How To Use Pawns In Chess Middlegames

hi everybody and welcome back to another chess  tips video this one has been requested by hundreds   of people at this point pawn play uh pawns are  like the fence of a chest position uh they are   the barrier between both players more pawns there  are on the board the position is closed and has a   different nature than if pawns are traded and  the position is open not to mention that every   time a pawn moves or is traded the position  changes and that is something that hopefully   you will begin to develop over the course of  this video as a skill i have seven examples   for you i will name the concepts throughout you  can check the uh time stamps uh to review what   i said in case you miss it let's jump into  it okay first things first this position uh   which was played between jan nipponichi and  peter svidler and the legends of chess all of   our examples will be from that tournament  in this one pawns are going to be used uh   as a spatial barrier okay and we are introducing  the concept of pawn trades in the center of the   board obviously right now already you can pick up  the fact that we're in a rue lopez there's eight   pawns per side so the position is more closed  here a central pawn trade is beneficial to white   because if everything is traded off then white  simply has a knight in the center of the board   but let's quickly analyze what happens from this  position to the position with the knight on d4   the c file is open the e file is open and also  certain diagonals have now opened up white used   to have a pawn on this square now this is more  open so this bishop has a bit more of a long range   this diagonal could be something and so on and  so forth in the game the second trade did not   occur and instead peters fiddler returned back  to knight c6 so now should you take in the center   or push spatial barrier attacking the knight  because it's only way forward is to go to b4   and the bishop simply retreats and actually  this knight is in danger of getting trapped   pawn play this pawn is suppressing so here how  is black going to create a getaway square for   this night anticipating that this move  is coming very good a5 using pawn play   opening up the square on a6 however a3 still  played knight a6 and now a spatial barrier   prevent this knight from coming to b4 nice little  tactical trick he plays excuse me to c5 he plays   b4 himself the idea being that if this trade  occurs which it did in a few moves the knight   cannot recapture due to the pin on the rook now  if the position was such that the bishop was on b7   then b4 would simply be impossible however based  on the situation of the a file this is possible   if the bishop was on b7 then black white would  need to create a move like b4 with the defense   with something like bishop to d2 what happens in  the game is we get a position as if that occurred   and so the pawns here are spatial barriers you are  controlling space in your opponent's position and   this pawn blocked in by this pawn could be a  target in the future and it will be uh i'm not   going to go through the full game but what i will  say is that pawns are very good at restricting   pieces of the opponent and actually we do see that  it is a silly close position given that six pawns   are uh per side but certain places are open like  the c file the a file and so on uh and so forth   now the next one that we're going to look at is  this position between jan nepanchi and anishigiri   in this position one pawn has already been traded  the c pawn for black and the d-pawn for white what   else do you notice with pawn play you should not  push so many pawns in the beginning of the game   uh and notice also that black is castled and white  is not and if you're playing with the black pieces   here and your opponent is at least a few moves  away from getting castled you should look for   breaking open the center and that's actually  exactly what an east geary does he takes on f4   which you can argue helps white develop but he  simply trades this pawn off and then pushes this   pawn into the center and you say well levy what's  so good about that i just take right but remember   what i said about pawns affecting the position  when they move right so which file is closed   now the d file which file is open now the e file  so rookie 8 and it's sort of becoming difficult   to defend this king uh in the game nepal played e5  and after knight d7 this pawn is still hanging but   right and then the game got complicated for the  most part if your opponent is overly aggressive   in the opening with their pawns you really should  look and you're castled already you really should   look for center shattering moves like d5 because  with the king stuck in the center at least two   moves away from getting castled bad things will  await the player who has not moved their king   okay we are going to look now at this position  between peter lecko and peter swidler matchup of   peters now again white has a big central presence  this position is more closed why seven pawns each   so when there's seven pawns that's one away from  eight which means the fences are almost fully   built white to move this particular position  is something i