opening you play to see what squares are good for your pieces :)
You got my attention with bam d5!! I am a 1.d4 player and have never gotten this bam d5 move in. Could you provide an example from a master game?
Also, I greatly enjoyed the factors that translate into greater piece mobility and activity. Thank you!
it looked great until 10. 0-0?? you left d,e, and f to protect your king and then just walked away from them. now your king is on what will soon be an open file. if you want to castle you need to leave f, g, and h but you have to do it early before black attacks in the middle and traps your king. that is GM level stuff. for now i would just keep your king in the center behind the wall.
it looked great until 10. 0-0?? you left d,e, and f to protect your king and then just walked away from them. now your king is on what will soon be an open file. if you want to castle you need to leave f, g, and h but you have to do it early before black attacks in the middle and traps your king. that is GM level stuff. for now i would just keep your king in the center behind the wall.
"GM level stuff".
You can see all of that in my crazy opening? And I thought our second game together would be a piece of cake for me. 
Chess is a game of several elements, which can be divided into two distinct classes: static elements, or those which require some force to alter, and dynamic elements which can change at a single move.
The static elements are material and pawn structure. Once you are a pawn or a piece up, unless the opponent has some significant dynamic compensation (like a mating attack), in the normal course of events you should be able to maintain that advantage by exchanging down into an easily won ending. Also with pawn structure: once the structure is set by contact between the sides, altering the configuration takes some effort, and may not succeed.
The dynamic elements are King safety, mobility, and initiative. King safety is the most important element of all, because when the King is dead the game is over. But it is something which can be altered with a tactical strike - in a couple of sacrificial moves, a solid castled position may be blasted wide open.
Initiative is the ability to force or at least lead the play in the game by making threats, tactical or positional. At its strongest, initiative becomes attack. Steinitz taught that when you have the initiative, it must be pursued aggressively, or else it passes to the opponent almost naturally.
Mobility is the activity of the pieces. 1. All the "point" values of the pieces are general guidelines which don't necessarily apply in practice. A well-placed Knight can have a stronger effect on a game than a misplaced Queen might. 2. In the opening, mobility is advanced by simple development. While pieces have been developed, though, a pawn structure has also been defined (at least partially), and there will usually be more than one piece which needs to be redeployed for maximum effect.
Of course there is much crossover between elements - strong initiative vs weak King safety = mate, space advantages yield a mobility edge, but are largely based on favorable pawn structure, etc.
You improve your overall mobility by 3. fighting for a pawn structure which provides advanced support points for your Knights and strong diagonals for your Bishops, while denying the opponent the same. Of course, if you achieve all of these goals, you will win easily, so the opponent may fight back in each area. But in general, you want to increase the influence of your own pieces by finding their best squares, while simultaneously thwarting the opponent's efforts to do the same.
One thing which often plagues chessplayers who have worked and studied pawn structures and strategies is that there still come times when there is not a clear plan for you, nor a clear threat to answer. What to do when there is nothing to do? My old coach had the answer: "When you do not know what to do, improve the position of one piece: if all your pieces are already perfectly placed, you should know what to do!"
Great article. Thank you.
1. Many players don't realize the actual point value of a piece. A bad bishop stuck behind a chain of pawns of the same color can have an actual point value of zero.
2. I do o.k., not great, with respect to simple development.
3. Curses! I still need my pawns. Advanced support points are a wonderful thing.
In gaining space for pieces to increase mobility, i.e., opening a diagonal for a bishop, I need to get better at seeing and then acting quickly on break moves.
Example: In a queen-pawn opening, the two break moves for White are c4 and e4, opening diagonals for the bishops.
ah! so that's why the default game name is "Let's Play"!! maybe it should be "Just Play" or "Shut Up and Play"... nah, that might be offensive...
tonydal nailed it. Given the questions you've been asking, OP, then this concept is so far beyond where you are as a chess player that it isn't worth worrying about for now (and I say that with no judgment, because I'm in the same spot more or less).
A big mistake us patzers make is trying to absorb way too much at once. You aren't going to learn chess in a year. 60 books and DVDs, but you are still asking how to avoid hanging pieces. This is a common syndrome.
We tend to think the basics are beyond us and want to zoom past into the advanced stuff, but let me tell you: our ratings will tell us when we are past the basic stuff. When I never hang a piece, never miss a simple tactic and never botch an end-game, then my rating will tell me it's time to start worrying about more complex concepts. But that'll be awhile yet.
1. OK, I'm gonna try this one more time (regardless of whether Philidor is waiting in the wings to ambush me)...but seriously, Musik, I think you've got to stop thinking of things all conceptual like this and just learn to play.
2. Your comments btw did remind me of Morphy (who was said to want to sac all of his pawns to allow his pieces free rein). And hey, everybody feels like their pieces have two left feet compared to players who are better than them!
