Playing my Bishops in the opening question

Playing my Bishops in the opening question

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R

South River, NJ

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22 Jan 07
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26 Feb 07

I ALWAYS get confused and never know how to play my bishops in my openings.

I seem to end up in this position a lot, what is best to play with my bishops in this type of opening?

1.e4 e6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bd2 *

9

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26 Feb 07

This is a hard question to answer because you need to look at the inbalances, opening that you opponent is playing, and general strategy that you are working towards. In your example, White plays Bd2 to remove the pin and to avoid doubling pawns. In a case like this, you could ignore the pin and develop the Bishop to e3 where it protects the d4 and f2 pawns or even f4 where you take control of the h2-b8 diagonal, which could be important if Black trades off his dark-squared bishop for your Knight on c3. Also, I'm never too concerned about having doubled pawns on the c-file as they can be useful for attacking and defending the center.

g

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26 Feb 07
1 edit

Originally posted by Rallymoto36
I ALWAYS get confused and never know how to play my bishops in my openings.

I seem to end up in this position a lot, what is best to play with my bishops in this type of opening?

1.e4 e6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bd2 *
An Italian chess amateur named Pafu wrote a book called "The Center Game." In the book he gives a system of development to be used whether you are White or Black. Here are the moves (assuming you are White):

1 a3 2 h3 3 d3 4 e3 5 Bd2 6 Be2

No trouble find where to put the bishops in this opening!

You can read the book for free in pdf format:

http://www.beginnersgame.com/page_19.pdf

The opening isn't total rubbish. (It's about 40% rubbish.) In general, I have not fared too well with this opening in blitz, but I like the idea so I'll being playing it some more.

Major Bone

On yer tail ...

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27 Feb 07

Originally posted by gaychessplayer

The opening isn't total rubbish. (It's about 40% rubbish.)
I would hazard that it's about 95% rubbish.

Insanity at Masada

tinyurl.com/mw7txe34

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27 Feb 07

Originally posted by Rallymoto36
I ALWAYS get confused and never know how to play my bishops in my openings.

I seem to end up in this position a lot, what is best to play with my bishops in this type of opening?

1.e4 e6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bd2 *
You're Black in this scenario, right?

If a3, then ...Ba5. If b4, then ...Bb6.

I guess I'd put the other one on d6 after playing ...d5.

R

South River, NJ

Joined
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27 Feb 07

actually i'm white

r

Tony, kiss mine!

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27 Feb 07

Originally posted by Rallymoto36
I ALWAYS get confused and never know how to play my bishops in my openings.

I seem to end up in this position a lot, what is best to play with my bishops in this type of opening?

1.e4 e6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bd2 *
rule of thumb i sometimes refer back to...
if you can, pin a f6 or c6 knight to the queen/king
if you are looking for a kingside attack, ur bishops usually go to c4 and b2 after pawn b3
if you are entirely unsure, but you need to move a bishop at the moment, put it on either d2, e3, e2, or d3 squares...
usually no harm comes from this...

9

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27 Feb 07

Originally posted by rubberjaw30
rule of thumb i sometimes refer back to...
if you can, pin a f6 or c6 knight to the queen/king
if you are looking for a kingside attack, ur bishops usually go to c4 and b2 after pawn b3
if you are entirely unsure, but you need to move a bishop at the moment, put it on either d2, e3, e2, or d3 squares...
usually no harm comes from this...
...you covered just about every possible Bishop move here๐Ÿ˜€

W

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27 Feb 07
2 edits

From the book...

An amazing and totally unexpected discovery has been made: a system of playing chess
that is absolutely the simplest imaginable! Even those who have never played can master the
basic opening in a few minutes. In a few hours anyone can learn the complete system, including a
large number of strong variants, and play fluently and correctly during and after the opening, at
least thru the first 10-12 moves. It is the easiest system ever found for those learning to play
chess...



I didnt make it past this point.

9

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27 Feb 07

Originally posted by gaychessplayer
An Italian chess amateur named Pafu wrote a book called "The Center Game." In the book he gives a system of development to be used whether you are White or Black. Here are the moves (assuming you are White):

1 a3 2 h3 3 d3 4 e3 5 Bd2 6 Be2

No trouble find where to put the bishops in this opening!

You can read the book for free in pdf f ...[text shortened]... oo well with this opening in blitz, but I like the idea so I'll being playing it some more.
I read through some of the book and it's an interesting theory but likely to be more successful in blitz. I'm going to try it out in a few games and see what kinds of issues I run into.

Insanity at Masada

tinyurl.com/mw7txe34

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27 Feb 07

Originally posted by 93confirmed
I read through some of the book and it's an interesting theory but likely to be more successful in blitz. I'm going to try it out in a few games and see what kinds of issues I run into.
It's for raw beginners, and a good opening for them. Makes it hard for them to drop pieces!

g

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28 Feb 07

Originally posted by buffalobill
I would hazard that it's about 95% rubbish.
How about a compromise? Let's call it 67.5% rubbish! ๐Ÿ™‚

r

Tony, kiss mine!

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28 Feb 07

Originally posted by 93confirmed
...you covered just about every possible Bishop move here๐Ÿ˜€
but i gave scenarios for each move Sherlock

g

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28 Feb 07

Someone linked me to the Beginners Game, but the first red flag was that it sounded like a late-night informercial.

In looking at it, the opening setup does seem to have some defensive merits, but struck me as too passive to be of use in attacking, particularly against opponents who play aggressive positional games who might attempt to beseige such a position. The knight placement (on d2/e2 or d7/e7) are case in point.

Of course, one knight moving to one of those 2 squares isn't detrimental in the least, as many standard opening make use of it, but usually in a more defensive manner, and to allow the immediate flank pawns freedom to move.

Then again, I'm hardly a master, so my word isn't gospel.

9

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I played this opening in blitz games last night on yahoo and won all five games played. This is by no means proof that it's a good theory but I did notice that it was comfortable position and seems to provoke the opponent into attacking strongly, which usually lead to an overextension of the pawns, etc. I'm going to try it out at the local club tonight and see how my opponents there react to it.

The one issue that I noticed is I didn't feel comfortable placing my Knights at c3 and/or f3 (c6 and/or f6) because my opponent was able to easily attack them and the only retreat squares were a2 and h2 (after a3 and h3 were already played). One idea that I tried was playing c4 shortly after getting the first 6 moves of the center game out of the way and I then played Nc3 with a decent center structure.