High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player`s choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color (Just Burg 2003:16). The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have already been captured (Schiller 2003:18–19). Every pawn that reaches its eighth rank must be promoted. Pawn promotion often decides the result of a chess endgame.