"The pawn is the soul of chess"

The straight forward capture of his b pawn set me up for a beautiful queenside pawn rush ;check it out and tell me if the sight of 3 passed pawns is not one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see.  He resigned after d7.

Very impressive indeed!

you'll know that it was your namesake Philidor who coined the phrase "pawns are the soul of chess"

I did.  Maybe I should learn to play Philidor's Defence, too.  Could there be any good lines for Black there?

Mon but principal est de me rendre recommandable par une nouveauté dont personne ne s'est avisé, ou peut-être n'a été capable ; c'est celle de bien jouer les pions ; ils sont l'âme des Echecs : ce sont eux-mêmes qui forment uniquement l'attaque et la défense et de leur bon ou mauvais arrangement dépend entièrement le gain ou la perte de la partie.

Translation: My main purpose is to make myself commendable by a novelty of which no one was aware or perhaps was capable [of discovering]; this is to play the pawns well; they are the soul of chess: it is they which uniquely determine the attack and the defence, and on their good or bad arrangement depends entirely the winning or losing of the game.

well said sir!. you should check out the videos on youtube which demonstrate  variations on philidor's defence.

Good idea.

chess_gg wrote:

I would rather call the pawn: the foot soldier of chess.

.

Or as Tal used to call them: cannon fodder!

A pawn is pawn.