Project approval after AI review on 2 November 2026. Human proofreading is still pending.
Lesson 2
How the pieces move
- What you will learn
- You know how each piece moves and captures.
- What you should already know
- Find squares by their names
- Lesson 1: The board and its squares
Time: about 8 minutes
New to chess? Here every piece introduces itself, with all its moves: The pieces
Step 1 of 8
Look first
Each piece has its own way of moving. The knight moves completely differently from all the others.
The knight jumps in an L-shape: two squares in a straight line, then one to the side. Tap a square the knight on d4 can jump to.
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space marks a square or removes the mark.
Choose a square from a list
Position as a list
White
- King a1
- Knight d4
Black
- King h8
Step 2 of 8
Decide
The rook, knight and bishop stand next to each other. They move in very different ways.
Which of these pieces moves diagonally across the board?
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Rook a1
- Bishop c1
- Knight b1
Black
- King g8
Step 3 of 8
Try it
The bishop moves diagonally, as far as the path is clear. Capture the black knight with the bishop.
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Choose a move from a list
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Rook a1
- Bishop c1
Black
- King g8
- Knight h6
Step 4 of 8
Try it with the pawn
The pawn moves straight ahead, but captures diagonally. Capture the black knight with the pawn on e4.
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Choose a move from a list
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Pawn e4
Black
- King g8
- Knight d5
- Pawn e5
Step 5 of 8
Try it with the queen
The queen moves in straight lines and diagonally, as far as the path is clear. Capture the black rook with the queen.
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Choose a move from a list
Position as a list
White
- King a1
- Queen d1
Black
- King g8
- Rook h5
Step 6 of 8
How all the pieces move
The rook moves in straight lines, the bishop diagonally. Both can go as far as the path is clear.
The queen moves like a rook and bishop combined. The king moves one square in any direction.
The knight jumps in an L-shape. It is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.
The pawn moves one square forwards, or two on its first move. It captures diagonally forwards.
Key idea
Each piece has its own way of moving. You capture by moving onto the square occupied by an opponent’s piece.
When does this apply?
Castling, promotion and en passant are special rules. You will learn them in lesson 4; you can also look them up on the page “The pieces”.
Step 7 of 8
New position, same idea
The knight also captures in the same way that it moves.
You are playing Black. Capture the white rook with the knight.
Arrow keys move the focus across the squares. Enter or Space selects a piece and moves it to a highlighted square. Escape cancels the selection.
Choose a move from a list
Position as a list
White
- King g1
- Rook e4
Black
- King g8
- Knight f6
Step 8 of 8
What you take away
Now you know the movement of the pieces. In the next lesson, Check, checkmate and stalemate, you will learn what happens when a king is attacked and how a game ends.