The King's Movement Explained

Initial Position of the King:

Starting Position: The King begins the game in the center of the back rank, with the white King on e1 and the black King on e8.

Value of the King

However, since the game is lost whenever the king is “Attacked and he can't move anywhere” (i. e. checkmated), we don’t assign the king a certain value. He is invaluable

King Movement:

The King Moves One Square in Every Direction.

The movement of the king is fairly straight-forward to remember.

The king can move one square in any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction in a given turn.

How does a King Capture?

A king captures horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

Remember that a king can’t move more than one square. Therefore, it always captures the pawns and pieces that stand right next to it in diagonal, vertical, and horizontal directions.

For instance, the white king at e4 can capture the knight at d5 and the bishop at f5, but it can’t capture the pawn at e6.

Why can’t the king at e4 capture the pawn at e6?

The king at e4 can’t capture the pawn at e6 because even though a king can move forward, it can’t skip a square. It only captures the pieces and pawns that are right in the next square.

In other words, the king can only move to the squares that are touching the square the king is standing right now.

Can a King Checkmate Another King?

A king cannot checkmate another king.

Nope. A king can’t check the opponent’s king in chess. It’s not legally possible for a king to checkmate the enemy king. It’s simply not a legal move.

Why can’t a king checkmate another king?

A king can’t checkmate another king because it breaks FIDE rules.

According to FIDE, a player can’t play their king into check or checkmate position.

Even if there are no other moves available than to check the enemy king with your king, it’s a stalemate situation.

A king can’t checkmate another king because it will be under check while doing so. Therefore, it’s an illegal move in chess.

What happens when two kings are left?

When only two kings left on the chessboard, and there are no other pawns and pieces, then it’s a draw. Why?

If the players decide to checkmate each other, it will end up in a draw by stalemate. However, if a king chooses to attack another, and they keep running away from each other. Then, it will end up in a drawn game after 50 moves by the 50-move rule because of no pawn movement.

So, the result is a drawn game either way.

There are a few limitations, in which case a reachable square can not be stepped onto by the king:

• If the square is occupied by a friendly piece.
• If the square is occupied by a defended enemy piece.
• If the square is being attacked by an enemy piece (that move would put the king in check)

The king can, however, capture pieces as long as they are not defended.
Since the king can only move one square at a time, he has no way of jumping over other pieces (unlike the knight).

Few example on King Movement:

Here White King is on e4 square and Black pawn on e7 square. Now, we will see and count , how many steps White King will take to reach the Square of the pawm.

here , White King will take 3(three square) to reach the the Sqaure of the pawn and capture it.

1st Step King will move to e5 square, followed e6 square then moved to e7 square and capture it.

Here is the Link for practising by yourself on lichess :

Practice for the King movement