MIDDLEGAME TIPS: tip079

ByDJCA

* PAWNS: You will have to move some to get your pieces out, and you can try to dominate the centre with pawns on e4 and d4 ( perhaps with c4 and/or f4). But the pawns in front of your castled King form a solid wall on f2/g2/h2, and those on a2/b2/c2 are probably OK where they are too. So, oddly, pawns are often well-placed where they are at the start of the game. “Every pawn move loosens the position”, says Tarrasch: if you move the pawn on g2 to g3, you immediately get holes at f3 and h3. Moving a pawn from f2 to f3 not only takes away the best square for your Knight, which is a good defender of the pawn on h2, but also opens up a check to your King from c5. When the endgame appears, one side or the other will have to win material to win – by queening a Pawn, or at least threatening to. Then Pawns can be moved more freely, to block opposing Pawns, to create and support extra or passed Pawns of their own side, and to keep out the opponent’s pieces – including their King.

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