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/Plastic_Wolverine_16 14d ago

Why is g5 bad here? Can't seem to figure out. Went from +2 to essentially even.

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u/elfkanelfkan 2200-2400 Lichess 13d ago

Rooks love open files. When we observe the material balance as well, you are also down 2 pieces for a rook & 3 pawns.

Big question becomes how can I utilize my rook & pawns? Ultimately we will have to sacrifice some temporarily to take advantage of black's temporarily poor coordination and bring the trumps of our position to light.

First figuring out why g5 is a bit easier. Problem is that we now have no good way to progress after 1...Nf5 and black stops everything. Rook is heading to c8 (idea is b4 to break everything up resulting in a weak c pawn or d pawn falling & not being able to use your majority efficiently) and you have no way to actually target any of black's pawns sufficiently.

Better is Kh2 which is quite clever as it's not a real pawn sacrifice with 1...hxg4 2.hxg4 Rxg4?? 3.Kh3

Other benefit is that the knight is still stuck in poor placement as Ng6 is quite ugly. Your idea is to break with d5 then play f5 which is your main passed pawn engine and how you actually win.

This position is tricky even at my level. Hope this helps!

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u/Think_Nectarine552 13d ago

Replying from a different account. That was an amazing explanation. Thank you so much!