The physical pawn looks like a small, rounded pedestal. In diagrams it can look something like a snowman.
The pawn is the least valuable, most populous, and most complicated piece in chess!
The pawn is the weakest piece because it usually can only move one square.
Another limitation is that the Pawn is a one-way piece: The pawn can only move away from the player who owns it. So the White pawns can only move up the board, and the Black pawns can only move down the board.
The Pawn can only move along the file when its destination square is empty. It cannot move along the file at all if the square it would move to is occupied by any piece, even a piece of another color. Unlike all the other pieces, the Pawn has two distinct moves: one for moving to an empty square, and a different move for capturing. We have just seen how it moves to an empty square (straight forward). Now lets look at how it captures...
The Pawn can capture one square diagonally.
If there were a Black piece on c6 or e6, then White could move this Pawn to one of those squares and capture Black's piece.
If there were no Black piece on c6, then White's d5 Pawn could not move to c6.
If there were no Black piece on e6, then White's d5 Pawn could not move to e6.
At the start of the game, each player receives eight pawns, and they are placed immediately in front of all the other pieces.
From their starting positions, the Pawns have the option of moving two squares forward, instead of their usual one square. From their home squares they still may only capture one square diagonally.
So the way the Pawn moves looks like a flower. The stalk represents one move forward, the leafs represent the diagonal capturing moves, and the blossom represents how it can move 2 squares forward on its first move.
When you make that first Pawn move, you grab it by the blossom and pull it forward...
Which pulls the blossom off. Henceforth it is deflowered and can never again move two squares forward in one turn.
The option of moving the Pawn two squares on its first move was introduced into the game in order to speed up the game. However, in some situations this rule deprived the other player of the opportunity of capturing the pawn on its first move. Players didn't like that, so a special rule was made to keep them happy...
For instance, in this position, if White's Pawn moved to d3, Black would be able to capture White's Pawn by moving the Black Pawn from e4 to d3.
But, if White moved the Pawn to d4, Black wouldn't normally be able to capture the White Pawn because it would be next to Black's Pawn instead of diagonally in front of it.
So, when the two-square move was introduced, they also introduced a rule that allows the capture of the Pawn in this situation AS IF it had only moved one square forward. This rule is called the en passant capture. (Pronounced "on pah SOHN" which is French for "in passing.")
Let's see the en passant move in action...
The White Pawn just moved from d2 to d4. Now, thanks to the en passant rule, Black can capture the Pawn exactly as if the White Pawn had really just moved to d3...
So the Black Pawn moves to d3...
...and the White Pawn is removed from the board.
Pawn captures are usually written by indicating the from-file as well as the destination square, you can add the "x" between, or not. In this case, you can also add "e.p." for en passant. So this move could be written:
1... exd3 e.p.
Please note that only a Pawn can capture en passant. In our example, if the Black Pawn had been any other Black piece, then the en passant capture would not have been possible.
When it comes to the en passant option: if you don't use it you lose it! If you are going to make an en passant capture, you must do so immediately after your partner's Pawn has moved the 2 squares forward. You cannot make some other move and then capture the Pawn en passant on a later turn.
The en passant rule is the most obscure and most misunderstood rule in chess. Many casual players are unaware of it, so you may have to explain it to them the first time you use it to whisk one of their unwary Pawns off the board.
If you've decided by now that you hate Pawns (those complicated, worthless runts, with their weird en passant thing), you may change your mind when you hear about the last feature of the "lowly" Pawn.
When a Pawn advances all the way to the opposite end of the board (as both Pawns here are poised to do), they cannot move anymore. But, their owner receives a prize for having successfully ushered them all the way across the table.
It's White's turn to move. Let's see what happens...
The White Pawn moves forward to the eighth rank (where it runs out of moves). It must now be "promoted" to another piece. The player who owns the Pawn can choose to replace the Pawn with a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or a Knight!
In the same move, the Pawn is removed from the board and replaced with the chosen piece (usually a Queen). This ends the player's turn.
Some people have been taught that you can only have one Queen on the board at a time, so if you still had your original Queen you could not promote a Pawn to a Queen. This is absolutely untrue. You could legally have 9 Queens on the board (your original Queen, and 8 promoted Pawns)!
Likewise, if you opted to promote all 8 of your Pawns to Bishops, and you still had your original pair of Bishops, you could legally have 10 Bishops on the board.
In this position, whose ever turn it is wins.
If it were White's turn, what would be a winning move? (there are two right answers)
(b8=Q# or b8=R#)
The promoted Pawn delivers the mate (as a Queen or a Rook), and the Pawns at d6 and e6 prevent the King from moving off the back rank to safety.
Notice that when a Pawn promotes, we write an "=" sign followed by the abbreviation of the piece it promoted to.
What would be a winning move for Black if it were his turn to move in this position? (there are two right answers)
(a1=Q# or a1=R#)
Here's a more difficult puzzle. It's White's move and he can deliver checkmate on the move. How?
The solution is...
(1. dxe8=N#)
Anytime we promote the Pawn to something less than a Queen, we call it "underpromotion". In this case, if we had promoted to a Queen, the Black King would have escaped to f6. But now the new Knight on e8 covers that escape square while the Rook on a7 delivers the mate (now that the Pawn has moved out of its way).
Finally, here is the most difficult position in this course. It is White's turn, and he can deliver checkmate on the move. How?
Hint:
Black just moved the Pawn from b7 to b5.
Here's the solution:
- axb6 e.p.#)
White's Pawn on a6 captures the b5 Pawn en passant and delivers checkmate. The King can't take the b6 Pawn because he would be moving next to the White King. Black's King can't take the a6 Pawn because he would still be in check from the Bishop on f1. Black's Pawn on c7 can't take the b6 Pawn because Black's King would still be in check (from the Rook on h7). It doesn't do any good for Black's King to move to b7 because then it would be in check from two Pawns. So Black is checkmated by the "lowly" Pawn.