Project approval after AI review on 2 November 2026. Human proofreading is still pending.
Lesson 26
Doubled pawns
- What you will learn
- You recognise doubled pawns and attack them, or the pawns next to them, with a pawn.
- What you should already know
- How a pawn attacks another pawn
- Lesson 20: Pawns help each other
Time: about 6 minutes
Thinking questions in this lesson
You can ask yourself these thinking questions in any position. They help you find a good move.
- What is the threat?
- Which pawn move changes the position?
Step 1 of 6
Look first
A position that Nimzowitsch sets up as an example in “My System”. Look at the white pawns.
Two white pawns stand on the same file, one in front of the other. Tap both. Check your answer once you have marked both.
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space marks a square or removes the mark.
Choose a square from a list
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Rook e2
- Pawn a2
- Pawn c2
- Pawn c3
- Pawn d5
- Pawn e4
- Pawn f2
- Pawn g2
- Pawn h2
Black
- King f8
- Rook c8
- Pawn a7
- Pawn b7
- Pawn c7
- Pawn d6
- Pawn e5
- Pawn f7
- Pawn g7
- Pawn h7
Step 2 of 6
Decide
The front pawn cannot be protected by the one behind it. How do you make use of that?
You are playing Black. White has doubled pawns on c2 and c3. Which plan do you choose?
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Rook e2
- Pawn a2
- Pawn c2
- Pawn c3
- Pawn d5
- Pawn e4
- Pawn f2
- Pawn g2
- Pawn h2
Black
- King f8
- Rook c8
- Pawn a7
- Pawn b7
- Pawn c7
- Pawn d6
- Pawn e5
- Pawn f7
- Pawn g7
- Pawn h7
Step 3 of 6
Try it
You have played c7–c6.
White has captured on c6. What do you recapture with?
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Choose a move from a list
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Rook e2
- Pawn a2
- Pawn c2
- Pawn c3
- Pawn c6
- Pawn e4
- Pawn f2
- Pawn g2
- Pawn h2
Black
- King f8
- Rook c8
- Pawn a7
- Pawn b7
- Pawn d6
- Pawn e5
- Pawn f7
- Pawn g7
- Pawn h7
Step 4 of 6
Why does it work?
A pawn protects only diagonally forwards. That is why the pawn on c2 can never protect the pawn in front of it on c3.
Nimzowitsch compares doubled pawns to a man with a limp: as long as he is sitting down, you notice nothing. Only when he has to walk does the weakness show.
Here White has already advanced to d5. If you attack the pawns with a pawn, they have to decide: capture or advance.
Key idea
If your opponent has doubled pawns, attack them or the pawns next to them with a pawn.
When does this apply?
Check first whether the pawn move loses material. If the pawns around the doubled pawns have not advanced yet, they are often strong standing still; then you first get them to move forward.
Step 5 of 6
New position, same idea
A game of Nimzowitsch’s from 1921. White had doubled pawns on c3 and c4. Nimzowitsch captured on d4, and White recaptured with the pawn from c3: the doubled pawns are dissolved, but the white pawns in the middle still stand firm.
Nimzowitsch writes, in effect: when doubled pawns are dissolved, the weakness disappears only by half.
You are playing Black. With which pawn move do you best attack the white pawns in the middle?
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Choose a move from a list
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Queen e3
- Rook a1
- Rook f1
- Bishop d3
- Knight c2
- Pawn a4
- Pawn c4
- Pawn d4
- Pawn e4
- Pawn f3
- Pawn g2
- Pawn h2
Black
- King g8
- Queen e6
- Rook e8
- Rook f8
- Bishop b7
- Knight d7
- Pawn a5
- Pawn b6
- Pawn c7
- Pawn d6
- Pawn f7
- Pawn g7
- Pawn h6
Step 6 of 6
Nimzowitsch and today
Source
Nimzowitsch writes, in effect: the weakness of doubled pawns shows only when they advance, like the limp of a man who is sitting down. Isolated doubled pawns, and those whose pawns have already advanced, should be “questioned”, that is, attacked with pawns. If the doubled-pawn complex has not advanced yet, one should first drive it forward. Its only real strength, he says, is that it makes holding out easier. Nimzowitsch sets up the position in “Look first” himself as an example; after 1…c6, he says, Black gets the advantage whether White captures or plays c3–c4. The texts are newly written for the course; “New position” comes from Håkansson – Nimzowitsch, Kristianstad 1921.
- My System, part II, 2.1 (in German): “Doppelbauer und Hemmung” (original text not yet published)
- My System, part II, 2.2 (in German): “Die bekanntesten Doppelbauernkomplexe” (original text not yet published)
Today’s view (editorial note)
Today too, doubled pawns count as a weakness, but not always: often their owner gets an open file or the bishop pair in return. So the position decides, not the rule alone.