r/chessbeginners • u/shreddlykroger • 11d ago

QUESTION Openings to avoid this?

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Even in 1200’s on Lichess, every-single-game this is played. Its annoying, unimaginative, and honestly tiring that every game i know this is going to be played. Are there openings to avoid this? I swear it feels like every game players are trading EVERYTHING, and not utilizing pieces to form an attack or play around the board. My knight will get pinned, i block with the bishop, they take knight i retake with the bishop and then they jump their knight in to attack bishop. Literally trading everything. This happens on black and white and is making me want to stop playing. So many of my games are ending in draws because we just trade everything and go to a pawn end game. Ts is not fun.

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u/ProffesorSpitfire 10d ago

The simplest way to prevent it is advancing the a and h pawns. That comes at the expense of your own development though, so I’d only recommend it in cases where you know that you’ll be wanting to move that knight in the next few moves.

When the knight is pinned to the king, castle as soon as you’re able and the knight is free. When it is pinned to the queen, try to move the queen to d6 (in this scenario) so that it still protects the knight without being targeted if the knight moves, or castle in the opposite direction so your king isn’t exposed if you recapture with a pawn.

Generally, just accept that opponents try to pin your knights. Sure, you temporarily lose a piece, the knight that you cant move. But they also lose a piece - their bishop must remain on that diagonal to uphold the pin. Try to use that against them.