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Playing a friendly game against my son (but with Touch-and-Move in force), I was going to promote a pawn to a queen, so I fished out my queen from among the captured pieces, and placed it on the eighth rank. But before removing my pawn to complete the move, I realised that this would lose me the game.

My question is: Am I required to complete the move, and promote to a queen? The law says that if I touch any piece on the board I must move or capture it. Does this situation count?

Ola Ström
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TonyK
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    Related: a rather contrived take of the same question that sparked a rather lengthy discussion. https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/21792/what-is-the-result-rules-puzzle – Remellion Mar 08 '19 at 13:51

1 Answers1

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Yes, you should promote to a Queen forcibly. FIDE rules say that (emphasis mine):

4.4 If a player having the move:
[...]
4.4.4 promotes a pawn, the choice of the piece is finalised, when the piece has touched the square of promotion.

You placed the Queen in the promotion square, so you should promote to it.

However, I would suggest not to promote this way. Instead, you can move your pawn to the promotion square, then put the piece you want there.

double-beep
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    Agree with your answer, but it's not necessarily bad to promote that way. As long as you remember to remove the pawn before hitting the clock. – Inertial Ignorance Feb 27 '19 at 19:36
  • @InertialIgnorance yes, that's right, else the move is considered illegal. – double-beep Feb 27 '19 at 19:38
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    It may be worth noting that simply *touching* the queen off the board does not trigger touch-move (since that's the question title.) – D M Feb 27 '19 at 23:13
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    @DM: yes, you are right -- that's what my title says. If I hadn't placed the queen on the promotion square, I would presumably have been within my rights to make another move entirely. (On the other hand, this FIDE rule might only apply to a situation when the pawn has been touched, which was not the case. So perhaps there is still room for argument...) – TonyK Feb 28 '19 at 01:39
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    I believe touching the queen does trigger touch-move - "4.2.2 Any other physical contact with a piece, except for clearly accidental contact, shall be considered to be intent." You did touch a piece, and your intent was clearly to promote. You do not need to promote to the queen because it didn't touch the square. But you need to promote to something. – Scott Jacobsen Feb 28 '19 at 21:29
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    4.2 is about adjusting the pieces. 4.3 is the actual article about touch-move, and it says (emphasis added) "if the player having the move touches **on the chessboard** ,with the intention of moving or capturing:". Captured pieces are off the board and the rules are entirely silent about what happens with those pieces. Some players fiddle with them and it's OK, as long as their opponent doesn't complain of distraction. – itub Mar 08 '19 at 12:02
  • The quoted rule is only in effect when a player promotes a pawn. If the player has not touched their pawn, how do we know they are promoting it? – hkBst May 28 '19 at 11:04
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    @ScottJacobsen -- I would disagree. He could be sorting through the pieces to find a rook horsey or bishop. It is touching a piece ON the board that is significant. – yobamamama Dec 10 '19 at 03:50
  • @hkBst - We know that because they held a queen and reached out to touch a *possible* promotion square, rather than just any random square on the chessboard. However, if that square is occupied, they are still free to promote *any* pawn which can capture there. – Jirka Hanika Sep 29 '20 at 14:39
  • @hkBst - It's the same like capturing. You could say that until you touch an opponent's piece, it's not clear whether you intended to capture. But if you touch your own piece which can only capture, you must capture *something*. – Jirka Hanika Sep 29 '20 at 14:40
  • @hkBst - The point of Article 4 is that neither player can "test" any hypothetical positions or pseudo-positions on the board prior to committing themselves to actually making such a move (if legal). – Jirka Hanika Sep 29 '20 at 14:41