does anyone know...

i once read that if a pawn gets to the end under the rules of the game the player can choose not to have it promoted; however, every computer game i've ever play doesnt give you the option to leave the pawn as a pawn; is this rule true?

i once promoted my pawn to a napkin. it gets to move twice a turn.

Besides why would you choose not to promote it? It would be about as usefull as a sentry standing with his nose to the wall.

Originally posted by AlphaAlekhine
Besides why would you choose not to promote it? It would be about as usefull as a sentry standing with his nose to the wall.

Maybe because you could force stalemate with immovable piece sometimes, and lose otherwise?

Originally posted by ilywrin
Maybe because you could force stalemate with immovable piece sometimes, and lose otherwise?

No,
If either a bishop, queen and rook would cause stalemate then knight would not and vice versa

I don't think you could craft a position where any promotion means a stalemate.

Unless you wanted a stalemate and your only legal move was promoting but that's not smart either since a new queen could let you draw or win too

There used to be a rule where a pawn could be left unpromoted when it reached the eighth rank. It was called a "dummy pawn". Here is a puzzle constructed by the great American puzzle composer Sam Loyd which utilizes this strange rule:
http://www.silcom.com/~barnowl/Sam_Loyd's_Dummy_Promotion.html

This rule was done away with in 1903, soon after Steinitz, who was a fan of it, died.

my question wasnt why would you not want to promote it, my question was can you choose not to promote it

Originally posted by rooktakesqueen
my question wasnt why would you not want to promote it, my question was can you choose not to promote it

The answer is simply - no.

Originally posted by rooktakesqueen
i once read that if a pawn gets to the end under the rules of the game the player can choose not to have it promoted; however, every computer game i've ever play doesnt give you the option to leave the pawn as a pawn; is this rule true?

I don't think so. 'cause whoever heard of a pawn that moved backwards?
It'd just sit there on the 8th rank; trying too look all cute and everything.
Hoping no one captures it. 🙂

-- Paul (Pavlo87)

it would be interested in a club game, if you were winning anyway and you still got a pawn to the end, if you stated you wished to promote the pawn to a dummy pawn if they would allow it

Originally posted by rooktakesqueen
it would be interested in a club game, if you were winning anyway and you still got a pawn to the end, if you stated you wished to promote the pawn to a dummy pawn if they would allow it

I would guess that 99% of club players would look at you funny and say no. The other 1% of us would tell you that rule died over 100 years ago, so no. 🙂

As someone said though, there were some pretty good compositions that utilized the dummy pawn to draw via stalemates. Not much use in practical play though.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
There used to be a rule where a pawn could be left unpromoted when it reached the eighth rank. It was called a "dummy pawn". Here is a puzzle constructed by the great American puzzle composer Sam Loyd which utilizes this strange rule:
http://www.silcom.com/~barnowl/Sam_Loyd's_Dummy_Promotion.html

This rule was done away with in 1903, soon after Steinitz, who was a fan of it, died.

I would just like to post an exerpt from that link.

"If the option had always been available to "promote" a Pawn to a Dummy Pawn, this would probably never have been a good choice in all the games of chess that have ever been played."