The pawn (1)

Pawns are a funny little chess men. A pawn moves forward, one square at a time. Pawns can never move backward or sideways.

Although a pawn moves straight forward, it can’t take other pieces this way. Pawns can only capture diagonally, like bishops do. But only one square away.

Just look at the board to see how this works. The black knight is one row in front of the pawn. It’s also one column on its left side. This means the pawn can capture the knight. But the pawn does not have to take. It can also move a square forward. In chess, you can decide whether you want to capture or not.

At the start of the game, there is one pawn on each square of the second row. When pawns makes their very first move, they have a choice. They may move one square or two squares! In all following moves, each pawn moves only one square.

If a pawn reaches the other end of the board, something special happens. It must be changed for another piece. You change it for a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight. This change is called promotion. Promotion is a difficult word. It means that something gets a higher value.

What do you have to do?
Move your pawn to the last row and change it for another piece. Use this new piece to collect all the coins. Then, go to the flag and take that.