Pawn Promotion
A pawn that reaches the far side of the board stops being a pawn. You choose what it becomes, you may choose the same thing every time, and roughly once a year you should not.
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A pawn that reaches the far end of the board cannot stay a pawn - there is nowhere left for it to go. So it stops being one: you take it off and put down a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight instead, on that square, as part of the same move.
That is why a pawn is worth more than the one point it starts with. Every pawn is a queen that has not arrived yet.
One pawn, one square from the end. Push it and see what it turns into.
Nothing was exchanged for the new queen. She is not a captured piece coming back: she is simply a new piece, and if your original queen is still on the board you now have two.
The choice, and what it is not
| you may promote to | you may not |
|---|---|
| queen, rook, bishop, knight - of your own colour | a king |
| a piece you already have (a second, third… queen) | a pawn - it cannot stay one |
| anything, whether or not it has been captured | a piece of the opponent's colour |
Almost always the answer is a queen, and there is nothing clever about taking her: she is worth more than any of the alternatives and does everything a rook and a bishop do. Choosing anything else is called underpromotion, and it needs a reason.
When a queen is the wrong piece
Here is the reason, and it is nearly always this one. Black's queen is on d7 and the black king is on h7.
Push the pawn to f8. This board promotes it to a knight - play it, and see what a queen could not have done.
That is the shape to remember: underpromote when the smaller piece does something immediately that the queen cannot - almost always a knight arriving with check, or a rook chosen instead of a queen because the queen would leave the enemy king with no legal move at all, which is stalemate and only a draw.
If you cannot name the thing the queen fails to do, take the queen.
How it is written
a8=Q- the pawn steps to a8 and becomes a queen.bxa8=Q- it captures on a8 and becomes a queen in the same move.f8=N+- it becomes a knight, and that gives check.
The = is the promotion, and the piece after it is what you chose.
Try it
The pawn on b7 can go straight ahead - or take. Promote by capturing the rook.
Common questions
- What happens when a pawn reaches the other side?
- It is promoted: the pawn is taken off the board and replaced, on the same square and as part of the same move, by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of its own colour. You choose which, and the choice has nothing to do with which pieces have been captured. A pawn can never stay a pawn on the last rank and can never become a king.
- Can you have two queens in chess?
- Yes, and nine in theory - one for each pawn. Promotion is not an exchange for a captured piece, so a player who never lost their queen and promotes a pawn simply has two. In tournaments an upturned rook is not a second queen; you are supposed to ask the arbiter for a real one, and the position counts as having a queen either way.
- Do you have to promote to a queen?
- You have to promote to something, but not to a queen. Choosing a rook, bishop or knight instead is called underpromotion. It is rare because a queen is better than all three in almost every position - but only almost, and the exceptions are usually a knight that arrives with check or a rook that avoids a stalemate.
- Why would anyone promote to a knight?
- Because a knight moves in a way a queen cannot imitate, so occasionally the knight square gives check, or forks the king and the queen, when the queen square does nothing. That is the only common reason. If the knight does not do something immediately that a queen could not, take the queen.
- Can a pawn promote by capturing?
- Yes. A pawn on the seventh rank can capture diagonally onto the eighth and promote in the same move, and that is often how promotion actually happens - the square straight ahead is usually the one the defender is blocking. It is written like bxa8=Q.
- Is the promoted piece allowed to move immediately?
- Not on the same turn - promotion is the end of the move. But it is a full piece from that instant, so it gives check straight away if it happens to attack the enemy king, and it can be captured on the very next move like anything else.
