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Good chess moves have always been critical to winning a chess game. While chess openings have been under scrutiny for centuries, it is still challenging to identify the best and worst moves. When you play chess, you would always be interested in learning the best opening moves to start on a strong foot and increase your chances of winning. However, very few chess players take note of the bad chess moves that ruin their game.
Chess novices will undoubtedly find it difficult to identify whether a move is good or bad. But, even the experienced players stumble upon the wrong moves without realizing what they could do to their game. It now makes more sense why it takes many years to become a grandmaster. It all comes down to the experience one gains while playing chess, recognizing patterns, identifying what moves are good, and the ones you shouldn’t try again.
Without further argument, let’s take a look at some of the common chess moves that can ruin your game.
10 Bad Chess Moves
Barnes Opening
Perhaps, one of the worst opening chess moves is the Barnes Opening (1. f3), i.e., moving the pawn in front of the bishop. This move takes control of the center and blocks the f3 square for the knight, which is an important square as it doesn’t allow pieces to develop while also weakening the king’s safety. This move puts the white pieces in an inferior position with no control of the center and an overall disadvantage.
Also Read: Chess First Move Strategy for Whites
Ware Opening
Another bad chess opening move that beginners usually make is the Ware Opening. The ware opening move brings the a-rook out very early in the game. The move is not logical as just a move of the black pawn to e5 opens up the board for the black bishop to take control of the a3 square and capture the rook. The Ware opening can lead to an unnecessary loss of a rook early in the game.
Moving the Queen Early
Agreed that the queen is the strongest piece on the board. However, employing it early in the game can ruin your game for good. There are mainly two concepts behind not developing your queen early. The first concept is that if you bring out your queen early, you may find yourself running behind your usual pace and escaping multiple threats from your opponent. Because the queen is so important, any threat causes her to be retrieved, consuming time instead of developing your pieces. If your opponent is experienced, they may use your queen to grow their pieces more quickly.
The other problem you may face is not knowing where to position the queen, as not many of your opponent’s pieces are developed at an early stage. Moving the queen to f3 also takes away the good square from the g1 knight, leading to castling and disorganization of white’s pieces.
Moving Pawns Guarding the King
As a chess player, you must already know the importance of castling. Castling in the early part of a game is valuable as it helps move the king into a safer position away from the center and moves the rook to the center of the board in a more active position.
One of the worst chess moves is moving the pawn guarding the castled king. The purpose of the pawn in front of the king is to keep the king safe. If you move that pawn, you will be compromising your king’s safety. If there’s an alternate way to make a better move, you must avoid moving that pawn.
Amar Opening
Abbreviated for an absolutely mad and ridiculous opening by Savielly Tartakower, you can tell from the name that it is a bad chess move. In this move, white develops the knight deliberately and brings it to h3 dor a short castle. However, white fails to notice that if black plays 1. D5 and 2. Bxh3, the knight will be captured, and the white king’s side pieces will be ruined, making it difficult to castle.
In such an opening, white can play G3 to protect the knight with the bishop at f1. But even then, the knight would be oddly positioned, and the white side would have several weaknesses that black can take advantage of.
Also Read: Online chess opening traps: Know before it’s too late!
Grob’s Attack
One of the worst chess moves that white can make is the Grob’s attack which is an irregular opening. In this opening, the while moves its pawn from g2 to g4. The black can respond with 1. D5 opening the path for the black bishop to capture the white pawn. Grob’s attack leads to an inferior position for white, making it lag in development.
Moving the F2 Pawn
The f2 pawn is crucial for the game as the f2 square protects the king. Moving the pawn at f2 leads to a vulnerable opening. In this chess move, black can use the two most common checkmates based on Fool’s mate and Scholar’s mate ideas. For instance, if white moves f2 pawn to f4 and black moves e2 to e3. In the subsequent moves, black can move the queen to h4 and checkmate. The squares surrounding the king are crucial for the protection of the king, especially the f4 square.
Starting the Game with a4 and h4
Many chess beginners and amateur players often tend to start the game with the a4 and h4 moves. These moves are used to activate the rooks behind the pawns. This is a bad chess move as it does not help with the development of the pieces. Moreover, because the pawns and d and e aren’t developed, it also hinders the early development of the bishops. Developing the right pieces is critical, with sound moves early in the game if you want to gain an edge over your opponent. Therefore, the a4 and h4 moves are not considered good moves at the beginning of the game.
Castling in certain situations
While castling is always a good idea, it may not be the best in certain situations. For instance, in a case where the white has double pawns of f2 and f3, and the black’s knight and queen are posing a threat for white kings, castling on the king’s side is one of the worst chess moves. In such a situation, when the opponent’s pieces are active on the king’s side of the board, and the pawn structure on that side is damaged, castling on the queen’s side is much safer.
Clemenz Opening
This opening is as bad as Grob’s Attack and is counted in the list of bad chess moves. The Clemenz opening may even lead to Grob’s Attack if played correctly. The Clemenz opening starts with white moving its pawn to h3. This move is not beneficial as it neither controls the center nor does it castle or develop the pieces. In fact, it creates a weakness on the king’s side. Although this move doesn’t create trouble for white, white could soon get into trouble with more of such passive moves.
Conclusion
Understanding the best and worst chess moves comes with more experience of playing chess. You will understand these moves better when you play them in your next chess game on MPL, make mistakes, and understand where you went wrong. However, these moves give an idea of which pieces you should absolutely avoid moving at the beginning of the game. In any case, when you avoid these top 10 chess moves that can ruin your game, you will notice a significant improvement in your game.
