King

Abbreviated K, drawn as ♚. The most important piece, since the ultimate goal of the game is to destroy (checkmate) the opponent's king. The king moves and captures in any direction, one square at a time, onto an adjacent square that is not attacked by the opponent's pieces. Under certain conditions, once during a game, the king may make a joint move with a rook, called castling. In the starting position each side has one king, standing on e1 (for Black, e8).