by Steven Mars

Created on: July 25, 2008   Last Updated: October 03, 2011

The pawn moves one square forward in the game of chess unless it is the pawn's first move, when it can move one or two squares forward. The pawn is the only piece that captures different from the way it moves. It captures its opponent's pieces that are one square diagonally forward of it.

A special move the pawn makes is called en passant.  This move is made if one of the opponent's pawns has just moved two squares for its first move. In this case the opponent's pawn that could have captured the pawn if it had moved one square can capture it just as if it had moved one square. The en passant capture can only be made on the move immediately after the pawn moves two squares for its first move.

Pawns are worth only one point. But if they reach the 8th rank (last horizontal row of squares), then they can be promoted to any other piece except the king. The queen is the most common choice because it is the most powerful piece. This is why promoting a pawn to another piece is called "queening a pawn". Sometimes a stalemate can be avoided by choosing a rook instead of a queen.

Knights and bishops are chosen as the piece to be promoted when a pawn "queens" in special situations like forks and unusual positions. For example, if a pawn reaches the a8 or a1 square (corner square) and his king is on a6 or a3 (two squares behind it), then if the opponent's knight can move to c7 or c2 respectively, the knight can fork the king and promoted pawn.

If a pawn reaches the eighth rank and is promoted to a queen, the game is usually won for that side if there are not too many pieces left on the board and the opponent does not queen one of his pawns on the move immediately after.

In some positions, a check given to the opponent's king by a queening pawn can win the opponent's pawn that is about to queen. For example, if the queening pawn is on the b1 square (white's queen knight one square) and the opponent's king is on the e4 square, then if the opponent's pawn is on the h7 square it will be forked if the player to move chooses a bishop or queen.

Another trick is two connected pawns cannot be stopped by a rook if they reach the sixth rank unless the opponent's king is nearby. Rooks are not as good against connected pawns as knights and bishops. Rooks are good against pawns that are separated by one or more squares. The rook can capture several pawns unless the pawns are advanced far enough so the rook cannot capture them.

Three connected pawns is a very powerful structure

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