A game of chess goes through many phases and changes. Every strategic game must be complemented by the good tactical vision. Every good attacking player needs to have good positional skills.
It doesn’t matter how great a positional player one is if tactical opportunities are missed. Just the same, there are many good attacking players who commit basic mistakes when it comes to playing a quiet, positional game.
The structure we are going to talk about in this lesson is, in fact, a form of hanging pawns.
From a strategic point of view, it represents a weakness for the side having it.
However, it can be successfully used in combination with a dynamic play.
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In every game we play, trading pieces in inevitable. However, this shouldn’t be done automatically and it is important to choose the right moment and the right pieces to trade.
Today we are going to talk about queens and when you should decide to trade them off and when to keep them on the board. As always in chess, there are no rules without exceptions, but we have tried to outline a few guidelines that could help you take the right decision in such a moment.
The Carlsbad pawn structure refers to the formation that arises usually, but not exclusively, from the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit.
It can also be reached from other Queen’s Pawn openings such as the Nimzo-Indian and Grunfeld.
We find the same structure, but this time with reversed colors, in the Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann.
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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.
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.
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.
The good player is always lucky. This famous quote attributed to the third World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca means that one way or another, the stronger player will always find a way to scape and get a good result. We see it all the time in tournament practice or even casual play against experienced players. One of the main qualities of a strong player is the resistance they put when they are under pressure.
“I don’t believe in fortresses.” – Magnus Carlsen
I understand Carlsen’s famous quote, not at face value, but rather as an understanding of chess’s nearly infinite possibilities. Carlsen himself has shown in a lot of his games and how seemingly easily drawn games can be won by finding hidden resources in the position.
Still, fortresses do exist in chess. Even Carlsen himself has stumbled upon one or two in his career. Perhaps the costliest one was in the fourth game of the match with Karjakin, when in a relatively easily won position he allowed Karjakin to build one. Later in the match, the missed chances of an early lead could have cost Carlsen dearly.
