Pawn (chess) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The pawn is the most numerous and (in most circumstances) weakest piece

Chess piece

Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...

in the game of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, historically representing infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

, or more particularly armed peasant

Peasant

A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

s or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces. (In algebraic notation

Algebraic chess notation

Algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers...

, the white pawns start on a2, b2, c2, ..., h2, while black pawns start on a7, b7, c7, ..., h7.)

Individual pawns are referred to by the file on which they currently stand. For example, one speaks of "White's f-pawn" or "Black's b-pawn", or less commonly (using descriptive notation

Descriptive chess notation

Descriptive notation is a notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries , . It was used in Europe until it was superseded by abbreviated algebraic notation, which was introduced by Philipp Stamma in 1737...

), "White's king's bishop pawn" or "Black's queen's knight pawn". It is also common to refer to a rook pawn, meaning any pawn on the a- or h-file, a knight pawn (on the b- or g-file), a bishop pawn (on the c- or f-file), a queen pawn (on the d-file), a king pawn (on the e-file), and a central pawn (on either the d- or e-file).

The word piece in chess literature usually excludes pawns, though this distinction between "pieces" and "pawns" is not found in the official rules

Rules of chess

The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...

Movement

Pawns are unusual in how they move. Unlike the other pieces, pawns may not move backwards. Normally a pawn moves by advancing a single square, but the first time a pawn is moved, 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 directly in front of a pawn, friend or foe, blocks its advance. In the diagram at right, the pawn on c4 may move to c5, while the pawn on e2 may move to either e3 or e4.

Capturing

Unlike other pieces, the pawn does not capture in the same way as it moves. A pawn captures diagonally, one square forward and to the left or right.
In the diagram to the left, the white pawn may capture either the black rook or the black knight.

Another unusual move is the en passant
En passant
En passant is a move in the board game of chess . It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward...

capture.
This arises when a pawn uses its initial-move option to advance two squares instead of one, and in so doing passes over a square that is attacked by an enemy pawn.
That enemy pawn, which would have been able to capture the moving pawn had it advanced only one square, is entitled to capture the moving pawn "in passing" as if it had advanced only one square. The capturing pawn moves into the empty square over which the moving pawn moved, and the moving pawn is removed from the board.
In the diagram at right, the black pawn has just moved c7 to c5, so the white pawn may capture it by moving from d5 to c6. The option to capture en passant must be exercised on the move immediately following the double-square pawn advance, or it is lost for the rest of the game. The en passant move was added to the pawn's repertoire in the 15th century to compensate for the then newly added two-square initial move rule . Without en passant, a pawn could simply march past squares guarded by opposing pawns; en passant preserves the restrictive ability of pawns that have reached the fifth rank.

Promotion

A pawn that advances all the way to the opposite side of the board (the opposing player's first rank) is promoted
Promotion (chess)
Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...

to another piece of that player's choice: a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. The pawn is immediately (before the opposing player's next move) replaced by the new piece. Since it is uncommon for a piece other than a queen to be chosen, promotion is often called "queening". When some other piece is chosen it is known as "underpromotion", and the piece selected is most often a knight

Knight (chess)

The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...

, used to execute a checkmate

Checkmate

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...

or a fork

Fork (chess)

In chess, a fork is a tactic that uses a single piece to attack multiple pieces at the same time. The attacker usually hopes to gain material by capturing one of the opponent's pieces. The defender often finds himself in a difficult position in which he cannot counter all threats. The attacking...

giving the player a net increase in material compared to promoting to a queen. Underpromotion is also used in situations where promoting to a queen would give instant stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

and the player chooses not to defer the promotion.

The choice of promotion is not limited to pieces that have previously been captured. Thus a player could in theory simultaneously have as many as ten knights, ten bishops, ten rooks or nine queens on the board. While this extreme would almost never occur in practice, in game 11 of their 1927 world championship match, José Raúl Capablanca

José Raúl Capablanca

José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play...

and Alexander Alekhine

Alexander Alekhine

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...

each had two queens in play at once (from move 65 through the end on move 66). While some finer sets do include an extra queen of each color, most standard chess sets do not come with additional pieces, so the physical piece used to replace a promoted pawn on the board is usually one that was previously captured. When the correct piece is not available, some substitute is used: a second queen is often indicated by inverting a previously captured rook or a piece is borrowed from another set. This issue does not arise in computer chess

Computer chess

Computer chess is computer architecture encompassing hardware and software capable of playing chess autonomously without human guidance. Computer chess acts as solo entertainment , as aids to chess analysis, for computer chess competitions, and as research to provide insights into human...

