Chess Sets Article

Moving The Pieces

Chess moves can be a bit complicated as the pieces each have different rules of movement. This, however is what makes the game so interesting and a favorite since ancient times!

There are 32 pieces total and each player has 16 pieces - one king, one queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks and eight pawns all in the same color. The pieces can move as shown below.

The King

The King can move 1 square to any adjoining square and captures in the same manner. He cannot move to a square which would cause him to be captured as this would end the game.

The Queen

The Queen is the most powerful piece and can move forward, backward, to either side and diagonal for as many spaces are unoccupied. To capture a piece, she simply moves in any of the directions until she gets to an occupied square, taking the piece in the square and placing herself there in it’s place.

The Bishop

This piece can move diagonally in any direction over unoccupied squares. He can capture any piece in this path, replacing himself on the square.

The Knight

The Knight is one of the most complicated to learn, but can be very powerful due to the way it moves. This piece moves in an L shape and is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. Confusing? Another way to say it is that it can move one square in any direction and then at an angle to that square. Up two and over one, or up one and over two. He captures any piece that is on the square he moves to.

The Rook

The Rook moves in a straight line, forwards, backwards or sideways along unoccupied squares.

The Pawn

The Pawn moves forward by 1 square only. On his first move he may move two squares, but all other moves are 1 square only. He captures on the diagonal, so if a piece is in front of your pawn, he is basically stuck there until either the piece is moved, or another piece can be captured by him on the diagonal. If a pawn makes it to the opposite side of the board he may be exchanged for a queen, rook, knight or bishop of the same color regardless of the number of such pieces already on the board.

Now learn how to set up the board.

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