Selecting a Middlegame Pawn Break II

This installment uses an illustrative game to discuss how to figure out where to place one's pieces so that they support a desired middlegame pawn break. I also provide commentary on the game's key moments, some of which concern the creation or resolution of pawn tension.

A recently concluded Red Hot Pawn game between virgiltavi (1379) and rewop63 (1503) (Game 14695177) began as depicted in the following chess movie.

In the position reached above,



White might have tried to win a pawn by 5. dxe5. The possible consequences are shown in the next chess movie.



It shouldn't be surprising that winning the h-pawn didn't pan out for White: it conceded the two bishops while trading a developed piece (the light-square bishop) for an undeveloped one (the g8-knight). Also, being that White's extra pawn is the h-pawn, it's unlikely to influence the game before the ending. Finally, Black actually benefitted from the half-opening of the h-file.

In the position reached by 4...Nc6,



was Black threatening to exchange at d4? After 5. O-O exd4 6. Nxd4 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 Be5 8. Qd5 Qe7 (forced), Black's e5-bishop is a target for the pawn advance f4..., followed shortly by e5... to open lines against Black's king, which cannot quickly flee the center. Less good would be 5. dxe5 Nxe5 6. Nxe5 Bxe5 7. Qd5 Qe7 because this puts Black a tempo ahead of the line with 5. O-O exd4 (owing to Black's bishop recapturing on e5 instead of moving there after Black's having exchanged at d4).

Since White would not have been harmed by maintaining the pawn tension, White should have done so rather than playing 5. dxe5 or 5. d5.

The game continued 5. d5 Na5, reaching the following position.



White's reply and next few moves should take into account how the pawn structure shapes each side's plan. Focusing on the pawn structure,



White has more space along the d-file, which suggests advancing White's queenside pawns with the intent of eventually opening a file there.

Black has more space along the f-file, but more significant is that if Black were to play ...f5 and this pawn were then exchanged for White's e-pawn, this would result in the following pawn structure.



Black's e-pawn could be held by playing ...d6 (which Black would be advised to do anyway, to give the light-square bishop an open diagonal before it can get buried by an avalanche of White pawns). White would want to blockade Black's e-pawn because its advance would give Black more space on the kingside.

Returning to the position after 5...Na5,



if White's light-square bishop were to now retreat to d3, it would control the e4-square and thereby support the envisioned blockade of Black's e-pawn. The game might unfold as shown in the next chess movie.



That White's advantage would soon have led to decisive material gain is largely due to Black's awkward a5-knight and d6-bishop.

White actually played 6. Qd3. Perhaps the motivation was to develop rapidly, but White's queen ends up misplaced at c4. The next 11 moves are depicted below.



Here's the game position after 16...h6:



Suppose that White now played 17. c4, bringing about the pawn structure



Imagine that Black replied 17...a4, leading to the following pawn structure:



This means that if White's b-pawn were to advance, Black could bring about an exchange that would isolate the a-pawn:



This would mean that an advance of White's c-pawn would be without the support of another pawn, which would pretty well doom its prospects for reaching c5 if Black were to arrange to move his d-pawn to d6. Consequently, White would probably need to try to advance the a-pawn instead, but enforcing even the a5... advance would be hard because only Black would have a pawn that controls that square.

White would have less difficulty advancing the queenside pawns if he were to retain a b-pawn, and this can be accomplished by playing 17. b3 so that the pawn can bypass if Black should play ...a4. (See next diagram.)



White then plans to play c4... and to later play b4... followed by c5... How should White's pieces be configured to make that happen?

Black currently controls the b4-square three times: with a pawn, bishop, and queen, and likewise for the c5-square. White's a-pawn controls the b4-square, meaning that two pieces would need to also do so. And after having achieved the advance b4..., White would need two pieces to control the c5-square in order to advance a pawn there.

White's bishop and a1-rook are for the moment tied to the a-pawn, making them unavailable to support the b4- or c5-squares. The e1-rook seems available, but it might need to recapture at a1 if Black should exchange rooks there after opening the a-file (after White plays b4...). That leaves White's queen and knight to support both the b4- and c5-squares. This can be accomplished with the queen at c3 and the knight at d3. Accordingly, White might aim at a setup like this (deferring for the moment, the decision on where White's e1-rook should move):



If Black's knight went to b7 to help Black control the c5-square, how could White still enforce the c5 push? Once White plays b4 (assuming the above envisioned configuration for White, plus Black's knight at b7), the position would resemble the following:



With White's b-pawn shielding the a-pawn along the a3-f8 diagonal, the bishop is at liberty to redeploy. The e3-square seems ideal, but in maneuvering the bishop there, White should take care not to disconnect his rooks. This calls for White's e1-rook to occupy the b1-square before the bishop goes to c1 and then to e3. And given that at e1, the rook currently occupies where the knight would go in transferring from f3 to d3, this suggests that before moving the knight from f3, the e1-rook should have gone to b1.

Once this entire setup is complete, it would resemble this:



White shouldn't expect the opponent to sit still for this lengthy maneuvering. Black might prepare ...g4 to obtain counterplay on the kingside, or shift the queen and bishop so that Black can play ...d6, or possibly play ...c5 to try to obtain more space on the queenside.

However, that Black has such plans available doesn't mean that White's plan would be faulty. It might mean instead that White failed to capitalize earlier when a clear edge was available, and we've seen that this is in fact the case.

(A list of the threads I've initiated at this forum is available at http://www.davidlevinchess.com/chess/RHP_my_threads.htm .)

@fmdavidhlevin said
This installment uses an illustrative game to discuss how to figure out where to place one's pieces so that they support a desired middlegame pawn break. I also provide commentary on the game's key moments, some of which concern the creation or resolution of pawn tension.

A recently concluded Red Hot Pawn game between virgiltavi (1379) and rewop63 (1503) ([gid]146951 ...[text shortened]... initiated at this forum is available at http://www.davidlevinchess.com/chess/RHP_my_threads.htm .)

This is excellent! Thank You for posting.

@mchill said
This is excellent! Thank You for posting.

You're welcome. 🙂

Some of the comments on the first article induced me to discuss the early part of the game in this installment. The only snag was that I slightly exceeded the 10,000-character limit, but this was addressed by eliminating a few needless words.