"If one piece is bad, the entire position is bad"

by Jan Markos

The principle that a badly placed piece can have a decisive influence on the outcome of a game has two aspects in practice. It means, of course, that you should make sure to actively involve all your own pieces in your play; further resulting in a strategic approach - to gain a decisive advantage by removing one of your opponent's pieces from the game as completely as possible! In his video, Jan Markos presents two great games – Cheparinov-Stellwagen (Amsterdam 2005) and Svidler-Carlsen (Grenke Chess Classic 2019) – as prime examples.

After the video you have the opportunity to test your knowledge in a training database compiled by Jan Markos!

Small collection of exercises

Which piece in the black army is bad? How could we try to make use of it?
Radjabov,T - Aronian,L

Black seems to be fairly active. After all, his queen is in the middle of White´s camp.
However, White can prove that his position is preferable. How? So,W - Caruana,F

In the entire middlegame, Nakamura suffered from a bad light-squared bishop.
Now he tried to exchange it by playing 33.Bh3. However, this move can easily be refuted. How?
Nakamura,H - Aronian,L

Black is obviously better. He has got the better pawn structure and coordination.
However, what is the most exact way of converting his obvious advantage?
Short,N - Kramnik,V

How should White continue? Carlsen,M - Anand,V