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A pawn may move by vertically advancing to a vacant square ahead. The first time a pawn moves, it has the additional option of vertically advancing two squares, provided that both squares are vacant. Unlike other pieces, the pawn can only move forwards. In the second diagram, the pawn on c4 can move to c5; the pawn on e2 can move to either e3 ...
Pawns cannot move backwards. A pawn, unlike other pieces, captures differently from how it moves. A pawn can capture an enemy piece on either of the two squares diagonally in front of the pawn. It cannot move to those squares when vacant except when capturing en passant. The pawn is also involved in the two special moves en passant and ...
In early versions of chess, the pawn could not advance two squares on its first move. The two-square advance was introduced later, between the 13th and 16th centuries, to speed up games. [ 14 ] The en passant capture may have been introduced at that time, or it may have come later; references to en passant captures appear in the books by the ...
In this position, the black king needs to get to one of the marked squares in order to draw. If it gets to one of the squares marked with "x", the king can move next to the pawn and the rook can capture the pawn for a draw. Otherwise, the king needs to stay on the squares marked with dots: g7 and h7.
A pawn can move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of it on the same file, or on its first move it can optionally advance two squares along the same file, provided both squares are unoccupied (diagram dots). A pawn can capture an opponent's piece on a square diagonally in front of it by moving to that square (diagram crosses).
Other things being equal, Black cannot do much to stop the pawn's advance. The rook can block it, but as soon as the rook moves elsewhere, the pawn can advance. In addition, as the pawn advances, the space the rook can move to attack it continues to shrink, while the range of the white rook increases.
Black can always draw if he can reach the c8-square for an a-pawn (pawn on the a-file), or the equivalent f8 for an h-pawn, except for the position in the next diagram, with White to move. Therefore, an advanced rook pawn generally has two key squares: b7 and b8 for an a-pawn, and g7 and g8 for an h-pawn.
An example is the position in the first diagram, with Black to move. White has the direct opposition in this position, but it does him no good because his king cannot attack the black pawn after the black king moves away. White needs to achieve direct opposition closer to the pawn. 1... Kf8 2. Kd6. and White has the diagonal opposition (second ...