Under promotions for pawns during a match game

[David Williams]

To my horror my opponent pushed his pawn and said “Knight, check!”

He surely didn't push the pawn and leave it on the board just because he didn't have any spare knights to hand did he? And if he did have one, why did he find it necessary to announce his move? This deserves a whole thread of its own, methinks!

[Ian Thompson]

To my horror my opponent pushed his pawn and said “Knight, check!”

He surely didn't push the pawn and leave it on the board just because he didn't have any spare knights to hand did he? And if he did have one, why did he find it necessary to announce his move? This deserves a whole thread of its own, methinks!

I don't see why. If he did put his pawn on the 8th rank, said knight and pressed the clock, then the pawn has to be replaced with a queen, so its neither a knight nor check.

[IM Jack Rudd]

To my horror my opponent pushed his pawn and said “Knight, check!”

He surely didn't push the pawn and leave it on the board just because he didn't have any spare knights to hand did he? And if he did have one, why did he find it necessary to announce his move? This deserves a whole thread of its own, methinks!

I don't see why. If he did put his pawn on the 8th rank, said knight and pressed the clock, then the pawn has to be replaced with a queen, so its neither a knight nor check.

Was this explicitly true at the time, though? That particular clarification's quite recent, yesno?

[Ian Thompson]

He surely didn't push the pawn and leave it on the board just because he didn't have any spare knights to hand did he? And if he did have one, why did he find it necessary to announce his move? This deserves a whole thread of its own, methinks!

I don't see why. If he did put his pawn on the 8th rank, said knight and pressed the clock, then the pawn has to be replaced with a queen, so its neither a knight nor check.

Was this explicitly true at the time, though? That particular clarification's quite recent, yesno?

Jon said the game was played last year, so it would have been subject to the Laws that took effect from 1 July 2014 (unless overridden by the rules of the event, of course), specifically 7.5 a:

"If the player has moved a pawn to the furthest distant rank, pressed the clock, but not replaced the pawn with a new piece, the move is illegal. The pawn shall be replaced by a queen of the same colour as the pawn."

[Roger de Coverly]

"If the player has moved a pawn to the furthest distant rank, pressed the clock, but not replaced the pawn with a new piece, the move is illegal. The pawn shall be replaced by a queen of the same colour as the pawn."

I would presume that having announced the intention to promote to a Knight, that the follow up should be to explicitly stop the clock, and head in search of an arbiter, or even a board with a Knight to hand.

[Kevin O'Rourke]

he should put the pawn down and say KNIGHT but not press the clock. Then look around for a game nearby game that has lost a Knight of that colour and go and get it and put it on the board.

or

Get up and go get a Knight then come back and put the pawn forward and the knight on the board. then press clock

[Christopher Kreuzer]

he should put the pawn down and say KNIGHT but not press the clock. Then look around for a game nearby game that has lost a Knight of that colour and go and get it and put it on the board.

or

Get up and go get a Knight then come back and put the pawn forward and the knight on the board. then press clock

He should also remove the promoted pawn from the board. Pedantic, I know, but your description didn't include that. The pawn should be pushed to the promotion square (technically, you can remove the pawn and place the promotion piece on the promotion square), replaced with the piece it promotes to, and then the clock should be pressed. The key is not to press the clock before doing this, or at least to stop the clock if you need to.

Question: are you allowed to place the promotion piece on the promotion square and remove the promoting pawn from the square it is on? This is similar to removing a piece you are capturing and then moving the piece that is capturing it (which is different to moving the capturing piece to the destination square and simultaneously removing the captured piece).

[Kevin O'Rourke]

he should put the pawn down and say KNIGHT but not press the clock. Then look around for a game nearby game that has lost a Knight of that colour and go and get it and put it on the board.

or

Get up and go get a Knight then come back and put the pawn forward and the knight on the board. then press clock

He should also remove the promoted pawn from the board. Pedantic, I know, but your description didn't include that. The pawn should be pushed to the promotion square (technically, you can remove the pawn and place the promotion piece on the promotion square), replaced with the piece it promotes to, and then the clock should be pressed. The key is not to press the clock before doing this, or at least to stop the clock if you need to.

Question: are you allowed to place the promotion piece on the promotion square and remove the promoting pawn from the square it is on? This is similar to removing a piece you are capturing and then moving the piece that is capturing it (which is different to moving the capturing piece to the destination square and simultaneously removing the captured piece).

this is getting silly. Of course you do. I'm not suggesting you squeeze both pawn and knight onto one square, nor leave the pawn on the 7th rank and help yourself to a knight.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

this is getting silly. Of course you do. I'm not suggesting you squeeze both pawn and knight onto one square, nor leave the pawn on the 7th rank and help yourself to a knight.

Sure, but the rules need to be precise on this point.

From the FIDE laws of chess:

https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html ... ew=article

When a player, having the move, plays a pawn to the rank furthest from its starting position, he must exchange that pawn as part of the same move for a new queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour on the intended square of arrival. This is called the square of ‘promotion’. The player's choice is not restricted to pieces that have been captured previously. This exchange of a pawn for another piece is called promotion, and the effect of the new piece is immediate.

If a player having the move [...] promotes a pawn, the choice of the piece is finalised when the piece has touched the square of promotion.

The act of promotion may be performed in various ways: the pawn does not have to be placed on the square of arrival, removing the pawn and putting the new piece on the square of promotion may occur in any order. If an opponent’s piece stands on the square of promotion, it must be captured.

When, as a legal move or part of a legal move, a piece has been released on a square, it cannot be moved to another square on this move. The move is considered to have been made in the case of [...] promotion, when the player's hand has released the new piece on the square of promotion and the pawn has been removed from the board.

A player may stop the chessclock only in order to seek the arbiter’s assistance, for example when promotion has taken place and the piece required is not available.

In the case of the promotion of a pawn, the actual pawn move is indicated, followed immediately by the abbreviation of the new piece. Examples: d8Q, exf8N, b1B, g1R.