Читать книгу Chess For Dummies - Eade James - Страница 12

The king isn’t the most powerful chess piece (the queen is – see the preceding section for details), but he’s the most important (and in conventional chess sets, he’s the tallest). When someone attacks your king, you must defend him. If your king is attacked and you can’t defend him, then you have checkmate … and the game is over (see Chapter 4 for information on checkmate). But you never actually capture the king; you simply force him to yield. Thousands may die on the battlefield, but royalty respects royalty. (Yet don’t forget that the king can capture, just like the other pieces, by taking over an opponent’s square!)

Figure 2-11 shows where the king resides on the chessboard at the start of the game.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 2-11: The kings, seated on their thrones.

The king can move one square in any direction, except for the one-time possibility of castling (see Chapter 5 for details on this special move). The kings may never get too close to one another but must remain at arm’s length (at least one square away) because one king may never put the other in check. You can see the king’s possible moves for yourself in Figure 2-12.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 2-12: The Xs mark the king’s possible moves from his location.

You may expect a king to lead his troops into battle, but that analogy doesn’t quite work because the king usually hides away in a corner behind pawns until it’s safe to come out. Generally, when the king becomes active, the endgame (when most pieces have been captured) has begun. During the endgame, the king can become very powerful, and you should consider bringing him to the center. But a king in the middle of the board during the middlegame is a recipe for disaster (check out Chapters 14 and 15 for details on middlegame and endgame strategy).