The king in chess captures by moving to a square occupied by an opponent's piece, removing that piece from the board.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
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Movement: The king can move one square in any direction: horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. This is also how it captures.
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Capturing: To capture, the king simply moves to the square occupied by an opponent's piece (except the opposing king). The opponent's piece is then removed from the board.
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Restrictions:
- Cannot capture the opposing king: A king can never move to a square occupied by the opposing king.
- Cannot move into check: A king cannot capture a piece if doing so would place the king in check (under attack by an opponent's piece). Before capturing, you must ensure that the square the king intends to move to is not under attack by an enemy piece.
- Defended pieces: The king can only capture undefended pieces. If a piece is defended by another piece, the king cannot capture it without moving into check.
Example:
Imagine a chessboard with the white king on E4 and a black pawn on D4. If D4 is not defended by any other black piece, the white king can capture the black pawn by moving from E4 to D4. The black pawn is then removed from the board.
Summary:
The king captures just like it moves: one square in any direction, provided the destination square is not occupied by its own piece, is not under attack (would result in check), and the target piece is not the opposing king.
