Pawn Islands
What are pawn islands, why do we need to study them, and when is it useful may all be questions that you have. We will discuss these questions in this blog post. Pawn islands are essentially what they are called: islands of pawns.
For instance, take a look at the below position. Each “island” has been highlighted with a different color.
So why are each of them a separate island? Consider the squares with out pawns as water and the pawns as land. If there is “water” between the “land,” then the two lands become separate islands. That is basically what is happening here.
However, pawns that can become connected are not technically considered as pawn islands. For example, the below position is considered just one pawn island.
This is because white can move his pawn to e4, joining the two “lands.” So, when is this information useful? This can be used in order to evaluate positions to tell who is better and even in endgames.
Let’s take a look at a position. Who do you think is better? (Note that there are no kings nor pieces on the board as this is for the sake of understanding pawn islands.)
The first thing to notice is that both sides have an equal number of pawns. However, black is winning. This is because white has 4 pawn islands while black has only 2. So, we can conclude that black is winning.
Author: Saharsh Satheesh
