The Knight's Jump

Meet the piece shaped like a horse: the knight, and the strangest mover in the game. No straight lines, no diagonals. The knight moves in an L shape, and from an open square in the middle it has exactly eight places to go:

The knight on d4 and its eight landing squares: b3, b5, c2, c6, e2, e6, f3 and f5.

Here is how to read the L: two squares along a file or a rank, then one square to the side. Two then one, every time, never more and never less:

One jump, drawn in slow motion: two squares across to f4, one square up, landing on f5.

The L has a lovely hidden pattern: a knight always lands on the opposite color. The knight above stands on dark d4, and all eight landing squares are light. Jump again and it is back on dark. Now look at the knight on its home square:

From its starting square g1, the knight can jump to e2, f3 or h3.

You will hear moves spoken exactly the way this journey says them: the knight jumps to f3. Find g1, trace two up and one left, and you have already played the most popular first knight move in chess.