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Encyclopedia > Pawn (chess)
Chess pieces
Image:Chess kdt45.svg King Image:Chess klt45.svg
Image:Chess qdt45.svg Queen Image:Chess qlt45.svg
Image:Chess rdt45.svg Rook Image:Chess rlt45.svg
Image:Chess bdt45.svg Bishop Image:Chess blt45.svg
Image:Chess ndt45.svg Knight Image:Chess nlt45.svg
Image:Chess pdt45.svg Pawn Image:Chess plt45.svg
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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

The pawn (♙♟) is the weakest and most numerous piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the second rank from the view of the player. In algebraic notation the white pawns start on a2, b2, c2, ..., h2, while the black pawns start on a7, b7, c7, ..., h7. Original Staunton chess pieces, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king. ... Image File history File links Chess_kdt45. ... Staunton chess pieces, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king. ... Image File history File links Chess_klt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_qdt45. ... Queen. ... Image File history File links Chess_qlt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_rdt45. ... A rook (â™– ♜,borrowed from Persian رخ rokh, Sanskrit roth, chariot) is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. ... Image File history File links Chess_rlt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_bdt45. ... A bishop (♗♝) is a piece in the board game of chess. ... Image File history File links Chess_blt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_ndt45. ... The knight moves in an L shape. ... Image File history File links Chess_nlt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_pdt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_plt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_pdt45. ... Image File history File links Chess_plt45. ... Chessboard notation Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. ... Original Staunton chess pieces, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king. ... Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. ... For other uses, see Chess (disambiguation). ... Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, bicycles, or other means. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the... A pike is a pole weapon once used extensively by infantry principally as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. ... This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. ... Chessboard notation Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. ...


Pawns are differentiated by the files on which they currently stand. For example, one speaks of "white's f-pawn" or, less commonly, "white's king's bishop's pawn" (using descriptive notation). It is also common to refer to a rook pawn, meaning any pawn on the a-file or h-file, a knight pawn (on the b- or g-file), a bishop pawn (on the c- or f-file), a queen's pawn (on the d-file), a king's pawn (on the e-file), and a central pawn (on either the d- or e-file). This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. ... Descriptive chess notation, or just descriptive notation is a notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation for doing so. ...


As pawns differ so much from other pieces, the usage of the word pieces in chess literature usually excludes the pawns, although this distinction between "pieces" and "pawns" is not found in the official rules. Typical chess set and clock While the exact origins of chess are unclear, the modern rules of chess first took form in Italy during the 16th century. ...

Contents

Movement

d7 e7
Initial placement of the pawns.
  FEN
Pawn movement. The pawn can move to the square in front if itself. A pawn on its starting rank has the option of moving two squares.
  FEN

Pawns are unusual in movement and use. Unlike all the other pieces, pawns may not move backwards. Normally a pawn moves by advancing a single square, but the first time each pawn is moved from its initial position, it has the option to advance two squares. Pawns may not use the initial two-square advance to jump over an occupied square, or to capture. Any piece directly in front of a pawn, friend or foe, blocks its advance. In the diagram at right, the pawn on c4 may move to c5, while the pawn on e2 may move to either e3 or e4.


Capturing
The white pawn at d5 may capture either the black rook at c6 or the black knight at e6, but not the bishop at d6, which instead blocks its straight way forward.
  FEN

Unlike other pieces, the pawn does not capture in the same way as it moves. A pawn captures diagonally, one square forward and to the left or right. In the diagram to the left, the white pawn may capture either the black rook or the black knight.
En passant capture, assuming that the black pawn has just moved from c7 to c5. The white pawn moves to the c6 square and the black pawn is removed.
  FEN

An even more unusual move is the en passant capture. This arises when a pawn uses its initial-move option to advance two squares instead of one, and in so doing passes over a square that is attacked by an enemy pawn. That enemy pawn, which would have been able to capture the moving pawn had it advanced only one square, is entitled to capture the moving pawn "in passing" as if it had advanced only one square. The capturing pawn moves into the empty square over which the moving pawn moved, and the moving pawn is removed from the board. In the diagram at right, the black pawn has just moved c7 to c5, so the white pawn may capture it by moving from d5 to c6. The option to capture en passant must be exercised on the move immediately following the double-square pawn advance, or it is lost and may not be made later. The en passant move was added to the pawn's repertoire in the late thirteenth century to compensate for the then newly added two-square initial move rule. Without en passant, a pawn could simply march past squares guarded by opposing pawns; en passant preserves the restrictive ability of pawns that have reached the fifth rank. ġĠ ġ Εý ŚÝ ¼Ћ This article is about the chess move en passant. For other uses, see En passant (disambiguation). ...


Promotion

Main article: Promotion (chess)

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 of a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. The pawn is immediately (before the opposing player's next move) replaced by the new piece. Promotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches the eighth square into the players choice of a queen, knight, bishop, or rook. ... Promotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches the eighth square into the players choice of a queen, knight, bishop, or rook. ...


