Knight (chess) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The knight is a piece

Chess piece

Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...

in the game

Game

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...

of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, representing a knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

(armoured cavalry). It is normally represented by a horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner. Expressed in algebraic notation

Algebraic chess notation

Algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers...

, the white knights start on b1 and g1, while the black knights start on b8 and g8.

Movement

The knight move is unusual among chess pieces. When it moves, it can move two squares horizontally and one square vertically, or two squares vertically and one square horizontally. The complete move therefore looks like the letter 'L'. Unlike all other standard chess pieces, the knight can 'jump over' all other pieces (of either color) to its destination square. It captures an enemy piece by moving into its square. The knight's ability to 'jump over' other pieces means it tends to be at its most powerful in closed positions, in contrast to that of a bishop.
The move is one of the longest-surviving moves in chess, having remained unchanged since before the seventh century. Because of this it also appears in most chess-related national games

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...

. The knight moves alternately to white and black squares.

A knight should always be close to where the action is, meaning it is best used on areas of the board where the opponents pieces are clustered or close together. Pieces are generally 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 three or four squares (depending on its exact location) 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

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

, rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

, or queen

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

. The mnemonic phrases "A knight on the rim is grim" or "A knight on the rim is dim" are often used in chess instruction and reflect these features.
The knight is the only piece that can move at the beginning of the game before any pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

move has been made. For the above reasons, in most situations the best square for the initial move of each knight is one towards the center. Knights are usually brought into play slightly sooner than the bishops and much sooner than the rooks and the queen.

Because a knight can move in up to eight different directions, it is especially well-suited for executing a fork

Fork (chess)

In chess, a fork is a tactic that uses a single piece to attack multiple pieces at the same time. The attacker usually hopes to gain material by capturing one of the opponent's pieces. The defender often finds himself in a difficult position in which he cannot counter all threats. The attacking...

.
In the diagram at right, the numbers represent how many moves it takes for a knight to reach each square on the chess board from its location on the f5 square. Observing and even memorizing the patterns (diagonally 2-4-2-4-2-4, horizontally and vertically 3-2-3-2-3-2) helps a player to manoeuvre his knight and to avoid his pieces being attacked by an enemy knight.

Value

A knight is about equal in strength and value to a bishop. The bishop has longer range, but it is restricted to only half the squares on the board. Since the knight can jump over obstructing pieces, it is relatively more valuable when the board is more crowded (closed positions). A knight is best when it has a 'support point' or outpost

Outpost (chess)

An outpost is a square which is protected by a pawn and which cannot be attacked by an opponent's pawn. In the figure to the right, c4 is an outpost, occupied by White's knight...

– a relatively sheltered square where it can be positioned to exert its strength remotely. On the fourth rank a knight is comparable in power to a bishop, and on the fifth it is often superior to the bishop, and on the sixth rank it can be a decisive advantage. This is assuming that the knight is taking part in the action; a knight on the sixth rank which is not doing anything useful is not a well-placed piece.

Properties

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 weakness in the opponent's pawn structure

Pawn structure

In chess, the pawn structure is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus largely determines the strategic nature of the position.-General observations:Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such...

, i.e. a square which cannot 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.

Whereas two bishops cover each other's weaknesses, two knights tend not to cooperate with each other as efficiently. As such, a pair of bishops is usually considered better than a pair of knights . World Champion

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....

José Raúl Capablanca

José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play...

considered that a queen and a knight is usually a better combination than a queen and a bishop. However, Glenn Flear

Glenn Flear

Glenn Curtis Flear is a British chess grandmaster now living in Montpellier, France. He is the author of several books, some on chess openings and some on the endgame....

found no game of Capablanca's that supported his statement and statistics do not support the statement either . In an endgame without other pieces or pawns, it happens that two knights have a better chance against a queen than two bishops or a bishop and a knight against the queen (see fortress (chess)

Fortress (chess)

In chess, the fortress is an endgame drawing technique in which the side behind in material sets up a zone of protection around their king that cannot be penetrated by the opponent. This only works when the opponent does not have a passed pawn or cannot create one, unless that pawn can be stopped...

).
Compared to a bishop, a knight is often not as good in an endgame. The knight's potential range of movement is more limited, which often makes it less suitable in endgames with pawns on both sides of the board. However, this limitation is often less important in endgames with pawns on only one side of the board. Furthermore, knights have the advantage of being able to control squares of either color, unlike a lone bishop.
Nonetheless, a disadvantage of the knight (compared to the other pieces) is that by itself it cannot lose a move to put the opponent in zugzwang

Zugzwang

Zugzwang is a term usually used in chess which also applies to various other games. The term finds its formal definition in combinatorial game theory, and it describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move...

(see triangulation

Triangulation (chess)

Triangulation is a tactic used in chess to put one's opponent in zugzwang. That is, it gets to the same position with the other player to move, when it is a disadvantage for that player to move, e.g. he has to give up a blockade and let the other player penetrate his position...

and tempo

Tempo (chess)

In chess, tempo refers to a "turn" or single move. When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, he "gains a tempo" and conversely when he takes one more move than necessary he "loses a tempo"...

), while a bishop can. In this position, if the knight is on a white square and it is White's turn to move, White cannot win. Similarly, if the knight was on a black square and it was Black's turn to move, White cannot win. In the other two cases, White would win. If instead of the knight, White had a bishop on either color of square, White would win with either side to move .
At the end of the game, if one side has only a king and a knight while the other side has only a king, the game is a draw

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

since a checkmate

Checkmate

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...

is impossible. When a bare king faces a king and two knights, checkmate can occur only if the opponent commits a blunder by moving his king to a square where it may be checkmated on the next move. Otherwise, a checkmate can never be forced. However checkmate can be forced with a bishop and knight, or with two bishops, even though the bishop and knight are in general about equal in value. Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if the weaker side has a single extra pawn, but this is a curiosity of little practical value (see two knights endgame). Pawnless endings are a rarity, and if the stronger side has even a single pawn, an extra knight should give him an easy win. A bishop can trap (although it cannot then capture) a knight on the rim (diagram), especially in the endgame.

Notation

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

Descriptive chess notation

Descriptive notation is a notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries , . It was used in Europe until it was superseded by abbreviated algebraic notation, which was introduced by Philipp Stamma in 1737...

, Kt is sometimes used instead, mainly in older literature. In chess problem

Chess problem

A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, that presents the solver with a particular task to be achieved. For instance, a position might be given with the instruction that White is to move first, and checkmate Black in two...

s and endgame studies, the letter S, standing for the German name for the piece, Springer, is often used (and in some variants of fairy chess N is used for the popular fairy chess piece

Fairy chess piece

A fairy chess piece or unorthodox chess piece is a piece analogous to a chess piece. It is not used in conventional chess, but is used in certain chess variants and some chess problems...

, the nightrider).

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...

defines two codepoints for knight:

♘ U+2658 White Chess Knight (HTML ♘)

♞ U+265E Black Chess Knight (HTML ♞)

Movement

Value

Properties

Notation

Unicode

See also