Chess Rules II - The Pawns

The pawn is the weakest piece in the Chess. 8 of the 16 pieces that each player has in the beginning of the play are pawns and they are put in the second and seventh rank, such as it is demonstrated in the image above.

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Movement - The Pawn can move 1 or 2 squares ahead when it is in his initial position. After it moves, the Pawn can only move 1 square in front, but only if that square is not occupied by any piece. The Pawn is the only piece that never moves backwards.

Capture - The Pawn captures in diagonal but only 1 square.

In the image above we have represented the Pawn's movement (black circle) and the capture possibilities (by X).

Exception - There is only one exception to this rules which is the capture en passant (in the passage).

Tha capture en passant is when we have an advanced pawn (5th rank for white and 4th rank for black) and the adversary plays the Pawn beside this one 2 squares, so that the Pawns are side by side, and in this particular case we can capture the adversarys pawn as he have only played 1 square.

The next images show this proceeding:

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Step 1 - The white has one Pawn in the 5th rank.

Step 2 - Black plays his side pawn 2 squares, and they are side by side.

Step 3 - White can capture black's pawn as it had played only one square.

Hint - Normally, the beginner has an exaggerated tendency in moving all or almost all the Pawns in the first moves of the game, this must be avoided because the Pawns are weak and once played cannot be moved backwards, so it is more prudent to advance only the central Pawns and develop the rest of the pieces, in order to control the centre of the board, and this way, control the play.