It depends on the situation. It's beneficial to keep a minor piece (knight or bishop) over close to your castled king to help in its defence.
One way to keep your pawn structure solid is to avoid advancing them too far. When a pawn advances, it leaves behind it squares that it can never control. Sometimes it's wiser to hold off on pushing them forward too far to keep in control of the squares on your side of the board (and close to your king).
Originally posted by pawnoflifeYes. Avoid unnecessaryily moving any of the pawns in front of the king. When one of the pawns moves up, the shield is easier to rip open with a pawn storm. With all 3 pawns still on the 2nd rank, it makes it much tougher. Of course, sometimes you just have to move one of the pawns, eirther for defensive reasons, like moving the g pawn to prevent mate on h2 or h7, or for strategic reasons like using the f pawn to fight for the center and open a file for your rook. But if you feel that you don't need to move any of these pawns, then it's usually best not to.
Ok fitz alalized some of my completed games and an interresting theam that commonly appears (mostly in the games i lose badly) is dimolishing the pawn shiled. Does anyone have any advice on how to prevent this after castling?ðŸ˜
Originally posted by CaptainDangerousRrrrrr......got in there just before I did. ðŸ˜
It depends on the situation. It's beneficial to keep a minor piece (knight or bishop) over close to your castled king to help in its defence.
One way to keep your pawn structure solid is to avoid advancing them too far. When a pawn advances, it leaves behind it squares that it can never control. Sometimes it's wiser to hold off on pushing them ...[text shortened]... rd too far to keep in control of the squares on your side of the board (and close to your king).
Originally posted by Natural ScienceAh, your answer was much more comprehensive...
Rrrrrr......got in there just before I did. ðŸ˜
🙂
As regards semi-open files:
That would seem relevant, all right... If that's been your experience, you should probably watch out for it. But the main things from my own point of view and experience (and I'm no expert) are to avoid backward pawns and to avoid allowing outposts for your opponent.
Another way to break up a pawn shield is to exchange a minor piece which is protected by one of these pawns, so maybe have an extra defender on knights/bishops which are protected by the pawns in your pawn shield.
Another tip... if your pawn shield has been demonlished by a sacrificial attack, sometimes you can get away with using pieces as a substitute until you have a chance to trade off the material. If you can get a piece on a key square (and OVERPROTECT IT), you're ok.
I recently had quite an enjoyable game on this theme where I had to calculate something like 8ply + on every move to avoid being mated. I invited my opponent into the Virgin Sacrifices solely on the strength of this attack. :-) Game 488574 As a huge sacrificial attacker, I'm learning by example how to defend them. Note how I simply refuse to drag my king out there, and create a second shield with the knight supported by a bunch of pawns and the queen on the 6th rank around moves 7 and 8. Although move 13 was a slight error. I should have played Bg7 instead of grabbing the pawn.
Note also the judicious returning of material to get a couple of escape tempi. If I'd fled the knight on move 19, Qg5 would have been mate. So I let him have it. Then the key move is move 26 -- fleeing the king would not have worked. The bishop, overprotected by the queen and eventually the rook, was a strong point he could not penetrate, and had its own tactical threats. 1-0.
For a much better example, look at Tal's 15th move in this Tal vs Fischer game. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044001 -- his king is stuck in the center, and the e pawn is gone... so he sticks a rook in front of it.