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The knight moves one square horizontally or vertically, and then moves two squares 90 degrees different than the first movement. I'll explain it again with an example: The knight is sitting on a light square. It moves 1 square up (vertically), and then two squares to the left (horizontally). It then moves one square right (horizontally), and then two squares down (vertically). If you look at the movement path, it looks like an uppercase L. The knight can jump over other pieces, as long as no piece is standing at its destination. This means that your first move of any game could be a knight jumping over your bishop and pawns and moving out in front. The knights are places next to each bishop.

The final two pieces to learn are the rook and pawns. Rooks are simple: they look like a tower with battlements on top, and they move to any square horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. Rooks are placed in the two corners on your side of the board. Pawns are the numerous pieces lined up in front of every other piece, in the second row. They usually have a sphere on top, and are the shortest pieces. The pawn moves one square forward only. One exception: When a pawn has never been moved before, they are allowed to move two squares forward instead of one. You do not have to, but it is usually a good idea to get this "jumpstart." They cannot move backwards or to the sides, except in capturing. A pawn captures another piece by moving diagonally forward, never backwards. Example: if a white pawn is on a dark square, and a black pawn moves to the dark square diagonally to the left and in front of the white pawn, the white pawn may capture it. When a pawn reaches the back row, it obviously cannot move forward any further. When this happens, the pawn changes into a queen, a bishop, a rook, or a knight; it is up to the player controlling the pawn. The pawn is usually replaced by the piece it transforms into, although if you are short on pieces, you can tip the pawn over onto its side to help remember.

Capturing a piece occurs when your own piece moves onto the square an opposing piece occupies. The captured piece is removed from the board, and the attacking piece is moved to that square. Since the goal of the game is to capture the king, you want to move your pieces so that your opponent cannot get to your king, while at the same time attack your opponent's defenses to get to his king.

There are only two more important concepts to learn in chess, and they are check and

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