You can read more about the bishop moves here. Also, it captures in the same way as it moves – along the diagonals (but only one piece in a single turn). A bishop can only move along the diagonals. You can read more about the rook moves here. It captures any piece that comes on its path – horizontally or vertically (But only one in a single turn). It can move vertically as well as horizontally on a chessboard. Rook is the second most powerful chess piece. You can read more about the knight moves here. Also, the knight moves in a typical L-shape.Ī knight captures any piece that is present on the square where the knight is going to land (only one piece in a single turn). Knight is a special chess piece because, in chess, it is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It has maximum mobility on the chessboard. It can capture any piece that comes on its path (but only one in a single turn). It can move horizontally, vertically as well as diagonally. Queen is the most powerful piece in chess. You can read more about the king moves here. However, one king can’t capture another king in chess. But there is also a special move of the king called castling, (discussed ahead in this article) in which it moves two squares in a single move.Ī king can capture any piece but only up to one square. In chess, each side has only 1 king.Ī king moves only one square in any direction. King is the most valuable chess piece on the chessboard. Here’s the list of chess terms every beginner should know:

(Checkmate means the king is in danger but no way left to save it. The main goal of a chess game is to checkmate the opponent king.While capturing any piece, the captured piece is removed from the board.Each player moves their pieces on their turn and also captures the opponent piece by occupying their square.Each player has 16 chess pieces so in all, there are 32 chess pieces in a chess set.Chess is a two-player game that is played on an 8 by 8 square chessboard with 64 squares.Reading this guide, you will have a good idea about all the basic chess terms.īut before starting, let’s have a brief introduction about chess: In this guide, I have tried to break down all the chess terminologies I think every beginner should know, in a simplified way. But sometimes, the chess terms might come in your way and confuse you a lot.

Chess layout