Weak Pawns

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Weak Pawns,

pawns not defended and not defensible by the pawns of the same color, whose stop square is also not covered by a friendly pawn. Some programs, most notably Crafty, do not differentiate between various classes of weak pawns, but most of the time their various kinds are evaluated differently.

  • Isolated Pawn
  • Backward Pawn
  • Overly advanced pawn (technically neither isolated nor backward, but nevertheless not defensible by a pawn. Consider the following situation: white pawns on a3, b5 and c4, black pawns on a4, b6 and c7, where the black pawn on a4 falls into this category.)

1k6/2p5/1p6/1P6/p1P5/P7/3K4/8 w - -

Some also add hanging pawns, but they are not as endangered and have a lot more attacking potential than any of the above.

See also

Isolated Pawns Backward Pawns Dispersion and Distortion

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