How Each of the Chess Piece Moves When learning how the chess pieces move, we will continue working through the pieces from the outside in - rooks, knights, bishops, queen, and king. Every piece in chess has a unique way of moving. The king and pawn also have special moves only they can perform. Pawn - except for its first move, the pawn moves one square forward. On its first move, the pawn can move two squares forward. Be careful when advancing your pawn two squares because it can become a victim of the en passant rule. The en passant rule states that if a pawn advances two squares past an opponent’s pawn on the fifth rank, the opponent may capture it as if it had moved one square.