A king in chess normally moves one square in any direction —forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally—as long as it does not move onto a square controlled by an enemy piece.

King’s basic moves

  • One square at a time in any of the eight directions around it.
  • It cannot move to a square occupied by one of its own pieces.
  • It captures the same way it moves: by stepping onto a neighboring square that contains an opponent’s piece.
  • The king may not move into check (onto a square attacked by an enemy piece), and you also cannot make any move that leaves your king in check.
  • Two kings can never stand on adjacent squares, because that would mean the moving king just walked into check, which is illegal.

Special move: castling

There is one special situation where the king can move two squares: castling.

  • In castling, the king moves two squares toward one of its rooks, and then that rook jumps over to the square the king crossed.
  • Castling is only legal if:
    1. The king and that rook have never moved before.
2. All squares between them are empty.

3. The king is not currently in check.

4. None of the squares the king passes through or lands on are attacked by an enemy piece.

Think of the king as a very short-range piece that must stay safe at all times: it shuffles one step at a time, can help in attack in the endgame, but is never allowed to walk into danger.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.