The September clinic is now online and members can access it here. The theme this month was 'pawn levers', which tend to be neglected at club level but which members tend to develop because of the strong focus on strategy and pawn play. Here are a few examples from the clinic:

This first one seems like a fairly normal looking position, but White has a way to obtain the more promising position. What should he play and why?

A promising way to proceed is with 6.b4! which gains space on the queenside and at the same time inhibits Black's two main pawn levers, with ...c6-c5 or when White's bishop goes to b2, ...e7-e5. This plan is covered in my Building an Opening Repertoire course and has been used by Magnus Carlsen; White built up a very promising position and won in just 28 moves.

The second example features a typical mistake by Black which happens a lot a club level. What should Black play here?

Black has quite a few good choices, for example 5...Nc6 or 5...Nbd7 to name but two. What he should not do is 5...cxd4?!, as this allows White to gain firm control over the ...e5 square and indeed a later ...e6-e5 by Black will leave him with an isolated d-pawn. Yet 5...cxd4 is exactly what Black did, and this is one of the most common moves at club level.

Finally let's look at a lever that is associated with a direct attack. It's Black to play in the position below:

Black played a very strong lever with 14...b5!, which does involve a pawn sacrifice but it is a very promising one. After 15.axb5 Black even followed up with the excellent 15...d5! and after 16.bxa6 even levered open the center with 16...e5!. Black went on to win this game very quickly after his excellent pawn play.

To see the members clinics (48 of them so far!) you need to join, which can be done so on the Membership Signup page.

Nigel Davies