This can happen on the kingside or queenside as long as the king hasn’t moved and there aren’t any pieces threatening the squares where the king would move through to castle. The rook also takes part in the action of “castling” where the king moves two squares horizontally from its starting square toward the rook and the rook moves to the opposite side of the king. It can move infinitely vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. The rook is considered stronger than the bishop or knight, but slightly weaker than a bishop and knight together. The English, seeing the two tusks on the elephant piece, assumed them to be the Bishop’s miter, and, as that fit with their idea of a royal court, it became their word for the piece. Italians called the bishop their word for flag-bearer, while several languages used the word for “fool.” The bishop comes from the Indian word “Hasty” or “Gaja”, which translates to Elephant.Īs Arab chess came to Europe, the word for the piece had lost its original meaning and people were looking for words in their own language that would be similar. Unlike the knight, which excels in closed positions, jumping around and finding valuable outposts, the bishop likes open positions, where it can sit safely on a long diagonal and control a lot of the board. The bishop can move diagonally any number of squares. The bishop is a long-range threat, with little mobility.

Moves diagonally and is often useful at long range Its unique L-shaped movement and the ability to jump around helps tricky players find forks in complicated positions. Tricky players prefer the knight to its minor piece counterpart, the bishop, because of how it moves. Interestingly, in German, the knight is called a jumper, which more closely represents how it moves. This is because the board was seen as a royal court, and not a battlefield. In several languages it is still called a horse, but in English, it’s called a knight.

Chess pieces and their names