As we have (forever) seen, chessplayers can spew unendingly in a manner that sounds very important and significant indeed...and yet one thing I've always noticed: regardless of their rating (it could be anywhere from 1000 to 2600) most chessplayers sound like GMs! The only way you can tell them apart is to compare the variations, 3. the actual specific moves they come up with (rather than just the usual sort of folderol).
The truth is...piece mobility? What the heck am I supposed to say about that? It's all so vague...and specious (signifying nothing). Much more important to you than 1000 lectures from Brilliant Strategists would be 4. one game where you calculated (accurately) farther ahead than you ever had...or brought that endgame home to a win...or thwarted an attack that you never would've noticed before! These are the things that will enable you to truly improve at the game (rather than the usual Nimzovich impersonation).
I am going to not only save this post, but print it on fancy thick paper and post it in each room of the five schools where I teach music. It's all great stuff and I need to read it often, as it will help me not only in chess, but in other parts of life.
I have taken your advice to heart and put it into action already. I have more games in progress than ever before, plus I am now playing Live Chess on a regular basis.
However, I do love to read and ponder. It's how I've done just about everything in life, and it definitely has it's down side. Even with music, I would read and ponder more than I would play. Perhaps I should have pursued a career at IBM when think tanks were all the rage.
1. Being a more active player, I now have a higher number of mistakes to learn from. I'm not going to be able to fix all of these mistakes in one day, but at least I am beginning to see the repeat offenders, and knowing the problem is part of the solution.
2. FM Elliot Liu has a two part video lecture out, for beginners, on tactics featuring a famous game from Paul Morphy.
3. Paul Morphy found many brilliant moves in that game. He used pretty much every tactic in the book to beat the Count and the Duke.
4. My weakness in calculation was a big contributor to a recent loss in a turn based game. To compete against the stronger players on this site, I do need to calculate much further.
tonydal nailed it. Given the questions you've been asking, OP, then this concept is so far beyond where you are as a chess player that it isn't worth worrying about for now (and I say that with no judgment, because I'm in the same spot more or less).
A big mistake us patzers make is trying to absorb way too much at once. You aren't going to learn chess in a year. 60 books and DVDs, but you are still asking how to avoid hanging pieces. This is a common syndrome.
We tend to think the basics are beyond us and want to zoom past into the advanced stuff, but let me tell you: our ratings will tell us when we are past the basic stuff. When I never hang a piece, never miss a simple tactic and never botch an end-game, then my rating will tell me it's time to start worrying about more complex concepts. But that'll be awhile yet.
Yes. Tonydal did nail it. The 60 books and DVD's is embarrassing when placed in the context of hanging pieces.
The game of golf comes to mind. There were days when I felt like I could have scored just as well without a driver and most of the other clubs in my bag. When you make a snowman, a score of 8 on a hole, well, that can be done by simply using a putter and rolling the ball down the fairway, onto the green and into the cup.
So, what's the name for this common syndrome, and what's the cure?
Back to mobility.
One thing I am finding useful is simply viewing the games of masters on a regular basis. I've been in a rut with 1.d4 on Live Chess, with my dark square bishop getting stuck and having nothing to do. This game has sparked some ideas regarding this piece. I found 13.h3, followed by 14.Bh2 extremely clever. The scope of White's dark squared bishop is tremendous! It's also the final piece moved to secure the win with 50.Bg5.
The cure is to set up a realistic training regimen based on what some of the experts out there have said. Think of chess as less an accumulation of knowledge and more of a training of skills, like an athletic program. You could read all the books in the world about running, but you won't complete a 10k until you get on a treadmill or road and start building yourself up with a daily grind.
The basics of your training regime should be:
1) Tactics! TACTICS! There are two schools of thought. One is that you should be practicing tactics until your eyes bleed, the other is that you should limit it to a bit of time each day (but never miss a day) because an adult brain can only absorb so many new patterns at a time. I prefer the latter, but the former would be okay too.
The key here is pattern recognition. You know how when you first started playing, the very day you learned the rules, you had to stop and think "Okay, the knight moves like this, so he can capture the piece on that square." But now you can just glance at the board and immediately know, because it flashes in your mind without you having to think that out? That's how you have to be with every tactic. The more tactics training you do, the more often your brain will flash "Pinned piece!" or "Removal of the guard!" or "Mating pattern!" at you in the game, not only with what is on the board but with what the board would look like if you made your possible moves. You'll not only see more tactics, but more importantly you'll keep yourself out of them for your opponents.
2) Play a slow game and take your time. Think hard about each key move, not only what you want to do but what your opponent can do in response. Then when it is over, use a higher-rated friend or computer to analyze it, especially if you lost.
3) Annotated master games. I kind of consider these optional until higher ratings, but others would disagree. I do them anyway, but I'm not sure how much I get out of them. If you have a lot of books, you may have some good collections.
