15 Ways To Win With Pawns 

I always recommend your channel to anyone asking how to improve in chess. Well done. Love this channel.

0:00 Intro 0:41 1.Control Center 1:05 2.Fork Pieces 2:06 3.Get a Queen! 2:45 4.Shield your King. 4:10 5. Cramp opponent's position. 5:27 6. Waste opponent's time (gambits). 8:00 7. Dominate your opponent's kNights. 9:36 8. Block key files and diagonals (and ranks, impeding horizontal Rook and Queen movement). 11:35 9. Open lines to attack your opponent's King. 14:15 10. Pawn storm the King. 16:13 11. Take away key development squares from your opponent. 17:38 12. Save your own King by NOT taking your opponent's pawns. 20:02 13. Minority attack. 21:54 14. Not moving your pawns forward (square control matters). 25:36 15.Baffle your opponents (en passant and when it's appropriate).

This is a perfect example of a very practical chess lesson by Nelson. Unlike opening moves, for example, general concepts and ideas can be remembered and applied in our own games. Players may stumble upon ideas through experience (and sometimes strategy books), but Nelson make it fast and easy to improve with his "how to" videos. Thanks!

1. Control the centre. 2. Fork pieces. 3. Get a Queen! 4. Shield your King. 5. Cramp opponent's position. 6. Waste opponent's time (gambits). 7. Dominate your opponent's kNights. 8. Block key files and diagonals (and ranks, impeding horizontal Rook and Queen movement). 9. Open lines to attack your opponent's King. 10. Pawn storm the King. 11. Take away key development squares from your opponent. 12. Save your own King by NOT taking your opponent's pawns. 13. Minority attack. 14. Not moving your pawns forward (square control matters). 15. En passant (and when it's appropriate).

I’ve played a few games over the past couple days where my opponent didn’t move any pieces for the first like 10-12 moves, only pawns. Very annoying actually and effective against me at least.

Your chess tutorials are so on point. Just can't stress how helpful they are. Thanks!!!

I respect you so much. Even with that simple fork you told the viewer to find it. You’d make a great tutor. I can see why you’re making informational chess videos. Keep on teaching brother.

Great concept, pawn play is definitely something us lower rated players struggle with. Sometimes seeing the right pawn break makes a huge difference

I've reached a rating of 1100 and struggle with pawn moves so I really appreciate this video

A visual list as a recap of the 15 tips would’ve been nice. Amazing video!!! Thanks, you’re brilliant.

This is one of the most useful chess videos I've ever seen. Love it

As always, great stuff - thanks!!!

Great pawn tips Nelson!!! Thanks

Watching this a 2nd time - one of my favourite videos - thank you 😊

I really did learn something. Under topic 14, when that pawn structure occurs, the square in the middle cant be defended by a pawn for the rest of the game. It has to be defended by pieces. Thanks for pointing that out

Thx, Nelsi! Your videos are the best chess videos!

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

Thank You!

Awesome vid!!

Valuable content. Highly appreciate 👌

Great video man! 👌🏾 you're very skilled. I appreciate you and your videos so much. I hope you get what you're looking for in chess. 👍🏾 Thank you so much.

This channel is growing soo fast! Last time I checked, it was 30k. Keep up the bangers!

Could you make a more detailed video on how to pawn storm the king side ? Also how do we defend accurately against a pawn storm??

Nelson you're the man!! Tips 7 & 8 are game changers for me!

You're great Nelson. Keep it up.

great tips. well articulated. I learn a lot on this site.

Great video!

thank you!

hey Nelson, hope you reach 100k subs!!! 🙌 keep up the great work! 💯

Great video. Thanks.

very nice video. your examples are very easy to understand

Excellent, excellent stuff!

I re-watched this again. Number 14 is the best I reckon. Thank you Nelson.

