Expert: Tony D'Aloisio - 2/22/2008

Question
Some of the people i play with say that when you take your king down and back that you get any piece back you want, some people say you get back a rook. Is there really a rule that when you take your king down and back you get a piece back? And if you do, where does it get placed?

Answer
No, there isn't a rule like that (at least, not in chess).  The closest thing to that would be the promotion of pawns:  if you move one of your pawns all the way down to the other side of the board, you can promote it to whatever piece you desire (queen, rook, bishop or knight)--anything except a king.

What you're describing sounds more to me like checkers:  moving a piece to the other side and getting an extra checker placed on top of it (i.e., becoming a king)--after which it can move backwards as well as forwards.