How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 1)

Basically, the sooner you move your Knights, the sooner your pieces get the extra moving ability. It’s always safe to spend your first two moves on moving the Knights into the board. This is safe for the Black side too. If you see your opponent is moving the Knights, you just take the advantage and do the same too.

A question may be asked here and that is “Is it better to move the Knights towards the center of the board, or the sides?”

The answer seems to be obvious if you take a look at the position on the board. Let’s consider the following position:



As you can see, both players have moved the Knights for the first two moves. The White Knight in C3 has the squares A2, E2, and D1 in its range. So three pieces are made Knights and that means White can easily open the A column by moving the pawn in A2 to B4 and free the Rook on A1. I’m not going to say if it’s a good move or not, but that it’s just a possibility that can never be achieved in regular Chess so early in a game.

The White Knight on F3 has squares H2, D2, and E1 in its range. Obviously the player wouldn’t move the King next move. So that is 2 squares covered. So in two moves, both players have 5 useful pieces that are capable of moving as Knights.

If you move the Knights to the sides of the board, well, you have reduced the number to just 2, the squares C2 and F2 from the point of view of White in the above example. This undoubtedly isn’t wise.

As you can see, right now both Bishops are locked and none of the players has any control on the center of the board which is very important to have under control, so a very good move, probably the best, for white is to move one of the pawns in D2 or E2.

Now, which one, and to what square?

There are 4 possibilities: D2 to D4, D2 to E4, E2 to E4, and E2 to D4.

I personally think they are all good, but I usually play E2 to D4. There are a couple of reasons. Firstly, it opens the way for my Bishop on F1. This gives me both the advantage of moving my bishop, and Castling King side. But as I said, I cannot see any particular weaknesses if any of the four possible moves above are made.



Let me right now mention that the above and following diagrams are taken from one of my games with a very good player. I’m playing as Black.

As you see, the player has played what I’d have played too and I have responded by D7 to D5. I could have played E7 to D5 too, or even E7 to E5 if I felt like playing oddly. But since I knew my opponent was good enough to use the slightest mistake, I didn’t do it. So far, the board is clear to understand and none of us has a great advantage.

(to be continued)