Special Chess Moves

The moves described here are only valid when no other piece is interfering. If any piece is in the way, then the moving piece can not skip over it. The moving piece can only move to any square before it. If it is an enemy piece, it can also be captured. To capture the opponent’s piece, one moves his own to the enemy piece’s square, then removes the enemy piece from the board . (It is good to capture enemy pieces because opponent’s strength is reduced as a result). For example, suppose a white Queen is positioned on a1 (Qa1) and a black Bishop is placed on d4 (Bd4). If it is WHITE’S move, he can capture the Bd4, provided the squares b2 and c3 are empty; to do this, he removes the enemy bishop and places his queen on d4. We denote this move by ‘Qa1 x d4′ (or simply ‘Qxd4′). This means ‘The Queen at a1 captures (something) at d4′. If there was no capture we would write ‘Qa1 – d4′ (or simply ‘Qd4′).

There are some exceptions to the basic rule regarding captures. A pawn can not capture pieces positioned on the square(s) the pawn can advance to; instead it may capture an enemy piece that is placed one square diagonally and in front of it. For example, suppose WHITE has a pawn located at e2. The pawn can move both to e3 and e4 if no piece interferes, but it can not capture on these two squares. Instead it can capture on d3 or f3.

special case of pawn capture exists when moving the pawn two squares forward (remember this is only possible if the pawn is still on its initial position). In this case an enemy pawn that would have been able to capture it, had it moved only one square instead of two, is still able to capture it. This capture is called ‘en passant’ and it is only valid for one move : if the player who may capture ‘en passant’ does not use this right in his next move, he will no longer be able to do it later. For example, if WHITE moves his e2-pawn (Pe2) to e4 (we write this move as ‘e2-e4′ or simply ‘e4′) and there is a black pawn at d4 (Pd4), then BLACK is able to capture en-passant (’Pd4xe3 e.p.’ or simply ‘dxe3′), just as if the white pawn had moved to e3. But if he decides to play something else, he no longer retains this right.

A King can not be captured. In effect, the King can not move to a square controlled by an enemy piece; so there never arises such a case. We say a square is ‘controlled by a piece’ if the piece can capture on this square. Also note that, regarding a Knight’s move, there are no interfering friendly or enemy pieces; the Knight can always land to its destination square.

A pawn that manages to traverse all the way to get to the other side is ‘promoted’. When a promotion happens the player replaces the pawn with a same-coloured piece of his choice (King and Pawn excluded). In most cases pawns are promoted to Queens.

Special Chess Moves Continued …

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