King (chess)

Chess piece

White king

Black king

The king (♔, ♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. It may move to any adjoining square; it may also perform, in tandem with the rook, a special move called castling. If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove or evade the threat of capture immediately, such as by moving it away from the attacked square. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate, resulting in a loss for that player. A player cannot make any move that places their own king in check. Despite this, the king can become a strong offensive piece in the endgame or, rarely, the middlegame.

In algebraic notation, the king is abbreviated by the letter K among English speakers. The white king starts the game on e1; the black king starts on e8. Unlike all other pieces, each player can have only one king, and the kings are never removed from the board during the game.

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

## Placement and movement

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Initial placement of the kings

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Possible movements of an unhindered king

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The king's movement may be hindered by other pieces. Black's king cannot move to squares under attack by the white bishop, knight, queen, or pawn; White's king cannot move to squares under attack by the black queen.

The white king starts on e1, on the first file to the right of the queen from White's perspective. The black king starts on e8, directly across from the white king. Each king starts on a square opposite its own color.

A king can move one square horizontally, vertically, and diagonally unless the square is already occupied by a friendly piece or the move would place the king in check. If the square is occupied by an undefended enemy piece, the king may capture it, removing it from play. Opposing kings may never occupy adjacent squares (see opposition) to give check, as that would put the moving king in check as well. The king can give discovered check, however, by unblocking a bishop, rook, or queen.

### Castling

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Main article: Castling

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White has castled kingside (0-0); Black has castled queenside (0-0-0).

The king can make a special move, in conjunction with a rook of the same color, called castling. When castling, the king moves two squares horizontally toward one of its rooks, and that rook is placed on the square over which the king crossed.

Castling is permissible under the following conditions:

* Neither the king nor the castling rook have previously moved.
* No squares between the two pieces are occupied.
* The king is not in check.
* None of the squares the king would move across or to are under enemy attack.

Castling with the h-file rook is known as castling kingside or short castling (denoted 0-0 in algebraic notation), while castling with the a-file rook is known as castling queenside or long castling (denoted 0-0-0).

## Status in games

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### Check and checkmate

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Main articles: Check (chess) and Checkmate

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Black's king cannot move to squares under attack by the white bishop, knight, queen, or pawn. Since White is checking Black, and Black can neither move, capture the checking piece, nor block the check, Black is checkmated.

A king that is under attack is said to be in check, and the player in check must immediately remedy the situation. There are three possible ways to remove the king from check:

1. Capturing the checking piece. This is done with either the king or another piece, but the king cannot be placed in check from a different piece in the process.
2. Moving the king. The king is moved to an adjacent square where it is not in check. The king is not allowed to castle when it is in check.
3. Blocking the check. Also called interposing, this is possible only if the checking piece is a queen, rook, or bishop and there is at least one empty square in the line between the checking piece and the checked king. Blocking a check is done by moving a piece to one such empty square. (The blocking piece is then pinned to the king by the attacking piece.)

If none of the three options are available, the player's king has been checkmated, and the player loses the game.

If the king is under attack by two different pieces simultaneously, it is not possible to capture or block both of them simultaneously so the king must move.

In casual games, when placing the opponent's king in check, it is common to announce this by saying "check", but this is not required by the rules of chess. In tournament games, it is unusual to announce check; competent players are expected to know when they are in check.

### Stalemate

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Main article: Stalemate

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White to move: White cannot move legally because of the black queen and king. Since the king may not move into check, White is stalemated.

A stalemate occurs when a player, on their turn, 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, in order to avoid a loss, try to entice the opponent to inadvertently place the player's king in stalemate (see swindle).

## Role in gameplay

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In the opening and middlegame, the king will rarely play an active role in the development of an offensive or defensive position, with the notable exception of a king walk. Instead, it will normally 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, and can assist in the promotion of the player's remaining pawns.

It is not meaningful to assign a value to the king relative to the other pieces, as it cannot be captured or exchanged and must be protected at all costs. 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),[1] though some other theorists evaluate it closer to three points. It is better at defending friendly pawns than the knight is, and it is better at attacking enemy pawns than the bishop is.[2]

## History

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The Indian chess king represented here by the Maharaja seated upon a tall elephant in a Howdah

The king's predecessor is the piece of the same name in shatranj. Like the modern king, it is the most important piece in the game and can move to any neighboring square. However, in shatranj, baring the king is a win unless the opponent can do the same immediately afterward; stalemating the king is a win; and castling does not exist.

