21 Positional Chess Concepts
Summary
TLDRThis video script offers 21 crucial positional chess concepts to enhance a player's game. Starting with fundamental principles like avoiding bad bishops and targeting isolated pawns, it progresses to intermediate strategies such as utilizing open files with rooks and trading pieces advantageously. Advanced ideas include creating protected passed pawns and exploiting weak color complexes. The script emphasizes patience, strategic piece placement, and understanding pawn structures to gain a positional edge, concluding with a call to action for viewers to engage with the content.
Takeaways
- 🏰 Avoid creating 'bad bishops' by not restricting their movement with your own pawns.
- 👑 Isolated pawns are vulnerable targets as they lack support from adjacent pawns.
- 👥 Double isolated pawns are even weaker because they can't move without exposing themselves to capture.
- 🚀 Rooks are powerful on open files, providing flexibility in attack and defense.
- 🏹 Do not trade a valuable bishop for a less impactful knight.
- 🐎 A strong knight on an outpost can be a formidable asset, sometimes even surpassing the value of a rook.
- 🔄 Look for opportunities to exchange your less effective pieces for your opponent's stronger ones.
- 🛑 Be cautious when moving pawns forward as it creates irreversible weaknesses.
- 🔝 Place rooks on the seventh or second rank to exert pressure and control key areas of the board.
- 🏁 A single pawn can effectively blockade the advancement of multiple opponent pawns.
Q & A
What are the top 21 positional chess concepts mentioned in the video?
-The video outlines 21 key concepts to improve at positional chess, starting from basic principles to intermediate and advanced strategies. These include avoiding bad bishops, targeting isolated pawns, controlling open files with rooks, and many more.
What is a bad bishop in chess?
-A bad bishop is one that is stuck behind your own pawn structure, limiting its mobility and options for making effective moves.
Why are isolated pawns considered good targets in chess?
-Isolated pawns do not have adjacent pawns to support them, making them vulnerable to attacks and less able to be defended effectively.
How can controlling open files benefit a player?
-Controlling open files allows rooks to have more mobility and attacking options, which can lead to creating threats and gaining positional advantages.
Why should you avoid trading a good bishop for a bad knight?
-Exchanging a powerful, centrally controlling bishop for a less active knight would diminish your control over the board and potentially leave you with a weaker position.
What is the significance of the seventh and second ranks in relation to rooks?
-Placing rooks on the seventh or second rank can be very advantageous as it allows them to exert pressure on the opponent's position, particularly affecting the back rank and potentially threatening the opponent's king.
How can a pawn stopping two opponent's pawns be beneficial?
-By stopping two opponent's pawns with a single pawn, you can immobilize them, preventing them from creating threats or supporting other pieces.
What is the strategy behind blockade and attacking backward pawns?
-Blockading a backward pawn restricts its movement, and then preparing to attack it can lead to winning material, as the pawn is isolated and harder to defend.
Why are protected passed pawns advantageous in endgames?
-Protected passed pawns are pawns that are not easily stopped from queening due to lack of opposing pawns and are defended, making them very hard for the opponent to capture without significant material investment.
How can creating a battery help against an opponent's fianchettoed bishop?
-Creating a battery with a queen and bishop can allow you to trade off the annoying fianchettoed bishop, removing its influence from the game and potentially creating weaknesses in your opponent's position.
What is the concept of baiting your opponent into moving pawns forward?
-Baiting involves enticing your opponent to move their pawns forward, which can create weaknesses in their position that you can exploit, especially if it limits their piece development.
How can a knight on an outpost be as valuable as a rook?
-A knight on an outpost can control key squares and restrict the opponent's piece activity so effectively that its influence might outweigh that of a rook.
Why might sacrificing a rook to eliminate a strong knight be a good move?
-If a knight is causing significant disruption to your position, sacrificing a rook to eliminate it might free up your position and allow your other pieces to become more active.
What is the minority attack in chess?
-The minority attack is a strategy where you push your pawns against an opponent's stronger pawn chain to create weaknesses and targets, even if you have fewer pawns on that side of the board.
What is a weak color complex in chess?
-A weak color complex refers to a collection of weaknesses on squares of one color, often resulting from pawn structure or piece placement that leaves certain squares poorly defended.
How can blockades hinder an opponent's development?
