Ignore pawns at your peril

It is but common for a novice in Chess not to give more importance to the pawns in the game of chess. Most of the people think about the usage of pawns only when they happen to lose their queen or in a precarious or losing situation, with the intention of using those pawns to convert to Queen piece. As long as you do not give the required importance to the pawns, you will continue to be only a novice in the game of chess.

Putting all the resources, except the King, for the optimum use is a very important aspect or strategy that needs to be understood and mastered to improve the skill on the game.

A pawn is considered to be the least valued piece in the game of chess. The valuation has been made based on the capabilities of the pawn in relation to other pieces. While other major and minor pieces can move front as well as back, provided there are no pieces in between the squares and knight can even jump over the pieces, the pawn cannot do so, it can move at best two squares forward for the first time and subsequently only one square only. They cannot move backward.

One more additional feature of these pawns is that they can capture the pieces only diagonally in the forward direction. They cannot capture any piece directly but only diagonally. If you can shrewdly handle your pawn and take it to the last rank of the opponent area, then that pawn becomes queen, and you know the capabilities of a queen.

The effective usage of the pawns lies more so in interesting formations. Let me dwell some light on such pawn formations, that will help you acquire the necessary skill and expertise in the game of chess.

It is very essential that pawns are deployed effectively to have control over the game. For a shrewd chess player trained in the classical mould, controlling the centre of the game, the four squares at the centre, d4, d5, e4 and e5, is very very essential. Pawn formations can help you achieve this and have effective control or fair share of the central part of the chessboard.

The pawn formation you create at the beginning of the game may indeed last until the end game and this is testament to the importance of getting it right. You cannot afford to push your pawns too far forward unless you are certain this will benefit your attack and they are not needed in defense. Of course when it comes to the end game, it is usually the player with the best pawn formation who manages to get one promoted.

Obviously you will not get everything your own way as your opponent will be using the exact same chess strategy and it will be a race to see who gets their pawn formation developed first. As always White has the advantage of the first move and therefore Black's role is to keep up and try to turn defense into attack. Weaknesses in pawn structures resulting from backward, isolated or doubled pawns are more often than not permanent. They should be avoided if at all possible. A weakness in the pawn formation around the King can be fatal. Many sacrifices during chess games are for the sole purpose of smashing the pawn structure in this area as it is very hard to defend the King without pawns. The main point is. At the start of a game of chess your pawn formation will determine the way the game will be played. If it is done correctly, your pieces will be free to move. Your opponents pieces will struggle to find effective attacking squares. Your pawns will form a line of defence right across the chess board.You will stifle your opponents chess strategy and ultimately you will win the game.