Fromper wrote on 07/26/10 at 13:15:52:

When having an even number of attacking and defending pieces the attack will only succeed if the defending pieces are misplaced (disharmony or passivity). The principle of "bringing wood to the fire" is exactly directed towards creating a local surplus of pieces around the enemy king.
Equally or even more frequently exchanging the defenders most active piece for the defence makes it possible to bring over additonal attackers. The exchange sac on f6 is an important example: it allows White to play the queen to e4 or g4 or to play a knight to d5. This is perfectly according to rule 6. The result is an often decisive local surplus of pieces.
This simply happens too often to call it situational. If you play through a couple of dozen great attacking games you will learn the great attackers don't eschew exchanges at all; they strive to remove the most important defensive piece(s).
When I abandoned thumb rule 3 (which doesn't mean that I began to strive for exchanges at all costs) I became a much more dangerous attacking player.

One of my favorite training books, Chess Lessons by Yusupov, has a section on exchanges and about 15 exercises or so afterwards.

MNb wrote on 07/26/10 at 10:20:28:

Yeah, that one's situational, but isn't everything in chess? It's sort of the opposite of #4. I was thinking more of situations where you've got an even number of attacking and defending pieces. Given the choice between trading one of your attackers for a defender or bringing over an additional attacker, it's frequently better to add more pressure before beginning the exchanges.

Reverse wrote on 07/26/10 at 04:21:21:


There are some books on that theme.

• Taulbut and Jones once wrote a book called "Chess Exchanges" which also was published in German as "Der richtige Abtausch".
• Nesis wrote three slim vollumes on "Die Kunst der Vereinfachung", I don't know if there is an English version.
• Quite a good introduction esp. for rising players is given in Silman's "Reassess Your Chess", the "Reassess Your Chess Workbook" and "The amateur's mind"  where he deals with the imbalances that crop out after different ways of exchanges, esp. after Bishop/Knight-trades.
• Meyer's "Bishop vs. Knight - The verdict" perfectly deepens on that item (but I think it is out of print), as does
• Timman's "Die Kraft der Leichtfiguren" which is available in English too, there I think it is called "Power of Pieces" or something like that.
• With the bigger pieces there is a German book on Rooks vs Queen available but I don't get the title right.
• I don't know of books on the ratio Queen vs three minor pieces or Queen vs Rook & minor piece but you can find it in many middle- and endgame books

Overall the question of when to exchange pieces deals more with the question of what pieces to leave on the board. You can call it a ecological question. Is the environment on the board suitable for the remaining pieces? E.g. in a absolutely closed position a Knight oftenly dominates a Bishop and sometimes even a Rook. This item is covered by Silman to some extend.
And with that knowledge you can study GM-games an try to understand the exchanges they do.

Does anyone know of any material that covers the subject of when to exchange pieces?