Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Hi, in the following position, Purdy in his book, the search for chess perfection, under the section planning, lists this game, in evaluating the position, he gives blacks weaknesses as the two doubled b pawns, which are immobile and likely to become fixed nuisances and whites a pawn. Can someone please explain why whites a pawn is weak? is it beca ...[text shortened]... ds in advance Robbie.
[fen]r3kb1r/1p1bpppp/1pn5/3p4/3P4/4PN2/PP1BBPPP/R3K2R w - - 0 1[/fen]
There are a few notes about the opening but not much about this position in my book !
It even mentions 21.e5 (?) and gives 21.exf5 exf5 22.f4 (and Nf3 ... Ne5).
As to your question about the position after 11.Be2, I think Purdy calls the a pawn weak because:
??? Uh Oh 🙂
It is on an open file. If Capa were to pile his pieces on it, white would have to play a3. In doing this, Na5 and perhaps Ba4 would exploit the new hole created on b3. Capa would just get some better squares for his pieces. If after Na5 white captures, the bxa5 recapture(maybe) would fix all his weak pawns.
In addition, there is also the plan of b5 and b4 by black once white commits his pawn to a3.
Basically, he targets the pawn and forces it to advance (else white stays on the defensive a long time). Then, he reaps the rewards of the pawns new home (pin on a file, weakness of b3 and c4, lever for b4 push by black, etc).
I hope this makes a little sense.