Pawns are known to be the soul of chess. Many times, people overlook the pawns because they are available in abundance and their movements are not impressive like other pieces. However, what differentiates masters from amateurs is knowing the value of pawns. A pawn can be converted into a queen or any piece of your choice once it reaches the territory of your opponent. The pawns that you didn’t value could single-handedly change the entire game with this one advantage.
Apart from this, it is important to understand how you can use pawn structures to your advantage. People are often reckless with their pawns, but once you know how to use pawn structures to your advantage, you will value them just as much as any other piece in the game. Our motive is to keep you informed with our comprehensive content, so we will only learn about the basics without getting into the complications. As you start playing more chess online, you will eventually learn about them. So here are the seven basic Pawn structures that you must know about to improve your game.
Passed Pawns
Passed pawns are pawns that are unstoppable, they cannot be hindered by any other pawn that stands in its way. This can be a threat to the opponent, especially during the endgame. If you have a passed pawn, you are at a great advantage because it can be promoted and it also creates a decisive advantage.
Isolated Pawns
Isolation means being alone. So an isolated pawn is the one that does not have any support from other pawns. They are important during King and Pawn endings because isolated pawns are weak and they require constant support from the king. This keeps him away from doing other important things at hands. The squares in front of isolated porn become a good place for the enemy to stack their pieces for an attack. So the next time you play chess, avoid having any isolated pawns.
Connected Pawns
Pawns that can protect each other are called connected pawns. This is the one pawn formation that is highly suggested and you must implement this in your game. In the midgame, connected pawns can come handy to capture space, create a pawn storm, covering the king and restricting your opponent’s movement. Not just in the mid-game, but connected pawns are also extremely useful in endgames when the pieces are limited and there is not much to do. Play chess online and use connected pawns in your next game to note down its advantages.
Backward Pawns
Backwards pawns are something that you must avoid having when you play chess. As the name suggests, these are the pawns that cannot move ahead in the game because they are threatened by the enemy’s presence. So if a backward pawn is moved forward, it will be captured by the enemy and you will lose your material for no apparent reason. Even though it does support the pawn placed on the adjacent file, a backward pawn cannot move freely. However, if you can support its advance by another piece or pawn then this problem ceases to exist.
Doubled Pawns
Doubling up on pieces can be helpful when their range of attacks complement each other. So for example, doubling up with rooks and queens can give you a fair advantage over the opponent. However, doubling up on pawns in the same file is looked down upon. This is one of the weakest pawn structures because these pawns cannot protect each other and they can be easily blocked by any of the opponent pieces. So avoid this mistake when you play chess and try to double up on the pieces that were suggested.
Pawn Majority
Pawn majority means having more pawns on the board than your opponent. This is a valuable and ideal position, especially during the endgame. They can be used to exchange and create passed pawns which would then be promoted. So preserve your pawns to avail this advantage during endgames.
Final Thoughts
As of now, this is all you need to know about pawn structures. Try to recognize them in the middle of a chess game online. As you master the chess game, you will come to know about more such things that are important for a chess player. For starters, you can play chess online on the MPL chess app. We promise that not only will you have fun playing chess online, but your game will improve as well.
