Know Chess Pieces Names and their Moves

December 6, 2023

Chess has been with us for nearly 1500 years. Still, whenever someone sees chess pieces lying on a chess board, they remain curious about the name of the piece that has a horse-like shape. In this blog post, we are uncovering the names of every pieces so that chess lovers who are just diving into the strategic world can easily identify chess pieces names.

Basically chess pieces are divided into the following categories:

Major Pieces - Queen and Rooks are the part of major pieces.
Minor Pieces - Knights, Bishops, and Pawns are the part of minor pieces.
King

We understand that you have still confusion about Queens and Rooks and couldn't identify the difference between the two. Worry not; we are disclosing their names and roles in the chess game. Engage yourself with this post.

Pawn

Pawn and how it move

Commonly known as 'piyada' in India. It can move one or two square forward from their starting position, but after that, they can move only one square forward at time. To take an opposing piece pawn move one square diagonally.

Knight

Knight and how they move in chess board

Knight also known as 'Asb' in Persian language. The horse like shape this piece jump over other pieces on the board, typically in L-shape, two square in any direction and then one square perpendicular to that direction. Knights are the one kind piece that can capture a piece without landing on a square of their color.

Bishop

Bishop and how they move on a chess board

Bishop commonly known as 'camel' in India, it moves diagonally along the board. It is noted that it always stay on sqaures of the same color. On board, there are two bishops, one on light sqaure and one on dark sqaure. And due to this, bishops are often referred as 'light-squared bishop' and the 'dark-squared bishop.'

Rook

Rook with their move on a chess board

It moves horizontally and vertically along the board, as far as it can go in that direction, until it is blocked by another piece or reaches the edge of the board. There are two Rooks on each side of the board.

Queen

Queen with their move on a chess board

The most powerful piece on the board is able to move in any number of squares vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Queen can move as far as it wants, as long as it is not blocked by another piece.

King

As a most important piece in the game of chess, it can move one square in any direction. It is noted that it cannot move into a square that is attacked by an opposing piece. If a king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check. The goal of the chess game is to put the opponent’s king in a position where it cannot escape capture i.e. checkmate.

Bottom Line

In the game of chess, each piece has their unique role so it becomes essential to understand how they move in order to play chess efficiently. If you found this post helpful, please share it with your loved ones who are just dive into world of strategy game.

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