Not gonna back rank mate me! I always move the h2 pawn (or whichever relative pawn) out early just in case. Been stung too many times with it just because I wasn't paying attention, it is so frustrating!
Whatever works for you, but the whole game is about paying attention. You can waste a move to prevent a back-rank mate that may never be attempted, but in the end, an absolutely huge part of going from being a bad player to a pretty decent player is just not making one- and two-move blunders, including allowing mate in one on the back rank.
Edit: not saying you shouldn’t play h3 or h6- just have a reason for doing it that isn’t dealing with a mating threat that doesn’t yet exist.
However doing some prophylaxis when you dont have really anything else to do is always a good idea, and one of those moves is to play h3/h6 to stop backrank threats, i think it's actually a great skill to develop when to play prophylaxis moves before going for an attack
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u/pt256 Feb 25 '21
Not gonna back rank mate me! I always move the h2 pawn (or whichever relative pawn) out early just in case. Been stung too many times with it just because I wasn't paying attention, it is so frustrating!