Breaching the wall

 

Step by step, I'm trying to unearth a set of standard scenarios for the whole game. It is a highly personal approach, and I assume that there are a lot of people who don't like such a rigid approach. That is fine with me of course, in that case you must invent a strategy of your liking yourself. TINSTAAFL.

I started at the end of the game with the PoPLoAFun system, from there I invented the sitting ducks (king and weak pawns), piece activity as the nec plus ultra of positional play. Lately I added a stage before that, the invasion.

A chess game can go in either two directions: a king assault (king = duck 1) or an endgame (pawn = duck 2). Either way, you need to invade the side of the enemy (invasion square = duck 3).

Tactics usually don't appear just out of the blue. If they do, it are blunders. As your opponents become better, it is likely that the blunders diminish, and that they change into mistakes due to the pressure you apply. And pressure is related to the 3 ducks.

I took the advice of Robert to heart, and didn't change my focus to the endgame the past weeks. I solely concentrated on smashing the killzone with piece sacrifices.

Yet you can't continue smashing the walls of the enemy castle without taking a breath between two sacs. And you can't help that the mind wanders around during a breather. I usually ask myself some non committing questions like "what might be the stage before the invasion?"

The five scenarios of a pawn break

After the opening there are no invasion squares yet. The pawn landscape determines where the invasion squares are going to emerge. So this stage of the battle is about creating invasion squares.

There are five scenarios that can be the result of the above position:

• Do nothing. Keep the tension
• White pawn takes the black pawn
• Black pawn takes the white pawn
• White pawn is pushed forward
• Black pawn is pushed forward

This makes the pawn break in the middlegame the most difficult part of the game. You must constantly judge which scenario is the most beneficial.

But before that, it is important to know what you are up to. Changes in the pawn landscape have an influence on the LoA (line of attack) landscape. But even a LoA needs a target. And this target is the invasion square (duck 3).

A LoA without an invasion square at the end is useless. And so is an invasion square without a LoA by which you can reach it.

After the tournament (within a few weeks), I'm going to investigate this.