The pawn structure, the configuration of pawns on the chessboard, mostly determines the strategic flavor of a game.

Locked pawn chains in the French Defense after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 In tournament games, however, this is not acceptable in the former case, it may result in the arbiter ruling that the upturned piece is in fact a rook. In informal games, when the correct piece is not available, an additional queen is often indicated by inverting a previously captured rook or by placing two pawns on the same square. While some chess sets include an extra queen of each color, most standard sets do not come with additional pieces, so the physical piece used to replace a promoted pawn on the board is usually one that was previously captured. Underpromotion to rook or bishop is used to avoid or induce stalemate or for humorous reasons. Underpromotion is most often to a knight, typically to execute a checkmate or a fork to gain a significant material advantage, among other reasons. Promotion to a queen is also known as queening and to any other piece as underpromotion. The choice of promotion is not limited to pieces that have been captured thus, a player could, in theory, have as many as nine queens, ten rooks, ten bishops, or ten knights on the board. The pawn is replaced by the new piece on the same move. Ī pawn that advances to its last rank is promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. The en passant capture is the only capture in chess in which the capturing piece does not replace the captured piece on the same square. The option to capture the moved pawn en passant must be exercised on the move immediately following the double-step pawn advance, or it is lost for the remainder of the game. The capturing pawn moves to the square over which the moved pawn passed (see diagram), and the moved pawn is removed from the board. The enemy pawn is entitled to capture the moved pawn 'in passing' as if the latter had advanced only one square. A pawn captures by moving diagonally forward one square to the left or right (see diagram), either replacing an enemy piece on its square or capturing en passant.Īn en passant capture can occur after a pawn makes a move of two squares and the square it passes over is attacked by an enemy pawn. Unlike other pieces, the pawn does not capture in the same way that it moves. The white pawn can capture it en passant by moving to c6. The black pawn has just moved from c7 to c5. The pawn historically represents soldiers or infantry, or more particularly, armed peasants or pikemen.

It is also common to refer to a rook's pawn, meaning any pawn on the a- or h-files, a knight's pawn (on the b- or g-files), a bishop's pawn (on the c- or f-files), a queen's pawn (on the d-file), a king's pawn (on the e-file), and a central pawn (on the d- or e-files). 'White's king bishop's pawn' or 'Black's queen knight's pawn'. Alternatively, they can be referred to by the piece which stood on that file at the beginning of the game, e.g.

For example, one speaks of 'White's f-pawn' or 'Black's b-pawn'. Individual pawns are referred to by the file on which they stand. The white pawns start on a2 through h2 the black pawns start on a7 through h7. Each player begins a game with eight pawns, one on each square of their second rank. It may move one square directly forward, it may move two squares directly forward on its first move, and it may capture one square diagonally forward. The pawn (♙, ♟) is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess.

Chess set pieces names