What's Underpromotion? | Chess Terms | ChessKid

today chess kids we're going under the sea for some under promotion under promotion is just an add-on to the word promotion now when your chess coach first taught you about promotion he or she probably mentioned that you're allowed to get something besides your queen then he or she probably quickly followed up by saying but I really always want you to get the queen well today we're going to look at the exceptions you have to be a really smart chess kid to understand them and you might only get to use this idea once or twice in your whole life let's make sure you're ready if it happens under promotion means when you get a pawn to the other side but you choose not to get a queen you have to have a very specific reason the first reason would be if you want a piece that has a power besides the queen well that's really only the Knight the second reason to get an under promotion is if you're trying to avoid stalemate and the third reason is just to be fancy but we're not going to talk about any of those reasons today in our first position here you can see as white if your Pawn advances and becomes a queen it looks like an equal game but oh no as black the queen can swoop all the way down here and although you can block with your queen it's going to be back rank mate let's go back though what else could we have promoted to that has a different power than the queen well I'm sure you realize the night is the place to be here because the night Forks the king and the Queen and of course black can't Checkmate you if he's in check himself when his King moves we will eat that Queen and if you play correctly you should be able to win this ending in our next example this one comes from a real chess game black looks like he's completely lost there are three past pawns and as you now know Knights are not very good at guarding both sides of the chessboard we talked about that in our Bishop versus knight end game video here black though should not give up because he has this really neat trick Knight F5 White's Pawn of course is in danger and white has to advance it if White's Pawn advances to a queen do you see what black will do next I bet you do if we get a queen the Knight will come into the square E7 and Fork us and then the Knight will only have to deal with two pawns and in fact with both those pawns being on the same side of the board Black's probably going to be able to make a draw in the game though white was too smart white saw the fork coming and instead he promoted to a knight which of course stops the fork now the game's far from over it's Knight and two pawns versus night another 25 moves were played which I don't have the time to show you instead we're going to fast forward all the way to this position that's right white slowly got his pawns up the board and he played the move A6 check trying to force the black king away and black had another trick the king did not blockade the C Pawn instead he ran away to A7 now what's the trick well it's the same thing if we promote to a queen there is yet another Fork so this is unbelievable it's incredible but white actually promoted to a knight for the second time in the same game yes a real chess game chess kids okay the king ran away and now white can win with his one remaining Pawn he needs to make sure that pawn does not get blockaded or captured he played this tricky move King B6 now if the Knight on C8 gets captured the pawn on A6 can run free so instead black played the move Knight to D6 very tricky offering a knight like this but white just ignored black and played A7 check of course if you take the Knight now we're going to promote to a queen yeah we don't get a third night that'd be silly and if the king runs the other way we actually get to mate with two knights that'd be a really fun way to finish a chess game on to our third position Knights are not the only pieces that you might want to under promote to remember we said that another reason to under promote is to avoid stalemate as you can see very plainly here as white if we make a queen black has no moves and it's stalemate you can actually promote to really anything here although most grand Masters would almost certainly choose a rook because it is the next highest value piece and of course it's not stalemate because the king runs away that B7 square is not being attacked we can save our Rook here and by now I'm sure you know how to checkmate with a king and a rook of course you could also take the a pawn and get a promotion later on on to our next position this is the end of a very famous position so famous it even has a name it's called the Saavedra position I've skipped over the beginning to show you the end in this position it's a rook fighting against a pawn but it's white to move now it looks like it's time for white to go ahead and make a queen after all black was threatening to make a fork here on C4 but if we make a queen black has a devilish way here to make a forced stalemate do you see the trick that black was waiting for black was waiting to play Rook to C4 fork and king and queen of course you have to capture or you lose your queen but upon doing so it is stalemate let's go back you might wonder how could white possibly win well the next best option is to promote to a rook Rook versus Rook is a draw 99 of the time but remember chess kids promoting to a queen is the right promotion 99 of the time we're looking at the exceptions today this is the rare one percent white is winning because of the poor placement of the black king we're threatening to give a little sideways check made here and if black decide to stop it with Rook to A4 his only reasonable chest move white can play King B3 which simultaneously attacks the rook and threatens a proper back rank mate black cannot stop both threats pretty neat there first we under promote to a rook and then we actually win Rook vs Rook a couple of extreme Rarities at this point in the video you might be thinking fun Master Mike Rooks and knights I get that but what about the bishop is it ever needed to promote to a bishop well this is a really really rare this is probably rarer than a comet streaking across the Earth in this position we're going to see it happen though it looks like White's winning because White's past Pawn has a free pass to the other side but black has this trick black is going to bury his own King and look what's Happening Here black has successfully gotten his King Without a whole lot of squares that's go through the options if we promote to Queen it is stalemate let's try again if we promote to Rook well this time it's still stalemate the rook and the Queen's power is similar enough in this position if we promote to a night the problem is that the Knight is very bad about getting to the other side of the board you may not believe me but the black king is actually going to be able to make a long run over and pick off the a pawn so the correct move here is actually to promote to a bishop because the bishop does an excellent job of guarding White's remaining Pawn here's how the game would likely finish Blackwood move is King then you can play a move like Bishop to E6 so the king can't return and when black pushes his Pawn just play a waiting move and notice here black has to move his King and when he does we can eat this one and if he tries to run back we're going to be able to gobble up the next pawn and after gobbling the H Pawn whites King can run all the way over to the other side of the board and although we don't have time to describe it here you have to trust fun Master Mike it is a winning end game for white well there you have it chess kids promoting to a queen is The Right Move most of the time but watch out for stale right and also watch out for the special power of the night sometimes the night's unique powers are more important than the queen

Channel: ChessKid

Views: 114,100

Keywords: chess, chess.com, chesskid, funmaster mike, fun master mike, chess videos for kids, teach kids to play chess, learn chess, chess for kids, chesskid.com, chess lessons, chess videos, kid chess, how to play chess, learn how to play chess

Id: zvWsk9MKKvQ

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023