 |
The Power of Pawns |
There are only two types of chess players - those who have read Pawn Power in Chess by Hans Kmoch and those who have not. It is quite likely that you are in the second category, in which case you can quickly make a transition to the first category by downloading the book (or I can send it to you).
It is said that chess players speak in a language of their own. When two chess players talk to each other, a third person cannot make head or tail of conversation fragments like opposite coloured bishops, knight fork, passed pawn, Ruy Lopez, Alehine's Defence, rook on the 7th rank, opposite side castling. But let's change the scene a little bit. Two chess players who have read Kmoch's tome are talking and a third player who hasn't read the book is bewildered with terms like, duo, lever, span, twin, pawn cross, lee and luff, frontspan, rearspan, interspan, helpers, sentries, fakers, the ram, stop and telestop, headpawn, head-duo, hanging duo, buffer duo, chain, wedge etc.. What could you make out of the following comment if you haven't studied the book: “With the stop squares d4 and c5 definitely under White's control, Black's melanpenia has reached fatal proportions.”
Monochromy, dangerous leucopenia, dynamic melanpenia - no these are not from biology, they represent disease on the chessboard!
Kmoch wrote, “The proper use of pawns, which is of paramount importance in chess strategy, sometimes puzzles even experienced players. Existing theory apparently offers insufficient guidance in certain respects. In the present work I have tried to facilitate the understanding of pawn play by isolating its elements and elaborating on their various aspects.”
The hallmark of the book is giving names to some key concepts which are only at the back of the mind and vaguely defined even for experienced players. In Part One of the book, with the heading “The Elements of Pawn Play”, Kmoch introduces his terminology for pawns under the sub-headings Location, On the road to promotion, The ram, Stop and telestop, The duo, Headpawn and head-duo, Types of duos, Trio and quart, The lever, Types of levers, Symmetrical and unsymmetrical exchange, Local majorities, Chains, Isolation-Dispersion-Distortion, Backwardness, Sheilding, Siege and quartgrip.
The following position is elementary. Even beginers would solve it instantly, but the mental process of arriving at the soloution would differ considerably for a person familiar with Kmoch's terminology. It is an example of fork lever. The key 1.e4+! destroys Black's duo and draws.
We close by giving an example of monochromy. Monochromy refers to weakness of squares of one colour. Monochromy is a very common ailment; there are innumerable examples for its rise in practical play. Let us discuss a drastic case.
So friends, if you haven't studied this book, its high time you did!