Chess is a board game played between two players: White and Black. The two players alternate turns (White always moves first), moving one piece at a time with the ultimate goal of capturing the enemy king.
How the Pieces Move
There are six pieces in chess, each of which move in a unique way. All pieces do share some common traits. For instance, no piece is allowed to land on a square occupied by a friendly piece. If a piece lands on a square occupied by an enemy piece, that enemy is captured and removed from the board. Also, with the exception of the knight, pieces are not permitted to jump over other pieces. Clicking on the name of each piece will open a more detailed guide on that piece's movements.
The Rook: The rook usually looks like a small tower. It is allowed to move in a straight line horizontally or vertically, for any number of squares.
The Bishop: The bishop moves in a straight line diagonally, for any number of squares.
The Queen: The queen is a combination of a rook and a bishop -- it may move any number of squares in a straight line, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The queen is the most powerful piece in chess.
The King: The king can also move in any direction, including diagonally. However, he can only move one square at a time. The king is the most important piece in chess, as the imminent capture of the king means the game is over.
The Knight: The knight -- which usually looks like a horse -- moves in an irregular pattern that can be described in several ways. This strange movement is usually referred to as an "L-shape", as the knight move can also be described as moving two squares vertically or horizontally, then making a "turn" left or right and moving one more square. From the center of the board, this means the knight can move to eight different squares.
The knight is also the only piece that is allowed to leap over other pieces. Note that the knight doesn't capture pieces it jumps over; it can only capture a piece that it lands on.
The Pawn: Pawns are the shortest and weakest pieces in chess. Pawns are also the only pieces in chess that move one way, but capture in another fashion. Unlike other pieces, pawns can only move forward, not backwards. They may only move directly forward one square at a time, unless they are still on the square on which they began the game; if it is the pawn's first move, it has the option of moving one or two squares, directly forward.
However, a pawn cannot capture a piece directly in front of it. Pawns can only capture a piece by moving one square forward diagonally.
Special Moves: There are a few notable exceptions to the rules listed above. They include castling (a move where the king and a rook both move at the same time), en passant (an unusual pawn capture), and pawn promotion (a situation that occurs if a pawn reaches the end of the board, where the pawn may "promote" to a stronger piece).
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