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An Introduction to Chess Strategy for the Novice Player

Development

It is interesting to note how instructional manuals have evolved over the years with regard to the teaching of strategy. Mercifully, the writing has improved at least. Steinitz, in his book The Chess Instructor 5th edition 1885, doesn’t mention development per se, preferring to concentrate on the pieces and their properties and then illustrate his principles through the annotation of his games. Annotated games work well as long as the audience can understand the annotations, which was not always the case with Steinitz.

Tarrasch, who was the leading writer of his age and who is one of the co-founders of the Classical School of Chess along with Steinitz, in his book The Game of Chess (subtitled “A Systematic Textbook for Beginners and More Experienced Players”) describes the principles of development under the heading of “Time.” The novice is cautioned to always “make the best possible use of the right to move” and to never lose a single move if possible. Tarrasch and Alapin coined the idea on the use of “tempos” in chess. Time or development is almost always a temporary advantage and one of the goals of a good player is to convert that advantage into a more lasting one, such as space, material, or pawn structure. Almost all good openings seek to utilize development to do this. Tarrasch uses a line from the Scotch game to illustrate this: 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nxd4?! 5. Qxd4 and white has a small advantage because of the time gained during the opening and the ability of the Queen to dominate the board.

If you examine the position, you will notice that White has his queen developed and that he also has maintained control of the center. Black will also have a difficult time developing his pieces because he is gong to have a difficult time finding good squares upon which to place them.

The original game, from which the Scotch opening gets its name, between Scotland and England continued 5...Ne7 6. Bc4 Nc6 7. Qd5 and White won after another sixty moves. Dr. Tarrasch and his systematic treatment of the game did much to educate beginners and novices about some of the basic principles of how chess should be played. Tarrasch was a very strong player but he had the misfortune to be part of the same generation as Emmanuel Lasker who understood Steinitz and his theories much better than did Dr. Tarrasch. Lasker beat Tarrasch decisively for the World Championship, in part because he was much more flexible in his approach to the game. Tarrasch has been attacked by later writers for being dogmatic and rigid, but his principles work extremely well for most players rated below 2000.

Rather than bore you with countless examples of novices overlooking straightforward development, here is a game from sixty years ago. It was played at 10 seconds per move (this required a special clock and was called rapid transit) between Hermann Helms and Oscar Tenner. Helms was in his seventies at the time of this game and was known as the Dean of American Chess. The game was taken from 1000 Best Short Games of Chess, A Treasury of Masterpieces in Miniature by Irving Chernev (Simon and Schuster, 1954). I have taken the liberty of translating it into algebraic notation from English descriptive notation, and the annotations are my own. [Click here for an interactive board.]

Helms-Tenner, New York, 1942, Evans Gambit Declined

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
4. b4 Bb6

This is the Evans Gambit, which Black declines…

5. a4 a6
6. a5 Ba7
7. b5 a6xb5
8 Bxb5 Nf6
9. Ba3 Nxe4

Black has won a pawn and threatens to win another at f2 while forking White’s Queen and Rook. White’s response to this threat is to develop another piece (the Queen) and punish Black’s premature attack.

10. Qe2 Nxf2

(Bxf2 11.Kf1 d5 12. e3 and Black drops a piece)

11. Nxe5 Nd4

(11...Nxe5 12. Qxe5+ Qe7 13.Qxe7 mate. Perhaps 11.Ne7?)

12. Nxd7+ Nxe2
13. Nf6#

In open games (1.e4 e5), development is especially critical. They also tend to be more tactical than closed games as a rule. This is why most authors recommend that beginners and novices play as many open games as they can to improve their tactical vision. While Dr. Tarrasch formulated some general rules for development such as Knight before Bishops, today’s authors are much more concerned with the placement of pieces and understanding how they work together than they are with a set of rigid formulas.

One of my favorite books on learning the elements of positional chess is Yasser Seirawan’s Winning Chess Strategies (Microsoft Press, 1994). Knowing where to place your pieces and why you want to place them there is more useful than simply following the rules of classical chess laid down by Dr. Tarrasch. Tarrasch knew these things but was a firm believer in RULES! The Hypermodern School, which we will cover later in this series, had a field day poking holes in the good doctor’s rules. We will return to the concept of development in more detail when we address premature attacks. Stay tuned for our next installment on “The Center” and how its concept has changed over the years.

Next: The Center