Let’s learn the pawn structure in an easy way. There are two types of pawn structure, one is a good pawn structure and 2nd one is a bad pawn structure.

Here are details of good and bad pawn structures.

Good Pawn Structures

Connected Pawns Passed Pawn Pawn Chains

Bad Pawn Structures

Backward pawn Isolated pawn Doubled pawn

Let’s dig out deeply, so you can understand all type of pawn structures.

Connected Pawns

What are connected pawns? and how to get benefit from connected pawns. One of the main features of connected pawns is that they protect each other. Here are some examples of connected pawns. These examples will illustrate how connected pawns work together.

If you advance one of the pawns then another pawn will not have any support for that, that’s why you must not advance your pawns in the opening because they will become weak and object of the attack.

One more point is that connected pawns in the middlegame will give you more space on the board and it can help you to launch a pawn storm on the king.

Passed pawn

The passed pawn structure is the only structure which can give you a clear win. So please read this section very carefully. There are two types of passed pawn, one is a single passed pawn and other is protected passed pawn. Both are enough to win but protected passed pawn is more powerful. Here is an example of a passed pawn.

There are some points to remember about passed pawns.

You should look about your passed pawn and if your opponent has a pawn in front of your pawn, then have to think how to remove this pawn in order to create your passed pawn. You can remove your opponent’s passed pawn by sacrificing your pawn or pawns even a piece. Grandmasters are really good at this topic. You can create a passed pawn if you have pawn majority. And if you have pawn majority then you must advance your pawns in order to create a passed pawn. How to block passed pawn? If your opponent has a passed pawn, then first you should block that pawn and then attack it and win. The best blockad piece is the knight. In the last, you should keep an eye on passed pawn as Nimzowitch said: A passed pawn is a criminal which should be kept under lock and key.

Pawn Chains

Several pawns supporting each other diagonally is called pawn chain. Let’s see a picture so you can understand pawn chains.

Here are some points to remember in order to understand pawn chains.

If you have the pain chain then you should protect your pawn chain. As we see in above example, black is attacking at the base of white’s pawn chain and white is attacking on black’s pawn chain. If black attacks first and creates a passed pawn, then black will have a winning advantage.

If we dig more in pawn chains, There are two types of pawn chains. 1 is fixed pawn chain and 2nd is mobile pawn chain. Let’s see an example:

In the first picture, you can see the fixed pawn chain, and in the above picture, you can see a mobile pawn chain. As you see the position, your pawns can go forward and it’s not fixed. This type of pawn chain helps pawn for promotion even at the cost of a piece as you saw in above.

Here is an example which illustrates the pawn chain.

Game: Schmidt vs Andersen

[Event "Nice olm"] [Site "Nice"] [Date "1974.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Schmidt, Wlodzimierz"] [Black "Andersen, Borge"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E97"] [WhiteElo "2500"] [BlackElo "2390"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "1974.??.??"] [EventType "team"] [EventCountry "FRA"] 1. Nf3 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. d4 d6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e4 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Ne8 10. Nd2 f5 11. f3 Bh6 12. Nb3 Bxc1 13. Rxc1 f4 14. c5 g5 15. a4 h5 16. a5 Kh8 17. Nd2 Rg8 18. g4 fxg3 19. hxg3 Ng6 20. Nc4 Qf6 21. Rf2 Kg7 22. Ne3 h4 23. g4 Kf8 24. Bf1 Nf4 25. Rfc2 Qd8 26. cxd6 cxd6 27. Nb5 Bd7 28. Nc7 Rb8 29. Bb5 Bxb5 30. Nxb5 a6 31. Na7 Rg7 32. Nc8 Rc7 33. Nb6 Rxc2 34. Qxc2 Ng7 35. Kh2 Ne8 36. Nf5 Ng6 37. Nc8 Kf7 38. Ncxd6+ Nxd6 39. Qc7+ Qxc7 40. Rxc7+ Kf8 41. Nxd6 b6 42. Rf7+ Kg8 43. Rb7 1-0 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.

I hope you learned what I wanted to explain about pawn chains. Let’s move to our next subject which is called bad pawn structures.

Backward pawn

The simple definition of backward pawn is A pawn that can not advance and blocked by other pawns. Here is an example of backward pawns.

In short, you must take care of these types of pawn structures, and after reading this post you will know which type of pawn structure is good for your and which type of pawn structure is bad for your opponent. So if your opponent has a backward pawn structure then you should attack at backward pawn. The other thing is you can place your piece into this whole like above position, if you place a knight there you will have a good outpost. (For outpost guide: ⇒ https://www.chessonly.com/outpost-in-chess/ ).

