The King

The King (k)

There is a King.

The master piece; the aim of the game is to capture your opponent King.

It can move one by one square at a time (except when castling) any direction, horizontal, vertical or diagonal (as the queen does but one by one square at a time).

They can capture any piece by placing on their square. They cannot jump over any piece (obviously if they only can move one by one).

They cannot move to any square where it could be threaten by any other opponent's piece (even the rival's King).

They cannot be captured, if does the player should be warned by saying “Check”. But if can be captured in the next move it is “Check Mate” and then the game is over.

A chess game can be won by one of the contenders. In this case the winner gets a point, but if there is no winner, so they draw (any game that ends without either player winning, e.g. Stalemate, Lack of Mating Material, 50-Move Rule, etc…) each player gets half point.

Special situations:

Castling: This is the only move you can move 2 pieces at the same time. It is made with the Rook and the King. The rook moves 2 or 3 squares towards the king and the king 2 squares towards one of the rooks.

When can it be made? Only once in the game, when the King and the selected rook has not been moved before.

There are 2 ways of castling:

• The Queen Castling (the King goes two squares to the left and the Rook 3 squares to the right)
• The King's Castling (the King goes two squares to te right and the right Rook moves 2 squares to the left.

Stalemate: This is a way of drawing. It occurs when the king of the player who is losing has no way to move but it is not in a “Check” situation. The King cannot be moved without being in a “Check” situation. It is a good way of not losing the game if your opponent has plenty of figures and you have no other choice.