Outposts and Key Squares

Hey everybody! Today I will be telling you about outposts and key squares. It won't take long, and might be a bit shorter than usual, but it'll be good. First we are going to talk about outposts. An outpost is a square on the opponents side of the board that can not be attacked by pawns and is protected by one of our pawns. There is usually an outpost in front of a backward pawn.

Here white has an outpost on d5, and black has two outposts on d4 and e3. You can put any piece on an outpost, but it is best to put a knight there, so it is hard for the opponent to challenge. If you see an outpost, try to visualize a path for a knight to get there and bang! You have a plan. 

Next we are going to talk about holes. a hole is a square that pawns cannot protect so it might be taken under control by the opponent. 

Here white has a hole on d4, and black could penetrate on the dark squares if white were to lose his dark-squared bishop. We will talk more about dark and light squares in a later lesson. So we want to avoid holes, and exploit the opponents holes. Simple enough. 

Lastly, I want to talk about blockades. Again, blockades are best for knights. A blockade is a piece in front of one of the opponents passed or weak pawn, to stop it from advancing. Because we don't want their passed pawns promoting, or weak pawns traded off.

Here is a typical IQP structure, and black has the ideal blockade on d5. Now white can never push and trade of the d pawn and has to defend it with pieces. Notice this knight can not be challenged by pawns. this is an excellent post for black's knight. A post is a bit like an outpost but on our side of the board.

Well that's about all! Hope you enjoyed it and learned something!