In this diagram White has a Pawn on his SEVENTH RANK. When you get a Pawn to the end of the board you must exchange it for another piece. You may choose a Queen, a Rook, a Bishop or a Knight.

White has now PROMOTED his Pawn. He has chosen to exchange his Pawn for a Queen. It's nearly always best to choose a Queen as it is the most powerful piece. Note that it REPLACES the Pawn. It doesn't go back on its starting square.

In this position, if White PROMOTES to a Queen it will be STALEMATE. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me! So he should choose to PROMOTE to a ROOK instead.

In this position, if White PROMOTES to a Queen, Black will get CHECKMATE next move. Follow the yellow arrow to see how he does it. So White should instead PROMOTE to a KNIGHT! By playing this move he CHECKS the Black King. He also THREATENS the Black Queen which he will be able to capture next move. A move where you THREATEN two targets with the same piece is called a FORK.

Even if you've still got the Queen you started with you can still get another queen. Here, White can PROMOTE his Pawn to a Queen, when he will have TWO QUEENS on the board. If you get ALL your Pawns to the end of the board and still have the Queen you started with you can have NINE Queens on the board at the same time! If you can't find another Queen, use an upside-down Rook or two pawns together instead.

That's the end of the lesson on PAWN PROMOTION. Promoting a Pawn is a really cool thing to do Getting another Queen can easily help you win your game. Click here for a quiz on this lesson.