Holes

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Holes, squares that cannot be possibly covered by own pawns, usually also controlled by the enemy pawns. A typical example is d4 square after White forms a triangle consisting of pawns on c4, d3 and e4. Holes are excellent locations for enemy minor pieces, safer than outposts. For that reason one should keep minor pieces to cover the holes in one's position. Along with bitboard pawn patterns, holes may be determined by the relative complement of front attack spans usually restricted to the area of the own 3rd and 4th rank of the extended center.

=Sample= ......../......../......../......../..P[.]P.../...P..../......../........ Hole on d4

=See also=
 * Attack Spans
 * Backward Pawn

=Forum Posts=
 * Pawn Structure "Holes" and Move Ordering by Daniel A. Thies in rgcc February 12, 1996 » Move Ordering
 * Re: Did Cray Blitz really have a win? by Robert Hyatt, rec.games.chess.misc, March 12, 1999 » ACM 1985, WCCC 1986, Cray Blitz

=External Links=
 * Hole | Glossary of chess from Wikipedia
 * The Sicilian – Boleslavsky hole | Pawn structure from Wikipedia

=References=

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