Coaching juniors

[Roger de Coverly]

Our junior player is white. It is blacks turn to move. His idea is to play Bc4, supporting the idea of attacking the f7 square so that Nf7 can then be played (attacking the queen.) The king and rook of black is defending f7.

As it's Black to move, then cxd4 or Nxd4 look as if they win a pawn.

I don't think dodgy attacks work any better than they did before computer engines. It's a position where Bc4 can be met by . .. e6 , so the patterns just don't work.

[James Coleman]

Ignoring the fact that Black's ...Re8 was slightly bizarre - I'd probably go back to basics with him somewhat and have a discussion of the very often seen continuation in junior games (at least in my experience) of a sequence such as 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. Ng5 O-O and why it isn't at all promising for white.

That might well give him a more flexible perspective on the position type in the given situation.

[Ray Sayers]

I think it is going to be hard to stop a Junior playing Ng5 & Bc4 if it worked lots of times before! It's a bit like fools' mate - you say 'don't get your queen out early' but if they keep winning in 4 moves there is not much incentive.

I would suggest banging on about moving the same piece twice in the opening and getting developed/castled first - I mean, playing Ng5 moved the same piece twice, took the knight away from the centre, allowed Black to take the d4 pawn and didn't develop any pieces. But I think he needs to play these types of moves and lose with them and learn by experience.

I remember when I started playing - I used to play the English. I had been told that you shouldn't shove all your pawns up in front of your king. For some reason I castled Queen side in a school match, shoved all my pawns up in front of my king and surprise surprise I got chopped up. Afterwards, I was told again not to shove all my pawns up in front of my king and you know what - this time it stuck!

I tend to tell players 'If you play e4, Nf3, Bc4 and o-o then you are not going to go far wrong'.

Edit - James - I think we were on the same wavelength there - you beat me to it!

[David Shepherd]

My view on the situation would be to

1) Try to explain Re8 which the junior doesn't understand. This would probably be some sort of prep for moving the black e pawn forward. Also it is opposite the white king and could lead to some threats if the centre of the board opens before white is castled, but explain he needs to work out how close that is to happening and how close white is to castling, and how big a threat it really is
2) Praise the junior for noticing the f pawn has been weakened. Point out that he is right to notice that there are at least two things that happens on any move - those relating to where the piece has gone to and those relating to where it came from - i.e. it is no longer protecting the f pawn
3) Then look at threats and captures that the opponent might have and candidate moves for your junior, including considering what whites last move was, was there a plan and does the black move mean a change of plan is required
4) I think Bc4 is a candidate move it develops the Bishop with a threat (exploiting the weakness left by the last move) and brings white one move closer to castling. He needs to look at the possible replies his opponent has and work out how good Bc4. It doesn't really matter whether he gets this right or wrong
5) What he must do is look at other possible candidate moves, for example there is tension in the centre he needs to consider each move whether these pawns should move, some pieces are not developed and his king not castled. It is important that he learns to find and evaluate all the different candidate moves, rather than just focusing on a response to his opponents last move.
6) Ask him what his short and long term plans are in the positions and where strengths and weaknesses are

[Matthew Turner]

I think David's question is more about how to explain that Ng5 is not a great move. The junior is obviously good enough to understand that you are supposed to get your Knights and Bishops out and control the centre. He has also grasped the idea that f7 (f2) is a weak square at the beginning of the game. That is all pretty good stuff. After these moves

e4 c5 Nf3 Nc6 d4 g6 Nc3 Nf6 h3 Bg7 Bf4 0-0

(to get to David's position)

What then is the best option for White?
Ng5 is good because it attacks that weak square (which isn't quite so weak now Black has castled)

but it has downsides
It moves apiece away from the centre

How else could white attack f7?
Bc4 - that also is good because it attacks f7
but it also develops a piece
and allows White to castle

What are downsides?
well if you pushed a point you could say it left a piece undefended but basically there are no downsides.

[David Blower]

Can I first of all say the position shown in the diagram is not an exact position from one of his games. Infact I just made some random moves to get into the sort of position without really checking if they were sound moves or not. However it is the TYPE of position I'm on about it, and yes he does move his knight twice to get into this sort of position. Its so tempting to do that of course, and yes some of you realise that as its worked before he'll keep doing it.

Perhaps an aim for the first 10 moves should be:

Develop both d and e pawns
Develop both knights
Develop both Bishops
Castle
Connect the Rooks by moving the Queen out to file 2 or 7
Move both rooks to the centre

Of course with the opponent trying to do the exact same thing, it won't always be possible, but should give some idea of what he is aiming for after 10 moves. But those are my aims during the first 10 moves, and the aim is only move a piece twice if you are certain to win (or get back) material.