Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, May 23, 2023 02:25 PM UTC:

One theoretical curiosity is that there is the old rule of thumb (from gambit openings!?) that in open positions, a tempo is worth 1/3 of a pawn. If we accept that the bishop pair is worth half a pawn then it would seem that gaining it is usually(?) worth more than investing a tempo in an open position.

In closed positions, presumably with time not being as vital (usually), a tempo would be worth less than a third of a pawn. Yet, the Nimzo-Indian (1.d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2.c2-c4 e7-e6 3.Nb1-c3 Bf8-b4) is a highly respected black defence in closed games, with black often happily allowing white to gain the B-pair for (virtually) a tempo (or sometimes not even for that), namely via a2-a3 by White (not too useful a move usually, except for inducing the trade). Any other factors involved in assessing the huge variety of positions arising from this opening are less permanent or constant, perhaps, maybe with the exception that there is the initial fight for the centre being engaged in by black. If assessing values is that sensitive, I still wonder how reliable computer studies are, with the initial positions of the setups chosen maybe not being always nearly complete enough.


Edit Form
Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Avoid Inflammatory Comments
If you are feeling anger, keep it to yourself until you calm down. Avoid insulting, blaming, or attacking someone you are angry with. Focus criticisms on ideas rather than people, and understand that criticisms of your ideas are not personal attacks and do not justify an inflammatory response.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.