The Promotion chess move

Promotion in chess is a term that describes the transformation that a pawn undergoes in its 8th rank into the chess player's choice of a queen, rook, knight, or bishop of the same color.

The new chess piece then replaces the pawn on the last square it reached. Chess Promotion makes it possible for a player to have more than 1 queen or more than 2 bishops, rooks, or knights. Since the newly promoted piece starts on the previous pawn’s square, it enables a player to have more than 1 bishop on the same square color. Promotion is a great way to enhance your defense and attack and is not just limited to chess pieces that have already been captured in the game.

Some chess variants, like suicide chess, allow players to claim kings during a Promotion move. Promotion was not always mandatory during the course of history, and players could choose to have their pawn remain a pawn after it reached the eighth rank. In certain fairy chess variants, promotions to pieces of the opposite side or color are also possible.

Promotion to a queen is very popular and sometimes referred to as ‘queening’. Since the queen is considered to be the most powerful chess piece, most promotions in practical play are to a queen. A promotion to a chess piece other than the queen is called an under-promotion, and this is rare in practical play, unless the player has a certain strategy in mind.

Promotion to a chess piece other than a queen can be advantageous in certain tricky situations. A promotion to knight can be useful, especially if it occurs with check. A promotion to a rook can be necessary in order to avoid stalemate. Players rarely use promotion to a bishop in practical play, as the other pieces are simply more powerful at this stage of the game.

Promotion can be of great advantage to your chess strategy, and it can often be the critical factor in chess endgames. You should therefore consider the possibility of promotion during your opening and middle game strategy. Almost all promotions occur in the endgame, but it is possible to happen in some middle games as well.

The historical idea behind promotion was that a foot soldier (pawn) that managed to advance all the way through the enemy lines was promoted to the lowest officer. At the time, the queen was the weakest because it had a very limited range of movement at the time. The game of chess was obviously radically altered when the queen acquired its new range of movement.

During various times in history, the pawn could only promote to the chess piece of the file on which it promoted, or on which it started. In Italy during eighteenth and nineteenth century, the pawn could only be promoted to a chess piece that had already been captured. This rule was not used evenly, and it was abandoned in the early nineteenth century.