what is the king's purpose?

i have so many questions about this piece, why is so important? if he is royal, then why is the queen not? can a chess army move without the king?

There are a few classical chess variant rules which apply to both regular & custom-created positions: 1) the game is played only when both players have a King; 2) these Kings must not be checkmated & have a place to retreat to; 3) a player can't control 2 Kings at once, only one figure is allowed to be present on the board for each side.

So, to answer your last question - it can not, in classical chess format.

@coolchessplayer10 said in #1:
> i have so many questions about this piece, why is so important? if he is royal, then why is the queen not? can a chess army move without the king?

This is a bit confusing, but I'll try to answer your question:
The King is the most important piece. I like to think of it as myself- weak in strength but powerful in power.
The king can only move one square in a 9x9 around him. (maximum 8 moves excluding castling).
The Queen isn't royal by any means- it's only your most powerful piece, which is why players value this piece so much over the king at times, since the king just sits back and you have to defend it rather than with the queen, you can actually attack the enemy with her. And to answer your third question, if you mean moving, yes, the pieces can move without the king moving, but once the king is in checkmate, (which means that it is under attack and impossible to save by any means) that you can't move any other pieces as your most important piece, the king, is lost. So, you can't move the other pieces since you've lost.
I hope this helps, and if you have any other questions, ask away! But please be specific :)

"royalty" has very little to do with any of this

Otherwise chess would be a simple and boring material collecting game. Man, think about it!

@Dmitri_Fatkin said in #2:
> There are a few classical chess variant rules which apply to both regular & custom-created positions: 1) the game is played only when both players have a King; 2) these Kings must not be checkmated & have a place to retreat to; 3) a player can't control 2 Kings at once, only one figure is allowed to be present on the board for each side.
>
> So, to answer your last question - it can not, in classical chess format.
Yes the only ones it can (On Lichess) are Horde and Antichess

There ́s nothing special about the King. He ́s just a wimp who can in no way attack a Queen, and in order to be dangerous for the other pieces he has to slink up from behind and at the correct angle. Basically, his main function is to avoid getting beaten up. :)

Nothing. But since he's a king... We need him!

On the opening and middle game the king needs to be protected. We have to be pro-monarchy haha. If the king is check mated the game is over! So we can say the king has no value as an atacking active piece at the opening and middle game and, at the same tieme, the kings value is the highest as can not be checkmated. This piece has to be protected at all times.

However on the endgame we have to be anti-monarchy and force that parasite to do some job! :p Normally, on the endgame, when there are no many powerfull pieces to atack the king, the king can become active and help other pieces (very often helping pawns to promote).

Hope this answer your question.

@Mario-0 said in #9:
> We have to be pro-monarchy haha.

I always wonder how a game of chess would turn out if the pawns of both sides realize that their true enemies are not the pawns of the other side, but their own ruling classes K,Q,N,B and R - who sacrifice pawns en masse for their silly power struggle.