The Knight in Chess: How It Moves, What It's Worth, and Which Sets Get It Right
Two squares one way, one square sideways, and nothing on the board can block it. That's the whole trick.
The knight in chess is the only piece that jumps, moving 2 squares in one direction and then 1 square perpendicular. Each player starts with 2 of them, which puts 4 knights on a full 32-piece board. That L shape never changes, not in the opening, not in a king and pawn endgame. No promotion, no long-range version waiting in the back of the rulebook.
What catches people is the jumping. Ring a knight with pawns, pieces, anything you like, and it still gets out. Nothing blocks it. That one rule is why beginners drop material to knights in the first ten moves, and why club players still walk into forks in round five of a Tuesday night Swiss.
The L move, square by square
Count the squares a knight attacks and the mystery drains out of it. From the middle of the board, 8 squares. From the edge, 4. From the corner, 2. That's the whole reason for the old line about knights on the rim.
| Knight's square | Squares it attacks | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Center (d4, e4, d5, e5) | 8 | A knight on e4 covers c3, c5, d2, d6, f2, f6, g3, g5 |
| Edge (a4, h5, d1) | 4 | A knight on a4 covers b2, c3, c5, b6 |
| Corner (a1, h8) | 2 | A knight on a1 covers b3 and c2, and that's it |
One more thing worth filing away: a knight always lands on the opposite color square from the one it left. Light to dark, every single time, no exceptions. You can audit any knight move on the board with that rule alone, which helps a lot while you're still learning the rest of the chess pieces and your eyes haven't caught up yet.
What a knight is worth against the other pieces
Three pawns, roughly. Club players score the knight at 3 points, the bishop at 3, the rook at 5, and the queen at 9. Nobody argues about the queen. People argue about knights and bishops until the club room lights go off.
| Piece | Points | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Pawn | 1 | The unit of account |
| Knight | 3 | Jumps, shines in blocked positions |
| Bishop | 3 | Long range, needs open diagonals |
| Rook | 5 | A knight plus two pawns, near enough |
| Queen | 9 | Don't trade a queen for a knight and a pawn |
So when someone says they're up a knight, they mean a 3-point edge. That's usually enough to win with ordinary technique, and it's the sort of lead you protect by trading pieces rather than chasing tactics. Full breakdown of the numbers lives on the chess piece values page if you want the reasoning behind each figure.
Here's my concession, since you asked for one. In an open position with pawns on both wings, I'd rather have the bishop pair. Knights are slow and short. But put a knight on a protected square in the middle of a locked pawn chain and it outplays a bishop every time. The bishop chess side of this argument has its own page, and it's worth reading both before you decide which one you're happy to trade.
Forks, outposts, and where knights earn their keep
A knight on b1 needs two moves to reach e4, hopping through c3. Two moves is an eternity in a sharp opening, which is why "develop your knights before move 10" is the oldest advice in the game and still the most useful.
Then there's the fork. A knight hits 8 squares, so it can threaten two things at once from a square where nothing attacks it back. The classic version is a knight landing on c7: it checks the king on e8 and hits the rook on a8 in the same move. If you want to see why that hurts so much, look at what a rook is actualy worth compared to a knight.
The knight's other job is the outpost. Plant it on a square in enemy territory where no pawn can ever chase it away, and it controls 8 squares for the rest of the game. That's the piece people forget about until it lands on f5 and the position falls apart.
Knight size, shape, and the sets that get it right
The knight is the piece carvers show off. In a Staunton style set it's the horse head and neck, and it's the first piece you look at to judge whether a set was made with care or just assembled. The three listings on this page don't state a per-piece knight height, so I won't invent one. What they do give you is the frame around it.
US Chess guidance for a playing set puts king height between 3.375 and 4.5 inches, squares between 2 and 2.5 inches, and the king base at about 75 to 80 percent of the square. A 3.75 inch king on 2.25 inch squares is the standard club pairing, and the king in chess sets the scale for everything else in the box.
| Measurement | Common tournament range |
|---|---|
| King height | 3.375 to 4.5 inches |
| Square size | 2 to 2.5 inches |
| King base | About 75 to 80 percent of the square |
One practical note on shape. On cheap plastic knights, the neck and the ears are the first things to go. Felt bottoms help the piece slide instead of catching an edge, and a knight that wobbles on its base is a knight that gets knocked over mid-game and takes your queen with it.
Teaching the knight without tears
Kids pick up the L faster with a board in front of them than with a diagram. Two squares forward, one to the side, like a horse hopping a fence. Then hand them a single knight on an empty board and ask them to visit all 64 squares without landing on one twice. That's the knight's tour, and it teaches the move better than 20 minutes of explanation.
For a first set, printed pieces do real work. The Spin Master Chess Teacher prints the name of each piece along with the direction and the number of spaces it moves, so a kid can check the knight's L without asking you every 30 seconds. Ages 8 and up on that one. If you'd rather teach the move yourself and keep the board plain, a standard folding set at ages 6 and up costs less and does the same job once the rules stick.
If you need a set to learn on
Three sets cover the beginner end of the market, and they're aimed at different people.
Spin Master Games Cardinal Classics Chess Teacher
- Includes: Chessboard, 32 Chess Pieces, Instructions
The Cardinal Classics Chess Teacher prints the move on each piece, which is exactly what a beginner needs for the knight's L, and it comes with the board, 32 pieces, and instructions.
The HI-Q Classic set uses standard flat-bottomed plastic pieces and a folding cardboard board, ages 6 and up, with nothing printed on the pieces, so you're the teacher here.
The WE Games Value Tournament set gives you 34 pieces (two extra queens), a 3.75 inch king, a 19.75 inch roll-up vinyl board with 2.25 inch squares and algebraic notation, plus a bag and equalizer dice, and it's the one I'd buy for a kid who's already hooked and heading to a club.
Next step, and it takes one game: play your next ten moves with a single rule, both knights out before move 6, and see how different the board looks. If you want the opening sorted first, work through the learn chess basics before you add anything else.
Questions people ask me
Can a knight jump over pieces?
Yes. The knight is the only piece that hops over other pieces, yours or your opponent's. Piling pawns around a knight does nothing to stop it.
Is a knight worth more than a bishop?
Both count as 3 points, so on paper they're equal. Practice leans toward bishops in open positions with pawns on both wings, and toward knights when the pawn structure is locked.
How many knights are on a chessboard?
Four. Each side starts with 2, on b1 and g1 for White and b8 and g8 for Black, out of 32 pieces total.