Everything you always wanted to know about chess pawns.

An interesting fact: https://lichess.org/ is the best place in the universe to play chess or watch chess games. It's totally free including free computer analysis of games, zero ads. The website can also be used to learn how to play chess. Every day there has been up to 30,000 or more people playing chess at the same time. The website is beautiful and everything is easy to use. Millionaires pay the bills.

The website was founded by Thibault Duplessis, a French programmer. The software running Lichess and the design are open source under the AGPL license.

When I want to play chess it takes about 5 seconds to get an opponent.

Many years ago I never imagined my living room could be an international chess club. My opponents live in every country in the world. We are all friends because we share a love for chess.

If you don't play chess then there is something wrong with you.

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In chess each player has one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and 8 pawns.

Wikipedia - Rules of chess

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.

Pawns are the only pieces that capture differently from how they move. A pawn can capture an enemy piece on either of the two squares diagonally in front of the pawn (but cannot move to those squares if they are vacant). The pawn is also involved in the two special moves en passant and promotion.

En passant

When a pawn advances two squares from its original square and ends the turn adjacent to a pawn of the opponent's on the same rank, it may be captured by that pawn of the opponent's, as if it had moved only one square forward. This capture is only legal on the opponent's next move immediately following the first pawn's advance. The diagrams on the right demonstrate an instance of this: if the white pawn moves from a2 to a4, the black pawn on b4 can capture it en passant, moving from b4 to a3 while the white pawn on a4 is removed from the board.

Pawn promotion

If a player advances a pawn to its eighth rank, the pawn is then promoted (converted) to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color at the choice of the player (a queen is usually chosen). The choice is not limited to previously captured pieces. Hence it is theoretically possible for a player to have up to nine queens or up to ten rooks, bishops, or knights if all of their pawns are promoted. If the desired piece is not available, the player should call the arbiter to provide the piece.

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My favorite quote about chess:

"Winning or losing is not the main idea of chess at all. A chess game is in fact a friendly exchange of intentions, hidden in individual moves. You always have the choice either of putting into action your planned move, or of first calmly preventing the intended move of the friend with whom you are playing chess in this brief, finite moment of your life."