Can a Pawn Take a Queen in Chess – Explained!!

A pawn is the weakest chessman on the chessboard.  While on the other hand queen is the most powerful piece in chess. There is a huge difference in the power and moving abilities of these two pieces. But the question here is can a pawn take a queen in chess?

Can a Pawn Take a Queen?

Yes, a pawn can take a queen in chess that comes in its way in the forward diagonal direction. A pawn is not allowed to take a king other than that it can capture all chess pieces such as queen, rook, bishop, knight, and pawn. 

Technically it is possible to take a queen with a pawn but practically this move occurs very rarely in the game. According to my thinking, only a newbie can fall into this trap that an opponent pawn captures its queen. 

The reason is that the queen has a very vast range of movement so it can easily come out of traps created by pawns. Despite that, there are some conditions in which a pawn can kill a queen. Let’s have a look at them. 

When a Pawn can Capture a Queen?

There are two possible situations when a pawn can take a queen.

1. A pawn can capture a queen if its king is not in the Check position

A pawn can be able to capture the opponent’s queen if its king is not in the check position. Because by doing this action players king will be checkmated. That’s why pawn is not allowed to do this move and it is considered an illegal move. Lets understand this all with an example.

In the above image, you can see that the black queen is in the right diagonal direction of the pawn. And the white King is not in check position. In this scenario, the pawn can capture the queen.  

2. A pawn can capture a Queen if capturing the queen puts the king out of check

This is another case in which a pawn can take a queen. We explained in the above paragraph that a pawn can take a queen if its king is out of check position. In this situation, the player’s king is in the check but the exception is that capturing the queen will save the king from the check position. 

In the given image you can see that the black queen has put the white king in a check position. Now it’s white turn and the adjacent pawn can kill the queen and ultimately this move will save the king from the check. 

In the above situation, there are many ways to save the king from the check. 

• The first, possible way is to capture the queen with a pawn or with any other chess piece.
• The player can move the king to a safer square so this will put the king out of check.
• The third possible solution is to move any chess piece in between queen and king so the king can be saved from checkmate. 

When a Pawn can’t Capture a Queen?

Even though a pawn can capture a Queen but it has some restrictions in which capturing is not allowed. Let’s have a look at them.

1. A pawn cannot capture a queen if its king is in check position

There can be a situation in the game when you are in a position to capture a queen with your pawn. But at the same time, your king is in the check position, and capturing the queen will not help your king from coming out of check. 

So in this situation what do you think will pawn be allowed to capture the queen? No, it is not allowed to capture the queen or any other piece when your king is in check. Here is an example to elaborate it.

In the above example, you can see that the white king is in check with a black bishop and the queen is in the forward diagonal direction to the pawn. But the pawn can’t take the queen in this scenario because capturing will not benefit the king in coming out of check so it is considered an illegal move. 

2. A Pawn can’t capture a queen if capturing put its king in check

It is not allowed to capture any piece if after capturing your king falls in check position. Let’s explain it with an example.

In this example, you can see that its a white turn, and the queen is in a perfect position that a pawn can take it. But if the pawn captures the queen this will put his king in check position by the black bishop. So in this case the pawn can’t take the queen.

If you play chess online then you will see that they don’t allow you to move or capture pieces that are illegal. On the other hand, if you are playing on a chessboard then you should know all rules of chess so the opponent can’t cheat you in the game.

3. When Queen is above the pawn

As you know pawns can only take a piece that comes in its way in a diagonal direction. So if the queen is straight above the pawn then a pawn can’t capture it. This move happens very often in the game.

4. When Queen is beyond the range of pawn 

Pawns have a very limited range of movement and attack as they can take any piece that comes one space away from them. So if the Queen is more than one space away from a pawn or it is away from the movement range of the pawn then it is not possible for a pawn to take the queen.

Some people also want to know that can a pawn take a king in chess? So according to chess rules we have explained it thoroughly. 

FAQs: