Pawn

Pawn Overview

• Primary function in the opening is to control the center and protect the king

• Move forward, capture diagonal (only piece to move and attack differently)

• On first move, can move either 1 or 2

• En-passant

• Promotion

  1. If a pawn reaches the 8th rank, it can promote to any piece (queen, rook, bishop, knight).

  2. Almost always promoted to a queen.

  3. This makes pawns very powerful in the long run.

• Zugzwang exercises

• Promotion exercise

Resources

• http://www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/basic/pawn/pawn.htm 

Videos

Chesskid Video

Josh Waitzkin's Academy (Pawn)

Teaching Ideas

Capturing

• Place a white pawn on e4.

• Place black pawns on d5 and f5.

• Show capture e4 → d5 and e4 → f5.

Strategy Notes

• They control important squares.

• Advancing too far can make them weak.

• Pawns cannot move backward → every push is permanent.