I find pawns are very important pieces in a chess game, i could go as far as to say they are the most important.
Clearly the Queen is the strongest piece. Being able to promote a pawn
to a queen and having two Queens will almost insure a win, unless you
are about to get checkmated because your opponent has the initiative
and an unstoppable mate.
Pawn structure, however, at the highest levels of the game, is the
heart of chess. In chess there are five "basic" elements of chess:
TIME - FORCE - SPACE - PAWN STRUCTURE - KING SAFETY
Time is "tempo." And since Kasparov developed such an important
style of play all through the 80's, "tempo" became one of the most
important factors in opening analysis and transition to middle game.
In the last 60's and early 70's. It was common for Grandmasters
like Bent Larson and Boris Spasski to be able to bring their Knights
back to the first rank, and reposition the board to create imbalances
in the opening and early middle game. That style went away when
Kasparov came to town. He would have crushed that style of play.
Development or tempo became one of the important factors in the
opening and through the middle game transition after Kasparov.
Force is just material. The queen, the rooks, the bishop and knights,
the pawns, they all have a force value in points, if you lose any one
of them without compensation you will LOSE the game at the highest
levels of chess. Yes, if you lose just "1" pawn without compensation
(like an advantage in tempo or time) you will lose the game.
A weak player, such as a Class player (under 2000) will be able to
beat a grandmaster without a rook, especially if they are over 1600
and know how to trade and win the ending. Often a pawn is sacrificed
in the opening for a tempo advantage. We call these openings Gambits.
Years ago, in chess theory, it was said that a pawn was worth 3 tempo.
Now it depends on the opening and position and whether the gambit
accepting color can defend.
Space has to do with controlling squares, particularly controlling the
center of the board. And advantage in "space" means you have an
advantage in "mobility." In open centers your bishops will become more
powerful as well as combining with rooks and queens for combinations.
In closed positions Knights are more powerful (at first, later the game
will become open)in combining with queens, rooks and pawns depending
on the position. Square control is VERY important all through the game.
It is directly proportional in some ways to initiative or tempo (time).
Pawn structure is the heart of chess. Some grandmasters are so
strong that they know mating patterns just off of pawn structure
itself (queen and pawns, queen and knight) when they are "chasing"
a king to mate him in blitz. Pawn structure, however, is more about
the road or pathway to possible promotion (most likely to a queen).
However, in even pawn structures with even force the game will
end in a draw (assuming both players are advanced enough to know
how to play). That is why it is important against weaker players
to create imbalances in pawn structure in order to create winning
chances. Isolated pawns are often a bad thing, because they
are difficult to defend against capture. Connected pawns can
protect one another and leave only the base pawns and backward
pawns that need to be defended (unless there is a combination
involving breaking up connected pawns that will result in an
advantage in force (one side losing a piece or a pawn)).
In endgame where you have opposite colored biships and even
pawn structure (or even almost even pawn structure) every inter-
mediate and advanced player knows that these will lead to a draw
assuming ceteris paribus (Lasker's all other forces are equal).
Pawn structure when all tactics are seen and the positions are
equal then becomes the heart of chess.
What often happens then in order to win is that a sacrifice of
exchange is needed to get an advantage in pawn structure in
order to use that advantage in pawn structure (advanced pawns)
to threaten promotion. A sacrifice of exchange would be like a
rook taking a bishop in order to win a pawn or two pawns, which
then would advance and create the threat of promotion. This
is just one more reason why pawn structure is the heart of chess
when all the tactics are seen by both players.
King safety used to be somewhat apart of the element of time, force,
and pawn structure. Pawn structure in front of a king was important
for its safety, as well as force such as rooks on ranks, knights and
bishops protecting the pawns in front of the king, and so on (these
are assumed castled positions, usually king side. But in the last
twenty or thirty years or so, insteand of just having T+F+S+PS,
we now have the element of "King Safety." King safety can be
disregarded to can an incredible advantage in tempo. An opponent
attacking your king is often over confident in missing combinations
on his own side of the board if he thinks his king is nestled safely
behind pawns and minor pieces (N,B) N=Knight. King safety when
you don't pay attention to it, however, and forget about your
own king, can cause a great disadvantage in tempo which can
result in a loss of material or loss of the game via checkmate.
It is the most important part of the game to protect your King
against checkmate, since that is the ultimate objective of your
opponent.
Therefore, you should begin to see how ALL 5 of these basic
elements of Chess are interrelated. 1. Tempo/initiative related
to development, active pieces, threats against an opponents
king (which is an attack) and accomplishing the task of getting
your pieces to desired squares is all related to TIME. 2. What
pieces you have, (including pawns which are extremely important)
is related to material or FORCE. 3. Having open lines of attack
and controlling the center of the board, and therefore controlling
squares and having the mobility to move your pieces around
more easily is related to SPACE. 4. The number of pawns you
have, your pawn "chains", your backward pawns, your base
pawns, which files your pawns are on and what rank your
pawns have advanced to is related to PAWN STRUCTURE.
5. How safe is your King? Will you use your King as "bait"
to get your opponent to attack you so you can gain an
advantage in material or some other element of chess? Have
you forgotten your King and left weaknesses? This is related
to KING SAFETY.
There is an interesting principle regarding King Safety for your
opponent in that some people refer to it as the 4 piece rule.
If you can get four of your pieces "near" the opponents King
in some way there will always be a "combination" of some sort
that can increase one of the five elements listed above.
What I have just described is very basic in chess. Using these
principles in playing positionally and seeing all of the tactics
is much much much more difficult and separates the fish and
rabbits from the Masters, FM's, IM's and Grandmasters.
~Michael
