How to Move a Pawn in a Chess Game

Video Transcript

"We need now to start looking at the actual moves of the pieces. One thing I did want to stress though before we get into that is that whereas of course you only have the one Queen and King, these other pieces, the Bishops, Knights and Rooks you do get actually two of them at the start of the game. These items here would be known as the queen's pieces and these are the king's pieces and this is referred to as the queen's side of the board and the king's side of the board. Let us start then with the move of the pawn initially. Now the pawn in chess on its first move only has the option of moving either two squares or one square. You have that option. You only have it on the first move. After the first move the pawn can only move one square at a time. The other thing which is somewhat unique with the pawn is the way that it captures opposing pieces. It does not capture them the way most other pieces are captured by just removing it and going straight ahead. The pawn captures diagonally, therefore, if you were in this position and if you were wise and it was your move, you could if you wished capture the black pawn. To capture it you would simply put your piece there and remove the black pawn, that would be a capture. However, in chess you do not have to capture. You can if you wish simply leave your pawn there and place another move, risking of course that your pawn might be taken or if you wished you could simply pass by and continue your pawn movements. In that sense it does differ from checkers where of course you do have to take any piece that is open to being taken. In chess you do have that option."