Nelson, I have been enjoying your channel for some time -- subscribed and make certain that I 'like' when I watch. Your videos are succinct, in digestible portions. One tactic that I try to use when the board presents it, but it runs a little counter to your item #15. This is best with the B or G pawns, going forward towards three pawns that are still on their original squares. The goal is to get your pawn on three squares forward of the 2nd or 7th rank. For example, white pawn on B5, black pawns on A7, B7, C7. In this setup the white B pawn restricts the black B pawn to only B6, and also allows for 'en passant' for either the black A and C pawns. This position allows for one pawn to restrict three. My 30 years in the USAF, we would call that a 'force multiplier.' Comment?

Thanks you

You are an excellent teacher!

Thanks!

You are making useful chess content , I hope you reach 100K sub , keep it up nelsi !!

Brilliant strategy 👍🏼❤

Very helpful in a lot of my games I recommend this channel to people learning how to play chess

great video Nelson 👍

A terrific video again.

This video misses the most important reason for understanding pawns, the why pawn play can be and often is so important. Ironically, the importance of pawn play derives from its lack of individual lack of importance. As the cheapest and weakest piece on the board because of its lack of mobility, ordinarily no piece should be exchanged for the lowly pawn. And if every piece avoids being exchanged straight up for a pawn, then pawns gains a kind of strength to do things with impunity. BTW - You missed an important critical aspect of pawns. Pawns will generally provide a framework that can then be "decorated" with the placement of pieces. In other words, pawns aren't mostly used actively as described in the described "15 points" but to provide support for pieces that otherwise could be taken.

24:33 "Black will never be able to control d5" ... unless he captures something on c6 or e6. Two tips here were: Don't capture your opponent's pawns, and don't move your own. 8-)

Nelson, can you make a video on blundering and any training tips to remedy?

LOVE these videos definingly earned my subscribe

Thank you from Canada.

You are a great chess teacher

This is so good, really excellent strategies for someone at my level

Another helpful video. I enjoy your videos because you’re never in a rush. You don’t over complicate moves by making a ton of tactical moves I struggle to keep up with. Keep it simple is still my rule of thumb in explaining anything. Thanks for your time and effort in teaching us newbies.🤟🏼

Hi Nelson do you have a tutorial on the Budapest gambit?

you give me a very deep understanding of chess. because of your videos i went from 1000 elo to 1500

This video is pawn-tastic!

Another great video. I forget if you covered a pawn sacrifice -- another way to win with pawns.

When I castle, I always like to put the middle of the three pawns forward one square, because I absolutely HATE getting checkmated by a lone Rook, while my king is stuck behind pawns. And it still protects you pretty well. All you have to watch out for is like a Bishop-supported Queen attack, or the Bishop blocking that escape square while they trap you with a Rook or a Queen on your back line.

A great player once said, "pawns are the soul of chess".

That pawn design in the thumbnail looks great. Can you tell me where it's from? ^^

Recognized those pawns from the thumbnail, I got that type of set at home!

If we want eye candy while learning chess, we know where to go. If we want clickbait goggle face while learning chess, we know where to go. If we want techno blaring while learning chess, we know where to go. If we actually want to learn chess, we come here. Thanks, Nelson, for all you do. You're the BEST!

Attacking a currently pinned piece with a pawn can be a great way to not just do an even or close to even trade

First time being this early. Haven't watched this yet but I'm sure it's gonna be good. Keep up the good work man!

Thanks mate, Ima use this online Lol, Am A Newbie so keep up and wish me luck cuz am practicing for my schools event

Could you please make a more comprehensive strategy with pawns? A lot of time I have some advantage and I have exchanged just about all the pieces; but then I am clueless as to how do I use or defend my pawns? Or how should I king walk? Many a times the enemy rook infiltrates and just take away my pawns losing my advantage.

It's funny that you showed this specific line at 16:20 because if you just play Nc3, allowing the bishop to pin your knight, and then play h3, it would actually be a blunder by black to slide the bishop back to h4. Then you can just say "oh no my queen", play Nxe5 and if they take your queen, it's mate in 2. And if your opponent spots this, you're winning a pawn at the very least, but stockfish 14 on my browser evaluates that position as +2.5.

Apart from square weaknesses created by moving pawns/ Pawns on their own can be targets -- discuss !

