Designing the Moves of the Knight

Anyone know why the knight was designed to move the way it does? 

Something Different.

Who knows? Chess is a very,very old game

In Xiang Qi the knight or "horse" moves in a similar manner, but cannot jump pieces. Xiang Qi is supposedly derived from what is now Western Chess (back like 5 million years ago or some crap). It's possible that at one time the knight moved like a Xiang Qi horse, but evolved into what it is today at some point in time. In other words, it could be possible that the horse is an ancient knight frozen in time.

It compliments the way the other pieces move and it has an alternating dark square/ light square move pattern, also unlike the other pieces. It's perfect.

Please refer to the October 2008 issue of Chess Life magazine, page 34.

Frank Camaratta researched this topic at length and wrote a very nice article on his findings.

Cool, I'll actually look at my chess life for once.

If it's on the net, I'll have a look.  Thanks excelguru.

So far, I did like this bit of explanation:  http://searchwarp.com/swa146589.htm

It basically says that if you put a rook and a bishop at the center of a 5x5 grid, you would cover all squares but 8.  A knight allows the coverage of the remaining 8 squares.  Doesn't talk about why it jumps, or its initial board placement though.

The Chess Life site doesn't appear to have that accesable anymore... ?

Anyone have a link to the article?  "The Mysterious Knight Move"

Ta-da!

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8733/476/

I log on to the site but it still says I have to register to read the article. 

I do the register BS again, and it still says the same thing. 

Too much pain in the @$$... any other place to read this?

Okay, got it.  They want my money to read this article.  That's no happening.

Anyone care to tell what the jist of it is and or point to a related article that you don't have to pay for?

The knight can reach all squares in the middle of a 5x5 board which a rook or bishop cannot.

That seems the most obvious explanation...

Maybe so.

What about the initial board placement?

the reason it jumps is because there are 2 ways for a night to get to any possible square..move to the side once and then perpendicular twice, or move perpendicular twice first. there were disputes over how you could block it so it was decided that you can't.