-Blockades can prevent an opponent's pawns from moving, which in turn restricts the development of their pieces, particularly if the blockaded pawn is on a central file or near the opponent's back rank.
What bonus tip is given for improving at positional chess?
-The bonus tip is to engage with the video content, such as liking the video, to reinforce what you've learned and to help the content reach a wider audience.
Outlines
🏰 Basic Principles of Positional Chess
The paragraph introduces the concept of positional chess and lists the top 21 principles that the speaker has gathered from over 30 years of experience. It emphasizes the importance of understanding these principles, starting from basic to intermediate and advanced levels. The speaker advises not to skip any of these principles as they are all crucial. The first principle discussed is to avoid creating bad bishops, which are bishops stuck behind one's own pawns, limiting their mobility. The speaker suggests better piece placement to avoid this. The second principle is targeting isolated pawns, which have no adjacent pawns for support, making them vulnerable. The third principle extends this idea to double isolated pawns, which are even weaker. The fourth principle is about rooks controlling open files to maximize their potential for attack and defense.
🛡️ Avoiding Piece Trade Mistakes
This section discusses the importance of not trading valuable pieces for less valuable ones. It advises against trading a good bishop for a bad knight, as the bishop often controls key central squares and is well-protected. Similarly, one should not trade a good knight for a bad bishop. The speaker also suggests looking for opportunities to trade one's bad pieces for the opponent's good pieces to gain an advantage. The paragraph also touches on the importance of being cautious when moving pawns forward, as pawns cannot move backward and doing so can create lasting weaknesses in one's position.
👑 Advanced Positional Strategies
The paragraph delves into more advanced strategies, such as placing rooks on the seventh or second rank to exert pressure on the opponent. It also discusses how a single pawn can stop the advancement of two opponent's pawns, which can be a powerful strategic move. The speaker then talks about blocking backward pawns and preparing to attack them, using the Sicilian Defense as an example. The concept of creating protected passed pawns is introduced as a strong endgame strategy. The paragraph also explains how to deal with annoying bishops by creating a battery with the queen and another bishop to trade off the opponent's piece.
🔄 Baiting and Piece Maneuvering
Here, the speaker explains how to bait opponents into making pawn moves that create weaknesses. Using the Alekhine Defense as an example, the paragraph shows how to lure pawns forward and then exploit the resulting vulnerabilities. The speaker also discusses the value of a well-placed knight on an outpost, which can be as powerful as a rook. Conversely, it mentions that sometimes it's better to sacrifice a rook to remove such a strong knight. The paragraph also advises on the general strategy of placing pawns on the opposite color of one's bishops to maximize their effectiveness and protect them from enemy knights.
🌟 Special Endgame Strategies and Minority Attack
The final paragraph focuses on endgame strategies, such as using a pawn to defend a bishop of the same color, creating a weak color complex by trading bishops, and exploiting the weaknesses that result. It also introduces the concept of blockades to hinder the opponent's development and the minority attack, which involves pushing pawns forward to create weaknesses in the opponent's position. The speaker provides an example from the Queen's Gambit to illustrate how a minority attack can be executed effectively. The paragraph concludes with a bonus tip to engage with the video content to reinforce learning.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Positional Chess
💡Bad Bishop
💡Isolated Pawns
💡Open Files
💡Outpost
💡Protected Pass Pawn
💡Battery
💡Fianchetto
💡Weak Color Complex
💡Minority Attack
💡Blockade
Highlights
Avoid bad bishops stuck behind your own pawns.
Isolated pawns make good targets as they lack support from adjacent pawns.
Double isolated pawns are even weaker because they can't move or be defended.
Rooks are powerful on open files, providing various attacking and defending options.
Don't trade a valuable bishop for a less useful knight.
Similarly, avoid trading a strong knight for a weak bishop.
Seek opportunities to trade your less effective pieces for your opponent's stronger ones.
Be cautious when moving pawns forward as it creates irreversible weaknesses.
Rooks are particularly effective on the seventh or second rank, attacking enemy pawns.
A single pawn can sometimes halt the progress of two opposing pawns.
Blockading a backward pawn is a strategic move to limit your opponent's options.
Creating protected passed pawns can be a decisive advantage, especially in endgames.
