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Playing Against Backward Pawns, with GM Ben Finegold

November 8, 2026 ChessTerra Chess Lectures

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♛︎ ChessTerra Notes

Grandmaster Ben Finegold presents a lecture on recognizing and exploiting backward pawns. The video defines the structural weakness and analyzes historical games including Smyslov versus Timman, Rubinstein versus Salwe, and Kasparov versus Svidler. Chess players seeking to improve their positional understanding and pawn structure strategy will benefit the most from this instructional video.

LevelIntermediateLength39 minChannelGMBenjaminFinegold

pawn structurepositional playhistorical gamesweaknesses

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From the creator — GMBenjaminFinegold

Playing Against Backward Pawns, with GM Ben Finegold
Recorded on September 23, 2026 in Roswell, GA

Games/Positions:
02:55 Definition and Examples of Backward Pawns
08:57 Vasily Smyslov - Jan Timman. Moscow 1981
19:45 Akiba Rubinstein - Georg Salwe, Match 1903
31:21 Garry Kasparov - Peter Svidler, Russian SuperFinal 2004

Thanks to our Anonymous sponsor for sponsoring this lecture!!

If you're interested in sponsoring a lecture of your choice, email Karen at karen@atlchessclub.com

Check out Ben's Chessable courses here! https://www.chessable.com/author/BenFinegold/

Signup or gift a chess.com Premium membership to get access to their lessons, remove ads, improve your chess, AND help Ben at the same time!! Upgrade your chess.com membership or join! - http://go.chess.com/finegold.

Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/itsBenAndKaren

Donations are appreciated at: https://streamlabs.com/itsBenandKaren/tip

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ben_finegold

Intro and concluding music: “Da Jazz Blues,” by Doug Maxwell; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mopxtd1dZM. Thank you Doug!

#benfinegold #chess #

Watch on YouTube ↗

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