The Imposer
Back in the early 2000s, I was listening to a Sam Ford blitz game in the skittles room at a Chicago Open and he slammed down a bishop on d6, paralyzing black's d7 pawn and several corresponding pieces and declared, "Bam. That's an imposer."
More recently, I was able to use the idea of an imposer- something that gets in the way and imposes its will on the position- twice in the same manner in the same system. The first was at the 2015 edition of the Chicago Open vs. FM Seth Homa:
Then, just this week, I was able to use a similar "imposer" idea on chess.com:
The powerful a5! push froze black in both positions, and ultimately black's lack of piece activity or mobility was his downfall.
If you enjoyed the above, check out my blog, "Schachmatist":
or my youtube channel, "Five Minute Theory":
