I forgot to put it under "Beginner".
How to take advantage of doubled pawns or isolated pawns?
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Well this is a huge question that one could debate about one eternity. General rule of thumb is that a good pawn structure controls key squares and defends each other. As soon as pawn is isolated or doubled, they can no longer protect each other, thus creating weaknesses that you might need to protect with pieces. So isolated and doubled pawns quickly become targets that the piece play focuses around.
But in chess things are never this simple. Beginners often put too much focus on doubling pawns, without considering the consequences. One common example is trading a bishop that is pinning a knight to said knight in order to double opponents pawns. Yes, it damages the structure but you're willingly giving the opponent the two bishops, which many players would consider bigger asset than the doubled pawns are a weakness. While doubled and isolated pawns are definitely weaker than a structure defended by other pawns, they can sometimes be beneficial to the player who has them. Sometimes doubled pawns can control a lot of key area on the board, and make it harder for the opponent to gain control of it. Sometimes doubling (or isolating) pawns can also lead to having open files for your major pieces, that may lead to tactical opportunities down the file. For example, having your a or h-pawn capture towards the centre may lead to a quick attack through the file with a rook, especially if opponent has castled towards the same side.
As with everything in chess, it all comes to practice and experience to recognize when you can take advantage of breaking your opponents structure. If you can double opponents pawns without giving away anything (or in best case trade your bad piece to their better counterpart) it is often a good idea to do so. But be careful when trading your good pieces just to cause structural damage. Or if you do, you better have a clear idea on how you're going to take advantage of the new structure.
So all in all, especially isolated pawns are often a weakness (as long as they don't get passed) that require the player having them co-ordinate their pieces more carefully. Having pieces attacking the isolated pawn often ties down a lot of your opponents pieces, which may lead to tactical opportunities, especially if opponent has more than one weakness to exploit. If they have two or more, and you can put pressure on multiple weaknesses, usually the defender runs out of good defensive resources to defend everything. That often leads to the whole position collapsing when one part falls.
nexim wrote:
Well this is a huge question that one could debate about one eternity. General rule of thumb is that a good pawn structure controls key squares and defends each other. As soon as pawn is isolated or doubled, they can no longer protect each other, thus creating weaknesses that you might need to protect with pieces. So isolated and doubled pawns quickly become targets that the piece play focuses around.
But in chess things are never this simple. Beginners often put too much focus on doubling pawns, without considering the consequences. One common example is trading a bishop that is pinning a knight to said knight in order to double opponents pawns. Yes, it damages the structure but you're willingly giving the opponent the two bishops, which many players would consider bigger asset than the doubled pawns are a weakness. While doubled and isolated pawns are definitely weaker than a structure defended by other pawns, they can sometimes be beneficial to the player who has them. Sometimes doubled pawns can control a lot of key area on the board, and make it harder for the opponent to gain control of it. Sometimes doubling (or isolating) pawns can also lead to having open files for your major pieces, that may lead to tactical opportunities down the file. For example, having your a or h-pawn capture towards the centre may lead to a quick attack through the file with a rook, especially if opponent has castled towards the same side.
As with everything in chess, it all comes to practice and experience to recognize when you can take advantage of breaking your opponents structure. If you can double opponents pawns without giving away anything (or in best case trade your bad piece to their better counterpart) it is often a good idea to do so. But be careful when trading your good pieces just to cause structural damage. Or if you do, you better have a clear idea on how you're going to take advantage of the new structure.
So all in all, especially isolated pawns are often a weakness (as long as they don't get passed) that require the player having them co-ordinate their pieces more carefully. Having pieces attacking the isolated pawn often ties down a lot of your opponents pieces, which may lead to tactical opportunities, especially if opponent has more than one weakness to exploit. If they have two or more, and you can put pressure on multiple weaknesses, usually the defender runs out of good defensive resources to defend everything. That often leads to the whole position collapsing when one part falls.
I see. I didn't expect a recipe that could tell me what to do which would just make the game boring, but this is deeper than i thought it was 
. One of my computer analysis even gave me 0.00 winning rate at some point even though my opponent had 2 doubled pawn structure, and we were equal on material. As you said, it may be because of the coordination of the pieces and how they were placed. Thanks
When pawns are doubled the upper or lower pawn will be weak or defended by pieces more worth than the pawn. So what I usually do is to put attackers on that weak pawn, or attack the defender. But sometimes this doesn't really work, and opponent force me to trade his doubled pawn to my non-doubled.
Should I focus on those doubled pawns, and try to double opponents pawns?
For example, is it worth trading a somewhat strong bishop with a knight on the edge in order to double opponents pawns so opponent gets doubled AND isolated pawn on the edge? I know it depends on the situation (like every other decisions) but how to evaluate the situation? I don't have specific games to show. Doubled pawns happens in almost all my games.
How about isolated pawns? While being bad in the early and mid game, I feel like they are good in the late game as opponent can't easily get rid of the isolated pawn, and it can possibly promote. Should I handle them the same way?