“I have added these principles to the law: get the Knights into action before both bishops are developed.”
Emanuel Lasker
If you did not go through the page explaining the general rules for moving pieces, I recommend that you do so before continuing.
Moving Knights
The knight is a short-range weapon: it does not have the possibility to cross the chessboard in one move like the bishop (and also the rook and the queen as we will see later). However, the knight has an advantage over the bishop: it can jump over other pieces. Knights gait is kind of awkward. They are moving by doing an “L” shape. The “L” is composed of 4 squares configured as a 3 + 1 formation vertically or horizontally and in any direction. The knight can also go backward.
As we can see in the diagram above, the knight always finishes its course on a square having the opposite color of the starting square. That means knights can control both colors on the chessboard.
Capturing With Knights
Knights can capture enemy pieces occupying any destination squares it can reach on their turn to move. In the following diagram, the knight can capture 2 pieces: the c4 pawn and the bishop on f3. Note that the c6 square is not available for the knight since a friend pawn occupies it.
Let’s continue the lesson with the next page so we can learn how the rook moves.
