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 attackin