Lesson 4: THE PAWN

The pawn is also referred to as the soul of chess. This is the only unit that may promote to any other chess piece (Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight) on the chess board when it reaches the eight rank - it may not promote to a King as each player is only permitted to have one King on the chess board. The pawn moves forward one or two square(s) at a time. It can only move two squares from it's initial standing position after that it can only move one square at a time. The pawn captures forward diagonally.

The pawn on f2 can move to f3 or to f4. It can capture any enemy piece on e3 or g3 as indicated by the red arrows. The pawn can also make a special move called en passant. In the diagram posistion if the pawn on a2 moves to a4 it can be captured en passant by the b4 pawn as if it moved to a3. The same is true for the c7 pawn, if it moves to c5 it can be captured en passant by the d5 pawn as if it moved to c6.