Tags: pawn chess, pawn piece, pawns, pawn moves, pawn

The Pawn Chess Piece

“All White Pawns start from rank 2.“

“All Black Pawns start from rank 7.“

“Pawns always move toward the opposite side of the board.“

“From its starting square, a Pawn may travel one or two squares forward.“

“The first time a Pawn is moved, it’s the player’s choice.“

“Unlike other pieces, the Pawn cannot capture an opposing piece that lies in its path.“

“A Pawn can only capture a piece on one of the two squares diagonally in front of it.“

“Pawns are the least valuable piece. But don’t throw them away thoughtlessly. A single Pawn can sometimes mean the difference between winning and losing!”

The pawn is the weakest and most numerous piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the second rank from the view of the player. In algebraic notation the white pawns start on a2, b2, c2, …, h2, while the black pawns start on a7, b7, c7, …, h7.

Pawns are differentiated by the files on which they currently stand. For example, one speaks of “White’s f-pawn” or “Black’s b-pawn”or, less commonly, “White’s king’s bishop’s pawn” or “Black’s queen’s knight’s pawn” (using descriptive notation). It is also common to refer to a rook pawn, meaning any pawn on the a-file or h-file, a knight pawn (on the b- or g-file), a bishop pawn (on the c- or f-file), a queens pawn (on the d-file), a kings pawn (on the e-file), and a central pawn (on either the d- or e-file).

As pawns differ so much from other pieces, the usage of the word pieces in chess literature usually excludes the pawns, although this distinction between “pieces” and “pawns” is not found in the official rules.