Chess Openings : Count the Developing Moves

You know that each piece has a material value. A minor piece (Knight or Bishop) is worth three Pawns, a Queen is worth three minor pieces, and so on.

You may also know that, along with the well known material counts, chess masters use intangibles like time and space to evaluate a position. We're not going to discuss the value of space here, but now that we know about developing moves, we can talk about time.

Count the developing moves for each side in the diagram above. White has developed two Bishops plus the two Pawns required to let those Bishops out. That makes four developing moves for White. Black has made only one developing move: the e-Pawn has moved to let a Bishop out. If you just count developing moves, White has a big lead early in the game : four developing moves for White versus one for Black. What's going on?

Developing moves don't tell the full story. If you count Pawns, you will see that White has five Pawns while Black has seven Pawns. White has sacrificed two Pawns to achieve a lead in development. This is the principle behind an opening gambit.

The diagram shows a typical position -- 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2 -- from the Danish Gambit. Black has used three of the first four moves to capture Pawns. It is now Black's move, and Black would be well advised to play a developing move.