Lessons From Bischofsgrün: More On Pushing The C Pawn

THREE days ago I warned about the dangers of pushing on with the c pawn (c4-c5 for White; ...c5-c4 for Black) in positions with pawns on d4 and d5.

I joked that even when the move is good, it should not be played.

The situation arose again in my round-seven game.

Black has just played 9...Nb8-c6 in Spanton (1954) - Roland Welsch (1890)

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The game continued 10.c5!? Qc7 11.Bb5!? Bd7 12.Bxc6!?, when White has not only played the often frowned-on c5, but has followed up by surrendering the bishop-pair.

But Stockfish17 and Dragon1 like White's sequence, and Black never managed to equalise, eventually blundering under pressure from my advancing queenside pawn-majority.

LESSON: there are no hard-and-fast rules for deciding when c4-c5 (...c5-c4 for Black) is good - positional judgment is necessary, and that only comes with experience.