The King
The king is the most important piece, but is one of the weakest. The king can only move one square in any direction - up, down, to the sides, and diagonally. Click on the '>' button in the diagram below to see how the king can move around the board. The king may never over himself into check
(where he could be captured). |
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The Queen
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The queen is the most powerful piece. She can move in any one straight direction - forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally - as far as possible as long as she does not move through any of her own pieces. And, like with all pieces, if the queen captures an opponent's piece her move is over. Click through the diagram below to see how the queens move. Notice how the white queen captures the black queen and then the black king is forced to move.
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The Rook
The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward, backward, and to the sides. The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are
protecting each other and working together! |
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The Pawn
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Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward, but capture diagonally. Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them. They can never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he
cannot move past or capture that piece. |
The Knight
Knights move in a very different way from the other pieces – going two squares in one direction, and then one more move at a 90 degree angle, just like the shape of an “L”. Knights are also the only pieces that can move over other pieces.
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Check & Checkmate
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As stated before, the purpose of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king. This
happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out of check. There are only three ways a king can get out of check: move out of the way (though he cannot castle!), block the check with another piece, or capture the piece threatening the king. If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over. Customarily the king is not captured or removed from the board, the game is simply declared over. |
Castling
One other special rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things all in one move: get your king to safety (hopefully), and get your rook out of the corner and into the game. On a player’s turn he may move his king two squares over to one side and then move the rook from that side’s corner to right next to the king on the opposite side. (See the example below.) However, in order to castle, the following conditions must be met:
-it must be that king’s very first move -it must be that rook’s very first move -there cannot be any pieces between the king and rook to move -the king may not be in check or pass through check Notice that when you castle one direction the king is closer to the side of the board. That is called castling kingside.
Castling to the other side, through where the queen sat, is called castling queenside. Regardless of which side, the king always moves only two squares when castling. |
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The last rule about pawns is called “en passant,” which is French for “in passing”. If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent’s pawn (effectively jumping past the other pawn’s ability to capture it), that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by. This special move must be done immediately after the first pawn has
moved past, otherwise the option to capture it is no longer available. Click through the example below to better understand this odd, but important rule. |
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