#King chess piece plus#

#King chess piece plus#

Emanuel Lasker gave it the value of a knight plus a pawn (i.e. 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. In this sense, its value could be considered infinite. 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 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. Instead, a player will normally try to castle and seek safety on the edge of the board behind friendly pawns. In the opening and middlegame, the king will rarely play an active role in the development of an offensive or defensive position. If none of the three options are available, the player's king has been checkmated, and the player loses the game.Īt amateur levels, when placing the opponent's king in check, it is common to announce 'check', but this is not required by the rules of chess. The attacking piece is captured (not possible when in double check, unless the king captures).A piece is interposed between the king and the attacking piece to break the line of threat (not possible when the attacking piece is a knight or pawn, or when in double check).A king can capture an adjacent enemy piece if that piece is not protected by another enemy piece. A king cannot castle to get out of check. The king is moved to an adjacent non-threatened square.There are three possible ways to remove the king from check: Since White is checking Black, and Black can neither move, capture the checking piece, nor block the check, Black is checkmated.Ī king that is under attack is said to be in check, and the player in check must immediately remedy the situation. Black's king cannot move to squares under attack by the white bishop, knight, queen, or pawn.