Chess Pieces: Names, Moves and Values
Pick a piece and tap any square to see exactly where it can move. Then switch to the move drill and test yourself, from an empty board to a crowded one.
8
The knight on d4 can reach 8 squares on an empty board.
Tap any empty square to move the knight there.
The six chess pieces at a glance
Each player starts with 16 pieces of six types. Every piece moves in its own way, and the point values tell you roughly what each one is worth in a trade.
| Piece | Symbol | Value | Per side |
|---|---|---|---|
| King | ♔ | Priceless | 1 |
| Queen | ♕ | 9 | 1 |
| Rook | ♖ | 5 | 2 |
| Bishop | ♗ | 3 | 2 |
| Knight | ♘ | 3 | 2 |
| Pawn | ♙ | 1 | 8 |
How each piece moves
King
One square in any direction. The king can never move into check, and it is the only piece that can castle with a rook.
Queen
Any number of squares in a straight line: along a rank, a file or a diagonal. It cannot jump, so it stops at the first piece in its way, capturing it if it is an enemy piece.
Rook
Any number of squares along a rank or a file. Rooks are strongest on open files and on the seventh rank.
Bishop
Any number of squares diagonally. A bishop stays on the same colour all game, so each side has one light-squared and one dark-squared bishop.
Knight
In an L-shape: two squares in one direction, then one square to the side. It is the only piece that jumps over others, and it always lands on a square of the opposite colour.
Pawn
One square straight forward, or two from its starting square. It captures one square diagonally forward, and it is blocked by any piece directly in front of it.
How many squares can each piece reach?
We counted every square each piece can reach from all 64 squares of an empty board, using the same move rules as the trainer above and checked against the chess.js move generator.
| Piece | Best square | Worst square | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen | 27 | 21 | 22.75 |
| Rook | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Bishop | 13 | 7 | 8.75 |
| King | 8 | 3 | 6.56 |
| Knight | 8 | 2 | 5.25 |
Two lessons stand out. The rook reaches 14 squares from anywhere, so it is equally strong on the edge. The knight drops from 8 squares in the centre to just 2 in a corner, which is why players say “a knight on the rim is dim.” Try it: put the knight on a1 in the trainer, then on d4.
Special moves: castling, en passant and promotion
Castling
The king moves two squares towards a rook, and the rook jumps to the square the king crossed. You can castle only if neither piece has moved, the squares between them are empty, and the king is not in check and does not pass through or land on an attacked square.
Start
En passant
If a pawn moves two squares and lands beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn can capture it as if it had moved only one square. It must be done immediately, on the very next move, or the right is lost. Here White captures 3.exd6 after Black’s 2...d5.
Start
Promotion
A pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour. Almost everyone picks a queen. In this line White’s h-pawn captures its way up the board and promotes on h8 with check.
Start
Chess piece values
The classic scale is pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5 and queen 9. It is a guide for trades, not a law: a well-placed knight can beat a blocked bishop, and two bishops together are usually worth a little more than a bishop and a knight. Engines use finer values, and the move finder shows how Stockfish weighs a real position.
Frequently asked questions
How many pieces does each player have?
Sixteen: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. That makes 32 pieces on the board at the start of a game.
What is the most powerful chess piece?
The queen. It moves like a rook and a bishop combined, so it reaches up to 27 squares from the centre of an empty board, nearly twice as many as a rook.
Which piece can jump over other pieces?
Only the knight. Every other piece is stopped by the first piece in its path. Castling moves the rook past the king, but that is a special move, not a jump.
Can a pawn move backwards?
No. Pawns only move forward, and they capture one square diagonally forward. A pawn that reaches the last rank must be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight.
Why is the king worth no points?
Because it can never be traded. If your king is checkmated you lose the game, so its value is effectively infinite. In the endgame it is a strong fighting piece, worth roughly a minor piece.
Want the full beginner guide? Read how chess pieces move and how many pieces are in chess, then put the pieces to work with the fork lesson or play against the computer.