What Happens When You Get a Pawn to the Other Side of the Chess Board?
When a pawn reaches the opposite side of the chessboard, it can be promoted to another piece of your choice. Most often, players choose to “trade” their pawn for a queen, thus replacing the pawn with this mighty piece.Few moments in chess are as exciting as reaching the other side of the board with your pawn. From beginners to more experienced players, everyone is thrilled when they get the right to promote their pawn to a more powerful chessman.
After all, who would have guessed at the beginning of the game that this little pawn soldier would become the boss of the board?
Here's what you need to know about pawn promotion in chess.
- Pawn Promotion Explained
- Rules of Pawn Promotion
- Illegal Pawn Promotion
- Promoting to Queen
- Promoting to Different Pieces (Underpromotion)
- Wrapping Up
- Pawn Promotion Video
Pawn Promotion Explained
When a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board, the 8th rank for the player with White pieces, and the 1st rank for the player with Black, a special rule applies.
Pawns are one of the pieces with a few specific movements to learn. They move only straight but capture diagonally. Furthermore, the square on which the pawn is situated is crucial for its movement.
If a pawn sits on its initial position (on the 2nd rank for the player with the White pieces and on the 7th rank for Black), it has the luxury to choose whether to move one or two squares straight. After the initial move, pawns can move only with one square on each turn.
Without a doubt, the most exciting part is when the pawn reaches the last rank (8th if you are with White pieces, and 1st if you are with Black). It's like the pawn has gone on an epic journey of tiny steps, and now it gets to transform into a super cool piece! No other chessman is that lucky to have this privilege.
However, there are certain rules we have to take into account when it comes to pawn promotion.
White’s pawn has reached the last 8th rank ("g8" square) and they have the right to choose another piece for promotion!
Rules of Pawn Promotion
Here are the main things you need to consider when it comes to promoting a pawn in chess:
- Upon reaching the end of the chess board, you have the right to promote it by replacing it with another piece of the same colour. Even if you want, you can’t be that nice and add a new piece for your opponent. Pawns can be promoted only by moving straight unless there is an opponent piece that you can take diagonally.
Here's a fun question for you: Can you promote a pawn in this case?
White can’t promote their pawn as their regular straight move forward is blocked by the Black’s knight (pawns can’t take by moving straight) and they can’t move diagonally unless there is an opponent piece to capture.
For comparison, in the following situation, White can promote in 3 different ways.
This is another thing! The White pawn has the option to promote on 3 different squares.
- Taking the Black knight on “e8”
- Moving forward to “f8”
- Taking the Black bishop on “g8”
Pawn promotion is not obligatory, so you can delay it if you believe it will benefit your strategy. In other words, you don't have to promote your pawn right away. Sometimes it's like giving your pawn a VIP pass to wait until just the right moment!
- You can choose to replace it with any piece from your army, but the king. Sorry, just one king per side is allowed in the game!
- Another very important rule is that even if you already have a queen on the board, you have the luxury to bring another one to the chess fight. That’s right, that makes it a total of 9 queens (1 you start the game with + 8 promoted) at the same time eventually, that can serve you in your goal to deliver a checkmate. Although this is highly unlikely to happen in a real game, it’s theoretically possible.
Remember, even if one of your pieces has been captured and taken off the board, you can bring it back to life!
- The promoted piece will replace your pawn at the same square. Let’s repeat this as it is important to remember- 8th rank for White and 1st rank for Black. The pawn will then be removed from the board. You can not keep it on the board once it reaches its final destination.
- You can promote your pawn only when it’s your move according to the standard chess rules.
To sum up
| Pawns can be promoted to | Pawns can't be promoted to |
| - Queen | - King |
| - Knight | - Pawn |
| - Rook | |
| - Bishop |
Rules of Pawn Promotion in OTB Chess
In contrast to online chess, over-the-board chess has its own specific rules and requirements, so let's explore them.
- For OTB chess, one specific rule is that you have to put your pawn on the 8th rank and only then grab another piece to replace your pawn with it.
- One additional requirement valid only in OTB chess is to always use a queen piece if you want to promote to a queen. Sometimes players use a reversed rook (reversed castle) instead as a small trick, but their opponent might file a complaint against this. That’s why in high-level tournaments, they always have one separate queen waiting on the table (usually near the clock).
- Furthermore, it's essential to use both hands when promoting a pawn; using one hand to move the pawn and another to replace it with the new piece is considered an illegal move in over-the-board chess.
Illegal Pawn Promotion
Here are the most common situations where pawn promotion could go wrong:
- As mentioned above, it will be an illegal move if you try to promote a pawn to the most important chess piece- the king. Only 1 king must exist in your army, and as soon as it’s checkmated, the game is over. There is no way back.
