A pawn with no opposing enemy pawns in front of it or on adjacent files to block its path.
Why it matters
A passed pawn has no enemy pawn in front of it and none on the files beside it. Nothing but a piece can stop it, and pieces that stop pawns are pieces doing nothing else.
That is the real value: a passed pawn ties down a defender long before it promotes. In an endgame it is usually the whole plan, and the further it advances the more it costs to hold.
See it on a board
Black has no pawn on the c-, d- or e-file, so the d5 pawn is passed. Only a piece can stop it, and that piece stops doing anything else.
Checked: the position really has the feature described.
How to play it
- Check the three files — its own and the two beside it — for enemy pawns ahead of it. None means passed.
- Push it when it is supported, especially by the king in an endgame.
- If you cannot push it, use it: the piece blockading it is stuck, so attack somewhere else while the defender is short-handed.
At each level
The same idea, said the way it is taught at each age.
Knight · ages 4–6
A pawn with no enemy pawns in front of it or beside it can run. Push it, and bring your king to help in the endgame.
Rook · ages 6–9
Rooks belong behind passed pawns — yours and the opponent's. Behind your own it gains freedom as the pawn advances; behind theirs it never runs out of squares.
What goes wrong
- Pushing the pawn too early, so it is blockaded on a square where it needs constant defending.
- Trading into an endgame with a passed pawn that the opponent's king can simply reach in time.
Questions people ask
- What is a protected passed pawn?
- A passed pawn defended by one of your own pawns. It is much stronger, because the enemy king can never take it, and the piece blockading it is stuck permanently.