King ( chess ) - wikipedia King ( chess ) White king Black king In chess, the king ( ♔, ♚ ) is the most important piece. The object of the game is to threaten the opponent 's king in such a way that escape is not possible ( checkmate ). If a player 's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this can not be done, the king is said to be in checkmate, resulting in a loss for that player. Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until a later phase, the endgame. Players can not make any move that places their own king in check. Contents 1 Movement 1.1 Castling 2 Status in games 2.1 Check and checkmate 2.2 Stalemate 3 Role in gameplay 4 Unicode 5 See also 6 References 7 External links This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves. Movement d f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 d f g h Initial placement of the kings Permitted king moves White starts with the king on the first rank to the right of the queen. Black starts with the king directly across from the white king. The white king starts on e1 and the black king on e8. d f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 d f g h Possible movements of an unhindered king d f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 d f g h Possible movements of the king piece when hindered by the borders or other pieces. The black king can not move to the squares under attack by the white bishop, knight, queen, or pawn. Likewise, the white king can not move to the squares under attack by the black queen. A king can move one square in any direction ( horizontally, vertically, or diagonally ) unless the square is already occupied by a friendly piece or the move would place the king in check. As a result, the opposing kings may never occupy adjacent squares ( see opposition ), but the king can give discovered check by unmasking a bishop, rook, or queen. The king is also involved in the special move of castling. Castling Main article : Castling In conjunction with a rook, the king may make a special move called castling, in which the king moves two squares toward one of its rooks and then the rook is placed on the square over which the king crossed. Castling is allowed only when neither the king nor the castling rook has previously moved, no squares between them are occupied, the king is not in check, and the king will not move across or end its movement on a square that is under enemy attack. Status in games Check and checkmate Main articles : Check ( chess ) and Checkmate If a player 's move places the opponent 's king under attack, that king is said to be in check, and the player in check is required to immediately remedy the situation. There are three possible methods to remove the king from check : Moving the king to an adjacent non-threatened square. A king can not castle to get out of check. Interposing a piece between the king in check and the attacking piece in order to break the line of threat ( not possible when the attacking piece is a knight or pawn, or when in double check ). Capturing the attacking piece ( not possible in double check, unless the king captures ) If none of these three options are possible, the player 's king has been checkmated and the player loses the game. Stalemate Main article : Stalemate A stalemate occurs when, for the player with the move : The player has no legal moves, and The player 's king is not in check If this happens, the king is said to have been stalemated and the game ends in a draw. A player who has very little or no chance of winning will often try to entice the opponent to inadvertently place the player 's king in stalemate in order to avoid a loss. Role in gameplay In the opening and middlegame, the king will rarely play an active role in the development of an offensive or defensive position. Instead, a player will normally try to castle and seek safety on the edge of the board behind friendly pawns. In the endgame, however, the king emerges to play an active role as an offensive piece as well as assisting in the promotion of their remaining pawns. It is not meaningful to assign a value to the king relative to the other pieces, as it can not be captured or exchanged. In this sense, its value could be considered infinite. As an assessment of the king 's capability as an offensive piece in the endgame, it is often considered to be slightly stronger than a bishop or knight -- Emanuel Lasker gave it the value of a knight plus a pawn ( i.e. four points on the scale of chess piece relative value ) ( Lasker 1934 : 73 ). It is better at defending nearby pawns than the knight is, and it is better at attacking them than the bishop is ( Ward 1996 : 13 ). Unicode Main article : Chess symbols in Unicode Unicode defines two codepoints for king : ♔ U + 2654 White Chess King ( HTML & # 9812 ; ) ♚ U + 265A Black Chess King ( HTML & # 9818 ; ) See also Bare king Chess piece Finial -- top of king, often a monarch 's King and pawn versus king endgame King 's graph Mann -- the non-royal equivalent piece Opposition -- technique of king facing king Staunton chess set References Barden, Leonard ( 1980 ), Play better chess with Leonard Barden, Octopus Books Limited, pp. 9, 11, 12, ISBN 0 - 7064 - 0967 - 1 Brace, Edward R. ( 1977 ), An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Hamlyn Publishing Group, p. 151, ISBN 1 - 55521 - 394 - 4 Lasker, Emanuel ( 1934 ), Lasker 's Chess Primer, Billings ( 1988 reprint ), ISBN 0 - 7134 - 6241 - 8 Ward, Chris ( 1996 ), Endgame Play, Batsford, ISBN 0 - 7134 - 7920 - 5 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chess kings. Fianchetto variation of the King 's Indian Defence Piececlopedia : King by Fergus Duniho and Hans Bodlaender Chess pieces Orthodox pieces Rook Knight Bishop Queen King Pawn Fairy pieces Alfil Amazon Berolina Pawn Camel Centaur Dabbaba Empress Ferz Giraffe Grasshopper Kirin Mann Nightrider Phoenix Princess Threeleaper Tripper Wazir Zebra Related articles Chess set Hippogonal Colorbound Piece point values Chess Outline Chess theory Chess titles Grandmaster list of Grandmasters Computer chess matches engines software Correspondence chess FIDE Glossary History timeline Problems / Compositions Rating system world rankings norms Variants Courier World records Equipment Chessboard Chess box Chess set King Queen Rook Bishop Knight Pawn Chess clock Chess table Rules Castling Check Checkmate Draw by agreement Fifty - move rule Perpetual check Stalemate Threefold repetition En passant Pawn promotion Time control Fast chess Touch - move rule Terms Blunder Chess notation algebraic descriptive PGN annotation symbols symbols in Unicode Fianchetto Gambit Key square King walk Pawns backward connected doubled isolated Maróczy Bind passed Open file Half - open file Outpost School hypermodern romantic Swindle Tempo Transposition Trap Tactics Battery Alekhine 's gun Block Checkmate patterns Combination Decoy Deflection Desperado Discovered attack Double check Fork Interference Overloading Pin Sacrifice Skewer Undermining Windmill X-ray Zwischenzug Strategy Artificial castling Compensation Exchange the exchange Initiative first - move advantage Middlegame Pawn storm Pawn structure Piece values Prophylaxis Openings Flank opening English Opening Zukertort Opening Réti Opening King 's Indian Attack Larsen 's Opening Bird 's Opening Grob 's Attack Dunst Opening Benko Opening King 's Pawn Game Alekhine 's Defence Caro -- Kann Defence French Defence Modern Defence Nimzowitsch Defence Open Game Italian Game Semi-Italian Opening Giuoco Piano King 's Gambit Petrov 's Defence Philidor Defence Ruy Lopez Scotch Game Owen 's Defence Pirc Defence Scandinavian Defense Tennison Gambit Sicilian Defence Alapin Dragon / Accelerated Dragon Najdorf Scheveningen Queen 's Pawn Game Dutch Defence Indian Defence Benoni Defence Modern Benoni Bogo - Indian Defence Grünfeld Defence King 's Indian Defence Nimzo - Indian Defence Queen 's Indian Defence Trompowsky Attack London System Queen 's Gambit Accepted Declined Slav Defence Catalan Opening Other List of openings theory table List of chess gambits Irregular Quick checkmates Fool 's mate Scholar 's mate Endgames King and pawn vs king Opposite - coloured bishops Pawnless endgame Queen and pawn vs queen Queen vs pawn Rook and bishop vs rook Rook and pawn vs rook Lucena position Philidor position Strategy fortress opposition Tarrasch rule triangulation Zugzwang Study Tablebase Two knights endgame Wrong bishop Wrong rook pawn Tournaments List of strong chess tournaments Chess Olympiad Women 's World Chess Championship List Candidates Tournament Chess World Cup FIDE Grand Prix World championships Women 's Team Rapid Blitz Junior Youth Senior Amateur Chess composition Solving Computer chess Computer speed chess Related Cheating in chess Chess aesthetics Chess in the arts in early literature Chess books opening books endgame literature Chess club Chess composer Chess in Europe Göttingen manuscript Chess libraries Chess newspaper columns Chess periodicals Chess prodigy Gökyay Association Chess Museum Hall of Fame Deep Blue Mutilated chessboard problem Notable games PRO Chess League Simultaneous exhibition Staunton chess set Top player comparison Joke chess problem Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_(chess)&oldid=801980785 '' Categories : Chess pieces Talk Variants Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Azərbaycanca বাংলা Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Dolnoserbski Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Føroyskt Français Frysk Galego 한국어 Հայերեն Hornjoserbsce Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ಕನ್ನಡ ქართული Kiswahili Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Magyar മലയാളം मराठी მარგალური Bahasa Melayu Монгол Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Plattdüütsch Polski Português Română Русский සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Татарча / tatarça ไทย Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 23 September 2017, at 05 : 50. 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Question: what direction can the king move in chess
Answer: one square in any direction (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally)