
This move is meant to avoid situations where two rival pawns never meet each other. “En-passant”Īnother special move of the pawn is en-passant or passing by. In practice, that should be very difficult to achieve though. Theoretically, you could have 9 queens on the board. Here the black pawn has made it all the way to d1 black decided to get a queen instead and in the second diagram you have the position with a queen on the board, place on the exact same square the pawn was on – d1. To do this, you simply remove the pawn from the square it was on and replace it with the piece of your choice on the exact same square that the pawn arrived on. The most common choice is, of course, the queen, the most powerful piece on the board. It doesn’t matter that you already have that piece on the board, you can get another one. When you do so, you have the right to replace the pawn with any piece you like. To do this, you have to reach all the way to the other side of the board – 8 th rank for the white pieces and 1 st rank for the black ones. If you thought pawns are worthless, think again! Pawns are the only pieces that can transform into any other piece, except the king and, of course, a pawn. The pawn on a6 can’t advance either, as the white bishop on a5 is blocking it. Neither the pawn on h4 nor the one on h5 can move right now, as they are placed in front of each other. The only pawn that can move in this position is the one on c2, who can capture the black queen on d3. If an enemy piece is placed in front of our pawn, then that pawn is blocked and won’t be able to advance until that square is vacated. In this case, too, they will only move one square at a time. However, the pawns on f4 and h6 can only advance one square, to f5 and h5 respectively.Īlthough they move in a straight line, the pawns can only capture in diagonal. For example:Īs you can see, here the pawns on g2 and g7 can choose between advancing one or two squares in front. Once you’ve moved them, they can never advance two squares at a time again. Then and only then, the pawns can move two squares forward. The pawns move slowly – only one square at a time, except when they stand on their initial square (2nd or 7th rank, respectively). Just as well, a marching pawn chain can be very dangerous in the attack. Even though they are only worth one point, they are very important during a game.įor example, a “wall” of pawns can protect the king very well. Once you’ve moved them, they can never go back and this is why masters give pawn moves special attention. Let’s now see how each piece moves and what you need to know in order to start playing your first game of chess! The board has 64 black and white squares and on it, you will need to set up 32 pieces.

DIAGRAM CHESS PIECES MOVES HOW TO
If you have decided that you want to start learning how to play chess, then you need to get yourself a chess set. Using pieces in tandem almost always yields a better result than using one piece alone.Chess pieces (chessmen) and a board is the essential part of each chess set. I find it helpful to have a support piece in mind when making an attack. When attacking, it's a bad idea to let any of your pieces become cut off from your main force. Try an keep power distributed fairly evenly, and bring pieces over to add strength if you see an attack coming. Board Control: When building defenses, remember to look at the board and gauge how strong you are in certain areas of the board. Pawn Promotion: Although a pawn can be promoted to a variety of pieces, the strongest choice is almost always to promote to queen. Pawns become more valuable as they near promotion.
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A good explanation of piece value is available on Wikipedia Queen: Strongest = Most Value Rook Bishop, Knight Pawn: Weakest = Least Value The bishop and the knight are commonly considered equal on the value scale, however many feel (myself included) that the bishop has a slight edge over the knight. Piece Value: Obviously you want to protect your pieces from capture, but it helps to know which pieces are the strongest so you can decide who to save if you must choose between two. However, I wanted to leave the new player with a few hints that will hopefully aid in victory. Chess is an incredibly complex strategic game, and it is impossible to go into all of the possible tactics one could use to win.
