Central Doubled Pawns: How Good Are They?
Over the years of teaching, I noticed that positions with doubled pawns (2 friendly pawns on the same file) are very hard to evaluate for many players.
And since doubled pawns change the pawn structure, if they are on the central files (the e and d-files) they can influence the position a lot, to the point that one or both sides should readapt their plans if central doubled pawns appear after a capture.
This topic is a fairly advanced one, but I decided to be very pragmatic and show you some main openings (like the Italian Game) where these doubled pawns show up and how to evaluate the arising positions. But I will also show you different cases of doubled pawns, including isolated doubled pawns and a game where one side has 4 pawns (!) on the center.
Scenario 1
In this position, that we can get from the Italian game, Black offers to trade bishops since the bishop on c4 is normally a very strong piece, eyeing the kingside.
After the trade of bishops, we get the following position:
Here Black’s main ideas are to play on the f-file now that the rook on f8 can become more active (after fxe6 the f-file is a semi-open file). For that, moves like Nh5-f4 are very typical.
White’s main ideas are going to be to play on queenside (b4-b5 and Ba3, for instance) since Black’s play is on the kingside.
⚠️ In this structure, Black has to be careful about playing on the center with d5 (a move which can be very common if Black does not have doubled pawns).
For instance after 1.b4 d5 (Nh5 is better) 2.Ba3 dxe4?! 3.Nxe4 Nxe4 4.Rxe4:
We get the following position where Black’s central isolated doubled pawns are targets.
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Scenario 2
Here’s a common theoretical position that we can get in the Pirc Defense. After 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8 6.Bc4 Be6 7.Bxe6 fxe6:
Even though Black gets isolated doubled pawns on the center, they control important squares and Black can coordinate the pieces easily after moves like Bd6, Ke7 and Nc6 (or Nbd7) connecting rooks. Black’s position remains very solid.
Scenario 3
Placing a knight on the center and trading it can lead to central doubled pawns. Let’s take a look at the following position.
After the trade of knights, Black captured back with fxe4. Even though the pawn on e4 is strong (as it limits White pieces), White’s has the option to challenge that pawn with 1.f3! and Black has no better option to trade as 1…e3 2.Nf1 the pawn will become an easy target.
Therefore, these doubled pawns are temporary in this position as after the trade (for instance, 1…exf3 2.exf3) we get a new pawn structure.
Scenario 4
Getting a pair of doubled pawns on the center is very rare.
In any case, I wanted to share this amazing position from the game played between David Howell and Peter Heine Nielsen in 2010:
Here, White’s pawns are simply beautiful. They limit Black’s rooks and bishops, and White can invade with Ne6 or attack the c7-pawn with a rook on c1.
White’s position is so good that Black resigned in this position!
If you want to know more about this topic, check my video lesson https://youtu.be/Q6wNt9ueMwI
