Most overrated chess axioms/ideas/theories?

[fezjones]

the thing about the GM when asked "how many moves ahead do you see?" and he replies, "one". The idea being that to play at a high level, you can get ahead with only understanding one move ahead, lol. to play good chess, you need to see a lot more than one move ahead, and also look out for tactics, and themes which involve multiple moves.

[Montrealcorp]

Originally Posted by John_Douglas

"Develop Knights before Bishops" is probably the most useless axiom. The others all have some degree of truth, but this one is just pointless.

+1, this is it imo


btw, this thread would of been better completed imo with a dual positive/negative axiom.

like the most overrated and underated axiom with 1 answer each !

[Sholar]

The importance of castling as a "rule" depends a little on one's rating. Starting out, people tend to understand neither king safety nor the value of connecting rooks, so it's a great rule to have.

Among, say, Class A players, people tend to get away with not castling because the opposition is not opportunistic enough in the opening. But strong opponents will punish one for it, in my experience.

A bad rule: Avoid doubled pawns. (Categorically, I don't even know whether this is good advice for beginners. Especially if it encourages them to trade bishops or pawns.)
A good rule: Rooks behind passed pawns.

[TexAg06]

I like the idea of adding some good axioms.

Good rule: centralize your king in the endgame. Rarely is that a bad idea.

[mikem07]

A good rule is don't start a flank attack unless the centre is blocked or under your control. I know this is a good rule because I have violated it many times and things usually don't turn out well.

[Montrealcorp]

well for me, the most underrated axiom is , always good to sacrifice a pawn to get the 7(1)th rank ( depending if u are white or black of course).

its amazing how powerfull this idea is to get a great game or turn a bad game into a drawy one.

[Rei Ayanami]

In the opening, try to advance your king to the seventh rank.

[g-bebe]

Originally Posted by Rei Ayanami

In the opening, try to advance your king to the seventh rank.

I agree, that's a very good one.

[ohsnapzbrah]

Good one: Rooks belong on the 7th(2nd) rank

[Mtnracer]

Originally Posted by leofric

The idea of identifying "candidate moves" then analysing them out - unfortunately noone's brain works like that!

+1

Yet, isn't it funny how many of the HS poker forums here use precisely this method of thinking?

[wlrs]

Not sure it's that funny - it's a good way to analyse chess positions outside of an actual game. I agree that using it during a game just doesn't work that great

[Cwocwoc]

Always move the King first when you're castling.

[Noir_Desir]

that's not overrated but completely necessary. It's the only way to make the castling move unambigious.

[ohsnapzbrah]

Not all candidate moves have to be analyzed, as intuition helps greatly with this. But the idea of finding candidate moves is a great chess axiom. HS poker is different though. In poker you only have 3 actions each turn and your opponent is limited to those same 3 actions all based around the board. In chess, you literally have infinite possibilities and can move up to 16 pieces numerous amounts of squares, and your opponent's reply has a similar number of movements.

[The Moocher]

as a devotee of alekhine's defence i've always found the advice of 'never move the same piece twice in the opening' to be quite impractical