Promoting to "pawn" is one of the common "joke problem" types. Composition rules are as flexible as you want them to be. Not so long ago @RewanDemontay posted a number of "pawn promotion" puzzles on chess.com. The bad part is that chess.com does not support any rules but the most orthodox chess rules. You can post the puzzle here but not its solution! Except in text of course.
Leaving Promoted Pawns As Pawns
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May 13, 2023
0
#3
This blog has five positions where P=P is the best move. In the first three, the move forces a draw; in the last two, P=P is the sole winning move.
What if a pawn could “promote” to a pawn?
Nothing
Rocky64 wrote:
This blog has five positions where P=P is the best move. In the first three, the move forces a draw; in the last two, P=P is the sole winning move.
Lol, I only knew that promoting to a pawn can result in a successful stalemate, but did not know that promoting to a pawn can also result in a win!
Kyobir wrote:
I saw a puzzle where the winning move was to promote to an enemy piece
This one I remembered, relying on the promotion to a knight (because the knight would not be able to defend its immediate diagonal while denying the friendly king a chance to utilise an escape square..
Kyobir wrote:
I saw a puzzle where the winning move was to promote to an enemy piece
Yeah that one's pretty easy:
If white could promote to a black knight here, it's checkmate, anything else loses. What's interesting with the pawn though is that most puzzles where the stalemate is the objective, it's to turn a loss into a stalemate, and when the objective is to win, it's to turn a potential stalemate into a win. But there's no P=P problems where it turns a loss into a win.
May 14, 2023
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#9
EndgameEnthusiast2357 wrote:
Kyobir wrote:
I saw a puzzle where the winning move was to promote to an enemy piece
Yeah that one's pretty easy:
If white could promote to a black knight here, it's checkmate, anything else loses. What's interesting with the pawn though is that most puzzles where the stalemate is the objective, it's to turn a loss into a stalemate, and when the objective is to win, it's to turn a potential stalemate into a win. But there's no P=P problems where it turns a loss into a win.
interesting
eric0022 wrote:
Lol, I only knew that promoting to a pawn can result in a successful stalemate, but did not know that promoting to a pawn can also result in a win!
Yes, it's always due to stalemate - but this time on the opposite side. Black has several options to force white to stalemate him except after Pawn promotion!
May 15, 2023
0
#11
EndgameEnthusiast2357 wrote:
But there's no P=P problems where it turns a loss into a win.
The reason is pretty straightforward – it's the same reason why there's no P=R or P=B problem that turns a loss (if P=Q is played) into a win.
Wonder if this thread should be merged with the underpromotion one?
Credit where it's due: I saw this puzzle on youtube somewhere, it is an example of a position, where you would want to promote to a pawn, instead of any piece. In this case any other piece allows black to play Nd3 next move with no way of stopping Nf2# next move. But a pawn that can't move will trigger a stalemate (a queen couldn't make it out to check the black king or guard f2 in time but would give white a piece to move to avoid a stalemate). Are there any other positions like this, even ones where promoting to a pawn could be the only way to win?