The king

The king is the most important piece in the game of chess. Each player begins the game with a king in their color. The white king starts the game on e1 and the black king starts on e8. Unlike the other pieces, only one king per player can be on the board at any time, and the kings are never removed from the board during the game. If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate, resulting in a loss for that player. Although the king is the most important piece it is usually the weakest piece in the game of chess.