Pawn battle

 After the adage of Philidor "the pawns are the soul of chess" I used to add in my mind "yada, yada, yada".

But finally I understand what he was talking about.

The pawns determine what the scope of the the pieces is. They restrict both your opponents and your own pieces. This means, that the battle of the pawns decide which pieces are going to get more scope, and which pieces are getting restricted.

Now the goal is clarified, it is time to get more insight in how that mechanism works. Since Lucas Chess don't let me create boards without kings, I cut the board in half, so we are not being distracted by irrelevant variations that accidently emerge.

Diagram 1. White at bottom

In diagram 1, white wants the juicy outposts e5 and g5 for his knight. By pushing g4-g5, he undermines the black pawn on f6. Black has 3 options:

• f5
• fxg5
• do nothing

In all 3 scenarios, white gets the upperhand on e5 and g5.

Diagram 2. Black at bottom. Black to move

Instead of directly attacking the pawn that you want to disappear, you can undermine it by attacking the defender.

1. ... g5

2.g3 gxf4

3.gxf4 g5!

And e5 will become available as pivotal point for the knight.

Diagram 3. Black to move

Sometimes, opening up a LoA can have an effect on pieces of both sides. In that case, you have to judge who is going to benefit the most from the opening of the position.

In diagram 3, black will play f5, in order to undermine the defender of d5.

White lags behind in development, and it is too dangerous for his king to use f2 as a defender of e4.

Blacks light squared bishop will profit more from the disappearance of e4 and d5 than whites bishop. Blacks pieces are ready to jump on the free coming LoAs (lines of attack), while white has trouble to develop his rook and to coordinate his pieces. Black takes the initiative, and forces white to answer his attacks instead of working on his development.

In the opening, you need to be aware which LoAs are about to be opened and take care that you don't open LoAs when you are not ready yet.

It is not rocket science, but it sometimes can be subtle to judge.