Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 11:33:53 02/28/06
Go up one level in this thread
On February 28, 2006 at 13:12:58, Stuart Cracraft wrote: >Weak pawns > >1. cannot advance without the destination square being > attacked by enemy pawns moreso than friendly pawns > >2. if pawn attacks outnumber pawn defenses by 1, it is lightly weak. > >3. if pawn attacks outnumber pawn defenses by >1, it is heavily weak. > >4. current defended/undefended status of pawn in consideration does not matter. > I would not do that one. If a pawn is currently undefended by another pawn, and it can't safely advance to where it is defended by more pawns than it is attacked by, then it is weak. Classic example is black pawn at c5, white pawns at c4 and b3. b3 pawn is often called "backward" but it is just a case of a pawn not defended by a pawn, and can't advance safely to where it is defended by another pawn. It's weak and can easily be lost. >5. current half-open-file or not status of pawn does not matter. Depends. If the pawn is weak, and on a half-open file (no enemy pawns in front of it) and the opponent has a rook, then that pawn is weaker than if there was an enemy pawn in front of it blocking the rook attack. > >Anything you wish to add or change to the above? > >What kind of penalty would you put on this kind of weak pawn? > >Does it have any tie-in to game-stage or other modifiers (such as >undefended further defining it as a backward and additionally also >on half-open then as dangerously backward.) > >Thanks, > >Stuart The game stage is tough to analyze. As the game progresses, weak pawns become more of an issue, until the king and pawn endgame when they are often decisive and are lost... The "value" is very subjective and depends on the rest of the evaluation. The rule of thumb is to make it big enough to not create them, but not so big that you will wreck your position even worse while avoiding creating them....
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