Which pieces to exchange
In short
Exchanges are among the most important decisions. Trade your bad pieces for the opponent’s good ones; trade attackers when you are defending; avoid trades when you have more space; trade into endgames that favour your structure.
By the end you can
- Choose exchanges deliberately
- Evaluate the resulting endgame before trading
The lesson
Exchanges are among the most important decisions. Trade your bad pieces for the opponent’s good ones; trade attackers when you are defending; avoid trades when you have more space; trade into endgames that favour your structure.
Before every trade, picture the position without those two pieces. Who controls the key squares now? Is the resulting endgame good for you?
Key points to remember
- Bad for good
- Defender trades attackers
- Space advantage: avoid trades
- Picture the position after the trade
Examples
Homework
Mark every trade in two games and judge whether it helped you.
More strategy lessons
- Reading a position: the imbalances (Class D)
- Good and bad pieces (Class D)
- Outposts and open files (Class D)
- The isolated queen’s pawn (IQP) (Class C)
- Carlsbad structure and the minority attack (Class C)
- Hanging pawns and pawn breaks (Class C)