← All lessonsUnit 1 · Meeting the pieces
6. How Does the King Move?
Learns how the king moves and which squares are attacked.
5 steps · 2 exercises
What's in this lesson?
Learns how the king moves and which squares are attacked.
- The king can go in any direction, but only one square.
- The king cannot move to a square the opponent attacks. Because the black rook on d8 controls the d-file, the king cannot go to d3, d4 or d5.
- Move the king to the safe square f5.
- The king can capture too, as long as the piece it takes is not protected. Capture the unprotected pawn on e5 with the king.
- The king is the most important piece. The player whose king is checkmated loses the game, so the king's value cannot be measured.