The importance of knowing about pawn centres ought to be evident. Pawn centres are an essential -- if not the most important -- factor in determining the course of a game. You probably know what style of play you enjoy (aggressive, tactical, positional, flank attacks, centre attacks, ...) -- but do you also know how to bring about the positions you excel at? This is where knowledge of pawn centres comes in handy!
The open centre, as you might have guessed, favours aggressive, tactical play. The defining feature of an open centre is the absence of pawns: no pawns (or one at most) occupy the central files.
An open centre guarantees free passage for the pieces -- your own and your enemy's -- so speed is paramount. Fast development and an aggressive attack are key. If your opponent offers you a pawn or even an exchange, beware! The time it takes to snatch that pawn could easily give your opponent an opportunity to mate your king on the other side of the board. So don't be materialistic and keep your king safety in mind! Castle early, for a king on an open e-file is a sitting duck.
The game (with annotations) between Spielmann and Tartakower, Munich 1909 illustrates the nature of open centre play very well, I think; both players play aggressively, but in the end Spielmann is one notch faster than his opponent, forcing him into the defence and finishing him off with a powerful attack.
2 comments:
Excellent article Christian and I liked how you incorporated the game into the article with the viewer - very well done!
On a side note if anyone else is having problems seeing the visual confirmation image to type the code to post if you don't have a blogspot account, you need to clear your temporary internet files. I had that problem today and found that was the fix recommended by the blogspot support group.
Great post Christian.
A good rule of thumb on Pawn Gambits in the opening is that in the first 10 moves a tempo (gained from the Gambit) is worth a pawn - but this decreases as the game progresses. So, on move 30 if there is still a closed game and development was completed by move 15, say, without a noticeable then the Gambit hasn't really paid off.
Clearly, in the opening the Gambit(s) pay-off as the Gambit player has quicker development and better lines, but it won't last if you know how to play against Gambit lines.
Very few Gambits are good against strong players (Queen's being a good one) but it's worth playing them every now and again - I play the Budapest.
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