I hope my question isn’t too general or broad but I play a colleague at my local chess club who is bent on trading to get to the endgame. I used to play like this until I started to learn more but I am at a loss with playing against this trader. Can anyone suggest a good opening or tactic to combat this kind of play? TIA
Welcome to the forums!
It is a broad question. 
The general advice I’d give is: Play defensively or positionally. Don’t place your pieces into positions where they can be traded off evenly, or if an even trade occurs evaluate your space, tempi, and threats to opponent’s king safety advantages carefully. (By taking material, did your opponent actually give you an advantage somewhere else?)
AFAIK, nothing in the universe can keep an opponent from trading pieces evenly - the only thing you can do is look for what the opponent gives up in that act.
For openings, I see a lot of scholastic-age players open with either Knight moves or pawn to 3rd/6th rank moves. Not the best opening theory - you invite your opponent to shape the center, lose tempi (and often space as well.) But it does put you into an immediately defensive frame, seems to slow trading at the risk of stagnating development, and for the well-researched player it can often lead into opening traps and/or transpositions which aren’t so bad.
You may want to look at the Stonewall Attack and also the Stonewall Variation of the Dutch defense. Stonewall systems throw out a lot of pawn moves, but at the expense of development the player creates formations that are relatively hard to crack.
Good luck!
This is your opportunity to learn about endgames. Just because the queens are off (or each player only has a rook and a few pawns) doesn’t mean the game will be a draw!
When you don’t feel like doing that, play closed or semi-open positions. If the pieces aren’t flying around, they cannot be easily exchanged.
Finally practice tactics and calculation. I would guess that in some positions, he’ll miscalculate some of his tactics and you’ll end up a pawn ahead, or a piece ahead, after the exchanges. But you may have to set traps to encourage him.
There’s a lot you can learn from playing this guy but he’s not so tough.
Hmm. Thats never bothered me. I tend to look at the current position, and plan accordingly. I’d say more often than not, if an opponent really wants to trade down, I’ll try to pick up a tempo (rather than looking for complicated tactics), and then just use that for leverage in the endgame. When a person has a tempo going into the late middlegame or early endgame, you can often use that to find some really good combinations. But if all else fails, just grind the oppenent down with the extra tempo.
The endgame is 1/3 of the game of chess. If you hate playing endgames, then you are missing out on a major component of chess. You are limiting yourself, and that will impede the increase in your skill and rating. In fact, a majority of high level games come down to some sort of ending. (Admittedly, masters often agree to a draw or resign quickly, because they already understand what would happen if they played on.)
As a teacher, I’ll tell you that the endgame is the most important part of the game. It is a laboratory for learning concepts in a simplified position. For example, a tempo might give you an advantage in middlegame, yet it may be the difference between winning and losing in endgame. If you learn how to find the best square for your rook in a rook endgame, that’s a skill you might apply to a more complex opening position as well.
Michael Aigner
Here’s a great book:
Interesting… I had read the question as not protesting about reaching an endgame per se. Rather, that the opponent is slapping out trades to simplify the board and trying to skip through the middlegame as quickly as possible. (Without regard to strategic consideration.) Such behavior should generally be ‘punishable’ if true. But maybe I read it wrong.
If I read it right, the other question to ask would be: When your opponent starts trading, what is the material balance? The general rule of thumb is: If you’re ahead material, trade as much as possible to reach a superior endgame. (There are plenty of exceptions to this - it does no good to trade away if the superior material color is back rank mated, for example. Or when trading down reveals other tactical possibilities.)
I assume the original poster would not mind if his opponent traded into a losing endgame. Frankly, the better your endgame skills, the smaller the advantage you need to turn it into a win. Most C players need to be up a pawn or two, yet a master may be happy with just an outpost or a good bishop.
As I said, the endgame is the most important part of the game.
Michael Aigner
Isn’t the Ruy Lopez exchange variation an example where black’s position gets worse as more trades take place?
Or, if you are a lower-ranked player, Silman’s Endgame Course.
Normally the idea of exchanges is create pawn weaknesses.
Or in-between: amazon.com/Endgame-Strategy- … 1857440633
I think Silman’s Endgame Course is really good for players that are class B or lower.
another good endgame book (I’m working through it now) is de la Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know.
Averbakh’s Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge is still very good
While I have not done more than thumb thru Silman, its organization by difficulty is more logical for the B/C/D player than de la Villa.
If you have any doubt that there’s a lot to simple positions, go on amazon.com and take a free “look inside” of Dvoretsky’s book at the “First Pages” where he talks about pawn endgames. They are positions where each side has a king and no more than three pawns, and there is a lot to learn about them.
This is stuff that could very well come up in your games next week. It’s not obscure stuff that you don’t really have to know.
[size=150]When is the best time to trade pieces? Are there any general guidelines?[/size]
Here are some situations where you want to trade pieces off the top of my head. They overlap and some have big exceptions of course …
- To trade down to winning ending (generally includes “when you are ahead in material”.)
- To trade down to a drawn ending.
- When you gain a material advantage by trading.
- When you get an attack by trading (exchange sac.)
- When your pawn structure is better for the endgame.
- When your king is in danger and the trade reduces the danger.
- When you can change the pawn structure in your favor by doing so (the recapture improves your pawn structure or hurts your opponent’s pawn structure.)
- When you trade off your opponent’s best piece or your worst piece.
- When you can get a better piece combination (each side has Q + B + N, you trade your B for opponent’s N because Q + N work well together.)
- When it’s unavoidable (open file, if you don’t trade rooks there, opponent gets control and hurts you.)
“Because you want a draw” is not on the list.
Good stuff Kurt can use it to prepare for his fist tournament.
There is the old rule of thumb: when behind in material trade pawns and when ahead in material trade pieces. Exceptions to that are easy to find but it is a rule of thumb because it is more often correct than not.
Just remember that there is no magic formula that works in all positions. If you just rely on rules of thumb then you run into problems like one of my US Open opponents had (he was about 200 points lower rated, was in noticeable time pressure near the end of the first time control, wanted a draw, and grabbed my offer of a rook trade leaving a K+light-squared-B+6P vs K+dark-squared-B+6P ending figuring that it would be a bishops-on-opposite-colored-squares draw - not this time though).
Learn some gambits and play extremely aggressive against him next time