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Questions tagged [development]

The process of activating and coordinating your pieces in the opening of the game

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What is black’s compensation in the main line of the Caro Kann?

After move 10 in the main line of Caro Kann, black has already moved its light-squared bishop four times, while white manages to develop quite a bit. What exactly is blacks compensation for the lack of development? [fen ""] [Startply "21"] 1. e4 c6…
d4zed
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How should rooks be developed in the opening?

The opening is definitely a weak area in my chess game and I always feel like my rooks sit unused until well into the middle game (?). Is that just how things go, or is there a strategy that allows development of the rooks in the opening? I'm aware…
Rick Reynolds
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Developing the king before developing most of your pieces

I saw this opening for the first time and was amazed by the position of the white king. [FEN "?"] [startply "21"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 h6 5. g4 Bd7 6. h5 e6 7. f4 c5 8. c3 Nc6 9. Nf3 Qb6 10. Kf2 O-O-O 11. Kg3 In this position, white…
Zuriel
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Is AlphaZero open source?

There are a lot of fake AlphaZero projects on GitHub. While I was googling if it was open-source, the answer in most places is yes, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Is there a link to where the code is?
Varun W.
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Why develop knights before bishops?

So, I've found the general advice that you should develop your knights before your bishops. Reasons I think are: 1) The knights almost always go to the main squares (c3,c6,f3,f6) (or sometimes to d7 the black knight in the queen's gambit) but,…
Santropedro
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How to take advantage of under-development of opposing pieces?

Gambit openings are usually based on sacrificing pieces to have much better piece development. Some gambits, like Queen's gambit, or King's gambit, I can understand the idea. However, I cannot evaluate Danish gambit. White sacrifices two pawns, has…
padawan
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Development problems for black after f4 in French Defence

I am a French player as black. I am having problems in lines where white advances their e pawn and plays f4 to defend e5. I feel like the break on f6 is useless. I am afraid to castle short. My bad bishop gets trapped and in general I get a…
user27142
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In Bb5 systems against the Sicilian, why does White exchange their b5 bishop without playing a6?

Isn't White giving up too much, i.e. one tempo in the opening and the bishop pair, for too little, i.e. doubled pawns? For example, after [FEN ""] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 Bc6 is the second option in Lichess Masters database.
emdio
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Why black is happy with slow development?

One important opening principle is to develop your pieces and being ahead in development is the aim of the opening. In the following opening, white is obviously ahead in development (developed the queen and both knights, one of them in a centre…
Zuriel
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Petrosian's 9. ... Be7 10. ... Ng8 11. ... Bf8

I am amazed by Petrosian's manoeuvre 9. ... Be7 10. ... Ng8 11. ... Bf8 in the following game: [Title "Benko - Petrosian, Curacao 1962"] [fen ""] [Startply "17"] 1. g3 d5 2. Nf3 c6 3. Bg2 Bf5 4. O-O e6 5. d3 Nf6 6. Nbd2 Nbd7 7. Qe1 h6 8. e4 Bh7 9.…
Zuriel
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Using Stockfish in Commercial Apps

Stockfish uses a GPLv3 license, which requires you to release your source code if you use it. This then makes your own code GPLv3. However, chess.com, chessable and decodechess all use Stockfish. So, how do they use it without releasing their source…
Jon
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Not Developing a Piece in the First Five Moves

Here are the first few moves: 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.Nd5 Bc5 4.Nf3 e4 5.d4 Bf8 After the fifth move, black has essentially only pushed one pawn, while while has developed two knights and his c-pawn and d-pawn. However, the current position does not…
Zuriel
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Neither Attacking nor Defending?

I am a novice in chess. After about ten moves, I sometimes get into a situation where I am neither attacking nor defending and really can't figure out what my next move should be (that is I don't want to launch a premature attack, but not getting…
c00der
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When and why should I develop my knight to e2 or f3 in the English Opening?

I have heard that in English opening white should play d4 and Nf3, unless black plays Bc5. In this case white plays d3 and Ne2 in order to block the black bishop. However, that lesson seems to be fairly amateur, since Stockfish disregards this…
Максим Фисман
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Where do black's centre pawns and light square bishop belong in the symmetrical English?

I played a rapid game last night and got this symmetrical English position as black: [FEN ""] [StartPly "116"] 1. c4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nxd4 O-O 8. Nxc6 bxc6 I found it hard to know where to put my d and e…
user1108
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