Pawn Endgame

The Outside Passed Pawn

An outside passed pawn is a passer far from the main body of pawns, and its value lies in decoying the enemy king. Here White has a passed a-pawn on the queenside while the kingside is level, g4 against g6. Advancing the a-pawn drags the black king over to capture it, and in those tempi White's king marches across to devour the g6-pawn and promote its own g-pawn. The distant passer wins by pulling the defender away from the real battlefield.

40. a5 Kc6 41. Ke5 Kb5 42. Kf6 Kxa5 43. Kxg6

What an outside passed pawn is

An outside passed pawn is one that stands well away from the other pawns, on the opposite wing to where most of the material sits. Its worth is not really as a pawn but as a decoy. Because a passed pawn must be watched, the enemy king is drawn toward it, and every step the defender takes in that direction is a step away from the pawns that will actually decide the game.

In the diagram the a-pawn is the outside passer: it is a lone runner on the queenside, far from the level kingside where g4 faces g6. The further such a pawn stands from the main group, the more powerful the decoy, because the enemy king must travel further to deal with it. That distance is exactly what the stronger side cashes in on the other wing.

The winning line

With White to move, 1.a5 pushes the passer forward and poses a question the black king cannot ignore. 1...Kc6 heads over to round the pawn up. Now the decoy has done its job: while the enemy king is committed to the queenside, 2.Ke5 sends the white king the other way, toward the kingside pawn. 2...Kb5 keeps chasing the a-pawn, drifting still further from the real target on g6.

3.Kf6 brings the white king right up to the g6-pawn. 3...Kxa5 finally captures the passer, but the black king is now marooned on the far rim of the board. 4.Kxg6 collects the kingside pawn, and White is left with king and g-pawn against a lone king stranded on the queenside; the g4-pawn simply walks up the board to promote while the black king can only watch.

Using the outside passer

To make an outside passer count, push it and let the enemy king chase it, then send your own king the opposite way to harvest the pawns left undefended. The pawn is often given up in the end, and that is fine: what you are buying is time. The tempi the enemy king spends capturing the passer are the tempi your king needs elsewhere.

Defending is harder. If chasing the pawn strands your king offside, you may do better to give the passer less attention and keep your king central, ready to guard both wings. The attacker wants to fix the position so the passer is as far as possible from the rest; the defender wants to trade it off or blockade it without wandering too far from the pawns that matter.

Key ideas

• An outside passed pawn is a passer far from the other pawns; its job is to decoy the enemy king.
• Push the distant passer to lure the defending king away from the main pawns.
• While the enemy king chases the passer, your king wins the pawns on the far wing.
• The pawn is often sacrificed; its value is the tempi it buys, not the pawn itself.
• The further the passer sits from the other pawns, the stronger the decoy effect.
• In the line Black wins the a-pawn but is left offside as White's king takes g6 and queens.

Typical plans

Related endgames

• The Rule of the Square
• The Opposition
• Connected Passed Pawns
• Key Squares