How Does The King Move In Chess?
08/06/2023 - Actualizado: 21/06/2023
We are going to know the most important piece of chess, the piece that we must protect from the attack of our rival, we are talking about the king that unlike his partner the Queen, the King does not have that great power, because if we catch our monarch is automatically the end of the game.
We can recognize the king by his crown in the shape of a cross and which is usually the largest piece of all.
In chess books we can recognize it by the letter k or with this figure ♔, ♚ (depending on which side it is, white or black).
The numerical value of the King is infinite, since without the king a game of chess cannot be played.
The starting position of the king
The king starts next to the queen and the bishop, it is opposite to its color, if the king is black its starting square will be white and if its color is white its square will be black.
How the king moves
The king as well as the queen can move in all directions, but the King can move only one square.
It controls a total of 8 squares, while if it is in the corner it controls only 3 squares.
But in the case of the King this is not a problem, it is not a piece that we want to occupy for attack at least in the early stages of the game. We just want it to provide sufficient protection for the pieces that are protecting it.
The King, in addition to the Pawns, is one of the pieces that have special moves, which in the case of the king is castling.
Something very important is that the kings can never meet, one King can never enter the control area of the other, they will always be separated by at least one square. This is to prevent them from attacking each other at the same time (it is said that if this happens it could be the end of the world 💥 or almost 😂).
The role of the king in chess
The king at the beginning of the game wants to be as safe as possible. Out of reach of enemy pieces, one of the reasons for castling is this, to get the king out of the middle of the board where the fight for the center is so strong.
But the King is not only a spectator in chess, there is also a phase of the game where the king is very important. More specifically I am talking about the endgame, where most of the pieces have been changed and the chances of a checkmate are very slim.
In the endgame the objectives change, the key to victory is not to mate the opponent (although in some cases this is still the objective even with few pieces) but to crown our pawns and transform them into stronger pieces (Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight depending on the position) to help us hunt the opponent's king.
At this moment the king becomes a fundamental piece, who wishes to accompany his pawns to the other side of the board and be able to recover his queen and to help us achieve victory.
Just a king
In chess a good attack always starts with a secure King.
We have to remember that if the king is taken, our game is over, while with the other pieces, no matter how powerful they are, there is always a minimal hope of at least getting a draw.
It is also possible to use our king as a distraction of the rival pieces, but this always has to be based on our calculation and be very sure that they do not end up hunting our king before we get to the rival king.
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