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Left to right: king, rook, queen, pawn, knight, bishop. The rules of chess (also known as the laws of chess) govern the play of the game of chess. Chess is a two-player abstract strategy board game. Each player controls sixteen pieces of six types on a chessboard. Each type of piece moves in a distinct way.
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.
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]
A rule of thumb (with exceptions) is: if the king on the side without the pawn can reach the queening square of the pawn, the game is a draw; otherwise it is a win for the opponent (except with a rook pawn, i.e. a- or h-file). [12] The side with the pawn can cut off the opposing king or strive for the Lucena position, which is a win.
The pawn is the least valuable chess piece, so pawns are often used to capture defended pieces. A single pawn typically forces a more powerful piece, such as a rook or a knight, to retreat. The ability to fork two enemy pieces by advancing a pawn is often a threat. Alternately, a pawn move can itself reveal a discovered attack.
One old set of chess rules says, "A promoted pawn became a ferz, with the move of the queen." [ citation needed ] In Italy, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a pawn could be promoted only to a captured piece; if none of the promoting player's non-pawn pieces were captured, the pawn remained inactive until a piece became available, whereupon ...
In chess, a minority attack is the advancement of one's pawns on the side of the board where one has fewer pawns than their opponent, intending to use their minority to strategically provoke a weakness (i.e, an isolated or backward pawn) in the opponent's pawn structure. The minority attack is a common middlegame plan that can be played in many ...
A pawn storm, sometimes called a pawn avalanche, [1] is a chess tactic in which several pawns are moved in rapid succession toward the opponent's defenses. [2] A pawn storm usually involves adjacent pawns on the flank of the board, such as the queenside (a-, b-, and c- files ) or the kingside (f-, g-, and h-files).