Ask Coach Jessica: How to Make a Plan Based on Your Opening

 

Buenos dias ChessKids! This week's question winner is Ceaseless Spark who wants to know "how to figure out what strategic plans are in the opening you play for you and your opponent?" Awesome question! 

Here's your one-sentence answer:

You can determine where to put your pieces based on the pawn structure, which is dictated by your opening! Let's see what that means. By, Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl).

OK you wanted to know about the Sicilian, one of my favorite openings. So in the Sicilian Dragon, Black's pawns look like this.

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What does that mean for your pieces? Well, you can't always reduce chess to a sum of its parts, but one general rule is that you follow your "river of pawns" to see where to attack. So you might try to aim your pieces at White's queenside (which is where he castles in the Yugoslav Attack!). 
 
There is a weakness on g7 and the surrounding dark squares since you pushed your g-pawn, so you stick a bishop in that cave (fianchetto). The bishop aims at the queenside, too! Your c-pawn is poised to trade with White's d-pawn, so you might put a rook on that semi-open file (where the white king will be). The queen is available to develop along the dark-square diagonal to help out.
 
Here's one example:
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The black pieces head to the queenside especially quickly when White castles over there! Of course there are lots of different kinds of Sicilians... Now let's look at the Queen's Gambit Declined for White. Pawns first!
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Where might the pieces go? In which direction is your pawn chain headed? Obviously I'm not giving Black any moves here, so your pawn structure could easily change depending on captures. If you like to get your bishop out before playing e3 (Cambridge Springs Variation), then your pieces might go:
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And now White is ready to play on any side of the board! The queen and bishop battery head toward the kingside and the pawns are prepared to strike in the center or maybe lead an attack on the queenside. Now you try! Where do you think Black might want his/her pieces here?
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The knight on b8 can't go to its regular square. And all the pawns are on white, so you have either gotten your bishop out before ...e6, or he will have to fianchetto on b7 (or hang out for a while). You could be playing a Slav or a Caro-Kann, and we don't know what White is doing. You might play on either side of the board. What did you choose?  Here is one example:
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There is some flexibility about move order, but basically once your pawns are set, your pieces will know where to go! Try this: make a plan for both White and Black. 
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RELATED STUDY MATERIAL

  • Playful Squirrel has a great video how how to "read" the pawns;
  • He also has some insight into how to make a plan in the middlegame;
  • Here's a video on BoundingOwl's favorite opening, the Dragon!