The Poisoned Pawn Variation is any of several series of opening moves in

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

in which a

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pawn, Oregon, an h ...

is said to be "poisoned" because its capture can result in a positional loss of or a loss of .

Sicilian Defense, Najdorf

The best known of these, called the Poisoned Pawn Variation, is a line of the Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation that begins with the moves: :1. e4 c5 :2. Nf3 d6 :3. d4 cxd4 :4. Nxd4 Nf6 :5. Nc3 a6 :6. Bg5 e6 :7. f4 Qb6 after which 8.Qd2 Qxb2 usually follows, accepting the "poisoned" b2-pawn. White can also play 8.Nb3, protecting the pawn. One of the pioneers of this line was

David Bronstein David Ionovich Bronstein (russian: Дави́д Ио́нович Бронште́йн; February 19, 1924 – December 5, 2006) was a Soviet and Ukrainian chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narr ...

, who tied the 1951

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

match against

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinn ...

12–12.

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an ...

later became a proponent, playing it with great success. The line was most famously played in game 7 and game 11 of the

1972 World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship 1972 was a match for the World Chess Championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. The match took place in the Laugardalshöll arena in ...

match between Fischer and Spassky. In both games Fischer played Black and grabbed the pawn. In the first, he reached a secure position with a comfortable material advantage but only secured a

draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn may refer to: Common uses * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Drawing (manufacturing), a process where metal, glass, or plastic or anythin ...

. In the second, Spassky surprised Fischer with a and won the game after Fischer defended poorly, allowing Spassky to trap Fischer's queen and handing Fischer his only loss in the Poisoned Pawn Variation. The line was later taken up successfully by other leading players, including world champions

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak Elo rating system, rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the hi ...

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating ...

, and

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Che ...

. It remains one of the most theoretically important variations of the

Sicilian Defense The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4, e4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5, c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Ope ...

. In recent times, the line has become a popular battleground in

computer chess Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...

, with operators trying to "out-book" each other by going progressively deeper into the different poisoned pawn lines. As a result, the line is extremely well researched. Writing in 2010, FM

Graham Burgess Graham K. Burgess (born 24 February 1968 in Liverpool, England) is an English FIDE Master of chess and a noted writer and trainer. He became a FIDE Master at the age of twenty. He attended Birkdale High School in Southport, Merseyside. In ...

commented that current theory suggests that the b2-pawn is "not too heavily laced with arsenic", but that it would be suicidal to enter the line without specialist knowledge.

French Defense, Winawer

A Poisoned Pawn Variation also exists in the French Defence, Winawer: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 Nbc6 (or 10.Kd1 Nd7). Like the Poisoned Pawn Variation in the Sicilian Najdorf, this line gives significant weaknesses for both sides and can lead to highly complex lines. White can attack on the and try to exploit the passed h-pawn, while Black destroys the .

Latvian Gambit

There is also a Poisoned Pawn Variation in the

Latvian Gambit The Latvian Gambit (or Greco Countergambit) is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 f5 It is one of the oldest chess openings, having been analysed in the 17th century by Gioachino Greco, after whom it is sometime ...

: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Bc4 fxe4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 This variation leads to extremely play, is considered rather dubious, and is thus rarely seen today. However,

states that it "is not utterly, clearly bad".

London System

Within the London System, the Poisoned Pawn Variation follows after: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Qb6 5.Nc3 Qxb2?! Black is lost after 6.Nb5 Na6 7.a3 Bf5 8.dxc5 Bxc2 9.Qc1 Qxc1+ 10.Rxc1 and the c-pawn is too strong.

Trompowsky Attack

The Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Trompowsky Attack goes 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c5 3.d5 Qb6 4.Nc3. The continuation 4...Qxb2 5.Bd2 Qb6 is the Chepukaitis Gambit.

Use in popular culture

The variation was used in the ''

Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

'' episode "

Mr. Monk and the Genius The seventh season of ''Monk'' was originally broadcast in the United States on USA Network from July 18, 2008, to February 20, 2009. It consisted of 16 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford reprised their ...

References

{{Chess Chess openings