Originally posted by custodioWhich pawn? :-)
hei. I have a question. if one player had one extra pawn at the start of a chess game how great of an advantage that would be?
please bear in mind that I only played chess once in my life so please be very thorough.
thx
custodio
Ok seriously, in the short term it could be an advantage or disadvantage. In the long term it's almost always a disadvantage to be down a pawn. It also depends greatly upon your opponent's skill in making use of that extra pawn. At the beginner level (since that's what you stated you are) it will have very little bearing on the game.
I suppose it could actually be an advantage to have a gap in your pawn front in the opening, since it could allow you to get a bishop or some other piece out quicker. But the player with the missing pawn had better make hay in the opening, because in the long haul it would be detrimental to be missing the pawn, assuming both players are good at the game.
What is all this nonsense?
Pawns are worthless! You may as well sacrifice them all (if you play against me) to get the upper hand, because I enjoy being defeated by someone wise enough to know which pieces are really important, and which pieces are just irritating little thingies that can only move forward or maybe diagonally if they actually take something, but still then it's only one block. What a waste. They should ban pawns altogether!
As mentioned it despends on which pawn is missing! I wouldnt mind a game where i had no pawn especially towards the center, use it to your advantage, excute better positioning of your bishops, if its on the outside, say H column, force your opponent (say your white to castle king side, now you have an open column facing the kingside with a rook. I remember back when Kasparov used to play for charities and they would have fun games, where they would take away two pawns of this opponents choice every game, of course he still won, thats because lol, im sure he understands his methods of development, and that opening up that way can be an advantage especially against a player that is not of grandmaster level!
goody good good. so the general consensus is that an extra pawn, regardless of its starting position is indeed an advantage, depending on how well you manage your game.
but if kasparov can do it without 2 pieces, is there a chance that this extra pawn may become clutter?