Promotion

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Chess journey. Lesson 34 of 41.

The pawn is the smallest soldier on the board, and it carries the biggest dream. March it all the way to the far end and it promotes: the pawn leaves the board and a brand-new piece of your choice appears on that square.

White pawn on e7 one step away from promoting on e8

One step from the coronation. The pawn on e7 reaches e8 and must become a new piece, as part of that same move.

The choice is queen, rook, bishop or knight; never a king, and it cannot stay a pawn. Nothing needs to have been captured first: you can happily finish a game with two or even three queens. Since the queen is the strongest piece, promotion nearly always means a new queen; players simply say the pawn queens:

The pawn has promoted and a new white queen stands on e8

Promoted. The pawn is gone and a brand-new queen rules e8. In notation you write e8=Q.

Nearly always, but not always. Choosing a smaller piece is called underpromotion, and once in a while it is brilliant. Below, a new queen would give no check, but a new KNIGHT wins the enemy queen on the spot:

Underpromotion setup where promoting to a knight forks the black king and queen

e8=N. The new knight checks the king on g7 AND attacks the queen on d6. Black must answer the check, and then the knight eats the queen.

Promotion is why endings with only a few pieces still crackle with danger: every pawn is a queen in waiting. Shepherding one home, or stopping the enemy's, decides most long games.

Try it yourself

The pawn from the lesson makes its final step. Click the square where it promotes.