Each chess piece moves differently: pawns step forward, rooks slide in straight lines, bishops cut diagonally, knights hop in an L-shape, the queen moves any direction she likes, and the king shuffles one square at a time. Once you understand how chess pieces move, you know the whole game. The rules themselves are simple. What trips people up is remembering what each piece does when you're staring at a board for the first time.
That mix-up is normal, and it's why we’ve put together our own gameplay walkthrough covering setup and basic movement.
Each piece follows its own fixed pattern, and none of them move the same way. Here's exactly how each one gets around the board:
The king moves one square at a time in any direction: forward, sideways, diagonally, or back. He's slow, but he's the piece the entire game revolves around: lose him, and the game is over.
The queen can move any number of squares in any direction: diagonally, forward, backward, or side to side. She's the most mobile piece on the board, and usually the one players protect most carefully.
Bishops move diagonally, any number of open squares, forward or backward. Each player starts with one bishop on light squares and one on dark squares, and a bishop never switches color for the rest of the game.
Jake, who hosts MegaChess's gameplay tutorials, describes the knight's path as "two-one or one-two movement"; two squares one way and one square over, or the reverse, in any combination, forward or backward. The knight is also the only piece that can jump clean over other pieces, which makes it especially useful early on when the board is still crowded.
Rooks move in straight lines, forward, back, or sideways, as far as the board allows. They're also half of castling, the one move where two pieces move at once.
Pawns can only move forward: one or two squares on their very first move, one square after that. The exception is capturing, where, as Jake explains, a pawn can "move forward diagonally in order to capture the piece." Once a pawn reaches the far side of the board, it's promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight; almost always a queen, since she's the strongest piece available.
Point values aren't part of the official rules. They're the quickest way to judge whether a trade is worth making:
|
Piece |
Point Value |
|
Pawn |
1 |
|
Knight |
3 |
|
Bishop |
3 |
|
Rook |
5 |
|
Queen |
9 |
|
King |
No point value; losing him ends the game |
Group the pieces by pattern instead of memorizing six separate rules:
Diagonal movers: the bishop and queen both slide diagonally, any distance.
Straight-line movers: the rook and queen both slide horizontally or vertically, any distance.
The two oddballs: the knight's L-shaped jump and the pawn's forward-only crawl don't fit either pattern, so they're the only two moves you really have to memorize on their own.
Playing on a bigger board also helps the patterns stick, since the distances between squares are easier to track with your eyes instead of your memory. That's one reason families and classrooms often start on a giant chess set; physically walking a knight's move or a bishop's diagonal makes the pattern click faster than it does on a 2-inch square.
Basic movement covers most of the game, but a handful of special rules trip up new players more than anything else. Here are the ones you're most likely to run into first.
A pawn only ever moves toward the opponent's side of the board. It captures diagonally, but its forward march never reverses, so think before you move a pawn.
When a pawn reaches the other side, it becomes a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. Players choose a queen almost every time since she's the most powerful option.
Castling moves the king two squares toward a rook, while the rook jumps to the square the king just crossed. It's only legal if neither piece has moved yet, nothing sits between them, the king isn't in check, and the king doesn't pass through or land on an attacked square.
Every other piece, including the queen and king, has to move through open squares.
She's worth roughly 9 points and can move in more directions, over more distance, than anything else on the board.
We've designed and built giant chess sets since 2007, and as the leading seller of giant chess sets in the US, we're behind roughly 85% of every set sold here. We've spent nearly two decades teaching the game as much as selling it. The video this guide pulls its quotes from is part of a full tutorial series we produce in-house, because explaining the rules clearly to first-timers matters just as much as building the pieces themselves. That same hands-on approach is why MegaChess sets have turned up in places like The Today Show's game night segment; people recognize a giant chess set because MegaChess usually built it. If a question comes up, our team is an email, info@megachess.com, or phone call away at 855-634-2055.
Reading through every piece's movement gets the rules into your head. Actually making the moves on pieces you can see across an entire yard is what makes them stick. Purchase one of our giant chess sets today! Just keep in mind boards are sold separately, so pick one that fits whatever space you're setting up in.
Group by pattern: bishop and queen both slide diagonally, rook and queen both slide straight. That leaves only the knight's jump and the pawn's forward crawl to learn on their own. Moving the pieces by hand a few times cements it faster than reading does.
Pawns step forward one square (two on the first move) and capture diagonally; knights jump in an L; bishops slide diagonally; rooks slide straight; the queen combines rook and bishop movement; the king moves one square in any direction.
Pawns form your structure. Knights and bishops develop early, reaching squares pawns can't. Rooks take over once the board opens up. The queen attacks with the most flexibility. The king has no point value, but the whole game exists to protect him.
It's the only piece that moves in an L instead of a straight line, and the only one that can jump over pieces in its way. Count it out: two squares one way, one square over, instead of trying to picture it.
Powered by goodChatBot