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A comment on A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002). Parent comment

Re:A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002) by EarthIsHome on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @06:47PM (#25450367)
> The way you win in chess is to create an imbalance and then exploit your half of it.

This is a very helpful way for me to think about future moves, because I can add to my mental checklist: "scan for any possible imbalances."

You mentioned three facets: piece imbalance, pawn structures, and weaknesses near the king (or other pieces).

Are there more?

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Re:A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002) by millstone on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @07:11PM (#25450590)
Chess author Jeremy Silman, who champions the "imbalance" idea, gives a list:

- Minor pieces (bishops vs knights)

- Pawn structure

- Space

- Material

- Files and squares

- Development

- Initiative

I would add how much time is left on the clock, though that is not a feature of the board.

An example: say you have a bishop and your opponent has a knight. This is an imbalance, and you want to exploit it by making your bishop better than their knight. Concretely that means trading pawns, to open up the game, so your bishop can bring its long-range strengths to bear.

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