Quote:
Originally Posted by Superfraggle
Very situational, as sometimes it really is just a pointless move and sometimes it's a preventative move to stop a bishop from going somewhere later. Eg. A6 to prevent Bb5+ (edit: on re-reading, this is clearly something you are well aware of, since you mention the queen pin).
This particular time, it's a bit of a common theme in the London set-up. Black will often move their knight to H5 so they can trade it for my bishop. He couldn't do that right away because my queen covers the square, but in order to get my knight out I have to block the queen. So I moved the pawn to give my bishop a square to hide on if the knight moves (H2).
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Thanks for the explanation! I never would have thought about giving the bishop a little hole to hide in the pawn ranks. I suppose I've never actually seen it used because the other player sees that its available and doesn't make the move that forces it. Clearly I have some work to do to get to this level.