I finally understand the value of controlling space

I watched this video ( youtu.be/OHkNaSh19lU ) by Yasser Seirawan and for some reason, something clicked. After all these years I finally see the board in a different way. I always knew it was about a fight for control of space but i never thought about the value of each piece in relation to that space or the difference between 'challenged space' and 'controlled space'.

I also thought about reassessing my judgement on the value of each piece. I've started to reconsider that the typical values given to those pieces. for instance. i've a the value of a piece is determined by the amount of squares it can potentially control, then what if instead of say a rooks value is 10/2 or bishop is 7/2, what it the value of a rook and a bishop is worth 13 and rook worth 14 since those are the maximum number of squares they can potentially control potentially control.

I know theres probably some reason people dont value them this way but i'm gonna start seeing the board this way and see how it goes. It makes sense to me and i think thats all that really matters.

checck out this game i just played with this concept in mind. The player had a lower rating than me but it was like I was playing for the first time again and it was pretty fun. I made a couple of mistakes but still i was able to seeobvious weaknesses that i probably wouldnt have noticed before.

Thx for reading.

lichess.org/embed/MpxnnJJh?theme=auto&bg=auto

heres another game using the same ideas but this time against someone much stronger than me (+300 difference). i beat him fairly easily. :) im really liking this new perspective.

lichess.org/embed/CqnyKUpZ?theme=auto&bg=auto

#2 9 bxc3 and white is a solid pawn up.

@tpr yeh i thought about that. hes a pawn up but its isolated so i figured it was decent compensation. youre probably right though

You cannot win the isolated pawn. The potential threat for black is the white e-pawn, which is a candidate passed pawn. You are probably right however, that you can hold the game to a draw. So you do effectively have compensation, but no more than that.

For a long time, I've found space to be the hardest of the classical principles of opening/middlegame play for me to understand. There is something slightly abstract about it when you really stop and wonder - why is a (black) pawn on b4 so much better than a (black) pawn on b6? The obvious answer is it controls the square c3, but still we have spent at least two tempi getting in there, and we've created weaknesses in our camp.
It is quite abstract and not an obvious concept at all, and it really depends on the position. There are many classical examples of pawns being pushed too far, leaving weaknesses behind or the advanced pawns becoming vulnerable themselves as they are too far in the opponent's camp to be defended effectively. Either way, this topic is something for the chess player to meditate on, for sure.

Space is overvalued. There are many examples where the side with less space wins e.g. in the hedgehog positions.

I was searching for studies on Lichess which explain these positional motifs a little bit more in detail.
But I was not really sucessful. Most studies are about openings and tactics.

Does anyone of you know about studies which cover the positional motifs a little bit more in detail ?
E.g.
- good bishop/ Bad bishop
- plans what to do with your knights
- weak squares
- controlling important squares
- pawn structures, pawn stormes, everything else about pawn moves
And many more

By the way, the endposition in the video from Seirawan is really nice. Never saw three absolute pins at the same time in a game before.

@Bishop1964

Just used the word "position" in the study search bar and came up with quite a few studies. Didn't go through any of them so I don't know if the search produced results that are relevant to your requirements but here is an example: lichess.org/study/tDFtUNJv

@PixelatedParcel

This kind of study is not what I am looking for.

I am actually bored by books which show games with endless variations and sub-variations. These kind of studies are surely helpful for people who have already learned how to work with them.

What I am looking for are studies which were designed for beginners. The study designer must explain the reasons why a move is good with words and not only by showing a long computer variations.
The studies must be filled up with these colourful arrows and circles to visualize things.

I have an example. For a long time, the endgame K + B + N vs. K was the most complicated endgame for me.
I was never able to give checkmate with knight and bishop, because I was not able to coordinate these pieces well enough.
But then I found something out which worked pretty well.
I stopped looking at my bishop and my knight. I only looked at the squares which these pieces controlled. To visualize the controlled squares, I simply put pennies on a chessboard.
Then I was able to see how to build a fence without any gaps to make sure that the opponent king cannot escape the mating net.

So I found out that your pieces are not important at all. It is only important which squares you control with your pieces.
I am pretty sucessful in using this kind of technique when I solve tactical puzzles.

But now, I want to start with studying all these positional motifs and the ideas behind them.
But this seems to be boring stuff and complicated stuff for most people. Good studies on these things seem to be rare on Lichess as far as i can see.

At the moment, I started to read a book from IM Jeremy Silman (How to reassess your chess / 2012). I guess that I will make a lot of "Not listed" studies about this book only for private use, because I don't want to get sued for any kind of copyright infringement.

I hoped that I could save some time, because maybe those studies are already existing somewhere here and a could get access to them.

But I guess that making my own studies will help me the most. That is at least the experience which I made, when I made my studies about "puzzle solving". Both listed tutorial were very helpful for me.