Posts

388

In opposite-coloured bishop positions the rule is almost always the same: you want your 'bad' pawns, the ones you have to defend or restrain the opponent's pawns with, on the squares of your own bishop, and your 'good' pawns, the ones which protect each other or which form a majority you aim to advance, on the squares of your opponent's bishop, both so that they restrain the bishop and so that they are harder for him to blockade. John Cox, The Berlin Wall

387

Playing with the isolated d pawn, always keep an eye on the f7 (f2) square, since its weakness can often be exploited - typically by a Nxf7 (Nxf2) strike. Alexander Baburin, Winning Pawn Structures

386

When one of the central files is blocked, attention turns to the other central file or, sometimes, the neighbouring bishop's (c or f) file. To command the open files is the key to success. Dražen Marović, Dynamic Pawn Play In Chess

385

An active king is not just good endgame technique - it is a recipe for inducing errors from the opponent. James Schuyler, Your Opponent Is Overrated

384

In general I believe the Qe2 setup (in the King's Indian Attack) is less effective if Black hasn't committed himself to ...d5. John Emms, Starting Out: King's Indian Attack

383

One of the best practical features of the Bb5 Sicilian is how little theory there is to learn, compared to the mainline Sicilian. For example, you can be fully prepared for 2...d6 3.Bb5+ in less than the time it would take you to wade through the analysis of a sharp line versus the Najdorf - and that would still leave you with the small matter of the Dragon and Classical systems to worry about. Neil McDonald, The Sicilian Bb5 - Revealed

382

Spend only 25% of your chess time studying the openings. There are lots of other areas in chess that will make a more dramatic difference in your results - just one compelling example is the study of tactics. Lev Alburt, Chess Openings For Black, Explained