Theme of the day is all about being careful where to place your pieces.
Why do we loose games?
We don’t pay enough attention to those dangerous squares that we move pieces on to!
For this posting, I’m calling them Landmines and Ticking Bombs.
What are landmines?
Squares which are protected and explosive to tread on, other words losing a piece for free!
The Queen is eyeing up to take the pawn on e3 with check, but doesn’t notice it’s sat on a Landmine (it’s protected by the Rook) and blindly takes the pawn – Q x p check!
BOOM! – Rook x e3 and the Queen is gone.
Unprotected Squares
These can be equally dangerous, putting a piece on an unprotected square can result in an attack which may lose you a piece, so think twice before doing this.
A Ticking Bomb indicates a dangerous square to sit on, either it’s unprotected or has too many attackers v defenders.
Look at this example:-
White’s Knight sits happily on c4 but is not protected – it’s sitting on a time bomb – if Black attacks it with Bishop to a6 for example, White must take action by either protecting the Knight or moving it.
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The Art of Exchanges
It’s very important that before you exchange pieces you count how many pieces attack and how many defend, if in your favour, work out which sequence is best, usually start with the lower value pieces first and work up to the highest last.
Three examples of the same position, showing different ways to exchange pieces and the what the outcomes are.
Example 1 – Taking with the lowest value pieces first – Bishop v Knight
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Example 2 - Using the Rooks before the Bishop - Rook v Knight
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Example 3 - Black making the mistake of using the highest value piece first - Queen v Bishop