- It is not permissible to replace your pawn one square away from the last rank (or not moving it entirely to the last rank). Only when you have moved the pawn to the last square you will have the right to exchange it.
- Additionally, you can’t promote a piece to one of the the opposite colour (matching your opponent's pieces). Although there is no good reason why you might want to help them this way. After all, the goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent and win the game.
- Using two hands for the promotion move is also considered an illegal move.
- Keep in mind that once a pawn reaches the other side of the board, it can’t just hang out there. You’ve got to swap it for another piece and the pawn will be removed from the battlefield.
- Finally, try to avoid using the reversed rook instead of a queen or you risk being reported for an illegal move. Ideally, you will have a spare queen nearby, but if you don’t, try to plan in advance and get one from another table. You can do it during your opponent’s turn to avoid losing precious time.
Even better, you can always stop the clock and call for the arbiter to provide you with a queen if you don’t see one nearby. This could be a life-saver, especially if you have little time on your clock. The official rules of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) state that players can stop the clocks and ask for help from the arbiter.
Promoting to Queen
In practice, a pawn is promoted to a queen in over 98% of games. This is hardly surprising as no other chess piece is as powerful as the mighty queen.
There is no limit to the number of queens you can promote. Hypothetically, you can promote all your eight pawns to queens as already mentioned. In this case, if you still have your original queen in play, it is possible to have up to nine queens on the board simultaneously. This scenario would be a very rare and exceptional circumstance in chess.
Queen domination!
The queen usually increases your chance to win. “Usually” is the key here, as it happens often in chess, there are exceptions for almost everything. In some specific situations, promoting to a queen might be a mistake.
This should come as no surprise, otherwise, we wouldn’t have the term “Underpromotion” existing.
Promoting to Different Pieces (Underpromotion)
Underpromotion could be beneficial in situations where promoting to a queen will put the opponent in stalemate. This way, instead of getting the full 1 point, you will have to go for 0.5 points only with a draw.
Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Knight
In the following situation, many will promote to queen without a second thought (especially if low on time).
White to move. Easy decision, right?! Think again!
Now, let’s take a second look at the position once we move our pawn to the “b8” square and replace it i.e. promote it to the most powerful chess piece- the queen.
Yesss, we have just promoted a new queen! Nooo, it turns out this was not the best move because of stalemate!
Have you noticed anything suspicious? The black king is not in check, and at the same time, there is no legal square it can go to. That's why the game is declared a draw! We have the perfect example of a stalemate.
However, in this case, we can use underpromotion to save the day. Promoting the pawn to a knight will not only prevent the stalemate, but it will even deliver a checkmate in 1 move!
Promoting to a knight gets the job done- white delivers a beautiful checkmate with all the pieces working together.
Here it is- the newly promoted piece, the knight, gives a check and as the Black king doesn’t have a safe square to go to, it is a checkmate. Job done!
Rook
Promoting to a rook is not that common compared to knight underpromotion. The main idea is again to avoid stalemating motives and bring you the full point.
Let’s take a look at the following position.
What would you play here as White?
It might seem like an obvious decision, and in 98% of practical situations it would be. However, in this specific example, promoting to a queen would be a mistake.
If you play 1.c8=Q (queen), Black has the beautiful resource of 1...Rc4+! The only move not to lose will be 2.Qxc4 and we will end up with this position after the forcing line.
Stalemate!
The black king is not in check, and at the same time, there is no a single square he can go to. It is a stalemate again.
Instead of promoting to a queen, White has the only winning resource: 1.c8=R (rook)!
Now, to prevent the checkmate, Black’s only move is 1...Ra4, but then White goes 2.Kb3, and there is no way to prevent the mate. White wins!
With Black's king in the corner and the rook placed in an awkward position, Black is losing.
When it comes to promotion and rooks, it’s worth mentioning again a small trick some players try. In situations when they don’t have a queen nearby and want to promote a pawn, they use a reversed rook instead.
While this may work in some friendly games, in official tournaments, it's preferable to find a real queen or request one from the referee.
What’s the name of this strange piece and how does it move!?
Bishop
Promoting to a bishop is one of the rarest promotions that occurs in practical games, so we won't delve into details here. It’s important to note, just for general information, that the primary goal is again to avoid a stalemate.
In practical terms, though still very rare, promoting to a knight is much more common in comparison to underpromotion to a rook or bishop.
Wrapping Up
Now you know how important it is to understand the pawn promotion concept. The next time your pawn makes it to the other side, you will know exactly what to do and what to be careful of.
Pawn Promotion Video
Check out the video below to learn even more about the topic.