Promotion to various pieces
Promotion to a queen is the most common in practical play, since the queen is the most powerful piece. Underpromotion (promoting to a piece other than a queen) occurs more often in chess problems than in practical play. In practical play, underpromotions are rare, but not extraordinarily so (see table below); as the most powerful piece, the queen is usually the most desirable, but promotion to a different piece can be advantageous in certain situations. A promotion to knight is occasionally useful, particularly if it occurs with check. A promotion to a rook is, on rare occasions, necessary in order to avoid stalemate. Promotion to a bishop almost never occurs in practical play (about one game in 33,000). (See here for examples of underpromotions to rook and bishop made in order to avoid stalemate.)
In the 2006 ChessBase database of 3,200,000 games (many grandmaster- and master-level), about 1.5 percent of the games contain a promotion. In these games (counting games in which multiple promotions by the same player to the same piece occur only once), the fraction of times each piece was promoted to is approximately:
This suggests that about 3 percent of all promotions are underpromotions. The frequency of truly significant underpromotions is, however, less than this. Note that the promotion is not limited to pieces that have been captured. Some chess sets (see Chess piece) come with an extra queen of each color to use for promoted pawns. If no queen is available, an upside-down rook is often used to designate a queen.
Promotion to a queen is the most common in practical play, since the queen is the most powerful piece. Underpromotion (promoting to a piece other than a queen) occurs more often in chess problems than in practical play. In practical play, underpromotions are rare, but not extraordinarily so (see table below); as the most powerful piece, the queen is usually the most desirable, but promotion to a different piece can be advantageous in certain situations. A promotion to knight is occasionally useful, particularly if it occurs with check. A promotion to a rook is, on rare occasions, necessary in order to avoid stalemate. Promotion to a bishop almost never occurs in practical play (about one game in 33,000). (See here for examples of underpromotions to rook and bishop made in order to avoid stalemate.)
In the 2006 ChessBase database of 3,200,000 games (many grandmaster- and master-level), about 1.5 percent of the games contain a promotion. In these games (counting games in which multiple promotions by the same player to the same piece occur only once), the fraction of times each piece was promoted to is approximately:
This suggests that about 3 percent of all promotions are underpromotions. The frequency of truly significant underpromotions is, however, less than this. Note that the promotion is not limited to pieces that have been captured. Some chess sets (see Chess piece) come with an extra queen of each color to use for promoted pawns. If no queen is available, an upside-down rook is often used to designate a queen.
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