Trade off a fianchetto bishop by setting up a battery with your queen and bishop.
Encourage your opponent to advance pawns, creating weaknesses in their position.
A well-placed knight on an outpost can be as valuable as a rook.
Sometimes sacrificing a rook to eliminate a powerful knight is strategically beneficial.
Generally, position your pawns on the opposite color of your bishops for maximum effectiveness.
In endgames, consider placing your bishop on the same color as your pawn for mutual protection.
Weaknesses on a specific color square, known as weak color complex, can be exploited.
Blockading opponent's pawns can hinder their development and create positional advantages.
Minority attack involves pushing pawns to create weaknesses in the opponent's pawn structure.
Engage with the video by liking it to support the channel and help more people learn about positional chess.
Transcripts
one of the most common questions that i
get asked on my channel is how do you
get better at positional chess on this
video i'm going to give you the top 21
positional chess concepts that you need
to understand these are things that i
have gathered from over 30 years of
playing chess and i'm putting them all
together in one video just for you guys
they're gonna start off with the basic
positional principles and we're gonna
get to some more intermediate and
advanced ones as the video goes on
there's gonna be timestamps in the
description below so feel free to jump
around if you need to although i highly
recommend that you don't skip any of
these because they are all extremely
important let's jump right in
the first positional concept is that you
want to avoid bad bishops and chess a
bad bishop is a bishop that's stuck
behind
your own pawn so in this position if i
were to play the move d3 i've created
what's called a bad bishop this bishop
now has only one legal move doesn't have
a lot of good options a much better idea
would be to play bishop to c4 and then
play d3 because now my bishop has lots
of options and it's a good bishop not a
bad bishop so avoid bad bishops the
second positional concept is that
isolated pawns can be very good targets
an isolated pawn is a pawn that has no
pawns on the adjacent file so this is an
isolated pawn this is an isolated pawn
this is an isolated pawn and these are
called double isolated pawns they're
very good targets because they can't be
protected by another pawn this pawn is
well defended by this one if this one
gets attacked you can move it here and
now it's defended by this one and you
can see how they can really help each
other isolated pawns cannot do that so
they make very good targets the third
principle is very similar but double
isolated pawns like this when they're
two pawns on the same file are even
better targets because not only can this
pawn for example not be defended it also
can't even move because it's being
blocked by its own pawn so they're even
worse and that can be a very good
strategy not just in an end game like
this but even during the middle game if
you see double isolated pawns or
isolated pawns you can probably try to
attack those and they're going to be
very weak the next principle is that
rooks should strive to control open
files you see in this position white is
controlling this e file black is
controlling this d file the reason
controlling open files is so good is
because it gives your rook all sorts of
options we can come down here on the
seventh rank if we want we can come over
here and try to come over here to attack
maybe some of these pawns
lots of options black can also do the
same thing go to wherever they want to
go so whoever controls the open file
usually has the advantage this is
particularly true in end games and this
is what you want to be paying attention
to with your rooks the next principle is
that you should never trade one of your
good bishops for your opponent's bad
nights in this example this is a very
strong bishop it's being kettled and
it's controlling a lot of these
important central squares it's also very
nicely hidden behind the pawns and can't
really be harassed if you were to trade
that bishop for this night that would be
a crucial mistake not only are you
losing your very powerful bishop which
was controlling so many squares you're
taking it for black snipe which wasn't
really doing a whole lot and
additionally you've now
have blacks annoying bishop that you
really have no way to deal with because
you've gotten rid of your bishop that
was controlling that diagonal so don't
trade a good bishop like this for a bad
knight that's not really doing a lot the
next principle is very similar but it's
kind of the opposite of that never trade
a good night for a bad bishop in this
case our knight on d6 is extremely
strong it is an outpost so it's defended
by these pawns it can't be attacked by
any of black's pawns because they've
already been moved forward and if we
were to trade this knight for this
bishop that would be a terrible mistake
our knight is doing so much and black's
bishop is hardly doing anything so do
not make a move like this or you're just
handing the advantage back to your
opponent
always want to keep those really strong
nights don't trade them off and while
we're talking about trading the next
principle is that you should always look
to trade your bad pieces for your
opponent's good pieces in this position
black's knight on d4 is very strong it's
well defended we can't harass it with
our pawns because they've already been
