How do the pieces move?

In this lesson we shall look at the pieces in the diagram.

How do these pieces move across the board? Each piece has its own way of moving.

We shall start off with an easy one: how the rook moves.
The rook

The white rook can move all the way across the board.

The rook moves in a straight line, forwards or backwards, to the right or left.

The rook can go to any of the squares marked with a plus sign. That makes a total of 14 squares.
The rook's move

The rook has moved.

The bishop

The white bishop can move all the way across the board.

The bishop moves diagonally, forwards, backwards, to the right or to the left.

The bishop can go to any square marked with a plus. There are 13 of them.
The bishop's move

The bishop has moved.

A bishop pair

Both sides have two bishops. These bishops are on different squares. There is one bishop for the white squares
and one bishop for the black squares.

The bishops can never get in each other's way. They always move past each other.
The queen

The queen can do a lot of things. It can move like:

• a rook: in a straight line in all directions.
• a bishop: diagonally in all directions.

The queen can move to all the squares marked with a plus sign. There are 27 of them.
The queen's move

The queen has moved.

The knight

The knight takes one step diagonally and then one straight from the square on which it is standing. At the start, it
is a bit tricky.
It can move in all directions, but it always moves to a square of a different colour from the one it was on. There
are 8 plus signs, so the knight can make 8 different moves.
The knight move

The knight has made a move.

Help with the knight move

Four knight moves.

If you are not certain how a knight moves, think of a rectangle made up of 2x3 squares. The knight always goes
to the furthest away square of a different colour. That means a different colour of square from the one the knight
came from.
The king

The king may move one square in any direction, straight or diagonal.

The king can go to any of the squares marked with a plus. There are 8 of them.
The king's move

The king has moved.

Which piece is the strongest?

The strength of a piece is largely decided by the number of things it can do. The queen can do the most, so it is
logical that the queen has the highest rank. The rook can do less, but it is stronger than a bishop or a knight. The
bishop can do more than a knight, but it can only do so on squares of a single colour. So bishops and knights are
worth about the same.

In Lesson 7 we learn why the king is not in this list. In Lesson 10 we shall look more closely at the value of the
pieces.
Summing up

All the pieces have their own way of moving across the board. The rooks go horizontally or vertically in all
directions, the bishops diagonally in all directions. The queen can move either like the rook or the bishop:
horizontally, vertically or diagonally in all directions. The king can do that too, but only ever one square at a time.
The knight's move is the hardest: one square diagonally and then one straight.

The pieces are not all equally important. The queen is the strongest and then the rook. Bishops and knights are
about equally strong.
The end of the lesson

This brings to an end the lesson on how the pieces move.

In all the exercises you will practise with the moves of the different pieces. Pay special attention to the knight. The
knight's move is the hardest of all of them.

The games too give you more practice in how the pieces move. You will do that by working towards setting up the
starting position.
You can either do this without an opponent(solo) or against an opponent (race).
You will see the level of difficulty (• is the simplest).