Talk:King (chess)

king move

Can the King move two spaces vertically or horizonally when not in check?

The only time the king can move anything other than one sqaure at a time is as part of castling. --Camembert

A king may not castle to get out of check, and a king may not cross a threatened square to castle. Paul Murray (talk) 03:44, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

When in check...

Can the king capture when in check? Like if the queen is right next to the king, can he capture the queen? yes he can--tswei

Yes, the king can capture when in check (assuming, of course, that the piece being captured is not protected). --Camembert

If the King is in check...

If the King is in check, the player can only do three things: block the check, capture the piece that is giving the check, or move the King. If he can do none of these three things, the King is checkmated and the game is over.

move the king to a square that is not itself threatened. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul Murray (talk • contribs) 03:46, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

You know if the King is in check if an enemy piece is is a position that would capture him. However, since the King cannot be captured, he is thus in "check." Dragon Expert 17:34, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Can king attack king????

King can attack king or any piece assuming that it isn't in any danger or mortal threat.

The king cannot actually attack another king, since the other king would have to move into a position of check to make it possible, and that is not permitted. Another mutant 03:06, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

THE ENDGAME

In the endgame thr king is a very inportant pieceTswei 12:51, 29 June 2007 (UTC) tswei

Citations

A new tag says "its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations". It does have two in-text citations in the last section. Bubba73 (talk), 01:06, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Is the King really the "weakest" piece?

"Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until a later phase, the endgame."

What exactly is meant by "weak" in this sentence? I always thought of the king as far more powerful than the pawn.86.181.150.222 (talk) 11:46, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

That is probably using "piece" in the sense of not a pawn. Early on it isn't too powerful, but that increases in the endgame. It is extremely powerful when there are only kings and pawns left. It may be stronger than knights and bishops in the endgame, see chess piece relative value. Of course, it can be balanced by the other king, depending on the position. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 13:53, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Is FIDE handbook a good source?

FIDE Handbook: Laws of Chess Is this a good source? Alshfik (talk) 14:20, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

I want to add a section on Insufficient Material in 2.3, not sure if it counts as a status, FIDE considers it so. Alshfik (talk) 10:03, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Yes FIDE handbook is a good source. MaxBrowne2 (talk) 10:46, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Should other unicode characters be included in the "Unicode" section?

See https://unicode-table.com/en/search/?q=chess+king 🨀 🨉 🨏 🨕 🨳 🨹 🨿 🨞 🨤 🨪 Alshfik (talk) 02:44, 22 August 2021 (UTC)

Chess

Players cannot make any move that places their own king in check. 2409:4042:261C:A862:E0A8:F38E:F1E2:E57F (talk) 15:16, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I do not understand why this comment was posted. ISaveNewspapers (talk) 21:43, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Peer review

King (chess)

I've listed this +article for peer review because... I'd like to know where is places on the content assessment scale, and I would like to know how I could improve on this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_(chess)

Thanks, Spectralarrow (talk) 02:15, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

LastJabberwocky

• @Spectralarrow: Not sure how energy you have :). The best place to start is to make sure every paragraph has references; and depending on the presence or absence of references we would change/add/removed information.
• This blog written by James Stripes doesn't seem to be reliable. Can Stripes be qualified as a chess expert? If not, it should be switched with another source.
• Consider merging 'Placement and movement' section with 'Status in games' under 'Game rules' as both of the section describe king-related rules.

History6042

• There are 12 paragraphs with no references and many unsourced statements.
• Most of the translations are unsourced.
• All images should have alt text.
• The table should have captions.
• The table should have row scopes.
• Why are some images proper diagrams and some seem to be screenshots from Chess.com?
• Harv warning: There is no link pointing to this citation. The anchor is named CITEREFBarden,_Leonard1980.
• Harv warning: There is no link pointing to this citation. The anchor is named CITEREFBrace,_Edward_R.1977.
• Harv warning: There is no link pointing to this citation. The anchor is named CITEREFHooperWhyld1996.
• One image/diagram has no caption.
• There are no sources in the Unicode, History, or Placement and Movement sections.
• Why is "2.25-inch (57 mm) squares" underlined?
• Please ping when finished. History6042 😊 (Contact me) 04:09, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

  is google translate a reputable source of translations? Spectralarrow (talk) 02:59, 5 February 2026 (UTC)

Poor sources

Sorry but the addition of links to sites like chessdelta.com and chesschampion.com is making the article worse. These articles are self-published in questionable English, of questionable usefulness and of questionable factuality in some cases. They seem to be reguritating wikipedia content, possibly with some AI influence, to generate useless listicle articles with titles like "the 15 best openings for White" etc. As sources they should be treated like blogs, self-published with no oversight, which wouldn't be so bad if they were recognized subject matter experts - but they're not, they're just internet "content creators". These websites are essentially internet spam. If you're looking for a source on the rules of chess, you need look no further than the FIDE handbook. MaxBrowne2 (talk) 09:54, 5 February 2026 (UTC)

thank you for pointing that out to me I'll be referencing the Official FIDE handbook from now on Spectralarrow (talk) 00:42, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

Unlikely king descriptions

"The maximum width of the king, measured at the widest part of the body or crown, is typically slightly larger than the base, often around 2–2.25 inches (50–57 mm[16])." Huh?! The article just got done stating the square size is typically 2.25" for the Staunton king. Whoever saw such an arrangement? --IHTS (talk) 06:10, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

"The king's design is generally the most ornate among the chess pieces." Huh?! More than the knight? --IHTS (talk) 06:14, 4 September 2026 (UTC)