Ask Coach Jessica: Attack the Weak Pawns!

 

Buon giorno, ChessKids! It's Mrs. Jessica E. Prescott (aka BoundingOwl). Today I was looking at the Ask Coach Jessica Forum and I saw that Bird909 was wondering about passed pawns.

It's amazing how much there is to know about pawns. There have been whole books written about them! Today I'll give you some tips on how to identify and exploit weak pawns.

  

 

 

Here's the deal. There are three basic types of weak pawns:

1. backward pawns,

2. isolated pawns and

3. doubled pawns. (Interestingly, doubled pawns can sometimes be an asset — that means "a good thing." But most of the time you'll want to avoid them.)

Let's take a look at this position. 

Black has two sets of doubled pawns on the c-file and on the f-file. The doubled pawns on the f-file are also backward, because they cannot move forward without getting captured, and they are behind their neighbor on the e-file. The pawn on h5 is isolated because it has no pawn neighbor on either side of it.

White has doubled and isolated pawns on the c-file, an isolated pawn on e4, and a backward pawn on g3. Do you see all of that?

So, if your opponent has weak pawns, attack them!

The plan was easy! Aim at the weak isolated pawn. Did you also see the pin? Put pressure on the pinned piece! (Make sure you click on the question mark icon when you're ready so you can see the move list.) White will lose at least the pawn.

Now try this one. First, find White's weakest pawn. Oh, look, a backward pawn on a half-open file!

Again, be sure you click on the question mark icon so you can see my comments.

Stay tuned for more specific tips on how to take advantage of your opponent's weak pawns and what to do if YOU have them, too!

 

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