Strategy

The pawn structure
Pawn structure
In chess, the pawn structure is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus largely determines the strategic nature of the position.-General observations:Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such...

mostly determines the strategic flavor of a game. While other pieces can usually be regrouped more favorably if they are temporarily badly placed, a poorly placed pawn is very limited in its movement and often cannot be moved to a more favorable position.

Because pawns capture diagonally and can be blocked from moving straight forward, opposing pawns often become locked in diagonal pawn chains of two or more pawns of each color, where each player controls squares of one color. In the diagram at left, black and white have locked their d- and e-pawns.

Here, White has a long-term space advantage. White will have an easier time than Black in finding good squares for his own pieces, particularly with an eye to the kingside. Black, in contrast, suffers from a bad bishop on c8, which is prevented by the black pawns from finding a good square or helping out on the kingside. On the other hand, White's central pawns are somewhat over-extended and vulnerable to attack. Black can undermine the white pawn chain with an immediate c7-c5 and perhaps a later f7-f6.

Isolated pawn

Pawns on adjacent files can support each other in attack and defense. A pawn which has no friendly pawns in adjacent files is an isolated pawn
Isolated pawn
In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn which has no friendly pawn on an adjacent file. An isolated queen's pawn is often called an isolani. Isolated pawns are usually a weakness because they cannot be protected by other pawns...

. The square in front of an isolated pawn may become an enduring weakness. Any piece placed directly in front not only blocks the advance of that pawn, but cannot be driven away by other pawns.

In the diagram at right, Black has an isolated pawn on d5. If all the pieces except the kings and pawns were removed, the weakness of that pawn might prove fatal to Black in the endgame. In the middlegame, however, Black has slightly more freedom of movement than White, and may be able to trade off the isolated pawn before an endgame ensues.

Passed pawn

A pawn which cannot be blocked or captured by enemy pawns in its advance to promotion is a passed pawn
Passed pawn
In chess, a passed pawn is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth rank, i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on the same file nor on an adjacent file. A passed pawn is sometimes colloquially called a passer...

. In the diagram at right, White has a protected passed pawn on c5 and Black has an outside passed pawn on h5. Because endgames are often won by the player who can promote a pawn first, having a passed pawn in an endgame can be decisive - especially a protected passed pawn (a passed pawn that is protected by a pawn). In this vein, a pawn majority, a greater number of pawns belonging to one player on one side of the chessboard, is strategically important because it can often be converted into a passed pawn.

The diagrammed position might appear roughly equal, because each side has a king and three pawns, and the positions of the kings are about equal. In truth, White wins this endgame on the strength of the protected passed pawn, no matter who makes the first move. The black king cannot be on both sides of the board at once - to defend his isolated h-pawn and to stop White's c-pawn from advancing to promotion. Thus White can capture the h-pawn and then win the game .

Doubled pawn

After a capture with a pawn, a player may end up with two pawns on the same file, called doubled pawns
Doubled pawns
In chess, doubled pawns are two pawns of the same color residing on the same file. Pawns can become doubled only when one pawn captures onto a file on which another friendly pawn resides. In the diagram, the pawns on the b-file and e-file are doubled...

. Doubled pawns are substantially weaker than pawns which are side by side, because they cannot defend each other, they usually cannot both be defended by adjacent pawns, and the front pawn blocks the advance of the back one. In the diagram at right, Black is playing at a strategic disadvantage due to the doubled c-pawns.

There are situations where doubled pawns confer some advantage, typically when the guarding of consecutive squares in a file by the pawns prevents an invasion by the opponent's pieces.

