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Your proposal of making pawns attack diagonally toward the center and orthogonally toward the outside would solve the rank advancement problem, but it would not solve the pawn chain problem. If a pawn chain protects itself toward the outside (for example, White pawns on g4, h4, i4), then opposing pawns that block that chain (Black pawns on g5, h5, i5) would be able to capture some of the original pawns (g5xh4 or h5xg4 or h5xi4 or i5xh4). It would be possible to make blocked chains where the pawns can't capture each other, but one of the sides (White or Black) would not form a protection chain. For example, White pawns on g4, h5, i6; Black pawns on g5, h6, i7. All pawns are blocked, and no captures are possible, but the White pawns would not form a protection chain.