Chess pieces: names, moves and values

Six kinds of chess pieces, six patterns to learn, and after that the rules never change. Below there is a live board for each one. Tap the piece and every square it can legally reach lights up, so you can see the shape of the move rather than read a description of it.

How many pieces are there in chess?

Thirty-two at the start, sixteen each. Per player that is eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen and one king. The pawns line up in a row of their own; everything else shares the back row behind them.

Those are the only names you need. A rook is sometimes called a castle and a knight is often called a horse, but on a scoresheet or in any chess app they are rook and knight. If you have not set the board up yet, start with how to set up a chess board.

Chess piece values

Nobody wins a game by adding up points, but the numbers tell you whether a trade is worth making. A knight for a rook is a good deal. A rook for a knight is not.

Treat them as rough guides. A knight stuck in a corner is worth less than three, and a pawn one square from promoting is worth a lot more than one.

How does the knight move in chess?

The knight moves in an L: two squares in a straight line, then one square at a right angle. From the middle of an empty board that gives eight destinations, and every one of them is the opposite colour of square from the one it left. Put the same knight in a corner and it drops to two moves, which is why knights are miserable on the edges.

It is also the only piece that ignores whatever stands in the way. A knight leaps from its square to the target square without touching anything in between, so a wall of pawns does not slow it down. It still cannot land on a square occupied by one of your own pieces.

More on how the knight moves in chess.

How does the king move in chess?

One square in any direction: up, down, sideways or diagonally. That is the whole move, with one exception, castling, where the king travels two squares towards a rook. There is a board for each of its conditions on castling in chess.

The king has one restriction no other piece has: it can never move onto a square an enemy piece attacks, and it can never stand next to the other king. You are also not allowed to make any move that leaves your own king under attack. The king is never captured and never leaves the board. When it cannot escape an attack, that is checkmate and the game ends.

The full version of how the king moves in chess.

How does the queen move in chess?

The queen combines the rook and the bishop: any number of squares in a straight line, up, down, across or diagonally. She cannot jump, so any piece in her path stops her there, and if that piece is an enemy she may capture it and stop on its square.

From the centre of an empty board she reaches twenty-seven squares, more than half the board. That reach is why she is worth nine points and why losing her for nothing usually loses the game. It also makes her the piece beginners push out too early: bring her out on move three and the other player develops knights and bishops by attacking her.

More on how the queen moves in chess.

How does the rook move in chess?

Straight lines only, any distance, along a row or up and down a file. Like the queen and the bishop it stops at the first piece in its way, capturing it if it belongs to the other player.

A rook always covers fourteen squares on an empty board, corner or centre, which is unusual. What changes is how much of that is useful. Rooks start the game boxed in behind their own pawns and only come alive once files open up, which is why they are the pieces most often still asleep when a beginner's game is decided. Castling is the fast way to wake one of them up.

A closer look at how the rook moves.

How do bishops move in chess?

Diagonals only, any distance, and it stops at the first piece it meets. Because a diagonal never changes colour, a bishop is stuck on the colour of square it starts on for the entire game. Each player gets one light-squared bishop and one dark-squared bishop.

That is worth remembering when you trade. Give up your dark-squared bishop and nothing you own can ever guard a dark square in the same way again. Two bishops working together cover both colours and become genuinely dangerous on an open board, which is why many players rate the pair slightly above two knights.

More on how bishops move in chess.

How do pawns move in chess?

Pawns move one square straight forward. From their starting row they may go two squares instead, once each, and after that it is one at a time forever. They never move backwards and never move sideways.

Pawns capture differently from the way they move: one square diagonally forward, left or right. A piece standing directly in front of a pawn cannot be taken by it, and it blocks the pawn completely. Two pawns facing each other on the same file are both stuck.

Get a pawn all the way to the far row and it promotes, turning into a queen, rook, bishop or knight of your colour on the spot. That is why an extra pawn in a quiet endgame is worth taking seriously, and why chess is not really a game about the pieces you start with.

Promotion and the rest of how pawns move in chess.

Which pieces can jump, and which is strongest?

Only the knight jumps. Queens, rooks and bishops all slide along lines and stop the moment something blocks them, kings only move one square anyway, and pawns are blocked by anything standing in front of them.

The queen is the strongest piece, at nine points and twenty-seven squares of reach from the middle. The king is the most important, which is not the same thing: it is a short-legged piece worth nothing in a trade, and the entire game is about protecting it. The rest of the rules of chess hangs off that one difference.

Frequently asked questions

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