I have seen this quite often recently:
- Castled kingside and having a bishop on g3/g6 or castled queenside and having a bishop on b3/b6.
- Bishop gets taken by a knight.
- Knight is taken back by a/h pawn.
I dont understand why the a/h pawn is chosen, while I would intuitively take back with the c/f pawn.
That would open up my rooks line and I cannot be attacked so easily on the side where my king is most vulnerable, cause there is no rook, ... to defend.
What am I missing ?
The general rule is to capture towards the center, as control of the center is normally good. This also follows the thought that fewer pawn islands are better, assuming that there is a center pawn to lose contact with.
Of course, there are exceptions, and I've seen many games where taking with the h-pawn leads to a mate as h3/6 can no longer be played.
Ok - thx
@jonesmh !
I often heard about the general principle to take towards the center.
And pawn islands are also not new to me.
But I didnt even consider that when questioning myself about that topic.
Its just looking so ugly to me to see an open a/h line in my "castle".
I guess I have try to follow those general principles more,
if not the specific position is telling something different.
Its hard to overcome those "looking ugly" habit - which I guess is based on some bad experience in a position I mix up with the actual one.
I really want to answer your question but I am having a hard time with answering this mate in 1 captcha. Can someone help?
Qf2 wolfseed, at least that is what I see. I second jonesmh's answer, but it will be interesting to see some positions where you saw that.
Actually hxg6 (capturing towards the centre) is usually much safer. In terms of king safety, hg opens the file but fg opens the diagonal to the king. Also the f pawn can control the e-file. So while you now have an open f-file, your e-file control is much worse. (e.g you cant attack a knight with your f pawn if its sitting on the e-file.)
As a general rule, only capture fg if:
1. You will get mated by some h5 h4 opening of the h-file or ng4 qh5 bullshit.
2. The dynamics of the position open f-file warrants it because long term, you will lose e-file control. Remember your h pawn is more useless as it only attacks one square as opposed to two like every other pawn (except a).
Also remember that in the endgame fg will usually be worse as well because you might have to play kh1 in the middle game and if your opponent has some pawn on the e-file you might be in trouble.
I can think of some edge cases where fg might be useful in an endgame like for a quick kf2 , some weird stalemate defences, outside passed pawn creation etc. but usually hg is better. You can play g4, f3 kf2 and can always hide on g3 if u need to (no rook side checks) and if you play kf2-e3 to centre of board u can protect f3 pawn much easier with ur king than h3 pawn.
@manshuv Here is one example, while ok here its obvious, that fxg6 would destroy the pawn chain:
lichess.org/analysis/standard/rn3rk1/ppq1bppp/2p1pnN1/3p4/2PP4/1QN1PPP1/PP1B3P/R3KB1R_b_KQ_-_0_11@jadanacThx for your detailed reply!
The endgame is surely something to take into consideration here.
But also got a lot of other things from your post....
The general rule is to capture towards the center, but there are many exceptions.
Capturing fxg3 opens the f-file for your Rf1 but also opens the diagonal a7-g1 towards your king.
Capturing hxg3 allows the opponent that has not castled or has castled O-O-O to open the h-file with ...h7-h5-h4.
In the Sicilian Defence white after O-O-O often recaptures cxb3 as this is more solid to defend his king on b1, giving white free reign to attack a black king at g8.
It all depends on the position.
Correct - in this case you can also see how it weakens the e pawn for the duration of the game.
@brainwindHappy to help! Of course such a question as yours is very complex and there's no general rule you can follow every time just like everything in chess :-)
A lot of good insight collectively contributed in this thread. I'm sure there's more to the story still!