Chess 101: Moving Your Chess Pieces

May 9, 2011
Tags: Chess 101

Moving your chess pieces can be a very confusing concept. There are six different types of chess pieces on a chess board and every piece has it’s own unique way of moving across the board. Some pieces move only diagonally, while other pieces only move forward. Some pieces can only move one square at a time. Keeping track of your chess pieces and knowing how they move is key to understanding how to play chess.

Basic Chess Movements

While every piece is restricted by it’s own set of rules, there are a few rules that all pieces must abide by.

• No chess pieces can move through or past any other chess pieces in it’s path, except the Knight piece, which can jump over pieces during it’s movement.
• All chess pieces must remain on an unoccupied square during the game until captured. This means you cannot move pieces on and off the board.
• Chess pieces can only make movement in one direction, except the Knight chess piece. For example, a Rook cannot move 5 squares forward, and then 3 squares to the side in the same turn.
• Chess pieces can capture opposing chess pieces by moving onto the square they occupy, where they must remain until the next turn.
• Unlike checkers, chess pieces are not required to capture opposing pieces if the opportunity presents itself. Instead, the player can elect to not capture the opponent’s piece, which may put them at risk to have their own piece captured.

Pawn Movement

Pawns are the most restricted pieces on the chess board. The pawn can only move forward one square, with two exceptions. The pawn can move forward two squares (if desired) on it’s first move of the game, but can then only continue forward by moving one square forward per turn. When capturing other pieces, a pawn can only move forward diagonally one square. Pawns cannot capture pieces that are directly in front of them, but must wait for the blocking piece to move or be captured by another piece.

Rook Movement

The rook chess piece is allowed to move in any direction, but is restricted to moving in a straight direction. The rook can move forward, backward, left or right until it reaches the edge of the board or another piece blocks it’s path. The rook can move anywhere from 1 to 7 squares, as long as the path is not blocked by another piece. Rooks can capture any other piece on the board, as long as it is within it’s movement range.

Bishop Movement

The bishop piece behaves the same as the rook chess piece, except it’s movement is restricted to diagonal movement. The piece can move in any diagonal direction, as long as the path is not obstructed. The piece can move anywhere from 1 to 7 squares, as determined by the player.

Knight Movement

The movement of the knight chess piece is a little more complicated to describe. Often, the piece is described as being a “wild card” piece because it moves in such an odd direction. Essentially, the knight piece can move in one direction two squares and then turns to the left or right moving one more square. The movement shape looks similar to the shape of the letter “L”. During this movement, the Knight chess piece can skip over other chess pieces to reach it’s destination. The knight piece cannot move to any square already occupied by the same player’s piece, but it can capture an opponent’s piece when it lands on a square occupied by an opponent’s chess piece.

Queen Movement

The queen is often considered the least-restricted chess piece on the chess board. The queen combines the movement of both the Rook and Bishop pieces, meaning it can move in any direction, diagonally or straight. As with the Rook and Bishop, the Queen can only move forward as long as there are no other pieces in it’s path. The Queen can move 1 to 7 squares in any direction.

King Movement

The king piece is the most simple and straight-forward piece. The King can move in any direction by a single square, as long as it is not restricted by another piece. The King can capture any other piece, but it can only move to a square as long as it does not put the piece into a “Check” position, where an opponent’s piece could capture it on the next move.

These are just the most basic movements of the chess pieces. We will be exploring more in-depth movement and terminology of each piece moving forward.