| Piece | How it moves | Squares from centre | From the edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| King | one square in any direction | 8 | 3 |
| Queen | along lines and diagonals, any distance | 27 | 21 |
| Rook | along files and ranks | 14 | 14 |
| Bishop | diagonals only | 13 | 7 |
| Knight | in an L, jumping over pieces | 8 | 2 |
| Pawn | one square forward, two from the start | 2 | 2 |
The last two columns show how many squares a piece controls on an empty board, standing in the centre and at the edge. These numbers are worth remembering: they explain why openings aim at the centre. A knight in the centre hits eight squares and from a corner only two, so in the corner it loses three quarters of its strength. A rook does not care at all: fourteen squares from anywhere.
Rook, bishop, queen and king travel in the same directions and differ only in range and in which directions they use. The rook goes along files and ranks, the bishop along diagonals, the queen does both, and the king also goes any way but exactly one square.
None of these pieces jumps over another. The first piece in the way stops the movement: an enemy piece can be captured by taking its square, a friendly one simply ends the line.
The knight moves in an L: two squares along one line and one to the side. Pieces in between do not matter - it does not travel through them, it lands straight on the target square. That is why you can move knights from the very first move, while every pawn is still at home.
Beginners miss the second property for a while: a knight always lands on a square of the other colour. From a light square to a dark one, from dark to light, every single time. One consequence is that a knight can never undo its move in one go.
This is the only piece whose move and capture point in different directions. It moves forward but does not capture forward; it captures diagonally but may not move there. Hence the most common beginner mistake: trying to take a piece standing directly in front of a pawn. That piece is not capturable - it is simply a roadblock.
A pawn never moves or captures backwards. In exchange it has two moves nobody else has: from its starting square it may step two squares at once, and on reaching the last rank it must promote to another piece. Details are on how the pawn moves.
Three moves do not follow from the rules of individual pieces, and they are worth knowing early - otherwise arguments start at the board.
All three are covered on their own pages: the first under castling, the other two under pawn moves.
Knowing how the pieces move is not yet playing, but it is already enough for a first game: the rules only add check, mate and draws on top. A sensible order looks like this.
The quickest way to get a feel for it is the board editor: put one piece on an empty board, pick it up, and you see every square it reaches.
The king moves one square in any direction. The queen moves along lines and diagonals any distance. The rook uses files and ranks, the bishop only diagonals. The knight moves in an L and jumps over pieces. The pawn goes one square forward, two from its starting square, and captures diagonally.
The queen: from the centre of an empty board it controls 27 squares, more than a third of the board. Then come the rook, the bishop and the knight, and the pawn is the weakest. The king is outside that list - it can never be traded, so it has no value in pawns.
Only the knight. Every other piece stops at the first piece in its way: an enemy piece can be captured, a friendly one blocks the line. In castling the rook passes the king's square, but that is a separate move, not a jump.
All of them except the pawn. A pawn moves forward and captures diagonally, and it cannot take a piece standing directly in front of it. For the other pieces a capture is an ordinary move onto a square occupied by an enemy piece.
No. Moving is compulsory, and sometimes that works against you. If there is no legal move while your king is not in check, the game ends immediately in a draw - that is stalemate.
All of them except the pawn. King, queen, rook, bishop and knight move in any direction, including back towards their own side. The pawn only moves forward and never captures backwards.
There are no club or arbiter roles in the app: the create button is available to everyone. You can announce a tournament today and run it this weekend.
The bot is constantly improved based on real tournaments. If you need a feature that isn't there yet, message the developers right inside the bot with the /support command. Many features appeared exactly because organizers asked for them, and useful ideas get added quickly.
Piece by piece - king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, pawn. Nearby - the chess board, setting the pieces up, castling, glossary.
At the board since childhood: hazy about his rating, precise about every rook he has blundered. Counts an evening as a good one if the opponent stayed to talk afterwards instead of rushing off to check with an engine. Message →
