Passive Play Leads to a Less Promising Day: Can you CDC?

Buon giorno chess friends!  Welcome to another day of chess, chess, chess!  This lesson we will look at a game where black, a Grandmaster, loses because he did not develop well.  Can chess be that simple?!  Watch as Mrs Jessica E Prescott, aka BoundingOwl, shows you an awesome miniature.  The king will dance all the way down the board!

This is also a lesson in psychology.  (Brain and feeling stuff, which is also part of chess.)  The idea is that you need to know three things in the beginning of the game, CDC.  Center, Develop, and Castle Wink.  Very often kids will get kind of obsessed with knowing the names of lots of openings and all their different variations... but there is so much more to know!  At some point, you will need to know that stuff.  Maybe when you are like 1600 or so.  But until then, you really just need to know the fundamentals and a few tricks, and that will get you through most openings.

Even GMs make mistakes!  The psychology lessons are two:

1.  If you see an opening where you don't know what to do, just remember CDC and try not to feel worried.

2.  If you make a mistake, don't be too hard on yourself.  Try to move on.

(I'm guilty of the 2nd one a lot...Frown)

Now let's see that game!  There are lots of variations, so be sure to click around and read the notes.  The opening is called The Scotch:  Four Knights for those of you just dying to know! Tongue Out

What do you think?  Did you notice how white was playing ACTIVELY which made black play PASSIVELY?  Try playing aggressively and doing CDC in your own games!  See you next time! Laughing