like to call the door and it's   like a clearance move you essentially move upon  and then use the square that pawn used to stand on   as a transfer mode for your pieces a transfer  zone for your pieces if you will and with   your pawn move you secure a enemy square okay so  without any without you know any any further delay   d5 is a fantastic move in this position and why so  that pawn now secures the c6 square and it opens   the d4 square for the knight to transfer this is  an advanced move d5 a lot of you probably see that   if you look at this position and if you don't well  takes takes the queen is hanging in the knight   is hanging because that's a more tactical more  confrontational move but e5 i don't have to take   you it's not checkers i'll just put my knight on  d5 and well you're not going to make progress in   the position but d5 is a more positional approach  and actually watch as the game progresses how this   square is used multiple times throughout the game  uh so knight e5 he transfers this way and bishop   d4 he uses this move to transfer his knight excuse  me to f5 and then put the bishop and have pressure   on peter svidler's entire position and peter  lico went on to win a very very convincing game   using this thing called the door the clearance as  well as um you know pawn move to secure space in   the enemy territory the next one is a little bit  more barbaric shall we say uh and it is this one   it is a position where black is castled white  has not but there's not a lot of you know action   right now uh it is something i like to call the  caveman h-file attack and this really does come   from an opening uh but in this game boris galvin  played h4 h5 and normally this works when there   is no knight covering basically you need uh only  the pawn to be covering and you need the rook to   be on this file there are certain openings where  this kind of crazy h-file attack actually works   uh and can give you a very good advantage even  if your king is in the center it's obviously   more difficult if the king is castled because the  rook won't be here if the king is on the opposite   side once again h4 is possible now even openings  where the knight is on f6 and by the way this is   kind of how you you know then operate you try to  get something on the h-file in this game boris   played a very funny queen maneuver to get the  queen to h4 but there's usually other approaches   like a bishop coming to h6 which is impossible  right now uh but there are openings where you   know the job of london for example where you  literally push the pawn no matter what and then   sacrifice material you sacrifice for that night  get your queen there and then use this open h   file again it's only bad it's only good when  the opponent is castled because if they're not   what exactly are you attacking but just  in case you want to add this little tool   uh to your you know your uh pawn attack repertoire  if you will okay so hopefully that one is helpful   uh for this next one we're going to look at a  vladimir kramnik dingley wren game which actually   happened earlier today at the time of recording  what's the first thing that you notice about   this position so notice that black is up a pawn  right but white has a gigantic central space and   these pawns play into this bishop so this bishop  is what we call boys it's like biting on rock   it can't break through that structure at  all uh black also does not have a pawn   break in the center a pawn break being a spot  in the position where you can trade pawns   advantageously because if black plays e5 who said  i'm gonna take you i'm simply gonna go here right   so try to pause the video here for a second  actually two moves happen in the game   these uh how does black utilize where his  pawns have a majority to create play in   the position and target something in white's  position which potentially is the weak spot a5 fantastic and now using some b4 ideas to  maybe also bring the knight back there's also   the lingering threat of this queen coming to  a3 and playing on the queen side where you are   stronger and where you have maximum pressure  on the base of a pawn chain is the way that you   should operate here this one is more of a pawn  expansion more of a pawn break kind of uh of a   lesson in and of itself uh obviously a little bit  more nuanced vladimir kramnik it took him about 15   to 20 minutes to make something happen but you  need to find where in the position you can play   with your pawns what squares you support and what  the best areas of operation are okay this next one   is an example from a game between boris gelfand  and anish giri and actually for about the next 10   moves there's a lot of different pawn play i put  here space taking space restricting enemy pieces   and pawn breaks once again so in the game we got  bishop d6 hitting this you can either move this   this or this in the game we got f4 because that  restricts the e pawn push notice that this square   puts a grasp on this uh sorry this push but  on this square there was a little bit of a   of a weakening right because the pawn went forward  now a6 so with a6 what does anish want he wants to   maybe play b5 how do we restrict that a4 more pawn  play rook c8 