Pawn Structure

Home * Evaluation * Pawn Structure



Pawn structure is a term used to describe the positions of all the pawns on the board, ignoring all other pieces. Pawn structure encompasses a broad range of ideas, from the general shape of the pawns (such as closed or open) to specific characteristics of individual pawns.

=Hashing Pawns= see main article Pawn Hash Table

Full evaluation of pawn structure might be quite expensive. To speed up the evaluation, many programs use a separate pawn hash table, addressed by a special key derived from the pawn's (and possibly also king's) position. Since pawn structure changes rather slowly, hit rate for such table is typically above 95%. Anything strictly pawn related can be stored in this hash table, including pawn shield terms to be used dynamically for king safety.

=Standard Terms=

Single Pawn

 * Backward Pawn
 * Candidate Passed Pawn
 * Doubled Pawn
 * Faker
 * Hidden Passed Pawn
 * Isolated Pawn
 * Passed Pawn
 * Sentry

Groups of Pawns

 * Blockage Detection
 * Hanging Pawns
 * Minority Attack
 * Pawn Chain
 * Pawn Islands
 * Pawn Majority

General

 * Holes
 * Pawn Center
 * Pawn Race
 * Weak Pawns

=Dependent on Pawn Structure=
 * Bad Bishop
 * Color Weakness
 * King Pawn Tropism
 * King Safety
 * Pawn Shield
 * Pawn Storm


 * Outposts
 * Rook on (semi) ppen file

=See also=
 * CPW-Engine_eval
 * Pawn Pattern and Properties pawn structure aspects concerning bitboards
 * Pawn Levers (Bitboards)
 * Pawn Rams (Bitboards)
 * Strategy

=Publications=
 * Hans Kmoch (1959, 1990). Pawn Power in Chess. New York: Dover, 1990. Previous ed.: New York: McKay, 1959
 * Soei Tan (1977). Describing Pawn Structures. Advances in Computer Chess 1 pp. 74-88
 * Danny Kopec (1977). Recent developments in computer chess, in Firbush News 7 Edinburgh: Machine Intelligence Research Unit, University of Edinburgh (ed. D. Michie), pdg
 * Michael Goeller (2007). Pawn Battle Rules and Strategies.pdf
 * Lyudmil Tsvetkov (2017). Pawns. amazon

=Forum Posts=

2000 ...

 * how to detect information about pawn structure based on bitboard by Uri Blass, CCC, December 17, 2002
 * pawn structure, pawn hash, square-of-pawn, pawn-races by Stuart Cracraft, CCC, August 19, 2004

2010 ...

 * Double levers by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, June 11, 2014
 * Some more pawns by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, August 31, 2014

2015 ...

 * Binders by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, February 04, 2015
 * En passant bonus by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, February 10, 2015 » En passant
 * Pawn checks and center levers by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, February 11, 2015
 * Kind of backward by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, February 13, 2015
 * Double pawn push by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, February 14, 2015
 * Lever evaluation by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, May 01, 2015 » Pawn Levers (Bitboards)
 * Chain, duo, connected by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, May 02, 2015 » Pawn chain, Duo Trio Quart (Bitboards)
 * Some more pawns by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, May 03, 2015
 * Assorted tweaks by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, May 08, 2015
 * A possible new pawn structure evaluation term? by Arpad Rusz, CCC, October 15, 2015

=External Links=
 * Pawn structure from Wikipedia, pattern of common chess openings
 * Positional Play : Pawn Structure by Mark Weeks

=References=

Up one level