moved forward and it's controlling a lot
of squares on our side of the board we
also have this knight here though that's
not really doing a whole lot it's on the
back rank it's kind of not very good so
if we could trade those two pieces off
guess who that's going to benefit it's
going to benefit us of course so if we
move knight to c2 and then take the
knight or even knight to f3 and then
take the knight in a knight f3 we could
get pinned so that's probably not the
move i would play but knight c2 looks
like a really good move traded off and
we have successfully traded our bad
night for black's good night that's the
kind of opportunities that you want to
look for throughout the game the next
principle is you want to be careful
moving your pawns forward why do we care
about moving pawns forward because they
cannot move backwards so if you ever
played against somebody who when they
start the game they just kind of throw
their pawns forward
and they just keep moving pawns forward
and they just kind of keep pushing them
forward they don't really care what
they're doing every time you move a pawn
forward you create some weaknesses so in
this position these holes for example
now the knight can just hop in there
over here same thing knights can hop in
bishops can hop in the queen can hop in
and you are never going to be able to
control
those squares
with a pawn because you've any pawn that
could potentially control these squares
you've already moved forward right see
that and so you create weaknesses that
you cannot fix when you move pawns
forward in chess so be very careful
moving pawns forward make sure you have
a really good reason to do it all right
the next principle is that rooks are
very good on the seventh or the second
rank so if you're playing as white the
seventh rank is here if you're playing
as black the second rank would be here
and if you can get your rooks there it's
very very very good for you most of the
time so if i'm playing his whiteness
position i'm gonna play rook to d7
i'm immediately attacking this pawn
let's say black tries to defend the next
thing that i'm probably going to do is
play rogue here and my goal is to be to
get both rooks here so we'll say black
plays h6 i come down here and now look
at how strong this is i'm attacking this
pawn so these pieces are basically tied
if they want to defend it i'm also
attacking this pawn
which is only defended once if black
let's say moves it well then i'm taking
this i still have the pressure here i
have the option to go here to go here i
can basically do whatever i want because
i've got my rooks in such a good
position on the seventh rank so always
look out for that and again if you're
black
look to get them on the second rank all
right the next positional idea is that
sometimes one pawn can actually stop two
of your opponent's pawns so in this
position white has an extra pawn here we
got four against three but on the other
side black has two against one and so if
it's my move as white i'm going to play
the move a5 and the reason this is such
a good move is because i'm stopping this
pawn from moving and i'm also stopping
this bomb from moving because if it
tries to move here i'm just going to
take it and if it tries to move here i'm
also going to take it with on pissant
and go get a queen so this one little
pawn
is stopping both of these pawns from
moving that's really good because if i
did something else like random king move
now black can play b5 takes takes and
guess what i have to bring my king over
to stop this pawn i have to otherwise
it's just gonna get a queen but when i
do that what do you think black's king
is gonna do probably come here forward
push these pawns and start taking my
pawns over here and i'm probably going
to lose the game
so crucial to remember that sometimes
you can just use one of your pawns and
stop two of your opponent's pawns taking
advantage of the fact that on passant is
a move that you can you can play so keep
that in mind all right the next
principle is that you want to blockade
backward pawns and then prepare to
attack them so this is an example of the
bishop b5 sicilian this is fairly common
where black plays the move e5 to kind of
chase away the queen but by playing e5
they create what's called a backward
pawn as a reminder a backward pawn is
when the pawns on the side of it have
already moved forward far enough that
they can no longer help support that
pawn okay so this pawn is gone
and then this pawn is advanced to where
this guy basically has no help so
whenever you have a backward pawn
usually the first step is to blockade it
so we already have it somewhat blockaded
with a queen and a pawn but you know a
couple other options would be play
knight c3 and then knight to d5 to put
the knight in there as a blockader you
could also play the move c4 first and
really solidify it as a target and once
you've done that
then your goal can shift to okay now
we've blockaded it it's not going to go
anywhere it's not going to move and get
away now we can start figuring out how
to attack it so
you know uh bringing the rook over is
probably how i would start
um you know you could follow up with
maybe b3 and then bring the bishop over
here to line up on it you could even at
some point consider maneuvering a knight
around so if i can maybe get my knight
on f5 at some point in the future
even
this and get three pieces lined up and
eventually you're probably gonna have
enough pieces that you can win the pawn
