
Notice that if Karpov had promoted to a piece other than a knight, Timman would have the opportunity to create a perpetual check pattern with his queen, forcing a tie. This game, played by GM Anatoly Karpov against GM Jan Timman in 1986, illustrates the concept of underpromoting to gain a tempo and avoid a draw. a pawn moves one square straight forward. The particular way they move brings to a game of chess structure, strategic content and in the endgame a clear goal. In this case, promoting to a bishop is a better choice for white, avoiding a stalemate to checkmate the black king later! Rules of chess: How the pawn moves 6 Pawn 6.1 Tutorial Pawns just take small steps, but there are eight of them. In this diagram, you can see that promoting the pawn to a queen (or even a rook) would be an unfortunate blunder, since this would surround Black's king, leaving no legal moves and ending the game in a draw. Here is an excellent example of an underpromotion taking place to avoid a stalemate. In most of these cases, such underpromotion takes place to avoid a stalemate, to deliver checkmate, or to gain a precious tempo. There are some cases, though, when promoting a pawn to a queen would be a terrible mistake. Since the queen is the most powerful piece in chess, any promotion besides queening is considered to be "less powerful" and thus is known as underpromotion. Each player had three queens on the board at one point!Īn underpromotion happens when the player promoting a pawn decides to turn it into any piece other than a queen. Because of that, technically, each player can have nine queens, 10 rooks, 10 bishops, and 10 knights, although, in reality, that is nearly impossible to happen.Ī curious example of a game having more than one queen, though, happened in 2011 between GM David Anton Guijarro and IM Alejandro Franco Alonso. There's also no limit regarding the number of active pieces of the same kind on the board. Nowadays, players can promote their pawns to any of the pieces mentioned above. Most of the time, players promote a pawn to a queen, which is popularly known as "queening the pawn." After one player promotes a pawn, the other player has to move (unless they are checkmated, of course). When this happens, the player can replace the pawn for a queen, a rook, a bishop, or a knight. Pawn promotion occurs when a pawn reaches the farthest rank from its original square-the eighth rank for White and first rank for Black. Here is all you need to know about pawn promotion. The mere threat of promoting can be a significant advantage for the player who is familiar with this strategy. This service is produced by, a partner of a pawn is one of the main goals of chess during an endgame. Skip To Step Eight: Learn The Ways To End The Game On To Step Seven: Know The Difference Between Check And Checkmate several queens are possible).īack To Step One: Set Up The Board And Prepare To Playīack To Step Three: Study The Pieces And Their Movementsīack To Step Four: Consider Your First Movesīack To Step Five: Learn About 'Castlin' The King Its diagonal movement happens when it attacks an opponent’s piece. A pawn can move only forward in a vertical direction, usually one square per turn, but can move two steps forward in its first move. Promotion can also be used to exceed the normal roster of pieces (i.e. The pawn is the odd one out among the diagonally moving chess pieces. This is called "promotion." Pawns may be promoted to knight, rook, bishop, or queen, regardless of what has been previously captured. If a pawn is moved all the way to the far side of the board (closest to its opponent), it must be replaced by another piece of the offensive player's choice. The captured pawn is then removed as if captured normally. A decision to barge ahead with a pawn is final, which is why such precision is required. When a pawn has advanced to the fifth row on the board and an opposing pawn moves out two spaces in an adjacent column, the first pawn can then declare an "en passant" capture and move diagonally behind the opposing pawn. The pawn is the only piece on the board that does not move backward.This is the only way they can capture, and the only way they can move diagonally.

If a pawn on the f-file captures another piece on the e-file and promotes to a knight, fxe8N. If a pawn on the a-file promotes to a queen, the official FIDE notation would be a8Q. Pawns capture only by moving diagonally. The official FIDE way to indicate a pawn promotion is the notation for the pawn move with the addition of the piece the pawn was promoted to at the end.After a pawn moves (either one or two spaces), this option is lost for that piece. The first time each pawn is moved it has the option of moving two spaces forward instead of the usual one space.But it's nice to have them in your arsenal. You may play quite a few games before you need or care to use the following.
