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Questions tagged [defense]

Questions dealing with how to defend against attack, and how to choose moves that are defensive in nature. Note 'defensive' does not mean passive.

53 questions
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Why struggle for a single pawn?

I've seen many chess games, where after a certain point, one side maneuvers their pieces (like doubling the rooks) to target a single point. Most of the time it's a pawn on the wing and the other side tries to defend their pawn. But why struggle for…
bretlee
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When is castling needed?

I am a rookie in chess. I can't understand why castling is needed. In what scenarios is castling useful?
Shubham Bhave
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What are White's advantages against the Greco Defense?

After the first two moves of the Greco Defense [fen ""] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6 what should White's agenda be? I see that the wikibook Chess Opening Theory suggests 3. Bc4, but it doesn't go into detail. I'm not used to this opening as White, and…
Daniel
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Prophylactic defenses

I'm a beginner and I haven't gotten into memorizing games. I don't like the idea of memorizing but now I think I have to learn a few to get to a higher level. Can someone give me a list of prophylactic defenses that a beginner should learn. Taking…
AWE
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Bughouse defense patterns

What defensive patterns and structures are used in Bughouse and Crazyhouse? I've heard that castling is rarely useful, but what should be done instead? My defensive play usually boils down to huddling in the "turtle formation": [FEN…
Lily Chung
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Beginner Openings/Defenses to learn

What are good openings/defenses to study for both black and white for beginners. I've messed around with the sicilian defense and it is not bad, there's just so many variations and different types of defenses/openings its overwhelming. I understand…
CSharper
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What are the setups/patterns useful in defence?

We have typical checkmating patterns (e.g. smothered mate). Similarly are there any standard setups/patterns useful specifically for defense? I am not looking for standard tactics like pinning/discovery/etc. I don't even know whether to call these…
rpattabi
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Ways to improve defensive skills

Last night I played two OTB games with a friend of mine and in both games I reached decent, even winning positions. At some moment though I overlooked my king safety and blundered horribly, which lead to losing both games. Going back further it…
Tomislav Dyulgerov
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How do you remove the annoying bishop on h3?

I got this game today (Me white): [fen "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"] 1. e4 d5 2. Nc3 e6 3. exd5 exd5 4. d4 h6 5. Be2 Nf6 6. Nf3 Bd7 7. O-O Qc8 8. Bf4 Bd6 9. Bxd6 cxd6 10. b3 Bh3 11. Re1 O-O 12. Nh4 g5 13. Nf3 Qg4 14.…
insipidintegrator
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Are there known opening gambit lines for black in the French defence?

I play the French defence with both colours (white and black) and generally play any of the orthodox main line openings (there are many eg Advance, Exchange, Classical,Tarrasch etc giving rise to many variations as openings and defence variation eg…
rpd
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Can the Sicilian Defence be reached if White didn't start with 1. e4?

If white is not playing 1.e4, can you still play the Sicilian Defense or is it even called that in this case? Also, after starting with the English Opening, can you only play Reversed Sicilian if black's first move was 1.e5?
Christian
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Is 22..., Nf6 a good alternative move to accepting the rook sacrifice by 22..., Kxf7 in Yi's recent "Immortal Game"?

In his recent "Immortal Game" against Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Wei Yi initiated his king hunt with the move 22.Rxf7!! from this position [FEN "3qr1k1/1b1rbp2/p2p2p1/1p1np3/4P3/P2BB2Q/1PP3PP/4RR1K w - - 0 22"] The annotation to this move said that the…
CConero
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Which 20th century grandmster had the highest draw percentage in their career?

The title says it all. I am looking to learn and adopt a play style which does not necessarily win, but is typified as being incredibly difficult to actually win against, hence why I wish to know who had the most draws.
Anon
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Scandinavian Defence queen e5

I'm new to chess (around 1000), and I like to practice the Scandinavian defence. I started to check the theory related to it, and I've never seen a single source talking about this queen move after Nc3. [FEN ""] 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qe5+ I…
soywod
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Should I play the Cozio defense deferred?

The Cozio defense to the Ruy Lopez: [FEN ""] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nge7 4. O-O The Cozio defense deferred: [FEN ""] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nge7 The deferred variation speaks more to me because I typically play a6. From the…
intx13
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