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The Starting Positions |
White King: e4 Black King: e8 |
Moving |
The King is unlimited in the direction of his movement but can only move one square at a time. The diagram to the left illustrates the maximum possible moves for a King, here in open territory. |
| Captures |
As with all other chessmen, the King can capture the enemy. The King can capture a piece on any of its adjacent squares providing that in doing so it does not itself come under direct attack (Check). |
Check |
The King cannot be captured although if he is directly attacked, he is said to be in 'Check'. If a player's King is in check, his only legal move is to get out of check - the three options for doing so have already been mentioned. The split-diagram on the left illustrates two separate examples of a King in check. In the lower example, the White King is in check by the Black Knight. To break the check, White can move to of the five squares to which he can legally move (c1, c2, d2, e1), e2 is not an option as he would be moving into check. The upper example shows the Black King in check from White's g-pawn. One option to breaking check is to capture the attacking piece, |
however here this option is not available as White's g-pawn is protected by White's King. The only remaining option for Black is to move his King out of check to e7, e8, f9 or g8. Two squares, e6 and f6, are not available at this time to the Black King as he would be moving into check from the White King. |