A Place Fit for a King

Kings are the object of a chess game. We either keep them safe or attack them in chess. Hence, they must always be well positioned on the board from start to finish. But nonetheless they are bound to suffer severe assault and even checkmate. We should understand correct positioning for kings.

Each chess player is to defend a king, either a white or a black king. Kings are positioned in the center of a preliminary formation. With a white king the initial location is on E-1 while a black king on E-8. They're positioned beside the queen and a bishop. The initial position of the king and the queen divides the territory into two equal parts; the king's area and the queen's area. The king's area consists of 4 pawns, a rook, a knight, and a bishop. The queen's area also has 4 pawns, a rook, knight, and a bishop.

Generally, a king should always be surrounded by a mix of major and minor pieces. In the beginning of a game, the king ideally has this setup—a powerful queen and bishop by its side, valiant pawns in front, plus a deadly rook and knight nearby.

At mid-play, especially when the king has castled, it should at least have a rook, knight and 2 to 3 pawns as its close-in security. Other major pieces out in battle should also be readily accessible to it in a crisis.

A strong positioning for kings at near end of a game should be either well guarded while far away from battle or right in the middle of it with a very strong ally. When the king is secluded far away from major allies it's in danger of a trap.

A king should at least be with some pawns and a knight. It would be better if it joins the queen in checking the enemy king. But remember that the strength of a king and its allies in the last phase of a game depends on how strong the king's position was at the outset.

If in the first few phases of a game our king has already been checked, this is a sign that we have not defended the king well initially. This is bound to affect our mid-play and end-play negatively because weak initial defenses like that gets a lot of ally pieces captured early on.

Thus, initial positioning for kings plays a major consideration in the game. We have to give it serious thought in chess.