Congratulations On Your (Under) Promotion

Hey there ChessKids! It's ChristianChess2001, a chess kid just like you! Today I am writing my first article on a very fun topic: Underpromotion!

"Underpromotion? What's that?" you may ask, "Does it have anything to do with Pawn Promotion?" Yes, you're right! As you know, when your pawn reaches the last rank of the board, it gets to "promote" to a new piece. 

 

You almost always want to promote to a Queen, because she's the most powerful piece of all! "Underpromoting" a pawn means promoting to a piece other than a queen. What kinds of pieces can you Underpromote to? You got it: either a knight, a bishop, or a rook. Of course, you can't promote to a king, because you can only have one king in chess! 

 

 

Now don't start thinking that you always have to underpromote! Like I said before, you almost always promote to a queen. But sometimes it is better to promote to something else, and realizing when the time is right for an underpromotion and then using it in your own game is one of the most fun things you can do in chess!

Let's look at some examples of when underpromotion is necessary. Find white's best move. 

You're right! Promoting to a rook was the best thing here, because promoting to anything else would be a draw!

 

You're doing fabulous. How about this one?

 

 

Once again a rook is best!

If you promote to a queen, it would be stalemate. If you promoted to a knight or bishop, it would probably be a draw. Promoting to a rook was just right, and the win was much quicker. Don't you think so? 

 

Here are a few puzzles to solve before we're done. In each puzzle you can promote a pawn...but to WHICH PIECE? One, two, three... GO!

Puzzle 1: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzle 2:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzle 3:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzle 4:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright everyone, I hope you had fun with this article, and that you all now understand about underpromotion! 

Have a great week!