I believe that an outside passed pawn has more threat to promote, but the insider has more control of the center. Especially with other pieces around, the insider might be stronger.
What are your thoughts? What if this pawn position occurs with knights/bishops/rooks/queens? Please focus on the difference between the inside and outside possible passed pawn.
With no pieces such as the diagram above, the inside passed pawn (as you coined it) is less likely to be promoted purely on the closer proximity to an enemy king.
Even then .. that is true for this diagram alone. We're defining the term "outside" and "inside" relative to something, right? If the kings had castled queen-side in the above diagram, your question makes no sense then!
Controlling the center is seldom a factor AND very subjective in endgames (If it's a Queen vs. Queen shoot-out, then sure, centralizing a Queen is key but these are very specific "IF" scenarios!) and cannot be generalized ... though proximity of a passer to a slow-moving enemy piece (King, Knight etc.) is definitely generalizable :)
Hi,
If there are only kings then an outside pawn is definitely stronger since it takes more moves for the king to get there to stop it, and then to come back.
However if there are still rooks on the board I would rather have a central passed pawn. With the help of the king, that is a headache to defend whereas an outside pawn (columns A, B, G and H) should be a draw (again, with the rooks on the board).
Regards.
When do you prefer a possible outside and when a possible inside passed pawn?
In other words, in this diagram (please ignore the kings!),
With this pawn position, in which endgames do you prefer white, and when black?