Chess pawns: how they move, capture and promote
Chess pawns move one square straight forward, capture one square diagonally, and never move backwards. They are the only piece whose capture is a different move from its step, which is exactly why they catch people out. Tap the pawn on the board below and its legal squares light up. The other five pieces are one level up, on chess pieces names and moves.
How do pawns move?
Forward, one square at a time, along the file it is standing on. White pawns move up the board, black pawns move down, and neither ever turns around. Sideways is not a pawn move either.
The first move is the exception. A pawn that has not moved yet may go two squares instead of one. That is once per pawn, not once per game: all eight of your pawns get the choice on their own first move and lose it the moment they step forward. Both squares in front have to be empty for the two-square move to be legal.
Anything standing directly in front of a pawn stops it dead, your own piece as readily as the other player's. A pawn cannot capture forward and cannot jump, so two pawns facing each other on the same file are both stuck until something else changes around them.
How do pawns capture?
Pawns capture one square diagonally forward, left or right. The capturing pawn lands on the captured piece's square the way every other capture works. What is different is that it only gets there diagonally, and only when there is something to take: an empty diagonal square is not a legal pawn move.
So a piece parked directly in front of a pawn is in the one place that pawn can do nothing about. Read the board the other way round and the same point saves you material: a pawn is attacking two squares it is not standing on, and is not attacking the square it is walking towards.
Can a pawn move backwards?
No. A pawn never moves backwards and never captures backwards. Every other piece can retreat when it gets into trouble; the pawn is the only one that commits. Push it and the squares behind it are gone for good, which is worth a second's thought before you move one rather than after.
What happens when a pawn reaches the other side?
It promotes. A pawn that reaches the far row, the eighth rank for white and the first for black, comes off the board and is replaced on the spot by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your own colour. Pawn promotion happens as part of the same move, so it does not cost you a turn, and it is not optional: the pawn cannot stay a pawn.
Nearly everyone takes a queen. Choosing anything smaller is called underpromotion, and it is worth knowing about for the one case where it pays: a knight moves in a way a queen cannot, so now and then taking a knight forks the enemy king and queen, or delivers checkmate immediately.
You are not limited to one queen either. Promote while your original queen is still on the board and you simply have two.
The pawn capture that looks illegal
There is one more way a pawn takes something. If an enemy pawn uses its two-square move to slip past a square your pawn attacks, you may capture it as though it had only moved one square, and the pawn you take is not on the square you land on. The rule is called en passant, it is available on your very next move and never again, and it has a page of its own with boards to try it on.
Doubled, isolated and passed pawns
Three words that come up whenever anyone talks about pawn structure. Doubled pawns are two of your own pawns stacked on the same file, which happens after a capture and leaves them unable to defend each other. An isolated pawn has no pawn of its own colour on either neighbouring file, so no pawn can ever defend it and a piece has to babysit it instead. A passed pawn has no enemy pawn in front of it on its own file or on either side, so nothing but pieces can stop it walking to the far end. Passed pawns are good news; the other two are small weaknesses rather than disasters.
What is a pawn worth?
One point. It is the unit everything else is measured in: a knight or a bishop is three pawns, a rook five, a queen nine. That number is the least a pawn can be worth, not the truth about it. A pawn on the seventh rank, one square from promoting, is worth far more, because the other player has to spend real material to stop it. Which is why an extra pawn decides so many endings, and why trading pieces when you are a pawn up is usually right. The rest of the rules of chess sits behind that arithmetic.
As for which pawn to move first, the two in the middle are the ones to know about, and they are covered in the best opening moves.
Frequently asked questions
Can a pawn move backwards?
No. Pawns only ever move forward, and they only ever capture forward. No pawn goes back down the board for any reason, which makes every pawn move permanent.
Can a pawn take a piece directly in front of it?
No. Pawns capture one square diagonally forward, so a piece standing right in front of a pawn is safe from it, and blocks the pawn from moving at all.
Can a pawn move two squares after its first move?
No. The two-square move is only available on that pawn's first move. Once it has stepped forward, even by one square, it goes one square at a time for the rest of the game.
What happens when a pawn reaches the other side?
It promotes. The pawn comes off the board and a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your own colour goes on that square instead, as part of the same move. You cannot leave it as a pawn and you cannot choose a king.
Can you have more than one queen in chess?
Yes. Every pawn that promotes can become a queen, so nine at once is legal in theory. Two on the board at the same time is common enough in practice.
Can a pawn capture a king?
No, because no piece ever captures a king. A pawn can attack a king, which is check, and a pawn can be the piece that delivers checkmate, but the king is never taken off the board.
Which pawn should you move first?
One of the two in the middle, the e-pawn or the d-pawn, usually two squares. Both open a line for a bishop and take a share of the centre, which is what the first few moves of a game are for.
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