Understanding Pawn Play

Chess owes its extraordinary strategic depth to pawns. These humble pieces can take on many roles in the chess struggle. They can be blockers, battering rams, self-sacrificing heroes, and can even be promoted to the ranks of royalty. On the other hand, if mishandled, they can be weak and provide targets for enemy attack. In this book, experienced grandmaster and trainer Drazen Marovic elucidates the pawn's multi-faceted nature. By investigating high-quality games from grandmaster practice, he provides the reader with an armoury of pawn-play concepts that will help him or her to make the right judgments at the board. Chapters include: Isolated Pawns, Hanging Pawns, Passed Pawns, Doubled Pawns, Backward Pawns, Pawn-Chains, and Pawn-Islands.

Drazen Marovic is a grandmaster from Croatia, who has won medals as both player and trainer for various national teams. His pupils include Bojan Kurajica, World Under-20 Champion in 1965, and Al Modiahki of Qatar, the first Arabian Grandmaster. Marovic has a wealth of experience as a writer, editor, and television commentator on chess. He is currently the trainer of the Croatian national team.