Controlling the Center

Very important principle of chess. The center is the key focus of all openings either directly in the form of seizing it or indirectly by applying pressure on it. Once held, a player can convert it into a flexible attack where we can either attack the kingside, queenside or center of the board. A player who controls the center can often apply enough pressure to achieve these positions where the opponent has very few options because they have so many areas of the board to defend at once.

Common Center Ideas

• queenside castle if the d-file is semi-open, it saves a tempo.
• pushing pawns to the 5th rank when they're protected well. They can dominate space and prevent opposing pawns from entering the center, or they can perform an effective break.
• knights in the center allow them to control the entire board.
• 4th rank bishops are at their strongest, claiming 7 squares of space in the enemy half.
• rarely, the queen can be strong in the middle if there are no good tempo-gaining development moves for the opponent.

Putting Pawns in the Center

Pawns in the center is the classical idea of controlling the center. Without the right fortification, pawns in the center are targets. This is the idea behind fiachettos and the Sicilian defenses. But if allowed, a strong pawn center results in a massive space advantage and lead in development through tempo gaining pushes. With a large pawn center, first you need to defend it. Then you can aim to control squares in front of the pawns to prepare breaks. For example, knights in the center can defend the d-pawn and prepare an e-pawn break.

When you have a pawn center advantage, the best way to convert it is to push the pawns further, which is only possible if you can gain a lead in development and properly control the squares in the center. Otherwise you can almost always at least convert it to a lead in space through pushing minor pieces.

When Central pawns become a weakness

• when a pawn center is overextended it can be challenged by wing pawns, forcing the bad trade of side pawns for central pawns.
  • a crumbled center can be disadvantageous since you invest tempo in pushing them, and it is especially devastating if king safety was sacrificed for central control
• if you cannot remove the center pawns (especially if there are too many centralized pawns) you may be able freeze the center using blockades to close the position. This can be advantageous since often the advancing side has many pieces defending the pawns so they would need to relocate to convert them from defenders to attackers.
  • it becomes very difficult to make use of center holes in a closed game forcing the player with the center to make plays in the wings.
• if trying to remove a pawn center, think about removing the most advanced pawn
  • if there are three pawns at the same rank, think about targeting the middle one since the only way to support it with other pawns is to push it which may result in a fixed closed center.

• if you're defending against a large pawn center with no space (and especially if their king is in the middle still as a result) do anything including pawn sacrifices to break it open!

  Closed Positions

• closing a position is done by blockading pawns, either with your own pawns or with other pieces. It is a good strategy to close the center as a defender if you cannot remove a large attacking pawn center
  • closing a position can give you time to catch up in development and king safety
• with closed centers, typically you will make plays on the sides instead, and seek to exploit holes in the position
• if you have a lead in development or king safety, you can seek to open the center, which is done by removing pawns of either player to create open files and diagonals.
• you almost never want to use a pawn break unless you have more active pieces to convert the new open position into an advantage for you
  • always consider central pawn pushes, they require careful timing but usually have some good time to do it

Analysis

• White London bad pawn break. It activates the opposing rook by giving them a rook on the semi open d-file. After the exchange, black can develop the knight with tempo on the bishop. I think we don't have enough development advantage to exploit the pawn break. I think the reason this is a +2.0 position is because of black's weak king safety after castling long. Since the center is locked up, we can push on the wing and attack faster than black can.