Short Term Plans

Basic Pawn Storm

Lets start with the basic pawn storm again, do you remember whites long term idea?

White wants to

1. Line up his rooks across from the enemy king.
2. Remove enemy defenders. (Specifically the dark square bishop and possibly the f6 knight)
3. Push his pawns on the king.
4. Watch for blacks counter attack, especially in the center or queen side.

Its whites turn and he must decide what order he should try to complete his goals.  If white starts by pushing his pawns, black can try to barricade them before whites other forces can come to their aid.  So white should think about lining up his rooks or removing a defender first. This is where it gets hard.  

Remember I am not a chess master, but during the game I have no choice but to trust my own judgment.  The same likely holds true for you.   I have to think of all the consequences I can for each option.  I don't know if I will be correct but only practice and experience can help you now.  What do you do?

Mistake alert.  There is pressure in this situation and pressure leads to mistakes.  You might be tempted to do something now and decide which to do first on your opponents time.  That is the surest way to loose your initiative.  For example I might decide to move Bishop to b5.  Give him something to deal with while I think it over.  Remember black wants to start an attack of his own and you just gave him the chance. Pawn to C6!! Now black has refuted your attack and started one of his own.  Once you decided on a long term plan, DON'T WASTE TIME DOING MOVES NOT RELATED TO YOUR PLAN.  Side Note

Back to the question at hand, do you remove a defender or move your rook?  When looking at removing a defend a possible threat black has becomes clear.  The bishop defends the f2 square.  A black knight on g4 would threaten to remove my attacker!  After it moves, the pawn on f2 is hanging.  This leads to a nasty fork where the black knight attacks both of my rooks! 

When looking at a plan it is important to try to think of the best responses black has.  A PLAN IS NO GOOD IF IT RELIES ON AN OPPONENT MAKING A MISTAKE.  In this case two general scenarios pop up for moving the bishop first.  They are:

• 1. Bh6 Ng4 2. Bxg7 Nxf2 3. Bh6 Nxd1 4. Bxd1  A bishop and a knight for a pawn and a rook.  There are several variations in this line. Try to consider as many reasonable ones as you can. (This one is just the first that came to mind.)
• 1. Bh6 c6 2. Bxg7 Kxg7 This one leaves you with the move, but in exchange you have to analyze further. Do you still have the initiative?  

Ok so what happens if you try Rg8 first.

• 1. Rg8 Ng4 2. Bh6 Nxf2 3. Bxg7 Nxh1 4. Bh6 Nf2  A rook for a bishop, Check for other reasonable variations.
• 1. Rg8 c6 2.Bh6 cxd6 3. Bxg7 dxe4 now what?

Ok so just with the variations shown, it seems that you should remove the defender first.  Depending on how much time you have on your clock, you should look for all the reasonable variations you can.  This process might also show you other moves you should consider.  For example, recall that I said you should not push the pawns first. This quick thought might have been premature You might want to analyze what happens if you prevent the possibility of Ng4 with h3.  Remember in exchange for preventing this possibility you give black a turn.  This price might be too high.