and it's it's a relatively easy way to
win a pawn if you just take your time be
patient blockade it and then attack it
all right the next idea and this is
super important especially at endgames
but try to create protected past pawns
whenever you can so in this position
it's our move we could just trade this
pawn off takes takes and then we have
pretty even position here you know we
gotta the kings are probably gonna try
to come up and who knows what's gonna
happen but a better option for us is to
play the move a5 and what we have done
is created this little guy over here
which is called a protected pass pawn so
it's a pass pawn because there's no
opponent's pawns that can stop it from
becoming a queen and it's protected
because it's got a pawn over here that's
protecting it
really really good because now black's
king is forced to come this way and by
the way the king actually can't catch it
because you can make this little
box here and the king
is not going to be able to enter the box
but let's just say you know we'll waste
a move here we'll give black
an extra move now the king can stop it
but even so
the king is basically stuck guarding
this pawn and our king can run over here
and do whatever we like probably just
gobble up all these pawns and if black
ever tries to come over here and and you
know stop us well then we're like okay
i'll go get a queen so protected past
pawns extremely good especially at the
end of the game now it is important that
it's protected because if it's not
protected and you try to do that well
then
you know your opponent's probably just
going to run the king over and take your
pawn and then you have to deal with a
pawn or something so it's important that
it's protected but that's really really
important okay the next idea you want to
keep in mind is that you can trade off a
fianchetto bishop by creating your own
battery say what nelson what does that
even mean so
here's an example of the perk defense
and this is where black usually will fee
and kettle their bishop on g7 over here
and this can be a very annoying bishop
if you've ever played against an opening
like this or against like the king's
indian defense this bishop once he gets
active later in the game can basically
win the game for for your opponent right
if you make a mistake or if they do some
clever things that bishop is just so
annoying so a very easy thing you can do
is create a battery with your queen and
bishop so you put your bishop on e3 you
put your queen on d2 and you've created
this battery and then all you have to do
is bring the bishop down here
and take their bishop and you just trade
off the bishop and you don't have to
worry about that anymore and if they try
to go back here usually the rook is
there you take the rook so that's not
really an option if they take you you
take them it's pretty straightforward
and once that's gone you no longer have
to worry about that also
their king is usually over there and now
they have weaknesses along those dark
squares because that bishop is gone so
this is a really simple and easy thing
to do to get rid of that annoying bishop
so keep that in mind alright the next
idea is that sometimes you can bait your
opponent into moving pawns forward which
then creates weaknesses in their
position a really good example of this
is the opening called the alakins
defense so white plays e4 and we can
play the move knight f6 so we're
attacking this pawn we're kind of
baiting them to move forward and then we
can hop over to d5 and now a lot of
players will play like c4 and then we
can hop back to b6 we're kind of baiting
them again to say come on go ahead you
know push it if you want and then we can
go back to d5
and yes white got a bunch of moves for
free all right white got four moves
there and all we did was kind of hop our
knight around
but white also created some weaknesses
remember what i talked about earlier in
the video when you move pawns forward
there's no going back so these pawns
can never control this square now right
they've moved past it which means this
for the rest of the game this is going
to be an outpost for our knight where we
can just sit there if we want um
and so there's a trade-off i mean
obviously white has a little more space
than we do but the weaknesses are are
real and we can take advantage of if we
know what we're doing so this is just
one example this can come up in a lot of
different ways but look for ways to bait
your opponent to moving their pawns
forward and then take advantage of the
weaknesses that are left behind after
those pawns move all right the next
principle is that a good knight on an
outpost a lot of times can be worth a
rook so as you know knights are three
points and rooks are five points but if
you get your knight in the right spot at
the right time
sometimes it's actually as good if not
better than a rook and here's a good
example this knight is extremely
powerful look how it's blocking off both
of black's rooks
it's also controlling the square that
the rook might like to go to to control
this file it's putting pressure on two
different pawns
and it's just sitting there defended by
this pawn and black's kind of like what
what am i going to do right what can i
even
black and hardly move any pieces because
that that one night there
so if you can ever get your knight on an
outpost and this is an outpost because
there's no pawns that can attack it okay
so the way you would you would figure
this out is first you want to look at
