Space advantage

Lets remember about the interaction between pieces (together with the pawns). We have
3 forms of interactions between the own pieces: sustainment, protection, and limitation
and 2 forms of interaction between opponent pieces: attack and obstruction.
The limitation in the own opponents camp is, of course, a form of bad interaction
between pieces and the most limitative piece because of its low mobility is the pawn.
The obstruction against opponent pieces is best made by the pawn too, because of its low
quantitative value. No opponent piece from the knight to the queen like to come in the
ray of action of a pawn. Also, the opponent pawns blocked by your pawns subsequently
limit the mobility of their own pieces.
As a logical consequence of the above 2 forms of interactions, it means that the pawn has
a very big influence on the freedom of our own and of our opponents pieces.
Between the 2 camps, we can imagine a
demarcation line between the 4th and 5th ranks of
the board. Any pawn securely advanced at the
border of the camp or over the demarcation line
creates space.
- Space for the own pieces because they are not
limited any more by the presence of that pawn
- And lack of space for the opponent pieces
because they are obstructed by the advanced
pawn and limited by their own pawns blocked
behind.

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In the example position, White has more space

because of his d5-, e4-, and f4-pawns. The white
pieces are clearly more mobile than the black
White is to move
ones. White can bring his pieces almost
anywhere he wants, while black pieces have a very limited choice of movement.
It is also very important to notice the limitation that the d6-pawn does to its own camp:
the 2 black sides communicate only through 2 ranks (using the transitory d7- and d8squares). Because of the pawn on d5, White can easily move a piece from a flank to
another using 4 lines.

In our position, after 1.e4-e5, White gets even more space (the e4-square will be free for
the knight, the b1-h7 diagonal will be free for the bishop, and the e1-rook will start to be
dangerous on the e-file). In the meantime, the black knight will be chased away on a very
passive position.

The most important advantage in chess is the space advantage. Also, the space
created by the pawns is usually a long-term advantage.

Gaining Space
1. As a consequence of the chosen opening
There are a lot of openings when Black consciously cedes the centre, permitting White to
get place his pawns here. The idea of these openings (Kings Indian Defense, Benoni,
Pirc etc.) is to challenge this centre with the pieces and different kind of pawn-thrusts.
This way, even if White has more space, Black has a target and therefore gets some
active play.
There are also openings when Black cedes the centre and also renounces to any active
play. The idea is to get a solid pawn formation, trade pieces and enter a drawish or solid
endgame.
Morozevich - Yandemirov, 1998
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 (by renouncing at the
e5-pawn, Black cedes the centre) 4.Nxd4 d6 5.Nc3
Nf6 6.Be2 Be7 7.00 00 8.Be3 Bd7 (diagram)
Here, White has more space and better control
over the centre because of his e4-pawn against the
black d6-pawn. Black played passively but hopes
in his solid pawn structure which can be perfectly
defendable in an endgame.
9.Nb3!
White avoids exchanges to let Black pieces
agglomerated. Because of the good control over
the centre and increased mobility, White will start
to get more space on the kingside by f2-f3 and g2g4-g5.
9Re8 10.f3 Be6 11.Qe1 Ne5 12.Rd1 c6
Black cannot trade pieces, so he has to liberate his
pieces by other method: the challenge of the white
central e4-pawn, by d6-d5.
13.Nd4 Bd7 14.g4 (diagram)
Whites g-pawn (the spear-point) gets space for
White on the kingside and also fights indirectly for
the centre - attacking the f6-knight.
White has a big advantage because of his space,
control over the centre and attacking possibilities
on the kingside.
The game went: 14d5?! 15.g5 Nxe4 16.fxe4 c5
17.Nf5 d4 18.Qg3 Nc6 19.Nh6+ 10

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Black to move

2. By advancing the flank pawns

In the 8th game of the previous annotated games, we discussed in detail the usage of the
spear point (the advance of the g-pawn) for getting local space advantage.

In the game Alekhine Breyer, 1914, the position

from the right resulted after the first 10 moves. The
centre is closed with more space for White.
Characteristic to his style of play, Alekhine starts a
pawn avalanche to get more space on the flanks
too (here, on the kingside):
10.g4 Nf8 11.h4 Qd7 12.Bb5 c6 13.Be2 Bd8
14.g5 Ng8 15.000 Bb6 16.Bxb6
Here, better would have been: 16.Bc4 with the
threat dxc6 and Rxd6.
If Black responds with 16f6, the light-square
bishop will be extremely strong after Bf1-h3
16axb6 17.Qe3 Qc7 (diagram) 18.f4?!
White has a very large advantage of space on the
kingside. However, the advanced pawns left the
squares behind unprotected.
Here, better would have been 18.h5! to prevent the
black knight to arrive on f4. Alekhine was
however less interested in preventing opponents
counter-play and considered the advancing of his
pawn mass more important than an active knight
on f4.
18Ng6 19.f5 Nf4
The knight takes a good square behind the white
pawns here we see the drawback of advancing
the pawns: they conquer space, but leave the
squares behind unprotected.

