The King

Who is the King?

The most important piece in the game. Period.

 Lose it and you lose the game. Ironically, it is also the weakest piece for most of the game. Despised by many chess players at the start of their chess journey (including myself) for being so dependent on other pieces, it turns quite powerful when more pieces are off the board. 

The reason for this is because lesser pieces equals lesser pieces to checkmate the king, so it can undertake missions (like capturing a pawn) and actually be useful.

On each turn, it can move one square diagonally, vertically or horizontally, IF that square is not occupied by a piece of its own color, or that square is not controlled by an opponents piece.

Check

When a king is attacked by an opponents piece, the attacked king's player is under ''check'' , in which case the the threat MUST be stopped by either of these methods;

-Block the line of sight of the attacking piece

-Capture the piece attacking the king

-Move the king away from check

It is the one of the two pieces required to perform castling.

 

Up next: The Queen, Rook and Bishop