Unlike other pieces, the pawn does not capture in the same direction as it moves. A pawn captures diagonally forward one square to the left or right see diagram. Another unusual rule is the en passant capture. It can occur after a pawn advances two squares using its initial two-step move option, and the square passed over is attacked by an enemy pawn. 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 option to capture 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. Without en passant , a pawn on its initial square could safely bypass a square controlled by an advanced enemy pawn. A pawn that advances all the way to the opposite side of the board the opposing player's first rank is promoted to another piece of that player's choice: The pawn is immediately before the opposing player's next move replaced by the new piece.
Since it is uncommon for a piece other than a queen to be chosen, promotion is often called "queening". When some other piece is chosen it is known as underpromotion , and the piece selected is most often a knight , used to execute a checkmate or a fork giving the player a net increase in material compared to promoting to a queen.
Movement rules
Underpromotion is also used in situations where promoting to a queen would give immediate stalemate. The choice of promotion is not limited to pieces that have been captured. Thus a player could in theory have as many as ten knights, ten bishops, ten rooks or nine queens on the board at the same time. When the correct piece is not available, some substitute is used: The pawn structure , the configuration of pawns on the chessboard, mostly determines the strategic flavor of a game.
While other pieces can usually be moved to more favorable positions if they are temporarily badly placed, a poorly positioned pawn is limited in its movement and often cannot be so relocated. Because pawns capture diagonally and can be blocked from moving straight forward, opposing pawns can become locked in diagonal pawn chains of two or more pawns of each color, where each player controls squares of one color. In the diagram, Black and White have locked their d- and e-pawns.
Here, White has a long-term space advantage. White will have an easier time than Black in finding good squares for his pieces, particularly with an eye to the kingside. Black, in contrast, suffers from a bad bishop on c8, which is prevented by the black pawns from finding a good square or helping out on the kingside.
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On the other hand, White's central pawns are somewhat overextended and vulnerable to attack. Black can undermine the white pawn chain with an immediate Pawns on adjacent files can support each other in attack and defense. A pawn which has no friendly pawns in adjacent files is an isolated pawn. The square in front of an isolated pawn may become an enduring weakness. Any piece placed directly in front not only blocks the advance of that pawn, but cannot be driven away by other pawns.
In the diagram, Black has an isolated pawn on d5. If all the pieces except the kings and pawns were removed, the weakness of that pawn might prove fatal to Black in the endgame. In the middlegame , however, Black has slightly more freedom of movement than White, and may be able to trade off the isolated pawn before an endgame ensues.
Chess Corner - Chess Tutorial - The Pawn Game
A pawn which cannot be blocked or captured by enemy pawns in its advance to promotion is a passed pawn. In the diagram, White has a protected passed pawn on c5 and Black has an outside passed pawn on h5. In this vein, a pawn majority , a greater number of pawns belonging to one player on one side of the chessboard, is strategically important because it can often be converted into a passed pawn. The diagrammed position might appear roughly equal, because each side has a king and three pawns, and the positions of the kings are about equal.
In truth, White wins this endgame on the strength of the protected passed pawn, regardless which player moves first. After a capture with a pawn, a player may end up with two pawns on the same file , called doubled pawns. Doubled pawns are substantially weaker than pawns which are side by side, because they cannot defend each other, they usually cannot both be defended by adjacent pawns, and the front pawn blocks the advance of the back one. In the diagram, Black is playing at a strategic disadvantage due to the doubled c-pawns. There are situations where doubled pawns confer some advantage, typically when the guarding of consecutive squares in a file by the pawns prevents an invasion by the opponent's pieces.
Pawns which are both doubled and isolated are typically a tangible weakness.
A single piece or pawn in front of doubled isolated pawns blocks both of them, and cannot be easily dislodged. It is rare for a player to have three pawns in a file, i.
In chess endgames with a bishop, a rook pawn may be the wrong rook pawn , depending on the square-color of the bishop. This causes some positions to be draws that would otherwise be wins. The pawn has its origins in the oldest version of chess, chaturanga , and it is present in all other significant versions of the game as well. In chaturanga, this piece moved directly forward, capturing to the sides one square diagonally forward to the left or right.
The queen is the most powerful piece. She can move in any one straight direction - forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally - as far as possible as long as she does not move through any of her own pieces. And, like with all pieces, if the queen captures an opponent's piece her move is over. Notice how the white queen captures the black queen and then the black king is forced to move.
Step 1. How to Setup the Chessboard
The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward, backward, and to the sides. The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together! The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one color light or dark and must always stay on that color. Bishops work well together because they cover up each other's weaknesses.
Knights are also the only pieces that can move over other pieces. Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them.
They can never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece. There are a few special rules in chess that may not seem logical at first. They were created to make the game more fun and interesting.
Pawns have another special ability and that is that if a pawn reaches the other side of the board it can become any other chess piece called promotion. A pawn may be promoted to any piece. A common misconception is that pawns may only be exchanged for a piece that has been captured. That is NOT true. A pawn is usually promoted to a queen. Only pawns may be promoted. If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent's pawn effectively jumping past the other pawn's ability to capture it , that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by.
This special move must be done immediately after the first pawn has moved past, otherwise the option to capture it is no longer available. Click through the example below to better understand this odd, but important rule. One other special chess rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things all in one move: On a player's turn he may move his king two squares over to one side and then move the rook from that side's corner to right next to the king on the opposite side.
See the example below. However, in order to castle, the following conditions must be met:. Notice that when you castle one direction the king is closer to the side of the board.
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That is called castling "kingside". Castling to the other side, through where the queen sat, is called castling "queenside". Regardless of which side, the king always moves only two squares when castling. The player with the white pieces always moves first. Therefore, players generally decide who will get to be white by chance or luck such as flipping a coin or having one player guess the color of the hidden pawn in the other player's hand.
White then makes a move, followed by black, then white again, then black and so on until the end of the game. Being able to move first is a tiny advantage which gives the white player an opportunity to attack right away. The purpose of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. This happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out of check. There are only three ways a king can get out of check: If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over. Customarily the king is not captured or removed from the board, the game is simply declared over. Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw.
There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw:. Get your king to the corner of the board where he is usually safer. Don't put off castling.
You should usually castle as quickly as possible. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmating your opponent if your own king is checkmated first! Don't carelessly lose your pieces! Each piece is valuable and you can't win a game without pieces to checkmate. There is an easy system that most players use to keep track of the relative value of each chess piece. How much are the chess pieces worth? At the end of the game these points don't mean anything — it is simply a system you can use to make decisions while playing, helping you know when to capture, exchange, or make other moves.
You should try and control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns. If you control the center, you will have more room to move your pieces and will make it harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces. In the example above white makes good moves to control the center while black plays bad moves. In the example above white got all of his pieces in the game! Your pieces don't do any good when they are sitting back on the first row.
Try and develop all of your pieces so that you have more to use when you attack the king. Using one or two pieces to attack will not work against any decent opponent. The most important thing you can do to get better at chess is to play lots of chess! It doesn't matter if you play at home with friends or family, or play online, you have to play the game a lot to improve. These days it's easy to find a game of chess online! Click here for where to play chess.
While most people play standard chess rules, some people like to play chess with changes to the rules. These are called "chess variants". Each variant has its own rules. To learn more about chess variants, click here. Chess follows all the rules of standard chess, except for the starting position of pieces on the back rank, which are placed randomly in one of possible positions.