https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/6739/is-pawn-promotion-to-rook-or-bishop-something-that-is-seen-in-play Skip to main content Stack Exchange Network Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Visit Stack Exchange [ ] Loading... 1. + Tour Start here for a quick overview of the site + Help Center Detailed answers to any questions you might have + Meta Discuss the workings and policies of this site + About Us Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products 2. 3. current community + Board & Card Games help chat + Board & Card Games Meta your communities Sign up or log in to customize your list. more stack exchange communities company blog 4. 5. Log in 6. Sign up Board & Card Games 1. 1. Home 2. Questions 3. Unanswered 4. AI Assist Labs 5. Tags 6. 7. Chat 8. Users 9. 2. Teams [teams-promo] Ask questions, find answers and collaborate at work with Stack Overflow for Teams. Try Teams for free Explore Teams 3. Teams 4. Ask questions, find answers and collaborate at work with Stack Overflow for Teams. Explore Teams Teams Q&A for work Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Learn more about Teams Is pawn promotion to rook or bishop something that is seen in play? Ask Question Asked 13 years, 7 months ago Modified 3 years, 11 months ago Viewed 18k times 47 Reading What is the proper Algebraic Notation for a pawn being promoted? made me wonder whether pawn promotion to rook or bishop ever happens. The only time I can think this might happen is when promotion to a queen would provide stalemate. Are there any other situations where one might choose a rook or bishop over a queen (or knight)? Secondly, has this ever been a case where promotion to a rook/bishop gave an advantage in an actual game? * chess Share Follow edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:38 Community's user avatar CommunityBot 1 asked Feb 27, 2012 at 17:35 tttppp's user avatar tttppptttppp 9,40355 gold badges4949 silver badges8787 bronze badges 5 * Preferably answers to the second question should be between players of some repute, but if you've ever seen any game where this happened I'd be interested. tttppp - tttppp 2012-02-27 17:36:34 +00:00 Commented Feb 27, 2012 at 17:36 * I love this question, particularly the fact that it contains an answer that had never occurred to me - to prevent stalemate. I only play chess at a 1500 level, I guess it shows :) Donal - Donal 2012-03-23 23:13:07 +00:00 Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 23:13 * 2 @tttppp: Did you see the new chess.SE site? Just thought you might be interested, since you asked this question. Daniel - Daniel 2012-05-23 16:36:44 +00:00 Commented May 23, 2012 at 16:36 * See this Chess Stack Exchange question: What are some examples of promoting a pawn to a rook or bishop? Glorfindel - Glorfindel 2020-05-22 09:33:15 +00:00 Commented May 22, 2020 at 9:33 * I happen to find that a King and Rook mate is easier for me to engineer than a King and Queen mate. Because of this, I will often promote to a Rook if there are only those 3 pieces on the board. Elliot Hodge - Elliot Hodge 2020-11-20 19:01:40 +00:00 Commented Nov 20, 2020 at 19:01 Add a comment | 8 Answers 8 Sorted by: Reset to default [Highest score (default) ] 59 Under-promotion to bishop/rook happens from time-to-time. I've only seen it in three cases: 1. The pawn will be captured regardless of what it's promoted to, and the promoting player wants to be cocky 2. It's checkmate with just a bishop or just a rook, and the promoting player wants to be cocky (in those cases, a queen would mate also) 3. Promoting to a queen is stalemate Of those, the only one that's interesting is #3. It's extremely rare, but has happened in tournament games. For example, in the game Ruben - Sultan Khan, 1930: (image) Playing 1. f8=Q leaves Black in stalemate, but 1. f8=R does not (though 1. Kf6! would have been better :) ) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is another example (Vasiukov - Tukmakov, 1976) (image) White, in a last-ditch effort, played 1. Rg1+ - 1.. hxg1=Q would be stalemate! Black responded 1.. hxg1=R! 0-1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Under-promotion to knight is more common (though still very rare) than to rook/bishop because, unlike rooks/bishops, the knight has the possibility to attack squares the queen cannot, which can sometimes be necessary to win material or force checkmate. Share Follow edited Apr 23, 2012 at 13:59 answered Feb 27, 2012 at 18:25 BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft's user avatar BlueRaja - Danny PflughoeftBlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft 3,1372121 silver badges2424 bronze badges 5 * 2 Isn't your second one also an example of #3? White's laying a little trap; hxg1=Q is stalemate, so if Black wants to capture the rook he has to underpromote... (obviously