Pawn island

A group of pawns that is separated by at least one file from any of his other pawns.

For example, after 1.e4 c6 2.d5 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6 gxf6 Black has three pawn islands, White has two.

Generally it is not wishful to have many pawn islands, because this means scattering and lack of coherence.