{"id":21,"date":"2021-05-11T10:26:39","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T10:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.forwardchess.com\/blog\/?p=21"},"modified":"2021-10-27T13:28:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T13:28:11","slug":"breaking-down-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/breaking-down-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down the Wall | Chess Strategy Simplified"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine having to break down a large wall. Where do you begin? How do you go about it?
\nI don’t think it will be fair to blow up the wall or mow it down with a tank. That isn’t allowed.<\/p>\n

All you have is the good old hammer and a couple of folks to help you. This is a very simple situation, but the profound realization can be applied to chess in every possible way.<\/p>\n

– The Rookie’s Way Forward:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s assume we have ten amateurs of equal strength who shoot for the wall in ten different directions when I say GO. It is so obvious that they’re not going to make a hole at the quickest possible time.<\/p>\n

In the Chess realm, the biggest problem I see in beginners is that their game looks as if half the moves were played by one person and the remaining by a couple of other people in his\/her head. There is no coherent plan. It is as if the pieces are all working on their own.<\/p>\n

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– Looking for Cracks:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

An intelligent person would suggest that maybe they should be breaking down the wall starting with where it is weakest. Maybe there’s a crack in a corner and a plant growing out of it.<\/p>\n

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In chess, weaknesses are defined based on different criteria. There are the ones that can walk away, and the ones that cannot – the permanent & temporary way of classifying weakness. There’s also the simple way of just calling them for what they are – a Piece-based weakness (Bad piece position without mobility & lack of coordination, weak king position, etc), Pawn-based weaknesses (Isolated pawn, doubled pawns, backward pawn & hanging pawns) or Square-based weaknesses (weak squares).<\/p>\n

There’s also the perspective that a weakness that cannot be exploited should not<\/em> be called one! So, over the years different chess experts right from Lasker, Steinitz, Nimzowitsch to the present generation of chess experts have all suggested their ideas on how to define a “Weakness” and have been classifying the same set ideas in different boxes through the history of chess.<\/p>\n

So, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume that the d5 pawn in the below position is just horrible (Or use the chess jargon – A Weakness).<\/p>\n\n\n

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