Passed pawn[ edit ]



A passed pawn is a pawn for which there are no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth rank, i.e. no opposing pawns on a higher rank on the same file nor the files to either side. A passed pawn is sometimes called a passer. In this position, the white pawns on the b, c, and e files are passed pawns. Passed pawns are an advantage because it requires the intervention of an opponent´s piece to stop them from promoting. Often a piece must be sacrificed to prevent a passed pawn from promoting. The play of passed pawns is often of fundamental importance in endgames.

A pawn that is protected by its own pawns is called a protected passed pawn. In the first diagram, the b and e pawns are protected passed pawns. Two or more passed pawns on adjacent files are called connected passed pawns, and they are very strong. The b and c pawns are connected passed pawns. A pair of connected passed pawns is sometimes called a steamroller.



An outside passed pawn is a passed pawn that is one that is on the oppsite side of the board as the kings, e.g. the pawn on the a file in the second diagram. The black king will be diverted to stop White´s passed pawn and in the meantime, the white king can attack and capture black´s pawns, and win the game.


categories: myChess-Wiki | chess terminology | Passed pawn
article No 605 / last change on 2005-06-29, 04:49pm

back  write a new article  show all articles  


direct links: chess chess960 correspondence chess Fischer Random Chess chess terminology chess players chess opening


This article is based on the article Passed pawn from the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia and stands under the GNU-Licence for free documentation. In the Wikipedia a list of the authors is available.

Games are being played: 168, Challenges: 2, Halfmoves up to now: 7.705.500
Copyright 2003-2024 Karkowski & Schulz - All rights reserved - privacy statement