"Crowning a pawn"

Quick questions for the board, new member long time social player looking to get more serious, have a question in regards to “crowning” a pawn, can you only change a pawn with a piece that you have already lost or can you choose whichever piece you want i.e. end up with two queens or three knights etc. If this is true then how do you represent the extra piece if playing old school style with a real board and pieces??? Hope this question make sense will try and clrify if necessary.

Cheers.

PS Look forward to beating you all in the future.
😉

Yes you can have any piece. At clubs and tournaments there are usually extra sets available to borrow pieces from if necessary.

You can choose any piece, not just a queen. You needn't have lost the piece, so you could have 2 or 3 or more queens.

You represent it with a spare piece from a board close to you or something I guess.

Sorry to repeat you Ian, I guess we were typing at the same time.

I can add it's not called "crowing", but "promoting".

Thanks for you prompt replies, was not sure on the “official rule” when playing with bothers we used to play the rule that you could only promote to a piece that had all ready been captured, manly due to the fact that we did not have spare pieces.

Stay Cool

What I'd do is when a pawn is promoted and we didn't have any extra pieces we would use some sort of inanimate object that would fit on the square and then say "that lego block is a queen" or something along those lines.

Originally posted by Spacetime
You can choose any piece, not just a queen. You needn't have lost the piece, so you could have 2 or 3 or more queens.

Upon arrival at the enemies back row, you must promote it to any piece except a pawn or another king.

Originally posted by leisurelysloth
Upon arrival at the enemies back row, you must promote it to any piece [b]except a pawn or another king.[/b]

I always promote a pawn to a pawn.

Originally posted by cmsMaster
I always promote a pawn to a pawn.

lol I find that funny 😀

Originally posted by travo420
Thanks for you prompt replies, was not sure on the “official rule” when playing with bothers we used to play the rule that you could only promote to a piece that had all ready been captured, manly due to the fact that we did not have spare pieces.

Stay Cool

Didn't you ever promote your pawn to an upside-down rook to represent another queen?

You cannot promote a pawn to a king nor an other pawn. Only to a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight.
Moreover, you have to promote to a piece of the same color.
Obvious? Yes, but also by the rules.

you can also wrap a rubber band or something around the pawn to signify that it is now a queen (or whatever you're promoting to)

Originally posted by cmsMaster
I always promote a pawn to a pawn.

I find that if you promote it to a King it is very diddicult for your opponent to mate you as he needs to mate both Kings simultaneously.

A thread about a weak ago talked about how the Indian rules were different to Western ones. The most well known difference was that pawns could only move one square for their first move. Another difference was that pawns had to be promoted to the piece of the file they were on, e.g. a White pawn moving from b7-b8 would have to be promoted to a knight. I'm not sure what e-pawns were promoted to.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
I find that if you promote it to a King it is very diddicult for your opponent to mate you as he needs to mate both Kings simultaneously.

Yes, that's a great defensive strategy! I use that one a lot in my own games 🙂

Originally posted by FabianFnas
Moreover, you have to promote to a piece of the same color.
Obvious? Yes, but also by the rules.

Not entirely true. I've seen examples of puzzles based on real (albeit ancient) tournaments where irregularities in the promotion rules lead to what we would now class as illegal moves.

The promotion rules we undoubtibly created and evolved over a number of years to make to rules that we know today.