Chess how does a knight move

These same horses that were ridden by medieval Knights wore armor on their bodies to protect them in battle. Sadly, There are no armors however to save a Knight from being captured in chess. Although the Knight has the magic power to jump over other chessmen, sometimes he can still get stuck. Here, the white Knight has been blocked in by other white pieces. You can never land on or capture one of your own pieces, so the Knight will have to wait patiently until they move out of his way.

We know that a Knight can move to eight different squares from the centre of the board, but if he sits on the edge, he loses half of his power. In the diagram below, you can see that the Knight in the centre of the board is controlling a total of 8 squares around it.

On the other hand, the Knight on the side of the board can only make a total of 4 possible moves rather than his usual eight. Therefore he is half as powerful. This is why we say Knights on the rim are dim!

The Knight in the corner is even much worse since he is only controlling two squares. There is a reason why most beginners fear Knights. That is because they are very tricky and they deserve your full respect.

Knights are unlike any other chess piece. They can do an octopus imitation by forking the whole royal family and estate including King, Queen and Rooks all at once. At any point, chess players at all levels may fall for some of their nasty tricks, including top Grandmasters and World Chess Champions. Nothing is safe about a Knight. But out of all, the movement of the knight is completely unique, which often makes it the most confusing chess piece, especially for beginners. So continue reading till the end!

Two squares vertically and then one square horizontally or vice versa. Yes, a knight can move first in chess. A player can only move either the pawns or the knights on their first move and many prefer to move the knight instead of the pawn. The process of taking the pieces out of their original square and putting them on the board on a more effective square is known as developing the pieces.

Knights and bishops are considered as minor pieces and it is advised to develop them first and then the major pieces such as the queen and the rook and gain the control over the centre of the board. Landing square means the square on which the pieces are finally placed when the move is completed. It is considerably more valuable than a pawn which is worth one point , equally valuable as a bishop also three points , but less valuable than a rook five points and a queen nine points.

The knight moves multiple squares each move. It either moves up or down one square vertically and over two squares horizontally OR up or down two squares vertically and over one square horizontally. This movement can be remembered as an "L-shape" because it looks like a capital "L". Another unique aspect of the knight is that it always alternates between the two colors.

If a knight starts on a light-square and makes a legal move, it always ends on a dark-square. If a knight starts on a dark-square, it always ends on a light-square. This is the opposite of a bishop, which is confined to one square color for the entire game.

In the diagram below you can see all of the potential knight moves. Note that the knight is on a light-square, so every legal move results in landing on a dark-square. Unlike any other piece, the knight can hop over other pieces. In the diagram below, White's knight on the b1-square can jump over the pawns on the second rank and move to the squares a3 or c3.

If it were any other piece, it would be unable to move at all, as it would be blocked on all sides. Always remember that a knight captures a piece only if it lands on the occupied square, not if it jumps over it! Another cool thing about knights? They can deliver devastating forks and smothered mates! Yes you can, knights can move L-shape forward, and backward but depending on its position on the board.

If the knight is on the edge of the board then it can only go to available squares see image below like forward and side of the board. So, the knight moves in an L-shape that is two squares any directions vertically or horizontally then end on one square to form the L-shape move.

The best way to work with your knight especially in the endgame is to improve its maneuvers on the board to stop any positional advantage of your opponent. Hi there! I created chessdelights. When I was learning chess, I did not pay attention to pawns importance, and I saw them as weak and not useful. But when I started getting defeated by opponents who know how to use pawns for their In chess, it's important to protect your King at all times and be careful where you move your king.

In fact, if the king gets into checkmate - which means there are no legal moves available for him Skip to content. How does the knight work in chess?