24
votes
Accepted
Why is it better to take with the knight than with the pawn in this position?
Why is it better to take with the knight rather than the pawn in this position?
Taking with the pawn is bad for the pawn, the knight and the bishop while taking with the knight is good for all those ...
6
votes
How to come up with candidate moves or ideas in positions "with no action"?
In the long-run, the ideal solution is to improve your positional intuition, such that candidate moves almost come "automatically" to you. They simply seem natural. However, right now what ...
6
votes
Accepted
The case of the mysterious retreating bishop
I think this has to do with central pawn play, in particular white's e-pawn and black's c-pawn.
White's pawn on e5 is very valuable, and must be protected, and c5 is black's only good pawn break to ...
5
votes
Accepted
How strong is Stockfish's positional understanding without AB search?
Without searching we can get the nnue score for each legal move from a given position.
Stockfish has an eval command to return the static evaluation of the position. It can be classical, nnue and ...
4
votes
Accepted
Nimzowitsch and the defensive theory of open lines
To understand this strategem, I advise you to study the other "hypermoderns", especially Reti and Breyer who popularized fianchetto. There is even a "model" game by Reti, who lets ...
4
votes
Ponziani 5.. Nce7?! why is this a blunder?
Per Stockfish
After 4... Qd7 White is already up by about 0.68. 5. ed5 is a mistake, going back to equality, better was Bb5, pinning. But then, after 5...Ne7, White is up by about 2 pawns. Then after ...
4
votes
Accepted
How to come up with candidate moves or ideas in positions "with no action"?
For positionnal play, don't start thinking about moves, start from the position evaluation.
There are many ways to evaluate a position, one suggestion is to look sequentially at:
material
king ...
3
votes
What's the positional threat in this opening of the London?
Bishop pair
When White plays Nxg4 he gets the bishop pair. While it doesn't translate into an immediate breakthrough, this is a valuable positionnal plus that will be felt later on, when the game ...
2
votes
Trying to improve
When you are working on your chess you should focus on:
improving your strengths
improving you weaknesses
As you told us tactics is your strength. That is great! Get yourself a copy of any good ...
2
votes
Accepted
Trying to improve
From what I see, you tend to play very aggressive and unsafe openings as white and on the other hand you like playing more solid and positional opening as black. Also you say that you like tactics and ...
2
votes
Accepted
Ponziani 5.. Nce7?! why is this a blunder?
Apart from Peter's Answer, I also found some troubling points of Black's position.
The main problem is the lack of development. After 6. Bb5 c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Be2 (Bc4 is also acceptable), White can ...
1
vote
What openings fit the tastes of a positional player?
You can go with ruy lopez with white and sicillian defence caro-kann for black, these openings have a positional taste in them, in the opening phase your main objective is to prepare your pieces for ...
1
vote
Best move in algebraic notation
1. Nxf8?! Qxg4+ 2. Kh1 Qe4+ is winning for White. But 1. Qxf8+ Bxf8 2. Rxf8# is undeniably better.
[Title "White to Move"]
[FEN "5rk1/1p1q2bp/p2pN1p1/2pP2Bn/2P3P1/1P6/P4QKP/5R2 w - - 0 ...
1
vote
Is this position winnable for white if black just shuffles?
White has a few ways to win if Black shuffles. Sac on e5 example:
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/p7/Pp1p1p1p/1PpPpPpP/2P1P1P1/8/8/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
1.Nf3 Rh7 2.Bg2 Rh8 3.Nbd2 Rh7 4.Nf1 Rh8 5.Ng3 Rh7 ...
1
vote
Accepted
Is this position winnable for white if black just shuffles?
By shuffling black rook between h7 and h8 white can make it to this setup (or probably something similar) focusing forces on g5, and it seems Stockfish likes white's position (SF-16 +1.18 at ply 18) ...
1
vote
Trying to improve
This is not complicated. Just study tactics, tactics, tactics. I recommend the book Woodpecker Method, but there are others. If you can do that whole book in a short amount of time, you will whiz to ...
1
vote
Trying to improve
I would give two pieces of advice.
First:
I get quite impatient so I start taking a lot of risks (rook for bishop/knight sacrifice for some imbalance, sometimes brilliant move, sometimes blunder :D) ...
1
vote
Any engine that can play like Petrosian?
Avataruci.org has an interesting way to mimic your own style. You can get all of your games in one pgn and upload it, get a weight file and run the with their engine. It will try to imitate your style....
1
vote
What color squares should pawns be on with one bishop left?
Well, it may be irrelevant to answer an 11-year-old question, but there's still a thing not mentioned in previous answers.
In an opposite-colored bishop endgame (i.e. when both you and your opponent ...
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