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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 ...
The knight is not blocked by other pieces; it jumps to the new location. Pawns have the most complex rules of movement: A pawn moves straight forward one square, if that square is vacant. If it has not yet moved, a pawn also has the option of moving two squares straight forward, provided both squares are vacant. Pawns cannot move backwards.
A passed pawn is a pawn that no enemy pawns can stop from reaching promotion. [28] A passed pawn is highly valuable in the endgame, where few enemy pieces remain to prevent it from being promoted. A pawn race is a situation in which each side tries to promote a passed pawn before their opponent. [29]
If the defending king cannot get in front of the pawn but is not cut off, the short-side defense can be used. If the pawn is a rook pawn or knight pawn, the back-rank defense can be used. The back-rank defense can also be used when the pawn is on other files if the attacking king has not reached the sixth rank.
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. [22] [23]
Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if the weaker side has a single extra pawn, but this is a curiosity of little practical value (see two knights endgame). Pawnless endgames are a rarity, and if the stronger side has even a single pawn, an extra knight should give them an easy win. A bishop can trap (although it ...
A central or bishop's pawn would lose on the third through fifth ranks, because now the enemy king can get behind the pawn. But the knight's pawn still draws even as far as the fifth rank, [21] because there is no room for the queen on the short side of the pawn. [3] If the pawn reaches the sixth or seventh rank, the drawing chances increase.
Pawn promotion – moving a pawn to the back row to be promoted to a knight, a bishop, a rook, or a queen. While this is a rule, it is also a type of move, with tactical significance. Pawn promotion, or the threat of it, often decides the result of a chess endgame.