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