Promotion

When a pawn advances to one of the nine hexes at the far edge of the chess board, the player must exchange it for a piece of higher value, usually a queen. (You may not exchange a pawn for a king.) A player may have more than one queen. An upside down rook can serve as a second queen.


drawing of the 9-pawn board with pawn promotion shown
White pawns promote when they reach the eighth rank.
Black pawns promote when they reach the first rank.