Two pawns abreast

While my lifetime score against Australian chess legend IM Robert Jamieson was 0 from 2 (or maybe 3), I remember that the games were hard fought and I was competitive for most of the game. But the other thing I took away from the games was little tid-bits of advice that came in the post mortem. One point that always stayed with me was his asking "Where are your two pawns abreast? You need two pawns abreast to make a break with one". This advice was similar to what I later discovered in Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess, where he pointed that that pawns standing next to each other cover the 4 squares in front of them.
The further up the board you can march these pawns, the more space you have to operate. I managed to use this to my advantage in a game I played quite recently. While in general I have the feeling that my chess in on the wane, I was pleased that in this game I managed to keep things under control. Once my pawns stood on e4 and d4, I was able to use the space advantage to almost trap my opponents knight (which allowed me to gain a passer), as well as swinging my rook to the queenside via f5. Eventually the pawns were surrendered for material gain, but by then the game was almost over.


Patterson,Miles - Press,Shaun [A04]
Belconnen FDK, 23.09.2014