eat the most powerful piece first ...

"eat the most powerful piece first'

these words were the words of wisdom given to me (by a player rated 150 points higher than tebb) a decade ago ...

they referred to wild tactical situations ...

what do you think of them?

i like them ... but of course they are not ALWAYS true.

Originally posted by flexmore
"eat the most powerful piece first'

these words were the words of wisdom given to me (by a player rated 150 points higher than tebb) a decade ago ...

they referred to wild tactical situations ...

what do you think of them?

i like them ... but of course they are not ALWAYS true.

I like to get rid of there queen if I can keeping mine. Who doesn't?

I guess there are times when you can't, a lot of rules are not "ALWAYS true"

I don’t think rules will be of much help in wild tactical situations.

Yep, eating the most powerful piece first would not work here (white to move).

Originally posted by lausey
Yep, eating the most powerful piece first would not work here (white to move).

[fen]q3r2k/5ppp/8/8/4Q3/8/8/4R1K1 w - - 0 1[/fen]

Not exactly wild. Or tactical, eh?

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Not exactly wild. Or tactical, eh?

Nope, but an effective demonstration.

Originally posted by lausey
Yep, eating the most powerful piece first would not work here (white to move).

[fen]q3r2k/5ppp/8/8/4Q3/8/8/4R1K1 w - - 0 1[/fen]

I like the way you moved the king across one square after you realised that you would have to take the most powerful piece or lose your queen (as white) 😛

Originally posted by Freddie2006
I like the way you moved the king across one square after you realised that you would have to take the most powerful piece or lose your queen (as white) 😛

Yep, well spotted. 😀

The saying isn't always true. Example:

You can sac a rook for a knight sometimes and then say when he rook takes back, you can pin to his king/queen with a bishop and keep piling on it and eventually win it for free, hence winning a whole knight for nothing. I've never used this before, so close though, but i've seen GM's use several times.

Originally posted by flexmore
"eat the most powerful piece first'

these words were the words of wisdom given to me (by a player rated 150 points higher than tebb) a decade ago ...

they referred to wild tactical situations ...

what do you think of them?

i like them ... but of course they are not ALWAYS true.

Interesting advice. I have no idea if it's useful or not, but I'll try to remember it next time I need to think about a potential combination.

All rules were made to be broken.

Or put another way,

There is an exception to every rule, especially in chess.

I think it's not good advice...often you may want to give a check first or do something else which is more forcing than just taking the powerful piece.

It's just this type of rigid thinking that can make it hard to spot combinations or make you commit "assumption" errors when calculating lines (e.g. you are locked into thinking "i do this and he must then do that)

The more I see good players making great combinations the more I realize you have to free you mind!!! no rigid rules or simple guidelines such as this

I suppose it is just advice for absolute beginners to get to know the game. As they get more experienced, they begin to know when to break the "rules".

Originally posted by lausey
I suppose it is just advice for absolute beginners to get to know the game. As they get more experienced, they begin to know when to break the "rules".

Yup for begginers. You have an option of taking several hanging pieces. Take the queen first, then rook, then pieces etc..

There was a puzzle like that in Yasser Seirwan tactics book. You could have tooken everything of blacks except the king. Most kids went for the rook because the queen one was harder to find for kids but it was there. And he said wait and find the best move, you can win a queen instead of just a rook.

Originally posted by flexmore
"eat the most powerful piece first'

these words were the words of wisdom given to me (by a player rated 150 points higher than tebb) a decade ago ...

they referred to wild tactical situations ...

what do you think of them?

i like them ... but of course they are not ALWAYS true.

"Eat the most powerful piece first." Hmmm. Forget this tired bromide. The whole key to chess or any game of skill is to: Gang up on'em and smush'em!