The Berolina pawn (also known as Berlin pawn, anti-pawn, or simply Berolina) is a popularPritchard (2007), p. 59: "Tournaments have been held, combination games have been tried, and 'Berolina pawns' have long been popular with problemists. (''Funkschack'', August 1926)"

fairy chess piece A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compar ...

based on the

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn or The Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pa ...

. It may move one vacant square diagonally forward, it may move two vacant squares forward along a diagonal on its first move, and it may capture one square vertically forward. It was invented by Edmund Nebermann in 1926, who named it after the city of Berlin in which he worked. The Berolina pawn is featured in several chess variants, including

Berolina chess The Berolina pawn (also known as Berlin pawn, anti-pawn, or simply Berolina) is a popularPritchard (2007), p. 59: "Tournaments have been held, combination games have been tried, and 'Berolina pawns' have long been popular with problemists. (''Funk ...

, and these variants have been played in tournaments. Additionally, the Berolina pawn has found frequent use in

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is t ...

s. In this article, the Berolina pawn is represented by an inverted pawn.

Description

The Berolina pawn moves, without capturing, one square diagonally forward. It captures one square straight forward. (Thus, it is the converse of a standard chess

, which moves straight forward and captures diagonally forward.) The Berolina has the option to move two squares diagonally forward on its first move. It can also capture ''

en passant In chess, ''en passant'' (, "in passing") describes the capture by a Pawn (chess), pawn of an enemy pawn on the same and an adjacent that has just made an initial two-square advance. This is a special case in the rules of chess. The capturi ...

'': a Berolina pawn, attacking a square that has just been bypassed by an enemy pawn's two-square advance, may capture the enemy pawn as if it had moved only one square. Like the orthodox pawn, the Berolina pawn is promoted when it reaches its .

Example problem

Berolina chess

Berolina chess, also called Berlin chess,Pritchard (1994), p. 21 is a

chess variant A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways. "International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...

employing the Berolina pawn. Berolina chess follows the same

rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pertaining to the structure or behavior internal to a business * School rule, a rule tha ...

as standard chess, except that all the pawns are replaced by Berolina pawns. A number of tournaments have been conducted, including a correspondence event in 1957.Pritchard (1994), p. 22

Strategy implications

Pritchard writes, "Pawns have greater mobility and can concentrate in the , a common opening strategy." Since a pawn attacks or defends only one square, their attacking ability is less, and diagonal cannot be formed, resulting in frequent

open file An open file in chess is a with no pawns of either color on it. In the diagram, the e-file is an open file. An open file can provide a line of attack for a rook or queen. Having rooks or queens on open files or half-open files is considered ...

s. Pawns are especially dangerous in the endgame since the route to

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

is easier. Draws in Berolina chess are rare.Pritchard (1994), pp. 21–22

Example game

Ralph Betza Ralph Betza (born 1945) is a FIDE Master and inventor of chess variants such as chess with different armies, Avalanche chess, and Way of the Knight. Betza was a user of the website The Chess Variant Pages, on which several chess related works ...

vs. Will Viveiros; NOST tournament (1977)
1.ac4 ec5 2.d5 df5 3.bd4 Nc6 4.Bb2 Nf6 5.de3 e4 6.hf4 exe3 7.exe3 Ng4 8.Qd2 Qf6 9.Ne2 Nce5 10.Bc1 h6 11.ce4 Nc4 12.Qc3 Qg5 13.g3 Nf6 14.Nd2 Nxd2 15.Bxd2 f5 16.fe5 Nh5 17.d6 c6 () 18.e5 Qg7 19.Nd4 g4 20.Bb5 gxg3 21.Nxc6 cxc6 22.Bxc6+ Ke7 23.Bxa8 Ba6 24.c7

Related pawn variants

Two famous pawn variants also used in problem compositions are the ''Berolina Plus'' and the ''sergeant''. * The Berolina Plus can move and capture the same as the Berolina pawn; in addition, it can capture one square horizontally (see first diagram). * The sergeant combines the standard chess pawn and the Berolina pawn, excluding the Berolina pawn's two-square move; that is, it can move to, or capture on, any of the three squares immediately in front (see second diagram), and it can move two squares straight forward without capturing on its first move. It can be captured ''en passant'', but it cannot capture ''en passant''.

Notes

References

Bibliography * * *

External links

Berolina Chess
by

Hans Bodlaender Hans Leo Bodlaender (born April 21, 1960) is a Dutch computer scientist, a professor of computer science at Utrecht University. Bodlaender is known for his work on graph algorithms and parameterized complexity and in particular for algorithms rela ...

, ''

The Chess Variant Pages ''The Chess Variant Pages'' is a non-commercial website devoted to chess variants. It was created by Hans Bodlaender in 1995. The site is "run by hobbyists for hobbyists" and is "the most wide-ranging and authoritative web site on chess variants". ...

''
The Piececlopedia: Berolina Pawn
by