Pawn Promotion to... Bishop?

 Underpromotion to a rook is a stalemate in this problem.

I was talking about the second promotion obviously. One can choose a queen or a rook, and re the underpromotion theme, I would have chosen a rook.

Some players choose bishop if it is mate right away just for the satisfaction of having the smaller piece i guess =)

A question I have is when the pawn reaches the other side do you have to promote? Is it illegal to leave it as a pawn?

There is a specific rule that states that any pawn that reaches the eigth rank must be immediately promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color.

Thanks.

Thank you all for finally providing a suitable answer to this life-long question. 

Until chess.com, i thought stalemate was the same as checkmate and didn't see the point of pursuing one over the other.  Now I understand checkmate as an infinitely more satisfying victory, in which a bishop can be more useful than a queen.  The daily puzzle yesterday further brought this point home.

Thank you all for showing me the light, love heidi.

a bishop cant be more useful than a queen. try to checkmate with just a king and your all powerful bishop see where that gets you.

How is it a draw if he picks queen? Black still has his rook to move.

Yes, and Black can check White's King with his rook forever.  White can never capture it, or else it's a stalemate.  Promoting to a bishop, not a queen or a rook, is the only way to win.  Likewise with the problem I posted earlier, and the Sam Loyd problem.  Sometimes promting to a bishop is the fastest, or only, way to win.  (Rare, but certainly possible.)

Thanks for reminding me of that link. 

To the original poster and everyone else... there you have it... more than 50 valid examples listed of underpromotion being the best move.

I like to imagine that the pieces are my friends. 

For a little while, my crippinlng lonliness isn't SO crippling.  For a little while....

I object to that puzzle. I promoted to a rook on the 2nd move, which wins just as quickly!

I consider it obligatory to underpromote when it has the same effect. Like in the last game here: http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=42200728

Yes, a promotion to a rook or a queen on the second move wins just as quickly, but the theme of that puzzle is the need to underpromote on the first move to a bishop, and nothing else.

And because of that, the puzzle should have finished there. Both heavy piece promotions are equally good on the 2nd move.

This was the daily puzzle a couple of days ago, and it includes two underpromotions, one to a rook (getting a queen would cause stalemate) and one to a knight.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/daily-puzzles/5282011---nkralin-prize-magadan-1999

I suspect that puzzle-purists consider that any underpromotion to a bishop or rook should only be done if promoting to a queen would cause stalemate.

This reminds me of a challenge in an old book by Horowitz and Rosenthal ("The Personality of Chess") that I found interesting:

"Construct a position where one side has a Queen and loses, but if the Queen were transformed into a Bishop would win".

I think I have a vague notion as to how to go about creating such a position, but I don't wish to spoil the fun of discovering it for yourselves. :)

By seeing the condition u can choose the right 1

A position where the side with the queen loses (not draws) and would instead win with a bishop in the queen's place seems tricky...would probably involve a zugzwang of some kind. I'm curious about this, might be worth some thought.