The Chess Song | How to Play Chess for Kids Lyrics

Chess, a strategic game with thirty-two pieces

Sixteen black and sixteen white

They come in six types

King queen bishop rook pawn and knight

In chess the king must be protected at all costs

One wrong move and you may find the game is lost

The king moves one square anywhere at any time

And he's been known to capture whatever piece he entwines

The queen moves diagonally

And straight back and forth left or right

When the path is clear she captures pieces

It's quite a sight

She's powerful and versatile

Step-by-step in giant leaps

So be sure to protect her very carefully

The bishop moves diagonally and captures the first piece it sees

Forward or backward at an angle

It goes as it tries to capture foes

The rook moves in straight lines

And captures any piece it finds

It goes forward backward left or right

As many spaces as it wants to find

On their first move only

Pawns have a special rule

They can move one or two squares forward

Sometimes a useful tool

Then the pawn moves forward one square at a time

But only attacks diagonally

A chess player's paradigm

The knight moves just like an ell

Where it lands that piece is captured in its spell

It goes two steps right left front or back

Then one step to the side of that or it can go one space

Followed by two more to its landing place

Chess is the best way to test your mental prowess

It's no more and no less

Than a chance to see your strategy manifest

It's not a game

It's a quest

The knight is the only piece that can jump over another

Except in one special situation we'll discover

Because the king and the rook

Sometimes get a chance to partake in castling

A specific dance a two-part move called castling

Takes the king out of the center to protect the king

And also bring the rooks closer together

Castling can't be employed if the king is in check

Or if the king or rook have moved prior to this step

There is one more rule that the player must embrace

The chess pieces between the king and rook can no longer be in place

So the castled kind can move two spaces to the left or right

While either rook jumps over to the king's opposite side

The game's on sixty-four squares marked a to h and one to eight

Two players try to capture each other's king and seal their fate

It's called check when a king in danger must move to escape

When it can't get away it ends the game as the winner calls checkmate

Chess is the best way to test your mental prowess

It's no more and no less

Than a chance to see your strategy manifest

It's not a game

It's a quest

Now I'd be in the wrong if before I end the song

If I didn't go on a little more about the pawn

There's one king one queen and the rest have two pieces each

Except for pawns there are eight who guard their army from a breach

Pawns only move diagonally capturing a piece of the enemy

Otherwise they can only move straight forward toward the other army

And finally any pawn can be traded for his captured queen

By getting to the enemy's side of the board where she's redeemed

One more thing we should recall to get this quite right

A pawn can be promoted to a rook bishop or knight

So we can choose another piece other than the queen

By making it across the board as we've now seen

Chess is the best way to test your mental prowess

It's no more and no less than a chance to see your strategy manifest

It's not a game

It's a quest