List of Chess Pieces

In the following list of chess pieces, how they move, their values, and special techniques will be discussed. Even if you have a fundamental knowledge of chess pieces, there might be one or two tidbits of information that could benefit you in your game.

Chess Starting Position

The Pawn is the lowly soldier of a chess army. At the start of the game, there are eight Pawns lined up on the second row, forming a line protecting the eight pieces behind it. The Pawn can only move forward one space at a time, unless it is still in the home position; otherwise the Pawn can move one or two spaces. A Pawn capture occurs one space diagonally. The point value of a Pawn is one.

Before en passant

After enpassant

With two special moves, the Pawn can be considered more than a foot soldier, depending on where the pawn is currently stationed. The first of these moves is called en passant which is French for "in passing". This happens when you have a pawn on the fifth rank and your opponent still has a pawn in it's home position on either file directly surrounding your pawn. When the opponent's pawn moves two spaces forward (it should be adjacent to you pawn at this point), you are allowed to capture that pawn as if it had been moved one space.

The second special move is when a Pawn is promoted. When a pawn reaches the eighth rank--the back row--then that pawn can be "promoted" to any other piece on the board. Most players will select a Queen, but depending on the situation (if mate can be attained), it's possible to promote a pawn to a Rook or even a Knight. You cannot, however, promote the Pawn to a King.

The Bishop, whose point value is three, is a powerful diagonal attacker. There are two bishops that occupy opposite colors. Having both of these pieces on that board for most of the game is threatening, especially when the endgame is reached. Chessplayers often want to get the Bishops out early to start attacking the opponent's Kingside.

A common setup for the Bishops is to "flank" them. When you move a Knight pawn forward and place your Bishop on the newly freed square (either b2 or g2 if you're white or b7 or g7 if you're black) this is flanking. Of course, you will need to keep the corresponding diagonal free if you are to be commanding.

The Knight is the only piece that doesn't move in a straight line and is the only piece that can jump other pieces. This pieces moves in an 'L' shape that contains three squares total. The Knight moves either one square in one direction and then two in another or two squares in one direction and then one in another. One of the finicky ideas behind the Knight is the point value. Generally, the Knight is worth three points, but if it can be a situation in the center of the board—squares e4, e5, d4, d5—then the Knight is worth five points because it is in a more powerful position to move. Putting the Knight somewhere near the edge of the board hinders the movement.

Moving vertically and horizontally is the Rook. The Rook is worth five points and usually likes to be moved to open files. This chess strategy is common once other pieces have been developed and the King has castled (see the King in the list of chess pieces). Capturing with pawns or exchanging pawns in a good way to open up lines for the Rook.

The most powerful piece on the board is the Queen. With a point value of nine, it's no wonder people get tense when they lose this piece. The Queen is a combination of the Bishop and the Rook because she can move diagonally, horizontally, and vertically. The Queen cannot work alone and usually has one or two partners when attacking.

Keep in mind some basic strategies with the Queen:

• Don't bring her out too early. This shows you are an amateur, but worse, your opponent will have an easy time attacking the Queen so he can develop his own pieces.
• Don't attack with only the Queen.
• Since the Queen can attack on so many lines, use her for trapping and forking (attacking two pieces at once) pieces.

There is no point value for the King because once you lose him, the game is over. He is not all that powerful for most of the game; he moves one square in any direction. When the endgame is entered, the King becomes stronger because at this point the frequency of checkmate threat dwindles and the King can play a better role.

Before castling

One of the special moves associated with the King is "castling". The King and either Rook must be on their original squares, and the path between them must be clear. What you can do is move the King two spaces to the left or right and move the Rook to the immediate opposite side of the King.

After castling

This practice is common early in the game to get the King behind a wall of Pawns and to begin deploying the rooks. The only other thing to keep in mind is that the clear squares between the King and the Rook cannot be attacked by an opponent's piece.

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