Most Important?

I'm reading John Watson's "Mastering Chess Openings" and in the section on Opening Ideas and Positional Features he states "... understanding pawn-structures (a subject much wider than pawn weaknesses) is more important than any other factor in understanding chess."

Anyone agree?

Is there one factor that is more important?

Are pawns the soul of chess?

I've heard it before about pawns. I don't really have an opinion on what is ''the most important factor'', because every game is different. Pawns may be the focus of attention during one game, and in another they might be sacrificed or just traded off, allowing your other pieces to roam the board.

I guess in closed pawn structures, subtle pawn moves can give you an advantage, or can become your weakness if not played correctly.

They are vital to protecting your position from advancing pieces so it could be argued that they are the most important part of the army? Also, in some games our only hope might be a pawn promotion, which again makes them exceptionally important.

Of course they are.

Without understanding properly the advantages and disadvantages of the pawn structures that occur in your games, you will never be able to evaluate the positions properly, and so the chances to take wrong decisions are great. Chess is much, much more than expecting your opponent to blunder some material (king included), or making it fall into a trap (good or bad- that's another story!).

Of course we could all just decide to study IM Danny Rensch's video series on pawn structure 101...(OK, so it's on my to do list..I haven't studied it either).

 Or we could all just read a book...

Any good books out there that concentrate on pawn structure? I've got Pawn Power in Chess by Kmoch and am starting to work through it.

Any others?

"Pawn Structure Chess" - Soltis and "Winning Pawn Structures" - Baburin (only deals with isolani structures)

 Good opening books will also deal well with specific structures.

Both these books are extremely good, I have to say.

Even if Watson is wrong (which seems highly unlikely) I'd still believe him until someone made a more convincing argument for something else being more important to study.

IM pfren and paulgottlieb seem to agree with Watson, that's good enuff for me!

Pawn play is important, but I believe that piece placement and activity is also equally important.  You may have solid pawn structure with no apparent weakness, but if your pieces are in bad positions, your pawn structure will soon get torn apart.

So pawn structure is not the most important. The most important is the ability to weigh the various factors in chess according to the situation, not being fixed to any particular rules of thumb. It is not uncommon for one to sacrifice pawn structure in order to gain other advantage.

 I'm too tired right now to reply in words so...

When was that one written?

Oh, I was thinking you had said Josh Waitzkin's Mastering chess oppenings. Never mind.

Lol. A picture is worth a thousand words indeed.

pawns ,,,, the force in chess