Piece activity vs Pawn structure
I have seen all videos of the Chessable book The Strategy Instructors Volume 1: Pawn Majority & Minority
It gives a good impression what the middlegame struggle will often be about when one side goes for a good pawn structure, while the other side embarks on maximizing the piece activity.
Where does this extra piece activity originates, and how is it in balance with a better pawn structure?
Usually it takes time (tempi) to saddle your opponent with a double pawn. Furthermore, a doubled pawn comes with an extra (half) open file. And when the double pawns control the center, it is a good thing too.
In order to get a better picture how this works, I decided to analyze the game between Anand and Shirov again.
- space
- open files
- central squares
- lead in development
- doubled pawns
- pawn majority
- mobility of the pawn mass
- ability to create a passer
- the lead in development is a tempo battle.
- binding defenders to weak pawns or weak squares
- invasion
- convergence of attackers in the enemy camp
- counter attack is preferred to defense
The assault on the King à la Vukovic is well described by the PoPLoAFun system. With the standard scenarios that belong to the battle of the lines of attack.
ReplyDeleteFor the second duck, AKA the pawns, matters seem to gear around invasion. Where the invasion square is best placed behind the enemy pawns. So you can attack the pawns from behind, from a place where your pieces can't be dislodged by enemy pawns. Think of encircling, and the rook on the 7th and the 8th row of Nimzowitsch.
We talked about the "what" and the "how". The task at hand is to abstrahere the "why" from the "what" and the "how". To discover the "why" isn't a trivial task. It is a task for system 2. The logical narrative and the "why" are closely related. You might have noticed that I don't bother with variations. Since variations only emerge in the realm of the "what" and the "how".
ReplyDeleteThe why has a higher level of abstraction. When you overshoot the abstraction though, you are probably left with trivialities.
But I need the why in order to be able to conduct my own game.