Understanding before Moving 20: Activate your worst piece

The viewer of this video show may have noticed that many of the examples I have shown in this show have to do with the activity (or passivity) of the pieces. This actually brings us to the essence of a good game of chess: placing your own pieces as active as possible while at the same time trying to limit the activity of the opponent's pieces as much as possible.

To make this principle trans­pa­rent, it is sometimes good to ask yourself which piece is doing (nearly) nothing in your position and how you can bring it into play. After all, the joint activity must lead to the mutual cooperation between the pieces in order to corner the opponent. So let's first look at how two minor pieces can beat a queen by cooperating nicely together.

Can you find the right way to win this position with White?

This week’s show (for Premium Members only)

Links

• More videos...
• Understanding before moving 1: How to design a concept in the opening
• Understanding before moving 2: How to improve the activity of my pieces
• Understanding before moving 3: Queen in the corner
• Understanding before moving 4: King in the box
• Understanding before moving 5: Locked up pieces
• Understanding before moving 6: Paralyzed
• Understanding before moving 7: Divided in two - Part 1
• Understanding before moving 8: Divided in two - Part 2
• Understanding before moving 9: Hunting the king - Part 1
• Understanding before moving 10: Hunting the king - Part 2
• Understanding before moving 11: Pattern Recognition
• Understanding before moving 12: Advantage in Development
• Understanding before moving 13: Compensation
• Understanding before moving 14: Smoking the king out
• Understanding before moving 15: Knight on the Rim
• Understanding before moving 16: Limiting the opponent’s activity
• Understanding before moving 17: The Panno knight
• Understanding before Moving 18: The bad bishop
• Understanding before Moving 19: The rook lift
• Herman Grooten - An interview with a chess authority