Symmetrical positions can be tricky and difficult to evaluate. At first sight they may look equal – after all, there are no visible differences between the two sides – and less experienced players are tempted to think that a draw will be easy to achieve.
While a draw is likely to happen in a game between two strong players, it is also often that we see experienced players scoring great results in this type of positions.
In this post, I would like to show a very simple, yet a very effective principle that is present in every game of chess.
While our opponent’s moves are providing vital information about their intentions, still we often fail to understand them in their entirety. By entirety, I mean not only understanding their intention, but also their drawbacks.
Positions with the isolated pawn are often misunderstood, which many times leads to the fear of playing this type of positions. The common concept is that the isolated pawn is a weakness (and it is!) and we know that we should avoid creating weaknesses in our position. This general idea is correct, but there are no rules in chess, but mostly concepts that should guide our thinking. The case of the isolated pawn is one that enhances this idea. It is a weakness, yes, but it is not so easy to play against it.
After the closing ceremony of European Individual Championship that crowned him a champion, I had a chance to talk with the rising Russian star Vladislav Artemiev.
A humble fellow, but one that knows his talents. He knows he is good, though he also knows he needs to work more if he is to become better. Currently sitting at number 13 in the world his main ambition is to qualify for the Candidates tournament via either the World Cup or the Grand Swiss.
This year has started with rather sad news for the chessplayers all around – Vladimir Kramnik, or Big Vlad, as he has been known for years, one of the classics of our times, has decided to retire from competitive chess. His game and style of play have been an inspiration for many strong and aspiring players and we can only say that this is a big loss for the whole chess community.
However, 2019 seems to be the year of another, rising Vlad – one who has shown great form and beautiful chess – the recently crowned European Champion, Russian Grandmaster Vladislav Artemiev.
A very important feature of the position and one that we should pay special attention to during every game we play is the pawn structure and the changes that it might suffer throughout the game, as your plans should also change with it. The study of the most important pawn formations will not only help you find the best plans during your game with ease, but you will also be able to choose correctly the type of position you want to achieve in relation to the pieces you have on the board.
Ever since we start learning chess we are taught to look for active moves; moves that control the center and help improve our position. We are also told to search for ways to put our opponent in an uncomfortable situation, seek the initiative and try to build an attack whenever this is possible. All the situations described above usually require forward moves. When we are kids, we are most of the time scolded for moving our pieces backward and rightly so.
Playing in chess tournaments is a completely different thing from studying chess or playing friendly casual games at the club with your pals. While we can do pretty well during our lessons, training sessions with friends or coach, an official competition forces you to make your best effort and put to work your best competitive skills and character. Of course, usually there are hundreds of other colleagues doing exactly the same and as if this didn’t sound hard enough there is the time pressure.
The pawn majority is an important concept in chess and it refers to the side of the board where you have more pawns than your opponent. The main plan in this type of structure is to find the right moment to advance the pawns, gain more space and cramp your opponent’s position. However, as it often happens in chess, this cannot be applied automatically. You have to analyze well the position and take into account all the factors that are present on the chess board.
“I can’t play this move because my opponent can capture it” – How many times have you heard a chess player say this? How many times have you said it yourself? There are many positions where we believe a move is not possible by default though. Our subconscious tells us that it is not possible to move to a specific square because our opponent is defending it with more than one piece or more than one pawn.
