Lesson 2: The King and the Queen (the game begins)
Today, we truly begin: you will learn how the king and queen move, and you will understand a key idea that separates those who "move just to move" from those who play strategically: attacking and defending.
✅ What you will achieve today
- Know exactly how the king moves.
- Know exactly how the queen moves.
- Understand what it means to attack a piece and what it means to defend a piece.
- Do a mini-practice on the board (2–5 minutes).
1) The King: moves 1 square (in any direction)
The king is the most important piece. If the king is checkmated, the game ends. That's why the king moves carefully.
King's movement: moves 1 square in any direction: up, down, left, right, or diagonally.
2) The Queen: the most powerful piece (straight lines and diagonals)
The queen combines the moves of the rook and bishop (we will see these in subsequent lessons). In other words: she moves along lines.
Queen's movement: can move as many squares as you want in a straight line (horizontal or vertical) or diagonally, as long as there are no pieces blocking the way.
3) The key idea: attacking and defending
In chess, a piece "attacks" a square if it could capture an enemy piece that was there. It's that simple.
✅ Quick definitions
- Attack: my piece can capture something on that square.
- Defend: if the opponent captures my piece, I can recapture.
- Hanging piece: a piece that can be captured and is undefended (a typical mistake!).
Easy example (without overcomplicating)
Place your queen in the center of the board. You will see that she "looks at" many squares. All of those squares are squares that the queen attacks (because she could capture there if there were a piece).
📸 Recommended photo (yours): queen attacking a piece (for example, a rook) in a straight line.
(This is perfect for the reader to understand "attack" in 3 seconds.)
4) Today's mini-mission (3 minutes)
- Place your king in the center of the board (for example, on e4).
- Move the king to any of its 8 possible squares (make 5 different moves).
- Now place your queen in the center (for example, on d4).
- Move the queen 5 times: 2 in a straight line and 3 diagonally.
- Last step: leave the queen on a square where she "attacks" the enemy king (just to understand the concept).
Typical mistake: bringing out the queen too early to "attack quickly." We'll see how to do it right, but for now, remember this: first understand the board and don't give away pieces.
5) Next lesson
In Lesson 3, you will learn two super important pieces:
- The rook (straight lines).
- The bishop (diagonals).
Note: in this chapter, we still don't use the notebook. The notebook will appear when we start looking at games or sequences of moves (Chapter 5 and Chapter 9).