You expand by moving your pawns. In that way you get more space to your pieces, and the opponent gets less space to their pieces. That is hugely effective. But your pawns can also be a target. And there can come holes in your position. Someone once said that the secret to positional chess is to know that pawns cannot move backwards! When (and were) to expand will always depend on the actual position.
Expanding Queen/King Side
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Does expand means moving pawns only?
@2 Yes.
@3 Yes
@1
Example: after the center is closed with 8 d5, white expands on the queen's side with 9 b4 and black expands on the king's side with 9...Nh5 and 10...Nf4.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070932
Other example: after the center is closed by 3 e5, black expands on the queen's side 3...c5 and white expands on the king's side 11 g4 14 f4.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1053733
What does it mean when someone says to expand queen/king side? How is it used in game and how effective is it?