Normally a pawn moves by advancing a single square, but the first time a pawn moves, it has the option of advancing two squares. Pawns may not use the initial two-square advance to jump over an occupied square, or to capture. Any piece immediately in front of a pawn, friend or foe, blocks its advance.
Can you turn your pawn into a second queen?
Players can also promote a pawn to a more powerful piece in play on the board, so it’s possible to have a second queen or more (up to nine queens). Once pawn promotion takes place, the opposing player must move unless they are in checkmate.
What if my pawn reaches other side?
When a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board, it promotes. This means that the owner of the pawn can replace it with a queen, a rook, a knight, or a bishop of his own color, and put that piece instead of the pawn on the board on the square of the pawn.
Can a pawn move forward without capturing a piece?
There are cases when a pawn can capture a piece but may choose not to do that. For example, in the image below, the white pawn from h2 can simply move forward at h3 or h4 without capturing the black rook. That would be a perfectly legal move. You can learn more about capturing pieces at learn to capture.
When does a white pawn capture an en passant?
If it moves to f6 (marked by ×), the white pawn can capture it. Black moved his pawn forward two squares in a single move from f7 to f5, “passing” f6. White captures the pawn en passant, as if it had moved only one square to f6. En passant is a unique privilege of pawns—other pieces cannot capture en passant.
How does a pawn capture a piece in chess?
In the following game none of the pawns, black or white, can be moved because they are blocked by other pieces. A pawn can capture a piece that’s one column on its left or right side and one row in front of it. That means that it can capture by going one square forward on the diagonal as shown in the image below.
When does a pawn advance to the opposite side of the board?
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: a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color.
