King (chess)
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The King ( Unicode : U + 2654 ♔, ♚ U + 265A) is the most important figure in the chess game , since the objective of the game, the opponent's king matt to put - what the game ended immediately. Checkmate means to threaten the opponent's king with one (or more) pieces, without the threat being averted by moving the king to an un-threatened space, capturing the attacking piece or moving a piece in between. As a special gesture that you have lost or given up, you can knock over or knock down your own king on the chessboard.
Moving opportunities and value
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The king can move one square in any direction.
The king can move one square in each direction. With this he can reach all squares on the chessboard. However, because of its short range, it requires a relatively large number of trains. The king may not enter a threatened space. It follows that there must always be at least one space between two kings. When a king is threatened by an opposing piece, it is said that he is in check . The player in question must now make a move that ensures that his king is no longer in check. To do this, he can move the king to an unchallenged square, capture the piece offering chess or move a stone between the attacker and the king. If he has none of these options, he is checkmate and the player has lost the game.
Another move is castling , in which the king and rook move at the same time. (For a more detailed description of this pulling option, see the corresponding special article ).
Since the king cannot be exchanged for any other piece , no value can be given for him in pawn units .
The king in the three phases of the game
In the opening
At the beginning of the game the king is in the middle of the board, where he is relatively vulnerable after the first opening moves. The neuralgic point is the field f2 for white and f7 for black. The pawn standing there is the only one who is only covered by the king of the same color. If a player succeeds in attacking this pawn, this automatically threatens the king, which in many cases is decisive for the game. Numerous opening traps take advantage of this fact. The best known are the Schäfermatt and the Seekadettenmatt . But even if a player does not allow himself to be taken by surprise, his king in the middle is hardly protected against enemy attacks. Therefore, in the early stages of the game, it is usually important to move the king to safety by quickly castling behind a pawn phalanx .
In the middle game
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Typical castling positions after a long castling of white and a short castling of black. (The other figures are omitted for clarity.)
position after 34 Kg5
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In the last moves White had moved his king from g1 to g5 in order to checkmate on the next move but one (35. Kh6 ... 36. Qg7 #). Black gave up.
In the middle game the king is on g1 (or g8) after the short castling and is not moved at all in many games before reaching the endgame. Above all, he is threatened by an attack on the field h2 (or h7). B. can be initiated by a runner sacrifice, or via the basic row (see basic row matt ). The same applies to long castling, whereby the king on c1 (or c8) is one square further from the corner of the board than on the back row. Sometimes it is necessary to move Kc1 – b1 (or Kc8 – b8) to protect the a-pawn or to keep the king safe.
A famous exception is the game Nigel Short - Jan Timman from 1991, in which Short used his king as an effective attacking figure and moved from g1 via h2, g3 and f4 to g5, finally threatening mate with Kh6 (Qg7 #) that Black could not have fended off (see diagram). A king who already covers larger distances in the middle game - be it as an attacking figure in the game example or on the run from enemy attacks - is called a wandering king .
In the endgame
In the endgame , the king can make a big impact. In contrast to all other phases of the game, the king often has an active and decisive role: Due to the small number of remaining pieces in the endgame, securing the king is becoming less and less important. It is even often necessary to place the king centrally. The position of the king is particularly important in a pawn ending . It often depends on the opposition of the two kings: It is not uncommon for one of the two kings to be forced to act and has to clear certain areas for the opponent so that he can penetrate the game.
The way the king moves in connection with the square shape of the chessboard leads to a peculiarity: if the king moves diagonally, he overcomes a row and a line at the same time. So it seems to move faster than if it were dragging along the lines or rows. A passed pawn can therefore be overtaken by the king in good time before the conversion, if the king is in the “pawn's square”. This is an imaginary square, one edge of which is formed by the passed pawn and the conversion square. It is also possible for the king to approach two targets at the same time: The move Kh8 – g7 shortens the king's distance to both a8 and h1.
