The Ideal Square In Chess

In his book; Guide to Good Chess: First Steps to Fine Points (Purdy Series), J.S. Purdy offers four points for placing a piece on it’s “ideal square” in the opening:

1.The piece can go there in one move. Quick development is important. The first object of development is to clear your back line in as few moves as possible so you can get your rooks active. “The absurdity of these huge pieces locked away in corners never seems to strike the average player.”

2.The piece will be effectively posted there. “Effectively” initially means the piece will be bearing on the center, directly or indirectly.

3.The piece will not suffer from exposure. The most common exposure is moving your queen out too early. Generally move the queen only one square, to free the rooks. Generally, move the rooks to open files, or files likely to be opened, but keep them on the back rank in the opening.

4.The piece will not unduly obstruct any of its own forces. The most common example of this is playing d3 (…d6) before developing the f bishop and to avoid playing e3 (…e6) before developing the c bishop. It is usually wise to reserve c3 and f3 for the knights.

Purdy says that #3 is the most important. Exposed pieces on the chessboard allow the other side to attack those pieces while developing his own. Moves are used up protecting and retreating the exposed piece.

Here is an example of the third point in relation to the queen:

White Black
1. e4 e5
2. Qh5 … This is in violation of point 3. It is played by beginners, who envision a fast attack. They envision 2.g6 and the fork Qxe5+, winning a rook; and so they begin this attack on f7.
3. … Nc3 This is the antidote. Black secures e5.



4. Bc4 … Persisting in the attack on f7.
4. … g6 Now this move is effective, the Queen cannot take e5.



5. Qf3 … Still persisting on an “attack” on f7, White occupies f3 with his queen, denying the square to his knight!. He is now violating point four.
5. … Nf6 Blocking the Queen, developing a piece, preparing for castling, attacking e4 and supporting d5.



In five moves, Black has taken over. He has the initiative and a better position on the chessboard.

In this position, White cannot develop the Kings Knight to it’s best square (f3) without using an extra tempo. His center is under attack. Black is developing in accordance with points 1 and 2. Here we see White occupying the wrong square with his queen. Meanwhile, Black is occupying the ideal squares with his pieces.

Players encounter difficulties when they play randomly in the opening. The chess opening determines the later game, you don’t want to go into the middle or end game in poor positions. The problem is compounded when inexperienced players ‘try’ new chess openings.
They begin building a bad habit of never playing an opening often enough to fully understand it. Ideally, a player should play only one opening for a consecutive hundred games or so. In that time that player will learn many things, including:
1.What middle game and end games does this opening lead to? Are they satisfactory for me?
2.What is the defense played most often against this opening. Is this satisfactory, or should I avoid it?
3.What ‘chess traps’ exist in this chess opening? Are they favorable to me?
4.How difficult is it to learn all of the lines I may play against using this chess opening?
5.Can this chess opening be easily thwarted? If it is thwarted can I, or need I transform?

When playing the chosen opening with the White pieces, It will take many chess games in order to grasp the flow of the game. First, a player should not try an opening with the thought of ‘winning’ with it! Remember, you are learning and you will make errors. The number of errors you make is unimportant. What is important is MAKING EACH ERROR ONLY ONCE! Learn from your mistakes. In time, you will be familiar with every error that could be made, and you will no longer make them. You will be on your way to becoming expert in that opening. To find your glaring errors, simply analyze each game you lose. To find smaller errors, get someone to analyze the game for you!

I suggest picking only one chess opening to play with White. Observe the chessboard closely on every move of that opening, the chess opening is like a puppy; it will do strange things from time to time – but you must accept ownership of it.

The problem will be handling all of the most probable defenses. As you play your opening, you will encounter and learn them all. FIND THE ONE THAT GIVES YOU THE MOST TROUBLE AND STUDY IT! Make this opening the first opening you play with Black, and play it with black at every opportunity. You may see ways of improving your game with White when you play against it, and you will have a synergistic situation.

