Pawn Structure 101: Sicilian – Scheveningen The pawn structure journey continues, and we are now headed to one of the most exciting destinations: the Sicilian – Scheveningen structure! Whether you are an aggressive and sharp player who likes to meet 1.e4 with the Sicilian defense, or have already realized that it is important to study pawn structures even if they are not a part of your opening repertoire, stick around and get ready to enter this world of possibilities. This structure has a reputation for creating exciting and dynamic possibilities for both sides and leading to sharp and complex middlegame positions, where often creative ideas will be around the corner. This is an accurate description of it, but remember that even if you consider yourself to be a more positional and calm player who does not like to face complications, pawn structures are at the heart of deep chess knowledge, and you will always benefit from learning them. This is our starting position, and the one we will keep coming back to all along. As you can tell, White’s pawns are placed on a2, b2, c2, e4, f2, g2 and h2, while Black’s stand on a7, b7, d6, e6, f7, g7 and h7. An experienced chess player will be able to tell you in the blink of an eye that this position came from a Sicilian defense. Why? Well, because the main factor that distinguishes an open Sicilian structure is the fact that White’s d-pawn has been exchanged for Black’s c-pawn. From this basic statement, we can already gather a lot of information about the position: White has exchanged one of his two central pawns, which gives Black a majority in the centre. Given this advantage, Black will aim to breakthrough in the centre either with d6-d5 or e6-e5, choosing the right moment to do so. We will cover this in detail in the next sections. To compensate for that, White has a semi-open d-file. Specifically in the Scheveningen Sicilian, when Black’s pawns are already advanced to d6 and e6, play along this file trying to weaken the d6 pawn will be of great importance for White, especially by attacking it with major pieces. That being said, Black also has the c-file to explore on his own, and you will catch a glimpse of happiness in the eyes of any Sicilian player when they have this file to play on. Many tactical themes can arise from this, like a Rook being sacrificed for a Knight on c3 or a powerful Black Knight coming into c4 to weaken the b2 pawn. The b2-c2-c3 complex can be exploited by Black in many different ways. Take a look at the diagram 1b, extracted from the game Torre-Espig from 1977, to see these ideas in practice. The grandmaster Eugenio Torre’s next move was to sacrifice the exchange on c3 to weaken the b2-c2-c3 complex (in red) and prepared his Knight to jump to the c4 square, where it will be ideally placed.
These are the fundamentals of many pawn structures which come from the Sicilian defense, but we shall now focus only on the Scheveningen structure and see what shapes its character, and how we can learn to play it with mastery. Here’s a diagram for you to understand White’s plans visually. The ideal setup for the pieces, even if it depends on the particularities of each given position, would be to place a Rook on d1, a Queen on d2 and a Bishop on e3. This way, White can put pressure on the d6 weakness while at the same time attacking on the Kingside. Black rightfully deserves a diagram of his own ideal setup. As we’ve seen, the most crucial points of Black’s plan are to play on the c-file and push the pawn to d5. These are the main ideas regardless of what White chooses to play, but a few details depend on each given position, such as the King’s placement (in the middle or castled on the Kingside) and the g7-g5 idea. You can find good examples of this by studying the commented games on the previous section. Read full post here: http://simplifychess.com/pawn-structures/pawn-structure-101-sicilianscheveningen/