h1=Q+ wins too, but Black comes out further ahead on material with the underpromotion). Steven Stadnicki - Steven Stadnicki 2012-02-27 20:19:36 +00:00 Commented Feb 27, 2012 at 20:19 * @Steven: Yes you're correct - cripes, I didn't even notice that!! I've edited that into my answer. BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft - BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft 2012-02-27 20:49:27 +00:00 Commented Feb 27, 2012 at 20:49 * Thanks, this answer is great! In the second example I'm not sure I would have spotted the stalemate (but then again I'm not a grandmaster!) tttppp - tttppp 2012-02-28 18:12:23 +00:00 Commented Feb 28, 2012 at 18:12 * 8 @Steven h1=Q+ would not "obviously" have won, because it is illegal. RoundTower - RoundTower 2012-06-17 18:42:00 +00:00 Commented Jun 17, 2012 at 18:42 * 2 Link for the first game: chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid= 1135506 Link for the second game: chessgames.com/perl/chessgame? gid=1368406 SQB - SQB 2014-08-14 13:04:13 +00:00 Commented Aug 14, 2014 at 13:04 Add a comment | 6 I have seen situations where under-promotion to a rook or bishop has been a key move to prevent a stalemate. Without going into two much detail, its possible for the opponent to place his King in a place whereby your pawn being promoted stalemates him, but an under-promotion to a rook or a bishop leaves a square unthreatened for the opponent's king to move into. Unfortunately, the situations I've seen where in semi-casual or academic play, and I have no citations involving players of note or repute in these scenarios. Share Follow answered Feb 27, 2012 at 17:54 GWLlosa's user avatar GWLlosaGWLlosa 5,54133 gold badges3131 silver badges4848 bronze badges Add a comment | 4 Tim Krabbe compiled a list of over 40 serious examples of promotion to rook and bishop, including some seen in the top answers. Share Follow answered Jun 13, 2020 at 13:00 Purple P's user avatar Purple PPurple P 66511 gold badge55 silver badges1313 bronze badges 5 * 6 Welcome to Board & Card Games! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Glorfindel - Glorfindel 2020-06-13 16:34:38 +00:00 Commented Jun 13, 2020 at 16:34 * 2 This mentions the possibility of underpromoting to create uncertainty on the board, something I haven't seen mentioned before: "Had he played h1Q+ or h1R, White would have had to capture, but now he had to think". It would be great to update this answer with a summary of that page and some examples. tttppp - tttppp 2020-06-14 21:21:14 +00:00 Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 21:21 * This is really a link only answer - I would recommend deletion but the the up votes prevent that. Please explain the content of the link in your post if the website is taken down or the page location on the site changes, the link will become dead and this answer gives very little else. Andrew - Andrew 2020-11-21 00:26:40 +00:00 Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 0:26 * @Glorfindel Are you suggesting that they list all 40 examples in their answer? Acccumulation - Acccumulation 2020-12-12 00:35:31 +00:00 Commented Dec 12, 2020 at 0:35 * 1 @Acccumulation no, but it's still possible to give a summary of the page and perhaps one or two of the more interesting ones. Glorfindel - Glorfindel 2020-12-12 08:19:18 +00:00 Commented Dec 12, 2020 at 8:19 Add a comment | 3 If you have a winning position but you are running out of time, then you'll want to be able to deliver checkmate without having to think for too long about each move. In these situations a rook can be safer than a queen because you are less likely to accidentally put your opponent in stalemate, even if you could have delivered mate with a queen had you more time to think about your moves. For this reason I have seen blitz games at lower levels where the winning player promotes to rook to safely finish it off. But I'm not aware of this having been done at master level or in slow games. Share Follow answered May 21, 2020 at 15:38 Silas S. Brown's user avatar Silas S. BrownSilas S. Brown 13122 bronze badges Add a comment | 2 As a low-rated player enjoying games with tight time controls, I very often promote to a rook instead of a queen. The reason is slightly different from the other answers: not so much to prevent instant stalemate, but to prevent running into accidental stalemate down the line, while trying to mate my opponent through ladder-mate or a king and rook endgame. To the second question, if this "an actual advantage"... for a low rated player, it can be. Needing less mental capacity to prevent stalemates while checkmating in a low-time situation is an advantage to me. Share Follow answered Oct 24, 2021 at 18:18 Jeroen's user avatar JeroenJeroen 12133 bronze badges Add a comment | 0 When an opponent refuses to resign in a hopeless position, I will