SC Week 3/7: Doubled isolated pawns (Weak Pawns)

 "Naturally doubled isolated pawns are to be avoided …."

Michael Stean

Well, not always. Not even Stean thinks that. Not really.

Remember Tal - Bronstein from last week (Outposts/1)? Black was willing to take on doubled isolated pawns in the centre of the board. Why? Because it made sense given the position as a whole.

This is not to say that Stean is wrong. It’s just that what he means is that doubled-isolated pawns are to be avoided other things being equal.

Simple Chess is a primer in position play. He’s laying out the basic rules and not confusing the issue with exceptions to those rules.

Doubled isolated pawns are usually extremely problematic. They probably are best avoided unless you’re really really sure it’s what you want to do. And even then it might be worth playing it safe, think again and do something else.

If you’re interested in the exceptions, have a look at these two old games from Nigel Short. They were played at the highest level. A Candiates’ Final against Timman and a World Championship against Kasparov. You might want to have a think about what led Short to decide other things weren’t equal in either case.