The humble pawn

Each player starts with eight pawns, lined up in front of their other pieces. At first glance, pawns might seem a little uninteresting. They usually move just one square at a time, and they can never go backwards.

But don't underestimate them! Pawns can protect other pieces, make life difficult for your opponent and even become a different piece if they travel far enough.

The first thing to understand is that a pawn moves in one direction but captures in another.

Moving forwards

A pawn normally moves one square forwards, towards the opposite side of the board. White's pawns travel towards rank 8; Black's travel towards rank 1.

A pawn also has a special option on its first move: it may advance two squares instead of one. Both the square it passes through and the square it lands on must be empty. Once it has moved, it cannot use that two-square advance again.

Look at the white pawn on e2. It can go to e3 or e4. On the website you can switch between movement and attack views. In the book, the forward squares are highlighted.

And remember, there's no reverse gear for a pawn. Once it advances, it cannot move backwards.

Try a pawn move

Here is the full starting position. On the website you can try moving the white pawn from e2 to e4. If you have a chess set nearby, you can practise it on a physical board too. This is a common first move in chess.

A pawn's V shape: the squares it attacks

This is the part that makes pawns unusual. Pawns move straight forwards, but they attack one square diagonally forwards.

Imagine a white pawn standing on e4:

• It can move forwards to e5, if e5 is empty.
• It attacks d5 and f5, making a little V shape.
• It can capture an opposing piece on d5 or f5, but cannot move diagonally onto an empty square.

The arrows on the board point towards the squares the pawn attacks. On the website, you can switch between Forward moves, Attacked squares and Show both to see the difference. The book diagram shows both.

An important detail: a pawn attacks those diagonal squares even when they're empty. It simply cannot capture anything there until an opposing piece occupies one of them.

Attacking, capturing and defending

You'll sometimes hear chess players say a pawn is defending another piece. All that means is that the pawn attacks the square occupied by a friendly piece. If an opponent captures that piece, your pawn might be able to capture back.

Look at the white pawn on e4 in the next diagram:

• The white pawn on d5 is defended by the pawn on e4. You cannot capture your own piece.
• The black pawn on f5 is an opposing piece, so the pawn on e4 could capture it.

Both d5 and f5 are attacked by the same pawn. What's on those squares determines whether the pawn is defending a friend or threatening an opponent.

What if the pawn is blocked?

A pawn cannot move forwards onto an occupied square, regardless of which colour piece is there. For example, if a white pawn is on e4 and a black pawn is on e5, the white pawn cannot push forwards to e5. It cannot capture the pawn on e5 either, because pawns only capture diagonally.

But the white pawn still attacks d5 and f5. A pawn being blocked does not stop it from attacking or defending diagonally.

And what about Black?

Black follows exactly the same rules, but travels in the opposite direction. A black pawn on e5 can normally move to e4 if it is empty, and attacks d4 and f4.

The diagram below is shown from White's side so you can see the V pointing downwards. On the website, you can also use Flip board to look from Black's perspective. The square names stay the same.

The reward for reaching the other side

There's one more rule worth meeting now. If a pawn reaches the last rank — rank 8 for White or rank 1 for Black — it must be promoted. You replace it with a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour. Most of the time, a player chooses a queen.

That's quite a journey for the smallest piece on the board! We'll spend more time on promotion, and a special pawn capture called en passant, when we explore the other rules of chess.

Capture Challenge: thinking ahead

Now let's put those diagonal captures into practice.

In this solo chess exercise, you control one white pawn, and every move must capture an opposing piece. Your task is to remove all the targets. Unlike a normal game of chess, there are no kings, checks or alternating turns here — we're concentrating on the pawn's path.

Before making your first capture, try to work out where the pawn must land after each move. Can you see the entire sequence?

What to remember

• Pawns move forwards, but attack and capture one square diagonally forwards.
• A pawn may move one or two squares from its starting position, provided the path is clear.
• Pawns never move backwards and cannot advance into an occupied square.
• A pawn attacks diagonal squares even when they're empty. It can only capture there if an opposing piece is present.
• A pawn can defend one of your pieces by attacking the square that piece occupies.
• White's pawns travel towards rank 8; Black's travel towards rank 1.
• A pawn reaching the far side must promote to a queen, rook, bishop or knight.

Knowledge check

Before moving on, see how much you remember about how pawns move, attack and defend. Take your time, and feel free to look back at the diagrams if you need to.