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When we teach children how the Knight moves, we say "It goes one, two, then over."
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Knights basically make an "L-shaped" move on the board.
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Move two squares vertically, then one horizontally. That describes 4 different moves of the Knight.
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Move two squares horizontally, then one vertically. That describes the other 4 ways to move the Knight.
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You can see that the Knight on square f6 in the diagram has 8 legal moves, each shown with the circular dot.
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The Knight on squares b1, on the other hand, only has 3 legal moves. That is because the other moves would be "off the board."
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The Knight is said to be a "jumping" piece, and it can literally "jump over" pieces to land on its destination square.
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Knights can jump over enemy and friendly pieces alike, but it cannot land on a square occupied by one of its own pieces. When it lands on an enemy's square, it captures that piece and removes it from the board.
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The most common threat a Knight can make is the so-called forking move.
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It is white to move above on the left, and the Knight takes the Pawn, simultaneously checking the black King.
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As you can see in the diagram above on the right, after the black King moves, the white Knight takes the black Rook on the j8 square. The Rook is said to have been "forked."
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A fork can occur without the need for checking the enemy King. In this example, with black to move, the Knight on the f5 square issues a fork.
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As shown above on the right, the Knight captured the white Pawn on the d4 square and simultaneously threatens two pieces of much greater value.
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Notice how the white Queen on the c2 square and the white Archbishop on the f3 square are BOTH able to be captured next by the black Knight on the d4 square.
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While it is true that the white Archbishop could capture the black Knight on d4 in the diagram above on the right, notice there is a black Bishop on f6 protecting it.
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For this reason, the forking move works. No matter what, white will lose material as a result of coming under two simultaneous threats.
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This next example is one level more complex that the previous one that was demonstrated. Now that you see how the forking mechanism works, you should recognize black's threat shown above on the left.
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After a brief review, you should see that the black Knight on g4 is trying to "hold the Archbishop hostage" on g1. That Archbishop is protecting the h2 square.
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If the h2 square becomes unguarded, then the black Knight will capture onto h2 with check, winning the white Rook on j1.
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White needs to think about how to compel the black Knight to vacate the post on g4. As shown above on the right, he moves the Pawn to f3, which threatens to capture the Knight diagonally.
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This move "looks good" at first glance, but as shown below, black was actually hoping for this move. The best defensive move for white was to put the Chancellor on g2. (Not Archbishop to f3, or else the Knight on c6 goes to e5).
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As shown above on the left, black ignored the white Pawn's threat to the Knight on g4, and instead moved the dark-squared Bishop to d4.
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This Bishop is protected by the Knight on c6, and it threatens the white Archbishop. White does not want to take the Bishop with the Archbishop, since the Archbishop will be captured next.
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So white moves his Archbishop to a safe square (see the diagram on the right) in this case, e2. Notice that the h2 square is now undefended. Black will fork the King with a check, and then take the Rook.
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The previous example demonstrated that even knowledge of the elementary forking mechanism could be exploited, if you think more deeply than your opponent.
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While white did make a mistake, this mistake was created by applying the notion of the fork to some deceptive moves where more potent threats were lying in wait.
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This next example takes the deception and planning even deeper. Here, black "knows" that white wants to try to remove the guard that is protecting the forking square.
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Notice that above on the left, the white Knight, already on i5, is threatening to capture onto h7, forking the King and winning the Rook. Black played his Archbishop out to f6, still guarding h7 from that post.
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But white had a Bishop that could attack it, and black saw this, and made his move anyway. So white played the Bishop to g5, attacking it, and it looks like the Archbishop must retreat back to g8 in order to defend against the forking move.
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But black looked even further ahead, and will allow the fork! Black moved the Archbishop to h5 as shown above on the right. Play continues below.
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White see that the h7 square is unguarded, and plays the forking move shown above on the left. He captured the Pawn on h7, checks the black King, and will win the Rook on j8 next.
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Black calmly moves the King out of check, making the only move available to him. White is happy. Now he can win the Rook. Right?
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The white Knight takes the black Rook on j8, as shown above on the left. But, black has a stunning surprise in store.
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The black Archbishop captures the pawn on g3, and checkmates the white King!
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Look closely at the diagram above on the right. The white Knight on e2 looks like it can capture the black Archbishop on g3. But, this Knight is pinned!
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The black Bishop "way out of the way" on a6 is pinning the Knight on e2. This Knight cannot move, since otherwise the white King would be in check.
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Black cannot evade the check, move his King to safety, nor capture the piece delivering check. This is checkmate!
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