Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Chess Log: Another Example Of Why Beginners Shouldn't Move The F Pawn Early

Leave that to the pros. (And don't get overly-egotistical about whether or not you're a pro.) For example:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 f6? 4. ♘f3 fxe5?? 5. ♘xe5 ♘f6 6. ♗g5 ♗d6 7. ♗b5 ♗d7 8. ♗xf6 gxf6??? 9. ♕h5 1-0 {Black resigns}

For us regular folks, moving the f-Pawn too early spells disaster. Not every single time, if we're playing against other regular folks, but often enough.

Like many important things I know -- perhaps like every single important thing I know, and I'm not just talking about chess -- I did not figure this out on my own. Someone smarter pointed it out to me, and I was just bright enough to appreciate the advice. There was, and I hope there still is, a Wikipedia page showing opening moves, and instead of showing the best openings as I've usually seen in chess instruction for beginners, this one showed bad early moves often made by beginners and explained why they should be avoided. Unfortunately, right now when I want to link this very helpful Wiki page, I can't find it. I thought it was titled something like "Example of a Chess Game." Anyway, among many other things, it showed why Black shouldn't play 1. e4 e5 2. ♘f3 f6???

This game was somewhat different, but the unsound early 3. ... f6 still caught my eye. Black's 4th move made a bad situation worse. I'm not claiming I played White's best possible opening game here, or that an expert couldn't have still beaten me taking over for Black after the fourth move, not by any stretch of the imagination; still, in this game I managed to capitalize on the hole where black's f Pawn should have been, and after 9. ♕h5+, Black had only two possible moves: either 9. ... ♔f8 or 9. ... ♔e7. Against either one, 10. ♕f7 is checkmate.

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