The King and how he moves

The King is the most important chess piece on the board. Each team only gets one king and he has very special rules that apply to him such as check and checkmate. Still, the king has a very simple moving pattern in chess. The king only moves one space at a time, in any direction. He also attacks the same way he moves. The king has one special rule you need to know from the beginning: he cannot be next to another king.

When setting up the chess board, the kings always go on the e file. For white this is e1 and for black this is e8.