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How Every Chess Piece Moves (With Simple Rules of Thumb)

Six kinds of pieces, six movement rules. Master these and you can play a legal game of chess; internalise them and you'll start seeing the board the way experienced players do. A piece may never move through another piece — with one famous exception, the knight.

The pawn — small steps, strange rules

Pawns move one square straight forward, never backward. From its starting square only, a pawn may instead advance two squares. But pawns capture differently than they move: one square diagonally forward. A pawn facing an enemy piece directly ahead is simply stuck.

Pawns own two special rules: en passant, and promotion — reach the far end of the board and your pawn transforms into a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your choice.

The knight — the jumper

The knight moves in an L-shape: two squares in one direction, then one square at a right angle. It is the only piece that jumps over anything in its path, friend or foe. A knight on a light square always lands on a dark square and vice versa. Knights are at their best in the centre — a centralised knight controls eight squares, while a cornered one controls just two. Hence the proverb: "a knight on the rim is dim."

The bishop — the long diagonal

The bishop slides any number of squares diagonally. Each bishop spends its entire life on one colour: you start with a light-squared bishop and a dark-squared one. Together they cover everything; lose one and the squares of that colour become permanently weaker for you.

The rook — the straight-line powerhouse

The rook slides any number of squares horizontally or vertically. Rooks start in the corners and often spend the opening asleep; they come alive on open files (columns with no pawns) and on the 7th rank, where they feast on enemy pawns. Rooks also take part in castling, the game's only two-piece move.

The queen — everything at once

The queen combines rook and bishop: any number of squares in any straight line — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. She is worth roughly a rook and a bishop and a pawn together. The classic beginner mistake is bringing her out early, where she becomes a target: every enemy developing move that attacks her gains time. Develop knights and bishops first.

The king — slow, precious, and surprisingly strong

The king moves one square in any direction. He can capture like any piece but may never step onto a square an enemy controls. In the opening and middlegame your job is to hide him (castle early!); in the endgame, when queens are off, the king transforms into a fighting piece and belongs in the centre.

Quick reference

• Pawn — forward 1 (or 2 from start); captures diagonally. Value 1.
• Knight — L-shape, jumps. Value 3.
• Bishop — diagonals. Value 3.
• Rook — ranks and files. Value 5.
• Queen — all straight lines. Value 9.
• King — one square any direction. Value: the game.