What Is Space in Chess? | Chess Video Lecture | Learn to Play Chess: From a Novice to a Fierce Competitor - Hobbies

hi coach tall here with chess NYC and
today I'm going to be talking to you
about space space is basically the
amount of squares you have available to
your pieces take for example this
typical opening position if we look here
White has more squares for his pieces in
there for more space he has this entire
rank as well as these two squares and
possibly some here for now we're going
to ignore it counting our opponent's
squares black as we can see has fewer
squares along the third rank and fourth
ranks because White's pawn stifles him I
like to think of space as like a pie
when we start the game we have eight
guys and eight pieces of pie as the game
progresses I may take space and
therefore take some of your pie now
let's say I have nine pieces of pie and
you only have seven but we still both
have eight guys and now they're hungry
and they're going to have to fight over
the same pie or in this case space so
let's look at what I mean white with all
his extra space can find a natural
square to develop all his pieces too
while blacks pieces some may find
natural squares but others for instance
this Knight and Bishop now have to fight
over the same square where they would
both like to be developed when you have
a space advantage you would like to
avoid trades white here for instance
would not be happy trading his knight
for blacks because then all of black's
pieces would be able to easily find
squares in conclusion space will cramp
your opponent and don't trade your
pieces because that lets him off the
hook