Middlegame: Black's Hanging Pawns

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Middlegame: Black's Hanging Pawns
Compiled by Baby Hawk

Like the isolani, the <hanging pawns> are a structural weakness and must not be entered into unless the piece position offers some compensation. The play revolves around Black trying to force one of the pawns to advance. If Black can establish a permanent blockade the game is positionally won. On the other hand, White aims to keep the pawns hanging, trying to generate a kingside attack leveraging off of their superior center control. Other themes for White include tactical possibilities and line opening breaks in the center.

Wikipedia article: Pawn structure

♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙

"A pair of pawns on adjacent files that are separated from all other pawns are known as "Hanging Pawns" (a term coined by Steinitz). Hanging pawns possess strengths and weaknesses.

The elements of strength include the possibility of opening files through their advance and with this comes an increase in space, and the possibility of controlling key squares that can be used as outposts for Knights and Bishops.

On the other hand they can also be weak. They can only be defended by pieces. This vulnerability can be exploited by attacking them with pieces, forcing the opponent to protect them with pieces. The defending pieces can then be attacked and exchanged at a suitable moment and this can often result in the win of a pawn or forcing another pawn weakness elsewhere. They can also be weakened by forcing the advance of one of them leaving the other one backward and a hole into which a piece can be placed. A third way of exploiting their weakness is to attack them with a pawn of your own, this can force a pawn exchange that results in an isolated pawn.

>>The current view is that hanging pawns are weak if their side is behind in development but strong if their side is ahead in development."<<

by User: Benzol , Game Collection: Hanging Pawns

♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙ - ♙♙

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36 games

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