The King

A leader and the most important of our pieces. However very limited in his attack. The King symbolizes leadership, importance and old age (he moves slowly).

Value

∞

Number of pieces

King of the castle.

Every version of the game of chess, dating back to ancient times, has had a monarch embodied as the king.

Capturing this piece has been the goal of the game ever since. Some things never change.

The predecessor of the king is the same named piece in Shatranj. Like the modern king, he is the most important piece in the game and can move to any adjacent square.

However, in Shatranj, immediately after checkmating one's own king, it is possible to checkmate the opponent's king as well. There was also no castling yet.

The king is traditionally the leader, of course. He is in most cases the tallest in the game of chess and stands in the center of the chessboard, flanked by the queen and protected by his assembled army.

Can‘t (actually) touch this.

The king is always restricted in his movement, but can take a substantial part of the attack if called upon to do so towards the end of the game, when many of his pieces have fallen by the wayside in battle.

As long as the king remains free and in combat, the game remains active. However, if the king is captured (checkmate) or gives up for hopeless reasons, the battle is over. Until the next game.

We just learned that the goal in chess is to capture the king, but this is not entirely true. Actually, the goal is just to get him into a position where the king can't escape on the next move (called checkmate). The king is never actually captured in normal chess.

It is a characteristic feature of chess that the king itself is not captured, but the game ends one move before this would inevitably happen.

This peculiarity is sometimes justified by the pride of the royal dignity in the context of the game's origin. As a special gesture that one has lost or given up, one can tip or flip one's own king on the chessboard.

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When it‘s game over.

The king can use one field at a time in in any direction. Thus he can move all squares on the chessboard on the chessboard.

Because of its short range, however, it needs many many moves. In addition, the king may not enter threatened squares. This means that between two kings there must always be at least one space between two kings. If a king is threatened by an opponent is threatened by an opponent's piece, it is in check.

So the king is not the most powerful chess piece, but it is the most important. Queen placed. If the king is checkmated, the game is over!

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