ChessFeels #32: planning based on pieces
"The Master of the plan, wrappin' stuff like Saran" - Method Man
Let’s talk about planning. We’ve all heard that, in chess, a bad plan is better than no plan, or to always have a plan, etc. Putting aside whether this is good advice (see Kotronias’s 2020 book How To Play Equal Positions for a compelling argument that it’s not), I want to focus on the question of what ‘having a plan’ even means. There’s a lot I could say here, but I want to start today with one facet of planning.
Before I say anything, I’d like to show this position from one of my student’s games after 11. Bg3. We’re black, and it’s our turn. Formulate a plan. That’s all I’ll say for now.
I’m very curious to hear in the comments what people’s “plans” looked like. Were they just variations? If so, how did you choose to start with looking at those moves? If not, what sorts of questions did you ask?
Here’s what I did:
1: King safety [not at all relevant: black is uncastled but the board seems too closed for that matter]
2: Structural deficiencies [not very relevant: black has doubled pawns, but they take up more space and the a-rook occupies a file, so if anything this favors black and isn’t changing anytime soon]
3: Targets/weaknesses [relevant: white’s c3 pawn is fixed and backwards, and a2 also seems very hard to move]
4: Piece mobility [relevant: white’s dark square bishop is the same color as the center pawns AND the pawn on g3 means it is very restricted. while black’s light bishop is also ‘bad’ due to the center pawns, it at least has more mobility because there is no pawn on g6, so it is less likely to get trapped. additionally, white’s b3 pawn makes dark squares weaker than they would otherwise be, making black’s dark square bishop the best piece on the board.]
Ok so those are four sorts of questions we can ask in any position. We don’t know which questions will be the most important, but here it looks like the combination of weaknesses and mobility points the way forward for black:
Bam! White has no way to defend the c3 pawn, because the dark square bishop is not mobile enough to cover c3. My student and I both spent a few seconds assessing white’s Nb1 before realizing that Bb2 traps the rook (it was a long day for both of us, ok?). [Also of note, pushing the pawn to b4 was also crushing, based on similar themes].
But wait, that’s not all. I want to make something about planning very clear. In addition to short term plans, like finding the best move in a position where there is a crushing blow, there’s also something called long-term planning. And the way to make those plans is, quite simply, to keep in mind the answers to the questions we already asked, and to check in occasionally to see if they change. To see this, let’s check in on the same game a few moves later:
Here, black has improved the position and has a killer outside passed pawn. We know that minor pieces have the hardest time blockading pawns, so we should not be afraid to trade off a pair of rooks. But we also know that, from a few moves ago, white’s dark bishop was garbage, and ours was exceptionally agile. We also see now that our pawn’s promoting square is a dark square. This is where something should click: promoting the pawn should be our highest priority because our bishop will be better equipped to defend it than their bishop will be to attack it.
Indeed, after taking the rook, letting them take back on c1, and pushing the pawn to a2, they have to blockade with Ra1:
Then we swing down the hammer with Bb1 and white’s pieces are completely incapable of preventing the simple swing to a3 and b2, trapping the rook.
The point is that these moves become easier to find when we are keeping in mind which of their pieces are limited and which of our pieces are strongest. Without that idea in mind, it becomes much easier to err, as my poor student did in time trouble in his game. After trading rooks, he preceded to offer a trade of his ‘golden god’:
Oh no! How are we going to get the pawn through to a1 now? But if we were not keeping these ‘planning’ questions in mind, this move makes sense: the knight on b6 is hanging, and we could never play Rb8-b1 if their bishop controlled the b8 square. So now our rook has more mobility and we will have an easier time attacking a weak white piece. It’s not like any of this is wrong, it’s just that, based on our planning questions from earlier, neither a weak knight nor control of the b-file were central to our assessment of the position. As a result, we ended up in this drawn position:
If only we had a dark squared bishop, am I right? Instead, neither side can make progress.
In conclusion: the more time we spend early in the game thinking about what the strengths and weaknesses of the position are, the easier it will be later in the game to find plans based on what we already determined was central to the position. It’s not easy and we’ll make plenty of mistakes. But it is important that we practice making these assessments and basing our later decisions off of them, otherwise we risk making short-term decisions instead of ‘playing the board’
Best
JJ
As always, I’m available for lessons here
My coach gave me the following evaluation process:
1. King Safety
2. Pawn Structures (square control, side of the board to play, pawn breaks, weaknesses/targets)
3. Material (minor piece imbalance)
4. Piece Activity/Mobility
Which has been very helpful for creating a plan. So in the first position, both kings are safe as the position is pretty closed. Black has a queen side space advantage but at the cost of doubled b pawns; however, this has allowed blacks rook to already be quite active on the a file. Blacks c pawn appears like a potential target for black. Material is even including the type of minor pieces. But blacks minor pieces are more active and have clear plans for improvement (Bd3) where as whites only good minor piece is it's DSB and the knight eyeing e5.
So my initial candidate moves are based on blacks queen-size space advantage and potential weaknesses of the a and c pawns and would play Ba3, or getting my LSB to Bd3 a great outpost that prevents white from castling kingside for now. Other plans to keep in mind for the future Nh5 to trade off whites DSB, whites best minor piece, with f6 to take control of E5.