often promote to a rook, bishop or knight. It makes the end game much more interesting, and sharpens my lesser-piece endgames. Share Follow answered Dec 9, 2020 at 4:02 Houston Ghostbirder's user avatar Houston GhostbirderHouston Ghostbirder 11 Add a comment | -1 enter image description here If black move and selects Q then it's stalemate. Share Follow answered Jul 14, 2018 at 16:30 Jack Marvel's user avatar Jack MarvelJack Marvel 711 bronze badge 2 * And also a checkmate next step if you chose a rook. Jack Marvel - Jack Marvel 2018-07-14 16:31:54 +00:00 Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 16:31 * 9 This does no provide an answer to the question. The asker stated in the question that they're aware of the possibility of using this to avoid a stalemate; they wanted to know about real games where it has happened; or other reasons it might happen. GendoIkari - GendoIkari 2018-07-15 19:52:59 +00:00 Commented Jul 15, 2018 at 19:52 Add a comment | -2 Readers may be interested in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1dgrvlWML4 in which the great physicist Richard Feynman made use of promotion to bishop, specifically, in an entertaining analogy between theoretical physics and chess. Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see in the discussion above a case occurring in a recorded game where bishop promotion gave a result which other promotions would not. Share Follow edited Nov 20, 2020 at 15:42 answered Nov 20, 2020 at 15:33 S. Hastings's user avatar S. HastingsS. Hastings 111 bronze badge 0 Add a comment | You must log in to answer this question. Start asking to get answers Find the answer to your question by asking. Ask question Explore related questions * chess See similar questions with these tags. * Featured on Meta * A First Look: Stack Overflow Redesign * Please welcome V2Blast back to the Community Team! * Introducing a new proactive anti-spam measure Linked 20 Restrictions around promoting a pawn 9 What is the proper Algebraic Notation for a pawn being promoted? Related 0 Can a pawn move to the last line in chess as part of a promotion even if the square is blocked by an opponent's piece? 28 Was the blind chess match between Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty in the movie Game of Shadows real/plausible? 12 Are there restrictions on pawn promotion if two pawns are on the same column? 4 Can a pawn be promoted to queen if the player is missing a knight, bishop or rook? 5 Which player is responsible for completing a pawn promotion in tournament-level chess? 15 Is a pawn allowed to capture onto a promotion square? Hot Network Questions * A wacky transformation * What should I do when a journal name changes and I have a major publication there? * Design a better magazine page layout. Or not. * Taylor Series of a finite degree polynomial * When to use a log transformation in a regression? * Why does the fourth stanza of Brian Bilston's "Pedant's" not rhyme? * Is "know-how color" a common expression or the author's stylistic device? * Picture and story ID looking for an image of an alien with a raspberry like face * update to macOS 15.7 when only 26 is offered * What type of cloth is used in 'magic canvas' sets that let you 'paint' black temporarily with just water? * What is a git command to remove all files from cloned repository but still be able to pull? * In the USA, how may women-only gyms handle trans women? * Did Cirdan build a new ship for every journey West? * Why not use Shang in Gui Zai Di Xia * Tex4ht fails to find font in multilingua lualatexl document * Conditions for early presidential elections in France * Is the number system for x assumed beforehand when proving the quadratic formula? * Sample size calculation for a test on proportions * Old B/W about masquerade masks, then faces change into them * Historical drama set in the Middle-Ages in Western Europe * What is the pattern of this mystery box? * What is the first instance of a "hive" species? * Why do ion thrusters achieve high efficiency despite producing such low thrust? * Do rotating power tools such as tablesaw, jointer, or angle grinder exert hundreds or thousands of g-forces on their rotating parts? more hot questions Question feed Subscribe to RSS Question feed To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. [https://boardgames.s] * Board & Card Games * Tour * Help * Chat * Contact * Feedback Company * Stack Overflow * Teams * Advertising * Talent * About * Press * Legal * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Your Privacy Choices * Cookie Policy Stack Exchange Network * Technology * Culture & recreation * Life & arts * Science * Professional * Business * API * Data * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * Instagram Site design / logo (c) 2025 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA . rev 2025.10.6.34876