Value of Chess Pieces – Pawn Chess Piece

The pawn has often been described as the weakest chess piece on the chess board. Many people fail to even name this piece and just class it as a “chess piece.” Even the official chess rules fail to name this little chess piece. However, its strength lies in numbers and often a little pawn chess piece can end up winning the game simply by outlasting the other major pieces.

The pawn chess piece stands for the infantry or foot soldier division in the royal army. When the game begins, each player starts with eight pawns chess pieces, placed one on each square of the second rank according to chess rules.

The white pawns begins on a2 and ends on h2, while the black pawn pieces begin on a7, finishing on h7 according to algebraic notation.

The pawn chess pieces are often categorized depending on their position on the chess board. The file they stand in helps differentiate them. A rook pawn is one on the a-file while a queen pawn would be one on the d-file and so on.

Pawns have unique characteristics and have special movement qualities. Unlike the major pieces, pawn chess pieces may not move backwards. However, they can move forwards and usually move forward in single squares. However, every pawn is allowed two square movements when it first commences movement on the chess board.

This allowance does not permit a pawn piece to jump over another chess piece or capture a square. The movement of any pawn chess piece is limited by any other chess piece that is directly in front of it, even if it is a chess piece of the same color.

The biggest difference between a pawn chess piece and other chess pieces is that it cannot capture in the same manner that it moves across the chess board. The pawn chess piece is only allowed to capture diagonally, this means that it can take another piece by one square forward either to the left or right of the pawn piece.

A pawn can also use its initial two square allotments to its advantage and capture based on that count. To do so requires the expertise of the player, since another pawn is capable of catching the moving pawn even before the movement is completed. Another common move is when players go ahead and sacrifice a pawn to get where they want to go. The pawns also form a protective line in front of major pieces just as the infantry protected the royals and knights.

Another ability of the pawn is promotion. This is where a pawn that has managed to make it fully across the chess board acquires a promotion of rank, based on the preference of the owning player. The pawn piece is then immediately replaced by the relevant piece. For example if a pawn piece moves all the way into the enemy’s board, a player can replace it with a king piece if the board favors such an arrangement and win the game!

It is said that the skill of a true grandmaster of chess is tested not by the way he or she moves his king but by the way a pawn chess piece is moved!