Bread and Butter or Salt and Pepper?

Hi Chess Parents/Coaches!

Today I received the following question from Sydney, a chess coach in Texas:

"Is it more important for me to teach my "chesskids" the basic tactics (Pin, Fork, Skewer, Double Attack, and Discovered Attacks/Checks) or the basic pawn weaknesses (Isolated, Doubled, and Backward)?"

I would say that both of these things are important to learn if your chesskid is going to be a serious player. However, I think the basic tactics are more important and should be learned first. They are the bread and butter of chess, while positional/strategic concepts like doubled pawns are the salt and pepper!

Does it do much good if your young player creates a weak doubled pawn in the opponent's position and then wins it, if on the next move he loses his queen to a fork? In order to play chess at all, you need to know about basic tactics. Once a kid has an understanding of those, then strategic or positional concepts such as weak pawns will make much more sense.

For those of you who are wondering, here is a made-up position with real-life pawn weaknesses in their natural habitat, for illustrative purposes:

White has an isolated pawn on d4 (it has no neighbors to protect it). The pawns on f2 and f3 are doubled (one in front of the other) which impedes their mobility and can cause them to become weak in some cases. Black has a backward pawn on c6 (it cannot be protected by other pawns since they have all passed it by, leaving it to fend for itself). White's pawn on a2 and Black's on a7 are also backward, although not on open files.

Now, all of this is very important knowledge, but...

Let's suppose your Chesskid has the following position:

He knows all about doubled and isolated pawns. So with great artistry he created weak pawns for his opponent (white) on d4, d3, f3, and h2. Now it is time to go and take those weaknesses! He could play 1...Qxd4, 1...Qxf3, or 1...Nxd4. Not knowing about forks, he plays 1...Nxd4 and -BAM- 2.Nf6+ and he loses the queen. All the positional knowledge in the world won't save you if you don't know basic tactics, so that's why tactics are the first thing to learn.

Hope this answers your question!