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Why is Center control important in chess?
Are you a chess player who has mastered the basics but seems lost in limbo land when it comes to winning Chess games? Here is an instructive post beginners course material that will help you attain a decent level of understanding and a rock-solid foundation before entering the club-level and advanced level field. The first question that needs to be understood by a post-beginner is – why is Center control important in chess?
In my career as a coach spanning 10 years, I have seen that there is a dearth of structured syllabi, for beginners in Chess. Either they are too complicated/too basic for the post beginner, or they are not coherent – meaning that they do not answer the questions from a novice’s point of view. However, the evergreen rules are still relevant for a generic approach in learning.
My advice for a post-beginner is just one simple sentence –
Play simple chess – control the center!
The simplest advice to beginners is – Center control important in chess, develop your pieces actively, create problems for your opponent, and you will soon be winning many games.
Make your opponent think and let him stress out. After all, Chess is a mind game.
Why is this control of the center so important? Controlling the center limits your opponent’s mobility and hinders the relationship between his pieces. Advantages like these lead to attacking chances.
Now last week I received an email asking me to comment about the relevance of Center control and why many of the games are based on this one singular aspect of chess theory.
Mastering Control of the Center –
The biggest headache for all post-beginners in chess is they do not know why is Center control important in chess.
The reason why they miss out on this point is that they tend to either get carried away by some impromptu tactic or forget its importance or lose sight of the opponent’s ambitions in the center.
I always advise my students to keep it simple. Control the Center – this simple advice will fetch you points or save the lost points to a minimum draw.
Broad benefits (if you want to know why is Center control important in chess):
- Greater mobility of pieces. Often, if the central pawns are advanced to the central squares, then the mobility of the pieces is greatly increased. Thus, pawn moves such as e2-e4 free the bishop on f1 and d2-d4 do the same for the bishop on c1. Later on, these moves also free the queen on d1 and the rooks.
- Greater influence over the whole board. For e.g., a centralized Knight on e5 generally controls more important squares inside the enemy camp than a knight passively placed, say, on a4.
- Limit and push back the strong pieces of your opponent or restrict the mobility of enemy pieces.
- Break his defense of the central squares to give you a free pawn as a bonus.
- You can use this central control to establish to make your own pieces placed on better squares called outposts.
Model games listed below showcase the concept of why center control important in chess.
1. Alekhine vs Casielles
2. Shabalov vs Smyslov
3. Tal vs Benko
4. Landa vs Purtov
5. Schlechter vs Wolf
.
Additional Model games for you to know why is Center control important in chess
Karpov vs Kasparov World Championship Match (1985), Game 16 – Kasparov places a black knight on d3 which was famously described as the ‘octopus‘, controlling several key squares in White’s position and throwing White off-balance. White’s knights on the other hand are passively placed and do not control the Center.
Paul Morphy vs James McConnell, 1849 – Morphy follows simple chess opening principles; develops pieces towards the center, control the Center, advances pawns to e4 and d4, empowers his bishops, and tortures his opponent!
Karpov vs Kasparov World Championship 1986, Game 5. – Karpov shows how pawns in the center, control the Center and can block a fianchettoed Bishop making it bite on granite.
Fischer vs Myagmarsuren, 1967 – Bobby Fischer pushes a pawn to e5 to drive the Black knight from f6 and then launches a King-side attack. This shows that when you control the Center, you control important squares. Now you have the ability to push your opponent’s pieces when the time arises.
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