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Moving pawns forward to take space is an important strategic consideration in chess. However, for every step a pawn moves forward, something is left behind. Simply, pawns cannot attack the squares to its rear so it is possible that the defense has been weakened. This gives rise to the concept that pawns can be “overextended” – too far in the opponent’s terrority for the position to retain its cohesion. It also gives rise to the notion of pieces “infiltrating” behind the line of pawns. In this fun game I played today, both my opponent and I engaged in some relatively aggressive pawn pushes and we can see this concept of the risks and opportunities in action.

There are a number of important insights from this game. The first is the risk with bringing out the queen early. In this game, my opponent’s queen on f6 blocked the natural development square of their knight, and later, Ne7, blocked an escape route for the queen. This meant that the queen was almost trapped and became a target, eventually forced to retreat and stuck on the edge of the board. The second, like the video from yesterday, is the risk from keeping the king in the centre. The effectiveness of my infiltration behind my opponent’s line of pawns was in part due to the limited defense of the king – checks allowed me to gain tempo. And thirdly, don’t forget en passant when making an aggressive pawn push!

I hope you found this game interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/40090796645

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.03"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "97percentGTFO"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C25"]
[WhiteElo "1312"]
[BlackElo "1348"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "16:26:12 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 d6 3. d4 Nc6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. d5 Nd4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. gxf3 Qf6 8. Be2 Nxe2 9. Qxe2 a6 10. h4 Ne7 11. Bg5 Qg6 12. O-O-O h6 13. Be3 f5 14. h5 Qh7 15. Rdg1 f4 16. Bd2 c5 17. dxc6 Nxc6 18. Rg6 Nd4 19. Qc4 Nxf3 20. Re6+ Be7 21. Qc7 g5 22. hxg6 Qg7 23. Nd5 O-O 24. Nxe7+ Kh8 25. Bb4 Nd4 26. Rxd6 Nb5 27. Qxb7 Nxd6 28. Bxd6 Rac8 29. Rh5 Rc4 30. Bxe5 Qxe5 31. Rxe5 Kg7 1-0