Pawn Wars

Pawn wars is playing a pure endgame from the start. Only Pawns play this game. The first player to get a Pawn to the other side is the winner.

Line up all eight pawns on their starting ranks for each player. The first Pawn to the other side of the board wins. Increase difficulty level by adding Kings, playing until checkmate, and/or adding any other combination of pieces to the Pawns such as Knights only or Kings and Rooks.

Coordinating the Pawns is an extremely important skill at any phase of the game. Most beginners will trade Pawns as soon as the opportunity presents itself, without thinking much about it. Instead, prompt your student to consider defending their Pawn, or simply pushing it past a proposed trade. In particular, focus on the ways a Pawn trade will create the ability for other Pawns to run through. For example, if one of your Pawns is blocked head-to-head by one of the opponent’s, seriously consider attacking their Pawn, so that if they, yours will then have an open path to the queening square. The addition of Kings significantly complicates the strategy. At the end of the game the King is the most powerful piece and must be activated. Use the King to attack undefended Pawns, or team up with Pawns to double attack the opponent’s pawns, or escort a Pawn safely to the queen square. If one side has a Queen and King, while the other side has only a King, this is usually an automatic win if you know the pattern. A majority of games are won using this technique, therefore it is traditionally one of the first things taught to new chess students. Practice this pattern in the drills section.