Pawn Structure

Hello,

I was talking to my Pen pal in Turkey about chess, and I showed him a moment from one of my games. He said that my pawn structure was weak.

Here is that game moment. I was Black playing a Kings Gambit Declined, Classical Defense:

What is Pawn structure? Is it important in playing chess? It got me curious.

Jared

I think you have entered the board incorrectly. Black should be starting on the 7th and 8th ranks; the board shows them on the 1st and 2nd ranks.

Pawn structure generally refers to how your pawns are connected , protected and protecting pieces and positions. You have an isolated pawn on the g file (as shown). Connected pawns are referred to as "pawn islands". White has two, 2 pawns and 3 pawns and can support each other. You also have 2, one of 4 and a single, isolated pawn (already explained). You will very likely lose the d pawn. The 3 (mislabeled a-c pawns) are decent enough.

Good luck . . . and try reorienting the board.

You are right. My mistake. Hang on a second.

I see. You are right, I set it up backwards on accident. Sorry about that.

I see what you mean. I didnt realize that if a pawn got too far advanced that it could be a weakness.

Thanks for the help so far.

Jared

Pawn instruction:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-basic-pawn-structures

https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-pawn-structure-for-chess-players-under-2000

https://www.chess.com/article/view/your-pawn-structure-is-your-friend

https://www.chess.com/article/view/more-pawn-structures

Simple Chess by Michael Stean
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104258/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review400.pdf

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486424200.html
Pawn Structure Chess by GM Andrew Soltis (2013)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708101523/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review908.pdf
The Power of Pawns by GM Jörg Hickl (2016)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/the-power-of-pawns/
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9034.pdf

Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708094419/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/ammind.pdf
https://www.silmanjamespress.com/shop/chess/amateurs-mind-the-2nd-edition/

it may weak from positional play but not tactical, combined ur queen and castle(queen at D3) after dropping bishop(H2). what u weak in pawn structure ( positional) can be compensate by tactical

When reality kicks in... 

Yes, autobunny, I was just going to say the same thing. The most over-riding feature of this position is that the white queen is dead. 

Isolated advanced pawns can be weak or strong. And in this case, I agree with autobunny, it is strong.