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Illustrated Guide to the Chess Pieces

By Edward Scimia, About.com

8 of 8

The Pawn

The pawn is the least valuable piece in chess. It may only move forward, never backwards or sideways. Pawns also have the most complicated rules for movement.

Pawns move one square directly forward. However, they cannot capture this way; pawns can only capture one square forward diagonally. In addition, a pawn that is still on its starting square has the option to move two squares directly forward. In the diagram above, the pawns may move to the squares marked with black dots, and may capture pieces on squares marked with an X.

Pawns have two special abilities – promotion and en passant.

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Chess

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