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The pawn (♙, ♟) is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess. It may move one square directly forward, it may move two squares directly forward on its first move, and it may capture one square diagonally forward. Each player begins a game with eight pawns, one on each square of their second rank. The white pawns start on a2 ...
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 ...
introduces the threat 2.d5+ cxd5 3.Bxd5#. Black can capture the d4-pawn en passant in either of two ways: 1... exd3 e.p. shifting the e4-pawn from the e- to the d-file, preventing an en passant capture after White plays 2.f4. To stop the threat of 3.f5#, Black can advance 2...f5, but this allows White to play 3.exf6 e.p.# due to the decisive ...
Due to the first guideline, a pawn on a longer board has to move further to be promoted. Some variants partially compensate for this by allowing the pawn to advance further than two squares on its initial move; for example, in the 16×16 chess on a really big board, a pawn can advance up to six squares on its first move. [61]
A player can either move one piece twice (this is the source of the famous trap in the "balanced" version of the game where White opening with pawn-two appears to be trivially busted by an unprincipled defense with the pawn on an adjacent file) or move two different pieces on their turn. Castling is considered a single move.
The reason is that if the opposing king can get to any square in front of the pawn, it cannot be driven away from the file, and the pawn cannot queen. 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.
In the ending of a rook and pawn versus a rook, where the pawn is a knight pawn (b- or g-file), the defending king is in front of the pawn, but the defender cannot get his rook to the third rank for the drawing Philidor position, the defending rook draws on its first rank but loses if it is attacking the pawn from behind.
The pawn is vulnerable to capture after it makes its first backwards leap. The backwards leaps do not need to be performed on consecutive turns. [3] The old rule for first moves is that at the start of the game each player must move their rook pawns, their queen pawn, and their queen two squares forward (see top diagram).