Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Language Trick

“A pawn promotes in any other piece (except king and pawn itself) as soon as it arrives at the last line.”
When a beginner learns that rule, he/she is eager to play that move in the game.

The prospect to have a new queen on the board is exciting for every player and beginners dream with promoting as many pawns as possible.

What is unusual is that after a pawn reaches the last line, it stays there without replacing it for another piece.

That incident actually happened in a top-level game and the involved players were no other than Karpov and Kasparov!

Besides that, the game reached the uncommon following position, where all the white pieces (Karpov) stay on the first rank.

Obviously Karpov’s position was desperate with time trouble and a tremendous pressure over his pieces. That would explain his ‘language trick’ trying to create extra “complications”.


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