As an example, if you chose 1. e4 because you enjoy tactical play, (and there are fewer difficult lines than with d4/Nc3/c4;) you will need to know how to play against a number of different responses. At first, you need only look at two major responses (which you may find in 80% of your games! They are e5 and c5. There are many good chess openings you can play after 1. e4 e5, so you should pick an objective: Perhaps the Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game), or the Giuoco Piano, or a gambit.

However, after 1. e4 c5 you will face the Sicilian Defense. You must have a plan for that contingency. I chose the Morra Gambit because it avoided all of the deep analysis of other lines, and it gave me the open, tactical game I enjoyed.

The defense that gave me the most difficulty when I began was the Berlin Defense. I made the Berlin my Black defense against e4. (If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em). As I played it my White game improved, as I played the Ruy against the Berlin, my black game improved. The Berlin can transform into the Two Knights in some cases. Since the Two Knights is a very effective defense against the Giuoco, I took this as my second defense against e4.

This is the way a successful repertoire is built, not by trying out the latest fads, but by persisting in improving your existing opening. You can be a jack of all and master of none, or you can be an expert at the few you will need. I always recommend that a player firm his white opening before looking at any black opening. Here on Chessmaniac, you can look for regular games where you only play white. Later, when your white opening is such that you can keep the most favorable lines for more than five moves, you can just play Black for a while with your chosen Black opening. In all, your starting repertoire should consist of one white opening and two black openings, one against e4 and one against d4/c4/Nf3.

My repertoire began with only three openings, one playing white and two playing black. I recommend the method.

Persistence is the great conqueror. At first, you learn the opening for five to eight moves in all major variations, then you begin to learn deeper. I can go ten to fifteen moves with familiarity in my openings. A Master may go twenty or more moves with familiarity of all variations and deviations to that point. I cannot do it with EVERY opening! Only with MY openings. Don’t play a different chess opening just because Anand wins with it. You are NOT Anand! He doesn’t win because he has a superior opening. He wins because he is Anand.

Case in point: Bogolyubov famously said: “I win with White because I am White. I win with Black because I am Bogolyubov!”

Your confidence will increase as you win with YOUR opening. Do not be discouraged by your early losses when trying your opening. Losses are normal with unfamiliar material. Your winning percentage will increase as the depth of knowledge of your opening increases. There is a natural tendency to abandon an opening because of poor results; the poor results are not because of the opening, they are because of habits that you have that you must overcome. Do you think that great bowlers kept changing lanes in order to score better? Do you think that they kept changing balls? Or, do you think they threw their share of gutter balls at first, and gradually picked up some spares and strikes as they built their habits. It is practice that builds skill. You can master nothing without practice. Babe Ruth struck out more than 3000 times, but he never stopped swinging.

In general, I have learned these things about openings:

1.It is best to get a pawn into the center in order to begin control of the center and to open lines by providing one of the bishops and the queen good lines on which to come into play.

2.A second pawn will need to be moved somewhere in the opening, in order to get the second bishop into play, but it can usually wait until the knights are developed. Avoid too many pawn moves; pawn move effect future positions.

3.The knights usually belong on f3/f6 and c3/c6. If you develop the protecting knight, or attacking knight when a pawn is in the center, you may save tempo. Keep the knights off the edge of the board; “a knight on the rim is dim.”

4.The first three pieces developed are normally the knights and the king’s bishop.

5.Remember that once a pawn is moved, it cannot go back. The pawns are initially needed for protection of the planned kings position, for preparing to control the center, and for clearing lines for the line-going pieces (particularly the rooks.) Also consider their positioning for an endgame. It’s easy for a pawn to be moved to a bad square, one that hurts your position.

6.In the opening, rooks remain on the rear rank. It is important to connect them by getting the other pieces out of their way. The rooks will go to an open file, so be patient until you know which files are likely to open; you want to avoid moving a rook twice to get it on the right file.

