Where Can Knights Move in Chess? The L Shape, Square by Square (2026)
The L shape, the eight squares, and why the corner of the board is the worst place for a horse.
A knight moves two squares in one direction and then one square at a right angle, which gives it up to 8 possible landing squares from the middle of the board. Put a knight on e4 and it reaches d2, f2, c3, g3, c5, g5, d6 and f6, and nothing on the board can stand in its way.
That last part is what confuses people. Bishops and rooks need a clear road. The knight doesn't. It's the one piece in the box that hops, which is why a beginner's first knight move often looks illegal and then turns out to be fine. I've watched plenty of club-night learners freeze over this, and the question is rarely "where can it go" but "wait, it can do that?"
The eight squares from a central knight
The arithmetic is easy once you stop trying to trace a diagonal. Take two squares in a straight line, then turn 90 degrees and take one more. From e4:
| Two-square part | Then one square across | Squares reached | | e4 to e6 | d6 or f6 | d6, f6 | | e4 to e2 | d2 or f2 | d2, f2 | | e4 to c4 | c5 or c3 | c5, c3 | | e4 to g4 | g5 or g3 | g5, g3 |
Four directions, two landing squares each, eight total. No path, no clear line, no traffic. On paper it's the strangest move in chess and the easiest to count once you've done it twenty times.
Move counts by square, from corner to center
Not every knight has eight options. The board squeezes it near the edges, and the difference is big enough to plan around.
| Where the knight stands | Example square | Legal moves | | Corner | a1 | 2 | | Edge, one square from a corner | b1 | 3 | | Edge, away from the corners | d1 | 4 | | One square in from a corner | b2 | 4 | | Two squares in from the edge, near a corner | c2 | 6 | | Anywhere with room on every side | c3, d4, e4 | 8 |
Old club saying: a knight on the rim is dim. A corner knight has 2 moves; a central one has 8, which is four times the reach for the same piece. I'll still concede that rim knights have their uses, usually defending a castled king or covering a square like h2, but you don't want one parked there for ten moves. If you're brand new to the board, the bigger picture of how all six piece types fit together is worth a pass through the guide to chess pieces.
Why a knight lands on the other color every time
Every knight move covers three squares of ground, two in one direction and one in the other, and three is an odd number. That single fact does alot of work.
A knight on a light square can only ever land on a dark square in one move, so it can never attack a piece standing on its own color. It also means bringing a knight home to its starting square always takes an even number of moves. Two, four, six, never three.
Watch for this when you're calculating. If you're counting knight moves and the piece keeps landing on the same color, you've miscounted somewhere.
The horse jumps, so blocking doesn't work
Most people call it the horse, and that's fair, because the piece is a horse's head. In notation it's the knight, written N, and it's the only piece in a standard set that gets carved rather than turned on a lathe in a good wooden Staunton set. The full run-down of how this piece is named, abbreviated and drawn sits in the guide to the knight in chess.
Now the part that wins games. A knight cannot be blocked. Surround it with eight of your opponent's pawns and it still hops out over them, because the move ignores everything except the landing square. That's the whole idea behind the specific rule about the knight jumping over pieces, and it's why a knight can slip into a closed position and start causing trouble while bishops sit and stare at pawn chains.
One limit, and beginners miss it: the knight can't land on a square occupied by its own piece. Everything in between is irrelevant.
Backwards, sideways, and what a knight is worth
The L works in every direction. Two squares forward and one across is legal, and so is two squares backward and one across. Pawns are the only pieces on the board with a one-way rule; a knight retreating from f3 to g1 to shore up the kingside is a normal, healthy move, not a wasted one. There's more on that in the answer to whether knights can move backwards.
On value, the standard count gives a knight 3 points, the same as a bishop. I'll admit the bishop is usually the slightly better piece in a wide-open position with pawns off the board, but the knight is the one that thrives in cramped, cluttered middlegames. Knights also love a fork, which is one piece attacking two targets at once. Drop a knight on c7 and it hits a8 and e8 simultaneously. That's a rook and a king's escape square, from a single hop. The full point scale for every piece is in the guide to chess piece values.
If you need a set to learn on
The right beginner set should show you the move without you having to open a book.
Spin Master Games Cardinal Classics Chess Teacher
- Includes: Chessboard, 32 Chess Pieces, Instructions
The listing says each piece is printed with its name, the direction it travels and how many squares it moves, and the box includes the board, 32 pieces and instructions for ages 8 and up. I'd buy it for a kid who has asked three times how the horse moves.
This one is 34 pieces including two extra queens, a 3.75-inch king, and a 19.75-inch roll-up board with 2.25-inch squares, plus a bag and equalizer dice. I'd buy it for a family or a club that wants a real tournament-sized board without tournament money.
Standard flat-bottomed plastic pieces, a folding cardboard board and a recommended age of 6 and up. I'd skip it for a club that plays weekly, since cardboard corners go soft fast, but as a first set on a kitchen table it does the job.
Set up the full board, play 1.Nf3, and before you touch anything else, count out loud the eight squares that knight now covers. Do it for four games in a row and the L shape stops being a calculation and starts being a reflex. For the rest of the beginner syllabus, work through the learn chess section from the opening moves onward.
Questions people ask me
Can a knight move backwards in chess?
Yes, and it's completely legal. The L shape works in all four directions, so a knight can go two squares forward and one across, two squares backward and one across, or two squares sideways and one across. Pawns are the only pieces that can't retreat.
Can the knight jump over other pieces?
Yes. The knight is the only piece on the board that ignores blocking pieces, so a knight can hop over pawns, bishops, anything in the way. The one limit is the landing square: it can't finish on a square occupied by one of its own pieces.
How many squares can a knight move to?
Up to eight, and only from squares with enough room on every side. A knight in the middle of the board has eight options, one on the edge usually has three or four, and one stuck in a corner has just two. That spread is why coaches keep telling you to centralize the horse.