Isolated pawn

The simple definition of isolated pawn is the pawn which is not supported by another pawn. Here is an example of an isolated pawn. In this example, you can see that both sides have isolated pawns.

If you can find isolated pawns in your games and place a piece in front of the isolated pawn, your piece can not be touched by your opponent’s pawn. That is the biggest advantage of playing against isolated pawns. one more thing to note is that isolated pawns are very weak and they need support from their pieces. And the player with isolated pawns will restrict his own pieces in order to protect isolated pawns, otherwise, the pawns will be lost.

Here is one superb game that illustrates how to play against an isolated pawn.

[Event "Wch25"] [Site "Moscow"] [Date "1963.??.??"] [Round "5"] [White "Petrosian, Tigran V"] [Black "Botvinnik, Mikhail"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D94"] [PlyCount "95"] [EventDate "1963.??.??"] [EventType "match"] [EventRounds "22"] 1. c4 g6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. e3 O-O 6. Be2 dxc4 7. Bxc4 c5 8. d5 e6 9. dxe6 Qxd1+ 10. Kxd1 Bxe6 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. Ke2 Nc6 13. Rd1 Rad8 14. Rxd8 Rxd8 15. Ng5 Re8 16. Nge4 Nxe4 17. Nxe4 b6 18. Rb1 Nb4 19. Bd2 Nd5 20. a4 Rc8 21. b3 Bf8 22. Rc1 Be7 23. b4 c4 24. b5 Kf7 25. Bc3 Ba3 26. Rc2 Nxc3+ 27. Rxc3 Bb4 28. Rc2 Ke7 29. Nd2 c3 30. Ne4 Ba5 31. Kd3 Rd8+ 32. Kc4 Rd1 33. Nxc3 Rh1 34. Ne4 Rxh2 35. Kd4 Kd7 36. g3 Bb4 37. Ke5 Rh5+ 38. Kf6 Be7+ 39. Kg7 e5 40. Rc6 Rh1 41. Kf7 Ra1 42. Re6 Bd8 43. Rd6+ Kc8 44. Ke8 Bc7 45. Rc6 Rd1 46. Ng5 Rd8+ 47. Kf7 Rd7+ 48. Kg8 1-0 [/pgn_copat] <h3>Doubled pawn</h3> The doubled pawn is the weakest pawn structure in my opinion. The doubled pawns are those who are doubled at the same file and can not protect each other. Let's see an example. [caption id="attachment_3424" align="aligncenter" width="543"]<a href="https://www.chessonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/doubled-pawns.png"><img class="wp-image-3424 size-full" src="https://www.chessonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/doubled-pawns.png" alt="doubled pawns" width="543" height="542" /></a> doubled pawns[/caption] Some times many strong player doubled their own pawns because they create power influence at the board especially in the center. Above all, as we know that doubled pawns are weak and easy to exploit expect when connected doubled pawns with other pawn's group. Here is an example to illustrate what I mean. [caption id="attachment_3425" align="aligncenter" width="547"]<a href="https://www.chessonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/doubled-pawn-in-scotch-opening.png"><img class="wp-image-3425 size-full" src="https://www.chessonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/doubled-pawn-in-scotch-opening.png" alt="doubled pawn in scotch opening" width="547" height="542" /></a> doubled pawn in scotch opening[/caption] For instance, at this point, black's doubled pawns are not weak, but as we will see how white played against a doubled pawn. Let's watch this game to the end. [pgn_compat] [Event "Tomsk"] [Site "?"] [Date "1998.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Morozevich, A."] [Black "Bezgodov, A."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C45"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "1998.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Ne4 7. Nd2 Nc5 8. Be2 Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. Nb3 Nxb3 11. axb3 d5 12. exd6 Bxd6 13. Ra4 Bf5 14. Bd3 Bxd3 15. Qxd3 Qf6 16. g3 Rfe8 17. Kg2 Bc5 18. Rf4 Qe6 19. Rd1 Bd6 20. Rc4 c5 21. Qf3 Rab8 22. Bd2 f6 23. Ra1 Rbd8 24. Be3 Qe5 25. Rc3 Ra8 26. Ra5 Qe4 27. Bxc5 Qxf3+ 28. Kxf3 Be5 29. Re3 Bxb2 30. Rxa7 Rxe3+ 31. Kxe3 Rxa7 32. Bxa7 Kf7 33. Kd3 1-0 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.

Conclusion:

I hope you learned these six types of pawn structures by heart. In conclusion, please read this article twice in order to understand all pawn structures, and in your next game, you will be having an eye on your opponent’s pawn structure. :). Good luck.

Helpful links regarding endgames and pawns: