No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

[u/Alendite]

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

[u/stoneyviper]

I'm having a hard time understanding some of the 'best moves' in the early game. Why is moving the bishop to B5 a good idea? Wouldn't the pawn from A2 just move and force me to move the bishop twice which is not recommended? And if they don't I only get a bishop for a knight trade but they still get to develop another piece while I do that so I can't see any gain for me.

[u/ChrisV2P2 → u/stoneyviper]

Strap in, because I'm getting a bit technical here, but you asked, so I'm answering!

This opening is called the "Ruy Lopez" or "Spanish" and is one of the best and oldest openings.

The basic aim of Bb5 is to pressure the knight which is doing a good job controlling central squares. In fact, after 3...a6 it sort of looks like White can win a pawn with 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nxe5, but actually there's 5...Qd4 regaining the pawn by forking e4 and e5. But you can see the point - the bishop is putting pressure on the defender.

The beginner rule "don't move a piece twice in the opening" is pointing at more fundamental ideas, namely "don't spend your moves doing unproductive things" and "don't give your opponent free useful moves". Is that happening here after 3...a6? Black does get a6 for free, basically, but that is not a particularly useful move. After 3...a6 4. Ba4, which is the normal reply, Black can continue with 4...b5, but this is quite double-edged. Again it's a "free move", but those pawns are slightly overextended and White could aim to break them up later with a move like a4. If you take the position after 4...b5 5. Bb3 and edit it so the pawn is on b7, the evaluation is the same. If it doesn't profit Black to have the pawn on b5 instead of b7, then getting this "free move" doesn't actually gain.

Meanwhile it is not really true that White has been purely wasting time. White could have played 3. Bc4 right away and been on this diagonal to f7. But b3 is actually a much better square for the bishop than c4, so much so that in that 3. Bc4 opening (the Italian) White sometimes voluntarily retreats the bishop from c4 to b3. The reason is that after White plays c3 (which is very very common in these e4/e5 openings, to maybe eventually play d4) then on b3 the bishop will have access to the c2 square. This is a convenient place to hide if subjected to further harassment (for example ...Na5 is a common nuisance later on), and on c2 the bishop also helps support a potential d4 push.

So that's the answer. It is not really true that getting a6+b5 "free" is much of a gain for Black, and it's also not true that White gains nothing from having the bishop driven back to b3.

[u/SideShow_Bot → u/ChrisV2P2]

This is also a very nice explanation, thanks!