Knight (chess)

A knight is a piece in chess.

Each player starts the game with two knights.

One starts between the king's rook and bishop, the other between the queen's rook and bishop.

The pieces are called either the king's Knight or the queen's Knight.

White starts the game with Knights on the first row (to the left and right of the rooks and bishops).

The starting squares are b1 and c1 for White's knights, and b8 and g8 for Black's knights.

How does a Knight move?

Knights can only move in an L shape

Knights captures an enemy piece by replacing it on its square.

How many points is a knight worth in chess?

Knights are considered to be worth 3 pawns.

So they are less valuable than a rook (which is worth 5 pawns), and of equal value to bishops (which are also worth 3 points).

How to effectively use your knight

Place Your Knights In The Center

Knights are short range pieces and work best when placed in the center (since they control the most squares there)

A knight placed in the corner or edge of the board can only attack two squares, where as a knight in the center can attack eight.

Unlike a bishop, which can be extremely effective in the corner or side of the board, a knight has to be in the center of the board to be effective.

Put Your Knights on “Outpost” Squares

An outpost square is a square that you put your pieces and your opponents cannot chase them off of.

Knights in the center of the board are very strong, so your opponent should try to chase your knights away from the center of the board toward the edges.

If you can get your Knight on an outpost square in the center, however, then your opponent can’t chase away your Knight and has to deal with it your Knight controlling all of the center squares.

At the highest levels of chess, many moves are planned out in advance just to win one of these outpost squares.

Move Your Knights Before Your Bishops

In general, you want to move your Knights before Bishops.

Knight are short range pieces that take a couple of moves to get to a strong outpost square.

Bishops are longer range pieces and can be influential from their starting squares. They typically can get to a good square in one move.

Know the Limitations Of Knights

If a knight is on a light square, its next move must be to a dark square (and if a knight is on a dark square, its next move must be to a light square).

You can use this information to your advantage and completely cut off a Knight.

If a Knight just moved to a light square, you can use a dark-squared bishop (or queen) to completely cut off the knight from moving.

See an example of this below:

Learn How To Use Your Knights To Fork

Knights are extremely effective at forking (attacking multiple pieces at the same time)

You should always look out for forks when Knights are on the board (either to use them against your opponent or to protect yourself from them)

Below, White set up a fork on Black (which will cause him to lose a rook)