Chess Pieces

Each piece in chess has its own unique powers. To become great at chess you must understand these powers and how they can be used to win the game. For each individual chess piece we will look at the starting position, movements, notation, general overview, and some additional pro tips to speed up the learning curve.

There are 6 unique chess pieces. They are:

• King
• Rook
• Bishop
• Queen
• Knight
• Pawn

The King

The king is the piece with a cross at the top. This may not be the most powerful piece in chess, but it certainly is the most important. If you lose your king, you have lost the game.

Movement

The king can move one square in any direction. It can’t jump over material so at the start of a chess game there are no legal moves for the king to make since it is surrounded by other pieces.

The Rook

The rook is the piece that looks like a castle. This is a very strong piece, also referred to as a major piece, and is outranked only by queen.