Play Strategically & Mastering Endgames - 4545 Part 2

This is the continuation of a blog post I wrote last week about my time in the Lichess 4545 league. That post is not essential for this one, but it may be a nice read. You can find that post here.

Pawn Structures and Spotting Weaknesses

General Observations

Before diving into our game, I want to consider a position with only pawns. Throughout the course of a game, the pawn structure is probably the most constant part. With that in mind, it's important to consider whether our pawns are well placed. "Pawns don't move backwards" so you must only commit pawns when you're absolutely sure. Consider the following position and think about the weaknesses and potential plans for both players.

There are a few things that jump out immediately. Black has played g7-g6 so his kingside dark squares are potentially weak. Black wants a bishop on g7 to cover those weaknesses. Black also has a space advantage on the queenside and white has to deal with a potential weakness with the c2 backwards pawn. If black can park knights on the d4 or b4 squares (just not at the same time to avoid c3! forking the knights) then black will probably win the c2 pawn. After that, everything should collapse.

That type of analysis is helpful to know about our long term plans, but means very little without pieces on the board. We can perhaps say black has the better endgame prospects, but black also has to make it to an endgame for it to count! Let's put the pieces back on the board and reconsider.

Now we can see the position with pieces, some things change to our evaluation. Black has no dark square bishop, so the kingside dark squares are now a weakness. This weakness is also exploitable with the plans of Qd2-h6 and Ng5 where black has to be careful to not get mated. There is tension around the b5 pawn and white's knight on c3 is well placed to apply pressure. However, these are all problems for now, and white will still be worse if this game reaches the endgame.

Forming the Plan

Looking at the position in this way as made a few things very clear:

• Our analysis of the pawn structure shows that black should target the c2 pawn, probably from the d4 or b4 squares. Black should also take effort to to keep this pawn a weakness. If this can happen, black has a great game. To maximise the endgame advantage, black should trade pieces.
• Black also has kingside weaknesses on the dark squares that White can exploit. This could potentially become a mating attack so Black has to be very careful. With the endgame weakness in mind, White should play for the attack. Black has to be ready to defend.

The Game

Now we have evaluated the pawn structures and immediate plans, it is time to look at the full game. It will be useful to see how these plans originated and also to see how they play out.

The only mistake I made during the game was maybe overestimating the white attack. Everything else went perfectly. This game was really nice to play and felt really significant to my development as a player. Even if it wasn't flashy, understanding how the endgame would play out 20 moves in advance felt great.

Summary

The rest of this match has been tough for my team. This game was a must-win for us to stay in it. Personally, I'm now 2.5/3 and have just set a new peak rating so I would say I'm on top of the goals I set in part 1. I also can't help but notice the similarity to Game 2 against GoneNowhere in the way he used a static structure to run me out of moves and improve his pieces. Clearly things are going well.

Before I end this blog post, I want to shout out the book Amateur to IM: Proven Ideas and Training Methods by British GM Jonathan Hawkins. This book was the reason I was able to make such a long-term call about the position. Sadly, Hawkins passed away in December. I strongly recommend this book looking to take their chess seriously.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to next week's game!