The Principles of Openness (Part 1)

Development of forces

The time factor plays an important role in a chess game. He who has advanced in the development of the pieces, generally takes the initiative and can make his plans more easily if he has more strength in a certain sector of the board. However, there are usually games in which one of the opponents, trying to avoid this or that theoretical continuation or pursuing a certain purpose, fails the development principle and already at the beginning of the game falls into a difficult situation. Here is a short game, in which Black mobilized his queen prematurely, lost a number of times for his retirement, delayed development and quickly left: Boleslavsky, I – Gurgenidze, B 1-0 (Championship Semifinal of the USSR, 1960).

Sicilian Defense. Her Majesty must be respected, and while there may be exceptions, the principle that the lady must not be mobilized too soon is always in force. Let’s see what happened in the short game Zuboya, N – Konstantinova, T 0-1, Youth Championship of the USSR 1968.

For the queen a defenseless “b” pawn is always a temptation. The problem is that that pawn is often a poisoned pawn. In the game Taimanov, M – Savon, V 1-0 (Semifinal of the USSR Championship, 1962), Black played the Dutch Defense with little success, and not only delayed its development, but also completely ceded the center to your opponent.

The results of this proposal were made very soon. In the Petrosian game, T – Kortschnoj, V 1-0 (Tournament of the Pretenders to the title of World Champion, 1962), imperceptibly Black found himself in a difficult situation due to his delay in development.