The Movement of the Chessmen

What can the chessmen do? They can move and they can capture. A move is the transfer of a chess piece from one square to another empty one, while a capture is the removal of an enemy piece from the board. This is done by the actual removal of the enemy piece from its square, and its replacement on the same square by the capturing piece. A capture is optional except where the survival of the enemy King is concerned - for details, see Check & Checkmate.

As said earlier, each side (White & Black) has 16 pieces at the start of the game:
1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights & 8 Pawns. You can download an AVI movie on how the chess pieces move, or find out from the following pages below. On this page, we show you how the King and Queen move.

The King

The King has very limited powers - he can move one square in any direction at one time (Fig. 5). There is only one exception to the King's normal one-square-per move movement - for details, see Castling.

Fig. 5 The Kings can move to any one
of the squares marked with an X

The King can capture any enemy piece which stands adjacent to him. But he can never move to a square adjacent to the enemy King (Fig. 6). Neither can he move to a square where he can be captured by an enemy unit, nor can he move to a square occupied by one of his own units (Fig. 7).

Fig. 6 The White King can capture either
the Black Rook or the Black Knight

As you can see from the above diagram, the number of squares which the White King can move to has been reduced to 4 squares. But he has the added option of capturing either the Black Rook or the Black Knight.

Fig. 7 The King can only move to the
square marked with an X

The White King above can only move to one square on his turn. He is blocked by his Rooks, and he cannot move into any square controlled by any of the Black pieces (the Black Queen and the two Black Bishops).

Throughout the course of a game you must guard the safety of your King with the greatest care. To know why, see Check & Checkmate.

The Queen

The Queen is by far the most powerful of the pieces. She has the advantage of moving and capturing as a Rook, in straight lines, forwards, backwards, and sideways, and as a Bishop, diagonally, to the extent of the board until she encounters any pieces. But she cannot change directions while moving (which holds true for all pieces except the Knight). To demonstrate her power, we shall place her on the centre of the board; it will be seen that she has the command of twenty-seven other squares (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8 The Black Queen can move to
any of the squares marked with an X

But as the diagram below (Fig. 9) shows, her power is lessened when she is blocked by friendly units. But she can still capture any enemy pieces which are in her range.

Fig. 9 The Black Queen can still move to
any of the squares marked with an X

As we can see, the range of the Black Queen has been reduced. But she still wields considerable influence on the board. In this case she can still capture the White Knight by moving diagonally. But she cannot capture the White Rook, as she is obstructed by the Black Bishop.

Go to the next page for a description of the Rook, the Bishop and the Knight and what they do.