However, when a pawn’s counter pawn is taken, the pawn is regarded as half-free.Įach piece on the board is also surrounded by opposing pawns known as sentries. Pawn termsĪt the start of the game, all pawns are regarded as unfree or incapable of reaching the opposite side of the board due to their counter pawns. Each pawn on your board has its own counter pawn at the start of the game. The counter pawn is your opponent’s pawn right across the board from your own piece.

Similarly, the pawn second from the right would be referred to as the KN-pawn (King Knight Pawn). At the start of the game, for example, the pawn on the far left side is called the Queen Rook Pawn. Pawns on the Queen’s side of the board are referred to as the Queenside, whereas pawns on the King’s side of the board are referred to as the Kingside. Furthermore, the pawns on each side of the king and queen are given the names Bishop Pawn and Knight Pawn. The two outside pawns are known as Rook Pawns, whereas the pawns in front of the King and Queen at the start of a game are known as King Pawn and Queen Pawn, respectively.

Now that you know how pawns move, let us look at the different names for each pawn as all pawns are not created equal. Secondly, when capturing an opponent’s chess piece, pawns can travel diagonally forward.Īnother rule to note is that when a pawn reaches the other side of the chessboard, the player may trade it in for any other chess piece except for another king. Firstly, pawns can only move two squares forward on their first move. However, despite this, pawns may move in both basic and sophisticated ways.Ī pawn can only travel forward one square until it reaches the other side of the board, but, there are two exceptions to this rule. Compared to other pieces, the pawn has the fewest choices for movement.

Names of pieces in chess