chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, doubled pawns are two

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pawn, Oregon, an his ...

s of the same color residing on the same file. Pawns can become doubled only when one pawn captures onto a file on which another friendly pawn resides. In the diagram, the white pawns on the b-file and e-file are doubled. The pawns on the are doubled and

isolated Isolation is the near or complete lack of social contact by an individual. Isolation or isolated may also refer to: Sociology and psychology *Isolation (health care), various measures taken to prevent contagious diseases from being spread **Is ...

. In most cases, doubled pawns are considered a weakness due to their inability to defend each other. This inability, in turn, makes it more difficult to achieve a breakthrough which could create a

passed pawn In chess, a passed pawn is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth ; i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on either the same or adjacent files. A passed pawn is sometimes colloquially called a ''pas ...

(often a deciding factor in endgames). In the case of isolated doubled pawns, these problems are only further aggravated. Several chess strategies and openings are based on burdening the opponent with doubled pawns, a strategic weakness. There are, however, cases where accepting doubled pawns can be advantageous because doing so may open up a file for a rook, or because the doubled pawns perform a useful function, such as defending important squares. Also, if the opponent is unable to effectively attack the pawns, their inherent weakness may be of little or no consequence. There are also a number of openings that accept doubled pawns in exchange for some prevailing advantage, such as the Two Knights Variation of Alekhine's Defence.

Tripled and quadrupled pawns

It is possible to have tripled pawns (or more). Tripled pawns are sometimes referred to as an Irish Pawn Center. The diagram shows a position from Lubomir Kavalek–

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

, Sousse

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the C ...

1967. The pawns remained tripled at the end of the game on move 28 (a draw). Quadrupled pawns occurred in the game

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine, ''Aleksándr Aleksándrovich Alékhin''; (March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already a ...

– Vladimir Nenarokov, 1907, in John van der Wiel–

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (born 12 January 1944) is a German chess Grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship, but never qualified ...

, 1981, and in other games. The longest lasting case of quadrupled pawns was in the game Kovacs–Barth, Balatonbereny 1994, lasting 23 moves.longest quadrupled pawns
/ref> The final position was drawn, demonstrating the weakness of the extra pawns (see diagram).

Types of doubled pawns

There are different types of doubled pawns (see diagram). A doubled pawn is weak because of four considerations: # lack of mobility # inability to act as a normal pawn # likelihood that it cannot be exchanged for an opposing normal pawn # vulnerability to attack, as the front pawn cannot be defended from behind by a rook The doubled pawns on the b-file are in the best situation, the f-file pawns are next. The h-file pawns are in the worst situation because two pawns are held back by one opposing pawn, so the second pawn has little value . See

Chess piece relative value In chess, a relative value (or point value) is a standard value conventionally assigned to each piece. Piece valuations have no role in the rules of chess but are useful as an aid to assessing a position. Valuation systems almost always assign ...

for more discussion.

References

Bibliography * * {{chess Chess terminology Chess strategy

Tripled and quadrupled pawns

Types of doubled pawns

See also

References