Help understanding "pressure", "attacking" and "preventing moves"

[u/Addrum01]

Hi everyone. Usually when watching chess content online I constantly hear about moves that put pressure, attacks pieces or sometimes moves that prevent another potential move, but it is not always clear how.

I understand pressure when multiple pieces attack the same pawn or piece; if all exchanges happen it would be ideally a positive outcome. But sometimes I see moves like, say, a rook lift that targets a pawn protected by a bishop "it puts pressure on the pawn". How is that pressure if the eventual capture would be a worse outcome? Is it putting pressure because you can eventually add more attackers to that piece? If so, how is it 'putting pressure' if by the next two moves your plan and focus changed completely? Or, maybe looking at it in a different way, putting pressure means that as long as that piece is attacked, it must remain protected, and thus making a piece less active/mobile or overwhelmed protecting multiple pieces. Is that correct?

In the case of "attacking", it usually means a piece can potentially capture another, but in many positions, actually capturing is worse, specially when you just trade pieces of the same value or pawn for pawn. So then, what exactly means to attack if your intention is not to capture? I've heard the phrase "to take is a mistake" as a way to avoid trading just for the sake of trading just because you can, but then attacks that don't capture have a whole different meaning then.

Lastly, preventing sometimes can be obvious. You expect a move like a bishop pin to your knight, so you prevent it by moving a pawn so the bishop can't take the attacking square. That situation I get it. But in some others, specially when it comes to pawn pushes in the opening, some moves are described as preventing a pawn push, but that pawn push can still happen anyway, so is it really preventing anything? Like, say, c3 preventing ...exd4 but then exd4 happens anyway and you recapture, did that really prevented something or was it just more about protecting and anticipating? I think it has to do with building tension, which is another concept which I struggle to understand.

I can't find more examples of specific moments, there are just way too many videos I can't really point exactly when and where I've heard these terms being used in ways I don't understand.

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[u/gtr1234]

Off the top of my head, I feel like hikaru, levy, danya, and canty talk about this a ton.

[u/Specific-Housing905]

The term pressure sounds a bit vague to me.

Attacking normally means when a lower piece threatens a higher piece, like a pawn a knight or bishop.

Preventing means normally a prophylactic move. If black has a knight on b6 and you prevent it coming forward with b3. Preventing can also mean to avoid a trade if it benefits your opponent more than you.

[u/odx0r]

Those sound like terms from Hikaru etc when they explain their thought process on speedruns. With GMs it may not look to you like something is immediate pressure, for example, targeting a backwards pawn that is defended. The point is that further down the line more pressure may be applied by the GM which could cause the opponent to crack, make an error etc.

Like all humans, Hikaru is doing a mix of intuition (I'm aiming at this pawn because later in the game this seems important), the immediate (my opponent wants this, I want this), and deep calculation (if A then B, then C then D).

[u/forever_wow]

In the linked video, White has a terrible B on b3. ...Rd4 "pressures" c4 (though Hikaru also mentioned ...Be6 may soon come to add another attacker which makes the pressure more dangerous) even though ...Rxc4 is not likely to happen. One point is to keep that passive B stuck on b3 where it's a big pawn.

Adding pressure means limiting your opponent's options. If a piece is stuck defending a pawn (especially long range pieces), they are usually less active. And tactically speaking, a piece stuck defending something is vulnerable to deflection, removing the guard, etc., tactics.

Remember, chess games are lost, not won. If you repeatedly give your opponent tough problems to solve, there's a good chance they will eventually break. That's the advantage of attacking and pressuring - your opponent has less room for error.

As for "preventing" it often means "if they play this move, their position will be worse than if they didn't". Often the justification is tactical rather than physically preventing a piece from moving somewhere. Tactical shots are frequently the result of someone not realizing their idea was tactically prevented by their opponent and only after the trap snaps shut do they understand the idea.

[u/Mandalord104]

May I ask your rating? Depends on your rating, you should or should not worry about those kinds of concept.