Chess Pieces and Their Moves

Board and Starting Army

Chess is played on an 8x8 board with 64 squares. Each player starts with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.

King

• The king moves one square in any direction.
• The king may never move onto a square attacked by the opponent.
• The game is not won by capturing the king; it ends when the king is checkmated.

Queen, Rook, and Bishop

• The queen moves any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• The rook moves any number of squares horizontally or vertically.
• The bishop moves any number of squares diagonally and stays on the same color complex.

Knight and Pawn

• The knight moves in an L shape and can jump over pieces.
• A pawn moves forward, captures diagonally forward, may move two squares from its starting square, and promotes on the last rank.
• Typical training values are pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9. The king is priceless.