Calling subclass methods from superclass object, virtual functions - c++

Question

I'm designing a chess game (C++ beginner) however I'm stuck on my checking process for individual piece types, eg pawn moving only 1 space at a time, except the first time moving 2 spaces, and so on.
I have a piece class, and a subclass of that is pawn, king, etc, which contains the method:
check(string position,string destination);
and return a boolean value whether it is possible to move to the destination.
I have a pointer to each piece which I have defined by doing:
pawn pawnPieces[16];
piece *pointer[16];
for (i=0;i<16;i++)
{
pointer[i]=&pawnPieces[i];
}
After my initial checking, I want to call the check function above from main, as a test:
cout << pointer[1]->check("B1","C1") << endl;
This gives me the error "no member named 'check' in piece" which makes sense, however I'm sure there would be a way to link the piece class to the pawn, king etc.
I think I need to do something with virtual functions from what I have read, but I am not sure how to approach this. If anyone could offer a few pointers that would be much appreciated.
This approach of trying to call the subclass function from a pointer to the class above it may be fundamentally flawed, perhaps I need to modify my design to achieve this goal? I still want to keep the check method of the pawn class in the same position, as I believe it encapsulates it well.
EDIT: I made a pure virtual function in the piece class:
virtual bool check(string positionIN,string destination)=0;
Now when I call the cout line above, I get a segmentation fault and I'm unsure why. I'm assuming it's because I'm using pointers?
EDIT2: Thank you for that! I have implemented this however I got a small error, is virtual meant to be attached to the pawn and king class? From my understanding I thought the virtual tag only goes on the base class.
EDIT3: I understand, I tagged the check function in classes pawn and king with the virtual tag and it compiled.
Now I am getting a segmentation fault through calling the object itself
pawnPieces[1].check("B1","C1")
and by calling the pointer to the object
pointer[1]->check("B1","C1")
from main, and I am not sure why.
EDIT4: All working now, I was calling it from main to test, however when I called it from within my program everything worked, thank you all!

Answer 1

What you are attempting to do is exactly what virtual methods are meant for.
class piece
{
public:
virtual bool check(string position, string destination) = 0;
};
class pawn : public piece
{
public:
virtual bool check(string position, string destination)
{
return ...;
}
};
class king : public piece
{
public:
virtual bool check(string position, string destination)
{
return ...;
}
};