How Do Pawns Move in Chess?

Learn how pawns move forward, capture diagonally and promote on the final rank, including the one-step pawn rules used in Pocket Shuffle Chess.

Pawns are the only piece that captures differently from how it moves. A pawn advances straight forward one square, but it captures diagonally forward, one square to either side. It can never move backwards.

Blocked pawns

Because a pawn captures diagonally and moves straight, a piece directly in front of a pawn blocks it completely - the pawn cannot capture it and cannot go around it. Two pawns facing each other on the same file are both frozen.

Promotion

A pawn that reaches the far rank is promoted, and you choose what it becomes. Almost always that is a queen. Occasionally underpromoting to a knight is stronger, because a knight can deliver a check or a fork that a queen cannot reach. A passed pawn - one with no enemy pawn able to stop it - is often worth more than a piece in the endgame.

On the Pocket Shuffle board

There is no two-square first move and no en passant here, so pawn races are shorter and easier to count. The board is only six ranks deep, which means a pawn is never far from promoting and pawn endings get sharp quickly.

Open the interactive lesson to see every legal pawn move highlighted on the board, then practise against the computer.