The King

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Chess journey. Lesson 15 of 41.

Meet the piece the entire game is about. The king moves one square in any direction: forward, backward, sideways or diagonally. From an open square in the middle of the board, that gives him exactly eight choices:

White king on e4 with arrows to all eight neighboring squares

From e4 the king reaches all eight squares around him, one step at a time.

One step per move makes him the slowest piece in the army. The queen crosses the whole board in one move; the king needs seven. And like every piece except the knight, he shrinks near the edge. Tucked into a corner, he keeps only three squares:

White king on a1 with arrows to its three available squares

On a1 the walls take five of his eight steps away: only a2, b1 and b2 remain.

So why does this slow piece matter more than the mighty queen? Because chess has exactly one way to win: trap the enemy king. Lose your queen and you can fight on. Lose your king and the game is over, which is why he is never actually captured; the game ends the moment he cannot be saved. Every other piece is a soldier. The king is the war.

Try it yourself

The white king stands on e4. Click any square he can move to.