The knight moves in an L shape.

Chess pieces
	King
	Queen
	Rook
	Bishop
	Knight
	Pawn

The knight (or colloquially, horse) is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight (armoured cavalry) and often depicted as a horse's head. Each player starts with two knights on their first rank. In algebraic notation the white knights start on b1 and g1, while the black knights start on b8 and g8. Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... In chess, each player has one of two equivalent sets of pieces of different colors. ... King (chess) icon extracted from Image:Cb start. ... The king (♔♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. ... Queen (chess) icon extracted from Image:Cb start. ... Queen. ... Rook (chess) icon extracted from Image:Cb start. ... A rook (borrowed from Persian رخ rokh) is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. ... Bishop (chess) icon extracted from Image:Cb start. ... A bishop (♗♝) is a piece in the board game of chess. ... Knight (chess) icon extracted from Image:Cb start. ... Pawn (chess) icon extracted from Image:Cb start. ... The pawn (♙♟) is the weakest and most numerous piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly pikemen. ... This article is about a recreational activity. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 nugget For other uses, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ...

The knight move is unusual among chess pieces. It plays and captures alternately on white and black squares; each move may be described as stepping one square horizontally or vertically and then two squares perpendicular to the previous part of the move (in other words, an L-shape). The move is one of the longest surviving moves in chess, having remained unchanged since before the seventh century AD. Because of this it also occurs in most chess-related national games. A chess variant is any game derived from, related to or similar to chess in at least one respect. ...

See the diagram to the left for the eight legal moves of a centralized knight. Unlike other chess pieces, the knight ignores any pieces in the path of its move, "jumping" directly to the destination square. Like the other pieces, it captures an enemy piece on its destination square.

Most pieces are more powerful if placed near the center of the board, but this is particularly true for a knight. A knight on the edge of the board attacks only four squares, and a knight in the corner only two. Moreover, it takes more moves for a decentralized knight to switch operation to the opposite side of the board than a decentralized bishop, rook, or queen. For these reasons the phrase, "A knight on the rim is grim" was coined. (Others say "A knight on the rim is dim.")

The knight is the only piece that can move at the beginning of the game before any pawn move has been made. Because of the above reasons, in most situations, the best square for the initial move of each knight is towards the center. Knights are usually brought into play slightly sooner than bishops, and much sooner than the rooks and the queen. The pawn (♙♟) is the weakest and most numerous piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly pikemen. ... A bishop (♗♝) is a piece in the board game of chess. ... A rook (borrowed from Persian رخ rokh) is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. ... Queen. ...

Note that the knight is the only piece that can be in position to attack a queen without being in the queen's line of attack. It is also not attacked by a king, bishop, or rook which it attacks. These features make the knight especially well-suited for executing a fork. The king (♔♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. ... The white knight is forking the black king and rook. ...

A powerful knight occupying a hole (d5) in the enemy pawn structure.

A knight is approximately equal in strength and value to a bishop. The latter's range is larger but the knight has the advantage of being able to reach any square of the board regardless of color. Since the knight is capable of jumping over obstructing pieces, it is considered to be more valuable earlier in the game when the board is more crowded. Also a crowded board provides more opportunity for the knight to execute forks. In endgames with pawns on both sides of the board, a knight is often not as good as a bishop, as it can only control squares on one side of the board at a time. With pawns on only one side, however, a knight can be more useful, as it is capable of controlling all squares, whereas a bishop can only ever control those of the same colour on which it stands. Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... In chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. ...

Enemy pawns are very effective at harassing knights, because a pawn attacking a knight is not itself attacked by the knight. For this reason, a knight is most effective when placed in a "hole" in the enemy position, i.e. a square which can't be attacked by enemy pawns. In the diagram at right, white's knight on d5 is very powerful, more powerful than black's bishop on g7.

At the end of the game, if one side has only a king and a knight while the other side is down to nothing but its king, the game is a draw, since checkmate is impossible. Even if with two knights and king against bare king, checkmate can only occur if the opponent commits a blunder by moving the king to a square where it may be checkmated on the next move; a checkmate can never be forced. Checkmate can be forced, however, with a bishop and knight, or with two bishops, even though the bishop and knight are conceptually held to be of equal value. Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if black has a single extra pawn, but this is essentially a curiosity of little practical value. Pawnless endings are a rarity, and if the winning side has even a single pawn, an extra knight should give him an easy win.

In algebraic notation, the usual modern way of recording chess games, the letter N stands for the knight (K is reserved for the king); in descriptive chess notation, Kt is often used instead. In chess problems and endgame studies, the letter S, standing for the German name for the piece, Springer, is often used, N instead being used for the popular fairy chess piece, the nightrider. Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Sam Loyd, London Era, 1861 Excelsior by Sam Loyd. ... An endgame study, or just study, is a composed chess position—that is, one that has been made up rather than one from an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find a way for White, moving first, to win... A fairy chess piece or unorthodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess, but used in certain chess variants and some chess problems. ...

See also

• Chess piece
• Knight's Tour
• Knight's tour graph