We all know the “normal” situation when the dominating knight is humiliating the poor bishop.
Here is a “pure” example with only the relevant pieces on the board.
However, in chess, as in life, things are rarely this simple. In the course of my career, I have discovered quite a few situations when the “bad” bishop wasn’t that bad after all.
Let’s get started!
If you are a Sicilian player, you are probably already familiar with this structure that is primarily employed by white against systems such as the Accelerated Dragon or the Hedgehog. It is characterized by the presence of white pawns on e4 and c4, set-up that aims to restrict black’s typical freeing rupture, d6(d7)-d5.
White’s usual plan is to control the center, keep black in a passive position and restrict his counterplay by keeping covered the possible pawn ruptures he is aiming for. However, this system is not without dangers for white, as black has a few interesting plans to choose from.
Pawn moves are of extreme importance in chess; from the opening stage to the endgame, pawn moves can change the character of the position and that’s often the case. In this article, we are going to talk about ruptures. The pawn ruptures usually allow us to clear squares for our pieces, to drive our opponent’s pieces back or simply to take over the initiative by creating tension and chaos.
These pawn moves are not at all easy to see, and sometimes even more difficult to play, but as every theme in chess, there are patterns that we can learn, remember and execute when the opportunity arises. Ruptures are similar to the commonly denominated “hooks”.
The Carlsbad structure, arising after the exchange of White’s c-pawn for Black’s e-pawn, most commonly from the Exchange Variation in the Queen’s Gambit Declined – 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 (or 3…Be7) 4 cd ed – is one of the most characteristic structures in modern chess.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined is one of the most popular openings in chess history and “an opening for World Championship matches” (Kasparov). The Exchange Variation, which introduces the Carlsbad structure, has proven to be very rich in strategic content for both sides.
It seems that nowadays it has become more and more difficult to win an “easy” game. Every opponent, no matter how low rated, has a fair amount of opening knowledge and short wins have become something almost nonexistent. There is plenty of information that can be easily accessed by anyone and, with the rise of the engines, all the opening lines can be checked and improved by anyone who wants to create a good repertoire.
The real fight is almost always seen in the middlegame and endgame. It is usually here where the more experienced player shows a better understanding of the position and gets to “trick” his opponent and obtain some advantage. In fact, one of the most common things I hear from my students once they reach middlegame is “I didn’t know what to do in this position”.
Every chess player knows how important the center is. It is one of the first things teachers tell their students – you must control the center at every moment and occupy it with either pieces or pawns. It is what we try to do right from the opening – develop the pieces toward the center and take as much space as possible. A powerful center can indeed represent a great advantage during a game; it gives us space and usually more active. A piece placed on a central square and supported by pawns can pose real problems to our opponent.
Probably one of the most difficult concepts for a chess player to understand when he is trying to improve is how to correctly make a plan. We have been told from early beginnings that every move we make should have an idea and a chaotic play leads -nowhere. There is even a famous saying, “having a bad plan is better than having no plan at all” – Garry Kasparov.
We are hence shown how to assess a position and how the process of selecting a proper plan should develop. However, as we advance and our level gets higher, we are confronted with more complex positions where the best moves may not be that obvious anymore.
There are a few classical positions or classic middlegames that every chess player should know how to play. Some of them are the King’s Indian structure with the closed center, the hanging pawns structure, and the isolated central pawn, which is the subject of this article. Clearly, the importance of knowing these structures is because they arise very often and from many different openings.
In all of them, there are concepts and guidelines for each side to follow and understand the little nuances of each one of these structures will likely improve your results when you play them over the board.
A basic rule in chess tells us that in order to obtain a better position and win a game we must keep accumulating small advantages throughout the game. We should try to create weaknesses in our opponent’s structure, control the open files, weaken his king, gain space, fight for the initiative and so on.
While all this is very good and should be taken into account at all moments during the game, it is not enough.
The pawn structure is probably one the elements that we need to pay more attention to during our games. It defines the character of the play, the direction of our attacks and the plans we have to make.
Pawn structures are the foundations that keep a position together. In this article, we are going to see a few middle game positions in which one side has a permanently ruined pawn configuration.
Needless to say that it is extremely difficult to defend in such situations.
