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In chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
, doubled pawns are two pawn
Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen....
s of the same color residing on the same file
Chess terminology

This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. Some of these have their own pages, like Fork and Pin . For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see chess problem terminology; for a list of chess related games, see chess variants....
. Pawns can become doubled only when one pawn captures onto a file on which another friendly pawn resides. In the diagram, the pawns on the b file and e file are doubled. The pawns on the e file are doubled and isolated
Isolated pawn

In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn for which there is no friendly pawn on an adjacent Chess terminology#File. An isolated Queen 's pawn is often called an isolani....
.

In most cases, doubled pawns are considered a weakness due to their inability to defend each other.






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In chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
, doubled pawns are two pawn
Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen....
s of the same color residing on the same file
Chess terminology

This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. Some of these have their own pages, like Fork and Pin . For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see chess problem terminology; for a list of chess related games, see chess variants....
. Pawns can become doubled only when one pawn captures onto a file on which another friendly pawn resides. In the diagram, the pawns on the b file and e file are doubled. The pawns on the e file are doubled and isolated
Isolated pawn

In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn for which there is no friendly pawn on an adjacent Chess terminology#File. An isolated Queen 's pawn is often called an isolani....
.

In most cases, doubled pawns are considered a weakness due to their inability to defend each other. This inability, in turn, makes it more difficult to achieve a breakthrough which could create a passed pawn
Passed pawn

In chess, a passed pawn is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth chess terminology#Rank, i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on the same chess terminology#File nor on an adjacent file....
 (often a deciding factor in endgames). In the case of isolated doubled pawns, these problems are only further aggravated. Several chess strategies and openings
Chess opening

In chess the word "opening" has two common meanings, both of which are discussed in this article. Chessplayers are so familiar with these two meanings that many books and articles never state the distinction and may switch without notice from one meaning to the other....
 are based on burdening the opponent with doubled pawns, a strategic weakness.

There are, however, cases where accepting doubled pawns can be advantageous because doing so may open up a file for a rook
Rook (chess)

A rook is a chess piece in the strategy board game of chess. In the past the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes , and non-players still often call it a "castle"....
, or because the doubled pawns perform a useful function, such as defending important squares. Also, if the opponent is unable to effectively attack the pawns, their inherent weakness may be of little or no consequence. There are also a number of openings that accept doubled pawns in exchange for some prevailing advantage, such as the Two Knights Variation of Alekhine's Defence
Alekhine's Defence

Alekhine's Defence is a chess opening beginning with the movesIt is named after Alexander Alekhine, who introduced it in the :Category:1921 in chess Budapest tournament in games against Endre Steiner and Friedrich S?misch....
.


Tripled and quadrupled pawns

Of course it is possible to have tripled pawns (or more). The diagram shows a position from the Lubomir Kavalek
Lubomir Kavalek

Lubomir Kavalek is a noted Czech Republic-United States chess player. He was awarded both the International Master and International Grandmaster titles by FIDE in 1965....
 versus Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an United States and Icelandic chess Grandmaster , and the eleventh World Chess Champion.As a teenager, Fischer became famous as a chess prodigy....
 game in the 1967 Sousse interzonal
Interzonal

Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. They were a stage in the World Chess Championship cycle....
. The pawns remained tripled at the end of the game on move 28 (a draw
Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is one of the possible outcomes of a game, the others being a win for White and a win for Black . Traditionally, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser....
).

Quadrupled pawns occurred in the game Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion.At the age of twenty-two he was already among the best chess players in the world....
 versus Vladimir Nenarokov
Vladimir Nenarokov

Vladimir Ivanovich Nenarokov was a Russian chess master and Chess theory. Born in Moscow, he was one of the strongest masters in his home town around 1900....
 in 1907, in John van der Wiel
John van der Wiel

John van der Wiel is a Dutch people chess Grandmaster . He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1982.He was the European Junior Chess Championship in 1978 and the Dutch Chess Championship in 1986....
 versus Vlastimil Hort
Vlastimil Hort

Vlastimil Hort is a chess International Grandmaster of Czech people nationality. He was one of the world's strongest players during the 1960s and 1970s and reached the Candidates stage of competition for the world chess championship, but was never able to compete for the actual title....
 in 1981, and in other games. The longest lasting case of quadrupled pawns was in the game Kovacs versus Barth in 1994, lasting 23 moves. The final position was drawn, demonstrating the weakness of the extra pawns (see diagram).


Types of doubled pawns


There are different types of doubled pawns, see the diagram. A doubled pawn is weak because of three considerations:
  1. lack of mobility
  2. inability to act as a normal pawn
  3. likelihood that it can not be exchanged for an opposing normal pawn
  4. vulnerability to attack, as the front pawn cannot be defended from behind by a rook
The doubled pawns on the b-file are the best situation, the f-file pawns are next. The h-file pawns are the worst situation because two pawns are held back by one opposing pawn, so the second pawn has little value . See Chess piece relative value for more discussion.

See also

  • Pawn structure
    Pawn structure

    In chess, the pawn structure is the configuration of pawn on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus largely determines the strategic nature of the position....
  • Isolated pawn
    Isolated pawn

    In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn for which there is no friendly pawn on an adjacent Chess terminology#File. An isolated Queen 's pawn is often called an isolani....
  • Backward pawn
    Backward pawn

    In chess, a backward pawn is a pawn that is behind the pawns of the same color on the adjacent Chess terminology#File and that cannot be advanced without loss of material, usually the backward pawn itself....
  • Connected pawns
    Connected pawns

    In chess, connected pawns are two or more pawns of the same color on adjacent file , as distinct from isolated pawns. These pawns are instrumental in creating pawn structure because, when diagonally adjacent, like the two rightmost white pawns, they form a Glossary of chess#Pawn chain, a chain where the one behind protects the one in front....