Thank the trees for shielding us from the wind!

Hi all

One of the very important games for Tigran Petrosian's career was this World Championship game against the mighty Mikhail Botvinnik :

Petrosian was pretty confident with this Queen-less position. The e6 pawn acts rather like a "friendly tree" providing shelter from the winds on the e file. It means that squares like e4 are more easily used and more important than usual as they are "sheltered strategic squares".

We need the trees sometimes as they shelter buildings and other stuff. Here the e6 pawn of black, shelters the e4 square.

A nicely sheltered knight later from the "friendly e6 tree" :

White states to put pawns on the color opposite to black's bishop - safe on light squares. Great endgame prophylaxis:

The c4 pawn which is disconnected is a convenient target for White now

Simplification means less counterplay:

A great decision willing to sac a pawn to strand the rook further:

The White King is very aggressive compared to the Black king:

The bishop is being constantly hassled:

Final position

BTW Petrosian actually won another key game later with 2 pawn islands vs 3 and again the e4 square was important for operations. Prioritise such sheltered squares and value the friendly trees of the chessboard - providing a shield to frontal pressure :)

Key takeaway points

• One of the more subtle points about blockading pieces generally is they are shielded from frontal pressure. You might like the analogy of 'friendly trees' on the chessboard - providing shelter to your pieces
• This was a very important world championship game for Petrosian to win
• It shows a deep understanding that sometimes having fewer pawn islands means offering the opponent less 'friendly trees' in terms of isolated pawns
• Less pieces means less counter play in general and less risk of losing
• Fewer pawn islands, in general, means less overhead on the pieces to support pawns and weak squares

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K