### Name translations

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Overview of chess piece names  Language

| King | Translation

|
|

Afrikaans | K Koning | king
Albanian | M Mbreti | king
Arabic | م مَلِك (malik) | king
Azerbaijani | Ş Şah | shah
Armenian | Ա Արքա (Ark῾a) | king
Basque | E Erregea | king
Belarusian (Taraškievica)  | К кароль | king
Bengali | R রাজা (rājā) | King
Bulgarian | Ц цар | tsar
Catalan | R rei |
Chinese | K 王 (wáng) | king
Czech | K král | king
Danish | K konge | king
Dutch | K koning | king
English | K king |
Esperanto | R reĝo | king
Estonian[3] | K kuningas | king
Finnish | K kuningas | king
French | R roi | king
Galician | R rei | king
Georgian | მფ მეფე (mep'e) | king
German[4] | K König | king
Greek | Ρ βασιλιάς (vasiliás) | king
Hindi | R राजा (rājā) | king
Hebrew | מ מלך (Melech) | king
Hausa | S sarki | king
Hungarian | K király | king
Icelandic | K kóngur | king
Ido | R rejo | king
Indonesian | R raja | king
Interslavic | K kralj | king
Irish | R rí | king
Italian | R re | king
Japanese | K キング (kingu) |
Javanese | R raja | king
Kannada | ರಾ ರಾಜ (raaja) | king
Kazakh | Кр патша (patşa) | king
Korean | K 킹 (king) |
Latin | R rex | king
Latvian | K karalis | king
Lithuanian | K karalius | king
Luxembourgish | K Kinnek | king
Macedonian | K крал | king
Malayalam | K രാജാവ് (raajavu) | king
Marathi | R राजा (rājā) | king
Mongolian | Н ноён | noyan
Norwegian Bokmål | K konge | king
Norwegian Nynorsk | K konge | king
Odia | K ରଜା (rôja) | king
Oromo | M Mootii |
Persian | ش شاه | king
Polish | K król | king
Portuguese | R rei | king
Romanian | R rege | king
Russian | Кр король (korol') | king
Scottish Gaelic | R righ | king
Serbo-Croatian | K kralj (К краљ) | king
Northern Sotho | K Kgoši |
Sicilian | R re | king
Slovak | K kráľ | king
Slovene | K kralj | king
Spanish | R rey | king
Swedish | K kung | king
Tamil | K அரசன் (arasaṉ) | king
Telugu | రాజు (rāju) | king
Thai | ข ขุน (khun) | king
Turkish | Ş/K şah / kral | shah / king
Ukrainian | Kр король (korol) | king
Urdu | بادشاہ (bādshāh) |
Vietnamese | V vua | king
Welsh | T teyrn / brenin | lord / king

## Unicode

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Main article: Chess symbols in Unicode

Unicode defines three codepoints for a king:

♔ U+2654 White Chess King

♚ U+265A Black Chess King

🨀 U+1FA00 Neutral Chess King

## See also

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* 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

## Notes

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1. ^ (Lasker 1934:73)
2. ^ (Ward 1996:13)
3. ^ The Estonian chess terms were coined by Ado Grenzstein.
4. ^ "Handbook". www.fide.com. Retrieved 22 March 2019. "The pieces bear the names: Koenig, Dame, Turm, Laeufer, Springer, Bauer"

## References

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* 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
* Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1996) [First pub. 1992], "king", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 200–01, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
* Lasker, Emanuel (1934), Lasker's Chess Primer, Billings (1988 reprint), ISBN 0-7134-6241-8 `{{citation}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
* Ward, Chris (1996), Endgame Play, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-7920-5
* FIDE Handbook: Laws of Chess

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chess kings.

* Fianchetto variation of the King’s Indian Defence Archived 2014-08-05 at archive.today
* Piececlopedia: King by Fergus Duniho and Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages

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