Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 12:17:06 12/24/02
Go up one level in this thread
On December 24, 2002 at 14:00:22, Bas Hamstra wrote: >>A "backward" pawn is a pawn that can't advance without being captured by >>an enemy pawn, and it is not defendable by a friendly pawn. The classic >>example is white pawns on d3 and e4 and a black pawn on e5. The white pawn >>on d3 is backward. Backward pawns are _generally_ on half-open files so that >>they can be attacked from the front by enemy rooks, which makes them even >>weaker. >> >>A backward pawn is really just a specific example of a weak pawn. For >>example black has pawns at c5 and e5. White has a pawn at d3 and e3. >>The white pawn can't advance as it would be attacked by two pawns and defended >>by one, and it would go lost unless white piles up enough pieces to make that >>pawn push doable, which would tie up pieces and give black a chance to start >>action somewhere else. > >But suppose it can advance but it never ever can become pawn-defended? Wouldn't >that be a nice attack-object too? How essential is it that the pawn cannot move? >I am about to try that idea. > It depends. A "backward" pawn can't move. A weak pawn can move but even after moving it will remain weak and might even be lost. >- - - - - - - - >- - - B - - - - >- - - W - - - - >- - - - - - - - >- - - - - - - - >- - - - - - - - >- - - - W - - - >- - - - - - - - > >The e-pawn is sort of dead. What's your opinion about this? Of course there are >exceptions, white can sack it's e-pawn at e6 to get a freepawn, if it gets far >enough. But the fact remains that the e-pawn is not ever pawn-defendable and >therefore weak. > The e-pawn is certainly backward, and it is on an open file, so it is a weakness that will cause some difficulties. More-so with rooks still on the board. >>Ignore backward and catch the weak pawns instead, as that will include >>backward and a large group of other types of weak pawns that are not >>backward. > >I already do that in Tao, but I am not satisfied about it's evaluation of >pawnstructures at the moment. Crafty does a better job here. > >Best regards, >Bas.
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