Adam asks:

Jeremy,

Many thanks for the two articles on the Lucena and Philidor positions. I am an 1894 rated player and owner of several good endgame books, mostly very lightly used. I have just played in a two round U-2000 county match and last night's preparation consisted of playing through your articles. In the first game I struggled to equalize having mixed up two or three different opening lines as Black in the Belin Classical, Ruy Lopez. I saw a way to force an ending a pawn down but with counterplay. I did this, resisting going after regaining the pawn as this would have risked getting my Bishop trapped. Soon we had swapped minor pieces into a two-Rook vs. two-Rook ending, then Rook v. Rook. I felt so much more confident in my play, knowing that I could draw this with best play. Queenside pawns came off leaving my opponent with a passed pawn but with my Rook on the seventh, behind the passed pawn. With three versus three on the kingside, I positioned my pawns on f7, g6 and h5 and calmly succeeded in drawing. A lot of the credit goes to the lessons learned from your two short articles.

Pawns on f7, g6 and h5 seemed the right set-up and I'm sure I've seen this recommended as the best defensive stance. Can you tell me why?

Silman replies:

When defending an inferior endgame, the pawn structure you mentioned (f7, g6, h5) is considered desirable because it offers only one attackable point (on f7). The other two pawns (on g6 and h5) are firmly defended by the anchor on f7.

In any position (middlegame or endgame) it's important to keep your weaknesses down to a minimum. Often one weakness can be successfully defended, but two or more (barring some form of dynamic compensation) usually proves to be more than the defending position can handle (That's why the attacker often strives to create as many targets as possible. This is called THE PRINCIPLE OF TWO WEAKNESSES).

Since the posed question was about a particular structure in the endgame, let's take a look at a fairly common example.

DIAGRAM 1

WHO IS TO MOVE?

White is a healthy pawn ahead, but the game should be drawn due to the fact that all the pawns are on one side of the board. Why is that important? Because it's far easier for the inferior side to defend his remaining weaknesses if they are all in one small area.

In Diagram 1 it's important to have the move. If it were White to play, he would retain winning chances with 1.g4, leaving Black with two potential attackable points on f7 and h7 (not to mention the extra pawn). This might not seem like much, but every little bit helps White's cause.

However, if it were Black to move, he would play 1…h5! creating the structure that Adam asked about.

LEAVES ONLY ONE ATTACKABLE BLACK PAWN

Now the black h-pawn is as solid as a rock, and Black can concentrate on making sure f7 is safe, and in keeping White's extra pawn on e4 at bay. Also, since the defending side is usually happy to exchange as many pawns as possible (because that could easily lead to the basic Philidor Position, discussed HERE), White's g2-g4 loses much of its steam since …hxg4 would calmly trade a pair of pawns.

Thanks to Adam for the excellent question. Fortunately the answer proved simple and easy to digest: make sure you have as few weak points in your camp as possible and things will usually go well.