How to Play Chess

The King

The King is the most important piece on the chessboard.

It is the only piece that cannot be captured and taken off the chessboard.

Each player starts the game with one king.

The king can move to any adjacent square in any direction: forwards, backwards, sideways or diagonally.

The king can capture any enemy piece or pawn that is standing on the square to which it is moving.

On the chessboard, each corner square has 3 adjacent squares, each side square has 5 adjacent squares, and each inner square has 8 adjacent squares.

The king is more powerful when standing on an inner square of the chessboard as it then has a greater choice of squares to which it can move.

The objective of playing a game of chess is to checkmate the opponent's king and thus win the game.

When a king is under attack by an enemy piece, it is said to be in-check.

When there is no move available that takes the king out of check, then the king is checkmated, the game is over, and the other side has won.

A king can only be moved out of check and never into check as that is an illegal move.

Consequently, a king can never be moved to a square adjacent to the enemy king.