Pawns
It took me 18 years to discover how to train the how. Now that is just a matter of putting it into practice on a daily basis. Which is what I do. But since I no longer have to hunt for how to train the how, my mind is free to think about the what. In the previous post, you can read about my revelation in this realm. The what is dictated by the pawns.
All plans must be based on the pawns. Since those are the slow movers and can only move in one direction. The PoPLoAFun system describes the relations between the movement of the pieces. But the pawns restrict and facilitate the LoA landscape. This indicates where we can find the what.
I already postulated that the method for training the how should be equally usable for training the what. And that is true.
Luckily it didn't took me another 18 years to find out about the what. The past week I found out that my revelation of the previous post is indeed correct.
Now it is time to define the what into detail and to gather training material in accordance with that.
I changed the title of this post a few times, something that is not my habit. From "pawns and exchanges" to "howdy" before I finally settled for "pawns". Mainly to not confuse you. But further investigation is clearly indicating that "what to do" is totally determined by these two elements "pawns and exchanges". Something that is reflected in the 50 move rule: when no piece is exchanged and no pawn has moved, the game is a draw.
ReplyDeleteSo these are the two things I research in the pursuit of the "what". Together with the PoPLoAFun system which describes the "how", it sketches a complete picture of the game. It is necessary to put everything into the perspective of these three elements, pawns, exchanges and PoPLoAFun. Only then you can judge the value and the the right moment to apply certain chess "rules"
Take for instance the rule "improve your worst piece". That is only necessary when your attackers have not reached the starting squares of their lines of attack. It prunes the amount of positional considerations drastically. It helps which positional ideas to consider at the right moment.
In HTRYC Silman floods us with balances which you must consider when you are confronted with a position. But in tournament play there is no time to work off such exhaustive checklists.