The Underpromoter's Riddle: A Computational Analysis of the Knight Promotion in Chess

Authors

• Yelarys SeidinFollow

Files

Description

My interest: To find out why players sometimes underpromote a pawn (worth 1 point) to a knight (worth 3 points) instead of a queen (worth 9 points).

• Knight Promotion > Queen Promotion?
• From both objective and behavioral perspectives

The Gap: Prior research has heavily focused on general player performance Chess databases merely track the frequency of knight promotion, not the rationale for this move.

• No large-scale quantitative, comparative analysis of Knight Promotion vs. Queen Promotion

The Research Question: Is Knight Promotion—a seemingly paradoxical decision—a tool of tactical necessity or a matter of stylistic choice?

Publication Date

2026

Recommended Citation

Seidin, Yelarys, "The Underpromoter's Riddle: A Computational Analysis of the Knight Promotion in Chess" (2026). Annual Research Symposium. 87.
https://scholar.dsu.edu/research-symposium/87