The Mighty Pawn

The great chess player Philador said that “pawns were the soul of chess! How true those words are! The beginner often assumes that since there are eight pawns at the start of the game the pawn is expendable. This is simply not true. While the pawn’s movement is limited, it has special powers. A pawn can be used in combination with the pieces to deliver checkmate. The pawn can also promote, as we’ll see later, into a Knight, Bishop, Rook and even a Queen. The loss of a pawn can lead to the loss of the game, especially at higher levels of play. Therefore, it is important to go into this lesson remembering that the pawn plays an important role in chess. We’ll start our exploration of the pawn by looking at its starting position on the board:

When a game of chess starts, each player has eight pawns. The pawns reside in front of the pieces at the start of the game. The White pawns all are lined up across the second rank and the Black pawns along the seventh rank.

The starting position of the pawns is the same at the start of every game. Because the pawns stand in front of the other pieces, we have to bring our pawns out onto the board in order to allow the pieces behind them to move. Speaking of movement, let’s look at how a pawn moves:

Pawns move in one direction only. That direction is forward. Pawns cannot move backwards, sideways or along diagonals (except when capturing). The fearless pawn marches along its starting file in a single direction. White pawns move up the board towards the eighth rank and Black pawns move down the board towards the first rank. While this unidirectional movement doesn’t give the pawn many options, the pawn can still partake in some deadly action on the chessboard.

Pawns are also limited as to how many squares forward they can move on each turn. Here’s where it gets a little confusing to the beginner. On the first move, a pawn may advance one or two squares forward, but only on the first move. After that initial thrust, the pawn can only move forward one square at a time. This means it will take a while for the pawn to cross the board. Remember, on the first move the pawn can move one or two squares forward. After that, it moves one square at a time.

Pawns are the only piece that captures differently than it moves. While the pawn moves in a straight line along its starting file, it captures diagonally. If your suddenly feeling a little unsure of what I’ve just said, don’t worry because you’ll understand it soon enough. Take a look at the diagram below:

Pawns capture diagonally. That means that the White pawn can capture the Black pawn if its White’s turn and the Black pawn can capture the White pawn if its Blacks turn. If it was White’s turn and there was a Queen instead of a Black pawn in the diagram above, that Queen could be captured by White’s pawn. So far, we know the pawn moves up (for White) or down (for Black) its starting file. Pawns capture diagonally. When the pawn captures diagonally, the captured pawn or piece is taken off the board and the pawn doing the capturing takes its place. In the above diagram, if it was White’s turn and the Black pawn was captured, the Black pawn would be taken off the board and the White pawn would take the Black pawn’s place.

If our brave pawn can make it to the opposite end of the board, the eighth rank for White and the first rank for Black, it promotes. Think of promotion in terms of moving up in the world. When you do well at work you are often promoted to a better job. When the pawn does well and makes it to its promotion square, the square on its last rank, it becomes a Knight, Bishop, Rook or Queen. Promotion is mandatory. The pawn can never remain a pawn and it cannot become a King. Most people promote their pawns to Queens since she is the most powerful piece on the board. However, there are times when a pawn is better off promoting to another piece, especially when doing so will lead to checkmate. We’ll discuss checkmate later on in the rules section.

There is another special pawn rule that involves the way in which a pawn can capture under certain circumstances. However, we’ll look at this later on. For now, let’s sum up what we know about the pawn. It moves in a straight line along its starting file. It remains on that file until it reaches its last rank unless it captures another pawn or piece. When it does capture, it does so diagonally. When it captures diagonally it moves to an adjacent file and continues its journey up or down the chessboard. It can move one or two squares forward on the first move and one square at a time after that. Since it can only move one square at a time after the first move, it can only capture other pawns or pieces that are one square away. Pawns promote when they reach their journey’s end on the last rank, the eighth rank for White and the first rank for Black. 

This should be enough to get you started. Set up the pawns in their starting position on the chessboard. Practice moving your pawns. White goes first, then Black. Once both White and Black have made a move, the first complete game turn has been made. At some point, the White and Black pawns are going to be within capturing range of one another. Practice capturing. See if you can prevent one side from getting a pawn to the other side and promoting by capturing the pawns moving toward promotion. You’ll find that it is not as easy as it looks.