How the Pieces Move
Chess is one of the most enjoyable games that exist. You could spend hundreds and thousands of hours playing without ever getting bored. Let’s see how you can start playing chess by learning how the pieces move.
Chess consists of six pieces: the rook, bishop, queen, knight, king, and pawn.
Let’s start with the rook. The rook can move in straight lines in all directions. As seen in the image below, the rook can go up, down, left, and right until the end of the board.
Next, we have the bishop. A bishop is similar to a rook except that it can only move in diagonals. Take a look at the below image. The bishop is able to go diagonally in all four directions till the end of the board.
Next is the queen. The queen is a combination of both the rook and the bishop; as seen in the below image, the queen can go in all directions including straight lines and diagonals.
Next we have the knight. The knight can move in an “L” shape. It can move two squares either left, right, up, or down and then “shuffle” over one square.
These are all the squares that this knight can go to in this position
Next is the king. The king can go one square in any direction. That means that it can go left, right, up, down, and it can move diagonally but only one step.
In this position, the king can go one square in any direction.
Lastly, we have the pawn. The pawn is one of the coolest pieces. It can only move in a straight line towards the opponent’s side unless capturing a piece. If the brave pawn manages to defeat all its enemies and reach the “end-zone,” it can choose to become any piece it wants! That means it can choose to be the knight, the rook, the bishop, or even the queen! It cannot, however, turn into a king.
The pawn can only go forwards towards the opponent’s side.
Congratulations! Now you know how to move all the pieces on the chessboard! In the next blog, we will take a look at piece values and minor and major pieces.
Author: Saharsh Satheesh