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However, White is still better and managed to win.

The game went: 20.h5 h6 21.f6 gxf6 22.g6 Kf8 23.gxf7 Ne7 24.Bg4 cxd5 25.exd5 f5 26.Bf3 Qc5
27.Qe1 Kxf7 28.Rh4 Ke8 29.Kb1 b5 30.Rxf4 exf4 31.Qe6 Kd8 32.Nxb5 Qxb5 33.Qxd6+ Qd7 34.Qf6 Rh7
35.d6 Ke8 36.Re1 Ra6 37.Qg6+ Rf7 38.Bd5 Rxd6 39.Qxf7+ Kd8 40.Qf8+ Qe8 41.Qxe8+ Kxe8 42.Bxb7
Kf7 43.a4 Nd5 44.Bxd5+ Rxd5 45.b4 f3 46.a5 Rd4 47.c3 f2 48.Rf1 Rd2 49.a6 Ke6 50.b5 f4 51.Rxf2 Rxf2
52.a7 Rf1+ 53.Kb2 10

3. By advancing the central pawns

The position from the right resulted in the game
Alekhine Bogoljubow, 1921.
Here, White gets advantage of space in the centre
by the very strong move:
12.e4!
White threatens d4-d5 creating a free pawn which
forces Black to renounce at his central e5-pawn:
12exd4 13.Nxd4
As a consequence, White remained with the central
e4-pawn and, moreover, with the so-called pawnphalanx formed by the e- and f- pawns.
Next, Alekhine will put in motion his f-pawn to
create even more space, while he will be very
careful to the control of the open d- file:
13Nc5 14.Bc2 Rd8 15.Rad1 Bg4 16.f3 Ne6
17.Qf2 Nxd4 18.Rxd4 Be6 19.Rfd1 b6 20.h3 c5
21.R4d2 Rxd2 22.Qxd2 c4 23.f4 g6 24.Qd4
(diagram)
After 12 moves from the pawn move 12.e4, White
has a dominant position. Black pieces are strongly
obstructed by the white pawns.
24Rc8 25.g4!
Now, White wins. Black has nothing to do against
the threats g4-g5 and f4-f5.
The game went: 25Bxg4 26.hxg4 Nxg4 27.Kg2
h5 28.Nd5 Qh4 29.Rh1 Qd8 30.Bd1 10

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Position after 24.Qd4

The drawback of the advanced pawns

There are not only advantages on having the pawns advanced. By moving the pawns
forward, we expose the own camp as this wont have the protection and sustainment of
the pawns anymore (see the forms of interaction). We should be very careful at any pawn
advance as the weaknesses are irreparable.

Example from the game Gligoric Smyslov, Kiev,

1959.
White has 3 pawns advanced in the centre (d4, e4,
f4). However, we need to be pragmatic and not to
assess the position in Whites favor only because the
pawns would confer him more space.
- Which of the white pieces has more freedom
because of this space?
- Which of the black piece is restricted by the white
pawns?
At these questions, one cannot find something
concrete for White. Moreover, Black creates
pressure against Whites centre with the pieces and
can take the initiative by:

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1Na5 2.Bd3 f5! (challenging the centre) 3.e5 c4!

blocking the c-pawn and creating a breach on d5.
4.Bc2 Nc6 with idea Ne7-d5 and Black is better.

The right moment to launch the attack

In this position from the game Ljubojevic - Portisch,
1983, White has a clear space advantage in the
centre and kingside, so he should attack there,
opening the game by f4-f5.
However, the moment of launching the attack is
very important. In fact, White doesnt benefit from
his advantage in space if he doesnt use it
More space means you can maneuver your pieces
easier and bring them in more active positions than
your opponent.
White had to play 1.0-0 and 2.Ng3 and only then f4f5.

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White is to move

In the game, White played directly 1.f5 and Black counter-attacked on the same side,
challenging white pawns: 1f6! after which the game becomes complicated with
chances for both players. In the end, the game was a draw.

TO DO when you have space advantage:

1. Because you can maneuver your pieces easier, while the opponent ones are cramped,
retain more pieces (avoid unnecessary exchanges).
2. Be careful at your opponents possibilities to challenge your pawns and release his
pieces. Very often the dynamic of the pieces which come back to life from a cramped
position is very dangerous.
3. Prepare and go for active operations on that side (centre or one of the wings) where
you have more space. Because of this space, you should be able to bring more pieces and
maneuver them easier than your opponent. Thus you create a stronger force on that side
of the board.
4. Launch the attack immediately your pieces are prepared.

Remember:
We know well that the main characteristic which determines the qualitative value is the
mobility of the piece. Usually the space advantage leads to the increment of the attacker's
pieces' mobility on that side and this means qualitative advantage. Moreover, the space
advantage offers the possibility to bring on that side a bigger number of forces on that
side, which means quantitative advantage.
Therefore, the most important advantage in chess is the space advantage.

Note:
Typical positions when Black deliberately lets White to get more space as Hedgehog or
some Kings Indian systems will be discussed in detail later in our course.