What happens if a pawn reaches the opponents side

The entire second rank for each player is occupied by their Pawns. The objective in chess is to checkmate your opponents King, and there are three potential ways the game can end:. First, you can checkmate your opponent. This means that the King is in check under potential attack from an opposing piece and the player can not make any legal move to remove the King from check.

At this point, the game is over and the checkmated player loses. The amount of material on the chessboard is of no concern. Second, you and your opponent can reach a stalemate - the opponents King is not currently in check, but would be force to move in to check with their next move. Because you can never put your own King in check, you would have no legal moves to make. A stalemate does not mean the attacking player has won. Instead, it is a draw - neither player is victorious.

In timed games, each player has a specific amount of time to make their moves. Once their time runs out, they lose, regardless of the material on the board. That means that you could have only your King legt and deftly avoid mate attempts from an opponent with most of their pieces still on the board and still win the game if your opponent were to run out of time.

Castling, otherwise known as the rook and king switch, is one of the more distinguished chess rules, a move that involves the King and the Rook. This is the only situation in which you would move two of your own pieces in the same move. The King and the Rook move towards each other and swap places. To do this, move your King not one, but two spaces towards the Rook you are castling with.

Then place the Rook on the opposite side of the King shown in the diagram to the right. This can be done on either the King side or Queen side, however there are several prerequisites:. The king and rook may not have moved, there must not be any obstructing pieces between them, and the King must not move through check in order to complete the move.

This special move involves the Pawn. As mentioned earlier, the pawn has the unique ability to move two spaces for its first move on the chessboard. Should the Pawn be made into a second Queen, the first Queen has to leave its defensive post. Without holding the King in check, this can result in a potential stalemate. However, this is not the case if the Pawn is promoted to a Bishop.

The promoted Bishop has renewed angles of attack and defense and can harass the opposing Queen. At the same time, the opposing King can be challenged. If positioned correctly, the Bishop can survive the opposing Queen and work collaboratively with the King and Queen already on the board, resulting in a checkmate. A Knight can jump over other pieces and provide offensive and defensive holding moves.

Had the White Pawn been promoted to a second Queen, the Queen would not have been able to defend the White King adequately. Such a scenario would have resulted in a Black win. But promoting the White Pawn to a Knight allowed for a defensive endgame, resulting in a checkmate for the Black King. Queening is the promotion of a Pawn to a Queen. If there is more than one Pawn that makes it to the other side of the board, there can be more than one promotion resulting in a Queen.

There is no limit to the number of Queens or other promotion-ready pieces you can have on the board. So long as the Pawns make it safely to the other side, those Pawns can be promoted.

Queens have the widest potential for moving on the board. The pawn can be exchanged for a queen, bishop, rook, or knight. This is known as pawn promotion. After promotion, a player may have two queens. Thus, the majority of pawns end up being promoted to a queen rather than any other piece. Pawn promotion is often considered a key goal of a chess game. Pawns are not able to move backwards.

This is why promoting them is important. So, if it is white's turn, we can either get a legal position with two queens for white. See above. A pawn may promote to a piece that is not lost. So the player could, for example, choose to have a second queen. The pawn is replaced by the new piece. The pawn piece itself is not put on the board, but goes to the box of pieces. It will not be used until the next game of chess. No, only pawns promote. There are no special rules when queens, rooks, knights, bishops, or kings reach the opposite side of the board.

As a side remark, black should be able to win the game from the resulting position. White would have played better if he first moved his king to a7, where it could protect the pawn. That could force black to exchange his rook for the promoted piece, leading to a draw. This site is supported by advertising and by donations. You can help out by making a small donation or by using this site's affiliate links when you shop at ebay.

First, the pawn that will make an en passant capture must be in place on the opponent's fourth rank, as the pawn at f4 is here. Next, the opponent makes a double move with a previously unmoved pawn to a space that is adjacent to an enemy pawn. Here, white moves to g4, which is adjacent to the Black pawn on f4.

Finally, black may use the very next move to capture the pawn on g4 by moving diagonally forward to g3, the space white's pawn just passed over. In this position, white's d pawn may capture black's e pawn, but it may also move forward to d5. Look at the position above. It is white's turn to move. Again, it is white's turn. Or we can get a legal position with three rooks for white. White has moved the pawn from b7 to b8 and has promoted it to a queen.

Black immediately responds by taking the queen with his rook.