How do the queen and knight move?
The queen is the most powerful piece on the board and the knight is the strangest. Learning them together shows why chess takes a lifetime to master.
The queen moves like a rook and a bishop combined: any number of squares in a straight line or along a diagonal. She cannot jump over pieces, and because she is worth roughly nine pawns, losing her usually loses the game.
The knight moves in an L-shape — two squares in one direction, then one square at right angles — and it is the only piece in chess that can jump over anything in its way. That makes knights invaluable in crowded positions where every other piece is blocked, and it is why a knight fork is so hard to escape: nothing can be placed in the way to stop it.
- Queen: any distance, straight or diagonal, but cannot jump.
- Knight: two squares, then one at right angles, in an L.
- The knight is the only piece that jumps over others.
- A knight always lands on the opposite colour square to the one it left.
- A queen is worth about nine pawns; a knight about three.
Practise on a real board
4 short exercises. Nothing to install and no account needed — make the move on the board and the lesson checks it for you.
More about this
How exactly does a knight move?
Two squares in a straight line, then one square at ninety degrees — an L-shape. From the middle of an empty board a knight has eight possible destinations; from a corner it has only two.
Can a knight jump over pieces?
Yes, and it is the only piece that can. Nothing blocks a knight, whether the pieces in the way are yours or your opponent’s. That makes knights strongest early in the game, when the board is crowded.
Is a knight or a bishop better?
They are worth about the same — roughly three pawns each. Knights are stronger in closed positions with locked pawns; bishops are stronger in open positions with long clear diagonals.
Why can a queen not escape a knight check?
A queen can never attack a knight without standing on a square that knight also attacks, so she cannot threaten it from safety. When a knight checks the king and attacks the queen at the same time, the king must move and the queen falls.
Lessons are the start. The coaching is the point.
ChessIt reviews your games with a chess engine, finds the mistakes you keep repeating, and builds a short daily plan around them — free, no ads.
See how ChessIt works