While learning the theories behind the chess openings especially with an eye to center control and development of pieces, you must understand that if both players could continue along the best theoretical lines, the game would end in a draw! But theory cannot take you to the end because if it could, there would not be any point in playing that kind of chess!
So a stage will come where theory comes to an end ideally with both players at level, and thereafter the players are on their own. The game is then decided through one player making some mistake, however slight it may be, and the other player being able to identify and exploit it. You will often notice that one may be able to get away with a minor mistake but situation keeps getting worse with each additional wrong move. Of course, a palpably bad move will draw the curtains on the game that much faster!
In the three-part article on Chess Opening: Control of Center, we just showed how the initial moves for different openings aim to seize control of center. What happens after those initial skirmishes depends on how each player carries forward his ideas. Unless you examine practical games arising out of those opening moves, your grasp of the potentials will remain a little nebulous. For this reason, we plan to show you at least two master games on the openings discussed, one going in favor of White and the other in favor of Black, so that you get an idea of why those games produced opposite results!
In Chess Opening: Control of Center – Part 3, we took you up to the sixth move. In the following two games, you will see identical development up to the 12th move after which those take their own path.
Max [...] Continue Reading…