7.In general, the queen should only be developed to the second rank in the opening. Taking her downfield too soon can result in losses of tempo and sometimes material. e2 and c2 are the squares that are normally friendly to the queen and give her some range.

8.When you select an opening, note which pieces are important to the position that will be reached, and what the pawn structure should look like.

9.Every tactical opportunity should be considered in light of the value of the pieces in that opening. As you gain experience in an opening you will see the traps and the combinations that come from the positioning of pieces and pawns.

10.The greatest value in knowing the opening better than the opponent is that your opponent may trade a valuable piece that he will need later for attack or defense. You will not make that mistake. He may place a pawn in a position that hinders his later play. You will not make that mistake, either.

11.I think of the beginning of the middle game as the real opening. I see the opening as an opportunity to position pawns and pieces for a strong tactical middle game. When you know your opening really well, you can visualize the position that will transit to the middle game.

12.You may still be in your opening when your opponent gets into his middle game. You are out of the opening when a deviation from your known lines occurs. At first, this can happen on the second , third, or fourth move! As you learn the opening through the eighth move in all variations, your opponent may run out of opening on the fourth move and must now begin a middle game. Obviously, it is better to know what is happening than to it is to wonder what is happening. REMEMBER: When you do not know the next move in an opening, you are then in the middle game!

13.When you know your opening, you will expect certain moves by your opponent. When the opponent deviates from your expectation, you must pause and see if it is a solid line or if he has made an error. Even a slight mispositioning can create later difficulties. A deviation from expectation is an alarm! Take time considering your response. Most deviations in the opening result in inaccurate positioning.

14.Keep in mind that there are three elements in the opening, as in the body of the game: Material Force, Time (tempo), and Space. Do not give up any part of these three without good compensation.

Here is an illustrative example of a middle game position reached from a given opening. Examine the Force, the Time, and the Space of the two sides. These were gained or relinquished in the opening. This is a Morphy variation of the Ruy Lopez. Here is the position after White’s sixteenth move:



Do you think that both players are happy with their positions?
Do you feel that White is comfortable and may have foreseen this position?
Do you feel that Black is comfortable and may have foreseen this middlegame position?
Material is almost even, White has an extra pawn.
White has more space. His pawns do not block his bishop and there are holes in blacks pawn structure that will allow white’s bishop great mobility.
The Black bishop is restricted by the White pawns and the black piece placement.
There is only one open file, and Black has a rook at the base. Whites rooks can more easily bring their combined force onto a single file.

Here is the rest of the game, if you have an interest. The middle game is very short. So is the endgame.:

16. … Nd7 Heading to e5?
17. Bg5 … Attacking the Black rook on d8, who is a virtual prisoner of his own pieces, he has less space than any of his pawns. His value would be negligible, if the file were not so important.
17 … Nf6 Back to his previous square, entering a self-pin in order to block the bishops’ diagonal.
18. c4 h6
19. Bd2 Nd7 The knight movement has created tempo for White, who already has the initiative, the space and the force advantages.
20. Bc3 Ne5 At last, the knight reaches his desired square.
21. Red1 Nxd3 Certainly Black needs to reduce the power directed at his position. Ideally, the knight would rather be traded for White’s bishop; but the bishop is too mobile to be caught by the knight.
22. Rxd3 g6
23. Rad1 … White wants to control the square d5, with a subsequent breakthrough.
23 … Kc7 Holding d6
24. c5 Black resigns.

Here we could see the good bishop vs. the bad bishop, the pawn structure resulting from this opening, black’s lack of space, and his gifts of tempo.

Invest now in your game. Choose a single white opening and play it every time! Analyze each of your losses to see where you can improve the next time you face that position. Once you know your white opening for five or more moves in every major variation, you can start on your two black defenses. You can keep your repertoire short while improving your game dramatically.

Choose your openings carefully, you want an opening you can continue to play with for a long time. Good Chessing! Al

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