The Pawn

Hi! I’m Speedster265 and I am starting a part of my blog about the individual pieces. Each week, I will describe one chess piece and their strengths. Today I’m describing the benefits of the pawn, one of the most misunderstood pieces in chess.

Pawns are not just the little pieces you move around during the beginning of the game, and then forgotten about. They are to be used almost the entire game, used to block enemy pieces, or keeping your opponent off of a key square. They are also for sacrificing, maybe to help win an exchange, or maybe even to open up the board for a checkmate.

My favorite part about them is the fact that inside each of these little pawns is a queen ready to be born. Once they get in the 6th or 7th rank, your opponent tries furiously to stop the promotion from happening. They will block or maybe even sacrifice a smaller piece just so they don’t have another fierce army general to worry about.

Emanuel Lasker once said, “The pawn, being much more stationary than the pieces, is an element of the structure; the way the array of pawns is placed determines the character of a position and hence also the plan appropriate to it.” Find a pawn structure that works for you, and stick with it. Hopefully you walked away with a little more knowledge of the misjudged pawn.