"Pawn Wall"

If I was playing as white, this is how I would set up my pawns. This only requires 4 moves, and yet, if you look, you can see how each Pawn guards the next, and the back Pawns are protected by your strong suits. You should always try to gain control of the position "e5" and "b5". To successfully complete this wall formation, here is the order to move your Pawns: E7 to E5, F7 to F6, then C7 to C6 and if you can, then B7 to B5... I have hardly had difficulty setting this up of the games I've played. Your opponent may too busy trying to moves "some" Pawns out to release his Queen and/or Bishops... Why is the above start-setup good? Here's why:

1. Your pawns must be attacked to create an opening, which could result in your opponent losing an important piece.

2. It allows you to slide out your Bishop-On-Black and Queen with ease. Bishop-On-White can always "wait" until D7 pawn goes up 1 or 2 to be able to slide out. Until then, let your Bishop-On-White (King's Bishop as shown above) help defend your Pawns-on-white on the left.

3. Also allows access for your Knights to move.

4. Keeps opponent busy trying to find a way into your "fort". In the meantime, you can start planning your attack, so there, you already 1 move ahead of your opponent.

Things To Remember (Do's and Don'ts)

1. Always line up your pawns so that your Rooks are NEVER exposed to a Bishop attack. As you can see above, the Rook at H8 cannot get attacked by the opponent's Bishop-On-Black, there are 3 Pawns guarding that black-line. And the Rook at A8 is guarded by the Pawn at C6. This is important and you'll notice that a lot of players do not guard those lines which makes it easy to grab their Rooks AND keep your piece safe. If you look at the picture above, you'll notice that the opponents Rook at A1 is only being guarded by his Bishop, if you were to setup your Queen or Bishop in a way that so when he moves his Bishop, he would expose his Rook to a clean sweep.

2. Basically, the Pawns are setup like a diagonal "\", remember: to do the diagonal "\" you must advance the Pawn in front of the Queen by 2. If you want to do the diagonal "/" instead, then move the Pawn in front of the King by 2 and do it that way. Either way, your 1^st move should be with King's or Queen's Pawn up 2, then work from there. Either way is effective / or \.

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