The Knight

The knight is usually represented as a horse or horse's head. As will be seen in a moment, there is a good reason for this, because the knight literally moves as if he were jumping over the other figures, whether friend or foe.

Colloquially, the knight is often referred to as a horse, which is also the character's real name in some languages: caballo in Spanish and cavallo in Italian.

Some languages (as well as German) refer to the figure as a jumper, reflecting the ability to move over other figures: Springer is the name in Danish, Norwegian, German, and more. In Sicilian, the figure is called sceccu, a colloquial term for donkey, derived from the Arabic sheikh, who rode donkeys from village to village to collect taxes during the heyday of Islam.

The special feature of the knight is that it is the only chess piece that can jump over pieces, apart from castling, where the rook jumps over the king once. At the beginning of the game, both players have two knights each.

The value of a knight is about the same as a bishop with three pawn units. Its actual strength, however, always depends on the position on the board.

In closed positions, for example, it can be superior to the bishop because of its special movement possibilities. Two bishops together are stronger than two knights in open positions.

The knight can move two squares vertically and one square horizontally or two squares horizontally and one square vertically. In order to remember this movement better, you can imagine the letter L. The starting position of the two knights is between the rook and the bishop.

The knight is called the most difficult piece in chess, because it moves completely different from other pieces and therefore allows unique strategies. By the way, it doesn't matter if your own pieces or the opponent's are on the knight's path: The knight can simply jump over them.

Don't worry if you find the knight a little confusing at first: That's quite normal. Once you've learned how the pawn and knight move, you've already learned the two trickiest pieces!

In general, the rule of thumb is to get the knights (as well as the bishops) into position as early in the game as possible so that they can be used to maximum effect.

Although the movement of the knight is quite unusual compared to the other chess pieces, it is one of the few whose movement has not changed fundamentally in the course of chess history.

The knight can be a dangerous piece if you use it correctly. It is more valuable than the pawn and about as valuable as the bishop.