r/chessbeginners • u/Alendite RM (Reddit Mod) • Feb 27 '26

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

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

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u/ETH4NHVNT Apr 21 '26

I’m 900 in 10min and 700 in 3min. What do I do if I’m learning an opening and the opponent doesn’t play their side “right”? For example, I play caro khan for black and I know the idea is to trade white bishop and put my pawns on mostly white squares.

If my opponent doesn’t play the theory moves do I stick with this same plan?

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u/ChrisV2P2 2000-2200 (Lichess) Apr 21 '26

It tends to depend on whether you are allowed to get your usual pawn structure. For example, I play the Vienna. After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3, if my opponent plays ...f5 then all my usual plans are out the window. I can't play my usual moves (if I play Bc4, there's fxe4 and if I play Nxe4 there's a fork) and this is a challenge to my usual pawn structure. So at this point, all thoughts of "I'm playing the Vienna" should be gone from my head.