The choice of promotion is not limited to captured pieces. It is both legal and possible for one player to simultaneously have as many as ten knights, ten bishops, ten rooks or nine queens. While this extreme would almost never occur in practice, in game eleven of their 1927 world championship match, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine each had two queens in play at once. While some finer sets do include an extra queen of each color, most standard chess sets do not come with additional pieces, so the physical piece used to replace a promoted pawn is usually one that was previously captured. When the correct piece is not available, some substitute is used: a second queen is often indicated by inverting a previously captured rook. This issue does not arise in computer chess. José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (November 19, 1888 – March 8, 1942) was a Cuban world-class chess player in the early to mid-twentieth century. ... Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (sometimes spelled Aljechin or Alechin) (IPA: ; other members of his family pronounce it ; Russian: ; French: Alexandre Alekhine) (October 31 or November 1, 1892 – March 24, 1946) was a Russian-born naturalized French chess grandmaster (officially naturalized in 1927 only three days before the World Champion title), and... 1990s Pressure-sensory Chess Computer with LCD screen The idea of creating a chess-playing machine dates back to the eighteenth century. ...


Promotion is often called "queening", because the piece chosen is nearly always a queen. When some other piece is chosen it is known as "underpromotion" and the piece selected is most often a knight used to execute a forced mate or a fork giving the player a net increase in material compared to promoting to a queen. Underpromotion is also used in situations where promoting to a queen would give instant stalemate and the promotion cannot be deferred until this situation has ceased. In chess, underpromotion is promotion of a pawn that has reached the eighth rank to any piece other than a queen; that is a rook, a bishop or a knight. ... The knight moves in an L shape. ... For other uses, see Checkmate (disambiguation). ... The white knight is forking the black king and rook. ... Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move has no legal moves but is not in check. ...


Strategy

The pawn structure mostly determines the strategic flavor of a game. While other pieces can usually be regrouped more favorably if they are temporarily badly placed, a poorly placed pawn cannot retreat to a more favorable position. In chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. ...

Locked pawn chains
  FEN


Because pawns capture diagonally and can be blocked from moving straight forward, opposing pawns often become locked in diagonal chains of two or more, where each player controls squares of one color. In the diagram at left, 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 spaces for friendly 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. On the other hand, White's central pawns are somewhat over-extended and vulnerable to attack. Black can undermine the white pawn chain with an immediate c7-c5 and perhaps a later f7-f6. This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. ...

Black has an isolated pawn at d5.
  FEN


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 can't be driven away by other pawns. In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn for which there is no friendly pawn on an adjacent file. ...


In the diagram at right, Black has an isolated pawn on d5. If all the pieces except the kings and pawns were removed, the weakness of d4 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. EndGame is the name of a 1997 story arc of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book published by published by Archie Comics. ... In chess, the middlegame refers to the portion of the game that happens immediately after the opening (usually the first move after the procession of moves that make up a standard opening) and blends somewhat with the endgame. ...

White's a4 pawn is passed.
  FEN


A pawn which can't be blocked or captured by enemy pawns in its advance to promotion is a passed pawn. In the diagram at left, White has a passed pawn on a4. Black's pawn on g7 is not a passed pawn, because it has to get by White's h2 pawn before it can be promoted. Because endgames are almost always won by the player who can promote a pawn first, having a passed pawn in an endgame can be decisive. Whites b, c, and e pawns are passed. ...


The diagrammed position might appear roughly equal, because each side has a king and five pawns, and the positions of the kings are about equal. In truth, White might have a won game merely on the strength of the passed pawn, no matter who makes the first move.
Black has doubled c-pawns.
  FEN


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 can't defend each other, and the front pawn blocks the advance of the back one. In the diagram at right, Black is playing at a strategic disadvantage due to the doubled c-pawns. In chess, doubled pawns are two pawns of the same player residing on the same file. ...


There are situations where doubled pawns confer some advantage, typically when the guarding of consecutive squares in a file by the pawns prevent 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.e. tripled pawns. Depending on the position, tripled pawns may be more or less valuable than two pawns which are side by side.


Etymology

Though the name origin of most chess pieces is obvious, the pawn's etymology is fairly obscure. Since chess became prevalent in mainstream society, many new uses have derived from the word. "Pawn" is often taken to mean "one who is easily manipulated" or "one who is sacrificed for a larger purpose." The word pawn actually is derived from the Old French word "paon" which comes from the Medieval Latin term for foot soldier, and is etymologically cognate to peon. Look up peon, peón in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...


Because the pawn is the weakest piece, it is often used metaphorically to indicate unimportance or outright disposability, for example, "I'm only a pawn in the game of life."


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Pawn (chess) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1227 words)
Pawns are differentiated by the files in which they currently stand, for example one speaks of "white's f-pawn".
Pawns are the source of nearly all of the strategic depth of chess.
A pawn which can't be blocked or captured by enemy pawns in its advance to promotion is a passed pawn.
Chess - Simple English Wikipedia (1340 words)
A pawn is placed in each square on the second row away from each player at the beginning of a game, right in front of all of their other pieces, so each player begins with eight pawns.
Very often, the first move is that the white player moves his "king's pawn" (that is, the pawn in front of the king) two spaces forward.
A pawn can capture an enemy piece which is on the square left or right of the square straight in front of it.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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