Damn #14 hit me hard, give and take pawns moving. And I hate when people trade their bishop for my knight. I am guilty of A3 H3 like a lot lol. There's an awkward but strong king side early push starting off the game. One of the keys is Rook to B1. You end up maneuvering the knight depending on whether your pushing ab or bc pawns. It's time consuming but if you can get to the 6th rank with a pawn it's good? I don't know, is there anytime you might try and flip control of the middle for a minority push early game?

I would add: Paying attention to pawn structure is critical to developing a sound middle-game strategy.

1:52 black bishop to e7 protect knight take white pawn and white knight

Minor critique, since you're showing the pawn fork...perhaps, for the beginners you should follow through with the queening of the pawn on the next example, just so they know how to do it. Either way it's good. Thanks for the video, very helpful!

Great video. Pawns are the soul of chess ♟️

Thats quite funny actually, I have a board bery similar to the one on the thumbnail, are these common ?

3:20 You should open a king by going 1 place with middle pawn..this way you can easily get mated bcus king has either one or none free space around

I love the fact that it's called "en passant" outside of France and that you say it with an English accent, I mean it sounds weird to a French guy like me and that's kind of funny haha

Great video! On step 14 he could have en passant your piece.

thank you for this video i remember when i was first starting to play i would always be baffled by the en pessant move lol

Love all your videos and this one is very very helpful! thank you for posting and sharing this!

yes

Love the thumbnail 😊

Nice 👍

Number 12 was very useful for me never thought of that 🤔

Could you make a video about how to checkmate the opponents king when you only have pawns and your opponent has bishops and knights?

My games I always seem to get a good piece majority but lose lot of my pawns along the way.

Pawns are very important for end games, where 2 of them block off the king from attacking each of them, ensuring that the king has to move a LOT just to get to them, and once they reach the other side, you get a free queen, and seeing its the end game the opponent either has to sacrifice their own pieces or if not, have a very sticky situation, if the queen survives, well now it is way easier to get other pawns in, they are also important to move or at least pay attention to because you can easily end up with some situations where pieces can freely strike the pawns unharmed because they move the bishop, queen, ect, they are also important to protect your own pieces, dont believe me? look at what happens when you move your bishop and a queen or bishop hits the g2 pawn and you cant do anything about it, rip rook

Thank you for the video!! My main weakness is I've gotta get better at playing with my pawns.

Oh my, I'm so guilty of #11! Any tips to know when is good to prevent that bishop and when is good to be ignoring the diagonal and moving minor pieces of my own? What's a best way to evaluate it? Are there "best practices"? Cuz I was running into that EXACT problem haha😅

I treat my pawns like trash when I need them I love them ❤ but I tend to cast some aside not caring about them anymore when I think they are of no use to me. That's why I'm here. I know they can be a stronger tool for my game. Thanks for posting this!!

epic

Would be nice if you’d change the board colour from blue. I like watching you play before bed lol :) keep up the great content.

Playing a beginner in a school match,I castled,he called his teacher saying ,he moved 2 pieces,over and over. My teacher came over,what happened? I just leaned back smiled and whispered I castled. Fortunately no e. P.

Instructions unclear, I moved 2 pawns and got mated.

You seem to really like the danish gambit

my first brilliant move was a pawn fork :)

i appreciated the joke at the end cuz it caught me off guard

Incorrect. En Passant is a forced move

Super nice and pretty looking- idk why but I found that sentence to be very funny

I disagree as I always move my castle side pawn in front of the rook one space forward. In your logic moving the king to where the rook was originally is good. Why move that pawn? The king has an escape space later in the game where he won't be mated by a horizontal piece such as there rook or queen. I won many games with their king being trapped that way with no escape!

I used a bishop to deflect my opponents queen which ultimately lead me to a checkmate, which I just learned this strategy from your video less then 24 hours ago, tried to post a picture of the game to show you but it wouldn't allow me to

Pawns are the most op chess pieces

You sound like like andy from parks and recreation

holy en passant is real. you can use up to 8 times if your opponent agrees to