Pawns which are both doubled and isolated are typically a tangible weakness. A single piece or pawn in front of doubled isolated pawns blocks both of them, and cannot be easily dislodged. It is rare for a player to have three pawns in a file, i.e. tripled pawns. Depending on the position, tripled pawns may be more or less valuable than two pawns which are side by side.

Wrong rook pawn

In chess endgames with a bishop, a rook pawn may be the wrong rook pawn

Wrong rook pawn

In chess endgames with a bishop, a pawn that is a rook pawn may be the wrong rook pawn. With a single bishop, the result of a position may depend on whether or not the bishop controls the square on the chessboard on which the pawn would promote. Since a side's rook pawns promote on...

, depending on which color of square the bishop resides. This causes some positions to be draws

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

which would otherwise be wins.

History

The most basic piece in the game, the pawn has its origins in the oldest version of chess, Chaturanga

Chaturanga

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game that is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi.Chaturanga developed in Gupta India around the 6th century...

. It is present in all other significant versions of the game, around the world. This piece only moved directly forward, capturing to the sides. These pieces were used as a metaphor for common men directly in the game, rather than the piece being applied to life's perspective the other way around.

In medieval chess, an attempt was made to make the pieces more interesting, each file's pawn being given the name of a commoner's occupation, from left to right:

Gambler and other "lowlifes", also messengers (in the left-most file, that direction being literally sinister)
City guard or policeman (in front of a knight, as they trained city guards in real life)
Innkeeper (bishop)
Merchant/Moneychanger (always before the king, whether or not he is to the left or right of the Queen, which depends on the colour of the pieces)
Doctor (always the queen's pawn)
Weaver/Clerk (in front of the bishop, for whom they wove or clericked)
Blacksmith (in front of a knight, as they care for the horses)
Worker/Farmer (in front of a castle, for which they worked)

The most famous example of this is the second book ever printed in English, The Game and Playe of the Chesse

The Game and Playe of the Chesse

The Game and Playe of Chesse is a book by William Caxton, the first English printer. Published in the 1470s, it was for a time thought to be the first book published in England but that title now goes to Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, also by Caxton. It was based on a book by Jacobus de...

, which indeed was seen as much as a political commentary on society as a chess book, and was printed second by William Caxton

William Caxton

William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...

because it was, like the Bible

Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press, and marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status...

, among the most popular books of its day.

The ability to move two spaces, and the resulting ability to have an en passant capture, were only introduced in 15th century Europe (see En passant#Historical context). The rule for promotion has changed through history, see promotion (chess)#History of the rule.

Etymology

Though the name origin of most chess pieces is obvious, the pawn's etymology is fairly obscure. Since chess became prevalent in mainstream society, many new uses have derived from the word. "Pawn" is often taken to mean "one who is easily manipulated" or "one who is sacrificed for a larger purpose". The word pawn actually is derived from the Old French word "paon" which comes from the Medieval Latin term for foot soldier, and is etymologically cognate to peon

Peon

The words peon and peonage are derived from the Spanish peón . It has a range of meanings but its primary usage is to describe laborers with little control over their employment conditions.-English usage:...

.

Because the pawn is the weakest piece, it is often used metaphorically to indicate unimportance or outright disposability, for example, "He's only a pawn in their game."

In most other languages, the word for pawn is similarly derived from paon or some other word for foot soldier

Foot Soldier

The term foot soldier may refer to:* A generic term for members of the infantry* Characters in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series belonging to the Foot Clan* The Foot Soldiers, a comic book originally published by Dark Horse Comics...

. Exceptions are, for example, the Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

fichillín, which means "little chess". The German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

"Bauer", which means farmer, comes from same Indo-European root word as "peon".

Quotation

"The pawn is the soul of chess." - François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor , often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique...

(... the Pawns. They are the very Life of the Game. They alone form the Attack and the Defense; on their good or bad Situation depends the Gain or Loss of the Party." Philidor, 1749 ).

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...

defines two codepoints for pawn:

♙ U+2659 White Chess Pawn (HTML ♙)

♟ U+265F Black Chess Pawn (HTML ♟)

Movement

Capturing

Promotion

Strategy

Isolated pawn

Passed pawn

Doubled pawn

Wrong rook pawn

History

Etymology

Quotation

Unicode

See also