the board and see okay where could there
be a potential outpost so for example
the square g5 is not an outpost because
this after the knight moves this pawn
could move forward and attack your
knight let's say so that would not uh
would not work
this square not really an outpost
because this pawn could move forward now
in this case it can't but um you have to
be careful with that one here would be a
good place for your knight right because
there's no pawns
that could control it and then obviously
on d6 where it's at right now is a great
outpost but if you find squares like
that when you're playing a game see if
you can maneuver your knights around
um to get them there and so you know in
this case black could actually play
knight to d5 which is a good move for
black because that's an outpost for
black there's no pawns uh no white pawns
that can attack it so that's what you
want to be looking out for so because of
the principle that we just talked about
how good a knight is the next principle
is that sometimes it's actually better
for you to sacrifice a rook to get rid
of that knight so in this case black
let's say white moves the king over
black could sacrifice for that night get
a knight in a pawn
and a lot of times that's actually a
smart thing to do if the knight is going
to be that strong right because if you
know there's nothing black could do
black couldn't even move any pieces at
least this way you have a knight in a
pawn which okay it's not as good as a
rogue but now you can do stuff now you
can move your pieces around you can hop
your knight in maybe you can try to win
this pawn
your rook has the ability to come down
and do some things from a practical
standpoint okay from a practical
standpoint a lot of times
it's better to just go ahead and
sacrifice a rook if you can get a night
in a pawn
rather than let that knight just sit
there and prevent you from doing
anything so keep that in mind even if
you lose a little bit of material
practically speaking it's usually worth
it alright the next principle is that
generally speaking you want most of your
pawns to be on the opposite color of
your bishops now obviously that depends
on the situation but a good example of
this is when you feed cattle your bishop
that's exactly what you're doing you're
putting your pawns on the opposite color
of your bishop and this is really good
because then the bishop can still be
completely
effective because the pawns aren't going
to block it but it also kind of acts as
some shelter and it protects the bishop
from knights that want to attack it so
you know knights could only attack this
bishop on one of these three squares and
they're all covered by your pawns and so
by putting your pawns on the opposite
color of your bishops it just works out
nicely so look for ways to do that fee
and keto is just one example there are
other situations as well but keep that
in mind now the next principle is a
little bit different from the last one
we just talked about how normally you
want your palms to be on the opposite
color of your bishops but sometimes
especially at the end of the game if you
only have one bishop and a couple of
random pawns one thing that i like to do
and works out very nice is actually
putting it on the same color as your
pawn right in front of the pawn and so
the pawn defends the bishop the bishop
defends the pawn
and this can be a good way to kind of
keep your bishops protected at all times
at the same time
you can kind of defend some of your
pawns as well so this is just a good
thing to keep in mind especially at the
end of the game
or if you're trying to a lot of times
you can block off files where rooks
might be trying to get in with the
bishop or something with the pawn
defending it that's just a good thing to
keep in mind alright the next principle
has to do with something that's called
weak color complex it's a it's a phrase
that gets thrown around but it's very
simple all it means is that there are
weaknesses on a certain color of of the
board so
for example this is a very silly example
that i created just to prove the point
here but when you fianchetto your bishop
okay like
here and black would do it here and that
bishop gets traded off somehow we looked
at an example earlier how you can do
that you now have a weakness on those
particular color squares so for example
white
has some serious weaknesses along these
white squares because of where the pawns
are placed there's no bishop to fill in
those gaps and black has an immediate
checkmate threat because the bishop is
controlling here the knight can come in
that's just checkmate black has the
exact same problem the bishop that would
normally be sitting there and kind of
controlling some of these squares is
gone and we can see white has this
battery
and if it's white's turn it's just
checkmate immediately because of the
weaknesses along those squares so when
you're playing your games if you ever
notice a bunch of pawns on the same
color
like in this example you want to be
trying to look out for ways to take
advantage of the weak squares and a lot
of times you have to do some maneuvering
to make this happen right this example
just everything is perfectly placed
usually you have to maneuver your pieces
around but once you can get them set up
in something like this it can be very
very strong and open up a lot of really
nice tactics for you so be aware of
weaknesses on a particular color square
all right the next principle when i
first kind of figured it out from
