Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Dec 11, 2017 07:40 PM UTC:
Personally I would have made no reference to whether a pawn arrives by capture or non-capture on the last rank of it's file to a promotion cell (that is, at the back of the enemy camp I guess), as this would be confusing, if you are correct Aurelian.
What also puzzles me now is what happens if there has been no enemy non-pawn piece captured so far whatsoever. In that case, I would guess a player cannot legally move his pawn with a non-capturing move to what would otherwise be a promotion cell on the last rank for it, as there would be as yet no pieces it could legally promote to, since no enemy pieces captured as yet. However, I suppose it would give check if the enemy king were on a promotion cell it could otherwise capture to (Fergus has this sort of rule in some of his games, for example).
Personally I would have made no reference to whether a pawn arrives by capture or non-capture on the last rank of it's file to a promotion cell (that is, at the back of the enemy camp I guess), as this would be confusing, if you are correct Aurelian.
What also puzzles me now is what happens if there has been no enemy non-pawn piece captured so far whatsoever. In that case, I would guess a player cannot legally move his pawn with a non-capturing move to what would otherwise be a promotion cell on the last rank for it, as there would be as yet no pieces it could legally promote to, since no enemy pieces captured as yet. However, I suppose it would give check if the enemy king were on a promotion cell it could otherwise capture to (Fergus has this sort of rule in some of his games, for example).