rook c1 we restrict anything coming   to the b6 square by playing the move a5 and notice  clearance knight a4 which you learned in the peter   lecko example uh allows the knight to get to a4 uh  and then there is a there is a very nice position   there for the night now again we have a few  more moves played some trades occur and in this   position the fantastic move g5 playing against  the weakness that gelfin put not necessarily   a weakness but pawn break right an advantageous  spot in the position where you can offer a trait   of pawns that can improve your pieces and actually  in the game we got exactly that we got this trade   and what does this trade do to the white position  let's see how how much you've been focusing i know   it's 10 minutes in if you're still with me what  has white weakened the d4 square the d4 square   and that went on to be a problem and by the way  another g5 came right because gary had double   pawn so he reinforced there you go okay for  this last example we are going to look at a   very closed position this is a game played  between vladimir kramnik and jan nipomnichi   and uh well both sides have eight pawns it's  it's as maximally chaotic as it can possibly be   pawn breaks are going to be super essential  here how many of them does white have   one two this doesn't really count i'm not  going to count this because they're i don't   know no one's gonna play h4 one two maybe three  maybe four right in the game vlad played f4 and   he tried to transform the position in this  way by trading off the bishops uh but as as   as luck would have it after knight g6 there's  another already very interesting dynamic here   pawn play once again if the queen takes then the  queen comes out and starts to attack but if the   pawn takes you bring the rook using the new pawn  trait on the open h file and how do you get your   queen to the h-file if i told you right now black  to move get the queen to the h file in two turns   you would try to move the queen but you can't  do it that way open the door for the queen   pawn play opening the door for the pieces right  now this is the way the game actually went   however in this position vladimir kramnik had a  few options number one he had this pawn break b4   this pawn break looks stupid because at the end  of the day i mean you know let's say this rook   trade comes in you're just losing a pawn however  this pawn break trades off the entire queen side   and actually your queen begins to mobilize and  if black desperately tries to hang on with queen   b6 you are first to the queen side with all  of your pieces a bit of an advanced concept   however here's the thing about square securing  which we talked about earlier you'd like to   play the move knight to c4 but then b5 is going  to happen so play a4 when you push a4 you now   start to defend the b5 square and allow knight  c4 to happen but you severely weaken what square   the b4 square i mean black controls the square and  you won't be playing this move but for the cost of   playing knight to c4 it's probably worth it uh and  later in the game you know we saw their dynamics   like in this position b6 bishop a6 a break here  by kramnik and this opening of the position   actually proved to be proved to be only worse  for uh for vlad because later in the game nepo   played the move rook b6 and used the open b file  ultimately culminating six moves later with the   stunning maneuver rook b2 and rook takes h2 check  so it's just kind of funny how this little piece   transfer turned out to be so devastating because  of how the position opened up but going all the   way back here the way you play closed positions  is you secure certain outposts for your pieces   you look for pawn breaks that are advantageous to  you and i say levy well can you give me a system   to tell me how that's going to happen that's  just from experience how dominant of a piece   do you get how much are you surrendering to your  opponent for example a move like e4 definitely   is not good because black goes f4 and now black  has a huge king side attack you've closed off   the center for your pieces and black just has  a good attack here brewing on your king side   listen this was a 15 minute video i really  tried to do my best again everything that i   talked about will be in the description and  there will be timestamps let me know if you   have any other questions in the comments below  about pawn play i will try to answer as much as   possible and two videos are going to appear to  my left if you enjoyed this one give it a like   and uh maybe share it with somebody as far as the  questions i don't really have any maybe what's   your favorite season and what you like to do in  your favorite season most of all and that's all   for me hope you're enjoying the chess tips series  there's a link in the description to our amazing   chess community that is the discord uh if you like  me and you'd like to support me you want to check   out my openings courses there there as well all  right i'll see you in the next chess tips video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 497,674

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Id: h58-sBkPQt8

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020