Chess Patterns ❯ Types of Passed Pawns ❯ Isolated Passed Pawn

Isolated Passed Pawn

An Isolated Passed Pawn is a pawn that has no friendly pawns that can support it and no enemy pawns ahead of it on the same file or adjacent files. When it has a clear path to promotion (as shown in the diagram above), it can be a powerful advantage.

Ideas for when you have an Isolated Passed Pawn: (1) Coordinate your pieces to support its advance, (2) Prevent effective blockades by trading down the minor pieces, (3) Aim for favorable King-and-pawn or Queen endgames. Ideas against an Isolated Passed Pawn: (1) Blockade it, preferably with a Knight, (2) Dominate the key squares in front of it, (3) Exchange the heavy pieces to allow your King to intervene more easily against the passed pawn, (4) Avoid entering unfavorable types of endgame.

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Master the Isolated Passed Pawn

When we started adding a playful touch to chess learning, we looked through thousands of videos and hundreds of books to find the best resources out there. Here's our curated selection of the best content we encountered on Isolated Passed Pawns. We also included some smaller creators who are growing fast and we believe deserve your attention. Check out these resources if you want to master this type of passed pawns.

The Power of the Passed Pawn in Chess
A nice introduction for beginners on Passed Pawns by the excellent Chessfactor channel. Check it out to get an overall understanding of their power.

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Garry Kasparov Crushes his opponent like Mikhail Tal
See a powerful Isolated Passed Pawn in action in this nice commentary by Agadmator on an 18-year-old Kasparov beautiful game.

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Never Allow Tal's Pawn To Go This Far
Take a look at this game by Mikhail Tal, nicely commented by Chess with Suren to see an Isolated Passer wreaking havoc on the opponent’s position.

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100 Endgames You Must Know*
A fantastic five-star book on endgames by Jesús de la Villa. Perfect for serious beginners and intermediates. The concept of Isolated Passed Pawn is clearly explained. Don’t miss this gem. Follow all the moves with ease thanks to the interactive e-book reader.

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Small Steps 2 Success*
This fantastic book by Sam Shankland is exclusively about passed pawns. If you want to master this fundamental type of pawn, this book is an absolute must.

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Isolated Passed Pawn