In Chess, each piece has a unique way of moving across the board, giving checks & capturing the opponent's pieces. Understanding these basic movements, techniques & their limitations is essential to master the game of chess.
It is important to note that all pieces in the chessboard are very important even though they have their own restrictions. In different gameplays, different chess pieces will prove to be the key piece that will push us towards victory. Therefore, no piece is any less than the other. We will realise this when we encounter different positions where different pieces contribute in their own way and pave the path towards advantage.
In this article, we will introduce the movements of all pieces, its capturing style, how it gives checks with examples along with basic checkmate pattern of each piece. We will also look into the value of each piece and the notation symbol used to represent these pieces.
To start with, let us first know the total number of chess pieces on a chessboard and how many of each piece is available to both White and Black piece players. We will see that both the players will have an equal number of pieces, it is then upto these players to play strategically attack each other in order to reduce the number of pieces each have & gain an advantage to win the game.
Total number of Chess Pieces on a Chessboard:
There are totally 16 chess pieces for White and 16 other for Black.
1 King for White; 1 King for Black
1 Queen for White; 1 Queen for Black
2 Rooks for White; 2 Rooks for Black
2 Knight for White; 2 Knight for Black
2 Bishop for White; 2 Bishop for Black
8 Pawns for White; 8 Pawns for Black
Totally, there are 32 chess pieces.
Movements of each piece:
As mentioned earlier, every chess piece moves uniquely on the board. They are allowed to do certain things only and are forbidden to do certain other things. Let us check these one by one.
King:
King is the most important piece in the chessboard as the objective of the game is to checkmate the king. Due to this objective, it happens to be the piece we want to protect the most as well. This applies to both White and Black King.
Let us learn the movement of the king with a demonstration:
We have learnt directions in chess. Using that knowledge, we say the King can move in all directions (File, Rank & Diagonal) but one step at a time. Given it's our turn, we can move our king one square in any direction we want, in the next turn, it can be moved to another square & so on. It also has the ability to move backward & forward, assuming all are legal to do so.
In the below diagram, we have marked the white king's legal squares with green color markings and black king's legal squares with red color markings. In this position, the kings can move to one of those potential squares only.
Once the king move is done, the position changes and so does the next potential legal squares. This applies to all other chess pieces as well.
Queen:
Queen is the superior piece in chess in terms of its mobility & ability. It has the highest mobility in chess. The Queen can move in any direction in any number of squares as long as it's legal to do so. It can move backward or forward any number of squares. Not restrained by anything, the queen takes the high place among all the chess pieces.
In the below diagrams, we have marked the respective queen's legal squares with green color markings. In this position, the queen can move to one of those potential squares only.
Rook:
Rook is the next strong piece in chess. Not as much powerful as a queen, rook has its own way of movement and restrictions to it. The Rook can move in files or ranks only, it cannot be moved in diagonal way. But can move to any number of squares. The Rook can move both backward and forward into any number of legal squares.
In the below diagrams, we have marked the respective rook's legal squares with green color markings. In this position, the rook can move to one of these potential squares only.
Bishop:
Bishop has been restricted to only one direction in chess. Less powerful compared to a queen or a rook. Bishop can move only in a diagonal way, in any number of legal squares. It can move both backward and forward.
In the below diagram, the white Bishop legal squares are marked in green color & the black Bishop legal squares is marked in red color.
White has two Bishops in two color squares, one is white, and one is black. The white squared Bishop can move in white-colored squares only and the black squared Bishop can move in black-colored squares only. This is true for Black's two bishops as well.
In this above diagrams, we can see white & black, both have 2 different colored Bishops, and as mentioned, they move in their own colored squares. They are restricted to the colored square they start with and throughout the game they stay in that color-squares only. If white loses the black squared bishop of its, then throughout the game, it can only have white squared Bishop moving in white-colored squares only, unless there is pawn promotion. Same applies to Black as well.
Knight:
Knight moves in a unique L-Shape compared to other pieces on the chessboard. Due to this L-Shape movement ability, it has unique characteristics compared to the other chess pieces. It is the only piece that can jump through other pieces on the chessboard.
Knight moves to alternate color square once it makes its move. Suppose if a knight is in a white-colored square, then it moves to a black-colored square. It moves 4 steps, including from its original position in an L shaped manner.
In the above diagram, the Black Knight is in step 1. From there, it moves to step 4 in a single move. Fascinating, isn't it?
Let us see this movement in action. In the below gif, we can clearly see how a knight moves from one square to another.
A knight in the center can cover a greater number of square compared to in a corner of the chessboard. In the below diagram, the White Knight is in d4 (black-colored square) and can cover all the squares marked in yellow (which are white-colored squares). It can potentially goto any one of these squares.
The Pawn's mobility is restricted to only playing either one square or two square from its housing position in a single move. Once the pawn moves out of its housing position, it can then only play one square ahead throughout the game. A Pawn can only move forward, it cannot move backward.
For White, 2nd Rank is the housing position of the pawns. Similarly, for Black, 7th rank is the housing position of the pawns. As shown in the below diagram, the housing positions: 2nd rank is marked in green & 7th rank is marked in red. From this position, the pawns have the ability to move 1 or 2 squares ahead.
For example: From the below position at left-hand side, the white pawn is pushed two squares forward & it is now in e4 square. Similarly, the black pawn is pushed two squares forward & it is now in c5 square, both pawns are not in its housing position anymore. Now, it can only be moved one step ahead throughout the game as shown in the position at right-hand side.
Pawn has special ability when it reaches the last rank of the chessboard. For White pawn that is 8th rank and for Black pawn that is 1st rank. This ability is known as Pawn Promotion.
We have covered Part 2 in this article.
This article doesn't cover other rules of movement of all the chess pieces. Please refer to this to learn more.
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