The main theme here is that none of us are smart enough to skip the basics, but almost all of us feel like we are when we are starting out. Most of the advice that floats around here (including mine) comes from Dan Heisman, a popular trainer and writer of the Novice Nook columns at his site, danheisman.com.
I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but he's basically said that if you study enough to memorize most of the 2,000 basic tactical motifs by sight, go over a few thousand master games and play enough slow games that you've had 100 moves that you've analyzed for 10 full minutes, you'll be a highly rated chess player threatening to reach at least expert. Unless you just don't have the mind to learn the tactics, that's all just putting in the work over a matter of years. But less than a few percent of his students ever actually do all that work, and those are people paying him serious money to learn chess. We all just want to hear some basic principles that we can apply to our games like "This is how you keep your pieces active."
Back to mobility.
One thing I am finding useful is simply viewing the games of masters on a regular basis. I've been in a rut with 1.d4 on Live Chess, with my dark square bishop getting stuck and having nothing to do. This game has sparked some ideas regarding this piece. I found 13.h3, followed by 14.Bh2 extremely clever. The scope of White's dark squared bishop is tremendous! It's also the final piece moved to secure the win with 50.Bg5.
Loved this game. I am not one for studying chess. I just play. You inspire me to study. Thanks.
The cure is to set up a realistic training regimen based on what some of the experts out there have said. Think of chess as less an accumulation of knowledge and more of a training of skills, like an athletic program. You could read all the books in the world about running, but you won't complete a 10k until you get on a treadmill or road and start building yourself up with a daily grind.
I am beginning to see the light.
The basics of your training regime should be:
1) Tactics! TACTICS! There are two schools of thought. One is that you should be practicing tactics until your eyes bleed, the other is that you should limit it to a bit of time each day (but never miss a day) because an adult brain can only absorb so many new patterns at a time. I prefer the latter, but the former would be okay too.
The key here is pattern recognition. You know how when you first started playing, the very day you learned the rules, you had to stop and think "Okay, the knight moves like this, so he can capture the piece on that square." But now you can just glance at the board and immediately know, because it flashes in your mind without you having to think that out? That's how you have to be with every tactic. The more tactics training you do, the more often your brain will flash "Pinned piece!" or "Removal of the guard!" or "Mating pattern!" at you in the game, not only with what is on the board but with what the board would look like if you made your possible moves. You'll not only see more tactics, but more importantly you'll keep yourself out of them for your opponents.
It has taken a while, but I am just starting to get this flash of recognition.
2) Play a slow game and take your time. Think hard about each key move, not only what you want to do but what your opponent can do in response. Then when it is over, use a higher-rated friend or computer to analyze it, especially if you lost.
I tell my music students all of the time to slow down, play accurately, THEN gradually speed up. The turn based games at this site are helping.
3) Annotated master games. I kind of consider these optional until higher ratings, but others would disagree. I do them anyway, but I'm not sure how much I get out of them. If you have a lot of books, you may have some good collections.
I have far too many annotations of master games.
The main theme here is that none of us are smart enough to skip the basics, but almost all of us feel like we are when we are starting out. Most of the advice that floats around here (including mine) comes from Dan Heisman, a popular trainer and writer of the Novice Nook columns at his site, danheisman.com.
I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but he's basically said that if you study enough to memorize most of the 2,000 basic tactical motifs by sight, go over a few thousand master games and play enough slow games that you've had 100 moves that you've analyzed for 10 full minutes, you'll be a highly rated chess player threatening to reach at least expert.
Yes. It's a lot of work, with no short cuts.
Unless you just don't have the mind to learn the tactics, that's all just putting in the work over a matter of years. But less than a few percent of his students ever actually do all that work, and those are people paying him serious money to learn chess. We all just want to hear some basic principles that we can apply to our games like "This is how you keep your pieces active."
Outstanding post!
I spend money both here and at www.chesstempo.com to practice tactics. Chesstempo is especially good for me because I can log on at work during lunch and do a few tactics, since the site is not blocked by the server. Chess.com is blocked because all gaming sites are blocked.
My stats at www.chesstempo.com.
Rating: 1373.1 (RD: 40.76) (Best Active Rating: 1403 Worst Active Rating: 829)
Active Rank: 5519/7438 (Better than: 25.8% Best Active: 2018 Worst Active: 5816)
Problems Done: 1074 (Correct: 807 Failed: 267)
Percentage correct: 75.14%
Average recent per problem time spent 136 seconds
FIDE Estimated Rating based on standard tactics: 1622
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So, I do practice tactics daily, but not until my eyes bleed.
I agree. There are no shortcuts to chess mastery. I'm a big fan of Dan Heisman's Novice Nook, and I listen to his video lectures over at ICC. Dan gives beginners like myself the tools. We need to take those tools and get out there and exercise them.
Back to mobility.