playing was kind of life-changing for me
so pay attention to this one and i'm
going to show you a practical example
here from an opening that that i've
played before so i like to play the
bishop b5 sicilian and there's a
particular line g6 castles where you
play c3 you're trying to set up d4 and
black plays e5 to try to stop you okay
and you can do this one little it's kind
of like a gambit because you're giving
away a pawn here but you play d4 anyway
you let black capture it
and then you play the move bishop to f4
now here is the principle that this move
um kind of illustrates this is what
you're going to go for after black plays
something normal like knight g7 you're
going to play the move bishop to d6 okay
this is what you want to remember the
principle is this if you can blockade
your opponent's pawns
to hinder their development
it's usually really really really good
from a positional standpoint okay so so
here's a position where there's no
immediate tactical advantage for white
white has no tactics that are just going
to win the game or anything like that
but what white does have
is a positional advantage in the fact
that
black really wants to develop this
bishop black would like to play this
pawn forward maybe to d5
and then get this bishop out and and
kind of continue playing normal chess
but they can't do that because this
bishop is just sitting there being
really annoying right stopping the pawn
which is stopping the bishop which is
stopping the rook now black maybe could
try to come around this this way and
develop the bishop but it's not that
easy if black tries to castle there's
this annoying pin on the night it's just
really really annoying having that
bishop sitting there blockading a pawn
so keep that in mind whenever you have
an opportunity sometimes it's a bishop
sometimes it's a night um to blockade a
pawn
it's ju it's usually really really good
okay so just keep that in mind and and
look for opportunities now sometimes
it's even better like for example let's
just let's just make a bad move for
black here like knight h6 just to
illustrate the concept
now when we play bishop d6 it's even
better because now we're actually
preventing black from castling remember
you can't castle through check so
sometimes this this happens as well
and like i said it's even better so just
keep an eye out for those there's lots
of opportunities where this happens
particularly if you can blockade a d or
an e pawn before the opponent gets a
chance to move it
it's usually really bad because the
bishop ends up getting stuck back there
right so keep that in mind all right now
the last positional idea that i'm going
to give you guys is what's called the
minority attack i'm going to actually
show you an example of this out of the
queen's gambit it's extremely common so
queen's gambit that's not the queen's
campaign uh queen's gambit is d4 d5 c4
and then when you have queen's gambit
declined uh the pawn structure that
arises a very often is something like
this okay where you capture black
recaptures with the pawn and black has
these four pawns here and you just have
two pawns over here uh you know on the
queen side and then the game you know
might go something like this okay
minority attack happens in a case like
this where you decide you're going to
push these two pawns forward
and try to create a weakness
in black's camp and the way it works is
like this
if
let's just say hypothetically you had
unlimited time you would go here you'd
go here you would go here and then you
would trade
blackwood recapture and now you have a
backward pawn okay so i'm gonna just
make it real easy um
on myself here i'm not going to do
anything for black except just make some
random moves let's i don't know we'll
move
yeah we'll say h6 we take and then we
trade okay
so what we have done is traded this pawn
for this pawn and now this if you
remember is a backward pawn and now we
can pile up on it probably remember
blockade the backward pawn first
bring our rook over
uh i don't know what black's gonna do
line up on it and eventually try to win
that pawn probably the knight can come
in and we're just gonna try to take that
pawn okay and we created that backward
pawn by pushing our b-pawn up and
capturing now i wasn't making the best
moves for black obviously sometimes
black can make our life a little more
difficult like when we play b4 they
might play a6 to try to stop us but then
we can play a4 and we're still
threatening to do kind of the same thing
and the point is that even if we have to
you know sacrifice a pawn over here to
mess up
um black's pawn structure
it's usually worth it because now we
have a bunch of targets okay so that's
what a minority attack is you take those
two pawns
you push them forward and you try to
create some sort of weakness that you
can take advantage of all right so keep
that in mind especially if you're a
queen's gambit player that's the most
common situation that this is actually
going to be useful to you all right one
final bonus tip if you want to become
better at positional chess hit the
thumbs up on this video and you'll
instantly remember everything that you
just watched okay maybe that's not
entirely true but it does let youtube
know that this is a good video they
should show it to more people and it
really helps me out a lot so if you did
learn something i would really
appreciate it as always thanks for
watching stay sharp play smart and take
[Music]
you
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