Pawn Structures: The Isolated Queen Pawn
What does the structure look like?
It looks like this! The pawns are identical except for white’s lonely d-pawn, which can’t be defended by one of its comrades. The pawn on d4 would be a treasure for black as the pawn takes up important central space, allowing white to start a kingside attack.
What’s my plan for this structure?
Lets make it simple for the brain you posses to understand, 2 bullet points for each side with a simple, concise plan. And a quick note before you go on, when I write IQP it means isolated queens pawn since I’m sick of rewriting it.
Side With IQP
- Use your space advantage to start an attack on the opposing king
- Push your d-pawn and force it to be traded off, getting rid of the weakness
Side Defending Against IQP
- Trade off your pieces and get into an endgame where you can attack the weak d pawn
- create a blockade for the d-pawn so that it can’t cause problems!
Ideal positions
Blah blah blah blah blah, get on with the good part already! Fine fine fine, here’s the positions you, the newbie reader, would be looking to get in your games! (Unless it’s bullet, in bullet anything goes)
For the side with the IQP
Obviously you won't likely ever get a position exactly like this, but I'm using it as a model to show what you should aim for in your games. All of whites pieces are helping with the attack on the kingside, with the rook, pawn, and bishop being the most notable attackers. But if you look at black’s pieces, you can see that very few of them help to defend the king and are all squished together on the queen side.
For The Side Defending Against The Isolated Queen Pawn
As you can see in this position, a lot of the pieces have already been swapped off, so black doesn’t have to worry about a kingside attack. And the famous IQP is rather weak, and is a headache for white to defend.
Testing Your Knowledge
Now, without scrolling back up, see if you can use what you've learned to solve the following puzzle! I’m right there so seriously, no scrolling up
Oh my, what is this puzzle even? It’s a finish to a brilliantly played game, I understand that your probably not a master, but if you sit down and don’t pull your hair out I assure you that you can find the answer!
Ending
You better not have skimmed through this, at least have the decency to look at the positions… Make sure to read my next post which is coming soon! Credit for the positions goes to GM Johan Hellsten.
