General Mobility of Pawns

Group mobility of pawns can become a great fighting instrument, which usually leads to decisive advantage

General Mobility of Pawns

by Bogdan Girmacea

The first one who had a great contribution about this subject was Aron Nimzovitch in his famous book "My System". He says that the group mobility of pawns, and not the mobility of one pawn, can become a great fighting instrument, which usually leads to decisive advantage. Why is a mobile group of pawns so important? The answer is very simple, because a mobile group of pawns can:

a) control a lot of important squares on the board
b) limit activity of opponent's pieces
c) give attacking chances to the side that has them
d) give space advantage

But let's see a concrete example to understand better. I will show you the game Spassky – Petrosian, from the 1966 World Championship.

Email for contact: bgirmacea@yahoo.com