One thing I am finding useful is simply viewing the games of masters on a regular basis. I've been in a rut with 1.d4 on Live Chess, with my dark square bishop getting stuck and having nothing to do. This game has sparked some ideas regarding this piece. I found 13.h3, followed by 14.Bh2 extremely clever. The scope of White's dark squared bishop is tremendous! It's also the final piece moved to secure the win with 50.Bg5.
Loved this game. I am not one for studying chess. I just play. You inspire me to study. Thanks.
You're welcome.
Estragon post #8 excellent, as I understand what you are saying and it's all true.
Now for Musikamole, Secret to Mobility topic.
Good thing that you look at Master's games.
And what do you look at when replaying a game?
Do you notice in the opening stage?
1. The fluidity in the moves?
2. The coordination of the pieces?
3. The backing up of pieces?
4. The development of minor pieces?
5. The open lines created?
6. The freeing of critical diagonals for bishops?
In a nut shell, try to see more that the move itself, but rather the reason behind it.
And replay any game at least 5 times to find elements that you have missed.
And mostly try to figure out the next move, even after having replayed 5 times by asking what do I need to do here to block, develop, attack, threaten or just to gain or exchange material to get a better position and what move do I need to do to penetrate the enemy fortress if the timing is good, always when enough pieces are participating and are coordinated, never after 7 moves or so.
What did you see in the game you posted in post #16?
You tell me first and I will next compare notes with you.
Perhaps this is an instructional way for both of us to do the evaluation and move selection.
I will not give you necessarily moves to be made when I make my comment, but will attempt to draw the picture or plan.
I also would like anyone that wants to participate to add their comments to your evaluation or assessment of any next move and on both sides if people care to do it.
I will as well add my comments.
This is an amazingly great idea. The chess.com beginning chess players, who I hope are viewing this thread, will learn so much from doing their own annotations of a chess master's game. Brilliant idea!
I'll get it started and pick it up a bit later, as my wife is staring at me to go with her to Target.
BTW - Does anyone have the background on Dmitrij Jakovenko? I've viewed several Queen's Gambit games from the 4.5 million game online ChessBase database. Jakovenko is my new 1.d4 hero. 
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Jakovenko, Dmitrij (2725) vs. Abergel, Thal (2547), 27 Mar. 2010.
Annotation by Musikamole
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 - D35 The Queen's Gambit Declined: Normal Defense.
4.Bg5 - I never considered this move before. After 1.d4, White's dark square bishop is free to develop, unlike in The Colle System, where e2-e3 is played, blocking the development of Bc1.
4...Be7 - Logical. Black breaks the pin so that Nf6 has mobility.
5.e3 - Now White plays e2-e3! I like this move order a lot. Now White's dark square bishop is outside of the pawn chain, while at the same time a diagonal is open for Bf1, defending the c4 square.
6.Rc1! - This is a very clever move. White has solved the problem of the weak e4 square. If Nf6-Ne4-NxNc3 is played, Rc1 is there for the recapture.
6...b6 - Black prepares to fianchetto his bishop to the longest diagonal on the board, a8-h1.
7.cxd5! I really like this move. White did not wait for Black to play dxc5, with the need to then play Bxc5. It keeps White's options open regarding his light square bishop. Better yet, White improves his rook by creating a semi-open c-file. That pawn move did a lot.
8.Bd3 - The Colle Bishop! ;) It's a thing of beauty, with good scope on two diagonals, and especially effective, hitting one of Black's castled pawns at h7. Great stuff.
I would go for a long pawn chain, running aslong the c2-f5 diagonal. There is something to be said about an all out pawn line/pawn assault, however, you lose tempo when it comes to minor piece development. The question then becomes, can you afford the tempo loss. This is an interesting question.
I would go for a long pawn chain, running aslong the c2-f5 diagonal. There is something to be said about an all out pawn line/pawn assault, however, you lose tempo when it comes to minor piece development. The question then becomes, can you afford the tempo loss. This is an interesting question.
I had a heck of a time getting Fritz to cooperate with your idea. The positional evaluation is equal. Where would you place the pieces with this long pawn chain? White's light square bishop would be best placed outside of the pawn chain. It was a fun little exercise. Thank you.
Piece mobility must be a closely guarded secret.
Chess authors either want to keep it a secret, or don't teach it right. I just can't be that dumb.
I have over 60 books and several DVD's on chess and have yet to discover the secret.
What is the secret to keeping your pieces active, mobile, free to move from square to square unhindered?
Should I try advancing pawns a through h two squares in the opening to give my pieces more space to move about?
Should I just sacrifice all eight of my pawns so that my pieces can move without getting blocked?
Pawns are frustrating!
I watch IM's and GM's in real time play chess over at ICC, and all of their pieces float effortlessly over the chessboard, like the dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. My pieces behave like they have two left feet!