How do I promote a pawn?
Pick a new piece when your pawn reaches the last rank — on desktop and mobile.
When a pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight. The platform pops up a picker so you choose.
1. Move your pawn onto the 8th rank (or 1st rank for Black). 2. A promotion dialog appears showing four pieces: ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞. 3. Tap or click the piece you want. 4. The move completes and your turn ends.
That's the whole flow on both desktop and mobile.
The queen is the strongest piece, and 99% of the time it's the right call. The other options exist for the rare cases where:
- Knight — for an immediate fork or to deliver check. - Rook — to avoid stalemate when promoting to queen would leave the opponent with no moves. - Bishop — almost never useful in practice; it's listed for completeness.
The dialog confirms your choice as soon as you tap it. If you promoted to the wrong piece, the move is final — you'd need to use a takeback if one is available in that game mode.
Tip — In casual time pressure, just slap the queen. The few positions where another piece is better are famous puzzles, not real games.
- How do I castle on mobile? - How do takebacks and resigning work?
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